pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

7959 Replies

Today I sampled 2014 Nahan sheng from TeaUrchin thanks to a lovely Christmas gift from Marzipan

I really enjoyed drinking this tea all day at work. It is definitely my kind of young sheng. Bold, punchy, strong cha qi and nice pleasant bitterness to sweetness balance. Creamy and floral too. The only thing that would have made it more perfect for me personally is if it had some fruit notes and a little bit more sweetness. I enjoyed the heck out of it though and would happily drink it again some day!

I had a crazy busy day at work and I’m serious, the tea definitely helped me! I get like a calm energy from sheng sometimes that is super perfect for stressful days at work where I need to be energized but not jittery or overwhelmed. Very centering/balancing :)

Yang-chu said

so nice to read about how tea works for people.

I’ll be honest, it could be placebo effect, but it only ever happens to me with sheng, so maybe not?

Yang-chu said

Food is medicine. Plants have qualities. The qualities of sheng are clearly different from shu. How is that placebo?

You’re right Yang-Chu…seems to affect different people different ways, too.

Yang-chu said

As it should. A sleep-deprived person who drinks coffee religiously has a different chemistry from someone who gets plenty of sleep and only drinks milk. The way things work within the body depends on our constitution and lifestyle.

jschergen said

Nice notes. I’ve sessioned that tea twice recently. It’s a decent enough tea with some beautiful source materia. Was a bit singular in its vegetal qualities for me.

Somewhat similar to the 54-46, a tea that is more dynamic/durable/interesting (also 2x the cost).

Login or sign up to post a message.

Dexter said

I just wanted to pop in and thank Allan for recommending this Yunnan Yellow Dragon Golden Needle Ripe. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/231281751839?var=530516688248&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
I fell in love with Mandala pu’erh and then pretty much stopped looking. Chinese blacks grabbed my attention and I’ve spent a lot of time exploring them. Now that I have a solid understanding of what Chinese blacks I reall like, my interest is turning back towards pu’erh. I think it’s time to start exploring a little bit. Allan suggested this one….
WOW – for my tastes this is a perfect place to start. It’s like a magic hybrid of everything I love about fuzzy golden bud Yunnan black and everything I love about smooth subterranean earthy pu’erh. For my tastes this is an awesome transition.
Thanks Allan really appreciate it. :))

Login or sign up to post a message.

mrmopar said

Having a 2005 CNNP Nan Nuo Zheng Shan from Yunnan Sourcing.
Breaking out a sample of this I got a while back. I read over the site to give a bit of “feel” to this one.
I got out about 9 grams of this to be brewed in the small Yixing yellow pot I was gifted with.
Leaf on this seems to be medium sized with a good bit of green color to it. I had expected
much darker with the age. Read a bit more on the site and Kunming storage. lots drier
than Malaysia or Hong Kong. A good point as I seem to like dry aged better.
I gave a quick rinse and went to steeping.
This tea is punchy in the first sip. A nice tingle with a touch of astringency to it.
The body of this is nice. Not overpowering but it has a strong presence.
Bitterness, a bit of ashiness are players in this but the almost metallic creeps up and turns very nice into sweetness. Floral notes are also in this one as well.
I think this is a tea to wrap around and set back and relax with.
A nice and engaging cup.
Gongfu in the Clay Pot.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Floral, Metallic, Sweet

Login or sign up to post a message.

DigniTea said

2013 Tea Urchin Baotang Spring Raw
I believe this is my first experience with a tea from Baotang. The quality of the material used in this cake is excellent. Baotang is a village in Mengsong township, Menghai. Apparently, in Baotang the trees are large & ancient, growing in biodiverse, organic gardens. Beautiful leaves produce a bright and clear gold tea soup with a crisp vegetal aroma and taste. Pleasant but not impressive at this point. Very soon the leaves open up and begin to produce a much more interesting cup of tea – increasingly thick in the mouth with a nice bitterness that turns into a pleasant lingering sweetness. Moving through five quick steepings, the cups become increasingly mellow and smooth. I was left with a lingering pleasant mouthfeel and a nice mellow feeling overall. I like this tea!

Login or sign up to post a message.

My puerh of the day was Canton’s 2011 Yi Wu Sheng puerh. Really lovely – refreshing, light infusions, with sweet, creamy, fruit notes. A real delight! :D Later infusions were exceptionally smooth and left me feeling all tingly and happy. Good times!

Login or sign up to post a message.

MzPriss said

I’m enjoying 2008 Menghai Mt Elephant provided by a steepster friend, who I thank very much.

I’m doing mini-steeps of 3 grams in a 50ml glazed wee pot. Very compressed. I did two rinses and let it sit for about 45 minutes before steeping.

At 5 steeps in I’m finding it a bit salty, a bit fruity – nice slick mouth-coating and a gentle relaxation.

The fruit is definitely stone fruit with a bit of cocoa powder, occasional bitterness but not overtly bitter at all. It’s a little sweet. I’m five steeps in and it has plenty of go left. I like it!

Login or sign up to post a message.

sansnipple said

Today I’m drinking Puerhshop’s 0906 blended sheng cake, It’s very Bulang, just simple honey and bitterness.

Login or sign up to post a message.

mrmopar said

Having a 2007 XiaGuan “Horseback Tribute tuo”.
Getting this one out as it interested me when I re-read about it.
I think the easy Gaiwan will be the trick for this one. I forgot how tight these XiaGuans can be. I chipped off 10 grams to use, hard to get whole leaf from these. I actually rinsed this last night and I am getting to the brewing today. I noticed when I chipped this off the leaf had a little Huangpin (yellow) leaf if I got that right. The other leaves looked really rolled from what I could tell from the bits I had.
It brews with that XG smoke, almost forgot that aspect. It is smoky with a good hit of the bitter to go with it. The smoke really is the most dominant flavor on this one.
It has a bit thicker mouthfeel than the other XG’s I remember. I gives a bit of broth and smoked meat and bitter but not any sweet or any other notes that stand out. Almost like a beef jerky in a cup. I don’t really turn from smoky teas but you will have to like smoke to enjoy this one. I looked in the filter and sure enough some of those dark burnt bits from the wok cooking on this one.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Meat, Smoke

Login or sign up to post a message.

mrmopar said

Double taste tonight.
Second tea Hai Lang Hao “As You Like” sheng from Yunnan Sourcing.
This is actually a “second” tasting of this one I forgot to put a note up on the first time.
I prepared this tea last night the same time I got an XiaGuan ready to drink today as well.
This cake has some nice features, not too tightly compressed and nice looking leaf on the cake.
I did the usual 10 grams and gave a rinse and let it sit in the yixing. The aroma when I opened the lid was very nice. Sweet , citrus,floral. and pine. I brewed it up with 3 steeps put in a 10 oz. cup. I love big cups of puerh.
Nice vibrant floral punch to this one. Good bitterness, fruity and definitely sweetness at the end. This is a thick mouth and tongue coating tea. Nice yellow color a bit darker than most puerh this age. I am really enjoying this one again.
I have the “ripe” version of this on the way and I am looking forward to trying it as well.

Flavors: Bitter, Citrus, Floral, Pine, Sweet

Login or sign up to post a message.

Cwyn said

My tea is finally hitting me with caffeine again. For quite a few weeks I’ve had two cups or sheng or shou or whatever after dinner and then a nap. Well, I’m still doing the nap but I can feel the tea, at least. Haven’t put up my review yet for Yunnan Sourcing’s 2009 Cha Tou Sheng Yun, will do in a few days but this is the most unusual old tea nugget shou. Doesn’t taste like a shou at all, smells like port wine in the tea pot and then mushroom-y in the cup.

Got a nice chunk of this as a sample from a friend wanting to share it. Luckily the YS US store still has this and so I ordered one. I’ve been steeping on about 10 grams of this in a 100 ml pot for about 3 days now and I’m still flash brewing. Supposedly it will go 20-25 steeps. If that is the case, I’m not half done yet.

One strong prohibitor against buying a lot of new puerh cakes is that many I have are so long steeping. Will take some time to actually drink some of these up.

Login or sign up to post a message.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.