2012 Biyun Hao Mahei
5.5g/90ml, Toronto filtered tap.
I’ve been storing my cake of 2012 BYH Mahei at 32C for the past 7 years. I’ve always liked this tea, but I didn’t tong it because I was slightly worried that it might be a bit too gentle for long term aging. But I am consistently impressed by this blended gushu cake (as well as its sibling, the 2013 BYH Gushu which I will review shortly). Despite its mild taste, it has a powerful energetic impact, great longevity, and can be very satisfying.
Starts very soft and sweet, with a woody incence or furniture polish aroma. Continues with sweetness and an increasingly full mouthfeel, nice grippiness coating the mouth and giving a coating down the throat and stomach. The sweetness becomes gradually more bittersweetness and with increasing wood bitters. Quite viscous liquor.
By the mid steeps, there is a pronounced heating, followed by an intense focusing effect, like a long quiet tunnel. Reminds me slightly of the Wistaria teas like Zipin or Youle, but much less smoky and with a more mild taste.
In the late steeps, the initial taste is bittersweet, and there is a long aftertaste of mild sweetness, with some mint-like cooling effect on the throat and a long sustained tunnel focus.
Wonderful tea! 7.9
