Blind sample tasting
5.5g/85ml Toronto filtered tap. Blind sample from Paul Z.
Dry leaf smells slightly smoky and sweet; made from small tippy leaves.
Initial steep shows a touch of char, and plenty of sweet woody resin. Liquor aroma is sweet woody incense. Plenty of bracing astringency and bitterness, but also a strong sweetness that offsets it. Clean liquor, very thick and concentrated. Strong burst of energy, vision clarity, focus, and a bit of dazing.
Must be careful with oversteeping, as acridity can come out with longer steeps. There is enough concentration and flavour to keep steeps quite short. Very alerting, recommended for doing lots of busy work! It reminds me of the 2003-2005 Xiaguan tuos, this could be a 2003 Xiaguan Jiaji tuo, with dry storage. The material looks to be better than I remember however… so perhaps it’s something else! 6.2
