Bitterleaf Teas

The leaves in this tea were huge, it seemed to me, once they opened. I brewed this gong fu the first several steeps (maybe 5, I lost count), and thought there was a bit of an earthy medicinal taste to these steeps. Still rich and smooth, but with an after taste. Then I put the large leaves in my go cup and steeped for 20 minutes on the way to work (removed the leaves when I got there, I’ll see if there is another steep in them yet). Is this a different tea? Now it is mellow with a smoky campfire note at the end. I’ve had this kind of different brew experience with one other puerh when I brewed it grandpa style in a different go cup.

This tea didn’t really taste like anything. There was smokiness and sourness, but it felt like the bones of another tea — there was no unexpected note, nothing that gave the tea life.

I used the remaining 8 grams of leaf from my sample and brewed it using a regular tea mug, but that was similarly underwhelming: at most I got a sense of something sweet and a little sour, but it felt like an approximation towards tea, and not the real thing.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/03/a-sneak-peak-at-bitterleaf-teas/

BitterLeaf sent me a free 7.7 gram sample along with my order. This amount was too small to break down into two sets of leaf, but a bit bigger than what I normally brew at once; to compensate, I decided to take the whole thing and do really, really quick steeps to ensure it didn’t taste too strong and overwhelming.

The dry leaf was a compact chunk of dark brown and green, with no white leaf tips. However, the smell was very fruity. Because the chunk was so large, I did two quick rinses of 5 seconds each to try and soften it a bit and make it easier to steep.

The rinsed leaf smelled smoky, fruity, and sour. I could tell from the first steep onwards, though, that this thing had staying power, as I could sense a lot of flavour just beginning to wake up.

The subsequent steeps gave off a liquor that was amber with greenish overtones, so the whole cup looked like rich olive oil. From the third steep onwards, I got a note of fresh green wood, plus fruit. Slightly drying, but not harsh. As I continued through the first pot, I tasted notes of damp forest floor, honey, plums, and grapeskin; the texture was very smooth, but I noticed my mouth pucker over time.

After about 8 steeps, I started to feel some gauziness and astringency on my tongue, but the tea was still very smooth and clean. Then I started to feel a crinkly, drying sensation at the top of my throat leading down to my esophagus. Soon afterward the pot of water was empty; I stopped for the morning, went on some errands, and resolved to try a second pot of tea in the afternoon to see if it had staying power.

The second pot of water produced some really different results! At first, I was surprised by how bitter the steeps tasted, until my tongue acclimated to the tea again around the fifth steep from the second pot. This time around, after I got used to things, I noticed that the tea was really fruity, with stonefruit notes of apricot and nectarine making a big appearance. The liquid itself was still a rich amber.

However, over time, I could finally sense that the leaf was fading; a real, genuine note of olive bitterness joined the cup, and then the whole thing turned pale and mineral. I lost count of the steeps at this point, but I’d say that with 2 pots of water, I easily got 15-20 steeps out of this leaf!

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/03/a-sneak-peak-at-bitterleaf-teas/

BitterLeaf gave me a free 7-gram sample of this with my order, along with brewing instructions. I followed them as closely as I could, using 95°C water, a quick rinse, and then steeps ranging from 3 to 8 seconds. The dry leaf was brownish-green with a few golden tips, and didn’t give off much smell. Rinsed, though, it as a different story: the wet leaf gave off aromas of earth, grapes, tobacco and hay.

The first few steeps were pale and mild, but over time both the colour and the flavour deepened, going from grass and smoke to a tart sweetness like grapeskin and quince. (Quince! So astringent, but so satisfying to chew!) The first steep was a pale golden amber, but the following few steeps were a lovely deep amber with a green overcast — looking at my cup, I couldn’t help but think that I was about to drink some very fine, very rich olive oil.

However, it didn’t feel like olive oil in my mouth. Instead, it had a very clean feel on my tongue; not thin like water, but not thick like broth. “Lively” is the best word to describe it — like I was drinking something sparkling and vital.

As the steeps continued, the depth and rambunctiousness of the second, third, and fourth steeps gave way to something that was mellow and incredibly well-balanced: the tea grew earthy, tart, and astringent, but no single aspect dominated the others.

I eventually went through 10 steeps, and even after the 10th steep the tea was still a rich amber colour with flavours of sour grapes and grapeskin. I have no doubt I could have made the tea go beyond 10 steeps, but I really didn’t have the time or inclination to test that assumption. In the end, I was left with a lovely vessel full of olive and russet leaves.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/03/a-sneak-peak-at-bitterleaf-teas/

So, I have been trying a lot of new teas lately, and though some of them have been very good I am a little behind on tasting notes. Between work and family tea always seems to find its place but writing about it sometimes gets left behind. This tea however made me stop to get the computer so that I wouldn’t forget to make note of it.

I have been drinking tea for years now and up to this point I hadn’t found a shu pu erh that I had cared for. I have never been opposed to them, but with so much great tea out there to spend time on none of them ever grabbed my attention enough to make me want to pursue the style. I wouldn’t have bought one now but I received this tea as a sample with a recent order of a sheng from Bitterleaf Teas.

This tea is wonderful. It completely caught me by surprise. It brews very clean and the flavors that come forth are distinct and clear. To me it tastes like the smell of a clearing in a forest when the dew breaks late into the night. It reminds me so clearly of walking around sleepy campsites after long nights at the music festivals I went to when I was young, of the smoldering campfires and wet earth just as early morning light begins to break. It is sweet and deep and woody and wet. This flavor combination is crossing some wire in my amygdala that is deeply nostalgic and gives me a great sense of anticipation.

It is late and I have a suspicion this review may not be very clear when I read it in the morning, but I am sure that the emotional impact of this tea will stay with me. And now I am considering purchasing a kilo brick of a ripe pu erh…