Fuhai 2007 Sheng Pu'er

First Tasting…from a sample I received with my last Verdant order. (Prior to my full cake purchase arriving.)

Intro
I didn’t realize at first that the sample I received with my order was the same as the 07 cake I later purchased. The label was marked 06 instead of 07.
I thought I had received one of those extra’s that are never going up on the Verdant site, or a future tea that might be released in a few weeks. You never know with tea, things are always changing.

Tasting at H.L.
So I took my little sample to Happy Lucky’s to taste with my tea friends, Sam and Joe, and my granddaughter Schey.
Joe set up a little Gaiwan and 4 cups, then rotated through 7 short steepings.
From the beginning I didn’t think he used enough leaf and the steep time was instant, but he thought otherwise.
The first steeping was tongue numbing, and tasted ashy. The smell was sweet tobacco. The Pu’er was never bitter or harsh, just ashy tasting and vegital.

That didn’t concern me, I knew how a first steeping was so often unreliable in judging what future steepings would taste like.

It took 3 additional steepings for the ash and tobacco taste to subside, finally allowing a lighter, green tea flavor to emerge with a slight astringency.

I determined then to spend time at home brewing this Pu’er ‘MY WAY’. Something wasn’t right.

Curious about my sample, I sent David Duckler an e-mail. He said the handwritten sample said ’06 but was really the 2007 Fuhai Sheng. Aha!

Now I knew how to brew!

Prep
I decided to do a Western Style brewing to get a larger amount of tea all at once to envelop myself in the aroma and flavor. I also wanted to use lots of leaf.

I used SPRING WATER!!! (I do believe this made a big difference)

Steep time….1 minute! 8 oz water 5 grams or so leaf

The aroma of the leaves was lightly vegital with a background scent of Grammer School paste.

The color remained pale yellow.

The scent of the tea changed in such a peculiar way. I smelled sweet tobacco in the beginning then sweet spiced pickle, cinnamon, savory and sweet green tea.

Second Tasting Western Style
With the very first sip I was stunned at how instantly the tea numbed my tongue. Not just the tip but under the tongue.
The flavor was an ash-vegital taste that wasn’t too salty. The Pu’er was never bitter or harsh and had a natural sweetness.
I had the sensation of cream without a thick mouth-feel.
As the tea cooled just slightly there was a growing presence of cinnamon.
I was pleased that my choice to brew Western Style using more leaf and longer steep time had worked out so well!

The second steep was like the first and the third was less ashy, dryer and a weaker cup.
I needed to make an adjustment!

At Stepping #4, I changed the time to 1 minute 45 seconds. Perfect!

Always the experimenter, and following a hunch…I took a small break, took a bite of chicken and came back to my tea (just seconds away to keep the tea hot).

By taking that break, I discovered the Pu’er’s Savory personality! Sipping the Pu’er was really good with my light chicken dish in a way that an excellent light savory broth would be.
I could still feel a bit of tingle, that numbing feeling in my mouth that was kind of cool and a green plantain starchy flavor that is a little sweet as it begins to ripen with a hint of cinnamon (super light). (The cinnamon was sometimes only on the nose)

Conclusions
For my first encounters with this Pu’er, I didn’t taste apricot or nut.
The environment often changes what you taste from one day to another too. This is why I seldom eat before tasting tea.
Perhaps in the future my experience will deepen and I will taste many things as the Pu’er itself changes.

My recommendation is to use the best water, don’t skimp on leaf and steep long enough to get good flavor. If at first you don’t succeed try again. I bought a cake and a sample size to play with. Sheng is not like Shu Puerh. This is not earthy, fishy or mushroom tasting.

Sheng are a whole different adventure in the world of Pu’er and I for one have a lot to learn.

I decided I needed to get one of these cakes after seeing Verdant tweet about it. And I almost had a heart attack when I thought mine got lost in the mail but it showed up two days after the USPS said it was delivered.

Anyway on to the tea. I broke this up into a small piece and decided to steep it in the yixing teapot. I usually don’t steep my shengs for too long. I used water that was almost boiling.

First steep: After a quick rinse, I inhale and the wet leaf smells of smoke and woods. The tea got a 30 second or so steeping. Perhaps it is the power of suggestion but I am getting the thick, nutty quality which Verdant describes in their tasting note. This seems to be the top note and the finish is slightly bittersweet with a tobacco like quality that lingers on your tongue and gets fizzy. Nice.

The 2nd steep I did for about 10 seconds. I am also getting the plantain sort of flavor described in the tasting notes. But make no mistake, this is definitely a sheng pu-erh, very assertive and bold. Not as bitter as some younger shengs I have tried, but I would recommend keeping your steeping times short.

I am no experts on sheng but I’m enjoying the flavors of this one a lot. It should be really interesting to see how this ages over time…

A nice offering from Verdant, thank you for sharing with us David.

I only got a sample of this instead of a cake. I was tempted to get a cake due to price but I never tried it and just wanted a sample first. Dry the leaf smelled so good, so sweet! Kind of like a mix of brown sugar and caramel…mmmm! There was a hint of a spicy note, like cinnamon, and a hint of pepper with underlying creaminess. It smelled like a nice rich dessert!

I brewed this gaiwan style at boiling after an initial rinse. The wet leaf was more spicy and sweet, it kind of reminded me of a darker oolong rather than a puerh. There was a hint of tobacco I was picking up. The infusion was a lot like the dry smell, nice sweet and creamy.

The first steep was 5 seconds and amazing! It had notes of sweet caramel, it was smooth with a bit of creaminess and a nutty note. It was very similar to almond the way the notes and textures blended together.There was a hint of a floral note that I couldn’t pinpoint, the was also a juicy fruit-like note that I couldn’t pinpoint either with a vegetal note in the background.

The second steep was for 6 seconds and tasted like tobacco but still retained the sweetness from before. But along with the tobacco was now an ash note that was not pleasant. I let it cool off a bit and the ash note faded and the almond note came back with vegetal note in the background again.

The third steep was for 30 seconds and apparently way too long. The ash note was strong and coated my mouth in a very unpleasant way, akin to licking an ashtray…yeah not good.

Fourth and fifth steeps I took back down to 3 seconds and was rewarded with vegetal notes and sweet tobacco notes. I’m afraid that I’m still tasting a little bit of ash, but I can’t tell if it’s from these steeps or lingering from the last one.

I’ll leave unrated for now until I try again.

Hello Steepsters! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a chance to post (or read Steepster) and it’s good to be back. I survived finals and 6 days in Utah (oh the nose bleeds). The day we flew out I found out my car had been towed. Apparently if you park in the same spot for three days the city can tow you, even though there are no signs posted indicating this law (anywhere). Since we rarely drive, the car was in impound for 5 days before we realized it was gone, and the grand total to get it out was $968. Christmas almost didn’t happen but thankfully we have some amazing family and friends and just made our flight. Now it’s time to sell the car. ;)

I’ve had this and been drinking it for awhile, but I haven’t posted yet because I feel like I don’t have much to say about this puerh! It’s pleasantly smoky to me and a bit nutty, and definitely a high energy tea. I also get the back of the throat scratchy feeling with this one.

How was everyone’s holiday?

Back at home, I spent the afternoon teaching & sipping multiple steeping of this Sheng.

I got this 1 oz sample right before this Pu’er sold out! I feel so lucky
I’m just getting started on Shengs, having finally sampled my first one (Tian Di Ren ’06 Bulang Mountain) last Friday, as part of the Tea of the Month Club offerings for October.

This will sound unsavory, but I’m finding Shengs to smell kind of like a well composted manure, but not in a bad way (only tea drinker would say crazy things like that). That’s not to say it smells like poop, so maybe it’s just a well-composted alfalfa type smell, now that I think about it, kind of fresh & musty smelling at the same time. The dry tea is in flat clumps, very compressed (like an old cow pie…sorry, I just had to say it! LOL).

I’m using my beloved Gaiwan, & the first steeping was light & very mildly salty. The wet leaf has taken on a charcoal smell. The 2nd steep is a beautiful honey color, with a boldness to it, a peppery bite, & a little bitterness. I may have over-steeped by a few seconds, in which case it’s not very forgiving!

With steep #3, I’m picking up a toasted almond flavor! The plantain is also still there.

1. - All of the above, plus more charcoal, & some astringency
   #5,6,& 7 combined – less bitter, a hint of apricot
   $8, 9, & 10 The color & flavor are both still good! The toasted almond has been the predominant flavor throughout all steepings, and there is also an underlying smokey tobacco-like taste, & I added a drop or 2 of stevia to some cups, which really brought out the apricot essence. I can tell that I can get several more steepings out of this, but that’s all for today. Maybe I’ll toss the rest in a little water & cold brew overnight.

I only got an ounce of this. I wish I’d gotten enough to stick it in a closet somewhere & let it age awhile. I will put what I have left away for at least a little while, probably.

Patiently waiting on my first cake of puer! Considering the price, I couldn’t resist picking up a cake :) Now I just have to figure out how I want to store this tea…I will break off around probably 15-20 grams, about enough for 4 short steeping sessions(with around 14-18 steepings for each session, it’s by no means “short”) and the rest will go away for around a year. I am hoping I can keep to this plan, and try a little bit each year to see how it changes over time!

I am hoping it comes tomorrow :)

This pu erh smells smokier than it tastes. The initial flavor is fairly smooth and is not nearly as bitter as I expected.

The smokiness fades as the tea is steeped more and longer steep times seem to bring out a stronger more prune-like flavor.

As the bold flavor and smokiness starts to fade in much later steepings the remaining smoothness reminds me of chocolate drink I’ve had from a Chocolate bar that was made extra thick with soy milk.