Ancient Sheng Pu-erh Saiqing Ya Tuo Cha, Vintage 2005, Organic & Fair Trade Pu-erh Tea

AMAZING!!!!!! Never in my life have I ever had a tea that was straight caramel and maple syrup flavour!!

Smells like Yunnan, tastes like Yunnan.

Wet leaves smell like aguapanela (with lime) and a walk in the woods after rain. There is a soft mouthfeel and really nice caramelized sweetness like a grade “A” Fancy maple syrup (the very light one) in the body that balances the light astringency that takes over on the back end. What makes this one unique is the slightly wild, wooded element and the specter of smoked herbs amidst the softer, sweeter aspects. The immediate aftertaste is somewhat cidery and a little medicinal, but the lingering taste is akin to artificial sweetener or splenda. Unfortunate.

Subsequent steepages bring out aromas of cooked stone fruit and fresh wild mushrooms (the ones that you really want to eat). Starts to taste more like that puerh funk I’ve been waiting for. Roasted seaweed and sour prune paste. Still very sweet but still very splenda. I forgot the term for the flavor of the air that comes up from the throat. Sticky and awesome.

Very accessible though maybe a bit too easy for me. When I reach for puerh I want more of a challenge and if not for the faint smokiness, which is actually really nice, this would possibly be a fairly shallow experience. Use it to convert someone who swears they hate puerh. Say it’s a semi-fermented Yunnan green and they’ll love it ; )

This pu’er is kind of middle of the road. The leaf is really broken which is a minus in this scenario. It has all of that classic smokiness which is so common in Sheng pu’er this young. I don’t doubt that this tea could turn in to something really special but to me there’s not enough cool things going on with it right now to warrant that sort of time and monetary investment in it.

To it’s credit, it is a lot more interesting than I had originally thought upon first trying it. One needs to be really quick with the gaiwan when brewing this tuo cha. If you let the water sit for a second or two longer than it should you’ll end up with a pretty bitter brew. Only a few seconds for steeping until you really break it in.

Bleh! This tea is so drying and astringent, and incredibly smokey!
It’s widely available in tea shops (at least throughout the midwest), and while I commend Rishi for getting sheng pu’er out to the general public, I wish they’d found something of higher quality. just giving sheng pu’er an unnecessarily bad rap..

Really.. the main flavor is smokiness. It’s like a punch in the face that leaves my mouth and throat achingly dry, so I never really want more than a few steepings.I basically only like to use this tea as an example of what the market is currently widely offering. I make this one first for my friends at a tasting to set a benchmark. It really shows off how yummy and sweet and well-behaved my other shengs are!

Really.. the main flavor is smokiness. It’s like a punch in the face that leaves my mouth and throat achingly dry, so I never really want more than a few steepings.I basically only like to use this tea as an example of what the market is currently widely offering. I make this one first for my friends at a tasting to set a benchmark. It really shows off how yummy and sweet and well-behaved my other shengs are!I think of this tea like a rambunctious teenager. It still needs time to grow up and mellow out before it’ll be worth drinking. Then again, do I really want to invest time and money into aging this? I have other shengs that are younger than this, and they are already pleasantly drinkable, hinting at the promise of greater things to come. No matter how long you age something, you’ll never end up with something fantastic if you don’t start out with interesting material. Even if this were dirt cheap, I wouldn’t buy more for myself or ever recommend this to someone else. And it’s actually not that cheap. I feel like this will just grow into a flat, smoky, musty old sheng. If that’s the kind of thing you like (don’t set your bar so low! how about Smokey with hints of nuts? or aftertaste of apples? or a little bit of mint on the sides of the tongue??), then I guess this is what you want.

Lovely! It’s almost… cider-y? Incredible.

I paired it with breakfast:
Combine fresh parsley, fresh basil, and green onions – chopped – to a few eggs and a splash of milk. Whisk together. Cook like scrambled eggs. Top with grated Widmer’s Brick Cheese.

Add a piece of smoked salmon (locally I buy from Sendik’s) on the side. Enjoy :)