O hai Steepsterites!
I’ve been busy since coming home from my holiday. Srs bsnss spring cleaning is underway here and I’ve made great progress. If I’m good and work hard I should be able to finish the last chores this weekend. On top of that, I’ve also been working on the holiday trip report but I’ve only written three days so far. Finished estimate currently lies around 3-4000 words or so. I’ll be working on that during the weekend as well.
This morning, however, I’m going to give myself a slower start and sit down with a cup of tea that I haven’t had before. Sitting down with a cup of tea and taking time to write about it is a treat in itself, as you all well know, but sitting down with a new cup of tea is an entirely different crate of fish.
I chose this one today because… well, I can’t tell you yet, but suffice to say there is a reason why I chose this particular one today. When I originally bought it, I chose it because I’ve previously liked the convenience of touchas and I thought this shape was a new and fun way of doing the same thing. With my second order from Chi of Tea, one of my free samples was also this one, so lucky me has a good supply of it now. :D
I’m not sure exactly how long it steeped, because my way of measuring the time this morning was a little unconventional. Basically, I’ve had a children’s song swimming about in my head for a couple of days, surfacing now and then, and I know four verses of that one is just about a minute. So I sang two verses to myself and decided it was good.
So it must have been around 30-ish seconds, which is half the time I usually do for a black and the standard I usually do for loose pu-erh. I figured I would then pour it into the cup and see how much the heart had unfurled and if it hadn’t much, I could pour it back and steep some more. The heart was completely undone, though.
It’s quite dark in colour and the aroma is good and full. I like it when you can really smell the tea without having to search through a whole lot of steam to find it. It’s a strong aroma and also a bit sweet, slightly honey-ish.
It’s a good thing I didn’t steep it further, because it really doesn’t need it. I seem to have actually managed to hit some magic spot here, where the flavour really unfurls. It’s quite smooth in flavour, and there’s a lot more of that thick honey note in it. It’s a bit earthy in flavour, but not hugely so, and there is a hint of something prickly pepperish which reveals its Yunnan origins. This makes me wonder how it would hold up to the Yunnan pu-erh in a direct comparison. I quite liked the sample I had of that one, enough to go and purchase some more. Right now, of the two, I can’t off the top of my head say which one I prefer, but in the future I probably don’t need to have the both of them.
I’m very pleased with this one.
