You can see a slight whitish film over the exposed parts of the piece of sample I had. There were some fairly compressed parts, as well as loose bits. Looks like the cake was not too compressed origonaly, and breaks apart fairly easily.
The tea had a soapy, incense like smell to it. It was the first thing I noticed on opening the package. The smell of aged tea was the second. It is not like Nag Champa, but close. I am wondering if the tea is stored in a shop that burns incense continually, or the package resided next to a well used censer on it's journey across the ocean.
I used 2g in 50 ml of water, I wanted to try only a small amount. Rinse 10 sec, then let sit 1 minute, then 15 sec infusion.
Tea was surprisingly light colored. Certainly not Shu by any stretch. The incense flavor and smell carried over to the cup. It was hard to taste the tea under that cloying scent.
I quickly did four more infusions, with the last at two minutes. The scent diminished, but was still present in aroma and taste. I could feel the body of the tea slip away after the fifth infusion, and I think I could have had a few more, I called it quits.
Overall, the incense quality made it hard to judge. No strident tones of bitterness or tannic astringency. About the 3rd infusion was the best, with sweetness vying for top billing.
I plan to let it air out for a while, and retry later.
I looked at the spent leaves, and there were many small leaves and some buds. A few larger leaves were seen too. Only one really "moth eared" type of leaf, so this was not the wet storage that really rots the leaves.
Overall, not at all "swampy" pond like, or even like shu. seems further advanced for the 2001 year in terms of color and lack of bitterness, but a real evaluation will need to wait until it "breathes" a bit.
