A Quiet Beauty
"Summary - This tea is more introverted than its bolder, older white tea friends. You have to coax it out, but if you take your time with it and sip it slowly and mindfully, you’ll be rewarded by layers of flowers and sweetness. Steeping - I steeped 7g of this in 175F filtered water, in a ~300ml ZiSha teapot, for 35 seconds. Aroma - Gentle, Reserved. You can sniff it multiple times before taking a sip without getting overwhelmed, and you’ll uncover another layer to it. Prominent floral notes of Rose, Orchid, Lily, with something herbaceous in the background - basil, with just a hint of rosemary. Those herbs can often dominate other scents, but here they stay waiting to be discovered in the background. Taste - Natural sweetness abounds right from the beginning - not a dark sweetness likeu molasses or brown sugar, something more like powdered white sugar. That sweetness is ever present, and layers up with each sip. Towards the end, a hint of fresh fennel emerges as it is going down, along with some dark fruit - black cherry or pomegranate, perhaps. Aftertaste - That same natural sweetness lingers on the tongue, and somehow makes you even thirstier for another sip. It stayed with me for several minutes after I’d had the last sip. Texture - This tea feels silky going down, not real thick or oily like some puerhs can get. Its texture is present without being thin, but not obvious or dominant. Progression Through Steepings - Some teas transform their character significantly with subsequent steeps; however, this is not one of them. I steeped this 4 times at the same temperature, adding a few seconds each time. The taste and texture stayed remarkably consistent, with the aroma shifting slightly toward the herbal side. The same reserved gentle character was there, no weaker than in the first steeping, and the natural sweetness still lingered in the mouth after each sip."