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Bought this specifically to cold brew as iced tea. It is delicious and sweet from the fruits in this tea. The strawberry is definitely the strongest flavor but I think I taste the apple and pear too. This is one delicious caffeine free iced tea. I added some sugar because I like iced tea sweet but this really didn’t need it. If anyone goes to Clipper Ship Tea Company and is looking for a tisane to make into iced tea I definitely recommend this one. It is good.

I brewed this overnight in a 68oz Iced Tea Jug with 8 tsp leaf.

Bought this tea from a new EBay seller, or at least one new to me. I have won a number of auctions from this seller so I was admittedly hoping for something spectacular to start with. That would not be this tea however. Their was a lot of fermentation taste to this tea and it was of the unpleasant sort. There was also a fair amount of bitterness. I also at points seemed to detect a sour note but on that I’m not really sure. I only got this four days ago so it may simply need another week to get used to the New York environment. A fairly nice note did develop with this tea in later steeps. It’s not that this tea was all that bad, I was just hoping for something really good and got something really average. I will endeavor to try this again in two weeks and see if letting the tea air out a bit will help it. This is in my opinion not a good start for me with this seller. He sells a lot of tea on auction. Sometimes you can get his teas for a low price. This one some idiot ran up the price at the last minute. That is the problem with EBay auctions. There is always some idiot who is not actually commited to getting the tea but they are willing to raise the price for the serious bidders while trying to get something cheap.

I brewed this tea twelve times in a 150ml Jian Shui gaiwan with 11g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

Picked up some more of this the other day. Don’t actually know if it is the same batch or not. It is a nice tasting puerh with a fair amount of fermentation flavor. I am in a bit of a hurry this afternoon so this got western steeped. It is still quite good. Nice with a mildly sweet taste.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 30 seconds after a 10 second rinse.

When I received this cake in the mail I found Streetshop88 had applied tape directly to the wrapper. The wrapper was damaged getting the tape off. They didn’t send another cake, but the did issue a partial refund and sent me another wrapper in the mail. I got the wrapper in the mail the other day so I figured it was time to try this cake and see if the damaged wrapper was a bad omen or not. It turns out that this is an excellent semi aged sheng. At nine years old it is just at the point when teas often develop an unpleasant taste of leather and tobacco. This tea really didn’t develop those notes. They were sort of there, underneath but didn’t really pop out. There was a definite sweet note of this tea’s youth in the first two steeps, then I didn’t notice any more apricots. Instead there was what I would describe as an aged flavor. Meaning a flavor the tea had developed in it’s storage. These can be good or bad. This one was very good. It was smooth and mellow with a very thick mouth feel. I am not sure what to call this flavor. Maybe chestnuts, maybe mushrooms, hard to describe. In any case it was very good, mildly sweet and very smooth. As to tea color this one had developed an light orange color to it. As to qi, this tea seems to have some. While I cannot use the phrase tea drunk, I am very relaxed right now from this tea. After a long stressful day at work a good tea was exactly what I needed. As to price this tea was a bargain. A 500g bing was only about $50 or so. While there are no claims about this tea being old tree, wild tree or anything else, where ever they got the leaves they did a good job with this tea. This is one of the best raw teas I have bought in a while. It is rare for me to actually like a semi aged tea. They all seem to have developed strong taste of leather and tobacco. This one had not but instead had developed a nice semi sweet mellow taste to it. It was good. It will be interesting to see how this one ages further. Hopefully it will continue to develop good flavors.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

This is pretty good for a newly made ripe puerh tea. It had quite a bit of fermentation flavor. That flavor was still a bit funky if not quite fishy. It was not bitter. It developed a nice sweet note. I would venture to say it had some notes of chocolate in there. Maybe a bit of a woody mushroom taste too. This was a nice puerh. I bought two cakes of this so I will be seeing how this one ages.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. Could have gotten a few more steeps out of this one but twelve steeps is enough caffeine for me.

Brewed this one overnight in the fridge and am drinking it iced. It is a very nice iced tea. The black tea base tastes good and the flavoring is sweet in nature. I added some sugar syrup because I like iced tea sweet. Have yet to try this one hot.

Brewed this one overnight in the refrigerator in a 32oz Lupica Handy Cooler with 4 tsp leaf.

This is an interesting tea. The dry leaf smells mildly of peppermint. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor to this tea. There was a sweet note and little bitterness to it. Then there was the blend. The cloves tasted strongest, followed by the peppermint, I couldn’t taste the licorice root at all. This was an interesting tea to try. When I bought it I don’t think I realized it was a blend. It just smelled interesting. I would probably not buy it again if she still has it.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

When I bought this for some reason I thought it was 2016 harvest, it was Spring 2015. This means in my book it has a shorter shelf life. It is fairly good. It’s got a slightly sweet, slightly vegetal taste to it with little bitterness. Overall it is very good tea.

I brewed this one time in a 350ml Kyusu teapot with 9.3g leaf and 175 degree water for 1 minute. This approximated the Yunomi instructions which were for a 100ml vessel.

This is a nice puerh with a fair amount of bitterness in the early infusions. I also noticed a sour note for the first couple of steeps. This could be because this teat was dry stored in New York for a few months before I decided to try it. After a few steeps a sweet note emerged in this tea. Pretty much the standard notes for young sheng, apricots and stonefruits I would say. Overall this is pretty good tea. It has an aftertaste that lasts a while. It is very pleasant in later steeps. As far as qi goes I didn’t feel any from this tea but I rarely feel qi from any tea so it does not surprise me that it is sadly missing. Maybe I’ll feel it as I finish my last cup who knows.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. It had not weakened much in the twelfth steep, it would have gone a few more steeps but I had reached my caffeine limit for today.

This is a fairly inexpensive tea from Yunnan Sourcing. It is a good and tasty tea. It has nearly cleared. There is really almost no fermentation flavor to this tea, I think I detected a little in the first couple of steeps. It has little bitterness to it. It’s got a nice sweet note going for it. I’d not say chocolaty but perhaps woody in nature, but not in an unpleasant way. Very hard to accurately describe the sweet note on this one. I only gave this one eight steeps because I have plans this afternoon and need to get going, but I’m sure it would have gone twelve or fifteen steeps. It’s still quite dark in color.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 150ml ru kiln gaiwan with 12.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. This is a very nice aged tea for the price. A lot of companies would sell this for a lot more but Yunnan Sourcing had it at a reasonable price.