Grand Shou Wild Leaf Lincang, 2006

I’ve had this for awhile, so I finally decided to take it out. I’m not going to go into too much detail about this brew, for it wasn’t that complex. The dry leaf gave off a Shou earth aroma. I warmed the leaves, and I got a deeper earth. The steeped leaves had the same warmed earth. The liquor tasted like….. you guessed it, earth. This wasn’t terrible, but it was boringly basic. This tea was thin and didn’t have any differentiated tones other than earth, wet earth, soil, and warmed earth. All these tones are pretty much the same, or at least in the same category. I won’t be getting any more of this. I wouldn’t use the word “rich” to describe it either.

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Thanks for the tea, MissB!

This is kind of interesting. From various notes, and the description here on steepster (their website is down…), it’s supposed to be a super fancy puerh. But I’d have to disagree.

There’s quite a lot of that icky “wet dirt” flavour that I’m going to call “fermentation flavour”. It’s a loose puerh, and I used 2 tbsp in 130-ish ml water. Now that I’ve thrown away 4 or 5 steeps, it’s starting to lighten up a bit and a lot of sweetness is coming out. I’m not getting overwhelmed by dirt anymore, although it’s still present.

So I’d say it’s not bad. It’s not great, but it’s not bad. I think my parents would really really like this one, so I’m going to tuck it in with their Christmas gift (a selection of puerh samples, because I have no money). Their local tea shop only has 2 kinds of puerh – a loose, and a cake that I don’t know that they should buy. Hopefully I can get them hooked and then they’ll come over and we’ll have fun tea shopping.

sent this as a free sample. Not feeling too well today, but ive really wanted to try this one out as im beginning to get a taste for puehr now i have tried some nice ones and got the brewing method down a bit better.

So, rinsed to open the leaves.

first steep was quite, hmm, reserved? crisp & has a nice taste which isnt overpowering at all, nothing jumping out at me. 5 secs.

straight to second steep and for 10 seconds this time. the colour is a lot thicker and darker and the leaves smell of a slight raisin sweetness. I get, again, general pu earthy flavours & some sort of cake. not sure which cake, but something like that.

further steeps were 15 & 25 seconds. the flavour has taken on more elements of a cake or a sweet (maybe an english sweet flavoured with a herb or plant) but i cant put my finger on it. again, its a subtle flavour, nothing jumping right out at me.

subsequent steeps started to lose their flavour.

quite nice, nothing amazing, nothing bad about it.

New experience…
This was fantastic, but I’ve never had a pu’erh do what this did: I am 100% sure that this liquid was thinner than all other pu’erh that I have ever drank. It was really interesting to sip as this and realize how quickly it went down and how it felt in my mouth. Very light shou with a shou taste.
Quite a wonderful experience. I wish I had more of this to see if I could make it thicker (though I like what I got).

Finding this tea strangely… not as satisfying as I’d hoped, considering the cost, how much trouble I had getting it back to my place in Canada (from San Francisco’s Chinatown), and then how much the staffer raved about it.

It’s a standard puer, with a bit of a sweet, almost bitterly so aftertaste. It’s smooth and medium-bodied, with that je-ne-sais-quoi that makes it a puer… that earthiness, without being really smack-in-your-face about it.

Do I love it? Nope. Will I reach for it? Maybe. I doubt it. This was REALLY expensive tea, too, so… yeah. Going to try re-steeping it at least a few times to see if I enjoy it more.

This is a great, solid Pu-erh. Nothing special, nothing extra, just big, bold, beautiful taste.

Dark, velvety redish brown in color, matching the aroma of sweet, thick malt. The taste is right there as well, the malt is up front and present, followed closely behind by the taste of fresh wet Earth. Overall nice and sweet while still staying think and almost creamy with a dry, sweet finish.

Everything I want in a straight up, good Pu-erh tea.

-E

A smooth, lightly earthy, everyday pu-erh. No exciting / overwhelming flavors, if you’ve tried other pu-erhs, but it’s very balanced.

Pour out the first couple of (short) steepings, and you’re good to go. Lasts through the work-day, and peaks after around 3-4 steepings. A light sweetness becomes noticeable in the finish, at that point.