1990s Special Order Red Mark

Wet Leaf Aroma

old wood, dark malty dried fruits, animal, wet wool

Tasting Notes

starts off malty, with layered fruity depth and a faint smokiness in the throat. There’s an herbal bitterness throughout, more of a sweet-herbal bitterness woven between woody notes, with touches of incense, mineral and Chinese-herb character with a distant zesty feel in each sip. Early steeps appear a bit dry and boxy, later it gets progressively juicier. The aging feels settled, but still has some (sour) edges to it. There’s a particular dark fruity note that I enjoy, with a sweetness that sits nicely and is not one dimensional.

In a Sentence

Layered woody-fruity complexity, anchoring depth.

What it feels like

Has the sense of vertical depth to it. Anchoring, nuanced, centering.

Quick

Sheng ★★★★ The Essence of Tea

Details

Entry Date

01.02.2026

Country

China

Region

Blend

Tea Master

Kunming Tea Factory

Price EUR/50g

Link

essenceoftea.com

Properties

Kōu Gǎn i Mouthfeel: texture, density, softness, or dryness.

coherent, medium-light,

Hóu Yùn i Throat resonance — the depth and length of the finish.

more of a ‚boxy closed grip‘ with a light drying sensation.

Huí Gān i Returning sweetness after bitterness, perceived after swallowing.

mouthwatering, slighty sour, slow returning sweetness

Qi (1-5) i The tea’s felt effect on body and mind.

Noticable from the 1st cup, poignant with a felt depth, and still a kind of lightness to it. Calming and rooting

Journal

2026-02-20

What comes across strongest with this tea is a deeply layered dried fruit and medicinal herb flavor, present upfront and lingering quite a bit on the palate after swallowing - that's the most dominant impression.

There's also good complexity, with sweetness woven in, a zesty note along the side of the tongue, and some herbal astringency somewhere in between. A tea whose edges aren't fully polished yet. What balances that is the aftertaste: it stays mouthwatering and sweet, and over time the session slowly resolves into more sweetness.

A lot of what this tea offers is hard to fully articulate - more like a sense of woody boxiness in the mouth, as though the tea is somewhat closed in.

Worth noting is that across two recent sessions it's been a little unsettling to my stomach, right away from the first steeps and especially on an emptier stomach.

Energy-wise it's quite interesting - a strong centering quality with the feeling that the energy goes quite deep, more vertical than horizontal. That slight stomach unsettledness remains present throughout, leaving a bit of an off-note.