In Search of Lost Tea: „Ying Ming Hao 1980`s“

Name: „Ying Ming Hao 1980`s“
Vendor: Aged Taste
Producer: Tung Xing Hao Factory
Origin: Yiwu
Storage: „Natural Hong Kong Dry Storage“
Link: Tea at AgedTaste.com

I`m very thankful for this sample, wich i got by the curtesy of „Agedtaste“.
For this session i used 8.5 g in a 150 ml Celadon teapot with boiling water.

Look of the dry leaves: stringily, looks partly already decayed to earth
Smell of the dry leaves: can`t smell much .. a bit metallic.
Smell of the Rinse/wet leaves: normally i don`t stay too long with smelling the rinse & wet leaves… but this time it was different, because there where many many things to experience.
Raisins, the slight scratchiness wich i associate with a bit wetter storage. A Hint of fresh tobacco topped with some more fruity notes… currants… dried cranberries ?

I have to think about my mother garden, about all those different fruits in there… and about Marcel Proust and the way how in his masterpiece „In Search of Lost Time“, he describes how memories can be triggered by aromas and other sensory impressions. That magic moment, when your nose only get`s in contact a few second with some, for other people maybe, ordinary smell… and suddenly… a i inner world of past experience is building up inside of you so quickly … only triggered by this slightly bit of aroma.
No, i never read the book truly, but i read here and there some pieces and read about the book several times. But it is still definitely on my „read-soon(er or later)-list“.

But back to the tea…

Smelling the wet leaves filled my a bit with awe. A damn great aroma.

Steep 1:
Mellow and sweet. Cough syrup (another childhood-memory-trigger aroma/taste) . Gentle storage taste, which leaves a bit of itchiness in the throat.

2:
No smoke, more something like old books.
Not as dry or super-earthy like the 90’s CNNP Guang Yun Gong Beeng which i tasted recently.
Dry, yes… but with a pleasant (dried) fruitiness underlying… only a little bit astrigent, very clean and pleasant.

Soft and silky mouthfeel. Just enough bitterness to keep it still interesting and strong enough.
Within this second steep… from cup to cup… one time i realize more the sweet side, in the other cup the more bitter side is catching my attention… wich is a good sign, that this tea is very balanced.

I think i realize a bit of this „cooling sensation“ in the back of my mouth, but yet i`m not very familiar enough with this phenomenon.

3:
Ultra-smooth silky mouthfeel.
A ripe-(aged-)kind of mellow sweetness.
A little bit of almond …

4:
A more „fresh“ (or „fruity“) kind of sweetness is breaking through the pleasant bitterness.

Cough syrup with underlying fruity notes a little bit of „storage-prickling“ (maybe you know what a mean, for example very wett stored teas produce a intense prickling sensation in your throat… this prickling here is more a gentle one ).

5:
It is nice, i enjoy it. The tea did not yet change very much, it do get`s a little bit more sweet from steeping to steeping and more dried fruit flavors are showing up.
The sweetness sticks in the throat, good aftertaste.

6:
They say „good sweetness hit`s you slowly“ (do they say that? really? ) and this one does. Good.
Although this tea allready captured my heart i want more… more excitement… i will steep this ~~4 min~~ 3:30 min next time…

7:
Not at all oversteeped, so far the best round. The bitter and the sweet sides of this are now even more grown together… tasty.
The sweetness now has a clear caramel like taste.

8:
I would like it a bit stronger, but yeah! Still nice! (is it already going to fade out?)

9:
I steeped this with boiling water now for 15 min …
the tea comes out thin, i call it a day and go to bed.

(hidden bonus round Nr. 10 … 20 Minutes.. very thin, but a nice sweetness… still (a bit) enjoyable)

5 Star Conclusion
Mutability from brew to brew:
Bitterness:
Astringency:
Mouthfeel:
Stamina:
Smokeyness:
Dryness:
Frutyness:
Sweetness:
Complexity: