A Tea Addict's Journal

I realized, when going through my tea stash, that I never drank the Jingyehao Yiwu sample I got from Hou De from quite a while ago. That’s what I decided to brew up today.

The sample came in one large piece with a little bit of broken leaves. I broke open the large piece into two, and then separated one half into bits

This is what I brewed up.

The taste in the first 3 infusions was classic Yiwu — a bit aged taste. It reminds me of the Green Big Tree, although the taste, I think, isn’t quite as “pure”. There’s a bit of “noise” in the taste, if you will. It’s quite nice, and quite pleasant to drink.

Then, infusions 4-8, I think, are less pleasant somehow. The tea got a little more bitter. There’s a bit of tingly feeling on the tongue and the throat, but not necessarily a pleasant one. It’s a bit uncomfortable, and I’m not sure why that’s the case or what exactly it is. Hmmm. The tea also gets very drying at this stage.

Then, the long brewed infusions…. are very nice. Cools my throat. Nice huigan. This is after I sat the tea away for a few hours and then came back to brew it up. Somehow the tea improved, and less of the unpleasant stuff was there. What happened?

This is a shot of infusion…. 3 or 4, I think

Update: There we go, got the last brew of the tea out, so here are the brewed leaves

Lots of stem, as Yiwu teas seem to always do. Leaves are quite large. One thing interesting — the light really plays tricks on you. When I look at it under my tungsten light, it’s quite brown/red. When I look at it through the white-adjusted camera…. it’s green!