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7g used.
Note#1: The chlorine in later observed in later steeps may have been due to my tap water.
Note#2: This is a subtle tea; it does not have the concentrated herbyness. However; it has a good delivery and form, and I will score it highly for that. The cha qi also contributes to the score.

Dry leaf is colourful with medium compression.
Wet leaf is subdued fruit, complex herbyness and slightly mysterious with some cloudy smoke. This sounds promising.
5s – Interesting. Makes me feel a bit light headed. It’s mild, lightly plummy with no astringency. Super smooth.
10s – Liquor is dark yellow. It has raisins / apricot and they really stand out. Thick fruit with raisins, especially on the swallow. Contrasting bitterness on the swallow. The flavour arrives smoothly, lingers, then fades away; it does not drop off early. This tea is strangely commanding in a subtle way.
15s – Liquor is darkish orange. It is well balanced: the arrival to the finish and the flavour profile are very pleasing throughout. If it were music I’d say it was in the high range and sounding very good.
20s – Apricot, bright plums and raisins in one explosion, then after swallowing the flavour remains before fading away.
25s – Some chlorine, some astringency. I think this would taste better after it cools.
25s – I will have to let this one cool, as it tastes like water from a swimming pool… Still fruity, raisins, getting more astringent.

7g used.

Mid compression with some very pale green leaves (approx 1 in 20). Dry leaf has a light, sweet hay aroma, nothing much. The wet leaf is interesting; it explodes with a bacon-like aroma, then becomes fruity with citrus notes and ending in a sweet over-brewed sencha-like sweetness that lingers. There is some menthol too.

5s – Liquor is pale yellow. It has a pleasant fruity aroma, like honey and lemon cough medicine. The flavour is mainly lemony; it is a light, floral flavour, but it has a contrasting strong boost to it; like it start off light and lemony, but then it intensifies without the flavour changing much. No astringency; very little bitterness.

10s – Syrup, lemons, soft. Some bitterness, which contrasts with the sweet lemony flavour.

15s – Still soft and lemony. It has now started to show some bitter lemon. The flavour is so light it makes the water taste thick.

I had a quick read of some other’s notes on this tea, and yes this is delicate, but is this bordering on not much flavour? I’ve also noticed some creamy hay, something I noticed in the Hebden Tea Darjeeling FTGFOP Grade 1 First Flush. Is it bland and lemony or is it delicately soft lemon with contrasting bitter lemon? Is it honey and lemon cough medicine or is it delicate, peaceful, pleasant with subtle qualities, that are to be admired by those patient enough to understand it?

35 mins – I thought i’d brew it longer, so 35 minutes later… Liquor is dark yellow. It has a much thicker consistency. Taste is astringent; dry lemons and surprisingly not so over-brewed as I imagined it would be.

40s – Flavour gone.

7g used.

The dry leaf has medium/high compression. The aroma is dust. It looks dark and has been humid stored. There are hints of White2Tea 90’s Hong Storage, but without the lively raw beetroot.
The wet leaf has warm pastry, some soil, similar to by Hebden Tea’s Pu Erh Brick Aged Green Tea 1991, but without the sweet uncooked pastry. There is a bit of dark fruit.

5s – Liquor is light brown; this is wet stored, but how wet stored? Let’s find out. Flavour is not complex; there is no concentrated herbyness here. Currently, it is mild; a mild version of the Hebden Tea mentioned above, without the grease. Light pastry; light soil.
10s – Liquor is much darker – a darkish brown. Flavour is stronger: the soil is more prominent; it has more body. This tea is not particularly interesting at the moment.
15s – Liquor darker again: becoming dark brown. The flavour is now concentrated; there is some astringency. It is bolder, but has a sweet, raw beetroot flavour in the swallow. Have I just brewed the storage influence out and now getting to the tea?
20s – Liquor is reddish brown. Flavour is settling down: raw beetroot meets a lot of heat and loses some sharpness.
25s – Liquor is lighter reddish brown. Raw beetroot, soil, lively; there is dried chilli spice. It is described as being spicy. This can be felt at the back of the roof of the mouth. The warm pastry has gone, and that’s a good thing.
35s – Liquor is a darker reddish brown. The smoothness has gone; it’s now a little astringent, soily, and a bit dry.
~1 minute – Browny red. Boldness is going, leaving raw beetroot and spiciness.

7g
The aroma of the dry leaf (tuo) is herbal, hay, has complexity and promises an interesting drink. It is highly compressed.
The aroma of the wet leaf is slightly medicinal, fruity, stewed mushroom, sweet peat (Laphroaig/Talisker/Ardbeg aroma), floral with a pollen-like sweetness, dark cherries, strawberries, warm lemon. There is smoke, but it’s not overpowering; it’s smoked fish (kipper) smoke.

5s – Fruit on the front of the tongue, smoky on the swallow, medicinal. It has a mushroom direction: perhaps time has changed it’s sharpness into this fungus flavour profile.
10s – It has the Menghai flavour profile of concentrated herbyness. It has Lapsang Souchong smokiness and slight bitterness. It is complex.
15s – Concentrated herbyness with a mushroom direction. You first get the concentrated herbyness, and then you get the mushroom-ness. Floral sweetness sits on top of the concentrated green base. The only other tea I’ve known to have this is 2002 CNNP Little Yellow Mark Private Order by White2Tea. It does tingle on the edge of the tongue.
20s – The wet leaf now has a pungent aroma. It is becoming astringent

3g and 2 rinses.

The aroma of the dry leaf is hay, dried fruits, dusty, very pleasant, has complexity and is creamy. Leaves look chopped. There are some silver tips and some green leaves in there amongst the darker green leaves and some stems. In the wet leaf aroma the fruit is much more obvious and almost citrussy; there is warm apples, cherries and strawberries. It is also creamy hay again. This is delightful.

Brewed for 4 minutes in a cup, it has concentrated fruit, it is creamy, has some complexity and the flavour lingers for a bit. The aroma is fruity with plums and is creamy. I take a sip, it is mid-strength, it does drop off a little early and it is a bit drying, but the arrival and mid-taste are good and it has a bite to it.

For the first try of this tea I broke of 10 grams and brewed it for 5 seconds. This is one strong tea! Later I found that 3 grams is more than enough. There is a flavour in this tea that reminds me of some White2Tea teas I have previously drank. It is that concentrated herbyness.
Well this tea certainly does not lack raw strength. It has a lot of smoke (peppery smoke) and a lot of bite. The tea itself looks highly compressed, but it actually breaks apart very easily. I decided not to take specific notes on this tea because I don’t think it is ready to drink yet, and instead decided to say how strong it was. I will continue to drink it until I get round to making my first order from Yunnan Sourcing, where I hope to get some more interesting teas.

1 teabag used.

It is a pyramid tea bag. Small rolled leaves unfurl and expand across multiple brews. It is unfortunate that it is not mentioned on the packaging that this tea can be brewed multiple times. It would be easy to brew it once and throw it out unaware that it has more brews left in it.

~5 minutes, as instructed.

Full flavoured, lingering sweetness. The sweetness is at the back of the throat. I would say that this is not as fresh tasting as the Dayuling from zen8tea.

8 minutes – The sweetness coats the mouth.

~15 minutes – A sugar-like sweetness on top of a hearty-sweet deeper sweetness.

1 tea bag used.

2 minutes and left the tea bag in.

Aroma: Dark chocolate, creamy, slightly earthy.

Taste: Creamy, earthy. There is sweetness on top of a woody base. The creaminess lingers. Mellow. Slight bitterness on the swallow.
At 99p for 25 teabags I rate this highly because it is a good introduction to cooked pu’erh for pennies. It also tastes really good, is refreshing and mellow.

I can see some similarities between this tea and the cooked pu’erh I got from White2Tea (2002 CNNP 7572). However, with the tea bags, they don’t re-steep particularly well.