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After resting these balled up tea leaves in a preheated gaiwan, the dry leaves emanate a rich scent of honeyed tropical fruits, magnolias and irises.

After the first infusion, the wet leaves give an intense and sweet floral aroma, like osmanthus and roses, with a huge splash of candied apples. The tea flavor is incredibly lush, fulling my mouth with the taste of passion fruits and plums. I have never had a tea this incredibly lush in flavor and yet clean tasting with not a hint of bitterness or over-roasting. As the wet leaves cool in the gaiwan, their scent sweetens and shifts from primarily floral to primarily that of (almost sickly sweet) candied fruits, mostly peach or nectarine. The sweetness lingers.

The second infusion tastes more floral, with strong notes of apple and honey. There’s a hint of dryness this time and the lingering taste is of apple peels.

In later infusions the floral note became a more subdued orchid and the roasted flavors came out more.

This tea is one of the best I’ve ever had. Taiwan Tea Crafts has some kind of spell on me. At first I couldn’t stop myself coming back for their unique and amazing selection of teawares, now I’m swooning over their teas, the more samples Phillip sends me with my orders!

Tip: brew this tea at 205F. I tried it at 196F as well and the flavor was nowhere near as bold or complex.

I’m surprised I haven’t reviewed this yet. This was my first ripe Puer and probably the one I have the most experience brewing. And over the course of a couple of years as my brewing style has become more refined, I have learned to unlock the potential of this tea through Gongfu Cha. This review is a sipdown! :(

This time I am using a small round gongfu teapot. The first infusion is very smooth. The wet leaves smell like the forest floor during a heavy rain, when waters are pushing soil and leaves around, bringing up many earthy and leafy aromas. It also smells like sweet bread dough. The flavor by the second infusion is very sweet, the sweetest Shou Puer I’ve had. It’s subtle in comparison to the sweetness of some other styles of tea like white or oolong can be, but there’s a sweetness that lingers in the mouth and is quite sugary. It makes me salivate. The taste is like dates with an earthy backdrop. There are some mild wood flavors as well, hints of molasses. The third infusion really draws out more sweetness and is truly rich, especially as the tea cools.

This is an especially enjoyable ripe Puer. I may end up purchasing more of this.

Bi Luo Chun is quite a delicate tea and I’ve often seen it recommended to be brewed with a top-putting method, that is placing the tea leaves into the vessel after you’ve already filled it with water. Perhaps this was my mistake, as I didn’t do that, but instead I tried to pour the water as gently around the edges of my gaiwan as possible so as not to damage these delicate curly green leaves. My first couple infusions of this tea were a bit on the bitter side, but my third infusion was really harmonious with notes of dew and honeysuckle interspersed with fresh grassy green flavor. There’s a good lingering sweetness, and the feeling this tea leaves in the mouth is very stimulating, a definite hui gan is there. The sensation that lingers in my mouth after drinking this is amazing, a clean, minty kind of tingle and sweet flavor.

I don’t feel the bitterness in this tea is an indication of poor quality. Rather it is simply not a very forgiving tea, and takes some skill to brew. Subsequent infusions of this tea were very sweet, mild, and full of flavor. Despite the clean, stimulating feeling on the sides and roof of the mouth, there’s a bit of drying sensation on the tongue.

Flavor-wise, this is one of the best green teas I’ve had. Getting the texture and mouthfeel to be as gentle as the flavors seems a bit of a challenge for me. Maybe if I had more than a sample amount to experiment with I could try using a lower temperature, a top-putting method, or less leaf. For now, I’ll just say this is an interesting green tea that is well worth trying.

EDIT: I tried what little I had left of this sample in a really small gaiwan and used a top-putting method, and it definitely made a much smoother first few infusions. The tea takes some finesse to brew properly, but if you can get it right, it’s rewarding. :)

Out of the bag this tea smells intensely of dark chocolate and malt. After the initial infusion in a small gongfu pot, the leaves have a cocoa scent with notes of hay and floral.

This first infusion has a really full dark-chocolate like taste with a lingering bitterness just like the chocolate. There are notes of floral as well, but the dark chocolate and malt tastes are the dominant ones. There are some woody notes as well. In terms of sweetness this is one of the less sweet red teas I’ve tried. It is bold.

The second infusion liquor smells like camphor, chocolate, and flowers. The taste is still quite bold with all three elements taking up part of the flavor as well. There’s a bit of apricot too. Further infusions yielded increasingly mild and clean tasting brews. Overall this tea has a bit of a kick to it, which is probably great for those who like their black tea to have bite. On the other hand, I like my black teas to have that little bit of zing but with some creamy or sweet undertones to help anchor it and make a more rounded infusion. This tea lacked those subtler qualities for me, and I found that doing a lighter brew to tone it down seemed to significantly decrease the flavor rather than just making it seem lighter. It seemed hard to avoid the tannic contributions in this tea without missing the flavors altogether. The quality of the tea was good but it falls outside the preferences of my palate. I might recommend it for people who like dark chocolate.

I’ve had the pleasure of enjoying a tea from Misty Peaks at a friend’s tea gathering before, but this is my first time sitting down alone and brewing one myself. Thank you to the staff at MPT for sending a sample to try!

The dry leaves smell abundantly like an old forest during the wet season, hints of bark and moss, flowers, fresh green leaves and hints of decay.

The wet leaves smell like roasted chestnuts and flowers in bloom. I am brewing these in a gaiwan and gave them a quick rinse infusion that I didn’t drink. The first infusion is very clean tasting with subtle dried-fruit notes, hints of orange tree flowers, and a slightly peppery, woody finish. There’s a touch of bitterness that lingers at the end of the sip, but it is subtle.

The second infusion yields a more fruity taste, like golden raisins or golden apples, something slightly tart, then I taste wood (a friend said sandalwood, and I think this is just the right descriptor), then again a lingering peppery finish. The next infusion has similar flavors, but smoother and more clear-tasting, less lingering bitterness. The fourth infusion is even more apple-tasting and the lingering taste not so peppery, more woody.

I was able to push, many many infusions out of this tea. The stand-out quality of this Puer for me is its clean taste. While some of the flavors and the balance of flavors are a bit on the woody side for my tastes, I can’t dispute how clean this tea tastes, and the bitterness, even for a freshly harvested sheng, is very low and mild throughout the infusions.

I am brewing this in a pretty new zisha clay gongfu style pot. It’s a little pear-shaped one, and after a lot of internal debating, I decided I’d use it for Shu Puer. This Puer is pretty smooth, sweet, and creamy for a Shu Puer. It has a bit of the leathery aftertaste, but not too much. Of all types of tea, Shu Puer tastes the most consistent to me, so usually when I have it, it’s very subtle differences that make its character different from others of its type. Only a couple so far have had any significant stand-out qualities to me.

By the second infusion of this tea, I’m already getting an even smoother quality and none of the earthy aftertaste. It’s more mouth-coating and sweet this time, making me salivate more. Third and fourth infusions are similar, just not as sweet and a bit more dank and earthy. As for notes… musty, earthy, woody, and nutty all describe this tea. The usual shu Puer flavors. It’s a pretty clean one though overall, and mild.

I have to give myself a little credit for being one of the handful of people to convince Shang to market and sell this tea. I was at the shop in spring of last year asking about the recent harvest just a few weeks prior when he happened to have a sample of it, and he brewed some of the freshly harvested white tea for us. We loved the flavor so much we sort of begged Shang to offer it in the store. Green Peony may not be what you think it is by the name. It’s not a green tea at all. Rather, it is actually a white tea. His White Peony King tea normally gets aged for two years before he puts the tea on the store shelves. In these two years, the tea leaves take on a much browner hue and develop a more mellow and complex flavor that white peony tea is known for. Green Peony is what the company is calling their White Peony that is freshly harvested and has not undergone this aging. It also has been air dried rather than sun dried.

Green Peony is a limited tea from Shang Tea that he decided to sell around the winter holidays last year alongside a limited Holiday Red tea. It’s from the 2014 harvest of White Peony, and without the usual aging the leaves are a vibrant green. The aroma of the wet leaves is bright, dewy, and lush in comparison. It reminds me a lot of green grapes with hints of melon and cucumber.

The brew tastes very sweet and light, more grassy and fresh than the usual white peony, with a champagne-like green grape flavor and an unmistakable finish of peach. It’s also quite sweet, especially in later infusions brewed in a Gongfu style. It gets very peachy and unexpectedly sweet by about the 6th infusion or later, when you’d expect the flavor to be dying out rather than strengthening.

This tea is a beautiful one to look at and just as wonderful to drink. I’m not certain of its availability at this moment, as it is not currently on the website (they may have some at the store if you’re local), but I really hope Shang Tea will be selling a 2015 batch of this around the winter holidays like they did with last year’s harvest. Only time will tell. I think this tea is a wonderful addition to the Shang Tea repertoire, especially for those with a taste for green teas. It has a bit of the vegetal vibrance of a freshly harvested green tea, but the lightness and exceptionally clean taste of a white tea.

The scent of these large rolled tea leaves is fruity, nutty, and creamy. Shan Lin Xi is my favorite region for rolled oolong, so I’m excited to try this winter picked variety. An initial infusion really opens up the aroma of the leaves, and it’s incredibly fragrant, with plentiful bouquets of flower scents and a very forward plum aroma.

The first infusion is very rich and sweet, the predominant fruit note being of nectarine with a long lingering passion fruit flavor. At the front of the sip is also a creamy nutty taste that reminds me of pecan.

The second infusion has more of the evergreen forest notes I usually pick up in Shan Lin Xi, while the taste is still creamy and quite floral now. The aftertaste is peachy. The aroma is floral and camphor.

The third infusion is much more mellowed, with a honeyed taste and a bit of a camphor or clove note in the back of the throat. This infusion is a really enjoyable an subtle wind-down from the bursting and fragrant second infusion.

The fourth infusion has receded to a much more subtle creamy flavor with a lingering floral aftertaste. The fifth is even more subtle, and sweeter.

I don’t see this tea pushing out many more infusions with substantial flavor, but every one of them has been top notch. It tastes so clean. This is one of the best rolled oolong teas I’ve had!

These wiry dark green leaves certainly are fragrant. The scent of the dry leaves in a warm gaiwan reminds me of almond cookies, or what I’d imagine a fortune cookie to smell like fresh from the oven. My favorite green tea happens to be from Fujian, like these leaves, so I’m excited.

This tea starts out quite sweet on the initial infusion, always a good sign with green teas. It definitely has a dew flavor to it, as described by the vendor. It reminds me of the water from within a cucumber or melon. It’s also very smooth going down.

On the second infusion, it’s still really sweet with a distinct cucumber-melon flavor, though there’s also something light in the background resembling roasted corn. Compared to the Gan Lu I just tried from Song Tea, this tea retained a lot more sweetness in the second infusion and didn’t get as intensely vegetal.

On the third infusion I’m getting some notes of nutmeg and hazelnut. The flavor is really unfolding nicely here, and it’s still nicely sweet and clean. By the fourth or fifth infusion the flavor is piddling out a bit, but this was a nice tea experience and yielded some great infusions.

These green tea buds from Sichuan are the prettiest green tea leaves I’ve ever seen. They are so fluffy with little white hairs and so light and fragile. The scent is sweet and nutty, in fact it reminds me of a warm bun filled with taro paste.

The flavor is smooth, very vegetal, to be expected from green tea, with notes of snap peas, nuts, and a slightly smoky, earthy finish. The liquid feels very smooth in the mouth. The flavor is very mouth filling and saturates the throat. I really enjoy the smooth, sweet character of this tea. It matches the billowy appearance of the leaves, though once wet they smell much more strong than the brew, a smoky and green bean like affair.

The second infusion of this tea is certainly more dominated by vegetal and smoky flavors. It even tastes woody or like bark now too. It’s still sweet, but the sweetness is an accompaniment rather than the main feature.

On the third infusion, the flavor is more intensely vegetal and earthy, but still with the lingering sweetness. It’s quite an intense tea for one that started out so mellow. Very rich. By the fourth infusion it is sweeter and more mellow again, but there’s a hint of bitterness. I’m almost certain the rise and fall in flavor intensity is due to my own brewing style and had I steeped lighter on the second and third infusions they’d probably have been quite mellow as well.

Overall, I enjoy this tea. I think it represents a fine quality, but it does have a bit of that bitter/smoky flavor that some tea lovers avoid green tea because of. It’s similar to the notes you’ll get in a lot of young sheng Puer.