Haiwan Yi Hao 2010

I’m starting the session having some doubts regarding this tea since i cannot find anything related. Is it a fake? Does not look like but who knows…

It was strong fourteen years ago, and a bit heavy and off-flavored—at least in the first cups, of course. Let’s see how it does now.

The soup is bright red, looks like wine, and wine is precisely the high note I get from the first cup; mid one being wet wood-ish sheng pu’erh, then vanilla and dates maybe.
The aftertaste has vanilla and grape juice.
After 3 cups, some umami arrives and I’m feeling satisfying hou yuns.

Fourth/fifth cups are delicious and very juicy: I love that bright acidity in pu’erh, but it’s not so common. Of course.
Huigan is more obvious now. Retronasal sweetness all the way. Cool!
No bitterness nor astringency at all; cheeks are slightly constricted, which releases the salivation.

Then the taste fades a little, though it’s durable like most shus, but the aftertaste starts consolidating and coats the mouth with wood, date, & juice-like sweetness.

Later brews are still juicy and on the woody side; still some tones oscillating between vanilla and dates.
Oddly, the leaves have an earthy aroma that does not transfer into the cup. I’ll stop after more than a dozen cups, but it’d give more.

I used to love the 2005 7588; unfortunately, the bricks I bought never arrived. This one was much less yummy back then, but now it’s at its peak imo.

That’s a treat! it’s juicy and it pleases the oral cavity in different ways.