Haiwan Yi Hao Shu 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 obviously 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 base tones oscillating between vanilla and dates.
Oddly, the leaves have an earthy aroma that does not transfer in 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 (too long to explain). 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.