2003 Xiaguan Bingcha

At £8/bing [$16] from Royal Tea Garden, this four-year-old bing is suspiciously inexpensive. This sample is from CB [many thanks].

Caledonian Springs @ 100C in 12cl shengpu pot; ~6-8g leaf; 1 rinse

Dry leaf:
Rich brown; quite chopped, with a few tips - typical Xiaguan small fragments.

5s, 5s, 7s, 9s, 9s, 9s:
Sticky, sweet beidixiang, and a thick, orange soup, right from the first infusion. Rich, low fruits in the body, with some ku in the finish - this brings back a little sweetness in the huigan, but it is fairly astringent. The entire feel is quite thin and weak, but the astringency is enough (even with a short infusion) to be getting close to the "hairspray" previously encountered with the 2005 CNNP, though to a much lesser (and more consumable) extent.

At least, the tea has not been processed to remove its ku and make it immediately drinkable - a process I often lament.

Later infusions are what I suspect Lei would call "barbecued corn": it is dark, sweet, but remains fairly abrasive in its finish despite the rapid brewing.

It's like some people I know: the initial impression is sweet. Then, there is some sourness and bitterness. It can feel rough and aggravating if too long is spent in its company.

Wet leaves:
Believably Xiaguan, being a few torn, large leaves accompanied by great piles of fragmented mulch. This factory can make tasty tea, but they clearly have no intention of aiming for aesthetic appeal. The wet leaves smell mostly of menthol, oddly enough.

Overall:
Cheap, and not explicitly bad - but none too thrilling. It would be beneficial from an educational standpoint to try this in a few years, to observe the progress of the ku, and that back-end astringency. Quite antisocial in character, with a simple, dark fruitiness. This is probably worth the money... but that's not saying too much.