Tian Di Ren Bulang 2006 Sheng Pu'er

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Earth, Grass, Leather, Tobacco
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Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Autumn Hearth
Average preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 12 g 6 oz / 168 ml

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13 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Yay! My first tea of the month club package from Verdant came yesterday!! A big thanks to David & the Verdant Team!! So, this is the 1st of the 3 teas they sent. I’m not sure, but this may be...” Read full tasting note
  • “Blown away by the intensity of this tea! I’m at loss for words of its complexity and brilliance. You’ll find peppercorn spiciness, sticky rice aroma blended with stewed tomatoes and roasted garlic....” Read full tasting note
    96
  • “First off, thank you so much Pureleaf for giving me the chance to taste this fantastic tea. Dry smell: It is a fairly light smell. I can sense a grassiness with a light sweetness like fresh cut...” Read full tasting note
    94
  • “First tasting note for this tea! I’m guessing others that got this tea as a free sample are waiting for a special occasion or perhaps some time alone as I was (this isn’t from my most recent...” Read full tasting note

From Verdant Tea

The first tea from Verdant’s Pu’er Reserve Project.

The goal of this project is to make available small quantities of pu’er whose prices are too prohibitive to fully recover costs on through normal retail sales. Every once in a while we come across teas that we wish we could import, but know that the price would be too steep. The Pu’er Reserve is our “wish list” of pu’er that we have been wanting to share regardless of the cost.

The first tea we plan to release is the Tian Di Ren Mt. Bulang ’06 Sheng. This tea is picked from the silvery buds of wild arbor trees from an old and pure stretch of mountain. The flavor of this one is a unique example of a sheng that evokes thai sticky rice and lotus. The aroma is like jumping into a dark sparkling pool in a forest clearing.

About Verdant Tea View company

Company description not available.

13 Tasting Notes

3294 tasting notes

Yay! My first tea of the month club package from Verdant came yesterday!! A big thanks to David & the Verdant Team!!

So, this is the 1st of the 3 teas they sent. I’m not sure, but this may be my first Sheng Pu’er. I’ve been dabbling with Shu’s, which I really like. I like this tea too!

Dry, it has a mildly mineral ocean scent, like wakame or another sea veg. The wet leaf has a more astringent green aroma.

I actually brewed this 2 different times. Yesterday I used my gaiwan, running through several steepings (in tandem with the other 2 teas that were sent, so that I could enjoy the contrasts of this pairing). This morning I’m just having a western-style cup.

In both cases, it’s a very mild and pleasant tea. I get the sticky rice reference, and there’s almost a chrysanthemum-like floral in there, & another flavor I still haven’t identified. I’m still not 100% on my tastebuds, but luckily there is plenty left in the bag, & I also have a few other sheng samples that I plan to sample soon, again, so that I can look for similarities & differences. Anyway, it’s light, but satisfying. There is the grounding element of pu’er, and it’s a very smooth tea, not astringent in the least! A nice start to my day!

Invader Zim

I noticed this one is not on the Verdant site. Do you know if it is exculsive to the tea of the month club or will it become available on the site for everyone?

Terri HarpLady

@Zim: according to the notes that came with the Teas of the month, this one is from their private reserve. It’s one of those teas that they can’t get enough quantity to sell on the website.

Aiko

Wooo! I just got my monthly club package in too; I can’t wait to try this one.

Terri HarpLady

:D I don’t know about you, Aiko, but when I got the email a day or 2 ago telling us they had included the new chrysanthemum pu’er, I got pretty excited! I was planning to order it, so I was grateful for the email, but also for knowing the tea was coming. It’s an interesting brew, which I like but am not quite ready to comment on. I’m looking forward to your reviews of these same teas!

Aiko

I was excited too! It was so courteous of them to let us know that the blend was on the way just before it was released.

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96
141 tasting notes

Blown away by the intensity of this tea! I’m at loss for words of its complexity and brilliance. You’ll find peppercorn spiciness, sticky rice aroma blended with stewed tomatoes and roasted garlic. There’s something in the flavor that reminds me of pine resin and moisten moss. I didn’t notice any bitterness or harsh/sharp dryness during or after the sip.

This was my first care package from the Verdant Tea Club membership and I couldn’t ask for any better pairing of teas! I’m definitely looking forward enjoying this tea, along with the others sent. Thanks, David and Verdant Tea for providing excellent quality!

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec

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94
58 tasting notes

First off, thank you so much Pureleaf for giving me the chance to taste this fantastic tea.

Dry smell: It is a fairly light smell. I can sense a grassiness with a light sweetness like fresh cut plants. It also has a darker spicy not.

Wet smell: This tea has a very smoky smell. It has a light sour smell and a light vegetal taste but the spicy smokiness is by far the strongest smell.

Taste: This tea is very hard to place. I can taste the smokiness and a spicy peppery taste. There is a starchy note but also a vegetal undertone. It is nice and a lot darker than I thought it would be. My favorite part about this tea is the mouthfeel and aftertaste. It is a very smooth tea and slightly thick. The aftertaste is fantastic. The smoky flavor is left in the front of your mouth and the vegetal taste sticks in the back of your throat. Overall it’s a very nice light but deep tea. I thoroughly enjoyed this tea. Thanks again Pureleaf

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300 tasting notes

First tasting note for this tea! I’m guessing others that got this tea as a free sample are waiting for a special occasion or perhaps some time alone as I was (this isn’t from my most recent Verdant order, but rather from July). However something was pulling on me today to try it and the toddler is doing a relatively good job entertaining himself right now so here it goes. First a great big thank you to David and the folks of Verdant Tea for offering this Pu-er Reserve Project!

I figured with a small sample like this I could either be generous and use all the leaf or risk having two lighter sessions with this tea, I chose to be generr… cautious. I didn’t get much scent from the bag, but when the dry leaf hit the bottom of the warmed mug I knew I was in for a treat: vanilla and smoke. Yes sweet vanilla from a sheng! I’m accustomed with this from Verdant’s shu, but a sheng? Mmm I’m excited!

I did a single rinse, probably could have used two, as in this first infusion I am getting primarily a charcoal and horse stable “taste” (not that I have ever tasted the stable, but it tastes how it smells), with some wood, a slight sweetness and is that eucalyptus? It left a cooling sensation on the tip of my tongue and when I licked my lips the felt creamy.

Second infusion is like cool mountain air and my tongue is positively tingling! The stable has shifted to a damp forest floor and I’m tasting mineral rich soil and rice. This is prickly, with a hint of spice, a bit drying but at the same time cool and dark and moist. There is a floral scent in the cup that I am having a hard time pinpointing. Breathing it in, there is a menthol quality. Ooo a cool coating is developing in my throat and just breathing long after the last sip feels amazing.

Third, the tension between dry and cool, soil and vapor, spice and eucalyptus continues. This is the most astringent of the infusions, probably due to the quickest pour off the boil, will wait a bit longer next time. I still smell horses in my cup and while this might seem strange or even unsavory to some, it brings up fond memories for me.

Fourth, this is much more palatable and a bit minty, but at the same time fiery. I have a confession to make: I am not a huge fan of sheng. I love shu, but I’m afraid my palate isn’t acclimated to the drier more astringent teas which still include most blacks and some oolongs and greens for me. However I am loving the experience of this tea, the sensations it creates. I am going to take a break from it for a bit and come back later. For those curious, I have been getting hints of the sticky rice through all these infusions though it is not nearly as straight forward as the tuochas made with Nuomixiang.

Azzrian

You make this sound SO SO SO good!

Autumn Hearth

Good to hear, I was afraid that horses and dirt would throw some people off ;) On the other hand Red Bull and children’s vitamins don’t sound that appealing to me for a matcha and yet I am very tempted to order some!

Azzrian

LOL!!!!! Exactly – and you should its really good! :)

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86
64 tasting notes

Thank you David Duckler!! This was a generous sample added to a purchase I made for a sheng cake David found for me on his last sourcing trip to China. I was not expecting any samples or a note since I didn’t actually buy from Verdant Tea. As it turns out, I received both! What a nice guy, that David Duckler.

Anywho, I was excited to try this pleasant surprise. I was not disappointed! This is a very clean sheng. Almost no earthiness, no musty or musky smells, very nice, delicate leaves. I was actually able to see the fuzzy, downy hairs that are quite apparent on the wet leaves, and the dry leaves are abundant with silvery down. There is a huge range of colors, though. They range from a faded yellow to a dark brown-purple. Nearly every leaf has patches of bruising, making them look more like the leaves of an oolong. Some empty stems were present, but nothing abnormal.

When dry, the leaves smell amazing. Definitely one of my favorite dry leaf aromas so far. It’s something like vanilla, cream, and smelling the skin of a ripe fruit. When wet, this transforms into Raisinets, vanilla, florals, and tart berries. Later on, the aroma becomes darker and heavier, with some earthy notes.

The liquor is a beautiful golden amber. In addition to the scents mentioned above, there is this very slight fresh cucumber smell that appears in the eighth or ninth steep. The flavor is pretty light and mellow. Very minimal cha qi to this sheng. The mouthfeel is quite smooth and creamy throughout most steeps, becoming sparkling much later on. There is a very delicate bittersweet huigan, but it isn’t very lasting. It’s most apparent in the first few steeps, along with a tingling spiciness. But again, this tea isn’t very energetic. These “lively” textural features fade off during the middle steeps and return (barely) into the final steeps (around the tenth). I used between 3.5 and 4 grams in my gaiwan, but I think next time I’ll do closer to five. I started out with 13 seconds for the first steep and still received a pretty mild flavor.

There are some very interesting flavors in this sheng. Most notable are the florals and fruity notes. At first they aren’t too noticeable, but they climb in intensity and remain strong from steep 4 on to the end. The fruit notes started somewhat berry-like, and gradually became more plum-like (there is even a hint of melon in the final steeps). These fruity flavors blend well with a strong, lingering sweetness on top of every steep. However, to balance this sweetness, a nice tartness is present, coming through as a grapefruit/citrus flavor. It seems to be taking aging quite well. There isn’t a very strong youthful taste to this one, but then again, I can’t really taste that “aged” quality either.

So, this sheng isn’t as stimulating as I was expecting, but it has great flavor. Oh yeah, another thing I noticed was that the aftertaste didn’t linger much. The flavor evolves slowly, but then just seems to evaporate once the sip was over. Around steeps 4 and 5, this improves a bit, the body becoming more full with increased depth, but still, on average, a very light tea.

Two posts in one! What a deal!
I decided to try this one again before I made a post with a different gong fu method for young sheng pu’ers that I saw online involving a great deal of pouring into multiple vessels to cool water during the infusion: <http://www.puerh.fr/en/article/to_brew_a_young_puerh.htm>. It seems similar to traditional Chinese glass methods used for green teas. It sounded interesting so I thought I’d give it a try with this sheng, since it is relatively young, with more dry leaf than used for the above notes.

It turned out quite well! I was surprised by large difference in the level of depth and complexity. It was much sweeter also. However, I’m not sure whether it was more or less bitter. It t seemed like it was more bitter than the first time, but I’m betting that it’s because I used a higher leaf to water ratio and the extra contact with the water just resulted in natural bitterness from the extra steeping time. Yet, the steep times were far shorter than the first tasting I did (only 3-4 seconds compared to the 13 seconds for the first steep). At any rate, it is a pleasant bitterness, not overpowering, and doesn’t subtract from the actual flavors. However, the sensation of huigan and extra creaminess of the liquor was definitely noticeable. The aftertaste was much sweeter with an added melon-like flavor and left the mouth feeling cool like after eating a mint candy, but without the minty flavor. It’s also a bit more stimulating.

I’m always learning :)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C
Bonnie

Your extensive notes were very entertaining and interesting! Glad you tried the other method and made comments for comparison. I’ll have to try this sometime myself.

Cody

Thanks! And you should try it. It really seems to smooth out some of the rough edges of younger stuff. I tried it again with a 2009 sheng and received decent results.

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21
14 tasting notes

Verdant tea is ripping people off selling this ten dollar bottom shelf Puerh for well over a hundred dollars trying to pass it off as a boutique production. This is a great tea for ten dollars. Which it what it cost from other vendors. The fact that verdant tea is selling this tea for a hundred some odd dollars means they either are dishonest or know nothing about Puerh.

HyBr1d

Well…I don’t normally do this, but I guess I need to start…You do know that this tea was not actually for sale…right? It was part of a private reserve, meaning it was a sample that was sent with certain orders(I believe it was if you got a certain amount of the blends) So the whole premise of your “argument” holds absolutely NO water. Have you even tried this tea? I actually did, a while ago unfortunately so I don’t really remember a whole lot about the tea. Care to include any kind of link, or any evidence? I must defend David. I’ve ordered from TeaTrekker, Cloudwalker, TeaSpring, Upton, American Tea Room, Dragon Teahouse, and have also gotten stuff from Teavana. Everything I have ever gotten from Verdant has been of equal(at least) or better quality…So it sounds like you have some sort of personal grudge against Verdant. So, to borrow a phrase, “put up, or shut up.” This forum is not for unfounded accusations. Feel free to actually post some sort of proof for your allegations and then grapple with the fact that this sheng was actually not for sale on the Verdant website. The basis for your post is not grounded in reality, so please revise your post.

That is all

gninja

This same tea is for sale at white2tea.com for 11dollars. I have tried it. It is a great tea for 11dolLars a cake but it is a horrible rip off for what they where selling it for. Yes I have a problem with verdant tea. As I would Have a probElem with any tea merchant that marks up there product so high. They are ripping people off. This sheng was for sale at well over a hundred dollars a cake. They probably Took it down because they got called out on there shady business practices .
I would say this is exactly what this forum is for . To review teas from vendors pricing being an aspect of the tea right?
I also don’t appreciate your attitude? My allegations where not unfounded. I think it’s funny that you are defending a tea that was well over a hundred dollars a cake that you don’t remember for that price a tea should be memorable. Tian diren is a bottom shelf taidi cha Puerh producer Verdant is trying to pass this off as some gushu boutique production.
I will state again this is a good tea for what it is anyone who purchased a cake from verdant got ripped off . It is at the time of my posting for sale at white2tea.com for under $12 a cake.

HyBr1d

It’s not “over a hundred dollars a cake” as it was never for sale…again, the whole point was missed. I look at the website basically everyday, as well as other tea companies. There was never a point where tian di ren was ever offered on the verdant website. It just simply never sold. This simple point is missed in every single post I have seen attacking Verdant as a company. Saying that a company is selling an $11 dollar tea when it was never offered for sale is just as disengenuoua as what you are accusing Verdant of doing. And as I’ve never seen anyone in any of the “attack forums” acknowledge that point, I’m sure that point will be completely lost on you. So excuse me if I have an “attitude” in defending Verdant, as there is a clear “attitude” in your attacks…and make no mistake, accusing a company of gouging is most certainly an attack. And notice in your response that there was no comment on the fact that this tea was never FOR SALE!!! I had placed an order for over $100, and it came as a second sample. I didn’t spend $100+ because I wanted this tea, there were a bunch of other black and oolong teas that I wanted, and the price exceeded that monetary threshold. So can you please stop saying that Verdant “charged or sold” an $11 tea for over $100, because that never happened. It was just a bonus sample. Plain and simple. It’s like saying that you were charge $5 for a cereal toy, while forgetting to include that you actually bought the cereal. The post is not honest, and it just as bad as what you accuse Verdant of doing. If you can understand that point, it’s a start

HyBr1d

As for the point of it not being memorable, I stopped smoking about a year ago, so my taste buds aren’t perfect. To be quite honest, nearly all the shengs I have tried basically tasted the same to me. That’s why I have been sticking to oolongs, black tea, shu and white teas. And while I buy most of my tea from verdant, I’ve stated the other vendors I’ve bought from. So while I am biased toVerdant, it’s pretty obvious you are biased against Verdant. The difference is I don’t go and 20 rate other teas because I don’t like the company. So please in your following comment, get the point that this tea was never even offered for sale in the Verdant website, as that is the truth of the matter.
And just as an aside to this conversation, I read all the posts on “teaview” or whatever the site is called, and there were clear instances of people showing a photo of the tea costing $11, and the wrapper didn’t match what was actually being sold by Verdant.

Pricing actually doesn’t matter if a tea is not actually being sold, and I was actually amused at all the posts that just ignore that fact. How can you, in good faith, say that a company is selling a $11 cake for over $100 when that cake was never actually available for sale? Ill keep saying it over and over, that is just as bad as what you accuse Verdant of doing. And yet after spelling out that the cake was never actually sold, no one will even address that fact. I don’t buy from Verdant because its the cheapest, and I would suspect that no one buys from Verdant because its the cheapest. I will include a guitar reference, I don’t own Gibson, PRS, or Fender guitars because they are the cheapest…I own them because they are Gibson, PRS and Fender guitars. They are a name. What all posts like yours do is try to debase the name that Verdant has. And if you ate going to do that, please come up with something better than continually saying that Verdant sells $11 dollar teas for over $100, because the teas were samples, and never sold, that statement is at best misleading, at worst a lie.

HyBr1d

I apologize for the spelling errors, iPhone spell check is trying its best to screw up my spelling and grammar. Lol

HyBr1d

And in case you think I am ignorant as to how a business works, I’ve been in a family owned small business for nearly 20 years, managing it for the last 10. When you sell a product that cost you, lets say $.80 to make for $1.60, you are not making 100% profit. With taxes, payroll, and other overhead you are making somewhere between 20-30% profit. So you must factor in payroll, shipping, website and whatever other costs are involved in Verdant’s products. This is the cost that must be compared. Have you ever been to Teavana? The Dancong they sell is around $24 for 2oz, it’s $18 on Verdant’s site. And if you ever have had a Dancong, the two aren’t even remotely comparable, the Teavana version doesn’t even taste like a Dancong. But I am not on their steepster post rating that tea a 20, nor am I calling them price gougers, or accusing them of “shady business dealings.” They also do not produce Laoshan Black, my favorite black tea, as no other company but Verdant does. It’s like saying that Acura is gouging customers because its TL is just a Honda Accord. Or that Audi gouges because the A3 is a Volkswagen Golf

gninja

This tea was for sale at the time of my original posting as I checked the price of a cake on there site. Wow I think your a little to “attached” to verdant tea .
I have never shopped at Teavana. But I can tell you comparing to Pinot noir’s based on price alone . Actually it is worse because there are many different varietals of dancong. And There factors to consider when comparing two teas such as season year, hand processed or machine, hand harvested or machine, Not to mention the quality of the actual tea aroma appearance. These are all factors that go into pricing a tea. But I do appreciate your business advice. I’m sure your helping my profit margin. I can’t believe I never thought to include shipping into my business expenses (said with heavy sarcasm). Yes I do run my own business?

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76 tasting notes

Sigh, I really try to avoid fangirling, but the team at Verdant Tea is just awesome. This was from my first monthly tea subscription package, and having access to this limited offering just feels like I’m a part of something special. And the tea came along with a lovely description of the teas and the stories behind them and why they were chosen for that month; it’s so very apparent that these guys have a lot of passion for what they do, and it’s wonderful to get to share in that passion.

As for this tea, it’s a little boggling to taste rice in a tea that isn’t genmaicha. But I’m also getting a bit of warming spice, and definitely a lot of savory elements. A tea to tide me over when dinner is running late, I think. Very happy to have the opportunity to try this.

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81
114 tasting notes

2/19/2015 Evening gaiwan

I’m using a new tea set up, so decided to drink an old favorite tonight. I have a glass gaiwan I’m using for the first time, and I recently picked up a small cast iron tea pot and warmer stand. So….. light candle, preheat cast iron with tap water, fill with fresh boiled water from my kettle. Proceed to make and drink tea until water runs out or seems too cold. Refill from fresh boil in the kettle as desired.

A tea light isn’t quite enough heat though – it holds the water in the cast iron at only about 130F. I think I’ll pull out my alcohol stove here in the next day or two, and see how that works.

The tea, of course, is yummy. There’s less upfront tang and bitter then I noted when I first tasted this last year. More smoke and leathery honey notes.

Preparation
155 °F / 68 °C 0 min, 15 sec 3 OZ / 100 ML

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1113 tasting notes

This is a wonderful Sheng! Thanks so much Terri HarpLady for letting me try it :D

So much going on here…where do I start? Pleasantly astringent, mineral notes, a little bit of resin or fresh cut wood, and a wonderful strong cha qi. I’m still in the midst of several steepings, so I may update this later if it morphs again. It is really opening up for me now :) It is a little grassy with a faint fruity or floral aftertaste…gah, I love sheng so much! Gives me a happy :D :D :D

boychik

any bitterness? sounds heavenly

Stephanie

Not bitter at all, but astringent to the point that maybe some people wouldn’t prefer it.

Stephanie

If you want a REALLY fruity sheng, you should check out Butiki’s new offering…its crazy!

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987 tasting notes

As soon as I got my gaiwan from Butiki today, I knew I was going to brew this up. I was a disciplined woman, though. Instead of doing it right away, I used this tea as a reward for sending out applications to 5 different jobs. Fingers crossed!

I’ve never brewed with a gaiwan before so I’m not sure if I did this right. I heated the gaiwan and my teapot with boiling water. Then I added enough leaf to make a little mound at the bottom of the gaiwan. Then I did a rinse, but didn’t time it much. After that, 5 steeps total, at approx 15/20/25/30/35 seconds. This is an estimate, though – I don’t have this down to a science.

Anyways, the tea!

Dry, the leaf smelled smoky and sweet, almost like tobacco or leather. Wet, the smell is just intensified. Holy moly, what a bouquet!

The steeps were all fairly similar in flavour – hints of hay, leather, tobacco, and a sweetness near the end that kind of reminded me of jasmine. All 5 times the liquor was a lovely clear amber. It was a tad drying throughout, and the final steep was slightly astringent. The final steep was also the sweetest.

EDIT: I saw TerriHarpLady’s post about this and she was bang-on about the chrysanthemum flavour. The sweetness at the end is very reminiscent of chrysanthemums.

I think I like pu’er teas? Not sure yet. I’ll have to try more. But I loved being able to use my gaiwan. So contemplative. I think it would be best to save this for the weekends though. Sunday morning sounds perfect.

Thanks very much to De and aisling of tea for giving me a package of this to try.

Flavors: Earth, Grass, Leather, Tobacco

__Morgana__

Sounds like you did fine for your first gaiwan foray. Don’t forget to give it a go with white tea, as well. Using the gaiwan really changed my experience of white teas. I get far more flavor from white teas with the gaiwan than any other method.

Christina / BooksandTea

Ooh, good point. I’ve got some plain silver needle I’ve been meaning to try, and the last time I made some I did it Western style. That and I’ve also got some jasmine silver needle that I’m sure will be lovely.

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