Dry leaves give a nice, clean, aged smell; they look positively rusty:
Though this tea is very nice and feels good, I could not help myself but to feel a little underwhelmed. The taste is, as described, woody and not much beside that. It is smooth, nicely aged and all that, but there is nothing what would surprise me in any way. The thickness is good, but again, not anything particularly unexpected. The cha qi noted on the website was certainly notable here, but then again, not overly powerful (maybe this is just me and affects other people more). The tea did not last as much as other aged teas from EoT I've tried so far... Actually, when looking back at the 1980s bamboo-wrapped tuocha, I can not find an area where I would like this Tong Qing Hao more... and it is almost two times as expensive (because of the age, I guess?)
Nevertheless, it was still a pleasant tea session we've had with the sample...
It's quite normal for a border tea like this one to feel underwhelming - they're not very good aged, merely ok. There's a reason it's cheap and easy to find.
OdpovědětVymazatHi!
OdpovědětVymazatWell, you are obviously right; still it is nigh impossible to easily get small amount of aged tea from other place than EoT from here so I'm glad even for novel, slightly disappointing experience. I quite liked all the teas I had from them earlier (all were cheaper than this one), so it's probably not just the matter of cost.
The bamboo wrapped tuocha is also cheap from a certain point of view, but I found it much more enjoyable overall, independently on the price.
Jakub