Cloudwalker Teas

Ok. I’m not going to lie: I broke off 4g of this tea, put it into an 80ml 1980s red clay yixing teapot, heated my water to a fisheye boil, cooled to 96 degrees C and started steeping. I rinsed for ten seconds and poured off. Then steeped for 45 seconds. The first pour was incredibly dark red, tasted slightly green with that classic pu erh earthiness, and smelled of a fall day in the woods. Energy for such a young, sheng pu erh was mellow and relaxing. I kept resteeping this tea, 20+ times and it was still going strong when I stopped. I’ll probably use less leaf next time. All around, I liked this tea, and it’s only going to get better with age. There’s also quite a bit of tea here for the price as well.

Dark. Earthy. Very smooth pu erh. This time when I drank it though I tried to be present with the tea, as sometimes my mind starts to drift to mundane daily living if I don’t focus. This time I got a hint of the exotic, even a bit of spice, anise and cloves maybe? Just a hint mind you, but really added to the drinking experience. Energy left me wired as usual for the day!

The old tasting notes for this tea stand: smooth, clean and ending on a sweet note. The energy is a potent mix of yin/yang. So I was already a very happy camper this morning after waking up tired. I’ve also been trying a new methodology to enhance the chi experience from tea: following good tea with a rare form of internal kung fu I learned while in Taiwan. Conclusion so far? Really enhances the energy experience of the tea!

This is a tea we will be adding to the Cloudwalker family of teas. A shou pu erh from the 90s, this tea is buttery smooth on the palate leaving a lasting hui gan and the flavours are light and hint of hazelnut. There is almost no aroma to the infusion, but the chi packs an instant punch that will wake you up, regardless how tired.

It’s been awhile since I had this tea and it’s always a pleasant surprise. Takgoti’s recent review reminded me to try it again. I had never really been able to pull out the white grape flavour, but I definitely know what others mean now. The aroma is so honey/apricot sweet and the flavour matches. Energy is potent, and followed with a pu erh, particularly so. An excellent tea, to be sure.

So I tried a slightly younger version of this tea today. Still 1980s, but a looser leaf cake. I wasn’t sure if I should add a new tea since it’s not easily available, and I have to special order it from Taiwan. Anyway, this one has less spice, more sweetness and the hui gan is looooong lasting. The chi is more mellow, and dare I say, more refined? The drinking longevity of this tea is still pretty incredible, I have to say. I think I went to 8 steepings before the leaves even started to look exhausted. I really like these sheng cakes…

Earthy, woodsy, and with a hint of spice, this tea goes down smooth and leaves a lasting hui gan in my mouth, a velvety mouth-feel long after consumption. This is probably the darkest, earthiest pu erh that Cloudwalker Teas carries. Lasting, yang energy as well lights the inner spirit on fire and leaves it blazing through the day.

There’s just something about drinking a tea right from the cake it’s been aging in. I broke off several chunks of this tea this morning, popped them into my purple sand yixing pot dedicated to such purposes and promptly steeped up repeated infusions of this fine elixir. The energy of this tea is awesome. I’ll be pumped all day at this rate. My thoughts on flavour stand: there’s a hint of smoke though this time that’s coming out a bit more, and nuts, and the pu erh maltiness is a bit more pronounced than in the past. Great way to start the day.

Drank this tea this morning by accident, thought I was pouring some other leaves into my little teapot in the bleary-eyed semi-darkness of the morning hours. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this was the tea that I tasted! Such a soothing energy. Calming. Unlike most pu erh, it has a bit of a floral hint to the aroma and flavour, while retaining some traditional pu erh malty darkness.

Ok. So I went back to the Fall 2009 version of this tea: awesome. The aroma wafted between honeycomb and crocuses and the flavour was similarly sweet and nectarlike. Energy is light and uplifting: effervescent. This is a sublime tea. It reminds me, each time that I drink it, of my first truly fresh oolong experiences when I was living in Taiwan.

I have to say though, that although the Spring 2010 version is tasty, it doesn’t quite live up to the standard of Fall 2009. Can’t wait till Fall 2010 arrives!

Mmmmmm… I started with Da Yu Lin oolong this morning and then transitioned to this tea with a bit of Rainbow pu erh on top because it has larger leaves and tends to hold down the smaller particles of this tea, but the energy and flavour matches well. I nearly went into a trance after all the tea this morning and just made it to work on time (though my shirt was a little wrinkled since I didn’t have time to iron it). But here I sit at 9PM and still full of energy!

Opened up a sealed can of this tea this morning. I love opening a fresh tea for the first time from its vacuum sealed package: the smell out of the bag is so fresh and green and floral. The leaves brewed up to a luminescent yellow-green, the aroma was sweet and honeylike, and the flavour had a hint of astringency but was mostly clean and clear. It left that really smooth feeling in the mouth and a returning hui gan on the breath.

Mmm Mmm good. Cloudwalker Teas is now stocking this tea and it is available on our website. I had some this evening as a pick-me-up before going out to meet some friends. Dark, earthy with a hint of sheng bitter, the taste is all pu erh, and because it is a compressed cake, it’s pretty good value for money. There’s a lot of tea in one of these mushrooms. The energy is lasting as well. Really good stuff.

I’ve been reacquainting myself with this tea the past few days. Like any good pesticide free pu erh, this one is clear and clean on the tongue. It leaves a lasting hui gan (returning sweetness) in the back of the throat and the tongue feeling particularly silky smooth post-swallow. The flavour is earthy, but lighter than many other aged, sheng pu erh. The aroma is much the same. The energy is lasting for this tea and often leaves me “spacey” for a few hours after drinking. That said, I’ve never required less sleep, been more focused and more productive than I have the past two weeks. The morning pu erh experiment has been going very well. Today was the first day in two weeks that I had coffee in the afternoon and that was only necessary because I happened to be reading an exceedingly boring document at work. Other than that, I have not once felt inclined to nap in the afternoon (especially positive since this would NOT be conducive to the ol’ 9-5).

I should mention here that I used only about 2g of leaf in a 150cc gong fu yi xing pot, and infused longer than I normally do, reducing the number of steepings I could get out of this tea. This was a positive thing however because it meant less time in the morning committed to the tea and I woke up late, so I didn’t waste any tea. But this has turned out to be an excellent way to start the day.

Drank this tea again this morning. 3g of leaf in a 100cc gong fu yi xing pot. I lost count of the number of steepings after about 9 I think. This tea has real drinking longevity. The colour was an intense burgundy. I’m a big fan. Spice, smoke, almonds are all flavours and aromas to describe this tea. And very potent energy.

I drank some of this tea this morning. You know that feeling you get from coffee after about 15-20 mins? It picks you up until you crash later in the morning. Tea like this one is so energy rich that it actually keeps me going all day. I think one of the nicest aspects of this tea is that it comes from “the wild” so I know it’s pesticide free (which comes out in the flavour since it is clean tasting and not bitter). I’m wide awake now and ready to face the world; who wouldn’t be after a tea like this…

This is the tea I started with this morning: love the spicey smoke. It’s very different from some of my other sheng, wet-stored, aged pu erh and the edges are a little less smooth, but I like the wildness of it. There’s a hint of citrus there too. I used one of hte first teapots I ever purchased from Yixing to brew this, one that has seen a lot of use over the years and is very ‘raised.’ I was on cloud nine before 7AM. I’m still there I might add, largely because I continued the pu erh journey with Joy from my store which I logged previously. Two very chi potent, powerful teas.

I’ve really been drinking the pu erh this morning. I started with a really spicey cake pu erh from the tea master’s shop super early. This guy is so blissed out that my partner and I used to call him the “tea dude.” He’s timeless. He could be anywhere from 35 to 65 years old, but it’s hard to say without asking him (which might be construed as rude). Anyway, that’s not the tea I’m rating here anyway. Joy: my thoughts on taste, aroma and chi remain unchanged. I am always amazed at the drinking longevity of this tea however. I’ve already steeped it three times this morning with no noticeable loss of concentration in the tea soup. Yesterday I had this tea in the morning as well and managed to brew it four times before the leaves started to produce lesser concentrations. And I continued to brew it into a ninth brew, which was still flavourful and aromatic. I should mention that I did this with a mug, hot water and one of those tea guru mug strainers, not my traditional gong fu sitting, which is preferable but not always possible. I should also mention that the energy has me floating toward the sky and highly focused.

Drank this tea again this morning. Never ceases to amaze. I think it is the darkest and strongest smelling of the aged, wet-stored, sheng pu erh that I have. It also has the greatest depth and longest lasting flavour. The smoothness on my tongue lasts for at least an hour after drinking (even if I eat something after drinking!). An excellent pu erh tea. The energy lies more in the yang category, and very potent.

Had this tea again this morning. All this pu erh is definitely having a cumulative effect. I am sleeping less, I have more energy throughout the day and I can focus more intently on one project at a time. Perhaps this is the cumulative effect of the chi energy? I haven’t changed anything else in my lifestyle, so it has to be the tea coupled with meditation in the morning. Anyway, my tasting notes haven’t really changed from the previous posting the other day. Same steep times/temperatures in the gong fu style; the only difference is that this morning I shared it with my mom, who thoroughly enjoys having tea with me like this. Earthy, woodsy, loaded with chi: my kind of tea.

Had this tea today after the 1960s Oolong. Pairing such potent energy teas has some interesting effects sometimes. I was already happy as a clam with the oolong, but adding this one has made me feel a bit, well, surreal. Everything around me is super sharp and focused. I can feel my own chi pressing on my third eye. This sometimes happens when I do Tai Chi or soft Kung Fu, and occasionally when I drink high energy teas, especially back-to-back. Zen calm is a good way to describe my being just now. Ok, past the energy, the tea itself smells of decomposing fall leaves and a dry sweetness, and the flavour is similar, but very, very smooth on the tongue from front to sides to back. My mouth feels extremely smooth and clean right now (a feeling you should always have if the tea itself is clean and without pesticide). All around an excellent tea. Now I have to focus on my day.

I took the day off from work today. I didn’t much feel like going in and besides, I wanted to drink some tea. So I did. I started with this one, which I haven’t had in awhile and was immediately pleased with the choice (of course). Oolongs have a special place in my heart because of their long lasting and widely varying aromas and flavours. The dry leaves of this tea smell of malty roast. The liquor scent has extreme longevity in the smelling cup. It seems to go on forever smelling of exotic sweetness with a hint of spice. The flavour is, as I mentioned in a previous note, malty, and smooth on the tongue leaving a long lasting hui gan (returning sweetness in the back of the throat). When I exhale I still get the flavour of this tea and it is very pleasant. The energy hits with a wallop as well. You don’t so much feel it coming as simply sink into the moment and completely lose track of time. I have a feeling drinking such high energy teas the past few days is having a cumulative effect on me. Everything around me seems crisper, clearer and more focused. An excellent tea, to be sure.

I’ve gotten into the habit of getting up early and sitting and drinking good pu erh teas gong fu before going to work and it’s been a great way to start the day. This tea is, as I’ve stated before, dark and earthy in flavour. It leaves a very smooth feeling on the front of the tongue and a hint of tang on the rear. The aroma is that of rolling in the hay of a freshly cut farmer’s field. The energy is strong and not understated, making it very easy to clear the mind of earthly thoughts and focus on each movement of the making of the tea with intention. Good stuff.

I don’t really have enough time to be logging this tea this morning, largely because I drank this tea this morning. I totally lost track of time. I cannot believe I haven’t logged it before. This was the very first aged, sheng, wet stored pu erh I have ever tried and it is smooth. The initial steepings have just a hint of bitterness, but otherwise it is quite sweet for a pu erh. The aroma is of dampness on a moonlit evening in a farmer’s field and the energy is potent and lasting. Every time I drink it I’m reminded of my introduction to excellent, vintage teas. The tea master sprang this on me, and man it’s good.