Dayi 7542-1203, 5 year storage comparison
Two cakes of Dayi’s 7542 from 2012, third batch, one stored for five years at 32C and another stored at room temperature (23C approximately). Toronto filtered tap water in two identical gaiwans.
This tea was quite roasty when I first tasted it, not burned, no char, not smoky per se, but there was some acrid roasty profile as well as a bitter green aspect. It was not sweet like the 1701 — instead it had a kind of serious and somewhat stiff profile, very tippy and astringent.
Dry leaf is quite similar on both sides — the heated version is on the left in all photos.
Initial steeps are much greener and rougher on the right. The acrid note immediately reminds me of how 1203 tasted when I bought it five years ago. The empty cup aroma is quite mild and is not sweet but musky. Tibetan incense style.
The heated version has more aroma, more spicy wood bitters, mellower and rounder, with no acrid note of roastiness. Astringency does come in but in the finish. The empty cup aroma is quite beautiful, sweet and rich woody incense.
Even the wet leaf is much nicer-smelling on the heated tea. The unheated tea has the same roasty and somewhat metallic aroma that I recall from previous tastings.
This comparison was quite interesting, as the impact of 5 years’ heated storage was not as dramatic as it has been for e.g. W2T or BYH teas. Visually, for example, there is not as big a difference in colour. However there is an important difference: the roastiness is mostly gone on the heated tea, as is the green flavour profile. Also, the empty cup aroma is much sweeter and richer on the heated tea. As for the tea itself, this is a punchy taidicha blend, very tippy and somewhat roasty and aggressive. Most of the mouthfeel is felt in the front of the mouth, and there is a lot of astringency left to age out.