Winter Wings 2015 Spring Bang Dong Ancient Tree Raw Puer

Sipdown

I wanted to really like this tea. In fact, I had higher expectations for it, on the account that a lot of Bitterleaf teas are splendid. Unfortunately, this wasn’t as great as I had hoped. I will admit though, that this was a sample that had basically the little bits left over. There was some of the “chunk,” but it literally was a lot of smaller bits. That could make for a bad time with sheng, so maybe that is why I had a lot of bitter notes throughout the entire session; however, it could be the tea too. I wouldn’t know. I could order another sample the next time that I order from BLT, but that may be a while and they may not have more of this to sample (I’d cake it, but the price is a bit high for me).

Overall, I’m assuming that this tea could be too new to really gain some age to it—therefore, it may remain extremely bitter/astringent until it settles for a while. I wouldn’t know, though.

PS. I’m basically at the point where I’ll only review a tea when I get near to finishing it or sipping it down. I drink tea quite frequently, and in my chaotic mind, I cannot write a review every time I have tea. But I’ll still be reviewing all of your content on an almost daily basis. :)

Decided to follow up lunch with rhinkle with this one. The sample smells pretty sweet and fruity. 7g into the gaiwan, quick rinse, rest and steep. This one starts out light in color and gentle in flavor, with a hint of youthful bitterness. Well-balanced sweetness, florals and fresh wood shavings emerge.

I haven’t had enough time to completely spend these leaves today, so I’ll revisit this tomorrow. So far, the flavor, mouthfeel and amount of bitterness have remained pretty consistent.

i got this sample back in August but tried it only yesterday. that happens when you got too much tea and samples EVERYWHERE. Im in a process of organizing them.

Read some reviews about light taste and decided to go a bit heavier than my usual 1g/15ml
So i measured 6g/75ml porcelain shibo
Also i decided to use off boil which usually works with young sheng better in my opinion. it reduces bitterness and especially astringency im not fond of. Bitter i dont care much, bring it on.
I brew this tea in shibo probably up to steep 6 ( didnt count actually) but noticed it was a little pale and losing some flavor.
At this point i transferred to jianshui pot that doesnt lose heat as quickly as porcelain. I’d say the tea went thru 15 steeps at least. by the time i was done i was very teadrunk. it put me to sleep. zzzzzz

https://instagram.com/p/BNcvOOQjsH6/

This tea has quite an aroma. The leaf consists of long light tendrils loosely entwined together in a beautiful mess. I picked up wonderful scents of sweet strawberries, blueberries, apricot, golden sap, and a semi sweet tang in the foundation. A lovely treat for the senses. I warmed my gaiwan up and slipped some inside. The smell expands to crystallized winter honey, ripe apricot, and kumquat. I washed the leaves and prepared for brewing. I regret to inform you that the aromas have enthralled you, but it doesn’t give any more. The brew seems to lead up to a grand finale with its aroma and aesthetic appearance, but it does not deliver the goods when the moment comes to shine. The brew begins raindrop lightly sweet with a slight huigan. The leaves carry a nice body of soft yellow fruits. The background brings up tastes of cedar. The bitterness present will persistently ease in and out along with a companion of astringency. This creates a contrasting palette factor after each sip. Now, to return to my previous point, I am in no way discrediting the tea, but for me it lead up to an empty show. The tea was decent, but it was off-putting or disappointing. The qi was nonexistent. The best I felt was a relaxed buzz. Personally, I drink pu for qi, and this tea did not deliver.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHxpoBRAX5K/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I drank through this in two different session on two different days. The first session was really rough because I’ve never said anything negative about something from the Bang Dong area; I generally promote it and explain it’ll go up in price by 3 to 4 times here shortly as the region is more exposed. So here’s the thing….

SPRING BANG DONG IS LIGHT, VEGETABLE, AND HINTS OF FLORAL NOTES.
This… this… there is no trace of any of that. So maybe I went into it with thoughts of the other four I’ve had from this region during spring, but it was murky and harsh each session with this funky wild taste that doesn’t represent the region I love so much. It was really upsetting to experience this tea because I went into it 100% not knowing what it is/was. Once I found out it was Bang Dong, my world kind of shattered. Not only that, but one that cost more than YS’s…

What a sad day it was for me and that is coming from someone who is putting WMD as one of the top 5 sheng productions of 2016 and it’s from BLT.
Sigh.

This tea took me by surprise. Its flavors are light, but not weak. I think that’s important to distinguish. This tea is all about the aroma, huigan, cooling, aftertaste.

Aromas of fresh apricot on the dry leaves. Flavors of tea are honeydew/melon, apricot, sweet-ish but not sugary, honey aromas fill the cup as you sip but the floral honey flavor is delayed and appears in the aftertaste.

After about 5-6 steeps a slight drying/astringency appears that is pleasant and urges you on to take another sip.

This tea is light, but unexpectantly delicious. I’m not a fan of light puerh, but this one is all aftertaste and its wonderful. wow! wish I could have tried this when it was fresh off the production line a year ago.

FYI this is a spring tea

“Do you ever think of what they’ve gone through?” he asked, as I stared upward, mouth agape in amazement.

I hadn’t really considered it. After all, it’s been a dream of mankind to fly for so, so long. Naturally, I was jealous of the figures soaring and looping above my head. Who wouldn’t be?

But I was still thinking about it, later that night as I lie in bed on my back. Even this would be impossible to do. Clearly, there was a cost to be borne. But the joy, the exhilaration- it would be worth it, I was certain.

I won’t go into detail what it felt like, having objects growing out of what you’d grown used to as your body. Thank goodness it was winter – they tell me the cold keeps it from being worse. I cannot imagine how it could be worse.

But in the end. everyone who has seen me appears just as amazed as I was, back on that day. Eyes and hearts full of life and hope as they tell me how wonderful it must be. It is truly inspiring to be an uplifting influence on so many people.

When you grow tired of the humdrum, the everyday, the monotonous grind of feeling like you’ve seen it all, you can come and watch me fly. I never tire of it, and just maybe you’ll be invigorated like I am, way above the tumult and commotion below.

Wonder and amazement is never far, when you’ve got wings.

I haven’t spent a lot of time with this tea but the few sessions i’ve had with it were amazing. It was light and floral. Incredibly clean tasting and very smooth. It’s almost got light fruity notes in it.

This is a tea that i’m going to definitely buy more of in the future.