A cunning Sheng PuErh. Elegant, balanced, complex and quaffable but with a strong Cha Qi cheekiness emerging from those easy-sipping brews.
The Love-Struck Rascal comes from ancient trees (estimated 200-300 years old) growing in the forests around Bang Dong village in the Mengku area of Lincang.
It exhibits the revered Mengku characteristics - smooth, sweet and warm in the mouth with plenty of minerals and botanical complexity, plus a body sensation to delight and surprise.
Love-Struck Rascal has an excellent balance in the mouth, bridging creamy with refreshing. It has a deceptive complexity which shifts through different movements.
The initial experience is redolent with steamed puddings and oat cookies which builds in hot-stone minerality and orange-fleshed fruitiness reminiscent of apricot yoghurt or creamy persimmons.
A bright sappiness like green bamboo or aloe joins the party to bring memories of munching young coconut flesh straight from the fruit and steamed bamboo baskets of dim sum sweet buns.
The only hint at the tea-drunk potency of this Rascal is that fleeting, mineral bitterness which transforms almost immediately into a sweet juiciness. You are left with a cooling and laundry-fresh floweriness in the aftertaste.
The body sensation is hard to describe, but the wrapper artwork evokes the feeling it gives me quite perfectly: loved-up excitability with a touch of rapture and rascal cheekiness.
