Huang Shan Mao Feng Revisited

I ran out of things to drink as more tea orders are waiting for me at university residence. Moving back tomorrow or Sunday, yay! :)

So in my desperation, I tried the Huang Shan Mao Feng again (after 4 chashaku of matcha), except this time, sencha-style.

I quitupled the amount of tea leaves 5 tsps for 1 cup of water, lowered the temperature some more to around 70 degrees Celcius, and steeped for 30-35 seconds each infusion.

First infusion:

Still bad. Gross, yucky, bad, astringent, and the whole 9 yards. Might just have felt like that because I just had yummy koicha, and in contrast it's even more terrible.

Second infusion:

MUCH better than the last time I made it and posted pictures. The flavour is much more fragrant and leafy, very slightly more astringent, but may be because the water temp is still a bit too high. 

Third infusion:

Light, but still packed more punch than the third infusion of last time. No astringency, but not sweet like sencha. The leaves expanded pretty well by this point. Really, pretty good. Actually, I'd say it's better than even the second infusion last time.

Overall, much more fragrant and flavourful, but not comparable to good sencha or higher grade mao fengs.  Not even close.