PuerhShop.com

This was overall a very nice brick with a moderate amount of fermentation flavor and sweet notes throughout all ten steepings. The fermentation lasted about five steepings. There was no unpleasant note or fishy note to it. I was not really paying close attention to the notes so I couldn’t say that there were chocolate notes in there but maybe. The sweet note in the end I think could be described as fruity although I can’t get specific.

I brewed this ten times in a 160ml silver teapot with 13.9g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

This tea was good in the end but had a poor start. There was an initial sour note to this tea. Perhaps a factor of too dry storage at Puerhshop but that is only a guess as to the origin of the sour note. The tea did improve as I resteeped it. The sour note lasted perhaps three steepings. BY the eighth steep it had a very nice sweet note. I had just had somuch tea this morning I didn’t feel like continuing. If you don’t mind the initial sour note it is a good tea.

I steeped this eight times in a 75ml teapot with 5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Got this little cake as a free sample and it was really good, sweet and good to drink now. There was very little bitterness to this tea if any at all. I didn’t find any astringency. What I did find was a sweet taste from steep one to steep twelve. I would call the note apricots and stonefruits in the end. This is definitely one I want to order more of.

Steeped this twelve times in an 85ml silver teapot with 6.1g leaf and boiling water. Gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. This tea would have gone a few more steeps.

This was a very nice ripe puerh tea from Puerhshop with little bitterness and a semi sweet note from the start. This semi sweet note slowly turned into a fruity note, dates come to mind but this is just an interpretation. Someone else might call it something else.

I steeped this twelve times in a 130ml teapot with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. Judging by the color of the tea I would say there were another two or three steeps left to this tea.

Courtesy of a exceptionally kind Steepster friend, my wife & I were able to experience this 13-yr old shou.

Color – Chocolate brown
Fragrance – Very faint
Aroma:
- Warmed leaves – Damp wet leaves
- Rinsed (10s) leaf – composted top soil
- Post 20-min rest – sweet fine pipe tobacco
- Brewed – Mild pu-erh aroma
Liqueur – Amber, initally a little cloudy

Taste – As one would expect with a 13-yr old brick, there wasn’t any bitterness, acidity, fishiness or funk.

Note:
It’s likely that I got off on the wrong foot with the Old Youle Brick by following the brewing parameters that have worked so well with many varieties of Menghai Dayi shou.

My first clue should have been immediately after the 20-min rest. I normally use a cocktail fork to loosen up the warmed wet leaves. Typically, this requires very little effort. In this case it wasn’t so easy. In fact, when I broke the chunk open, it was still dry on the inside. Since this was to be our first caffeine of the morning, no red flags occurred to me.

I typically don’t read other tasting notes before tasting a new tea, so as not to potentially color my impressions. Clearly, when trying a new (non-Dayi) shou, I need to check the Steepster recommended brewing parameters first.

Initially with a 10s steep, it was thin, flat, astringent and woody. The 2nd-round was very similar but improved to medium-body. By the third round, it was more mellow, but still woodie at the end of the sip. As I remember, there was a persistent woody aftertaste. (However, I didn’t make a note about this specific point.) Since woodiness isn’t a flavor I appreciate in shou, I lost interest in going any further.

Flavor profile: wood, bark

Impression – Since the brewing parameters used apparently weren’t a good match for this shou, I don’t think I can offer an accurate impression.

17.7g / 6 oz / 205° / 60s preheat / 60s warm leaves / 10s rinse / 20 min rest / every 2 steeps combined: 5s / 5 / 5 / 5 / 15 / 30

Pretty thick texture, the front notes are quite fruity while the back end of this tea is more of what I would expect from a young sheng. Got a little bit astringent but nothing unpleasant; if anything it adds to this tea’s body and complexity. Smaller leaf puerh but has a pleasant amount of cha qi. At steep 7 this tea started to die down flavor wise but was still delicious would definitely recommend.

Quite a while ago I ordered a bunch of samples from Puerh Shop, tasted one or two, and subsequently forgot I had them. I found them again and started drinking them, and while I’ve had some teas I liked from Puerh Shop, unfortunately most have just been mediocre.

This one has a very mild flavor, but gets bitter easily if overbrewed. Tastes of green wood, wet moss, and heavily diluted whiskey. Slight lingering aroma in them mouth, body is fairly thin. Overall it’s just ok, as might be expected from a cheap tea that claims to be “Bulang Wild Grown.”

This tea, once you get the steeping parameters right, is a nice tea. I started out with a 10 second steep. The tea was relatively flavorless. I upped it to 30 seconds for the second steep. It got a little better but still not good. I was using 8.2g leaf an a 150ml gaiwan mind you. At one minute it was finally what I would call enjoyable. There were notes of malt and baked bread in this steep, as well as some bitterness. Steeps four and five were decent at two and three minutes. But it does seem that this tea does not have a lot of good steeps in it. It might be better brewed western style with a large amount of leaf and a long five minute steep. I think there is flavor in this tea. It was just hard to coax out. I only gave the tea five steeps and I think that was about all I was going to get out of it. I definitely don’t think it is as bad as the other reviewer. If I had stuck with the standard gongfu short steeps I would probably agree but this tea required a longer steep from the beginning.

I steeped this five times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 10 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, and 3 min. I think this was a tea worth buying as it was not too expensive and once you get it right it is tasty. It is not a tea for a lot of steeps however.

This is a nice ripe that started out with a fair amount of fermentation taste and a bittersweet note. One might interpret this note as bittersweet chocolate but that is a matter of opinion. After about six steeps the fermentation was history, I would say the bitter note lasted maybe four steeps. It developed into a nice sweet puerh. I think this one will be really nice in a few more years when the fermentation clears completely.

I brewed this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. The tea was not finished at twelve steeps. I think I could have gotten another 4 or 5 steeps out of it judging by the color of the tea.

This was a very tasty ripe tea by Puerhshop. It started out with a sweet note and no real bitterness. It did have a fair amount of fermentation flavor but that flavor was not the unpleasant sort and it certainly was not fishy. It was dark and rich in the early steeps. By the twelfth steep it had thinned out a bit but there was still a nice color to it. I suspect I would have gotten between two and four more steeps out of it. It was very good but not spectacular.

I brewed this in a 150ml gaiwan with 11g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes.

This tea is surprisingly good considering what I paid for it. One of the other reviewers said it had a buttery texture and I would agree. It was sweet with little bitterness and a fair amount of fermentation flavor. But that flavor was neither unpleasant or fishy. This was one good tea overall. I steeped it fourteen times in a 120ml shibo and think it would have gone a few more.

I steeped this tea fourteen times in a 120ml shibo with 10.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, and 3 minutes. There were maybe two to three more steeps left to this one.

I don’t have a ton of thoughts on this tea, I can mostly just compare it to the other three MangFei cakes I’ve tried lately. The four cakes were two Yunnan Sourcing cakes (‘11 and ’16), Bitterleaf’s Take My Breath Away (‘16), and this one. Of the cakes this is probably my least favorite, but not due to it being a bad tea. I’m a big fan of the YS11 as I find it the most multidimensional of the four. Bitter leaf’s is also excellent and I would call that my favorite, very young mangfei that I’ve sampled (although it’s got a steeper price). This PuerhShop tea is fairly good, but a little boring. It had a strong start, being by far the most bitter of the four even with two being five years younger. From there the tea just sort of faded away, not really bringing anything new to the table just mellowing out the bitter taste from the first few steps.

I have to give a mixed review of this tea. It started out quite unpleasant tasting. A note I can only think of as turpentine, not that I know what that tastes like. But I can’t think of any other word to describe the aged note this tea had taken. However by about the sixth steeping that note was pretty much gone and began to be replaced by a better note. By the twelfth steep there was a fairly nice note to the tea. Not quite sure if I would use the word sweet except in the sense that it was not bitter. But because of the initial unpleasant note I find myself not recommending this tea.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

This was a strong and bitter sheng. I gave it twelve steeps and only around the eleventh steep would I say a sweet note started to develop. I had already lost the apricots of a young sheng however. I will wait a year or two on this one and see if it improves.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 mini, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes.

This is the first Lao Man’e tea I’ve tried, so I’m unsure whether or not to recommend it. It came at a very cheap price, and puerhshop is not always known for having the best examples of most teas. This one was, in line with the region’s reputation, pretty bitter. It was not really astringent or unpleasant to drink, though perhaps in part due to the age on it. Most of what I got from this tea was a bitter vegetal note, with very little sweetness backing it up. I got no qi or anything off of this tea.

I’ll have to try other LME teas before I can pass relevant relative judgement on this tea, but it was pretty “meh” all around.

This tea was strong with a bitter character in the beginning. Over the course of twelve steeps it evolved into something nice, you might even say it had a apricot like sweetness in later steeps. But that is open to interpretation. In any case it was good.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

This is a fairly nice raw with a bit more age on it than I expected. The tea liquid was a solid orange color and it had some decidedly aged notes to it, leather and tobacco for the first six steeps. It gradually evolved into something sweeter. I am not really sure what to call the sweet note but chestnuts came to mind. That however may not be an accurate description, just what came to mind. I steeped it for twelve steeps and it would have gone a few more had I the desire to keep going. This was a good tea but not a spectacular tea.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

I had two sessions with this one. First one: rinse, 10s, 10, 20, 20, 30, 1min etc. Second session: rinse, f, f, f, f, 10s, 15, 30, 1min, 2, 4, finished grandpa style.

Early steeps were in both cases aromatic: moss, rosemary, citrus, pears and smoke come to mind. Very bitter and astringent at first, which (I was told) makes for a good aging potential. Slightly numbing sensation in the mouth. Undecided about body: it wasn’t very thick nor watery.
In the later steeps the bitternes calms down a bit in favour of subtle sweetnes and a hint of plum aroma.

Even though this tea is probably not objectively bad, it doesn’t agree with me – the initial bitter kick makes it hard to appreciate the thickness, which is gone in the later steeps when the bitternes wears out.

This was a nice ripe puerh. It was neither spectacular or bad just about above average for a ripe puerh I would say. It had a lot of fermentation flavor to it. Those with an aversion to fermentation taste probably want to avoid it. It was strong until the sixth steep and to some degree present even in the tenth steep. There were little in the way of bitter notes to this tea, it had a sweet note from the beginning. I wasn’t really paying attention to the specifics just say it is worth the price. At $10 what do you have to lose. It was in my opinion as good as some shous I have paid much more for.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

After hearing so much about jingmai puerh and seeing this cake for a LOT less than most Jngmai I could not resist buying it. This is amazing as it stands out as both unusually sweet and mild when it comes to most sheng puerhs. If this cheap Jingmai cake is so good, I can only imagine how good the premium quality ones will be that I now plan on ordering next.

This is a reasonably nice ripe tea that is sweet from the ripe puerh and smoky from the tangerine peel. Not sure if they smoke the thing with the puerh inside or not. There was a fair amount of fermentation taste that was neither unpleasant or fishy. Because of the nature of the tangerine it was hard to tell where the fermentation taste began and the smoky taste ended. I only gave this eight steeps today but it would have gone quite a few more.

I brewed this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 seconds. If you have never tried Tangerine Puerh I definitely recommend you get some from your favorite seller and try it. I have not found one brand that is better than another but this was quite tasty.