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This is by far my favorite of the Mandala Sheng puer I have tried (which are the four that came in their recent sampler).

The initial steeping is very light and creamy with a taste that reminds me of golden raisins and something creamy like plain rice pudding (not the spiced kind). A couple steepings in the dried fruit flavor is more prominent while the creamy quality backs off. There is a very nice clean mouthfeel to this tea. In the third or fourth infusion there is a very noticeable vanilla note in the aftertaste.

Of the four samples in Mandala’s recent Aged Puer sampler pack (Heart of the Old Tree, Wild Monk, Wild Mountain Green, and this one) I may end up purchasing a brick of the Autumn Song to age. It seemed the most delicate of the bunch. Very smooth. I really enjoy it.

I flash infused this in a gaiwan, using only around 7-10 second steepings until around the fourth or fifth, at which point I started adding a few seconds each time.

UPDATE: Five months later, I finally had the extra money to buy one. I imagine myself having trouble saving this to age it. At only 100 g I’ll have to be careful to use it sparingly… or I could just be totally indiscriminate and buy another one for aging later, this one for drinking now. :P

I must now confess that the world Sheng Puer remains a mystery to me and I am a mere neophyte. I think my initial idea of what Sheng Puer is was quite misguided, as my first Sheng Puer experience was with Moonlight White from Jingmai, and the next few I had were equally sweet and mellow types. I had heard people mention things about Sheng Puer being bitter and wondered what the fuss was about since all the ones I had had were very sweet.

Fast forward to the Raw Puer sampler from Mandala tea I received the other day and I finally realized what people were talking about, but look for more on that on my other reviews, this one is about the Fengqing 2006 cake from Teavivre.

It may well be that one of the primary appeals of Sheng Puer is that the sip starts subtle, becomes somewhat bitter (or quite a bit), then recedes to a sweet finish. I don’t personally enjoy bitter flavors, so I would typically not choose to drink a bitter tea more than one time to evaluate it. With Sheng Puer, though, it is not all bitter, so the bitterness presence adds some interesting contrast with the rest of the flavors. Maybe the finish wouldn’t be so sweet if not for that bitterness mid-sip? Perhaps there is a benefit to having that contrast. It makes for a more dynamic experience as opposed to teas that are just naturally sweet throughout (though you won’t hear me complain about those). ;3

This Fengqing Puer has a sweet start, and if you brew it light enough, the bitterness mid-sip is not all that detectable, if at all, but you have to use very quick infusions to achieve this. The sweetness is a syrupy kind of sweetness, but not a thick one, something like light agave nectar. There are little notes of camphor and spice in the aroma, especially as it cools. There’s a hint of smokiness at the end of a sip, but it is subtle. I really enjoyed this tea in later steepings, where it became more more sweet with delicate notes of bamboo and hardly any trace of earthy or bitter flavors, but to achieve this I did flash infusions in my gaiwan, only steeping it for 5-10 seconds each time. I only used 3 grams of leaf for a 100ml gaiwan, which is less than some puer drinkers like to use, but I find if I use more it is quite bitter to me.

The first infusion tastes light and creamy with hints of vanilla and raisin, and the second is similar but with a subtle tanginess to accompany, a bit like ginseng. The predominant flavor is of dried fruit, particularly raisin or dried apple. The third infusion I may have overbrewed a bit; it had a lot of that tanginess. By the fourth, the flavor is more mild again with some hints of vanilla and raisin, much like the first but more full and round. As the infusions go on, they continue to be full and rich and slightly tangy… a little more earthy as you go with some notes of hops popping up late in the session. I was able to push more than 10 very flavorful infusions out of this tea. If you are adventurous enough to make it that far, the 10th steeping or so tastes like onion rings from Sonic Drive-In… slightly sweet, fried, and every so slightly oniony. I’m not joking. I love it. 12+ infusions it has taken on a chamomile fragrance. Very interesting progression with this tea.

I’m surprised I am the first to review this tea, and this should be a little interesting because I’ve been developing a Gongfu brewing method for Darjeeling tea lately, so this tea was one of my Guinea pigs for that.

The first infusion is a honey-gold color with a sweet, mild flavor and a clean mouthfeel. There are slight aromas of oats and malt and the flavor is a nice all-around mellow sweet taste with very subtle hints of spice. The signature muscatel grape aroma that Darjeeling is known for is very present when smelling the wet tea leaves, but as of the first infusion, I’m not detecting it yet in the brewed tea.

The second infusion looks like a citrine crystal caught in sunlight. Now I can taste some floral notes and the muscatel that the leaves were hinting at and a little hint of tannin. There’s more depth and boldness to the flavor, but it is still overall sweet. there’s a lasting sweetness and tang on the tongue which accompanies the hint of dry texture from the tannins.

Third steeping is even richer in flavor. It’s become more difficult to describe but it is starting to taste more like a black tea with a bit more of the tannin and malt flavors and the accompanying sweetness more in the background. It has a very full mouth feel that feels heavy and thick in the mouth. There is very little dryness or bitterness in the finish.

The fourth steeping is very rich and mellow with notes of butter and oak along with the muscatel and subtle hints of floral. The fifth steeping is starting to mellow out some and has a similar flavor. I could keep going with this tea, and I imagine doing so will produce even mellower brews from here on out.

All in all this is a nice Darjeeling if you’re looking for something very thick and buttery feeling. That was the most prominent feature to me that I think would make this one appealing. It’s not quite as floral as some others I’ve had and the muscatel note is not as strong. It’s really sweet in a sort of honey-like way, rather than in a light way like nectar or sugar. There is very little drying or astringent quality to this tea. It leaves a long-lasting flavor in the mouth.

Interestingly, the leaves have an earthy smell to them that reminds me of ripe Puer tea. After the first infusion, the leaves smell a lot like grapes or wine. The first infusion has a soft, velvety mouthfeel, with a creamy kind of mild sweetness that fades into an earthy taste and hints of cinnamon.

The second infusion is mellower and has more of a classic black tea taste, earthy, woody, dark. The third is more of the same and a touch more tanniny. The first infusion of this tea was really the most complex so far. If it produces any more that are really interesting I’ll update the review, but for now I am going to finish it here so I can relax and enjoy the tea.

Yahoo! This is some good houjicha!

Sweet and mild on the palate, it has a really nice creaminess to it and the roasted flavor is warming, calming, delicious! There’s a bit of a dry finish, but other than that I have no complaints. The leaves after one infusion smell like blackberries among the roasted aromas. There’s a nice sweetness in this tea. I may have trouble describing the notes, as houjichas do not tend to be really complex in my experience, but it has the expected flavors of toast, malt, hay, a bit of sweetness. In this case there’s a kind of cream taste accompanying it, and if you extrapolate that flavor, I feel like it could be almost a butterscotch note. Though if you contemplate this tea a little differently you could almost get hints of dill pickle brine. It’s all subjective. The mouthfeel itself isn’t so creamy, but the flavor is. Anyway, I really like it.

I will keep this short. I bought some of this from a bulk bin at a store nearby as a cheap way to help me learn how to brew Genmaicha.

The plus side is I think I’ve brewed it properly. The downside is I am not too into this tea. The most distinct notes are of toasted seaweed and sesame, along with the obvious toasted rice flavor. A second infusion yielded a slightly more green taste, but drying. I am rating this tea rather low numerically simply because there are such such better genmaichas out there. This one is not indicative of good genmaicha, so if this is your first experience with it, don’t let it fool you.

I leave you with this bit of Keanu Reeves level mind-blowing wisdom from Republic of Tea.

“We’ve named ours “Tea of Inquiry” perhaps because the humble origins of Genmaicha remind us that it is from a position of humility and awareness of our universal desire for more knowledge, that our inquiries may have the greatest chance of success.”

There’a a major flaw with the marketing of this tea. It is called “Wuyi Oolong” but the ingredients say it is “Pure Silver- Tip Formosan Oolong leaves made from the WuYi tea varietal.” First, there is the issue that there is not just one varietal used for Wuyi oolongs, so I’m not sure what “the WuYi tea varietal” refers too. It must be a transplanted tea from China’s Wuyi region to Taiwan where it is grown and made into a Formosa style oolong. Okay, fair enough, but that is either some deceptive or uninformed marketing to call this tea “Wuyi Oolong”, as it is not what most tea drinkers know as a Wuyi Oolong, a class of oolong teas produced near Wuyi Rock in Fujian province China. As Wuyi oolongs can fetch a pretty penny, it would seem this tea from Republic of Tea is attempting to imitate that to exploit the wallets of less-informed tea drinkers who have heard the hype about Wuyi but have no idea how to tell a real Wuyi oolong from a Would-Be Wuyi. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not usually one to jump to accusations toward tea companies when the information seems inaccurate or misleading, but when it comes down to these mass-production type companies that sell their wares at overpriced places like Whole Foods, where the target demographic is often less informed than they are affluent and trend-chasing… I’m a bit more skeptical. Oye…. kind of rubs my fur the wrong way, but let’s get to the tea itself.

I had a bit of a dilemma figuring out the way to brew this, as Wuyi oolongs are usually brewed with very short infusions in the Gongfu style, and a lot of leaf, while the Formosa style oolong uses relatively less leaf and longer infusions, from most brewing recommendations I’ve seen. I tried it both ways and it definitely lends itself to the longer infusions, not short ones, so I brewed at 45 seconds, adding 15 each time. The leaves of this tea smell strongly of figs and berries. The scent is deep, dark, and fruity, very pleasant. The first infusion has a honeyed sweetness and the taste of dried fruit, hints of fig and golden raisins. The color is a gorgeous golden yellow and the mouthfeel is syrupy and thick. There is just a light flavor of peach, not nearly a “pure peach” flavor like Republic of Tea describes, but it is certainly fruity and sweet. There’s a hint of astringency, but it fades after a few infusions, and by the 4th or 5th it becomes even more mellow, sweet and fruity.

All things considered, I am surprised how much I enjoy this Would-Be Wuyi. For all the deceptive or inaccurate marketing and the steep price tag (compared to the rest of Republic of Tea’s line, this was the highest priced tea in the bulk bins at the store) it is still a pretty good tasting tea when all is said and done. The price is comparable to some authentic Wuyi oolongs though, so … I’ll let you be the judge on whether or not that’s worth it. At the time I’m writing this, they are charging $20 for 50g (1.75 oz). Sheesh.

When the dry leaves sat in the warm gaiwan for a minute, the first thing I smelled was french toast with chocolate chips. There was a distinct egg-like scent with some sweeter pastry-like aromas.

Ah, here’s more like it. After that last incredibly strong black tea, this one is an oasis. The first infusion yields a soft, mellow and sweet tea with a dried-fruit kind of quality and almost no astringency. The aftertaste is a hint drying. The second infusion is pretty similar to the first. Theres a bit of a perfumy quality coming through as well now. The brew is overall soft and rather easy to drink, but yields to a dry mouthfeel. I’m really big on mouthfeel and this is not the clean finish I really enjoy.

The aroma of the third infusion is truly enjoyable, lightly floral and sweet, a tinge of vanilla and dried fruit. The flavor is likewise mellow and sweet but it is picking up in astringency and becoming more and more drying on the mouth as I go on.

Overall, I think the flavor of this tea is wonderful. I just wish it wasn’t so drying. I just reviewed another black tea from TeaVivre which was much more harsh in that regard, so this one is a step up, but I’m not sure why I’m getting so much dryness from these teas. I have a few red and blacks at home that finish very clean, so this is not at all what I am used to.

This is an intensely deep flavored black tea. After an initial Gongfu style infusion, the leaves smell of figs, nuts, and dark molasses. The first infusion was a bit hard on the palate, only steeped for about 15 seconds. It has a nice bitterness to it like a dark chocolate. Coming back for a second infusion it is less bitter and more well-rounded. There are hints of cinnamon, oak, and perfume in the aroma, while the taste is a bit hard to describe to me. Dark tobacco and fig flavors might be an appropriate way to describe it, if anything. It has it’s own flavor, like most teas, and is tricky to describe in other terms. The feeling it leaves in my mouth is very dry. I’m not diggin’ that.

By the third infusion, it’s a little more mellow overall, but there’s a definite astringency and bite in the finish. I’m tempted to call it here, as I’m not finding it suited to my tastes much at all, but Gongfu always pushes me to try another steeping.

The fourth infusion is even more dry (eeeek, this is like red alert dryness levels), the flavor has sort of flattened out and it tastes like … underbrewed coffee.

So, there you have it. This tea is not for me. Not feelin it. If you like your tea to give you (and your palate) quite a jolt, this may be right up your alley, but you might want to bring a bottle of Gatorade to rehydrate afterward. It’s so drying.

Judging by some of the other reviews, I half anticipate this could be the first moment for me on Steepster where a fanwagon crashes into the comments section of my review and passively-aggressively berates me for not sharing the euphoria of their experience, or tells me I brewed it wrong. I hope not.

I brewed 3 grams in 100ml of water for 15 seconds, adding 15 each time (this is more than a gram of tea less than Teavivre recommends for Gongfu style). This is how I typically brew red and black teas and usually it works out pretty well. The color of the liquor was a nice medium orange barely leaning toward red, so it didn’t look or seem overbrewed.

But like I said, some people LOVE these kinds of intense teas, so give it a chance if you’re interested. The flavor was not as complex as the aroma and was very dark. It didn’t really have any sweetness, which for me is an almost necessary component for a red or black tea to keep it from falling off the deep end into bitterness.