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Have had this twice now, with similar ish ratios (5.5 or 6.5 g to 90ml). Once with gaiwan, once in zhuni, both boiling. It’s decent, but I don’t think I’ll buy it because I hate dealing with iron cakes. It takes one rinse to open up the chunk slightly, and then another longer rinse to soften it so it’s able to be fully picked apart. Even then I have to use my fingers to separate chunks into manageable pieces which is fine for drinking alone if a real hassle, but I would definitely not do if I was brewing for others.

Wet leaf: sweet (tomato-like?), woody, light smoke, pond

Taste is mostly woody, grass jelly, herbal/medicinal, sometimes apple-like and bitter adjacent but not quite bitter in the oversteeped heizhuan/fu way. Good texture, though taste isn’t terribly exciting most of the time. Which is a good thing, i think, since it seems clean. Feeling is comfortable, slightly warming. It’s in a good spot as far as I can tell, though for price point, I think I’m leaning towards caking the 7532 TWL carries.

got around to this after 2 years…

6.7g, 90mL duanni, 212f

2 rinses. compression is not too bad, but was hard to separate individual leaves as is often the case for shou puer.

1st: slightly bitter, some acidity. rounded and something coffee like

2nd: like 1st. slightly sweet finish, almost like a sheng with a few years on it in a minty sweet floral kind of way.

3rd: clean.

i had dinner plans and so had to run, but this was a pleasant surprise. I don’t think I’ve made it a secret that I don’t fancy most of what I’ve tried from EoT, and find their teas I’ve tried subpar, or at best to be of mediocre value and/or quality. I enjoyed this! I haven’t bought anything from W2T in years, so have no benchmark for modern shou though

5.7g, 90 mL, 212f

nice complex wet leaf aroma: sweet, BBQ, sour, medicinal, woody

1st: medicinal, cherry, almost cola like sweetness. a bit stilling

2nd: good texture, some bitterness after oversteeping a bit. Some acidic sourness with a fruity finish. Sits on tongue, but only a bit in throat.

3rd: brassy? sour and woody with some mushroom in aftertaste

Steeped a few more times, but didn’t take specific notes on this after. Very tasty and dies out fairly elegantly. Overall a comforting and slightly quieting tea, would be good to do work with. Did not find it particularly heating as other online reviews have mentioned, but will need to finish the rest of my sample and re-evaluate. It’s not a tea I ever got around to purchasing I think since it’s just pricey enough where there’s a bunch of solid options (and also someone(s?) kept buying it out every time I ordered from TWL…), but first impression here is positive, if not necessarily astounding.

5.9g, 90mL, boiling, mixed water

1. bitterness that dissipates immediately into candied florals on tongue. bit of medicinal woody taste and maybe watermelon rind white part. some oversteeped hongcha taste reminiscent of the 04 nannuo gushu from TWL. Engaging and dyamic

2. more medicinal taste. heating, and sinking in center chest

3. dull leaf taste like most of my YQH. nothing like steeps 1 and 2

4. still dull, but feeling seems intact

5. kill steep. sappy mushroom taste and some bitterness when cooled

this is the second time I’ve had this tea and maybe the cake edges are just not very good compared to when i had the MZ. Will need to revisit down the line bc for the hype this tea gets, both sessions w this were disappointing. I guess I’m glad to have a cake to revisit, since the other tea I remember being amazing upfront and then dying almost immediately was one of the YQH jinchas. An experience akin to fireworks…

Have only ever mugged this but it’s reasonably enjoyable that way. Mid aged sheng profile, but very very strong BBQ note and not sure how I feel about it. Some grape in the aftertaste, as mattcha notes.

5g/90mL/boiling. Water mix

dry: fruit, apricot
wet: green tea, sweet pea, hint of smoke

rinse was a little too long, and was nervous about the remaining flash steeps, but tea handled it very well for something so young

1st: full mouthfeel, grapefruit like floral and numbing on tongue. apricot and gummy candy aftertaste, and a brief floaty feel in head. A little slowing. minty and sharp taste at edge of tea
2nd: sharper taste, with tongue cooling. Lingers in throat and breath
3rd: similar, vanilla note on end

Did not note the remaining 3 steeps, but stopped then bc the stewed veggie taste started to show. Still interesting aspects and it could’ve gone for a little longer.

Really tasty, although not cheap. Very soft in taste and feel for a young tea, so probably a more modern processing style meant to drink now

Finishing random sample bags.

2 rinses for tight compression. Somewhat choppy material, at least for the sample. 7.2g/90/212

1. Yang storage, bitter herbal, honey. Some floral (overstepped chrysanthemum tisane?) aspect to aftertaste in throat
2. Similar but more pronounced bitter. Some warming and downing feeling in face
3. Woody bitter. Warming in face

Did fourth and fifth long distracted steeps, but not too interesting otherwise.

7.1g/100 mL duanni/212. Brita filtered tap.

in all fairness, my sample may just be dried out, but it tasted like wood chips and yee on’s basement. very little of the other notes hinted at in the description. I’ll reassess later when I remember, but atm would take any of the TWL old liu baos over this.

6.2g/90 mL ZZZ teapot/212f.

Bought this as a sample from LP a few years ago and finally brought it back after visiting home for the weekend as a consolation prize after I was unable to locate my Naked Yiwu cake in the mess of boxes. Was more than a little upset to open it and see that the sample was comprised of a small bing hole segment and leaf bits (very choppy after brewing), so I’m not sure if this was from a cake or the tuocha.

Having this after trying the 2015 Lishan Gongcha was a mistake, but my friend was very gracious about it. LSGC didn’t shine as much as it could’ve (my fault), but frankly this tasted downright terrible (not my fault) compared to LSGC. If this was my intro to puer, I would probably not try it again, or at the very least, avoid it for a good while. Friend mentioned a jujube-like (sans the sweetness) note, but for me the storage note, smoke, and a strong sour taste were dominant. What Mattcha describes as “pond water” doesn’t seem too far off. Wisps of sweetness and floral in one of the later steeps, but I didn’t push too much towards the end. Texture was good throughout. Stilling feeling, and strong heating towards face, and also slightly in arms and chest. Guess the nice thing here is the feeling, even though it looks like from my previous note from my cake that the taste here could be far better.

5.6g/90mL/212f in a gaiwan, Brita filtered tap.

Drank this with a lunch guest back to back with Zipin. A mistake, though my friend was a very good sport about it lol. Have had bad reflux symptoms more and more lately, so have had to stick to lighter meals and avoid tea for the most part.

Anyway, the tea was nice, but punchier than expected. I had a poor frame of reference for this going in I think, since most things I choose to drink in the limited time I have for longer sessions are things with some age (mostly >15 yrs+), so I didn’t expect this to taste quite so young. Lingering floral, apricot, and licorice notes, and a trailing string of bitterness throughout from brewing with too heavy of a hand, most likely. Stopped at around 5 steeps, but could’ve continued a bit longer. Wisp of smoke on the wet leaf at some point. Dried leaves after steeping were still very floral.

Some quieting and a burst of warmth that gave way to cooling. Friend didn’t think of it as warming at all though, so maybe just something for me.