jjshapiro

I love this tea. It’s dark, rich, honey-like flavor makes it one of my favorite black/red teas. I don’t drink it on a daily basis but rather when I’m in a special mood for that dark/rich/honeyish/nourishing quality.

This is a spectacular tea! Luscious, mellow, delicious, with an absolutely distinctive flavor. Although it is listed as an oolong/wulong tea, undoubtedly because of its method of processing, it tastes to me more like a mellow, warm, sunny red tea with a flavor vaguely reminiscent of butterscotch — it recalls sweetness without being sweet. I’ve never had anything quite like it. Shang has outdone himself with this tea.

I like this tea — it is a delicate, rather than strong and pungent oolong and, like Shang’s other teas, retains some of its white tea origins even when not in white tea form. I found that I liked it best when I steeped for the maximum time of his recommended range and put in a slightly larger quantity than he recommended. On the other hand, Shang has pointed out that Americans tend to like their teas stronger than the way they’re made and consumed in China, i.e. in China there’s more emphasis on the delicacy of tea, whereas I think in the U.S., perhaps because of our history of drinking coffee or tea from Lipton’s tea bags, many prefer them stronger.

This is a perfect yellow tea — pure, delicate, intense, light. I find that with yellow teas I have to experiment with the amount of tea per cup. I just made it with two tablespoons instead of one, and I found it better with that quantity than with one. I will probably experiment with more and less to find what’s right for me. Mariage Freres recommends steeping it at 170 degrees.

A very good, hearty, strengthening, black pu-erh. Something one can drink on a daily basis. Similar to the Rishi Pu-erh Classic.

This is one of my all-time favorite teas. It has a clear, high, pure, pleasantly bitter taste that could be described as “bracing”. Sort of like the tea equivalent of listening to the oboe. This is one of those teas with which I can go into an addiction phase.

This is a great, hearty, dense/intense, shot-in-the-arm red tea.

Writing as someone who doesn’t generally like green tea, this is just about my favorite: strong, rich, complex flavor.

For me this is a mood tea, by which I mean that sometimes it’s striking, pungent flavor feels like just the right thing and sometimes it feels like it’s too much and too bitter and I can’t handle it.

I agree exactly with Teafreak. This is a good red tea, and while not outstanding in the way that Shang’s Golden Needle is, it is pleasant, warm, and radiant and has a kind of delicacy derived from its white tea base.

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One of my favorites. An intense, peppery red tea that, in addition to tasting exhilarating, is also a good kick-in-the-pants tea for getting a day started.

I found this tea really disappointing. Since I really like yellow tea, and this tea comes as little disks, shaped differently from but ultimately the same idea as pu-erh tuo cha, I thought it would be a great way to take yellow tea with me when traveling or going out. But a) it doesn’t taste like yellow tea, and b) it has no redeeming taste features. So it’s not even worth trying. In fact, I’m going to throw the remaining ones out.

This is a special and delicious red tea: sort of radiant, energetic, warm, and almost sweet but not quite. I suspect that the fact that it’s made from the white tea plant contributes to its special, elevated and elevating quality.

I first has this tea from Silk Road Teas. The Norbu version is virtually identical. I love this tea. It took me about two years of drinking black pu-erh to come to appreciate green pu-erh, but now I love it. This Mao Cha has a quality of intense, delicate, pleasurable bitterness unlike any other tea I’ve tasted. The word that comes to mind is “bracing”. There is something about its lovely, pure bitterness that cuts through you like a painless knife: sort of what I imagine what it would be like to undergo “psychic surgergy”. Anyway, it has become one of my staples. And it holds up well to multiple steepings and can be drunk in large quantities.

This is one of my staple black pu-erhs and is really the tea through which i came to like pu-erh tea after initially thinking it tasted like a mixture of mold, seaweed, and dirt. It is similar to Imperial Pu-erh from Silk Road Tea. Both of these are great dinner and after-dinner teas. I tend to drink pu-erh teas in the evening.

This tea has an amazing, subtle delicacy — sort of like angelic white peony. Have never had anything quite like it. If you like scented teas, such as jasmine, this pao blossom white peony is like an ethereal version of such teas — like being transported to a higher plane. I gave some to a woman who works in my building and she said it cured her of a bunch of physical ailments!

Very much liked the sweetness and delicacy of this tea.

Both of Shang’s jasmine white teas are exquisite and intoxicating. My wife is not a real tea drinker but Shang’s jasmine whites are the only ones she ever requests. Also maintains that they make her feel generally better. i myself prefer unscented white peony, I concede that this jasmine white is lovely.

I adore this tea. In general I tend not to like highly scented, flavored, or floral teas and prefer the pure stuff. But this very scented and flavored tea is almost addictive to me: it tastes like Provence in a bottle or liquid Provence. It’s intoxicating. However, I gave some of this to a friend and she hated it. So I think it’s the kind of thing one is likely to love and hate. If you like Monet you will probably like this tea.

A good basic white peony. One of my staples.

Fabulous! Exceptional oolong with deep, rich, penetrating, complex, dark flavor. Yummy!

This is probably the single most delicious black pu-erh tea I’ve ever had. Rishi Tea is accurate in referring to it as their espresso of pu-erh teas — it is the closest thing I’ve had in teas to the experience of espresso, even though it doesn’t have a coffee flavor. But it would probably work as a way of getting an espresso drinker to appreciate tea.