Japanese Export
I picked this up in KM last year, ’17. The guy selling it didn’t seem too impressed with it, saying it was some stuff for export to Japan. I guess it wouldn’t be overstating things to say that this is wet-stored. I wouldn’t call it “dank,” because I can actually drink it. You know the types who’ll drink a cup of longjing or Xigui and call it “earthy,” while you smile politely biting your tongue? Well, this is actually earthy. Dirt pure and simple.
The thing with this profile is that distinguishing between the raw and ripe productions is quite difficult. I’ve got this raw cake from ’08 that I picked up in Bangkok that tastes quite similar. I used to have a wild raw brick that was HK stored that also had this vibe. I studied the leaves carefully to determine if it was ripe tea being pushed off as raw. Who knows. The deciding factor seems to be astringency.
Is it fake? Why wouldn’t it be? It doesn’t taste like the 7581 that I’m familiar with but would the recipe change for export to Japan? 7581 is blend of raw and ripe anyway, but I doubt that if I chucked mine in a closet in Bangalore that it would end up tasting like this. The 7581 I know is less minerally, with a sweet rich breadiness. Does it taste qualitatively different from other humid productions of this sort? It tastes like its supposed to taste for this type of production, as far as I’m concerned. I try to appreciate stuff on its own terms.
It’s certainly not my fav, but I know some folks who are nuts about dirty tea, some like stinky tofu after all. I think I live with one such person.
