Alter Ego 2018 Mansa Huang Pian Raw Puer

Sipdown! (39 | 286)

The last pouch remaining from a Bitterleaf sampler I ordered at some point.

I don’t have much experience with sheng puerh, but this reminded me of a sort of combination of an aged white tea and a shou puerh. It has the smooth and earthy, yet slightly creamy hay and straw notes of the white tea, but then there’s a somewhat funky barnyard note to it that makes me think of shou. A touch of fuzzy apricot skin at the end of the sip brings in thoughts of Chinese green teas as well.

Overall, it’s a nice tea and definitely a change of pace for me. I would like to explore sheng a bit, it definitely appeals to me more than shou does. Maybe next year I’ll look into ordering a few samples to try.

I brewed this tea in a more respectful fashion today than when I wrote my last note, and I ended up with 13 infusions and a bit more palatable profile. My overall impression hasn’t changed much though. It’s a nice one for a 0.1$/g Yiwu, but hardly suitable for anything other than casual drinking imo.

The taste profile is indeed pretty sweet and tart with a short-lived bitterness. Today, the flavours I wrote down in my notes include apple, meat, wood, passion fruit, straw, honey, and pattypan squash. Additionally, vanilla and lemongrass also appeared in the aftertaste which has a strong huigan for a huangpian.

From the weekend!

I know this is a favourite of my manager – well, an earlier year’s version of this material anyway. I picked it up this Spring because I was curious to try it given that he likes it, and because it was really cheap.

I can see why he likes like – it’s got a nice coating sweetness and it pretty smooth and easy going. I imagine this would be _really_hard to over steep and brew poorly and he drinks most of his sheng Grandpa style so that’s a quality that would be very appealing for him. The session, for me, was pleasant but I found that I wanted a bit more depth or nuance to the flavour – however I do think this is a perfectly good tea for its price point. I imagine I’ll finish the rest of my sample Grandpa style…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/B4axc1cA4FH/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWN81V7ojOE