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Erm…I need to put “trying a young sheng at 8:30 at night” on my list of tea-related things I should never ever do again. This is the second sheng I have tried, and while it is better than my first experience (which was awful) it still isn’t great. Granted, I know that a big part of the problem is trying teas too young. So I will still be searching for a sensible sheng.

This was kind of smoky, a little bitter, and just kind of harsh. It is from batch 901, but as a puerh newbie I’m not sure how much variation there is between batches. It made me feel jittery (and not in a caffeinated way).

Note: The review ends here. What follows is a late backlogging/recount of my first sheng puerh experience because now I am all twitchy from drinking this tea and have nothing better to do.

So…I got a small sample of a 2011 sheng – I can’t for the life of me remember what it was, only that it was free. So I figured it couldn’t hurt anything to try… (famous last words). From the first sniff – the tea seemed, well, mean. I’m not one to attribute emotions to tea, but this tea was somewhere between cranky and mean. (warning sign #1)

And it was strong, too…oh, it was strong. Smoky, astringent, and just overall unpleasant, like having a conversation with a snotty coworker (warning sign #2). I think I kept up for 7 infusions, just for the “experience”.

And then it hit me…it was one of the worst things I have ever felt – kind of like a panic episode..but stranger. It felt like all of my molecules were vibrating to the point where twitchy was putting it mildly (result of not listening to warning signs 1 and 2). My head felt funny, I felt anxious, my stomach hurt, and so on… I’m not really sure how else to describe it.

I have heard people discuss the “qi” of tea, and kind of wondered how you would even detect that sort of thing – but I think I get it now. This tea had a nasty qi. And I learned my lesson (or so I thought) about trying sheng too young. Here’s hoping the one I’ve got in my order from Verdant Tea turns out better!

StaLLZee

I LOL’d @ the "Never drink young sheng at night part, SO TRUE!

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StaLLZee

I LOL’d @ the "Never drink young sheng at night part, SO TRUE!

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Bio

I’m a 25 year old software developer working from home in (mostly) sunny Southern California. The best part of it all is being able to use my zojirushi for an endless supply of tea…mwahahaha….

I drink mostly pure green, oolong and black tea – but I have been known to fall in love with the occasional flavored tea (I’m looking at you, Lupica Melon Oolong).

My rating scale is rather arbitrary, since I find it kind of hard to compare teas on a numerical scale. The text part is much more useful…provided I can figure out how to describe the tea.

The rest of my time I spend in yoga, zumba, hanging out with my beagle and husband, cooking, reading, trying to learn to draw, and attempting to not play Skyrim. I’m never going to finish that one.

The only teas I stay away from are rooibos, since that gives me a weird headache thing. Other than that, I’ll try anything once.

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Aliso Viejo, CA

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