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Brewed 15 grams in the yixing for this one. I gave a 10 second wash to begin.It has the aroma of a damp forest. The brew is almost as dark as other shou of this age. It has a distinctly lighter taste than most shous I have drank. My guess would be a shorter fermentation on this one . It gives an almost cross between a peach and a near ripened plum. Avery easy tea to drink. It has a very nice flavor without being to “assertive” as some can be. This will move up my chart for these reasons. Nice , smooth and a touch of fruit.

I remember not being overly impressed with this tea when I first got it after reading the vendor description of it. If I recall correctly it still had some of the fresh fermentation “funk” to it. I ran across it again in a listing and said what the heck pull it out and taste it. I brewed it in the trusty yixing reserved for Menghai shou. I gave it a 20 second rinse to re-hydrate and off I went. I did a 15 second or so step and watched the dark brew come out. It has a very small tart sensation reminiscent of a persimmon but not as pronounced. It has a little drying effect on the tongue that turns to a light sweetness almost like a fruity red wine. It still has the “earthy” underlying note at the end. It gives a touch of burnt bitter caramel about the middle of the taste session. This is hard to explain all the taste notes you can get on this one but as it has lost the fermentation flavor it is turning to be a decent tea. It has some boldness at times that would stand up well to a rich evening meal. I think it will continue to evolve. I will do later steeps on this tonight as we are expected to have fall weather in the 40s and it is rich in taste as many things are in the fall.

This tea seems to have “aged” a bit on the outside but still shows very green on the inside when breaking it apart. It brews a dark yellow almost orange color with an almost honey sweet aroma. It still maintains a lot of the bitterness associated with a young sheng(much more than the 8582 I tried earlier). this tea gives a good mouth-feel with a touch of dryness after drinking. It still has the tobacco punch with the camphor many people talk about numbing the sides of the tongue. It gives some hint of “metallic” and then turns to a touch of lemon. Not a bad sheng but not the best so far. We shall see how it continues to age. With the hit of camphor I think it holds promise. I prepared this in the gaiwan and hope to give it the yixing treatment tomorrow.

Called the “Rhyme Aroma” tea or in an English translation as better with age. I think this one is a lighter fermented Dayi cake. It has a similar taste to the other ones but it has a light oak, caramel and an almost salty savory after taste. It is almost a “broth” taste similar to a soup stock. It really darkens on the second steep with wood and spiciness coming on a little stronger. Very nice and interesting so far. What I would call a “savory” shou cha. On note I have been brewing all the Dayi shou cha in the great mosaic teapot I got from (Joey) from the Tea Merchant. I really like this little pot for its great pouring (shameless plug I guess). Its a great little pot for a pretty good tea.

Did this one with short steeps water at boiling. I have had this one for a while in the pumidor. It has an almost flowery tart aroma to it. It was a very tightly compressed brick so I may have under leafed the cup. It tuned out pretty mellow with just a hint of orange color to it attesting that the aging is working ever so slowly since this is a brick. It has a light metallic taste to it with a sweet aftertaste to it. It is almost a slight flower aftertaste. Not the best but very drinkable sheng. For the money I paid I think it is an excellent performer in that category. I was kind of hesitant to try this after seeing it since it does have stems and rough looking leaves in it but I think it turned out pretty good.

I received this a while back from Garret at Mandala with an order. This tea is the exact tea you should give a first time puerh drinker. This tea has the smoothness and creaminess noted in earlier tastings and a bit of a surprise to me. This tea is made with jingmai material that usually has a citrus twang to it. This is absent of any of that. I think if you wanted a good puerh to sit back in the chair and relax this is a good one. It has a good depth of flavor with no off or earthy taste to it. It has no drying of the tongue like some shou does and leaves a light cocoa vanilla taste. A well made tea in my book.

Very nice sheng that has lost the astringency and bitterness. This brews up light on the first two infusions, darkens till the fifth and fades about the seventh. This must have some jingmai material in it as it has that touch of “citrus lemony” taste that jingmai seems to bring. I pushed this one a little far as the eighth infusion is very weak and a touch metallic. Pretty pleasant as most of the 2007’s I have had lately have been pretty smooth. Pretty decent for the $8.00 bucks I paid for it. I may later get one to age more as I think I may get into it again soon.

Trying this out tonight. This is the highest grade Menghai cake that I possess. The taste of it is kind of puzzling. The cake is loosely compressed and easy to break apart. I brewed this in the gaiwan to keep the flavor notes from being softened by the yixing pot. It has a buttered pea aroma to it. I washed it once for about 10 seconds and went on to steeping it 3 times and pouring it all in a 10 oz. cup. It sill has some astringency and the color is still pretty yellow for a 6 year old tea. It has notes of honey and flower in it. There is still some smoke to it and the drying on the side of the tongue. A light oiliness coats the inside of the mouth. Head to head against the 8582 from a year younger i would prefer it over this one. Needless to say I hope it will age well. It has given me a bit of sweat that the 8582 lacked. An OK sheng to drink nevertheless. i will try this in the yixing tomorrow.

This is still as impressive as it was the first time I had it. The brew is pretty dark and super smooth. I started on this one last night and am continuing on it now. It has an almost caramel chocolate finish to it. A really nice tea sourced by a great seller with a great flavor intuition.