So Thai teas! Who loves them, who knows about them, who wants to share? This is the first one I have tried from Thailand, but still have a Bai Hao Formosa(Oriental Beauty) and an Oolong #12 ( Jin Xuan) from Tea-Village to try out yet. I've been in a Puerh state of mind lately so decided to explore this one first, especially since I find the idea of a 'Puerh style' tea to be fascinating. Amazing smell came out of the bag upon opening it, very unexpectedly fruity and sweet.
In any case, this doesn't taste like a Chinese Puerh, that's for sure! As of steep five I like it a lot, it has a pretty high novelty value to it that I am riding high on, and recognizing that, I have stopped brewing at five steeps, and will come back to it a little later this afternoon to retry with a fresh mind.
Initial reactions are good, though there is a after-taste that is alien to me, not unpleasant, but it makes me wish I were sampling this tea with one of the Puerh experts I know, I am sure there is a word for this that isn't yet in my tea-vocabulary. It's certainly not 'astringent', nor 'bitter', it is something else, not over-powering and not to be labelled lazily 'unpleasant'. In fact with it lingering as long as it is, I might grow fond of it.
