2013 Ontario 1357 Shou Pu-erh

From the Sheng and Shou TTB.

Prepared gongfu-style with a ceramic gaiwan. I followed Whispering Pines’ instrucitons: one five-second rinse, then steeping times at 30, 15, 30, 45, 120, 300.

I experienced the aroma the way Whispering Pines recommended. Earthy notes fill the hot bowl, after letting the dry leaf sit in the moisture for some time. Following the rinse, the wet aroma gives off loam, sugarcane, and a bit of mushroom. The sessions finishes with freshly baked raisin bread, and then finally raisins and plums.

The liquor is dark amber early on. Longer steeps yield a more coffee-like color. Right of the bat, this shou is thick and creamy, full-bodied, and incredibly rich. Because I had to rush the session, thereby drinking all six cups within a span of two hours, it made me feel sluggish, and my stomach felt really full. Not just because I’d want to savor it, but the next I drink I need to space out each cup so that I don’t feel like I’ve eaten a huge chunk of triple-layered chocolate mousse cake in fewer than five minutes. Wowee!

The first infusion is very sweet, tasting of pure sugarcane and a little earth, with a chocolatey finish. The second is more earthy, and mushrooms first appear in the third, where I envision toadstools, covered with some dirt, in the middle of a damp rainforest. Sweetness returns in the fourth and fifth infusions – maple syrups, caramel and cocoa. The session would have great to end there on those notes, since I’m a dessert last kind of person, so I was caught off guard when the mushrooms again make their appearance in the sixth and last infusion. I loooove cooked mushrooms. These ones at first were sauteed, and then were those from cream of mushroom soup.

The descriptions I read in the past are not a lie. The cake is genuine. And speaking of cake, when this shou going to be sold again, I’m grabbing one.

First Pu-erh i have tried. Smooth to drink. Nutty flavor. Not bad considering i usually do not like black teas. A solid 85.

I spent all afternoon with this one yesterday and it is my first pu-erh in probably 2 years or so. The only other experiences I’ve had were from David’s and a local store-bought one, both of which I PASSIONATELY DESPISED. Why would I want to drink stinky fish-dirt tea?!

Just wanted to give a background on my lack of good experiences with this kind of tea. The thing is, I love trying new things and I didn’t get how so many people love pu-erh when I absolutely hated it. I decided to give it another go. And this time purchase one that I had carefully screened for offensive fishy notes.

The dry loose (no cake on this one) leaves are tightly rolled, dried, almost powdery-looking. They are dark with lighter golden-brown hues mixed in. I don’t know how other pu-erh teas feel, but this one was heavier in my hand than the loose leaf black teas I am used to. It smelled a bit like a blend of dates and earth, but not in a moldy way if that helps (sorry!).

I brewed it with my lovely and delicate TeaVivre gaiwan and the steeped tea is a deep red-brown clear liquor. It is very aromatic with more of the prominent dates and earth fragrance- almost reminds me of piles of leaves after the rain.

The initial flavour is straight up walnut (with the shell and all) blended with a brown sugar sweetness. It still has the earthy background, but it makes it feel thick and full-bodied on the tongue instead of like a dessert. I followed the brewing directions exactly for this with 30/15/30/45/2 min/5 min and each time I was able to enjoy the walnut, brown sugar, earth combo, though it became notably weaker towards the end. I didn’t give this a higher rating only because I was desperately looking for the vanilla/cream/camphor notes described on the WP website and I didn’t find them. That said, I still really enjoyed it. Next time I am going to try Western style brewing and see if I can find those missing notes. As many of you know, I love true vanilla and even the faintest taste would be wonderful in a tea that is already a pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon.

TLDR version: I used to think I hated pu-erh. Now I don’t. This one tastes like walnuts, brown sugar, and earth. :)

I finally finished off my 2oz of this one. Took me ages, but it was a satisfying sip-down. I have to say I didn’t find this as interesting as others did. It was a pretty middle-of-the-road shou. General earthy flavors, but with a nice thick mouthfeel. No noticeable qi. I relegated this one to helping with occasional after-dinner bloat, rather than drinking it for pleasure.
Overall, not a bad shou. Nothing particularly offensive about it, just a bit dull.

Dark, thick, smooth, vanilla, caramel, cocoa yummy-ness!!!

When I got home late last night and I opened this, I had a feeling it was going to be great. It smelled so good! Well, it tastes amazing too! Uh oh, this is bad for my tea budget! ;)

This is excellent sweet puerh with a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. It is thick with notes of cocoa and dates. The fact that it has dates notes is interesting to me as these usually develop in aged ripe puerh but this seems to have them. Perhaps my adding a small amount of sugar brought them out but I think they were there none the less. I think I want to pick up 4 more ounces of this so I have some to age. I don’t know how long this will be in stock.

I brewed this three times in a 12 oz teapot with 9.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave each infusion 30 seconds. I do not use long steeps when I brew this way, I use more of a hybrid method with puerh, using short steeps and a larger, non gongfu, teapot. I find the brewing puerh for 3 minutes is unnecessary unless you are using a much smaller amount of tea when you brew.

I was gonna post a review
until got High,
It was gonna be a good one too
but then i got High,
I messed the whole thing up and i know why
Cuz i got High, Cuz i got High
because i got High

alls i did was drink a little tea too and now i feel like oh my it must be my birthday or christmas hell maybe it’s friday and i’m in love, i just feel so warm and cozy inside like omg i’m so happy and just i dunno man, 6 steeps in and I wrote a review then i read it and i was like WTF am i talking about its crazy man i really can’t post that one, I’ll fix that mess and post it in the morning. right now and alls I really want to do is drink and feel good, Good in ways that are not so easy to describe right now :)
Eleventy-one Points for this one!!
Well that’s it till tomorrow, Happy Halloween!

da da da da, da da da da, da da da da!

I know this is a long review. Sorry but I still think you should read all of it. Just saying.

So. Shou. I kind of have a thing for it.

I drink it everyday and have lots of favourites. I have been known to have shou boxes in the house. (See what I did?) That was before I copied MzPriss and make my own “pumidrawer”. Cause you know…who doesn’t want to be like the fabulous MzPriss?

So it is established that I have a huge amount of shou in da house. But. As you probably know, I can’t resist many of the WP teas. I just go where quality is.

And I had yet to try this one. MzPriss recently reviewed it, and I was kind of envious. She got a real shou buzz out of it. I wanted that too!! But hey, you just don’t order a shoubuzz like you order a pizza.

I had already gotten a nice buzz from a sheng earlier. Pinky cheeks and all. Very nice qi. But not over the top.

There was still room for more. So…could I get lucky twice in the same evening?

Well. That is an understatement folks. This stuff should be illegal.

First I will describe the taste, then the qi. (Cause really, I could devote an entire page to it)

The dry leaves look like “chocolat au lait” shavings, so pretty.

I’m using 7g for 5oz shou yixing (shouxing?)

First steep, and wow. I mean this is as soft and smooth as angel wings. Makes me regret wasting the rinse.

No trace of earthiness or even leather in this. It’s all nuts and creamy vanilla. At first, I thought roasted pecans. When I later read the description, it said walnuts and I think it’s more accurate.

It’s sweet, in a dark brown sugar kind of way. It also provides that fresh mouthfeel of camphor that coats your entire mouth and lingers on your lips.

The third steep was probably the best. A little powdery, still very nutty and creamy.

I stopped at around steep seven, and I can tell you that by then, all I could do was lay on my back and enjoy the feeling.

The qi. It made my body twinkle all over. This tea is pure warm energy. I could feel my blood circulate. It made me tea drunk in a way I have never experienced before. Oh, I have felt this way before, but I promise you it wasn’t from tea leaves. (O.O)

And I kept thinking how nice this feeling will be on upcoming lazy rainy days. I’m gonna need
a lot more of this.

If you already like shou, this will only make you like it even more. And to all non shou lovers, please hurry and give this a try.

P.S. There should be a warning on the pouch: don’t shou and drive.

The guest of honor for a spontaneous late afternoon shou party. This was my first time for this one. I don’t have my shouxing seasoned yet so I did this in the gaiwan.

The first steep was nice and balanced. There is leather here but not overwhelming leather, just nice and earthy.

So far my favorite steep is the 3rd. It mellows into sweetness with a camphor tingle at the end.

I’m well into this but I have to say the body feel is immediate. First a little wisp of full body relaxation and then I relaxed into a lovely puddle. The head hum is deep and steady and yummy. My legs are a little rubbery and I’m leaning back and listening to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX3UEGFrINI over and over while I go father into this yummyiness

This is a delicious, smooth shou. I’m glad I have it. Another winner Hobbit! Now I’m gonna go lay down and listen some more and enjoy this.