John Grebe

A nice thicker and smooth ripe puerh. Early infusions had a slight malty edge mixed in with the smoothness that gave way to pure smoothness in later infusions. Not sure if it is because it is a nugget puerh or simply the longer age but this one while it is a good tea unlike the other Mengku ones seems to be lacking the unique Mengku taste to it.

A nice light and smooth green puerh that comes off as sweet and not harsh. Enjoyable to drink as a free sample but not something that I would want to buy to have around as a regular tea.

Lipton Black Pearl is a very pleasant surprise in good quality, especially since it is coming from the tea company whose name is often used as an adjective to describe poor quality tea. Black Pearl is a surprisingly smooth black tea that does not have any traces of bitterness and one that I would view as being worth buying again. Sure it would be easy to find a better quality black tea but the fact remains for its price range and being a grocery store black tea I think it would be hard to beat.

After being surprised by how good Lipton Black Pearl was I decided to try their pyramid chai tea. Sadly this is not made out of the same high quality tea base as Black Pearl but it is still drinkable at least. The spice level is a bit low and bland when it comes to chai teas but not too bad as to give away the rest of the box. But it is a given that I will not be buying this tea again once it is empty.

A very interesting and summer feeling herbal tea, which reminds me of a mix of fresh spearmint and watermelon. Which I find all the more interesting considering that the tea contains spearmint but not any watermelon so it must be the mix of the citrus and other herbs that when mixed together recreates the flavor of watermelon.

This sample comes off to me as being an unusually sweet and smooth young puerh. Quite honestly if it was not labeled as and brewed as puerh, I would believe it was a green tea if somebody were to hand me a cup of it and not tell me what it was first. Or at least the early infusions after which while it kept up on the same smooth sweet taste it started to turn my stomach in not such a good way so I threw out the rest of it.

Yum a fine example of the older style of ripe puerh that caused me to fall in love with puerh tea. It has a slightly earthy taste to it but a good earthy taste to it that is not musty and has a nice sweetness to it.

Twinings Irish breakfast was my other favorite tea back in college and after starting to drink Twinings Prince of Wales again in the loose version I figured it was worth a try to give Twinings Irish Breakfast a second chance as well in its loose leaf incarnation. My initial impression upon opening the tin was surprised to see that it is a CTC (crush-tear-curl) processed leaf into little tea pellets so I hoped that it would not be too strong considering that the blacks that I’ve drank in the last decade have all been Chinese. I brewed this tea in a mug infuser and I think it turned out fairly strong as the ending result was a strong malty brew that had not crossed the line into bitter when drunk straight. Overall a good tea but one that I know I can not drink too often as Assam and Ceylon blacks in large amounts are not as easy on the stomach as Chinese blacks.

I never thought about how the sweetness of chamomile can blend in with pineapple to create a nice light and sweet herbal brew.

First off I want to state that the only reason why I have this $88 ripe puerh brick is because it was given to me as a gift as it is way beyond what I would be willing to spend on tea myself. So the big question that the answer is finally within our grasp is how much if any ripe puerh drinkers that have a limited tea budget are missing out. I’d start by saying that this ultimate puerh brick also turned out to be the ultimate iron brick as I haven’t encountered a brick that was compressed this hard in ages. This not only made it really hard to break off brewing chunks but was also hard enough to crush a lot of the puerh leves, so if they were top of the line premium whole leaves when they are pressed they are now manly broken leaves. The brew overall reveals that it is a medium light fermentation level ripe puerh, with slight smoothness when being ultra clean in taste. Overall I have to admit that it is a good quality puerh but it is clean to the point of being boring as compared to some of the more earthy but not musty ones that are more interesting in my opinion. Regardless unless you have extra money to burn and would really like the metal tin that it is packaged in I would not recommend spending $88 of your own money for 500 grams of ripe puerh.

Yet another free sample from the large pile of Puerhshop samples that I’m finally getting around to drink. I gaiwan brewed this one with short infusions and I have to agree with the vendor description that this one is easy to drink due to its aroma and taste, as the tea comes off as light and sweet with a medium body and a semi floral taste. Although in terms of storage it is still very green as it is hard to believe that this tea is 5 years old.

Another free sample from Puerhshop. I am not really sure how to evaluate a semi aged puerh as it did not start out like this and under proper storage a cake of this will not remain like this long term. This tea does not have any of the harshness or smoke that is common in young puerh and is in an state now that it could likely easily be mistaken for a sweeter green oolong that is not floral.

I brewed a heaping teaspoon of leaf in a mug infuser. The brew is light overall but has more depth than most light greens as it has a somewhat light smooth sweetness to that I am not sure how to describe beyond mellow.

As always with mini-bricks I split it down the middle to half its thickness to increase the brewing surface area. As one that generally does not like mini brick puerh, even premium quality ones I have to admit that this is clearly the best one yet. It is a soft edges and a very distinct mellow Menghai scent which has sadly been becoming more rare even among Menghai area shu productions in my experience. I was also impressed by the fact that I could get a good five brews out of the leaves and the sixth brew was weak but still drinkable, which is saying a lot considering that I like my ripe puerh very strong. Too bad I just placed a large puerh order otherwise I would seriously consider ordering some of these.

Before brewing I split the mini brick in half down the middle to decrease the thickness to avoid having problems of it not wanting to open up enough to brew properly. Overall a decent ripe puerh that holds true to the vendor claims but without a doubt the 2011 MGH 1108 brick is a bit better so unless you really want the mini brick style I would say go with that one instead.

This tea as part of a one brew sized sample does not come off as too impressive at the moment. It is not bitter or harsh to say but it comes off as tasting a bit flat. I’m do not know enough about sheng puerh to know if this is the normal awkward stage between young sheng and aged sheng where it needs to be set aside to age more or if it is just a bad tea that sat around for 6 years.

This tea delivers what it promises of a sweet and easy drinking cheap everyday puerh. Smooth but not silky as while it has a pleasant lack of rough edges it does not come close to entering into silky (creamy) territory. I also like how it is the first Puerh Shop private label ripe puerh that is just a simple brick and not the mini bricks that never work out as planned.

This is my first Dancong oolong and the first that I found within the price range that I am willing to pay for oolong. This tea likely needs a second rinse as the first infusion was not that good but the second one was a lot better with a softer and mostly sweeter brew with a slight edge of bitterness that sortof resembles a Wuyi but a bit more floral and sweeter, and while I would not call it honey like myself I can understand why many will describe Dancong as being like honey. The infusions afterword stay the same before they slowly fade away in a way that continues to be enjoyable. So to its credit this tea does a good job at dying well although for the most part it is not one that I am overly impressed with.

The first thing that surprised me about this sample was the lack of bitterness despite the vendor description of it being bitter and strong. Maybe it has mellowed out that much if it was written in 2009 or it may be that my sample came from the hardest bottom center of the cake which is not opening up that much despite repeated brewing. Regardless the end result is a more mild sheng puerh that was nice drinking as a free sample but not one that I have any plans on buying after getting to try it.

Overall I find this a fairly sweet and rounded edged ripe puerh that is overall light in its feel and taste. Overall a good light puerh but I do not think it is worth a few cents short of $30 for a 450g brick, so I am very glad that this is a free sample that I’m drinking.

I only had a small sample of this tea which is less than I normally use for brewing ripe puerh so my review might be a little off. Even with longer brews than normal in a partially filled gaiwan I was not able to experience the thickness described by the vendor but I can say it has a slight hint of silkiness. Although I can say that it is a mellow and sweet as described, but it does have a clean richness to it overall.

I am not sure if this is typical for a wild grown and sun dried puerh as this is anything but bitter, harsh or smoky for its very young age for a sheng puerh. In many ways it reminds me more of a green tea or a green oolong in how it is light, fresh and surprisingly smooth in its taste. This tea also has the strongest energy (or Qi as some call it) that I have ever encountered in a tea to date. So this is not a tea to be drinking at work if you value the ability to think straight and focus as it gives a bit of an airy feel to one’s head after drinking a small amount of it.

I received a single bag of this tea tossed in as a free sample with an order from a health food company. Overall it is not the best green tea but a lot better than I expected as the mandarin orange flavor is very natural tasting but very overpowering of the light green tea. Overall good enough to finish the cup I brewed but not good enough for me to actually buy more with my own money so from my perspective it is understandable why this tea was discontinued.

A wonderful example of nugget puerh at its finest. If a strong mellow taste and a very silky creamy texture sounds good to you than this is a puerh that you will love. If nugget puerh was not so hard to track down in large amounts and expensive from the high demand I would drink this as my everyday tea.