123 Tasting Notes

I haven’t seen very many Yiwu ripe pu’ers on the market and this is the first one I’ve tried. I used 12.3g in my 160ml Jianshui clay teapot, so roughly half my sample. Although this is a brick, the compression seems very light and I was able to break larger chunks into smaller ones without having to used hardly any force at all. I rinsed the leaves for under ten seconds and let the leaves soak up the moisture for five minutes before I began brewing. I did a total of eight steeps, the timing for these being 12s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 50s, 90s and 3 min. For drinking the tea, I used both a regular glazed teacup as well as a Jianshui clay teacup dedicated to shu pu’er.

The first infusion brewed a dark red. The liquor was surprisingly clear especially for such a young tea. The tea was syrupy, slick, clean and slightly sweet. The strength was good. The next steep brewed a pure black. Possibly the darkest color I’ve seen, if you can compare black with another black. The mouthfeel was velvety and there was a mild pleasant bitterness to the tea. I’m not really sure if there was quite a coffee taste to this steep as is often the case with shu pu’ers at this stage.

Steep three produced a super clean, beautiful liquor. The mouthfeel was astonishing. It felt like the tea was massaging your tongue. Just phenomenal. The tea left an active sensation in your mouth even after you swallowed. There was even less bitterness now. I don’t really know how to describe the taste. It leaned more towards darker notes, but I’m not sure if calling it coffee or roasted is quite correct.

Steep four was somewhat weaker than the prior infusions, which was a sign for me that I could push this tea even harder for the following steeps. The taste was also less complex, but very sweet. Quite impressively the tea still brewed a perfect black in the fifth steep. The tea was now stronger and less sweet. The taste was mainly woody. At this point I could start to feel the tea in my body, especially around my chest and abdomen.

Infusion number six continued to brew totally black. Contrary to the color, the tea had become very fresh with a clear taste of mint. The soup was ultra clean and both cooling and warming in the mouth at the same time. The taste was also accompanied by a REALLY nice and pleasant qi. This steeping was definitely one of the standouts. Steep seven is finally where the tea only brewed a very dark red as opposed to a total black. In contrast to the color, the flavor had dropped much more significantly and was merely that of some basic sweetness. Steep eight also continued to have plenty of color and the strength was now better as well, but the flavors simply weren’t there. The tea was simple and nice and you could probably have continued with these extended sweet steeps for a while, but I deemed the session to be done.

I feel I’ve described this tea with much fewer words than I usually do. This can either be a good sign or a bad sign. In this case it’s a good sign. This tea was exceptional. I don’t know if it’s my favorite or second favorite shu pu’er up to this point, but I can say that the base material is definitely my favorite and it has been expertly processed. This tea performed much like I’d demand from a high-end raw pu’er, while offering the flavor experience of a shu pu’er. Since the tea has been more lightly fermented and the leaves aren’t totally black, I’d expect it to develop and become even better over the years, although it’s perfectly drinkable now and I didn’t detect any off-flavors.

I would very much like to buy more of this tea. The two inhibitors are however the fact that it comes in a 1kg brick and consequently the high price that results from that. This tea is however most definitely worth the price. Assuming it doesn’t sell out in the very near future, I’d love to grab a brick of this once I’m able. While this is an accessible tea, I would say that its true strengths might be lost on someone still very new to pu’er. Just the way it flows out of the cha hai as I pour tells me how high-quality it is. Despite the dark color, the tea didn’t brew particularly strong, so I wouldn’t go much lighter on the leaf than I did and you could probably easily go heavier. The only real downside was the longevity, but hopefully more flavors will develop there as the tea ages.

Flavors: Bitter, Mint, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 12 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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Time for another Menghai. Why not. I’ve had this little fella for probably close to a year, but since it’s so tightly compressed I decided to give it plenty of time to chill and get settled. Generally I avoid anything that’s highly compressed, but since this was such a small bing and a relatively cheap investment, I decided to go for it. I would most certainly advice caution when breaking into this fella. My pick slipped several times while carefully trying to break off the leaves for this session, but luck was on my side and it never hit anything. I used 12 grams to 160ml and both brewed the tea in and drank it from Jianshui clay.

I gave the tea my customary 5s rinse and 5 min. rest. I did a total of eight steeps, for 8s, 8s, 10s, 13s, 18s, 30s, 60s and 2 min. The first steep was still fairly light due to the compression. There was some pleasant sweetness, but what stood out the most about the teas was how clean it tasted. There were some “browner” notes as well, not sure if I’d call them earthy. The body wasn’t thick, but still pretty good.

By this point the more compressed bits were already coming apart and the next infusion brewed much darker, although nowhere near black. The texture was thick. The taste was dominated mainly by a single dark note I couldn’t find a word for. The finish consisted of a bitterness reminiscent of cheap coffee. The bitterness grew as the tea cooled down. Compared to average ripes, this infusion was quite nice both in terms of texture and upfront flavor, but reviewing this back to back with Menghai’s own special production Xin Hai Bai Nian cake really highlights just how much simpler this tea is.

Steep number three produced about the same color, but this time the texture was much lighter. The taste was clearer, with dark notes still present and hints of coffee bitterness in the finish. The liquor, although never overly cloudy, was finally quite clear in the fourth steep. The texture was light to medium and the taste even clearer than before. After struggling to identify the dominant flavor, I’d say it’s dark wood.

The soup started to become creamy in the next infusion, although more in texture than the actual taste. Even though the extraction itself wasn’t weak, the flavors were already clearly beginning to thin out. The tea left the palate relatively clean with perhaps a slightly mineral finish. The tea became even creamier in the sixth steep, although also possessed a slightly unpleasant tinge to it. While the extraction was adequate, the flavors themselves were light. The tea was simple enough to drink.

Having pressed the tea a lot harder for the seventh steep, the extraction was indeed stronger, but this could do very little to counter the flavors that were thinning severely. The texture was less creamy, with a taste of slightly decomposed wood. Infusion eight was the last one I did. Despite losing a lot of its color, I still managed to pull out the woody notes, although the underlying minerality was trying to push through them. The sensation on the tongue was quite mineraly. The tea wasn’t weak, but thin in terms of the flavors. It was decent though. Drinkable. The leaves could have possibly provided an infusion or two more, but I didn’t see enough value in trying to stretch them out and so I decided to end the session there.

While paling in comparison to Menghai’s own Xin Hai Bai Nian, this tea was better than your average ripe and proved once again that Menghai produced solid shu pu’ers, even if they aren’t always particularly noteworthy. To me this came across as a solid daily drinker and something that would make a great introduction to shu pu’er. Probably the thing that struck me out the most about the tea was how surprisingly clean it tasted. I know it’s already been five years since it was pressed and it probably consists of slightly aged material, but still it came across as a lot cleaner than I expected, given the compression, storage and so forth.

What I was probably the most disappointed in was the longevity, especially given how this tea didn’t brew particularly strong at any point. I didn’t find the flavors anything amazing, but they are rather well-defined and keep things very simple and straightforward. This in conjunction with the cleanliness makes me think this would make a great introduction tea to ripe pu’er, although there are many alternatives out there.

For me personally this tea was not interesting or rewarding enough to be something I’d buy more of, but I’m not ruling out that it could develop more complexity slowly over the years. For the price it’s not a bad choice, especially if you want something clean and simple. I think you could probably go a little heavier on the leaf than I did and get good results.

Flavors: Bitter, Coffee, Creamy, Dark Wood, Decayed Wood, Mineral

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 12 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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I’ve had a cake of this ever since Yunnan Sourcing listed it back in 2017. I’ve had one casual session with it a couple months back, but didn’t review it at the time. The bing is very pretty and the dry leaf aroma wonderful. I brewed 12.3g in a 160ml Jianshui clay teapot and drank the tea from a cup made from the same material. I rinsed the leaves briefly for under ten seconds and let the moisture soak in for five minutes before I began brewing. The aroma of the freshly rinsed leaves was very clean and comforting. I did a total of nine steeps, the timing for these being 10s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 30s, 50s, 90s, 2.5 min. and 6 min.

I’ve been experimenting with brewing ripe pu’er with slightly heavier leaf ratios and that in conjunction with the fairly small average leaf grade of this tea means it brewed quite strong (for a shu pu’er). There was a lot going on in the first infusion, with flavor notes bouncing around my mouth. I could taste rich notes of wood and something that reminded me of wine, with a pleasant bitterness in the finish with hints of chocolate. The aftertaste was long, rich and rewarding. While the tea itself wasn’t super thick, I liked the feel of it in my mouth. This was a wonderful start to the session.

The next brew offered deeper, darker notes. Very rich. I don’t know if I got any notes I would refer to as earthy, but eventually I began tasting dark, bitter chocolate, one that had melted and was flowing all over my tongue. The bitterness was wonderful. The tea was now really big and active in the mouth. It caused the lower half of my mouth, jaw in particular, to tingle. Damn this is good tea.

The third infusion presented more bitter and roasted notes. There was also a faint sweetness which in conjunction with the roasted notes made me think of nougat. The bitterness leaned more towards coffee now, and the lingering bitterness that was left in your mouth was REALLY wonderful. I could drink this tea just for that bitter aftertaste. The mouthfeel wasn’t as great as before, but still enjoyable and active in the mouth, mainly around the tongue.

Steep number four was one of those roll your eyes back into your head moments. Man, that mouthfeel. I just wanted to let the tea rest on my tongue. It was thick, lubricating and felt great going down the throat. Taking a sip made you want to smile. The flavors were taking a backseat for this round, but I didn’t care. I could taste familiar bitter woody coffee notes, but they weren’t as strong or good as before. Afterwards you could feel the tea in your chest.

I accidentally brewed the tea a bit too long for steep number five and the tea ended up almost too thick for me. Even though I pushed it quite a bit, the resulting flavor was surprisingly weak. This was actually not due to a weak extraction but the flavors themselves being light. I could taste some generic woody notes, which became much clearer in the aftertaste. This infusion was really warming in the chest. I actually liked the tea better once it had cooled down completely. This brought forth a really nice mineral taste and I didn’t really get any of the woody notes.

The tea got back into gear in the sixth steeping. The flavors took the backseat again while the liquor felt wonderful and active in the mouth. Woody notes were still present, but the tea was now also a bit creamy and there was some slight sweetness and mineral taste. While I could tell the tea was entering its late steeps, there was still a fair bit going on and the thickness was still good and the aftertaste actually more potent than the tea itself. The aftertaste was rich, creamy and aromatic.

The color began dropping in the next steep. The taste was now that of sweet rice, like the rice drinks you can buy at the store. It even had the slight graininess those drinks have. The tea was also really thick. I mean, really, really thick. It was very pleasant and enjoyable to drink. The color continued to fade quite dramatically in the eighth steep. The tea was also considerably thinner. The immediate flavors were basic sweetness and some weak woody notes, while you could taste the sweet rice and minerals in the finish. The lingering sweetness intensified over time as you drank the tea, however, ultimately becoming incredibly sweet. There was also a slight numbing sensation on my tongue.

I attempted one last long extraction, but the resulting tea was really light. There was a creamy mineraly taste of berries, but also a slight unenjoyable tinge to the tea. The aftertaste was nice though and super sweet. I decided the tea was done.

I’m glad I didn’t review this tea back when I first tried it. I recall it coming across as a solid ripe, but nothing as wonderful as the session I had this time. The problem with (and wonderful thing about) tea is that no two sessions are ever alike. I may not have had the clay teacup yet when I first had this tea, I don’t recall, but it may have made a huge difference. In any case, this tea was fantastic. I wish all my ripe sessions were like this. This may have very well been the best shu pu’er I’ve had to date. I would most definitely recommend leafing this tea a bit harder than usual to ensure a rich brew, long aftertaste and that you bring out the wonderful bitterness it holds. The longevity of a tea like this is never going to be very impressive, and you’ll just have to accept that.

Looking both at the dry leaf and the brewed leaves, I can buy this being from higher grade material than your average ripe. While I’m hardly knowledgeable about these kind of teas, the leaves, although small, look intact and like fine pickings. To me this tea comes across as perfectly ready to drink now. Unless you are a thousand times more sensitive to fermentation taste than me, you should be fine. While not necessarily cheap, for what you get I think the price is actually quite reasonable. Like I said, wish all ripes were this good.

Flavors: Bitter, Coffee, Creamy, Dark Chocolate, Mineral, Rice, Roasted, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 12 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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This is the oldest tea I’ve had to date. I used the entire 10g sample in my 160ml Jianshui clay teapot. I don’t know what this tea was like back in ’96, but thanks to both the age and the small leaf size, the chunks feel loose, dry and brittle. I gave the tea a brief 5s rinse, followed by a 5 min. rest to let the moisture soak in. The rinsed leaves had a super clean woody smell to them. I did a total of nine steeps, the timing for these being 10s, 10s, 10s, 13s, 18s, 28s, 45s, 90s and 5 min.

Thanks to the small leaf grade and the loose compression, this tea brews dark right out of the gate. The liquor itself is also extremely clear. I was taken aback by how strong and bitter the first brew was. When I say bitter, I’m not talking positive or negative, it was simply a flavor like any other, in this case a coffee bitterness to be exact. The empty cha hai after the first infusion smelled amazing. If you are brewing this tea yourself, don’t miss it.

In the second steep the tea already brewed coffee black. The tea was smoother now, although still bitter and the flavor had shifted toward roasted coffee beans. In the third steep the tea started tasting clearer and brighter, like looking at a clear sky after a storm. The bitterness had now shifted to only being present in the finish. At this point I was already starting to feel tea drunk. This tea hits you pretty hard.

The taste continued to get brighter and clearer in the fourth infusion. There was also no bitterness to be found anymore. The flavor is hard to describe, but this was easily the most enjoyable infusion so far. The next steep only brewed a dark red anymore, so the color was definitely beginning to fade fast. The taste was that of red berries, but nowhere near as bold as it had been before. I was getting a real buzz from this tea by this point.

Steep six was still fairly dark, but the color was definitely fading fast. The taste was a mixture of bitter and creamy. I was feeling quite messed up. The brew that followed was also slightly bitter, but the bitterness was accompanied by darker tones that I didn’t really care for. The flavors were definitely beginning to reflect the color and starting to get considerably thinner and fade. My body was throbbing by this point. I did two more steeps, both of which were rather simple but pleasant enough, possessing some basic sweetness. The leaves may have had one or two more extra long steeps in them, but they would have most likely just been more of that basic sweetness so I called it there.

Even though these small leaf grade ripe pu’ers do tend to brew rather strong in the beginning, this tea still surprised me with its strength. If you are using a teapot, I would probably recommend using less leaf than you normally do. What surprised me more, however, was the strong bitterness present in this tea. I’m not used to tasting bitterness in shu pu’er very often and most certainly not on this level. Again, the bitterness wasn’t a bad kind of bitterness, but neither was it a pleasant kuwei.

For a shu pu’er, the tea does possess rather potent cha qi. While not necessarily unpleasant, I wouldn’t call it enjoyable either, we are talking of more like a hammered sensation. The flavor profile does not appeal to me personally. Coffee drinkers might appreciate it, but while not a coffee drinker myself, I’m sure you could get a much better coffee experience for the same money or less. I don’t know how many people are drinking ripe pu’er for the cha qi, but there are other alternatives out there, if that’s what you’re looking for, maybe not quite as potent though.

The more I drink these gong ting/small leaf grade ripes, the more I’m starting to think they are not for me. They can be finicky about how you brew them and I just find them less complex compared to teas with larger leaves mixed in. If you just think about for example a pure bud picking versus a one bud, one leaf picking standard, it’s easy to comprehend why the material would be more expensive, but just like when comparing two picking standards, a pure bud picking, while more expensive, isn’t necessarily better, just different. One may prefer the pure bud tea, but another person may prefer the one bud, one leaf picking.

Anyway, to sum things up, this tea brews extremely clean and strong both in flavor and cha qi. If you are averse to fermentation taste and are willing to pay, this is the tea for you. Just don’t go expecting a sweet shu. While I didn’t find the tea to have enough complexity to keep me interested, it was still interesting and informative to session, which is why I bought a sample in the first place. If you are wondering what an aged shu pu’er tastes like, this tea is worth it for the experience.

Flavors: Berries, Bitter, Coffee, Creamy

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 10 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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While I’ve highly enjoyed ripe pu’ers made from Jingmai material, the young raws I’ve tried from there have always left me with mixed feelings. I was very curious to see what I would think of this tea. I’ve had a free sample that I received with an order sitting in my pumidor for several months. The tea is still very young, but I’ve been drinking through several samples over the past few days and decided to give it a shot. I used nine grams in a 130ml gaiwan and drank the tea both from a regular teacup as well as an unglazed Jianshui clay cup dedicated to young sheng.

I rinsed the leaves briefly for five seconds and let them soak up the moisture for five minutes while I drank the wash. There was already body to the tea but not much taste. It did leave a faint, perhaps floral aftertaste lingering in the mouth. I proceeded to do a total of eleven infusions, the timing for these being 5s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min.

The tea started off with a big, oily body, although the mouthfeel itself was nothing all that special. There was a distantly honied taste, but all in all the flavors weren’t very defined yet. The aftertaste was actually stronger than the tea itself and very stable. I could taste the tea with my entire mouth. Over the next three steeps the tea grew greener and more astringent while retaining varying degrees of a honied character as well. What all of these infusions had in common was a long and stable aftertaste that was almost always better than the taste of the tea in your mouth. The aftertaste of the fourth steep was more of a honied mineral taste and it made your saliva taste AMAZING (like honey).

I found the fifth steep perhaps a bit weaker in terms of flavor, but also more settled and balanced. It was astringent, perhaps even a bit smoky, and I could feel a slight burning sensation in my mouth. The honey was now more in the background. Again, I found the aftertaste of this round more enjoyable than the front flavors. I would most likely recommend a small brewing vessel for this tea as it is something you don’t really need to drink more than a few sips of each steep.

Steep six was more friendly at least toward my tastebuds. The taste was softer with less astringency. The tea was still fairly green tasting and leafy, but more drinkable than before. I wasn’t really tasting the honey anymore, but there were now whispers of a green/leafy sweetness. The aftertaste was again the highlight here and this time concentrated around the sides of your tongue. It also improved over time and ended up becoming very nice. The seventh infusion continued on this path of change and presented a liquor that was now much more mineral sweet tasting and highly aromatic in the mouth. While the tea wasn’t necessarily excessively astringent, I could feel a slight burning sensation both in my mouth and throat. In terms of texture this steeping was incredibly easy to drink and the tea left a satisfying sensation in your mouth and throat after you’d drunk the tea. Your throat was also left feeling very lubricated.

The astringency and burning sensation started ramping up in the eighth infusion while at the same time you got less taste. This is the point from which on the clay cup started to become very helpful. It helped bring down the astringency to a more manageable level while revealing more of the underlying flavors. The tea was beginning to exhibit more of those honey notes again while also having that nice sweet mineral taste. It was highly aromatic especially in the nose and also left me salivating while making my mouth taste sweet.

The burning astringency continued in the next steep where the clay cup continued to be my friend, revealing complex notes of honey with countless layer to them. When drunk from clay the tea was also incredibly thick, feeling like yoghurt in your mouth. This was the thickest the tea got and I was really surprised by both the thickness and how well the clay cup was performing. Steep ten was no longer as astringent, but even here the clay cup made the tea much better. It improved the texture considerably and made the flavors rounder and more balanced. Overall the flavors were beginning to simplify, however, but the honey notes were still fairly “thick,” even if there was less depth now.

Steep eleven was the last one I did. Once again the clay cup presented fuller flavors here. The taste itself was beginning to get fairly simple by this point though. While the strength and body still remained quite good for steep eleven, I wasn’t expecting to see anything more interesting so I decided to call it here. The tea could have possibly gone on for at least a steep or two.

This session ended up being much more interesting than I originally expected based on the first few infusions. However, just like other young Jingmais I’ve had, I didn’t find that the flavors appealed to me and I found the tea to have too many unpleasant qualities in its current young state for me to enjoy. I think the area in which the tea easily shines the most is the stable and incredibly consistent aftertaste which I found often the reason why you’d drink this tea. I’ve never had an aged Jingmai, but based on the fact that I enjoy Jingmai shu pu’er and just the gut feeling I get drinking this tea, I’d suspect that these teas need to be aged a fair bit before I can enjoy them. This particular tea, while not necessarily high-end, displayed quite a few promising quality markers. I don’t really have enough experience to say how it compares against other Jingmai teas, but just generally speaking it performs just about how I would expect from a tea at this price point, making it fair value.

While I can’t personally recommend this tea as the flavor profile does not appeal to me, this tea was more interesting to session than other Jingmais I’ve had and if you’re looking for a Jingmai tea in particular definitely give this one a shot.

Flavors: Astringent, Green, Honey, Mineral, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 9 g 4 OZ / 130 ML

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Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a ripe pu’er. I haven’t really explored Bitterleaf’s shu pu’ers, so I went in not knowing what to expect. The sample I received was simply a single piece from the cake. To me the compression seemed rather high, reminding me of Hai Lang Hao’s ripe pu’er bricks, expect in bing form. I found it easier to just chip away some small bits until I was left with a single twelve gram chuck, so that’s what I did. The appearance is rather appealing, reminding me of teas like the Green Miracle for example, although the buds seem smaller and so forth. The dry leaf has a familiar shu pu’er manure scent, although this could have been acquired in my pumidor so don’t place too much weight on that.

I used a 160ml Jianshui clay teapot to brew the tea. Since the tea was so highly compressed and still fairly young as well, I opted to do two short five second rinses instead of one longer one to try to soften up the tea a little. This was followed by a ten minute rest before proceeding to steep the tea. The rinsed leaves didn’t have a very strong scent. The smell was very interesting and unique though, very perfumy. Later on into the session I could pick up the scent of wet wood that had begun to decompose coming from the teapot. I did a total of twelve steeps, the timing for these being 10s, 10s, 13s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min., 5 min. and 10 min.

At this point I should mention I’ve been dealing with the flu for the past week, but I’d say I’m more than 90% recovered when it comes to appreciating tea. As another side note, I drank this tea both from a regular teacup as well as an unglazed Jianshui clay teacup dedicated to shu pu’er. Most of my drinking was done from the clay cup, but I had the regular cup there for reference just in case. With other types of tea I find it less straightforward, but in regard to shu pu’er I find that the clay almost exclusively improves the tea. The flavors are much more forward, the body is better and you lose hardly any of the nuance of the tea. If you are looking for the simplest and most cost-efficient way to improve your every ripe pu’er session, my tip would be to buy a simple cup from a vendor you trust and see if it makes a difference for you.

Anyway, getting back to the tea, the first infusion brewed rather cloudy, which is to be expect from a tea this young. The liquor itself had a sort of nasty smell to it, though, which was kind of new to me. That was limited to just this steep, however. As expected from a first infusion and a chunk that had still yet to properly come apart, although there was already flavor, the tea was still fairly light. The tea was kinda oily, but not necessarily in the same way as a raw pu’er. I still don’t know what people are talking about exactly when they speak of fermentation taste in the early steeps of young shu pu’er, but I did pick up some of the taste I’ve encountered in some other young ripes. For me it’s this sort of very mineraly taste that I could see some people describing as feeling slightly “off” or perhaps even slightly unpleasant, although I’ve never really had problem with it myself. Overall the tea was slightly sweet with a spicy finish. It left a sense of freshness in your mouth and helped open up my clogged airways featuring some nice mouth cooling as well.

The second infusion produced a much darker color now that the leaves had begun to open up and separate from one another. The liquor was still very cloudy, like dirty, extremely muddy water. The flavor was also much stronger. I could taste cacao, or you could also call it unsweetened hot chocolate. Overall you could call the tea bittersweet. The brew that followed produced an almost black liquor, but you could also tell that there was much more clarity now. The tea was thick, coating and lubricating, producing thick saliva in your mouth. It was even bolder than before, with darker tones to it. I could taste chocolate, perhaps even hints of vanilla. There was also a pleasant bitterness running through the tea that I enjoyed. Overall this infusion was really nice.

Steep four brewed as black, if not darker than the previous one. A sort of syrupy sweetness was beginning to emerge in the tea. Bittersweet would describe the tea quite well. The fifth steep had a taste of wet wood. There was also a potent, hidden sweetness within the tea. The steep was quite strong with lasting flavors. I found this infusion in particular very warming. I ended up having to take off my sweater as I suddenly began to feel extremely hot.

The color didn’t let up in the sixth and seventh steeping. The tea continued to brew strong and bittersweet, with both the bitterness and sweetness strengthening. Steep seven also had an interesting perfumy quality to it. The eighth infusion produced a gorgeous dark ruby red color with perfect clarity to it. It was one of the most gorgeous colors I’ve witnessed while brewing tea. The tea on the other hand wasn’t as potent as before. The texture was thinner and the flavors much simpler than before. The taste was slightly creamy, with some emerging minerality. Super clean taste overall. The tea left your palate relatively clean, although there was a lingering aftertaste as well.

The ninth steeping still continued to give a really dark color, although the liquor itself looked much “thinner” now, like colored water rather than tea. The taste was really creamy now. The sweetness had changed. It was very interesting. It had depth to it which is something I have not really experienced from sweetness before. Thanks to the extended steeping time there was decent body as well. The color did continued to fade in the tenth steep, though the tea was still brewing about as dark as some ripe pu’ers get. The flavors were definitely tapering off fast though. I could taste some of those red berries that I often get in Menghai area ripes just as they are about to steep out.

Steeps eleven and twelve were both longer ones and produced mainly a basic sweetness with some body as well. The strength and color were still decent and the tea could have probably gone for a couple more extra long steeps, but I decided to call it there. Toward the end of the session I could feel some mild qi in my body. It was nothing major, mainly a dull, pulsating sensation in my body. I did experience another wave of heat as well.

Looking at the steeped leaves at the end of the session, they look totally different from any ripe pu’er I’ve seen before. The leaves are large, springy and lively like raw pu’er, not dull, disintegrated and unrecognizable like most shu pu’ers. I’d say just from the appearance that these leaves look like higher quality material than a lot of sheng pu’ers out there.

So what did I think of this tea? I thought the material is excellent. This tea brews strong and it brews long. It even has qi, which speaks to the origin of the material. Although I enjoyed the flavors, the one caveat I have with this tea is that I didn’t find it to be very dynamic. The tea is very young, however, so this could change with time. I don’t have that much experience with ripe pu’er so I can’t really speak to how much change you can expect, but having revisited Yunnan Sourcing’s Green Miracle recently, I felt it had changed in terms of flavor over the past twelve months. I know the level of fermentation plays a big role here.

Having been made from the same material as their silver grade Plum Beauty raw pu’er, this tea is priced similarly, which places it outside what most people are willing to pay for ripe pu’er or raw pu’er even in some cases. I’ve tasted many shu pu’ers that are supposedly from higher quality material than your typical ripes, but this tea easily blew all those teas out of the water in terms of raw quality of the material. While this was not my favorite ripe pu’er based on a single session, I found it an interesting and rewarding tea to session nonetheless and I will be purchasing a cake of it in the very near future. I expect this to be a tea to benefit a lot from aging and will give it at least a year before even sessioning it again.

Flavors: Berries, Bitter, Cacao, Chocolate, Creamy, Dark Bittersweet, Spicy, Sweet, Wet Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 12 g 5 OZ / 160 ML

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I brewed the entire 10g sample in a 140ml gaiwan. What I received were small, evenly sized chunks without any loose bits. I don’t know which part of the cake they were from, but they seemed fairly compressed in comparison to the more loose-pressed cakes out there. The colors and general appearance were interesting, really bright and just overall a very different look.

I’ve only drunk one raw pu’er that is allegedly Lao Man’e, that being Mei Leaf’s Psychic Stream Seeker, but smelling the dry leaves in a preheated gaiwan I definitely recognized the unique, characteristic scent. The smell of the wet leaves was equally familiar, with an extremely pungent, dirty scent that made me think of something having to do with a kitchen. I rinsed the leaves briefly for five seconds or less and this being such a high-end tea I naturally drank the wash. Damn that’s potent, damn that’s bitter. I’m intrigued.

After a brief five minute rest I carried on to do a total of twelve steeps. The timings for these were 5s, 5s, 7s, 7s, 6s, 7s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s and 2 min. The first steep had a nice mouthfeel, quite oily. Fortunately the tea was still light both in taste and color thanks to the more compressed bits. There was some slight sweetness, with a characteristic touch of citrus and maybe some bitterness in the finish. The second infusion is where the ball slowly began to start rolling. The tea was strong, but not too strong, sour, slightly bitter, a bit sweet. There was a citric aftertaste and the tea left your mouth coated with oils. This was combined with an incredibly mouthwatering effect. This is the stuff.

Infusion three is where the bombs started raining down. The tea was really strong, but not too strong for me though. The distinct grapefruit note I tasted in Psychic Stream Seeker as well was now much more pronounced. Although the liquor was not thick, the mouthfeel was juicy and the aftertaste incredibly long-lasting. Steep four was however even stronger. On man. But I like brewing oolongs Chaozhou style so I like strong tea, just not over-brewed tea, there’s a difference. I was now getting the infamous bitterness, but it wasn’t a bitterness I dislike. Now that’s BITTER, AWW YEA!

The sensory assault continued in the fifth steep, but here was an exemplary example of a bitterness that transformed into juicy sweetness within two seconds after you swallowed. After being bombarded with bitterness, I was so used to it I could have actually brewed the tea a bit stronger for the sixth steep. The tea continued to be incredibly bitter, but I wasn’t getting the sweetness anymore.

Steep seven really surprised by being less aggressive. It was juicy and still bitter but only in the finish. You could taste the tea in your mouth when you breathed out through your nose. At this point I must say it’s really hard to differentiate with this tea what flavor are from the tea in your mouth right now, because this tea just builds up layers upon layers of strong lingering flavors with each steep with all of the past steeps feeding into the current one.

From this point on I finally started extending the steeping time more aggressively and this worked really well in countering the drop in strength. I managed to brew steep eight strong in a good way and it was probably my favorite up to that point. It was really aromatic; you could just take a few sips and then taste the aromatic compounds in your mouth as you breathed out through your nose. There was much less perceived bitterness now, but honestly my tongue was so numb to the bitterness by this point it’s quite possible I just wasn’t tasting it anymore.

With the ninth steeping the tea began to simplify and enter easy-drinking mode. It was still mainly bitter, but there was now less depth, complexity and nuance. From the next infusion onward the bitterness finally began to taper off, making way to an emerging sweetness. The mouthfeel in these late steeps continued to be generally quite juicy. There was some nastiness in steep eleven, but this cleared up for the twelfth steep where only sweetness remained, but the tea was clearly falling off fast. The leaves could have possibly been stretched for a couple more sweet, extra-long extractions, but I was quite full of tea so I decided to call it here.

I’m still very new to extremely bitter raw pu’ers and sheng pu’ers from Bulang in general, but I really liked this tea. Unfortunately a cake is beyond my budget. It’s not even a question of the price per gram being too high, although this tea is by no means cheap, Hai Lang Hao’s decision to press this material into beefy 400g cakes places this already premium tea beyond most people’s reach. Certainly most people who really want to try out this tea should be able to afford a sample, but an actual bing is something most of us can only dream about.

After trying two teas allegedly from this hot village, despite different vintages and the other one being roasted, their flavor profiles matched so well they corroborate one another quite nicely, lending credibility to both. The grapefruit note was much more prominent in the Mei Leaf tea most likely due to it being a younger tea, while the bitterness had been replaced in it by intense sourness due to the roasting process. While it was a very good tea in its own right, I liked this tea even more. I’ve never ordered from them, but I know Tea Urchin offers a couple of Lao Man’e shengs, so I will have to order samples and see how I like their teas. It would be nice to acquire some Lao Man’e both for drinking and aging, but at a more affordable price than the Hai Lang Hao offering. I’m definitely intrigued by this region after this session.

If you’ve never had a tea like this, it can definitely be a very informative and eye-opening experience. Even if you think you don’t like bitter teas, a tea like this could prove you otherwise. Even if it doesn’t, it’s worth it for the experience alone. To try to sum up this tea, it is one of the strongest teas you are likely to ever find, with great longevity to boot. It’s bold, aggressive and extremely bitter, but that does not mean it lacks complexity, depth or nuance. This is a matter of personal preference, but I personally never found the bitterness unpleasant. I should add that that is not generally the case for me with sheng. While the mouthfeel was generally juicy, the tea was never particularly thick and overall the mouthfeel was a bit of a letdown for such a high-end tea. The one other thing I hold a bit against the tea is the qi. The tea didn’t really have much of a noticeable effect during the session, but afterward with quite a delay I suddenly started feeling incredibly exhausted like I’d just run a marathon or something. This was strikingly similar to the qi in the Hai Lang Hao Lao Man’e ripe pu’er I reviewed a while back. The one notable difference in the qi was that whereas the raw pu’er only made me feel physically exhausted, the ripe also made me feel extremely lethargic and uninterested in even doing anything, even not doing anything. Fortunately the exhaustion did lift in a reasonable amount of time, but while drinking a tea like this should leave you exhausted as it is quite an undertaking, the cha qi still didn’t agree with me.

This tea showcases really well why the area is so revered and the fame is definitely justified. If you like your teas strong, look no further.

Flavors: Bitter, Grapefruit, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 10 g 5 OZ / 140 ML
mrmopar

Yep, this is right up my alley too. I like that old kick in the teeth teas from this area offer. Mang Fei is another area you may like too.

TJ Elite

Just ordered samples of Tea Urchin’s 2013 and 2014 Lao Man’e along with their 2017 Lao Ban Zhang. Also grabbed 60g of their 2017 Premium Tie Luo Han.

mrmopar

You will have some good stuff to enjoy!

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Much like the 2016 Wu Liang, I’ve had a cake of this for close to a year, but this was my first time trying it out. The leaves are large and the cake loosely pressed so I was able to pry off nine grams’ worth of leaves simply by inserting my pick just below the top layer and giving it the slightest of nudges. This was enough to cause the large intertwined leaves to start unraveling and thus I was essentially able to brew this session with the equivalent of mao cha. I did my customary 5s rinse followed by a 5 min. rest before proceeding with the actual brews. The rinse itself had a luxurious mouthfeel and taste, in the same way one might describe silver needle as luxurious.

I did eleven steeps total, the timing for these being 6s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min. I was impressed by how effortlessly the first infusion flowed. It had one of the archetypal young raw flavor profiles I’ve seen before, but I’m not sure how to describe it in terms of actual taste. The second steep was darker in flavor and maybe a bit grainy both in terms of texture and taste.

The third steep had a very clean taste. There wasn’t anything that’s easily described in terms of concrete flavor notes. There was however a sweetness that emerged after you’d drunk the tea. Steep four was very reminiscent of a dan cong in terms of mouthfeel and taste. There was even some mild astringency that was very similar to what you’d find in a dan cong. The flavors were accompanied by a nice, very unique sweetness. The unique sweetness continued in the fifth infusion, this time being present immediately. The sweetness only got more potent as the tea cooled down. There were also hints of perhaps a vegetal character somewhere in the background.

Over the steeps the mouthfeel had gotten thinner at each step and the sixth steep was the first time I also saw a drop in flavor. The taste was predominantly mineral, nothing particularly interesting. The next steep was harsher, possibly due to the larger increase in steeping time. What was noteworthy about it was the qi. First my tongue started to swell and rise toward the roof of my mouth. Eventually my entire mouth and jaw felt numb like after being administered a local anesthetic at the dentist.

Steep eight presented even more harshness, but also more sweetness in the finish. The lasting aftertaste that was present in practically every steep in this session was particularly prominent here. Thankfully the harshness decreased in the ninth steep, although there was still some. The taste was mineral and sweet with a quite nice mouthfeel.

The second-to-last infusion wasn’t thick, but just for this one steep the mouthfeel returned back to being really luxurious and lubricating. The harshness was gone and the tea had become gentler and decently sweet. The mouthfeel was oh so nice. At this point I found myself starting to feel a bit silly and slightly tea drunk. Unfortunately the session was cut short quite abruptly as the eleventh steep produced hardly any taste while having a very nasty character to it. There was color, but to me the tea came across as dead.

Overall this is definitely a quality tea. It’s a shame I reviewed it right after the 2017 He Tao Di as that tea was so spectacular it would’ve been hard to get excited about anything short of awe-inspiring. The attribute that stood out most about this tea was the long-lasting aftertaste which you could expect consistently from each steep. Although the qi was ultimately nothing massive, its presence really helped lift this tea above some of the less noteworthy competition. There’s quite a bit of cumulative sweetness already and I would expect this to only enhance as the years go by. Although not very consistent during this session, at its best the mouthfeel of this tea was very good and just like the sweetness I hope it will improve over time. During the middle steeps there were times when I wouldn’t have been able to tell this apart from a dan cong, which might make this an interesting one to try for fans of dan cong teas.

Flavors: Mineral, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 9 g 4 OZ / 130 ML

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Yunnan Sourcing is doing their annual price increase for spring harvest raw pu’ers in a week’s time, so I’ve been going through my Yunnan Sourcing samples to see if there are any teas I want to buy a bing of. My 25g sample of this one is almost entirely in loose form. I used 9g in my trusty 130ml gaiwan and gave the leaves a brief five second rinse followed by a five minute rest. I performed the wash with a very small amount of water and it turned out really strong! The taste was nutty, kind of like nut milk. The color was surprisingly dark too for such a young tea and this was true for all the infusions.

I proceeded to do a total of fourteen infusions. The timing for these was 5s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min., 4 min., 5 min. and 6 min. The tea soup in the first infusion was incredibly viscous both in the cup and in the mouth. The mouthfeel was really, really thick. The tea was strong, but the flavors themselves light in nature making them difficult to discern. The taste was sweet and milky. The tea became more flavorful once it cooled down. It was really aromatic in the mouth and coated your mouth leaving a long aftertaste.

The second steep was really full in the mouth. It coated literally everything like some sort of lubricant. The flavors were still light, but quite irrelevant to the overall experience at that point in time. The taste was milky with a whisper of an edge to it and the tea felt satisfying. The mouthfeel continued to change with each steep and in the third brew the tea soup flowed really effortlessly. Despite the flavors still being light, the tea was strong and the flavor the most full-bodied it had been up to that point. It was really nice. The taste was a tad sweet, with a hint of a metallic edge to it in the finish, but surprisingly not in a bad way. Damn it was good.

In the fourth steep the flavor finally started coming. The taste was quite divine. It’s hard to describe, but it was a really special kind of sweet mineral taste with a metallic finish. It did get a bit rougher once the tea cooled down, however. The tea was so good, so satisfying. The next steep continued to be thick with a nice mouthfeel. The flavor was milky with the taste of astringency without the physical sensation. It was less enjoyable at first, but turned out surprisingly good in the end.

In the sixth steeping the tea was STILL really coating. On the flavor front, it felt like a lot of the base notes had suddenly dropped off, making the tea feel a lot brighter. The taste had returned back to being sweet and milky, with the astringency mostly gone with only a hint of it present in the finish. The following infusion was pretty much a repeat of this, although with the finish now more metallic and mineral. The minerals were amped up in steep number eight where the minerals pretty much dominated the taste. What set this steep apart from all the other teas I’ve had is how full the mineral flavor was. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it. After consuming enough of the tea, it left a lasting sweetness on your tongue.

To my surprise the tea still had flavor in the ninth steep. The taste hadn’t changed much, having returned to being sweet and milky, but it was incredibly strong and full for steep nine. Steep ten was mineral and sweet. Rather simple, but strong and full. Honestly the tea was quite good even at that point. Holy cow was steep eleven sweet though. It was really, really sweet, with such exemplary strength still as well. And even this far into the session the mouthfeel continued to be quite nice.

I continued to be confounded by how good this tea is as I was sipping the twelfth steep. The tea was still sweet and satisfying with a nice mouthfeel to boot. I’m not sure if this is true of the other infusions, but at this point I realized the taste reminded me a lot of the taste of soy milk. This may have actually been one of the best infusions, and believe me this tea offered many great infusions.

Steep thirteen was RIDICULOUSLY sweet. Absolutely insane. It was pure sweetness, like someone had just saturated the liquid with sugar. Steep fourteen was finally the last one I did. This was the first time the tea brewed lighter both in color and strength. This could have possibly been countered to some degree by extending the steeping time even more, but I think it’s safe to say at this point the tea was finally past its prime.

This tea is unreal, just unreal. I ordered a cake immediately after the session. The strength, the mouthfeel, the longevity, the flavor – all are exemplary. This tea is perfectly ready to drink now, but I’m really curious to see what kind of a gem it will age into.

Flavors: Metallic, Milk, Mineral, Nutty, Soybean, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 9 g 4 OZ / 130 ML

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I’ve actually had a cake of this for close to a year now, but this was my first time trying it. Like is typical of most Yunnan Sourcing raw pu’ers, the compression is very light and you should have no trouble prying off leaves. Upon examining the steeped leaves at the end of the session, the leaf integrity looks very good and the leaves healthy and well processed. As these are some sort of hybrid, the leaves are smaller than you are accustomed to seeing in pure assamica.

I used 8.8g in a 130ml gaiwan and after a brief 5s rinse and a five minute rest I proceeded to do a total of nine steeps, the timing for these being 7s, 7s, 10s, 12s, 20s, 30s, 60s, 75s, and 90s. As I like to do with young, pure teas, I drank the rinse and it was strong, fruity and sweet. It had the taste of white grapes, followed by a long aftertaste of some sort of dried fruit reminding me a bit of maybe plum or raisin.

The first proper steep was soft and oily, with the taste of white grapes. This tea turned out to be the most cooling I’ve had. Almost immediately I felt chilly right down to the bone, with the sensation being especially prevalent in my arms. The second steep was very similar: soft, oily, with the taste of white grapes and still very cooling. It was quite great.

In the third infusion things were amped up. The mouthfeel was nice and slick and the tea really oily. The effects of the tea were really potent. There was an amazing, calming cha qi that slowly spread through my body and could especially be felt in my limbs. Gradually I started to feel a bit silly and slightly tea drunk. I don’t remember much about the taste as it felt irrelevant. I know it had a bit more edge, a bit more bite to it. This brew was damn good.

As I was preparing the fourth brew, my motor control was quite f’ed. Perhaps somewhat fortunately the effects did settle down as I was drinking this steep, allowing me to finish the session with a more clear head. The tea itself continued to be soft and oily, with hints of astringency, but not really. The following steep finally lost the oiliness, but the tea had a quality of going down very easily. The taste was green, with hints of astringency and maybe some slight sweetness.

The mouthfeel began to diminish and the flavors simplify starting with the sixth steep, but the tea was still very much in the easy-to-drink phase. The tea soup was characterized by being very clean tasting. I accidentally ended up pushing the tea a bit for the seventh infusion by over-steeping it a little, but this wasn’t really a bad thing as it allowed me to assess how the tea performs when pushed a bit harder. The result was quite mineral tasting, now with some minor bitterness as a result of over-brewing it. It was still very drinkable and comparable to a decent green tea with some bite to it.

Steeping number eight started to be quite astringent with still some bitterness as well, so I adjusted my brewing time conservatively for the last infusion that I did and managed to produce a green mineral taste with less astringency and close to no bitterness. The flavor profile was rather simple now, but I would expect the tea to potentially go at least a couple more steeps like this before giving out. I decided to call my session here, however.

All in all this was a great tea. Don’t let the price tag fool you, this tea performs at least in the mid mid-tier if not high mid-tier. As a fan of Yunnan Sourcing’s Da Qing Gu Shu, I’d say this tea is not as great as that one, but it’s comparable and only costs half as much, making it a great budget alternative. This will be a great tea to both drink now and to age for later. The cha qi is nice and decently potent, but not overpowering. Both the strength and longevity seem about average, the tea doesn’t feel overly thick in the mouth, but the mouthfeel is rewarding. There is some mild astringency and a hint of bitterness if pushed, both of which are considered positives for future aging prospect. I should also note that this tea is highly aromatic, with the dry leaf, wet leaf, the lid of the gaiwan, tea liquor and the empty cup all providing different aromas that evolve and change over the course of the session.

An amazing value!

Flavors: Astringent, Green, Mineral, Sweet, White Grapes

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 9 g 4 OZ / 130 ML

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Bio

I’ve been drinking loose leaf tea since around 2014 if I remember correctly, but the summer of 2016 is when I really became passionate about tea and I started brewing gong fu style at the start of 2017. While oolongs were my first love, I drink mostly pu’er these days. I do drink other types of tea with varying degrees of regularity as well, so I don’t discriminate.

I only review pu’er and don’t designate scores to any of the teas to encourage people to actually read the reviews and not just look at the scores. I tend to be thorough, so my reviews can run quite long, but I do try to always gather my thoughts at the end. These tasting notes are as much a record for myself for future reference as they are a review of the tea, so the format is something that’s geared to satisfy both.

You can follow my adventures on Instagram as tujukki.

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