Mei Leaf

I heard a lot about this tea and was very curious to try it. So I ordered two packages. I tried a lot of different Long Jing teas before. Some directly from China, some from local distributors. Price range between 15 – 25 € per 100g. The tea from Meileaf is rather expensive.

The first steep was overwhelming. It was very distinct, very special, very tasty. Others talked about it already, nothing else to add. Highest leaf quality.
Disappointment comes at latest with the third steep. The taste disappears almost completely. This makes me wonder why? Is this tea scented?

This tea is not suited for long Gong Fu Cha sessions. Not only because it’s too expensive for only two steepings, it’s also very dissatisfying. This is the first tea I ever tried, that looses taste so quickly.

Upside: Very interesting nutty taste
Downside: Holds taste only for the first two steepings. Third steep, almost no taste at all.

Bottom line: I prefer high quality Long Jing teas, with a rather “normal” taste, but on a very high level, good leaf quality and a long lasting taste. This tea has an unsusual taste, you may like it. But he can’t hold it, which seems like a fraud.

So this is something a bit different: a roasted raw pu’er. At first I thought I was a bit too much of a purist to give this one a go, but ultimately the artwork compelled me too much; it’s just that fantastic. Originally I was just going to order a sample to start, but when it came time to place my order the samples were temporarily out of stock and I ended up just picking up a cake instead. That way I get to enjoy the artwork anyway.

Is this from Lao Man’e? Is it gushu? I. Don’t. Care. I don’t care. What I care about is quality and taste. If you can’t enjoy tea unless it’s absolutely from 300-year-old trees from Lao Ban Zhang, you may just stop buying tea. With that out of the way, let’s get to the tea itself.

The smell of the dry leaf is absolutely fantastic. Truly intoxicating. It’s really hard to grab hold onto any specific notes, but the best description I could come up with is this sort of burnt lemon scent. The scent in the preheated gaiwan is even more enchanting, reminding me more of lemon licorice. These small cakes are tightly compressed so you will have to use some force and you will end up breaking some leaves, but just aim to break off larger chunks which should make the few leaves you break negligible. The leaf quality looks good to me, with plenty of gorgeous buds.

I used 8.66g in a 130ml gaiwan, so a ratio of 1g/15ml. I’ll also note at this juncture that I haven’t been storing this tea in my pumidor, but instead been treating it like a roasted wulong and keeping it in the sealed ziplock bag it came in. Anyway, I gave the leaves my standard ten-second rinse followed by a rest between five and ten minutes. The wet leaf smell was shockingly different from the dry leaf aroma. Gone was the lemon and in its place was a dryer, dirtier super potent sharp aroma that reminded me of some sort of unpleasant food maybe made from leftovers or something. It was an interesting smell, but not necessarily very pleasant and sniffing it too much might give some people a headache. Fortunately this smell didn’t translate to the taste in any way.

I did a total of twelve steeps. Pay attention to these steep times, because they are not at all how I normally brew pu’er: 6s, 6s, 7s, 9s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 40s, 45s, 50s. Yes, twelve steeps and I never even got to a minute. This tea brews strong and like with Chaozhou style brewing every second counts. If you are new to gong fu style brewing or not confident in your ability to pour fast, I would absolutely recommend starting out with a lower ratio of leaf than I used. This will give you more room in terms of brewing the tea.

The first steep had a very light body. Right out of the gate the flavor profile was very interesting. Citrus fruit, specifically grapefruit, with a touch of sweetness in the finish. The note I got in the strong aftertaste was different and that of citrus zest to be specific. The second infusion had slightly more mouthfeel and felt perhaps even a bit oily. At this point it was already clear that this is a very nice tea. It is one you want to stop to savor and explore after taking just one sip. The grapefruit/citrus taste had developed and the overall taste was very complex and rich. Letting the tea cool down a little brings out a bit of a sour note, but it’s not a bad kind of sourness. The tea really coats your mouth and you can taste it long after finishing your cup.

For the third steep I extended the steep time by just a hair. The body remained quite light or maybe light+. The taste was immediately sour upon entering the mouth. I could also now taste the mineraly roast following the initial sourness. The grapefruit from before could now be found hiding in the aftertaste. In the fourth steeping the mineral taste was moved to the front joined by some sweetness, while the sour note moved to join the roasted note in the finish.

The fifth steep ended up being quite strong, but not overly so, just bold. The central flavor was still formed by a mixture of the sour note mixed with hints of the roast and citrus. The tea was almost refreshing in the same way that a green tea is, but it didn’t quite get there. My notes say, “Nice.” The sixth steep ended up being perhaps just a tad too light. This was accentuated by the flavors starting to become lighter in nature and the contrast to the boldness of the last infusion. I’m not saying this tea couldn’t be considered friendly towards newcomers in terms of taste, but this was a point where it started becoming noticeably more amiable. The tea was sweet, but in a subtle, elegant way, not in a bold, sugary manner at all. This was the first time when I could taste just hints of the typical young sheng character peeking through. My tongue was also left feeling just a tad astringent by this steep.

Despite the flavors themselves becoming lighter in character, the strength of the seventh infusion was fairly strong. It tasted sort of sweet, sort of sour, with maybe a hint of coffee bitterness in the finish. It is my thinking that the sourness and most definitely the coffee association come from the roasting. The oiliness made a small return in the eighth steep, with your tongue getting hit with a lot of roast when the tea entered your mouth. The finish was mineraly and it was sometimes possible to detect hints of the young raw flavor when swallowing. The tea tasted almost like a roasted green tea like hojicha, which makes sense. This is just my personal opinion, but I think the roast in this tea has been done really well. At this point I went to buy some groceries and I could taste it in my mouth for a long time.

I pushed the tea a bit too hard for the ninth steep by extending the steep time by ten seconds (the shock!). It ended up being quite strong, very pungent. The flavor reminded me of blood orange, but with some of your typical mineral sheng sweetness underneath. The tea wasn’t actually that overly pungent once you got used to it after a few sips. For the next steep I succeeded much better with the steep time. The tea was still strong, but the flavors were now starting to become thinner. Despite this, the brew was still very rich with much more complexity and depth than you usually see from most teas in their late steeps. The taste itself was sour, citric, maybe a bit mineraly. The roast was still there in the finish.

Steep number eleven was similarly quite strong. The flavors were becoming more simplified and some notes were starting to drop off, but the tea wasn’t one-note yet and still had multiple things going on. Grapefruit, roast, mineral. The flavor was bold and the balance between the notes good. The last steep I did was similar and still not quite one-note. You got the mineral and roast on the front and the citrus in the finish. The leaves could have probably steeped for god knows how much longer, but I think I’ve drunk enough tea to know when I’ve seen practically everything a tea has to offer and so I decided to stop here. If you wanted to get absolutely everything out of the leaves, I’d recommend tossing the leaves in your fridge around this point to see if you can make some nice iced tea out of them. I don’t personally practice this, but it’s worth considering instead of continuing with gong fu brewing.

And there you have it. This tea isn’t cheap, but I found it to be high quality and very unique. Perhaps most importantly it is perfectly ready to drink right now. I don’t even know if and how this tea would age and how you should store it. The strength, longevity and aftertaste are all exemplary and the flavors were enjoyable even to someone like me who isn’t necessarily the biggest fan of roasted teas or citrus. I think the roast complements the tea very well right now, but if you absolutely can’t stand tasting the roast in your teas, it should come down over time. A lot of young raw pu’ers in this price range aren’t in my opinion necessarily worth the price unless you intend to age them, but with this tea I would say that the price is reflected in the quality.

I definitely recommend giving this crazy tea a go while you still can!

Tried this the first time today. Too early to evaluate it and give my thoughts.

Lovely honey and fresh alfalfa hay taste. Rich, full mouthfeel. Soft floral notes in the aftertaste. A bit like drinking the sunshine in a little meadow. Holds up pretty well to higher temp brewing but can get a little dry. Cold brews like a dream!

I am a puer newbie, so for a newbie, this is a pretty neat puer. It tastes like apricots. It is an apricot hammer. Apricots and a little sugary sweetness. The finish is super long and sweet, and the body of the tea is quite thick compared to what I usually drink. I imagine it might be a little on the plain/boring side for a puer connoisseur as the taste doesn’t change much throughout the infusions. I did manage to stick with this tea for 10 infusions, and it seems to be pretty forgiving; it didn’t get bitter or dry on me until the end.

Creamy, almond, pine nuts. Light body with windy aroma.

Grassy bamboo-ish green tea. Little astringency, quite coating. Wild and raw green tea though.

Quite the unique take on Tie Guan Yin, this creamy broth was very delightful. I felt the slick almost velvety texture of the broth cover my tongue which brought on these very vegetal, nutty notes. It’s a beautifully handmade tea which also has hints of floral notes and soy.

A good start to getting into puer to notice all that goes into processing such fine tea. It has all the unique characteristics of a good raw pu’er and it is very fresh and cooling. After every breath I took, I felt a smokey minty feeling in my mouth and throat. It’s crisp and very light in its astringency. This young gushu is made from 600 year old trees from Bing Dao so I can certainly see the result of this tea to be very satisfactory.

This is good stuff. Very caffeinated, very high strung tea. I did a session with 9 grams in a yixing by myself and got pretty lit. Then I did 6 in a gaiwan by myself over a longer period of time and just had a really nice persistent energy. Smooth tasting, decent bitterness, goes for quite some time. I will add more tasting notes on my next go around

Strong fruitiness, almost candied level. Raisins and figs, nice mouth feel. A sweet black tea with no astringency when Gongfu brewed. Beautiful colour of liquor. Medium acidity. I find this tea comforting and refreshing despite its heavy sweetness.

Dark, Robust, and overall a wonderful session from start to finish. This tea lasted me for hours! Don from Mei Leaf really deserves a lot more credit, as he truly hand picks and tastes all the teas he has for sale. Amethyst Gaba is no exception. A wonderful, deep, tightly rolled Oolong. Brewed it at boiling in my Yixing pot starting for about 5 seconds. Increasing by 5-10 seconds each time. I lost count after 10 pots, and started to get a bit tea drunk. I even took my 10g of leaves after I was done and put them in my iced tea container overnight, and when I woke up Strained the leaves and was left with a whole jar of flavorful dark Gaba Iced tea, tasted freshly brewed. A very enjoyable choice for anyone who loves Da hong pao, or other dark oolongs.

Rolled tea is dark green with light green highlights. Flowery, salty air, but creamy dry leaf smell. Infusions started off with aromas of custard and eggs with butternut squash and greens. Later infusions were more floral, progressively less creamy and increasingly brisk. Fun to see this one unfold.

The First thing that you notice is the sweet apricot wafting from the dry leaf. The osmanthus is very strong and pleasant. A very refreshing tea overall. Nice almond and apricot notes. I think this tea would be fantastic brewed cold. Tea gave out after the 6th steep, but the osmanthus was strong through till the 9th.

BREWING RATIOS, TIMES AND TEMPERATURES

WASH
6 g/100 ml at 90 C (194 F) for 1 to 3 seconds

CHINESE STYLE
6 g/100 ml (1/2 cup) 90 C (194 F)
Steep: one 25 seconds, two 30 seconds, three 35 seconds, four 40 seconds, five 45 seconds

WESTERN STYLE
{1 Tbsp/1 cup (2 g/240 ml) 194 F (90C)}
Steep: one 2 minutes, second 2.5 minutes

SCORING
90/100 or 5 STARS

NAME
Osmanthus Oolong

PRODUCTION
Spring 2016

VARIETAL
Tie Guan Yin

LOCATION
Anxi, Fujian Province, China

PICKING AND PROCESSING
up to third or fourth leaf

ELEVATION
500 meters (1640 ft.)

DRY LEAF APPEARANCE
loose rolled, mixed green color with some hints of oxidization and small yellow/gold osmanthus

DRY LEAF AROMAS
Sweet apricots and almonds

WET LEAF AROMAS
Sweet apricots, wood resin, hay and grass

TEA COLOR
Pale lemon yellow, white downy fluff floating on top

MOUTH FEEL
Refreshing and bright

TEA FLAVORS
refreshing, mineral, apricot and almond cookies

EMPTY CUP AROMA
Pine, almond and dry apricot

WET LEAF APPEARANCE
Large unfurled whole/broken leafs, olive green with hints of oxidization, an small pale osmanthus petals

BODY FEEL / CHA QI
refreshing, light, and mostly in the head

may 19/17
at first it was all leather, and a bit of berry, though i cant quite pinpoint which berry. after a while the leatheriness mellowed out a bit, and a baked apple flavour came on strong for me. something i was quite suprised about was just how quick the brief bitterness transformed into such strong sweetness. not while the tea was in my mouth, but after swallowing. that dapper library flamingo definitely knows whats up.

may 11/17
my second gong fu, and my first puerh if you dont include the fish fest from a few weeks ago. i have seen alot of reviews where the puerh is described as “earthy”, but i wasnt prepared for this. this was next level earthy. it tasted like you walked into an old abandoned house, went down the stairs into the dank, musty cellar, and drank it. the cellar, not the puerh. after a few steeps the flavour reminded me of an old second hand bookstore. during the last infusions the earthiness came in the form of having a beet like taste. i enjoyed this quite a bit, and cant wait to go further down the puerh road.

Slight blueberries and a forest of pine trees and fallen pine needles and leaves. Very relaxing.

Stronger fruitiness, but with an added sourness. Bright, freshly opened pack of raisins and almonds