A Tea Addict's Journal

I’m having some 1999 Menghai Yiwu Wildgrowth tea from Hou De. 99 is a bit of an awkward age. It is sort of aged — in the sense that it is past the really green stage — but not really, so a lot of the younger flavours remain in the cake. The dry leaves are tightly compressed. The liquor when brewed is a light brown. There’s not a lot of immediate aroma coming off the tea, but the overall taste is mellow, and slightly astringent (not very much so). I put in a little too much leaves, because I misjudged the compression, so now I have a fairly strong tea on my hands. Given that though, it is still mellow. I think I need another shot with this before I can really tell what’s going on….