Big Leaf Sheng Pu'er 2006 Yang Ji Tian Yuan

So I am opening this tea sample as I have been explaining chaqi to my friend and we want to see if this sheng will show us some! This is also my first sheng, so I am pretty excited to taste this!

The dry smell is pleasantly of wood, a nice musty smell. The leaves are in beautifully pried off sheets, very nice job! I did two rinses, the first at 25 s and the next at 15. Then I poured boiling water into my gongfu pot and poured it out as quick as I could, probably around 6-7 seconds. The steeped smell is woody, with some kind of creaminess that I associated with scotch! A very pleasant smell, and no fishiness at all, I wonder if it is because it is a sheng, either way, I am very pleased with the scent!

The taste is very nice and mild, a woody musty taste with a bready mouthfeel, thick and satisfying. I am picturing a cellar stuffed with aged meats and fresh loaves, and barrels of wine. My friend says it reminds her of smoked meat, which I definitely can get from the smell and taste as well. There is a nice sparkling aftertaste as well, which I am enjoying. And yes, I feel a bit of the chaqi, maybe because I haven’t eaten dinner, but it’s an interesting feeling. Might also be that it’s a new tea and I’m excited about it!

Overall, I am very impressed with this tea. Maybe sheng pu’erh is the tea for me rather than shu. I will resteep this after I eat lol. Happy this was a success!!

ETA – This tea is really tasty and I have been enjoying a few more steeps today! Added rating as this has been my favorite pu’erh so far :)

I’m a sucker for almost anything Verdant lists on their website.
Not that it’s a bad thing, mind you. With the exception of my bank balance, I’ve never been disappointed. :)

Some shengs are harsh, at least for the first couple of steeps. I tend to be very conservative on the amount of leaf I put in my Gaiwan, usually using 2 – 3 G, at least for the first time I try one, & I always keep those initial steepings really short. I keep notes in a tea journal, so that the next time I drink that tea I’ll be able to adjust things based on my previous experiences.

When I opened the package, I was delighted to see beautiful large flat pieces in the colors of a dry leaf pile. Whoever pried these off the cake did a beautiful job! The dry aroma was subtly sweet, fresh, & green. The wet leaf swelled to fill my Gaiwan, & it’s aroma was mineral rich. I was feeling daring, so I went with 5G in my 4 oz Gaiwan, one rinse, and 4 seconds (for those who aren’t familiar with my ’formula’s’, this translates into the following:
5G + 4oz (rinse) X 4 sec = A beautiful amber liquid with a sweet mild taste! Not a hint of harshness to be found!

I drank this all afternoon while I was teaching. The flavor continued on, mildly sweet & tongue numbing. Around the 6th steeping there was a little astringency, but this was gradually transformed into a citrus flavor that reminded me of aged tangerine peels, & sensation of allspice.

This is a pleasant sheng, with a nice sensation of chaqi as well!

Dry, this smells amazing. I am thinking of the horse barn at the exhibition but in a GOOD WAY. Sweet clean hay, damp wood, hard working animals and minimal stink. This is contrasting with the cow barn which always smelled much more of excrement. Blech. I have come to really enjoy the smell and taste of hay and damp wood in my teas, and trying to get into puerh seems like the logical next step for me and my tea journay. Black teas and roasty oolongs still make me a happy panda but puerh might offer me just a little bit more.

Because I am a puerh noob I have used a bit less leaf than I probably should have, but that’s okay. Coupled with 95 degree water, I am ready to dip my toes in. I am using my smallish gaiwan and very small double walled cups. I have also broken out my tea feet (tea pet) to get their tea on too.

First steep at 30 seconds. Because of my conservative leaf and temp, I figure I can up the ante on time. I am tasting this one, though I know typically the first steep is a rinse. Not much about this is typical though. The smell is strong and smoky, like tanned hide or salted meat. Smoked wood, tobacco. I am developing an appreciation for a smoky note so this is actually enticing. The flavour is sweeter than the smoke note led me to believe, and taste more like the initial smell – sweet hay, damp hide and a hint of salt. Perfectly drinkable though not my ideal cuppa. Much more earthy than sweet though.

Second steep at 45 seconds yields the same aroma of smoke and salt. The taste is much sweeter though, more sweet hay, less earth. Much nicer, though it tastes a bit light. This is very sippable, the contrast of the taste and the aroma is very interesting. The smoke really develops as the tea cools.

Third steep at 1 minutes results in a brew much like the second, only amplified. I am getting some floral tastes now. I didn’t get any fruit or spices before now but I hardly know what I’m doing and I’m okay with that. This is my favourite so far, the smoke is mellowing out and allowing the taste to dominate the aroma.

Will likely steep more later but taking a break to put together our corn chowder now. General impressions are that this is a nice tea, but not my favourite. Something to enjoy occasionally. Will try it more traditionally at some point (more leaf/less time) and see what I get. Might do a cup western style too.

I spent 4 days with this tea. It was 4 days of pure tea bliss where each steep was something new and something brilliant.

I somewhat deliberately overleafed this time around. I think I used around 7g.

1st Steep-30 seconds
Somewhat smokey but it’s more of a camphor or mint type of feel. There was also a crisp fruitiness on the finish. Like a green apple.

2nd Steep-45 seconds
Somewhat similar to the first steep with the camphor and smoke but much more apple and a bit sweeter. There is also a spicy note peaking through. A nice creamy finish.

3rd Steep-1 minute
Holy 3rd Steep! Apples, spices and a nice toasty note—-almost bread like. Is it possible to get a pie-crust note in tea? I’m also definitely getting cloves and nutmeg. Some cinnamon pops out every odd sip. There is also a citrus note in the background. Am I crazy to say this tastes like pie?

4th Steep-1.30 minutes
This is my second day with this tea and I still love it. Smells like honey and apples. Faint taste of heavy cream. Maybe some raw sugar. It’s also not mellowing out much.

5th Steep-2 minutes
Lots of honey and citrus. Apple is in the background. Creamy finish.

6th Steep-2.30 minutes
Sort of grassy. Apple crispness returned with a natural honey sweetness.

7th Steep-3 minutes
This is the 3rd day with this tea. It’s become like a friend of mine and there is very little fade so I am a bit convinced that I will be brewing this tea for the next week. This steep still had the apple but it was more starchy. Maybe a bit like jicama.

8th Steep-3.30 minutes
Honey and spices. The apple is gone but it’s still so tasty. I’ve been brewing this tea for 3 days and I am not ready to let it go yet.

9th Steep-4 minutes
Spicy note. Not so much the sweet sort of spice from the previous steeps but a spice I can feel. Like cinnamon. This steep is also a bit fruity.

10th Steep-4.30 minutes
The apple is back with a bit of lemon on the finish. I am shocked how well this tea stood up to 3 (almost 4) days of steeping.

11th Steep-15 minutes
I usually do one extremely long steep at the end to squeeze whatever flavor I can from the leaves. It worked well here. The apple pie taste is back but less aggressively. The bready note also re-appeared when the tea cooled down a bit.

This tea was amazing. Almost 4 days with it and not a single moment of boredom or wanting to try something else. The flavors jumped all over the place and each steep was a revelation in and of itself. I could have easily brewed this for another 10 steeps and not have minded at all. Such a beautiful sheng. I am so happy I bought a cake.

This just another lovely tea courtesy of my lovely but finite bundles of notes hidden away…to age and mature to perfection much like this tea;) What I notice when I first opened the little dinky sample bag is the subtle but assertive eugenol aroma and maybe with hints spices that I can’t seem to identify. The standard goes with extreme earthiness, a deep metallic irony flavor, with some leather. Its quite crisp and almost velvety much like to a consistency of butter and maybe boiled vegetables, further steeping with the gaiwan yields a lighter but mellow earthy liqour with astringency on the back palate. A wonderful tea overall, though it may not compare to the bhenzang I’d just sampled weeks ago it has characteristics all to its own meant to be enjoyed in a timeless world. Cheers!

Note: I really didn’t notice the bread and apple notes from this tea as the description describes…either my tongue is all worn out and possibly numbed from those countless times i scalded my tongue or really I am not sharp enough to detail the notes. Whatever maybe the cause it still didn’t prevent me from enjoying this tea. Drink on tea lovers!