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The last two times I tried this, I ended up with a “punch you in the face” jasmine flavor since I always overestimate how much tea to use with pearl-type teas. This time was a lot better though. This is definitely not a jasmine tea if for someone that only kind of likes jasmine. Very floral. It’s also a bit finicky — it’s really good if you hit that sweet spot of time/temp and then it tastes lovely and light and sweet. Anything at all out of that range brings out the bitterness.

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!

It might have just been a while since I’ve had a green oolong..but this is pretty good. Really floral. I kept thinking while drinking it, “hey, this kind of reminds me of Tieguanyin”…turns out the varietal is a strain of TGY from the 80’s (confirming for the moment that I’m not crazy). I got 4 good steepings out of it with my gaiwan before I made dinner.

Found out about this from Reddit…one of the proprietors/owners did an AMA on /r/Tea and mentioned an offer for a free ounce of this if you pay $1 shipping (not sure shipping costs to countries other than US, but they did seem pretty responsive to questions). They also offered a coupon code for 5% off (reddit).

Not bad, but not a favorite. I couldn’t really taste the mint, but it was a nice smooth, slightly sweet tea. I only have enough for one more cup and I think I might try adding some extra candy cane bits or something to bring the flavor out a bit more.

Ahhh tea…..gotta love tea. This tea probably ended up being one of the tastiest teas I’ve had – not because it’s the best tea ever, but any post-disastrous day tea is bound to be tasty. Lost my tea stash in our house fire Wednesday (along with pretty much everything else – but let’s be honest, the tea stash is the biggest bummer ;) ) The hotel we stayed at had a pretty typical stock of Bigelow tea (yaaay). I had some of Verdant Tea’s Diyi Cornfield puerh in my purse and some more tea at work so I am pretty happy about that, but at this point tea is just one of those things that makes everything seem like normal again for a little while and I am enjoying every cup.

I got this one as part of my Black Friday/birthday tea order and after reading all of the glowing reviews decided to save it for my birthday (instead of including it in the massive tea-drinking binge that usually follows a tea order).

Oh…..wow. I was not prepared for how incredibly awesome this tea would be! It might have just snagged the spot for my favorite tea ever, and I am not usually the type to have an absolute favorite (can’t leave any tea out, you know) Flowery, sweet, nutty, yummy…and I think I might have oversteeped it but it didn’t hurt it at all.

So….I have a massive amount of backlogging to do. I ordered the giant box of fun from LiberTEAS on TeaTrade (aka the flat rate box of 30+ teas) a little while ago (I think it’s been a month…wow) and I have been drinking them but I never remember to log anything :P

BTW…thank you so much LiberTEAS, this was a really generous box of tea and I can’t wait to try them all (30 was definitely an understatement :) )

So this is the most recent one that I have tried from the box. I wasn’t able to pick out any of the specific flavors in this one…it just tasted “tropical-fruity”. Really good though – it’s smooth and the flavors blend together nicely.

I wasn’t expecting too terribly much from this tea since the international grocery store I go to can be a hit or miss when it comes to tea (and this was a lot of tea for the price)…but I was still kind of disappointed with this one. The overall flavor is really weak, and the cups I have had so far have either been tasteless or bitter. I really want to give this tea the benefit of the doubt so I should probably try it at home to better control the steeping conditions. I got this to be an “at work” tea since I didn’t have any Chinese greens at work, so I’m not too picky about it, but it could be a lot better. While steeping, it smelled a little like the Bi Lo Chun I have, but the taste just isn’t there…it’s kind of like the ghost of a good green tea.

Reading some of the other tasting notes for this tea, it’s funny to see how often this was one of the first loose leaf teas people tried….it was one of mine too ;) I got this from our international grocery store back when I didn’t know anything at all about loose tea. By now my stash of this tea is a couple years old (I know…I should have drank this a long time ago), but the taste has held up pretty well. I decided to make a tasting note now after all this time after “rediscovering” this in my stash…apparently I used waaaaay too much leaf and water that was too hot the first time around. It’s like a different tea – and a lesson to pay closer attention to steeping conditions :P

The jasmine flavor/aroma is really strong and tasty without being too “flowery,” and it has enough body that I like it as an after-lunch tea. I should try this iced.

Eh…nothing special about this tea. Nothing bad, but nothing special. Kind of reminds me of the Brooke Bond CTC-style tea that I drank back when I very first started drinking tea. Due to the lack of boiling water at work, I have a sneaky suspicion that the water cooled off too much by the time I steeped the tea, but it didn’t seem to hurt. I think it might have even helped since the tea seems fairly sweet. The taste lingers too, which is one of the only things that kept me from rating it a bit lower. I like a tea that “sticks around” after a sip.