Bitterleaf Teas

This is a splendid tea with which to have a most relaxing session.

While often I look for more of an iron fist, this tea is the velvet glove. It retains enough bitterness to lend the tea character, but is resilient to steep variations, and good for ten steeps, just like it says on the box.

It would be ideal here to pontificate on the differences between this and other pure huangpian, and/or other DXS material. As I have no experience with either, my comparative uselessness renders this paragraph comparatively useless.

All in all, however, if this is what huangpian offers for the money, sign me up. It may have stayed past its welcome. it could have seen things you people wouldn’t believe, but in the end, it’s very much a comfortable slipper of a tea.

it is indeed soft and gentle; quite nice. i drank the rinse, which was far sweeter than i expected. later steeps were less sweet but still calm. bit of a floral aftertaste. flavour and aftertaste shift a bit more vegetal over time, like a savoury spinachey sencha sort of flavour. i may have used too-hot water and cooked it. :P having a bit of a head-fluffiness effect on me, at least on tired today.

Got this tea as part of a sampler from LiquidProust. I really liked this one.

The scent had a lot of wet hay/damp soil notes, which I have come to associate with pu’erh.

The flavor is delicious, with a silky, full body.

I’ve been very interested in this company. I’ve had their shou, but I’ve yet to try any of their sheng. Luckily, a small coin of this made it’s way over to me. The small puerh coin comes in a clever wrapper in a convenient 6g amount. I unwrapped the little treat and gave the tea a sniff. The small sheng chip had a nice spring grass scent with a perfume of light floral. I took in an undertone of sweet wood and possible iris. The disk was very aromatic. I warmed up my yixing and placed the coin inside, the fit was perfect (see photo). I let the tea open a little and lifted the lid to take a whiff. The scent was thick and sweet with a light woodiness. I took in some heady maple, nectar, and the same light floral brightness. I washed the coin with colder water once, then twice more with hotter water to open in up. Then, I poured myself a nice cup. The flavor was perfect! The taste begins extremely sweet and with a lasting flavor. I taste brown sugar at the forefront with confectioners sugar at the back. The tea carries a maple wood base the easily lifts these delectable flavors up and around the palette. The next steeping yields the same sweet liquor; however, the base has moved into an interesting sap and herb taste. This is surprisingly very good. I say surprisingly because I have doubts about any compressed puerh under 100g. The tea ended with some light bitterness with a lingering astringency. The qi was very slight but in the right way. This is what I consider a happy tea. I say this because it doesn’t give me that high energy, cooling sensation, fuzzy stomach, butterflies, or sweaty palms reaction, rather; this tea puts a smile on my face and makes the sun shine. I like these kinds of teas, and I usually only experience this with northern puerh and Nepalese blacks. I will hopefully be getting more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGCIKoFTGae/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGCKYJuTGQk/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGCtPFTzGUI/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This is the last of my Liquid Proust puerh sampler, and I have to say that it’s been an interesting ride. Thank you so very much LP!

If this experience has taught me anything, it’s how to identify a shou and a sheng by sight, taste, and smell. This one’s definitely a shou. Its fermenty flavor seems to have mostly aged out. The flavors I am getting are slightly tangy, a little old leather, and wet, earthy leaves. Actually, it tastes pretty similar to how it looks, which is a first for me.

I took a sample of this out of the GCTTB5 box 2 because I knew that I wanted to try it but didn’t want to hold the box up, so thanks for the sample Bitterleaf!

I combined the first 3 steeps gongfu style because I didn’t have time for a full gongfu session. I found the first 3 steeps sweet with honey and hay notes. I also found some peppery cinnamon notes hidden in there.

I also combined the next three steeps and found it to be sweeter with less peppery notes. Delicious. It would be interesting to see how it changes with age as the description states, but I only took enough for 1 sample.

GCTTB V2

My first tea from Bitterleaf; but hopefully many more in the future. This is definitely a company that’s interested me for quite some time so I’m definitely excited to see the variety of samples in the tea box…

When I was measuring this one out I definitely assumed it was a jasmine scented white tea but before I started infusing I had the thought to actually look this one up and it’s actually a green tea? I mean – these buds look EXACTLY like Yin Zhen. I feel a little cheated that this is green tea; jasmine green is no where near as good as a jasmine white or black, imo.

But the tea tastes pretty solid: I got around six infusions before I got bored with the tea. Not to say that I couldn’t have further infused the tea as the jasmine was still a relatively strong presence in the cup but by that time I was done with the session. I’ve never been a “ten infusions in and still pushing” kind of tea drinker. The jasmine was quite potent in the first infusions though – almost to the point of being just a little nauseating. It didn’t taste artificial or chemical; just mighty intense. In fact, for essentially all my infusions it was such a dominant flavour that I couldn’t really taste the base anyway. Though, when I finally started to get more of a presence of it the flavour was mostly peachy sweetness and a gentle grassy note.

I’m happy to have tried this one; it was a perfect, lighter midday session in a day mostly filled with more heavy bodied/dominant teas. That said, I wouldn’t buy it myself when I have other jasmine teas on hand that I prefer. However, it makes me excited to try more of Bitterleaf’s offerings. Thank you Bitterleaf for your donation to this tea box!

I can’t give an accurate description of this tea because I just got it in the mail yesterday.
It still needs time to air out, but I’m too impatient. I’ll review this tea again and give it a rating when it airs out :)

Anyways, right off the bat this tea is very thick and oily – which costs your entire mouth that leaves a light cooling sensation as it dissipates from your palat. It’s got rich warm green notes, almost like a purple tea, and has an excellent sweetness that hits you like brick to the face. This is worthy of a sample – to say nonetheless.

I’ll come back to this and give it a more accurate description once it airs out more from shipping :)

Quoting haveteawilltravel here, because I can’t get any closer than this:

The flavor begins dry and with a drought earth flavor. This taste progresses to an old leather and top soil. The flavors keep a consistent smooth dry bite with some wet clay and rainwater flavors arising later on.

First shou for me! Thanks LP!

Very balanced tea that has really impressed me. To be honest, this is my favorite aged sheng to date (despite my love for the uber clean almost unfermented character of the multi-hundred-dollar 2005 LBZ or 2002 red yi wu zheng shan from YS). I really think the balance of good storage conditions and tight compression have led to a really great tea.

The dry leaf is highly compressed, and has a subtle scent of camphor. A small chunk is all it takes to fill a gaiwan once its opened up, but due to the compression, I had to use a scale to really know how much to put in. The piece looks so small, but I know it’ll fill the gaiwan soon enough…

I rinsed the piece of tea with boiling water, and let it rest for a good 10 minutes before proceeding. The rinse released a pleasant aroma characterized by subtle camphor notes with prominent musky sweetness I usually associate with much younger teas. There are no off scents: zero smokiness, no sourness, no dank character. It’s just pleasant and clean.

The first two brews were 10s long, and resulted in a dark golden brew. Clearly the tea is still opening up, but these first sips were pleasant with full body, no bitterness, a bit of camphor as expected from the aroma, but also with a pleasant dianhong-like character with sweetness and a mild malty character. The sweetness lingers (hui gan?) and the bottom of my empty cup smells like honey and flowers.

The next two brews, again 10s long each, reveal a deep red liquor that maximizes the flavors from the first two brews, in line with the unraveling tea that is expanding in the gaiwan. Again, this reminds me quite a bit of a camphorous, slightly drying dianhong. The texture is pretty much identical.

The tea is fully opened up now. Steeps 5, 6, and 7 bring out even more sweetness, while also bringing forth a bit more drying character. The dryness really isn’t an issue at all, in fact I find it pleasant, since its perfectly in balance with the sweetness and body. The camphorous character is more in the background now.

Eight and 9 were pushed to 15 seconds, with a deep red color defining the liquor. There’s no sign of this tea losing steam, and the flavor and aroma are still strong as ever.

10, 11, 12, and 13 all were pushed from 20 – 40 seconds, and the color is becoming more golden in color again, losing its deeper red tone. The brew is smelling more and more like the later steeps of a dian hong, with a slight savory mushroom aroma. The body is still remarkably thick, and the sweetness and camphor are still there in the flavor but pushed the the background. Still very satisfying.

Overall, a great cleanly aged raw puer. Definitely grabbing at least one brick of this.

I’ve been interested in this company and this puerh made its way over to me. The brick is loosely compressed and very twiggy. I can pick up a heavy wood tone with some sweet earthiness. I warmed up my gaiwan and placed a chunk inside. The scent deepens to a smooth petrichor and some intense leather scents. I washed the leaves once and poked around to help expansion. The soup was thick but light crimson. The flavor begins dry and with a drought earth flavor. This taste progresses to an old leather and top soil. The flavors keep a consistent smooth dry bite with some wet clay and rainwater flavors arising later on. The leaf is very large and is pretty durable for a huangpian. Later steeping reflect a sweet dark fruit taste. This brew lasts for quite some time, but it was a little to dry for my tastes. This is a typical run of the mill Menghai Shu. It wasn’t terrible, but it was nothing too impressive.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BEMrT6pTGba/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I had apparently had this before and gave it a much lower rating than it had deserved. I think what happened was that I was new to tea and had no previous experience. I probably thought, “Tastes too much like mud, it’s not for me.” However, as my tastes change constantly, I find this quite enjoyable now. I’m starting to develop a liking toward the “old basement/moist woods” types of tea; especially shou. I like drinking something that reminds me of the most desired places for me (the woods) and the sense of belonging outside. I really have come to enjoy the teas that take me to the woods, where I can simply dwell without noise or passing hours cooped up inside an office. I tell my wife that I’d rather live in the middle of the woods or the country, without the noises that often hinder our abilities to enjoy the gift of nature. After drinking this today, I want to pack a few essentials, get my tent, and hike until the stars appear, as I watch from a burning flame and nothing but the nature to allow me to focus on this ultimate gift. This tea is beautiful, but it also allows me to reflect more on the beauty of the outside world—beyond everything else.

Quick Review, Via Dark Matter 2016

I had had this tea for two days. Despite my attempt to write whilst drinking, I had spent a majority of the first session reading a book. The second session was spent on the phone with school and preparing games for my students’ last day of school….However, as always, I had written a few words on a piece of scrap paper.

Light, woody, wet earth, reminds me of the Fall season (I’ll have to remember to grab some of this then), and a touch of hay(?).

Now, the first day, the tea seemed to be pretty light in flavor and color.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFm84iqg-3O/

Yet, on the second day (longer steeps), I could look at the liquid and say that I thought it looked like coffee (but it hadn’t tasted nor smelled like coffee. Heh) because it was so dark.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFoZ9gkA-xN/

Overall, it was pretty good. Not the absolute favorite of the group, but I was happy to have it for two days.

I haven’t spent a lot of time with this tea but the few sessions i’ve had with it were amazing. It was light and floral. Incredibly clean tasting and very smooth. It’s almost got light fruity notes in it.

This is a tea that i’m going to definitely buy more of in the future.

Honeycomb is a very complex bing, and is the best 100g bing that i’ve yet to come across. This Bing Dao was beautifully crafted, and the evidence was the wide array of tasting notes that this bing brushed against. This tea, composed of ancient tree leafs, is one that I wouldn’t recommend for beginners. I mainly say this because Honeycomb needs to be heavily focused to be completely. Due to the hight level of delicateness, it would be easy to overlook some of the greater aspects of it’s body and background notes.

You can read my fall review here,

http://coolcodyc.wix.com/theoolongdrunk#!Honeycomb/c21kp/5738f3aa0cf2384bbf949388

GCTTB5 box#2

Thanks for the donation Bitterleaf teas!

Mmmm, this is a delicious smelling tea. The aroma is almost like baking sugar cookies or honey buns.

The flavour is good as well, sweet Yunnan black tea with a thicker mouth feel. The aroma translates fairly well into honey buns but there isn’t really honey notes here—more of just a general sweetness. Lol, does that even make sense?

I actually had time to gongfu brew this today but I used my mini teapot rather than my gaiwan. I always burn my hands when I use it. I need to get an “easy gaiwan” I think. Where is a good place to get those? I saw some really nice ones on teawarehouse.

Subsequent infusions lost a little sweetness but we’re still delicious. The brew also got darker as I steeped in into the afternoon.

GCTTB

I wanted to try this one before i send out the box today/tomorrow so i’m working on sipping through this one now. I vastly prefer shou to sheng, but i’m always open to trying new teas in case i find that hidden gem that i love.
woke the tea up and then let it sit for a bit – these tiny bricks are fairly compressed.

Initial steepings of this one are quite nice. This is, so far, a milder sort of sheng – light on the vegetal sort of taste i don’t love – smooth and there’s a hint of sweetness starting to poke through. interesting to see how this plays out this morning