I revisited this tea with the same brewing parameters as yesterday: grandpa style with 1tsp/10oz mug/175F/2 top-offs.
Paying closer attention to the dry leaf and noting Verdant’s description, the scent is mostly super sweet whipped cream (from the grocery, not homemade) cloaking a vegetal base. Initial steep was pretty grassy and lightly sweet in aroma and taste, notably sweetgrass with sweet edamame. First top-off produced stronger aroma and flavor, with the aroma gaining some chestnut and maintaining the taste of sweetgrass and edamame plus slight minerality. In the second-top off, the tea was rather unimpressive.
The off umami in the back of the mouth I experienced yesterday wasn’t present today. After reflection on yesterday’s weird taste, it reminded me of beef tongue which I don’t like. The mouthfeel doesn’t have much substance and is drying. I think this tea is too light in flavor to drink with breakfast but food in the belly is necessary. This one does give me some burps and gurgling on an empty stomach.
Overall, this tea just doesn’t hit the marks for me. The dry leaf smells amazing but for that, it lacks in strength of energy and liquor aroma, taste, mouthfeel and longevity. I think I’ll attempt the remaining teaspoon in a modest cold brew or maybe I’ll bump up the temperature, though I suspect that would just increase the drying mouthfeel. It’s out of stock now and I bought only one 5g sample for $1.xx, so I don’t know how the price compares to my favorite Laoshan green.
