I cannot express how much I love this tea! I received it as a birthday gift (via my own wishlist). I am a big fan of white teas, both aged gong/shou meis and classic silver needle. The best way I can characterize this tea is as a much frutier and sweeter yin zhen.
Aroma: If I smell my feng qing yin zhen tea (also from this site) and then
...Read MoreRead more about I cannot express how much I love this immediately after switch and smell this tea, the basic floral aroma is familiar but with an extra frutiness. The frutiness is not at all subtle and whoever I have seen smell it always gets wide-eyed. At first, it really is hard to believe that it isn't infused with any kind of fruit. I get peach and watermellon, nectarine and berries from this in addition to the floral, honeysuckle scent.
Clarity: The clarity of this tea is as exemplary as expected from the teas available on this site.
Taste: The first steep or two are lesser in flavor and you will likely only get a hint of the frutiness this tea can offer. Hence, I recommend a long wash of at least 45 seconds (or two shorter ones). In this tea, there is none of the classic purple bitterness that is present in so many other purple teas. With the second/third steeps, the tea really begins to open up and shine. You have the consistent background of floral flavor that you would expect from a yin zhen, but various fruity notes begin to emerge with subtle changes and consistent sweetness across the next 10-12 steeps. At first, I got strong peach and nectarine flavors, but they mellowed or dimmed over time into watermellon and berry notes. Note that though I describe this flavor transition as dimming, the sweetness was consistently vibrant.
Longevity: I was able to successively steep this tea (7g in a 200ml gaiwan) for basically a whole day. I honestly lost count of steeps after about 9 or 10, but it went strong for at least that many by increasing steep time as needed.
Mouthfeel and astringency: Mouthfeel is thick throughout steeps (excepting the wash). Very small amount of astringent taste at the back of each sip that fades across steeps. Read LessRead less about I cannot express how much I love this