Wow, I finished off my sample of
Saphir Himalaya Spring Flush by dumping the whole 7.4 gr into a 100 ml gaiwan and doing short, near boiling infusions.
Apparently there was a lot there beneath the threshold of my senses when I brewed it weaker. This time I identified lemon, almond, flowers, anise. The mouthfeel was pretty good too. It was one of those sessions where you are continuously finding nuances, where it is vain to try to do something else while you drink because the tea liquor requires all your concentration. Quite amazing stuff.
I remembered that the Mariage Frères site had a pretty purple description of this tea, so I checked it out:
- This young, partially oxidised tea was conceived exclusively for
Mariage Frères in an intimate garden in the mountains of Nepal.
Its twisted leaves, endowed with silver tips, give off warm,
peppery scents of banana flower. In the cup, it reveals a taste
of honey with a hint of vanilla; the dawn-coloured liquor is highly
fragrant and features woody, enveloping flavours with an
undertone of gingerbread.
While these were not the taste analogies I stumbled on by myself, they seem perfectly reasonable to me now that I have brewed it gong fu. I notice they also call it "partially oxidized" which sounds to me like they are labeling it oolong.
) is my on going personal goal.
