Various Artists

Today I am drinking the 2015 Naka by Chen Sheng Hao from Liquid Proust. This is a nice tea with a fair amount of bitterness. The bitterness lasted until around the eighth steep and there was still a bit of a bitter aftertaste in the twelfth steep. Overall I like this one but I think I liked the 2016 better.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 100ml Ru Kiln teapot with 8.6g 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 mini, and 2 minutes.

My second tea today comes from Liquid Proust. It was an unknown ripe aged in a rum barrel. It was pretty good tea. The rum flavoring had the interesting effect of overwhelming the fermentation taste. I didn’t notice any at all but I am sure it was there. The rum taste was initially quite strong. It lasted into the twelfth steep that I gave this tea. It was not strong in later steeps but was present.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.3g 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 minutes. I could have gotten a few more steeps out of it but figured I was at my caffeine limit for today.

Today I have been drinking the 2016 Naka by Chen SHeng Hao sent to me by Liquid Proust. This was overall an excellent tea. There was a light bitter note for the first six steepings. Not the sort of bitterness that is very unpleasant. After this a sweet note developed. I guess you could use the overused words apricots and stonefruits to describe it but I think maybe just not quite that. Not quite that sweet. Overall this was very good. If I were to give it a rating it would probably be a 90 or so.

I steeped this 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, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. If I wanted to I could get another five or six steepings out of this I would think.

Today I’m drinking a black tea from Liquid Proust’s latest group buy. The tea was marked Nandi Hills Black but the thread calls it Monsoon Black. This is a nice tea. But it was in no way spectacular to me. It had notes of malt that were strong and notes of chocolate that were a little weaker. I steeped this Gongfu style and wonder if I would have had better results steeping it western style. In any case, there should be enough of the sample left for me to try an 8oz pot western style as I only used 6g for this. Don’t know when or if I will get around to this. I steeped this tea eight times and it seemed a little weak in the eighth steep. I don’t think I would have gotten more out of this one with the amount of tea I used. Overall I liked the tea but I have no plans to buy it.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 6g 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.

Today I drank a sample from a good tea friend. It was sheng and labeled only 1998 Cave Storage. It was certainly an interesting tea. I’m still deciding if I like or dislike it. It had one main note that I would have to describe as bitter, astringent, and fruity all in one note mind you. It had none of the traditional storage flavors you would expect. No wet wood, no tobacco, no leather. I have no idea where my friend got this tea or how much it cost and I am on the fence if I would buy it anyway. That one powerful note didn’t lessen over the eight steeps I gave the tea. I might go back for a few more steeps.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7.7g 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, and 30 sec. The tea started out with a dark brown color and was red by the eighth steep.

Today I am drinking a mystery sheng. I bought it from my local tea shop and probably paid more than it was worth. It is supposed to be a 2008 sheng. If I were to guess it’s age simply by drinking it I would say 2014. It hasn’t aged much. It still looks and tastes like a young sheng. I suppose it could have been aged in very dry conditions. It wasn’t bad that being said. It started out bitter and over the course of eight steeps got relatively sweet. You could even say it developed an apricoty sweetness to it. Overall this was not bad at all but by no means spectacular. I bought it because of the novelty of seeing the tea before I bought it. I may be going back to this shop today. They go by two names, The Infuse Tea Bar and the Pleasures of Tea. They have a sit down tea bar in their shop which is nice because you can pick out any tea they have and have her brew it for you. They do not make you choose off a menu like some shops.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7.1g leaf and boiling water. I ave 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. I could have kept going with this tea but I have things I want to do today.

Puerh Tea TTB. Today I’m drinking the 2016 Monkey Memorial. Not entirely sure who made it or who sold it. I believe Liquid Proust put it in the box. Thanks. This tea had a fair amount of bitterness at the start and a certain amount of astringency. It developed some sweet notes although I would not use the term apricots for this one. It does not seem to have any qi to speak of. At least I’m not feeling any.

I steeped this twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.2g 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, and 2 min. This wasn’t finished at twelve steeps. I could have kept going but I had had enough tea to be honest and enough caffeine.

Drinking a raw tea from the Puerh Tea TTB, the 2015 Bulang Raw Mini Cake Sheng. This one must be no longer available on Bana’s website and there is no listing for it here. This is a relatively nice sheng. It was bitter at first. I’d say the bitterness was noticeable for the first four or five steeps then began to go away. It developed into a fairly nice semi sweet sheng. I used 7g for 120ml which is about my usual for sheng. I don’t use as much in the way of leaves for sheng as for shou. This could have been steeped a few more times but I want to go on to something else, maybe Rummy Pu, someone was nice enough to put that in the box, not sure if it was Liquid Proust because I thought I saw someone else talking about it.

I brewed this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Tonight I’m trying another herbal tea from The Clipper Ship Tea Company, peppermint tea. While this is quite good, it tastes a bit like spearmint to me. I know that is a subtle difference but that is what it tastes more like. Has a nice fresh taste though.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 4 tsp leaf and boiling water for 8 min.

Drinking a tea that was a free sample from The Clipper Ship Tea Company, a flavored rooibos called Citrus Rose. The ingredients for this are rooibos, grapefruit, pineapple, papaya, mango, lemon, rose buds, and rosehips. It’s got a strong savory note from the rooibos and an almost as strong sweet note from the fruits. The fruit flavors in this one are fairly well mixed. I can’t pick out any of them individually. It is pretty good and I might consider buying at some point. If any Steepsterites are on Long Island, Clipper Ship Tea Company is an excellent tea store. They have a large variety of tea and teaware. Nearly all their teaware though is aimed at Western brewing. I didn’t notice any small pots or gaiwans there today although I have seen some small ones there in the past. I guess most of their customers Western brew their tea. They do have really nice teawares. I would photograph them for my Instagram account but they have a no photography policy. I think letting people take pictures and post them online would actually boost their business but that’s not the opinion of the owner. The owner of the store is also not a part of Steepster. There has been a rumor they will soon have a website for at least a year now but it hasn’t happened yet. If you live anywhere near Northport Long Island it is worth a trip. They sell over 200 teas.

Today I’m drinking matcha just purchased from the Clipper Ship Tea Company. It’s their second highest grade of matcha and it was $30 for 30g. So it was not overpriced as matcha goes. It has a bit of a floral taste to it and is mildly sweet. It’s got that note common to matcha that I don’t know how to describe, a fresh, green kind of note. There is very little bitterness. Matcha is something I do not drink often. For this one I bought a matcha strainer they were selling for $12. I had been told by an expert that you should strain your matcha to make it finer first. It didn’t come out very frothy when I whipped it up. I don’t seem to have the technique with the whisk down. It does taste good though. If I were going to rate this tea it would probably get an 80 or so but if I rate this tea, every tea I have rated with this link will get that rating too, and I have rated a few bad ones with this link. This is a good tea.

Today I’m drinking Longan Nectar Red Oolong from Taiwan Sourcing. This was a free sample included with my order. It is not yet up on their site. This is an excellent tea. It is a roasted oolong. It tasted like a fairly light roast oolong but the color of the leaves made it look like a dark oolong. Immediately upon drinking this you get the flavor of the Longan. I’m told this is the same thing as lychee. This is a very nice flavor. I steeped this tea ten times. I would say I lost the longan flavor around steep nine. I stopped at ten steeps because I had had enough caffeine but this tea would have gone a few more steeps. I hope he starts selling this on Taiwan Sourcing because I definitely want to buy some if the price is not too high. In my experience flavored oolongs are usually not as much money as something like a Dong Ding oolong so we shall see. This was one good tea. I also thinkn it has some qi to it. I am feeling energized. I suppose that could be the caffeine but I usually don’t get that effect from caffeine even when I drink coffee which has more caffeine than oolong. I won’t rate this tea because that would then rerate all the teas I have reviewed using this link. But if I was to rate it it would get at least a 90. It was that good.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.7g leaf and 190 degree 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 min. Judging by the color of the tea, it I hadn’t hit my caffeine limit, I think this tea would go another five or six steeps at least.

Today I drank an aged raw sample sent to me by Aleen from Instagram. She does not seem to have this on her website. It was only listed as Bulang Puer 1980s. It had a fair amount of wet storage flavor, I’d say for the first six steeps. There were some notes of leather and tobacco in there as well. It eventually developed into a note that I would call sweet bamboo. Not tremendously sweet but a little sweet. There was a 90s tea on her site that seemed to match but I didn’t find this tea there.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 6.8g 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 min. I could have kept going with this one but I didn’t want any more caffeine today.

Today I’m drinking another mystery shou from King Tea on Aliexpress. This one is, according to John at King Tea, twenty years old. This one has some wet storage taste. It is fairly sweet. It has I think cleared. It is probably not 100% clear but 95% clear. It is fairly tasty. It has a definite fruity note to it. I will include the link to this in case anyone can read the Chinese. I’m not really sure what this tea is. There is some English description.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 50ml gaiwan with 3.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Today I drank a really good aged ripe. It was a sample sent to me by King Tea on Aliexpress. All I know about it was that it was thirty years old. It was labeled but in Chinese that I can’t read. It had the year 80 on it is how I know it was the thirty year old sample and not the twenty year old sample. This was a complex tea with a lot of flavor. It was very sweet from the start. It had no fermentation taste that I could find. It also had no wet storage taste. It had clearly been dry stored. There were some very feint notes of leather and tobacco often found in older teas but these were not pronounced. It had a couple of other notes to it also. One note seemed to me like dark cherries but without the sweetness. The other note was deep and dark in flavor but I did not pin it down. I will refrain from giving this a numerical rating only because then all the other teas I have reviewed under Random Steepings will get that rating too but if I was to give it a number it would be quite high, somewhere in the high nineties. It seems to me that this tea has had perfect storage, having no storage flavors worth mentioning at all. I only had a small sample and I gave it sixteen steeps. It was pretty much finished at sixteen steeps but I could probably have gotten another two or so steeps out of it. But I figure sixteen steeps is enough caffeine for one day.

I steeped this sixteen times in a 100ml gaiwan with 5.8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. 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, 3 min, 3.5 min, and 4 min. Judging by the color of the sixteenth steep it was pretty much finished but I might have gotten two more steeps out of it. Now if I can just get John at King Tea to tell me what tea this is. I would definitely buy it if the price were not too high. I think the age is genuine as it had totally cleared. In my experience that takes at least twenty years of dry storage most times. I will post the Instagram photo just in case anyone can read the Chinese.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFUCReVzDeYnyAFkBLXHxGPcy2xtqIWB4Aq3kI0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

Today I drank a 2009 Menghai Ripe sent to me by someone on Instagram, Aleen. She is doing research on the American tea market and sent me and a few others some nice samples. This was a tasty ripe tea. It was sweet with a moderate amount of fermentation flavor to it. That fermentation taste was neither too much or unpleasant. This was quite an enjoyable tea. I stopped at eight steeps becauase I shouldn’t be having caffeine at this hour at all. I was using a 50ml gaiwan with only 3.6g tea too. Trying to limit my caffeine intake.

I steeped this eight times in a 50ml gaiwan with 3.6g 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. I would guess it would have gone twelve steeps.

Today I switched over to a sheng I got at my local tea shop. I suspect her storage was flawed. She had her sheng, shou, and hei cha all stored together. This tea started out with what I would call a note of tobacco. However, in my opinion it was too young at 2012 to have developed that note. That’s usually a note older teas develop. Never encountered it in a 2012 sheng before. I suspect I was tasting the hei cha it was stored with. It did go away, after about four steeps. Afterward the tea wasn’t too bad. But I would be hesitant to buy more puerh from this woman. She obviously doesn’t know much about puerh or she wouldn’t have stored them all together. That’s one of the most basic tenants of puerh storage. Only store like with like.

I steeped this tea eigiht times in a 100ml gaiwan with 7.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Today I drank Top Rougui #1, an unreleased Yancha oolong from Chaceremony. Thank you Marcus Reed for this sample. I am really just learning to like yancha. The charcoal roast flavor was not a natural thing to me. But this one has a comparatively mild roast profile. I’d say the roast was a major flavor note for the first four to six steeps, somewhere in there. I gave this tea more than my normal. I steeped it sixteen times and it didn’t get too weak. There is a note that develops after the roast profile is history. It is a sort of burnt caramel note. There is always a little bit of the roast there. It never completely disappears, just largely. Overall this was very good tea.

I steeped this 16 times in a 50ml gaiwan with 4.8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and what ended up being a 5 minute rest. I was told that you are not supposed to give yancha a rest after the rinse. I am used to puerh where this is recommended. 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, 3 min, 3.5 min, and 4 min. These were some long lasting leaves. If I wanted to I’m sure I could get a few more steeps out of this tea.

Drinking an unreleased Yancha from Chaceremony today. Thank you Marcus Reed for this sample. This was called Top Shuixian #1 and was quite tasty. I think I didn’t use quite enough tea for my teapot so later steeps were a bit weak until I started using less water. The roast profile was quite light as yancha goes. I’d say the roast lasted the first three or maybe four steeps. I don’t quite know how to describe the flavor that was left behind but I did like the tea.

I steeped this ten times in a 150ml teapot with 7.8g 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 min.

Drinking a 2007 Mengku raw I got in a swap from Liquid Pruost. I agree with him that this is well stored tea. I has not developed any noticeable storage tastes. Certainly no wet storage taste. There was a bit of an unpleasant aged taste, leather or tobacco in the first steep but that was it. After that first steep it was very smooth. It developed something of a fruity note but with a muted sweetness. It did not have the apricots of a young sheng. It’s good that I liked this tea because I was putting in an order with Taobao Focus and ordered one, less than $10 before shipping.

I steeped this ten times in a 150ml yixing teapot with 7.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. The leaves were not done yet. I’d get a few more steepings out of them if I hadn’t already had too much tea.

Today I am drinking Top Rougui #2, an as of yet unreleased Yancha from www.chaceremony.com. Thanks to Marcus Reed for this sample. This is of course a charcoal roast tea. The roast profile was not too overwhelming at first but it did persist for six or seven steeps. This tea is described I think as having peach notes. I have to admit in the seventh steep a fruity note did emerge that could perhaps be described as peach. I am probably not the target audience for this tea because I usually don’t like charcoal roast tea but this one was pretty good. It also had a nice qi, not overwhelming but relaxing. I gave this tea ten steeps and I don’t think it would have gone much more, maybe two if I lengthened the steep time by a bit.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 150 ml teapot with 8g leaf and boiling water. I ave the tea a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

Today I drank an unknown type of tea. All I know about it is that it was mislabeled puer and was from Hunnan. It was some type of hei cha or dark tea. It had a most interesting flavor. I am on the fence as to whether I really liked it or not. Bought it from a local store called The Pleasures of Tea. It is hard to describe the taste and I don’t know how to describe the prominent note it had. This note was both sweet and a little bit sour in truth. It was some form of dark tea. It was dark like a shou but without any real fermentation flavor to it so I don’t think it was a fermented dark tea. I have no real idea as to the age of the tea. The best way I can describe it’s taste is as a cross between a sheng, a shou, and a black tea. It had little bitterness to it and in it’s own way was quite smooth. I didn’t seem to have any qi. I don’t think that the store, The Pleasures of Tea, lists this on their website. I don’t think I would buy it again. I don’t really hate it but I don’t really love it either. To me this tea still says “I don’t know” even after eight steeps.

I brewed this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Decaf and Herbal TTB. Drinking etaM from Liquid Proust Teas. Although this is considered an Herbal it has Mate in which has caffeine. I could use a jolt about now. This teat is kind of grassy for lack of a better word. There is a little sweetness from the rock candy. I’m not really tasting the green rooibos.

I steeped this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 4 min.

Today I am drinking a shou puerh that came with my Crimson Lotus order. It was marked only mystery tea and I have found out only a little more about it. They told me it was too pricy for them to sell. I also know it’s a small batch from old Jingmai trees. That is about it. Judging by the amount of fermentation flavor left in it I’d say it was maybe three or four years old. It had a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it but that flavor was sweet, not fishy. The fermentation taste lasted three or four steeps and then was largely gone. There were some notes of chocolate in there and it developed a fruity taste in later steeps. This is one I wish I could get more of. I have to rate this at at least a 90%. It’s that good. It was a large sample so I can drink this a couple of more times. When they said it was too pricy for them to sell I wonder just how expensive it is. At some websites I have seen 1kg bricks go for $450 so I wonder. All I can do is speculate about this tea.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.9g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. The tea is not weak at ten steeps. I’m sure I could get a few more out of it but I have had a lot of tea. I know when I give this tea a rating it will rerate all my previous teas reviewed under random steepings.