Ebay Berylleb King Tea

Bought this out of curiosity and because I was looking for caffeine free herbals. This tea is interesting. It is both sweet and sour and quite good with some sugar. It tastes a bit like apricots and not in the way sheng puerh is described as tasting. It is very tasty and I think I may want to eventually order more of it.

I brewed a fair amount of this in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper, about two tablespoons worth of berries for 3 min in boiling water. The webpage said 5 to 10 berry slices per 250ml so I think I was in the ballpark.

I was pretty excited to try this rare green tea sample from Allan. At first I was confused about whether it was white or green tea. Then I found out it’s a cousin of Anji Bai Cha. I had already botched the first brewing when I tried this because I wasn’t sure how to brew it. This morning I brewed it just like I do most of my greens – Western style at 185F.

The dry leaves of this look like Anji Bai Cha as well. It’s got a sweet green pea flavour with chestnut notes. It tends to be on the light side for a green tea and it brews up a pale yellow. I think I have a tea in my collection that is similar to this one: Yunnan Qing Zhen Premium Green Tea Spring 2014. Only I think the YS is a more robust one than this.

I’ve checked out the price of this on Ebay and it is really pricey! I think there are other good teas out there at good prices without having to spend that kind of money. The one tea I mentioned from YS is quite reasonably priced along with some other Anji Bai Cha teas out there. I’m still glad I got to try this tea. It is a good one.

This tea from Berylleb King Tea is the best ripe tea I have drank in a while. It was sweet with very little fermentation flavor, just a little in the early steeps. At one point I detected a fleeting note of wet wood but just for a moment and just in one steep. This tea changed a lot over ten steeps. It was slightly bitter at first but that quickly went away. I am not sure how to best describe the sweet notes in this tea, the words dates or plums are usually used but I couldn’t quite pin it down. Regardless I am glad I bought this tea. It was not one of Berylleb’s cheapest nor was it their most expensive. While at ten steeps I had had enough tea I am sure there was more to the leaves. I would bet I could have gotten another five steeps out of them.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 170ml Yixing Teapot with 11.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. This was excellent and naturally sweet puerh tea.

This is the only Fucha I have drank. My initial thought was I would hate this tea. It had a smoky aroma as smoky as the strongest Lapsang Souchong. Luckily the taste was much more mild. Because of the aroma I gave this tea two rinses. The first infusion was smoky but not so smoky as to need milk. There was also a nice sweetness behind the smoke. It got progressively less smoky as I resteeped the tea. In the end I only gave it six steeps because I am watching my caffeine intake. This tea was not quite played out at six steeps but I don’t think I would have gotten too many more out of it. I don’t think it has the staying power of a good puerh.

I steeped this six times in a 120ml gaiwan with 5.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, and 20 sec.

This is a good tea but not a spectacular tea. It does not measure up to its namesake by Dayi, the 2010 Menghai Tea Factory Golden Needle White Lotus but I wanted to try it. It was a replacement tea from Berylleb for a different tea they sent me that was moldy. I was hoping this would be spectacular. After a long day that started with finding a brick through my window of my old car, getting the glass fixed (luckily I have full glass coverage), trading the car in for my new Subaru, I needed a good tea. This one was bitter in the first steep, got a little less bitter in the second steep, lost most of its bitterness in the third steep, and lost all of its bitterness by the fourth steep. By the fourth steep this was a very tasty sweet tea. I was drinking during a gaming session so I wasn’t paying attention to the nuances but it got pretty good, but still not spectacular. This is also a tea that started out quite strong and got weak fairly quickly. I took it through six steepings and it was nearly played out.

I steeped this tea six times in a 220ml Gaiwan with 8.8g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, and 30 sec. Judging by how weak steep six was I would say it only had two more steepings left in it.

This is a very tasty tea with a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left, but not as much as expected. It was earthy in the early steeps with a distinct but weak note of dates. They say that some ripe puerh develops dates note, this one has. The earthy flavor went away partially by the third steep and completely by the fifth steep. There were sweet notes that developed in the fifth and sixth steep that I would describe as berry notes. This puerh was a great value at only around $29.99 and contained no mold unlike the other puerh tea I have bought from Berylleb lately. I am still waiting for Berylleb to get back to me on that one. Hopefully their desire to keep a customer is stronger than their desire to keep $20. We shall see. This tea was excellent although it need five more years of aging before I will know its potential.

I steeped this tea six times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 9.2g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, and 30 sec. Had I wanted to continue I would guess that the tea had another four to six steeps in it. I stopped because I have had way too much caffeine today already.

The early steeps of this tea were quite strong. There were notes of leather, if that is the best description. There was quite a lot of fermentation flavor. Much more than in the 2013 tea I drank last night. The fermentation flavor did not last past the third steep and I got to the flavors beneath it. There were sweet flavors in later steeps, even berry notes. I did add sugar which I suspect accentuated these notes. They, however weren’t there in the first three steeps where I also added sugar. I don’t think it was the sugar. There appeared to be an incredibly small amount of white mold on this tea cake, barely perceptible. A photo of this cake extremely exaggerated this feature. I am not actually sure this white on the cake was mold and it was only on one side and only on the outside from what I can tell. This tea was not especially great and not especially terrible. I do suspect that it was not a real Banzhang cake like Berylleb said. I didn’t believe it to be a Banzhang cake when I bought it as it was only around $24.99 or so.

I brewed this six times in a 220ml gaiwan with 8.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, and 30 sec. Had I wanted to continue the tea session I would guess there were about 2 to 4 steeps left in the tea but I have to get up for work tomorrow and besides, it wasn’t good enough to steep more than six times anyway.

This tea did not come out quite as good today with my filtered water. When I brewed this at the hotel I used Poland Spring water. It came out with a much lighter flavor that time. In any case it is still really good. I still get notes of honey or perhaps honeysuckle and floral notes with a slight undercurrent of vegetal notes. Overall it is an excellent tea and the best green I remember trying. I have only tried twenty or so greens so I am not an expert. In contrast I am sure I have tried over 200 puerhs if not 300. This tea again combines elements of white tea in it. The leaves look like white tea and have a light floral, honey aroma to them. It brews up almost clear like a white tea, not greenish like a green.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 175 degree water for 3 min.

This is an incredible tea. It is sweet with notes of honey. It is slightly floral with light vegetal notes. By processing technique it is green tea. It shares many characteristics with white tea, hence the contradictory name. Its leaves are long and flat and look like white tea. The tea broth is very light colored, almost clear, much like a white tea. This tea is said to be high in theanine, the substance in tea that relaxes you. This is expensive tea, $50 for 100g. This is without a doubt the best green tea I have ever drank.

I couldn’t sleep so I was organizing my teas that I just brought out of storage. This tea happened to be in the last bag of teas. I thought it might help me sleep. I used a lot of tea because I wanted a stronger cup. It has a nice earthy taste to it, although this is not at all like the earthy of ripe puerh.

I steeped this tea in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity steeper for 7 minutes with boiling water. I used 6 tsp leaf.

This is the second time I have purchases this from Berylleb King Tea. This time I used 4.9g of leaf in a 16oz vessel and it came out a little weak. I think more like 7g would have been better. I got all three types of Chrysanthemum tea in the mail from Berylleb King Tea today and this is the first I’m trying. These are basically Chrysanthemum buds that haven’t opened yet. They have that typical earthy taste of Chrysanthemum tea has. This is not even remotely similar to the earthy of ripe puerh I just don’t know of a better way to describe it. It has a semi sweet earthy note to it. I find it goes very well with sugar so usually add a small amount to it.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 4.9g leaf and boiling water for 7 minutes.

This is a somewhat zesty somewhat earthy chrysanthemum tea. It is not toi be confused with the earthy of ripe puerh but is earthy none the less. It is good but not as good as the other chrysanthemum tea I reviewed last week. This time I brewed it with rose buds as well as chrysanthemum buds. It has a nice flavor, not sure what the rose buds add, not much I think.

I brewed this once in a 10oz mug with 5g chrysanthemum and 3g rose buds with boiling water for 5 min.

Today I tried a bit of an experiment with this tea. I brewed the old tea that I had thought must have gone stale. Only I found out that it seems that, at least in the short term, chrysanthemum tea can age. The year old tea I have brews up darker like an aged tea would, and has a slightly different taste. If anything it seems stronger and more flavorful. It still has a primary note that I describe as a sort of earthy note. Not a fermented note however, like many think of when you say earthy. I wish I could come up with a better word to describe it. I actually think the year old tea tastes better than the new batch. I suppose it could just be that the new batch is not as good but I don’t think so. I think this tea aged and improved. It seems to me it was lighter in color when I brewed it a year ago.

I steeped this one time with 8 tsp leaf and boiling water for 8 minutes in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper.

Used what I thought was quite a lot of this, 6 tsp of leaf. It was not enough. Next time I’ll use more like twelve tsp of leaf. This came out a little weak. Still it’s tasty. Very clear in color but flavorful. It has an earthy note to it, I don’t know how else to describe it. Not the sort of earthy you think of when you talk ripe puerh mind you. This is good.

I brewed 6 tsp leaf in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Grivity steeper with boiling water for 8 minutes.

This is very tasty chrysanthemum tea. I brewed this tea with dried rosebuds for some added flavor. There is a nice earthiness to the chrysanthemum that is not at all unpleasant like the earthiness that ripe puerh can have. I don’t know how else to describe it. It is a mellow and sweet earthiness. In the end I would rather be drinking puerh but can’t afford the caffeine tonight.

I brewed this once in a 400ml glass teapot with 2g Chrysanthemum and 2g rose buds with boiling water for 7 min.

The dry leaves of this tea are incredibly fresh and fragrant. The tea has a wonderful earthy flavor (a very different earthy from that of ripe puerh). I steeped this tea with dried goji berries for some additional flavor. It added a nice sweet dimension to this tea. The chrysanthemum flavor of this tea seems fairly mild in comparison with snow chrysanthemum flowers. I bought this tea partially for nights when I am avoiding caffeine but am drinking it tonight in between tea sessions.

I brewed this in a 10oz tea steeping mug with 9g goji berries and 5g chrysanthemum flowers and boiling water for 5 min.