Yunnan Sourcing

Hi everyone! Todays morning brew is an inexpensive offering from YS. I recently ordered from their China site in order to obtain some items that were only available there. Mainly to try the highly acclaimed 2010 Hai Lang Hao “Cha Wang”. For the price this Mang Fei is a bargain. I think its 30 dollars. The intial steepings were strong and smoky but as the session progressed the teas strength and potency revealed a beautiful flavor with a returning sweetness and a penetrating cha qi. This was a winner. I believe with aging this has the potential for greatness. For me, I really enjoy the intensity and raw energy of a young sheng.

Boo my browser crashed during this note. Thanks to tperez for sending this in our swap. I was excited to see it included as I love the yabao from Verdant and this is very similar. Herbaceous and coniferous notes that remind me of sweet grass, rosemary, pine and artichoke. The only thing I can tell without doing a side by side brewing is that this doesn’t have the sparkling quality Verdant’s does, still wonderful though!

Last night I attempted to get tea drunk but did not get very far as it was close to Rowan’s bedtime and I was exhausted and ended up staying upstairs. I have revived the buds this morning and its just as good. I had an emotional breakdown yesterday after registering Rowan for preschool, not because I’m emotional about him growing up but because the class we wanted was closed and I had to choose between the morning class 8:15-11:15 or an afternoon class at a different location. I chose the latter initially for my sanity and sleep (we have some major schedule adjusting, Rowan is hard to get dressed and out the door and even though they are both three hours, 11 am seems like less of a break in my day. However this other location while part of our school district is technically in Cleveland on road I don’t care for and not at the brand new elementary school just 5 mins away).

I started sobbing on the way home, I pulled over to call the office saying I’d made the wrong decision but they had just closed so I left a message and sobbed some more, on the phone with the husband and my mom, through the drive-thru and over my shamrock shake. Anywho the lady called back this morning and switched him to the morning class at Grindstone. Crisis averted, going out to the Brew Kettle with my sister tonight anyway, beer not tea, she said there was a lot on tap right now that I would like.

Today I short steeped this three times. Overall it had a light, mellow, refreshing quality and a “typical” black tea flavour.

Normally I prepare this western style, which is better for a stronger flavour. My husband enjoys taking this tea to work, along with the other black teas we ordered from YS.

Steep parameters:
100ml gaiwan, 5g, rinse + 3 steeps (30s, 45s, 1m)

I’ve had this tea for a while, but never got around to writing a review. It was purchased along with four other black teas from YS, many months ago. This one was always enjoyable prepared either western or eastern style. Not an amazing resteeper, but pretty flavourful.
This was my first “purple” tea experience. And overall it was a pleasant experience, but it definitely impressed my husband a lot more.

Here are some quick notes about my short steep session today:

First steep- Light, fruity (melon, grapes), refreshing. Acidic-sweetness at the back of my mouth.

Second steep- Fuzzy-fruit flavour all over my mouth, not a deep or heavy black tea body. Pretty light and delicate.

Third steep- The flavours have mellowed a bit, but much of the original notes are still present. For me, this is a nice cup to end on.

Steep parameters- 100ml teapot, 5g, 3 steeps (rinse, 30s, 40s, 1m)

excellent tea. Strong, masculine character.
when brewed with care, distinct, complex aroma reminiscent of savory herbs with a touch of wet tobacco and a wonderful nutty aspect.
Can be smokey in the first infusions. less so after sitting broken up in a jar for a few weeks and brewed in yixing pot.
Long lasting, pleasant flavor lingers in the mouth. Fresh, expansive mouthfeel.

This the oldest sheng I have tried so far. It is also one of my favorites, due its strong, savory-herbs flavor and aroma. $16 for 100g of a 10 year old sheng with strong flavor seems like a decent value. I will be reordering this one.

Overall the flavor is a bit mild, yet the first 2 infusions often have decent flavor strength.

Brewing about 3 grams of this one in a competition tasting set right now.
Wet leaves after the wash have a wonderful damp forest smell.
Yummy semi-aged flavor with sour fruit notes.
Floral elements in the aroma. Fresh mouth feel.
Only slightly smoky on first infusions.
Note that the leaves were aged in mao cha form for 5 years before pressing. This is apparently a great way to speed up the aging process.

Overall seems like a good value currently at $4.50 for 100 grams.
Its nice to be able to buy a a whole cake at only 100 grams.

Currently sipping on some of this shu. I’ve left the whole tuocha in the bottom of my cup, and I’ll refill once I get low.

It’s an odd sight: the top of my brew is a light clear brown, but down at the bottom, I can see this bloom of dark red spreading out around the little tuo-cha. So far, it’s pleasant, light and sweet (reminiscent of blooming teas and the smell of a bag of those Valnetine’s Day candy hearts), but I wonder what I’ll be tasting when the dark ruddy cloud fills the whole cup?

It’s a pleasant enough tea to drink while working. Having it in a big mug, it makes more sense than I remember when I first tried this in a gaiwan months and months ago. I’m still not completely sold on why rose and shu pu’er should go together, but I also can’t hold anything against the innocuous little tou.

I need to be a bit more careful when I brew this tea. Usually when I short steep a black tea, I try and estimate 2 tsp of leaves into a gaiwan or small teapot. But this black tea is very compact, and 1 tsp of leaves totally fills up my purion teapot.

Moving onto the tasting notes;
Nothing really stood out too much flavourwise. It’s very malty, earthy, Yunnan-y(?). The tea liquor comes out pretty dark for a short steep, but it’s not too dark or heavy for me to enjoy in the summer.
Initially it seems pretty standard, but I don’t mind that at all.

100ml purion teapot, 1 tsp, 6 short steeps

(Going to hold off rating this until I try it a few more times)

Tea of the afternoon……

This was one of three free samples that came along with my gaiwan and cups…..all pu’erhs. I guess it is time to get my feet wet on these. Dry it smells pretty good. Earthy, but not in a scary way. (Yes, this is the review of a pu’erh novice, so you might not really want to put a whole lot of stock in my review if this is your usual type of tea…) I rinsed the leaves first, and then brewed for about 30 seconds. This really reminds me of coffee. It is a little more earthy than coffee, but far from the dirt taste I remember from my first experience with a tuo cha. I am thinking the right tools to enjoy this will make the difference. I am not saying pu’erh is something I will reach for regularly as I am more an oolong in the gaiwan type, but it is a nice experience. There is something to be said for the short steeps for certain. It helps that the brew is not so thick as attempting to brew this western style.

As for the teaware, I love my little gaiwan and cups from this vendor. Everything was well wrapped and arrived safely. I even asked for a change in color of the cups (my gaiwain is light blue, but rather than matching cups I originally ordered, I asked for the white instead to see colors better..) and Scott was more than accommodating to see that I got what I wanted. I will order there again at some point, but I think I will go for the less expensive shipping. With EMS my order was here in less than a week.

How can this tea be so good at such a young age? It’s like when you meet a young person who is mature beyond her years—an old soul. The first 30-second infusion blew me away with its sweetness and depth. After that the camphor and earthiness emerged to create a truly heady elixir. I probably could have steeped this tea 20 times with little reduction in flavor. I actually saved the leaves over night and started up again in the morning. I’ll most likely buy a brick to drink now and one to age because I doubt I’ll be able to resist chipping away at it.

I was worried that this was getting a little dried out because I don’t have a proper pumidor—just a cardboard box in the cupboard! No reason to worry! This has developed nicely, even though it is exposed to humidity only about 5 months a year. The sweetness has come to dominate the bitterness, which was more prevalent a few years ago. It features spearmint and a little smoke and one of the most amazing examples of huigan I’ve experienced in a pu-erh. I have a high tolerance for the narcotic effects of sheng but I’m finding it hard to type at the moment!

This Sheng is developing nicely. The bitterness is fading and a strong throat feel is emerging along with camphor and mint. It takes a little while to get going but once it gets up to speed it’s hard to stop. Strong buzz from this one.

This tea cake has increased in price 2 and half times since I bought it which indicates how precious this little cake is. It’s a very deceptive, mercurial tea—the first 30 second infusion is sweet and fruity with a touch of camphor and wheat. But then the gloves come off and the tea becomes a powerhouse of flavor (teakwood, grapefruit) and bitterness (in a good way). Even at six years of age, this is a very young and unruly tea that has legs. I don’t think I’ve ever had such an intensely flavorful sheng—now it’s just a matter of seeing how the components come into balance.

Wild, young, bold, and beautiful to look at, after drinking this, I felt like had been given a transfusion of blood from a sixteen year old (or V, for you True Blood fans). This tea is like an incredibly talented young left-handed pitcher who throws 100 mph and only sometimes gets it over the plate. There’s so much flavor and sharpness in this tea and I can’t wait to see how it ages and becomes more disciplined and focused. It will be hard not to chip away at this tea. Early infusions are surely on the bitter side, but that fades in later steepings.

This has been growing on me, maybe because I have begun to appreciate the subtleties of Oolongs over the past year. In any case, this tea has a more syrupy mouth feel than I remember, but the sweetness is nicely balanced by the roasted flavor—a nice complement to the Thai green curry I had for dinner.

I had much better success with this tea steeping it Eastern style in my new little purple clay teapot. The shorter infusions really brought out a nice balance between the chard-like taste and the roasted character.