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From Liquid Proust’s MX-King group buy.

This is just an initial review. I’ll do more detail after the tea has a chance to rest from its travels. Nice nose is smoky with some wood and fruit. Taste has a fair amount of texture, and a flavor that is on the veggie side of tropical fruit. Flavors continue into the finish. Not sure I like the veggie notes. 2nd steep: The smoke is showing that slightly bitter ash taste that I’ve disliked in previous wet-stored teas, though this doesn’t otherwise taste of wet storage. Very interesting. There’s a lot going on here. Still pretty powerful. Strong finish is bitter, but still shows a bit of fruit. Just a bit of cha qi. 4th steep is a bit more mellow. Less fruit but also less wood. Good texture in the mouth. Unspectacular but enjoyable.

From Liquid Proust’s MX-King tea group buy.

I unwrapped this tea to find a number of white spots scattered about the surface. Apparently mold. There was no indication of mold on the other side of the cake so I took a sample from that side. The cake flaked apart and seemed extremely dry.

The flavor was unremarkable. I did my usual routine for a puerh tea, but got no fruit, no complexity, no cha qi, and a somewhat bitter finish. It’s probably unfair to give a numerical rating at this point, since it’s been travelling from China to Ohio to Boston with only two days rest, but my first impression is blah.

From PTTB-4

This is a nice father’s day treat. More elegant than powerful, but a very complex flavor, with perfect balance between the nose, taste, and finish.

The first cup presented a spicy aroma (clove and black pepper ?). These flavors continued into the taste, which was mostly wood and straw. Second steep was more of the same, but with a bit of apricot replacing some of the spice, which reappeared more strongly in the finish. By the end of the second cup (3+2 oz) I was really feeling the cha qi as a whole-body effect. Very pleasant. 3rd steep turns slightly bitter, hiding much of the fruit and spice, which reappears as the tea cools. VERY strong qi. I shortened the 4th steep a bit and was rewarded with a smooth, fruity cup. I’ll post this now but expect to keep drinking this through the day; it shows no signs of quitting.

This was a fun tea to unwrap. It comes in the shape of a small pillow, about 2" on a side. Looks like a puerh cake, but is much lighter because it is uncompressed. It was easy to flake off 3 grams (out of about 20) for my pot. 5 oz water, 1 min steeps.

Sadly, the fun ended when I began to drink. The first steep was very light, with only a mild toast flavor. Simple and uninteresting. Second steep was pretty much the same, so I increased the steep time, which only added some bitterness. This looked like a bargain, but I guess you sometimes get what you pay for.

From Liquid Proust’s MX-King Tea group buy

Just got the box today but couldn’t wait for the tea to rest. Had to try some. It’s really good; much better than I expected for the price. I’m glad I decided to go for a second cake.

The cake was fairly well compressed, but I was able to easily chip off a sample. The leaves aren’t whole, but are large pieces. Looks like a quality cake. The dry cake smells grassy, which isn’t surprising for a young sheng.

First steep had a light straw flavor. Very pleasant but simple. Strong cha qi. 2nd steep is more complex, with some apricot and wood along with the straw. Slight acidity adds texture. Tons of cha qi. 3rd : I’m overwhelmed by the cha qi. Several more enjoyable steeps. I kept drinking it for most of the evening, getting something like 30 ounces out of my 2 gram sample, though the last couple of steeps were weak after a 2 minute steep. I kept taking breaks because the cha qi made me light-headed.

Thanks so much to Liquid Proust, the tea detective who found this bargain. I can’t wait to try the other teas!

From Puerh TTB #4

I was surprised how much I liked this tea since I’m usually not a big fan of shou. I didn’t really do a session. Just threw some in a pot while I watched TV. It tasted more like a mature sheng than a young shou. No fermentation flavor; color is more brown than red. Rich leafy flavors.

A tale of two teas. I posted the following review after 5 steeps:

Liquid Proust was kind enough to share his purchase with me.

I was looking forward to trying this, partly because it is purpored to be LBZ, and partly because AllanK has been after me to try Awazon, so this kills two birds with one stone. Unfortunately, the bird is overrated.

I loved the nose. It is a rich blend of smoke and tobacco, and made me really hopeful that the tea would be great. Unfortunately, the taste is rather pedestrian: not unlike a Xiaguan tuocha. The initial steeps weren’t very bitter, which is surprising in an LBZ, and there wasn’t a whole lot of cha qi. The cha qi started to sneak up on me around the 4th steep, but never got really strong; I’ve had dozens of teas with more.

Overall opinion is that this would be a good daily drinker for those who want the kick of cha qi. But not at the price.

The 6th,7th, and 8th steeps were totally different. Now the flavors are straw with hints of apricot and the smoke and slight bitterness were replaced by sweetness. I’m definitely feeling the cha qi. I’m a bit disappointed that the tea still presents as a simple flavor, it’s just a completely different simple flavor. I’ve bumped my score up by a couple of points (from 83) but still can’t recommend the tea. I came really close to moving on to another tea after steep 5. I’m glad I didn’t, at least in part because I started to read Liquid Proust’s review and saw that he thought the tea improved in late steeps.

AllanK has been after me to try Awazon teas for months, so I suggested he put some in the TTB, both for me and so others could also try them. This is my first tea from the new box.

The first steep was very acidic, so had a citrus character, with a hint of apricot. The nose was very light, but there was a fairly decent finish. The second steep was more woody, with a hint of smoke and much less citrus/apricot. Also less acid. Starting in the third steep, it became quite bitter. The bitterness faded in subsequent steeps, but never went away. By the 5th steep, the taste was all wood and bitter. By the 4th steep, I was noticing the cha qi, which was present but fairly subdued.

There were aspects of this tea that were appealing, but nothing really stood out that made me like it. It might make a decent daily drinker, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink more. Ironically, I think my favorite steep was the first (what most people call “the rinse”).

I’m drinking some of my best teas after coming home from the hospital with a stroke (very minor thankfully). I thought I was just adding a note to an existing review but was surprised to see I hadn’t written this one up yet.

Tsang Liu is probably my favorite YQH tea (out of 8 that I’ve tried). The tea has a core of stone fruit surrounded by a complex aura of wood, spice, and occasionally a bit of veggie that detracts from the taste for me. The feeling is the mouth is full and rich; I feel there are layers of flavor that I can barely detect that are adding to the rich complexity. I’m a sucker for complex teas, which explains why I like this tea so much.

The balance is excellent: a smooth transition from aroma, to taste, to finish, with the finish fading slowly over a few minutes. The cha qi is very powerful, though I’m not noticing it as much today as I sometimes do. All in all and excellent tea, and when I first drank this tea I finally understood why people get so excited about YQH.

I’m still working on Lion’s Week of tea. I love black tea so decided to give myself a treat and open a sample I got with my last Teavivre order. Keemun is one of my favorite blacks, so I was looking forward to trying this.

This is a very good tea. The nose gives a strong chocolate aroma with a bit of leafiness underneath. The taste is similar, and the finish is really good: long and luscious. One result of such a long finish is that the tea seemed to improve as I drank it: each sip was reinforced by all the earlier sips. It has strong keemun character: a good example of the type. On an absolute basis, then, this is a very good tea. My only complaint is that on a comparative basis, the tea is only slightly better than keemun #1, which is a fraction of the price, and not IMHO as good as their Hao Ya, at about half the price. So, my real recommendation would probably be to try these other teas at lower price points unless you don’t really have to worry about price.

I used 1.5 g in 6 oz water for 3 minutes (4 min for resteep)