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Drank this today with Cherokee. I’m fairly certain it’s the best ripe I’ve had to date. I have been swapping away most of the ripe puerh I acquired early in my puerh journey, as I’ve found my tastes lie much more in the realm of raw puerh, but I still have this sample. I gave it one rinse, and did taste a bit of fermentation flavor in the first couple steeps, but it wasn’t too stanky, thankfully. Got a couple lighter red steeps, followed by about five or six which looked and felt like motor oil – gotta love that. Foresty flavors for the first steeps, accompanied by a bit of a chocolate flavor in mid-late steeps. Nice and sweet and thick.

Wow, I think this is some of the best quality puerh leaf I’ve had yet. I’m kicking myself for not having tried this before I made a big W2T order, because I may want to get a cake of this one. Maybe I’ll find somebody whose order I can piggyback on ;)

I used 7g in a 100mL gaiwan with boiling water. This tea would not quit. I got 16 GOOD steeps and then a couple faded ones at the end as well. It was very interesting, and rather consistent over a long session. Right from the get-go it was a thick, milky/creamy brew with sweet floral and honey notes. There was also something else I sort of struggled to describe – almost a savory note that, within about four steeps, started to morph into a slight bitterness which, far from taking away from the tea, added great complexity and depth. It wasn’t as bitter as like a Bulang sheng or anything like that, but it was enough of a bitterness to temper the sweetness, preventing the over-sweetness I sort of experienced with Poundcake. The strength and quality of the material really came through with this layered experience – sweet with bitter notes underneath and a very good honey huigan. The sweetness and body did not even begin to fade until around 14 steeps in.

Aside from the wonderful flavor, this tea’s quality was also apparent in the body feelings I got from drinking it. I could feel the liquid going down my throat, and after swallowing, got a bit of a throat constricting feel, like it was remaining there in some way. I could also quite clearly feel it settle in my stomach, not like making me feel ill or anything, but it kind of plopped down with that heaviness it possessed. About halfway through the session, I started feeling a relaxing qi, beginning in the belly and spreading throughout my torso.

I think I agree with the description the site, noting this tea’s high value:quality ratio. I wish I had tried it before I ordered a bunch of 2016 teas and stuff, because I would’ve gotten a cake of it on that order. For me it’s “If You’re Tasting This It’s 2 Late…” Sorry ;)

I’m glad Yunomi recommended trying this tea with “warm” (140F) and hotter water. I tried it first with 160F water and steep times of 1m, 30s, 1m. It was grassy, with pretty decent astringency in the finish. There was a honey sweetness in there somewhere as well. Next steep was a little less astringent in flavor, but more drying in the mouth, and it sort of just fell flat on the final steep.

The tea really shone when I started with cooler water. For this second session, I used 140F water for steeps of 1m, then 30s. After that, I did 1m steeps of 160F, 180F, and 200F. The first two steeps were noticeably more balanced in astringency vs. sweetness. It certainly still had an astringent note to it, but was much more mellow with a stronger grassy sweetness. I think I also detected a bit of fruit on the aftertaste, maybe melon. The next three steeps, using progressively hotter water each time, were nice and smoothly sweet with grassy and vegetal spinach flavors. The last steep acquired a noticeable bitterness, but still wasn’t overpowering. The body was strong in all but the final steep using this method, as opposed to the other method, when the main thing I got was that astringency, without a very good body to the liquid.

Got this in a trade with JK7Ray a little way’s back. Pretty good stuff – had a flavor unlike most other sencha I’ve tried. I thought it was best with the method espoused on Yunomi’s site. The warm leaves had the classic sencha aroma with some green, grassy nuttiness. The flavor was grassy with an odd sweet note that I had trouble placing. It was an unusual earthy flavor. At first I thought it might be fruit, buuut decided it wasn’t. It was not sugar, honey, caramel, or anything like that. It was also slightly reminiscent of petrichor. Hard to place. When I did a longer first steep, it was almost too sweet – that weird flavor was kind of overpowering. A pretty decent sencha.

This is an interesting tea. I got it on sale from Zen Tea when they had a big sale a few months back. It’s pretty weird looking – five or so leaves on long branches. I used 4g and 195F water in a 100mL gaiwan. I didn’t quite know what to make of the aroma – I kind of got maybe some creaminess, fruitiness…or maltiness? I couldn’t really tell.

The taste started out light and vegetal, with a bit of a creamy texture. After that, it moved to a more floral note – I think it might have been orchid. I see a lot of teas that say they taste like orchid specifically. This was mentioned on the bag. To me this was a floral taste that was a little different and wonky than what I usually get from teas that taste floral – so maybe that’s orchid. We’ll go with that for now. The floral sweetness mixed with some nice creaminess for a few really enjoyable steeps. At one point, I thought I got some creamy fruitiness – it reminded me of banana for a second.

I wasn’t particularly impressed with this tea’s longevity. I got maybe 7 good steeps from it. The flavors were decently interesting, but nothing to write home about either. It’s certainly unique. It was described as being like a mix between a Jin Xuan (which I like) and a Tie Guan Yin (which I generally am not a fan of). I guess I could kind of see that. It had some creamy texture along with some pretty intense floral notes like a really green Tie Guan Yin might have. I’m glad I bought a sample, but would not buy more of this tea.

Drank something from LP’s Mystery Pack that he sent me. I failed at drinking mystery tea, because I checked what it was before I drank it…I’ll do better next time! This was labeled as “Wuyi Star DHP Brick” or something like that. I used about 3g in my 60mL gaiwan. I think I need to start buying more Wuyi tea, because this was really good. The aroma had a decent bit of roastiness to it, which translated to the flavor in a tasty, rather than overwhelming, way. The main flavor under the roast was a mineral-y sweetness, which sometimes also came across as chocolatey to me. This was good – not exactly sure what it was from Wuyi Star, though I’ve seen a few possibilities on ebay.

This is my first Da Yu Ling oolong. I thought it was pretty good, but I’m glad I got it at the rather affordable price it was offered by Ides Tea. I might have to try one of the hella expensive ones at some point too just for comparison’s sake. Unlike many green oolongs I’ve tried, this one was best by a good margin with boiled water.

Pretty thick and creamy texture with a decently intense floral flavor in most steeps. If I increased the steep time too quickly it got a little cloying and unpleasant – this one seems to do best with flash steeps for the first five steeps or so, then can be slowly increased after that. I also noticed some other sweet flavors, kind of like honey, underneath the floral, mostly in the mid-steeps. This was good, but I think my favorite from Ides so far is still the Alishan.

I don’t usually go for flavored or blended teas, but I picked up one of the samplers from Liquid Proust’s website to give his teas a go. I’ve never had Sunmoon Lake Black tea, the base of this blend, before. I used boiling water and ~7g in my 120mL gaiwan. It’s possible this would do better western style. Not that I didn’t enjoy it gongfu.

I don’t think I’ve ever really reviewed a flavored blend before, so it seems weird saying that it tasted like its component parts, but that’s mostly what I got from this one. The first steep was lightly malty with a thick and full caramel flavor and cocoa/caramel aftertaste. If I let the tea cool down a bit, I could taste the pecans as well – this held true throughout the session. A few steeps in, the sweet caramel and cocoa flavors began to fade, but at the same time, the flavors from the tea base picked up, making for an interesting session. I started to get some dark fruit notes, kind of reminding me of cherries or maybe plums from the tea, still accompanied by whispers of the sugary sweet notes and nuttiness.

After trying this tea, I’m excited to get to the rest of LP’s blends. The flavors meshed quite well in this one and produced a very good tea. His passion is quite apparent in the care with which he selects ingredients, especially the base teas. I think the problem with a lot of flavored blends is that they just use shit tea – certainly not the case here. This one’s a winner.

I mixed the last bit of my samples of the 2015 Poundcake and Milk, Cream, and Alcohol for a nice session (3g and 4g respectively). It brewed up a pretty tasty tea – Very sweet, but had a bit of that bite that Poundcake was lacking. I’m sure many people love it for that lack, and I did like it, but I generally enjoy my young sheng having a bit of a bitterness to it. Fun little experiment to use up the tail ends of my samples :)