Haixintang 2006 Stone-Pressed Sheng

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Fruity, Hay, Spicy, Vegetal
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Starfevre
Average preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 4 oz / 118 ml

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10 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I’m just getting started on a yixing session with this tea. There is an orange peel like quality to it that today brings to mind the old Constant Comment, which in my gramma’s house was considered...” Read full tasting note
  • “I’m not super fond of Sheng Puerh. I know that’s not something one should admit, but there it is…I’ve said it! Why? Some are too timid and some too ashy for my taste. I mentioned this to Lily...” Read full tasting note
  • “So I was a bad person and brewed this Western style and also added a bit more sugar than usual in hopes that this would be palatable to me because I have yet to like a pu’erh, sheng or shu. But I...” Read full tasting note
    76
  • “5g / 90ml celadon gaiwan. wash/10s/15s/25s/40s/1m added 20s per steeping after. Decent sheng. First infusions slightly earthy. Then very mild and fuity without a hint of astringency. It lacks that...” Read full tasting note
    76

From Verdant Tea (Special)

Verdant Reserve Club – May 2013

Haixintang is one of our favorite workshops in Yunnan. They are devoted to extremely high quality stone-pressed cakes made from wild-picked leaves, limiting most pressings to 10,000 cakes total. This means that even though they are an established high end company in greater demand than ever, they can maintain a devotion to presenting some of the finest tea out there. We respect the Haixintang aesthetic because they walk a fine line between two distinct genres of pu’er. On one end are extremely wild teas with complex and even unruly profiles, which grow into mind blowing aged teas. On the other end are very sweet fine pu’er that focuses on texture and aftertaste, growing and aging more slowly, but impeccably. Haixintang gets both elegance and a wild quality to their cakes, a remarkable feat.

This 2006 sheng has notes of clove, fig and raisin. The first sips confirm the intensely full packed body and mouthfeel of the tea with textural tongue numbing sensations. The aftertaste is creamy and floral exactly like vanilla. Citrus elements of tangerine and green notes of spinach come into play separately, and after several steepings, a wonderful daring spicy ginger quality. This tea is packed solid with flavor and has already matured beyond any bitter or drying qualities. One of Haixintang’s limited pressings, we hope you enjoy as much as we have.

About Verdant Tea (Special) View company

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10 Tasting Notes

3294 tasting notes

I’m just getting started on a yixing session with this tea. There is an orange peel like quality to it that today brings to mind the old Constant Comment, which in my gramma’s house was considered the ‘fancy tea’, lol. That is not to say that this tastes ANYTHING like CC, but it just made me think of it.

Meanwhile, Some of Us were whining yesterday about the last of our zhu rong & running out of Vanilla Citrus Spice, & I just looked at Verdant’s site & they are BACK!!! YEAH!! Guess who is getting ready to order some tea?
little terri says it’s our reward for getting our taxes done, & Ms Theresa just agreed (which is amazing, cuz she can be so disagreeable, especially when it comes to spending money!)

Sil

also..zhu rhong chai is up..

caile

I just saw that as well. :)

Terri HarpLady

got some of that too, hahaha, I pretty much loaded up on the flavored teas they have that I love. I also noticed that their description of Zhu rong has changed, which doesn’t surprise me, as it isn’t the same tea they were selling last year, at least not in my opinion, although it’s still tasty :)

Sil

hmmm… i’m not sure i have enough needs to get to free shipping threshold. sigh

UjiGyokuro

I just Gong Fu’ed some of that tonight for some of my friends!! It’s was literally one of the best tea moments I had!!

UjiGyokuro

I will load up on Zhu Rong Yunnan Black, Silver Buds Yabao, Imperial Breakfast and maybe the Zhu Rong Chai!! But I’m itching to get my hands on at least two ounces of the Golden Fleece Yunnan Black!

Terri HarpLady

Do it, Uji, if you can. It’s lovely for gongfu sessions.

Terri HarpLady

Sil, add a few oz of ..something? Or maybe you can combine orders with Cavo or one of the other Toronto peeps?

Sil

yeah…i think cavo JUST made an order but i’ll have to see if anyone wants anything. I can get to 45 if i have to..but believe it or not that extra 5 is just bordering on stupid amounts of tea lol

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676 tasting notes

I’m not super fond of Sheng Puerh.
I know that’s not something one should admit, but there it is…I’ve said it!
Why? Some are too timid and some too ashy for my taste.
I mentioned this to Lily Duckler and got an “Aha, I know just the sheng’s for you!”, which I hope she’ll enlighten me on at some point. I have an open mind!

Peeking at the flavor profile for the Haixingtang Sheng I was intrigued. It sounded like a Sheng Puerh I might like (skeptical comment but truthful).

Method: Fat Gaiwan, 4 oz water to 5 grams leaf. 1 Rapid rinse.

Chose to follow a 5 second steep, increasing 5 seconds each pour.

Visually: Sparkling clear champaigne gold liquor.

The first taste was so light that I could barely detect anything other than a bit of savory, spinachy something.

Unsatisfied, I gulped a big swig of tea which washed my mouth with the round flavor of vanilla bark. Something very distictly puerh’ish, a bit earthy with heat on the tip of my tongue.

The aroma of steeping tea smelled like spanikopita and vanilla pudding wafting through my kitchen. Sweet and savory!

I filled my cup again, the spinach gone, the texture smooth and refined.

Steep 3 changed to creamy spinach and spicy heat (odd how the spinach flavor came and went). I let the cup cool down, and tasted raisins.

The 4th steep was creamy, smooth and green vegital but not savory.
At the far back sides of my palate, I tasted CLOVE! The flavor was completely isolated from the creamy vegital taste.
Then, the tip of my tongue tingled the way ginger heats the mouth.

Again, I steeped the leaves and poured a glistening cup of Puerh.
I was puzzled about the aroma and flavor of the tea. The vanilla I tasted wasn’t Cookie or Pastry vanilla, but something different.

This was familiar in my taste memory, an experience with the scent and flavor if I could just remember!

Passing the Gaiwan in front of my nose, then sipping the tea…I remembered where I had smelled the scent, then the taste of the vanilla.

Months ago, I went with my granddaughter Schey to the local Hooka Bar! The scent and flavor was something like the vanilla tobacco…grassy, vanilla yet smooth.

Sounds odd, but there it was.

I quite liked this Sheng actually.

My apologies for the static structure of this review which when I began, was interrupted by several phone calls…ugh.

A new Steepster sent me a note that got me thinking. I’ve assumed that most people know who I am because I’ve been on Steepster for a long time, and so I chatter on with my stories, which makes no sense to newer arrivals.
My apologies.
In an effort to catch up anyone who may need to time-travel to the present…
I’m the OLD LADY of Steepster! Yes,65 and proud of it!
With health issues (migraines and fibromyalgia)…I live a happy, frugal life in Colorado (close to my daughter and her big family of 3 biological, 5 adopted and various foster children!).
My social outlets are a friendly local tea house (Happy Lucky’s), Church, writing on Steepster and a blog. I write about tea and tell stories most of the time in run-on sentences. Often, I’m opinionated but I never mean to offend anyone. I’m a lover of life and and a beginner learning about tea!

TheTeaFairy

Steepster people, don’t listen to her! She’s NOTHING like an «old lady» as she often refers to herself! And yes, she should be proud of her 65 years young :-) For those who don’t know her that well, Steepster just hasn’t been the same without her magnificent writing. This note is a good example of that, cheers Bonnie!

Terri HarpLady

I’ll 2nd everything the Tea Fairy said!

Bonnie

Ah sweet friends…you make my heart smile! So kind! Thank you

JustJames

well, then i suppose it should be official… we should discuss with jason the official formation of the ‘65 years young bonnie’ club.

Bonnie

You’re silly but nice James!

JustJames

silliness is a gift of potential that we should all act on =0)

xoxo

Bonnie

Xxxooo’s to one and all!

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76
772 tasting notes

So I was a bad person and brewed this Western style and also added a bit more sugar than usual in hopes that this would be palatable to me because I have yet to like a pu’erh, sheng or shu. But I keep trying, especially what Verdant sends me. The whole purpose of the membership is to expand my horizons after all. All of my notes on this tea should be viewed through that filter.

This tea still has that weird pu’erh aftertaste that I always get in the back of my throat, but upfront it’s actually not bad. I taste fig and raisins mostly. Maybe a little bit of vanilla in the tail end of the steep but I can’t tell if I actually taste it or if it’s the power of suggestions since I read the description. In any case, I don’t hate this, so I’ll probably continue drinking this and actually steep it more than once.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 1 min, 0 sec
Kittenna

One thing I’ve found with pu’erh is that I used to waaayy overleaf. Or just overleaf. And the flavour was not pleasant when I did that. It improved when I reduced the leaf by a fair bit, and kept to a short infusion time (looks like you did that part, though). It certainly still tastes like pu’erh, but was much more palatable.

Starfevre

That might be it. When I used a gaiwan for pu’erhs, I would put in about as much as they would recommend and it taste extremely gross to me, even if I tried to add sugar (and that was hard to judge with the tiny cups). This time I used 4ish teaspoons (and it was really clumpy so there wasn’t much in each teaspoon) for 750 ml. Hopefully tomorrow when I try the shu, I can replicate my efforts and that won’t be gross either.

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76
239 tasting notes

5g / 90ml celadon gaiwan.

wash/10s/15s/25s/40s/1m added 20s per steeping after.

Decent sheng. First infusions slightly earthy. Then very mild and fuity without a hint of astringency.
It lacks that certain oomph that i experience sofar atleast from wild arbor with the large leaves of older trees.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec
Terri HarpLady

I still haven’t tried either of these Haixintang Puerhs yet. I’m really behind on my bundle sampling :)

Dag Wedin

Haha yes, luckily mail from the US to sweden takes 2 weeks, so I still have some time before the next bundle reaches me :)

Terri HarpLady

Dag, you’re probably the only person I know that is glad the mail takes so long! ;)

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1137 tasting notes

Reminds me of CTG’s sticky rice pu’er tuo cha. I think I liked the wild arbor tea from this factory more than this one.

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42 tasting notes

I’ve been rekindling my tea love and unearthing some of the long owned teas I have in the back of my cabinet. I started with some solid favorite genres of mine like roasted oolong and shu puerhs, but I want to see if maybe I can appreciate sheng in a way I couldn’t before. Finishing off this reserve club sample seems like as good a way to do it as any.

5 sec wash

1st steep, 5 sec: The wet leaf smells like what I tend to not like in sheng flavors — bitter vegetables, but there’s a smoky smell hiding behind it. The liquor smells much more promising. A bit doughy, sweet, and a hint of the hay in the back. The flavor is a surprisingly pleasant combination of baking spices and hay. The mouthfeel is delightfully thick and mouthwatering without being too astringent.

2nd, 7 sec: The smell is smokey and the flavor is quite bitter and vegetal. Very astringent. Maybe I overcooked this round? This is what I think of sheng tasting like and why I’ve never been able to get into it. I dumped this cup.

3rd, 7 sec: Still vegetal but a bit more mellow and with a little bit of sweet dough flavor hiding in there.

4th, 7 sec: Mildly vegetal, but not getting much depth beyond that. Perhaps my tastebuds are just not calibrated to appreciate sheng.

5th, 9sec: I’m getting something a little fruity here like wine grapes, but it gets quickly overwhelmed by the vegetal flavors again.

Well, I think I’m going to admit defeat with this tea. I had hoped that many years after my last sheng experience I’d have gotten to a point where I could appreciate them, but at least with this particular tea there was still not a lot there for me to enjoy.

Flavors: Fruity, Hay, Spicy, Vegetal

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 4 OZ / 118 ML

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15267 tasting notes

Another from dinosara and my choice for a mid afternoon puerh. I pulled this one out since i had the 2006 shu this morning just to see how they might be different given that they ARE two wildly different puerhs..but similar hahaha at least in year and region.

I have to say, not a fan of this one. There’s something about the taste, even after multiple tastings that just isn’t sitting with me. It’s more vegetal than the shu and has a side taste that is like the oolong taste that i don’t like, but isn’t that taste. At least i tried..but not a fan.

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1113 tasting notes

Another tea from Terri HarpLady :D

This sheng brings to mind fresh cut wood, as well as slight hints of golden raisins. Strong aftertaste on my tongue. Decent enough sheng but as I’ve been drinking a lot of different ones lately I can tell you this is NOT one of my favorites… but it is hard to pinpoint why exactly. Perhaps the woodier ones are not for me? Still totally drinkable though and I will steep the heck out of these leaves :)

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