Another sample from Mr. Jogrebe, it's hard to believe that 2007 was 4 years ago. When Dayi was pressing this "Yue Chen Yue Xiang" ("The older, the more fragrant") tea, I was either in Southeast Asia or just returning to California. Time flies!
The leaves look a pretty consistent grade, with not too many buds. The chunk in the back right shows some really broken leaf, but that was a piece from around the center dimple of the cake.
The tea tastes on the woody end of the shu spectrum, with a black peppery/spicy note. It's middle or middle light fermented based on taste, with a savory flavor and almost milky texture. It had a kind of cooling effect.
Average shu tea, not my preference, as I prefer my blends to have the oomph and soil notes of some darker fermented leaf along with these cleaner, woodier notes. Taking the tea for what it is, it's a decent example.
Looking at the wet leaves, the fermentation is quite light. It looks like a blend of sizes of leaf, but not a blend of fermentations. I.e., it looks like they blended maocha and then fermented it, rather than blending various already fermented shu material.
