A huge thanks to Angel at Teavivre for this free sample! Sorry it has taken me so long to get to reviewing it – the weather got cold and I haven’t been in the mood for sheng lately with the weather, but today is warm and sunny, and I was reading sheng is good for allergies on a review somewhere so I will give it a shot, as mine are bad right now (well, lungs anyways).
Anyways, onto the tea review! The dry smell of the pieces of the cake (nice large ones I might add, perfect for a few brews) smells strongly of hay with some honey and crystallized sugar notes. I am going to try this first cup for 3 mins with boiling water, no rinse. As it steeps the cake piece breaks apart into lovely leaves.
Hmmm, the steeped smell to me is quite weird lol, almost a tobacco note in there! Strong almost grassy tones, and yes, that is definitely a tobacco note, at least to my messed up nose from allergies it is lol. I have never got that in a pu’erh before! We will see how it tastes!
Ah, the taste is much more pleasing :) very grassy, a strong green note, some green hay, and a tiny bit of honey. Also there is a smoky flavor kicking around in there too, maybe that’s where the tobacco smell was coming from. The flavors kind of go together but I am also finding it a bit tough to wrap my head around a green yet slightly smoky flavor. It actually reminds me of the days back in high school when I worked at a greenhouse/vegetable garden, on the days it rained – a lot of the ladies smoked there, so there was a hint of smoke in the air usually, mixed with that wet dirt and vegetables smell, along with wet hay from the nearby fields. I can actually picture it just like when I was there from this tea! Crazy, I love how teas can evoke good memories :) Oh and a sense of a tea buzz is definitely coming on, I will go slow with this cup lol.
Overall, this is a heck of an interesting tea! I have never had a sheng or any variety of tea for that matter that is like this. I’m also at a loss for how to rate this, I can’t decide if I like it or if it’s too weird for my tastes lol. But I am happy I got to try it as always!! I love broadening my tea tastes :)
Flavors: Grass, Green, Hay, Smoke, Tobacco
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So did it help with your allergies? Mine are awful right now.
Haha it actually didn’t too much unfortunately :( but I was cleaning all day stirring up every allergen in the house, so that didn’t help. My new air filter is helping more though however!
I need to start drinking more sheng if it will help! I cleaned out our very dusty storage room yesterday and was worried about aggravating a sinus headache but I got out of it. I did use some essential oils immediately after that are supposed to help with allergies,s o maybe they did.
So did it help with your allergies? Mine are awful right now.
Haha it actually didn’t too much unfortunately :( but I was cleaning all day stirring up every allergen in the house, so that didn’t help. My new air filter is helping more though however!
I need to start drinking more sheng if it will help! I cleaned out our very dusty storage room yesterday and was worried about aggravating a sinus headache but I got out of it. I did use some essential oils immediately after that are supposed to help with allergies,s o maybe they did.