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ok… i really like this tea. this is my second session; first was right out of the mail, so i didn’t really trust it. it’s been resting a couple of weeks now, which may be better?

4g:60ml. first time was porcelain gaiwan; second time in jianshui pot. drank the (~10s) rinse both times. started with flash steeps and increased slowly.

first few steeps vegetal, light astringency. thick liquid. seems to be a lot of flavour here! aftertaste is dry-mouth-throat and sweet, then floral.

kind of lost track after that, because it’s a work day. but i am enjoying it very much. seems like a nice rounded flavour, with moderate astringency, lots of sweet aftertaste.

second session with this tea. i like it a great deal. very smooth and creamy-thick mouthfeel, even with 1g:20ml (as recommended, but usually i tend more toward 1:10 for shou), with a clean set of flavours underneath. it’s so lovely and cozy. nice sweet aftertaste, which i love. solidly slicks down your teeth, as well.

i haven’t been drinking a lot of oolongs lately, so i can’t really frame my notes on this one very well. however, i can offer some vague notes from today’s workday session.

did 5g leaf in 100ml glazed gaiwan. flash rinse, then starting w/ 3sec steeps and adding a few sec each time.

first steep smelled [while pouring gaiwan → cup] like… IPA! distinctly. the leaf, gaiwan lid, and liquor all did not have this smell, but the aftertaste is definitely hoppy-malty. i’m intrigued! i hate IPAs and hoppy beers but it somehow isn’t bothering me here. it’s like all the things i might like about hoppy beers without whatever it is that makes me not like them?

the IPA-y aftertaste continues; i think the floral-“citrusy” combination is what does it for me, with some mild roasty-grain flavour finishing out the trifecta of beery notes.

my main takeaway is that this tea is quite pleasant, and i may order more. i may need to try more oolongs, too; there is more complexity in this tea than i expected, and i like it. and i love the notes here that i can only imagine fit under the “florals” umbrella.

first time trying this, and i did not get a shot at last year’s. brewed gongfu after a long work day; 4g:60ml in a porcelain gaiwan. i drank the rinse because i’m gross. ;) it was sweet, and cucumbery. the tea has picked my day right up.

it’s definitely on the sweet side. i haven’t been able to pull astringency out of it yet; closest that i’ve gotten is a tingling along the sides of the back of my tongue. it’s somehow light but thick-feeling? my teeth feel clean-shiny, too.

early on the wet leaf smells spicy-vegetal, and early flavour notes are reminiscent of cucumber. has some flavour components of a green oolong, too; kind of a buttery green vegetal flavour. there are definitely some other interesting flavours in there, particularly in some of the early steeps (i smelled them!), but i’m more in an enjoying mood than a dissection one.

this is really nice. for me, it’s probably suited to a particular tea-moodcraving. i look forward to drinking the remainder of my cake. :)

“whispering sunshine” seems like an appropriate name for it. i see the whisper — the flavours are there, you can hear the words, but they aren’t shouted at you. it’s got that sunshine warmth to wrap around you like a blanket, filling in all the nooks and crannies, just gently, like in the spring.
i’m into it.