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For a Mengku sheng, this one is quite bitter and nutty, but also floral, earthy and mineral. It also has a medium to full body and a very present cha qi.

The aroma sugarcane, forest floor, alcohol, celery, and grains. The taste is floral, sour and spicy, but primarily bitter. There are notes of chicory, black pepper and sugar beet.

This sheng has medium body and a soft, creamy mouthfeel with very little astringency. It is quite vegetal with decent bitterness., sweetness and umami, as well as more sour fruity and floral notes.

The flavour reminds me of apples and leafy forests, while the aroma is more earthy with notes like celery. There is also a toni-like bitterness in the aftertaste.

A nice black tea with complex aromas, sweet and spicy taste, and a very soft mouthfeel. Speicifically, I can smell bourbon vanilla, wood, and dried fruits like cherries. The taste is also woody with flavours of honey and black currants.

The tea has a thick, colloidal mouthfeel and a fairly muted sweet, mineral taste, which primarily reminds me of vegetable broth. It is also a bit bitter and cooling.

[Spring 2023 harvest]

Really good black tea with a thick liquor and a complex taste.

The dry leaf aroma is cosy with strong notes of tomato vine, nuts, and malt. Wet leaves, on the other hand, smell more like chestnuts, cocoa, and acorn. The tea has a smooth, creamy mouthfeel and a woody and nutty taste. There are flavours of almond shells, roasted peanuts, and muscovado sugar. In the sweet and spicy aftertaste, there are further hints of peach and cinnamon.

There is a clear flowery Mengku character here, but the tea also has a slight off-putting bone broth taste. I couldn’t quite warm up to it in my first session. The sweet and cooling aroma is, however, attractive.

[Spring 2023 harvest]

As good as I remember it, this tea consistently impresses me over the years.

It has a thick, creamy texture, and a somewhat herbaceous and brothy taste for a dianhong. Nevertheless, there is also a lot of sweetness and mild astringency. The taste reminds me of bread and forest floor. Likewise, the aroma carries a lot of depth with interesting fruity, medicinal and buttery notes.

This tea has only a light bitterness, but a lot of sugar beet sweetness. It has a smooth and silky mouthfeel and its aftertaste is a bit sour and very floral.

Specific aromas remind me of conifer forest, butter, mint, and carrot cake. In terms of flavours, there are many vegetal ones, such as broccoli, spring onion, celery stalk, and bell peppers.

A funny blend, certainly the first time I drink pu-erh with a Dan Cong oolong. There is an integrated character, but also one can pick out the individual teas. In the end, the experience of this tea is a bit more like and aged sheng actually. However, instead of a cohesive whole, one can feel the two poles pulling – the pungent oolong and the smooth shou.

The aroma has some sweet floral notes, a bit like apricot and rice. The tea is strong with a smooth creamy and cooling mouthfeel and an astringent finish. It has bitter, sweet, earthy, medicinal and herbaceous flavours. Specific flavours remind me of mint, gin, nuts, and barley.

For my first session with this tea, I used a lot of broken leaf pieces I found when unpacking it. As such, I had to be very careful not to overbrew it. I did get a very strong brew, but never really unpleasant.

One of the clear highlights was the exceptionally thick mouthfeel that sets this tea apart from a lot of similar ones. I also liked the very bitter and sweet taste a lot. It is a vegetal with notes of butter, burnt food, leek, alcohol, and apricots.