River Song

Infusion log

On the rinse and first steep, I'm noticing the liquor is quite cloudy and visually thick. This thing packs a punch with such a stupid complexity I'm still trying to decipher what all was going on in that first cup. There're so many levels to this shit, I think I found Meek Mill barkin on it. One cup in and you can already notice the body feeling, too. There's a broad range of nice things in here which makes for a fantastic introduction, especially since it hasn't even opened up all the way yet.

Second steep brought out more of the aged flavors, more of an aged-in-nice-old-casks kinda thing going on. The front of each sip has an old, blended whiskey note, followed by a warm, woody cacao. The finish is a lasting, aged bitter note that acts more as a support rather than a core feature.

Four steeps in and the liquor's still so dark, pretty resemblant of black coffee. Incredibly clean, clear, deep, and woody shou flavors with a lot of subtle complexity mixed in for good measure. If you're into nice single-origin coffee and haven't hopped over to tea, this would prolly convert you.

Sixth steep, things are woody and earthy with a strong and lasting throat mintiness on the finish. I'm getting a bit of a ripened banana aspect to it now.

You can easily keep drinking this all day and go through a few liters of water as it slowly shifts flavors. In a lot of areas, it stays the same level of intensity but shifts to a different set of flavors that represent that category. Like in fruitiness it goes from dark fruits to brighter tropical (non-citrus) fruits.

Age claims

Some of Living Tea's price-to-claimed age ratios are pretty outlandish unless they've either landed some impeccable deals or been misled by the processor/seller. So unless verifiable, I would generally take age claims on high-grade, famous teas that are unusually cheap with a grain of salt.

That being said, completely ignoring age claims and just focusing on:

1. the tea for what it is
2. the experience you get out of it, and
3. the price you're paying for that experience

opens you up to just realizing you're drinking a damn fucking good tea for a very palatable price, and that's what really matters. This is without a doubt more aged than Mei Leaf's Milk Float Nomad (2010), so I'd be leaning towards more trusting of the age claims on this one. If you have the chance to pick this tea up, get it. It's good.

Wrap up

This is an incredibly rewarding shou to either devote all your attention to or be incredibly pleased with it while your mind is somewhere else. It's forgiving in many ways but draws you in as far as you're willing to go without showing the ends of where it can take you. Behaves very well in jianshui clayware and on its own.