EssenceOfTea Bulang 2012

The dry leaves smell like brand new leather, it’s appealing. The wet leaves have ashes too, soon this will become a vey common grassy tobacco. At the beginning, the gaiwan lid returns smoke and tobacco.

The first brews are sweeter than i imagined. the bitterness is not intense but stays in a monolithic way. The aroma game is subtil yet complex: it starts with an ephemeral herbaceous aroma, then it’s immediatly meaty, some peppery aromas will join that subtle meaty flavour; the length has some wood with beeswax residue. The soup itself is aromatic and smell furniture beeswax and herbal.

There’s a very slow and discret huigan. In regards to bitterness & texture the tea makes me think of yellow grapefruit, the aftertaste is also pretty close to yellow grapefruit, so to speak, there are citrus hints that come and go… the aftertaste behaves pretty much like an expresso made with a common and moderately acid coffee.

The tea is light bodied, a milky texture, and it is quite structured at the time: if it were a song it would be an well produced experimental or ambient song: it sounds almost fat but at the same time it can give the feeling that something’s missing, like a rythm or a melody, or whatever… but it’s not a bad thing… no much cooling effect, slightly astringent. i have felt some positive qi, nothing overwhelming, it’s almost bulang euphoric around round 5… i will feel the same later too. Again nothing overwhelming, but positive energy.

Later, the meaty/grapefruit sensations remain, some wood, but the bitterness becomes too present compared to the background and makes the cups more straigthforward than the early ones… i’m sure i can brew it douzens of times but i’ll get tired of the bitterness before that.

That tea has nobility and personality… It is bitter, lively, subtil yet complex, and at the same time it can sometimesgive a curious feeling of hollowness for being structured and light-bodied at the time. The bitterness is not that sharp and is manageable, but it’s always there, it’s bit like if someone had built a house between your balcony and the beach: you can always watch the sea but you’ll never miss the house. I’m not a huge fan of these bitter bulangs, unlike many puer fans, so this one is not for me; but it’s a good quality and inspiring tea.