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2003 Silver Dayi | ||
| Genre: Compressed Sheng/Green/Uncooked/Raw | ||
| Factory: Menghai | ||
| Vendor: Tea Friend | ||
| Reviewed by Mike Petro on 01/07/2007 | ||
| Background | This is a sample offered by Mr Cloud as part of a 100+ participant tasting. | |
| Dry Leaf Appearence: | Dismantled, compressed, blue-green leaf with touches of silver leaf interspersed. | |
| Water to Leaf Ratio: | 5 gr of Leaf in 100 ml of water | |
| Brewing Method: | Used spring water collected from a local mountain source containing a TDS of 92 mg/l, an Alkalinity of 88.7 mg/l, and .637 mg/l of of Sodium, steeped in a 100ml clear glass gaiwan. Rinsed once for 6 breaths and allowed tea to sit for a minute or so. | |
| Wet Leaf Appearence: | Mixture of leaf sizes, colors, but heavily broken with very few whole leaves. | |
| 1st Steep | 10 breaths (~30 seconds) with water just off the boil. Slight cloudiness, light yellow-amber color, smoky aroma. Taste includes the same smoke but in a very pleasant way. Hints of bamboo, toasted rice, and eucalyptus are buried in the wood base notes. | |
| 2nd Steep | 8 breaths with water just off the boil. Color is just a slight shade darker. Stronger flavor, more woodsy and earthy, noticeable astringency, strong Qi character beginning to emerge. Smoky aroma is fading, yielding to the aroma of hay field in Spring. | |
| 3rd Steep | 8 breaths with water just off the boil. More wood than smoke in the aroma,astringency is fading, wood notes are becoming strong, still a taste of pleasant smoke, there is a definite dryness emerging in the mouthfeel with a faint eucalyptus and sandalwood note in the finish. | |
| 4th Steep | 10 breaths with water just off the boil. Characters of strength dominate this round. Wood, smoke, Qi, mouthfeel, etc are all coming into their own fullness. | |
| Subsequent Steeps | Subsequent Steeps, and there were at least 12 before I moved on, progressed through an evolution of mostly wood note. While I picked up on a Eucalyptus flavor I wouldnt go so far as to call it camphor. This puerh demonstrated a strong Qi character early on that maintained though to the end. Later steeps demonstrated a complex finish that was quite lasting. While there was a certain smokiness it was of a very pleasurable nature and not at all a negative, at least not to me. I am curious what this smoke note indicates about the processing though? | |
| Conclusion | All in all this was a very pleasant experience. The puerh was mellow enough to drink now without being weak, had a strong Qi, and holds promise for a bright future. I want to thank Mr Cloud for the generous, and multicultural, opportunity he presented to the puerh tea community, both Eastern and Western. | |
| Sorry, no Photos | ||