Many thanks to Glen and Lamu providing this sample to review!
Gongfu session with a ceramic gaiwan. 3 second rinse. Steeping times: 6, 10, 10, 20, 15, 20, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120.
The dry leaf smells of smoked salmon. Get the bagels and capers! Letting the piece of cake sit in a heated gaiwan also brings out a bit of stonefruit. Following the sixth infusion: apricot!! What I love in sheng aroma.
This sheng yields a darker color than I’m used to – a dark honey – and has consistently smooth and thick texture. Clear at first, the liquor becomes cloudy towards the middle of the session. The first infusion is mellow and tastes like it smells (smoked salmon). The second tastes of tobacco. There is a slight bitterness, and a musty aftertaste that turns into apricot jelly fifteen minutes later. Following this infusion, the sheng really strengthens in flavor. The mustiness continues in infusions three and four, which have a fruity aftertaste. Infusions five through fourteen teeter between bitterness with an underneath fruity note, and fruity flavors with an underneath bitterness. It is around the ninth infusion I’m able to pry the leaves apart with the gaiwan lid. They were fun to play with!
I can’t tell if it’s my lack of experience with sheng in general – hence my untrained palate – or if this sheng is still young. I was expecting it to evolve from the bitterness and become sweeter as the session went on.
The qi made me feel a little loopy after drinking four infusions in relatively quick succession. Also, I have a quiet stomach-ache (meaning “eeeeeeeeeeeeeee but I’ll get better soon no worries”) that I’ve had since infusion three (which was four hours ago).
