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First sheng from Yunnan Craft.

2016 Bang Wai Gu Cha seems like a good deal for the $23 I paid for a 200g beeng (now sold out). Impressive dry and warmed leaf aroma with a heavy and tangy mixture of toffee-plum-strawberry and faint aged florals. Balanced toffee/ripe papaya like sweetness that’s sticky but not cloying. Full sip thins nicely on the swallow. Tingling, mouthwatering, oily long after swallow until the end of my session, some camphor/menthol, very light bitterness and astringency. At one point, some chili pepper heat lit up my mouth. Light fruity aftertaste. Later steeps fade into lightly sweet hay-rice porridge?

The longevity of this tea is mid-ranged; combined with some relaxing, head-clouding qi and low caffeine, this made for a pleasant evening brew. Plenty of 2 leaf and bud sets with no obvious oxidation.

Not complex in taste but what it does, it does very well. For me, it needs some acidity to brighten things up a bit. I’d direct those newer to sheng toward this sweet daily drinker.