kingteamall

Very interesting. In the wet leaves, especially after the rinse, along with the fruity/cherrie smell of shai hong there is a note of semi-aged warehouse sheng puer, a warm basement note. It makes me believe that this tea is indeed from 2012 and might possibly have undergone some microbial fermentation. I am not sure if that is a good thing for black tea.

The brew is very red and has a thick and velvety mouthfeel. The aromas remind of cherries and dried fruits, and the fermentation note isn’t present in a bad way. I really enjoy this tea, it feels very substantial and comforting. There is a good aftertaste/huigan, without bitterness or astringency.

This might be the last sheng pu’er from BanPen in my collection.

Overall, the tea has depth with subtle complexities. It is bright with strength in the aftertaste. Decent body. There is some bitterness as I’d expect but it is so well integrated I don’t notice it unless I pay attention.

Some of the more upfront tastes are sweet and plummy. I also experience playful and fleeting berry-like wild tea character. The taste flows so well into the aftertaste where it blooms with these amazing bright stonefruit and herbal-floral flavors, like crisp, warm apricot overlain by lavender, thyme, sage and blackberry leaf. A beautiful reverb effect occurs where the aftertaste flows into the next cup which flows back to the aftertaste. I’m currently sitting only 6 or 7 steeps in, but half an hour after the last cup, I have a vague taste of prune, tobacco, butter and sour orange in my mouth. Nice cooling mouthfeel persists throughout the infusions. Powerful energy. I liken the feeling to a happy, self-assured person, the personality whose presence remains after departure.

This reminds me quite a bit of Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company’s 2013 Banpen Raw but without the horrendous astringency and acidity.
https://steepster.com/teas/beautiful-taiwan-tea-company/85242-2013-banpen-raw-puerh

Right now, it’s too strong for my body but I would LOVE to meet again if it were under moderate humid storage and several years from now. My storage wouldn’t be able to change this tea into what I think it has the chance to become.

I’d love to see somebody else’s impression considering this was only a sample!

Edited life If you’re curious about unnecessary complaining, maybe it’s on the internet archive.

So I drink my first tea since Monday. Look out from the front porch of the in-law unit. Beautiful. Should I ask to rent this place? Solitude and sheep.

It’s a regular stonefruity sheng with forward engaging mineral-astringency. Early cooling in throat. Starts with creamy-juicy feel/taste and waters down intro straw-stonefruit after 5 steeps when some lingering throaty bitterness turns into a hint of butterscotch aftertaste. The warmed leaf aroma is the best part of the tea — strong stonefruit in a pool of warm white chocolate and caramel. If the character of the tea changes enough to warrant an update, I will do so.

These watered-down flavors could all be a water issue though since I’m using bottled Trader Joe’s ‘mountain spring water’ at this place. I should try the well water.

I did not expect the sample that came with my tea board to get me this tea drunk. I am buzzing!

Not a very complex pu’erh in taste. I find the aroma far more intriguing. It smells like a shoe box, and I happen to like the smell of shoe boxes. Seriously, I don’t expect I’ll be too picky with pu’erhs as long as it gets me feeling fuzzy.

I’ve put together a small pumidor… Glazed airtight crock, humidity pack, two cakes for now, and a bluetooth-enabled hygrometer. Seems to be working well enough at around 70% humidity.

A 357g cake of this is now going for $923.99.

Initial flavor like sour plums and witch hazel, some smoke but it’s not the star. There’s a little upfront sweetness that hits the tongue and also hits the top of the palate, marshmallow with a hint of date. Bulang green tobacco bitterness which initially numbs the tongue becomes less pronounced after several infusions. I think the Mengsong material lends some florality and a light and refreshing, cool, sweet finish. Session ends with accent of date flavor. The rinse liquid and final drips from each pot display turbidity in the mason jar – a sign of active fermentation? The leaf quality is good on this one and I don’t get any bits of chop or char in my cup.

This is the most balanced and not boring of the 3 price-gouged Dayi sheng I’ve had recently. You decide if it’s worth the current $2.89/g. For me, no way in hell. That is nowhere near what I paid for my 8g sample a few years ago… I’d recommend this one if it weren’t so expensive. It has a nice punch and smooth, long-lasting caffeination.

Song pairing: Scatman John – Scatman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy8kmNEo1i8 LOL Did my tea make me feel this way?

I’m getting more comfortable on my board. I feel like I’m riding way more relaxed now. Kick turns are getting easier, dropping short elevations easier, tic-tac no problem. This week I want to work on dropping off curbs and riding switch (which would be normal stance since I’m goofy). I’m totally going to rock the gmathis shawl while riding this week!

At this point in time, early 2021, I’m surprised at how young-tasting this still is. The material was pressed from 2015 leaves, so that puts it at about 6 years old. I’ve read other people mentioning notes of diesel/gasoline/kerosene in some young sheng. While I’ve not experienced those notes before, this sheng comes about as close as I can imagine. It’s astringent. It’s boring. The smokiness is toeing the line of cigarette smoke. Nice Bulang leaf and no char in the bottom of the cup, though. If I had more, this for sure would go to the depths of storage. As it is now, it’s a pass. It’s sold as both 150g 357g cakes. Strange. Another meh Menghai.

Also, holy fuuuuug, this is up to $550 for 357g. I read in somebody, somewhere‘s blog that there’s something going on with who can sell Menghai/Dayi. I’ll have to search for it. Maybe that’s why King Tea Mall is selling these cakes for ridiculous prices now.

Here we go: http://www.marshaln.com/2021/01/taobao-price-controls/

Is this the same as that? https://kingteamall.com/collections/2014-dayi/products/2014-dayi-pu-er-yuan-origin-of-puerh-cake-357g-puerh-sheng-cha-raw-tea

I don’t know. I didn’t save the original image to my computer for uploading when I created this page. Instead, I linked the image and the link is now broken.

If this is that, then what. the. fuck. Over $1k USD for a 357g cake? I would have never bought a sample of something so expensive. Speculation is a bitch, I guess.

Because this is pretty boring. It’s balanced I guess. Rich aroma, fluffy sweetness disappears quickly as bitterness flows through but this is about as shallow as my appreciation for pop country music. Decent body. The returning sweetness is kind of sickly, like sad, not like licorice sickly sweetness. Hint of camphor, body warmth.

Idk about you, Dayi.

Sorry for cursing but I’m sincerely dumbfounded. It is developing aging flavor but is still kind of boring. Maybe I appreciate teas differently than the targeted market? I have a difficult times seeing this transform into something ‘worth’ well over 1k by the time it’s 15+ years old.

Edit: Since I started off with a Dayi tea, I’ll sample through all my Dayi/Menghai sheng.

Pleasant, balanced bitterness, turning into sweetness in the throat. Leaves are already comparatively dark, tightly pressed. Missing some more aroma, but it’s an OK-tea. It took about three steeps until it was “awake”, but it lasts many steeps. As I’m not a gushu-pro, I’m not able to tell if it’s authentic gushu or not.

Tasted and reviewed this one a few weeks ago, but I’ve only just got around to logging it on Steepster.

I read Derk’s tasting note before trying it. Got to admit, it really got my hopes up for delicious stone fruits and brown sugar. But I didn’t get that at all. I’m mostly putting it down to inexperience (my first puerh), which is why I’m not rating it either.

I got a mix of steamed green vegetables, mostly.

Steep 1, 10 seconds, medicinal pak choi flavour and steamed veg aroma.
Steep 2, 15 seconds, complex cruciferous veg flavour with a hint of sweetness and strong camphor aroma.
Steep 3, 15 seconds, the same as #2 but with a gentler flavour and saltier aroma.
Steep 4, 20 seconds, no change.
Steep 5, 20 seconds, weaker but still that distinct, leafy green cruciferous vegetable flavour.
Steep 6, 50 seconds, less vegetable-like, more green tea-like and more mellow in flavour with a hint of bitterness.
Steep 7, 2 minutes 30 seconds, the vegetable flavour has turned almost grassy and astringent with an unusual sweetness that reminds me of unripe melon. It’s the flavour of the thin slither of green right at the edge of a slice of honeydew melon.
Steep 8, 6 minutes, mellower vegetable notes – predominantly green beans – with the unripe melon notes and a sweeter aroma. The texture has become quite drying.
Steep 9, 10 minutes, the same as above.
Steeps 10 through to 15 gradually weakened out and didn’t reveal anything new.

I appreciated it as a tea. I’m not sure I liked it though.

https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/king-tea-mall-yi-wu-ma-hei-sheng-puer-tea-review/

A modest sample from King Tea Mall and my first venture into this company’s offerings.

The sample came as half loose leaves and a thin, intact layer. Smelled rich and sweet. Warmed leaf was still very rich with sticky, ripe stonefruits and powdered sugar, alpine air. Rinse brought out a full, thick aroma with an definition of apricot.

The liquor was drying on the sip and opened up into a souplike texture mid-mouth before plummeting down my throat, leaving it warm and prickly. The finish was drying along the sides of my tongue and back of the mouth, not a full on astringency. Flavors were like the aroma, round and fruity, rich and sweet with something like powder-sugared black plums and melon with an apricot brightness. Almost buttery and syrupy. Interesting aftertaste of peach skin and pine. Pronounced herbal and balsamic cooling in the mouth, chest and sinuses, maybe a hint toward this tea developing a camphor note in the future. Seems highly mineral for a sheng with plenty of salivation. Tip of the tongue numbing.

That was the first 3 steeps. Fourth through 9th thinned out and became astringent more than expected. As these qualities became prevalent, the pleasant prickliness in the throat became irritating and some bitterness showed up at the back of the roof of my mouth (how is that possible?). Some straw and floral plum came out along with a citric quality and a barely noticeable returning sweetness. The finish grew flavorful and very complex but it didn’t balance the thinness of the liquor. A sniff of the spent leaf revealed cucumber and honeydew.

I usually leaf my sheng sessions between 6 and 7 grams per 100mL, so 4.8 grams with my 110mL clay teapot was light for me; I really had to push the brewing times of this sample.

Gushu? I’m skeptical but I am a beginner with the softness of Yiwu teas, often preferring bold sheng. The leaves are thin and tear easily, granted they do look to have been processed well enough. The longevity was lacking for my preferences, putting it in a daily drinker category. If anything, the soft and sweet fruity flavor of this sheng has me wanting to explore Yiwu teas in greater depth.

Life sure has been happening. This was a very welcome and mellow end to an exhausting and sleepless week.

Have a song of beauty: Brian Eno and John Cale — Spinning Away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4v6swKWx9A

[4.8g, 110mL, 212F, flash rinse followed by 9 steeps starting at 10s going up to 10min]

WanGong(弯弓) directly means “Pull the Bow”, though just a name of tea region.
Taste character is soft, sweet, lingering tea flavor, viscous.
Bitterness and astringency is so minor near none, though still can be perceived.
Brewed tea leaves are like noodles curled together.
Sleek silk like smoothness and brightness.
Always called “油润光泽 YouRun GuangZe” in mandarin.