Xingyang 2007 Shu Pu’er

Ahhh, I made this a different way, and it actually is the smoothest, softest tea I have ever had I think. I used an odd combo of times for prep:

Two 25 second rinses with boiling water.
First steep – 45 seconds with boiling water.
Second steep – 1 minute with boiling water.

Basically I was kind of doing Verdant’s western brewing, but was worried that the 2 minute steep might be a bit strong for my liking.

The first steep was very smooth and just like silk. No fishiness this time! Some earthy tones. There was a mild, rounded sweetness to the cup, caramelly and yummy, however, I didn’t pick out much variation in flavor overall…untrained palate woes :(. I just made the second steep so I’m hoping the extra few seconds might bring out a few different nuances of this tea.

ETA: The second steep is a tiny bit stronger than the first, I still prefer the first steeping time of 45 seconds and latter steeps will probably be this time as well.

I’ll find out how to make you just right for me yet, pu’erh! This is very very close. For smoothness, this is amazing. I almost tried this in my gong fu glass pot today, but wanted to try this way first. I have enough left probably for a small infusion before this sample is out. Then I might break into my giant brick, just need a bit more experience first I think.

I just realized that I never got around to mentioning that I drank this Shu earlier today. I have really enjoyed the Xingyang workshop teas that I got from Verdant awhile back, & this is one of them. I went with the xingyang workshop steeping suggestions:
5G + 4oz (rinse) X 2min
This makes for a potent cup!
The first steep is bold with an almost coffee-like bitterness, but it is also sweet, & reminds me of boston brown bread. I can’t really think of anything else to say about it right now, but I’ve reviewed it several times before.

I noticed that I was reprimanded by Invader Zim for not reviewing this tea earlier (all in fun)!
Sometimes, don’t you feel like drinking a tea more than once before writing a review though?
You want to give the tea some time to settle and roll around a little in your thoughts before you do anything with it?

This is what I did. For weeks, I let the packet sit after I tried the tea.

The first time I brewed this Pu’er, it was strong and I was faced with a disconnect at the Verdant description of the taste and what
I was tasting. I talked it over with myself.
“It’s possible that my ratio of water to tea was off, and that’s why I had steeped the Pu’er to an expresso strength.”
“I tend to like strong brews. I wasn’t paying attention. I got distracted on the timing.”

Was this all true? I wanted to find out.

Paying stricter attention to detail, I went a different direction and followed my own usual steeping guidelines for Pu’er.

Knowing how strong this Pu’er could become made this brewing easier.

I rinsed the leaves 30 seconds in boiling water once.
The scent can be a little off-putting for someone not used to Pu’er and rinsing is really necessary. The scent of the leaves and taste of the tea are not the same.

The steep time was 40 seconds and produced a liquor that was as dark as coffee. (I personally wouldn’t go darker than this.)

The taste was luscious, almost creamy it was so smooth. I could taste the raisin-spice cake but it was very light and ethereal. Another thing that I noticed was that the tea isn’t too sweet. Some Pu’er’s tend to be overly sweet but this had a hint of vanilla and just enough of a savory quality to make it enjoyable. At any time of day you could drink this tea.

When I say that this would be enjoyable any time of day, I mean that this can be your morning cup with milk and is delicious (I tried it), or an afternoon pick-me-up…equally good with a sandwich or at dinner because it’s not overly sweet.

There was an initial energy that I felt right away.

The subsequent steepings were more savory than the first and I enjoyed the light mushroom flavor.
Sweetened, the tea is caramel with a spicy finish.

Personally,I like the shorter steep time of 30-40 seconds.
I made this in a small pot Western Style which is how I usually brew loose (non-chunky, nugget or tuo cha) Pu’er.

I highlighted the timing because mine is different than Verdant’s.

No one, not even Bonnie, has made a note about this one yet??? Bonnie, you’re slacking!

This one was odd to me because upon opening the sample pack I was greeted by what looked like loose leaf black tea, not nuggets or any sort of pressed cake. It smelled very pleasant with notes of light earthiness and mushrooms, raisins, caramel, and a hint of jasmine.

The wet leaf smelled of caramel, raisins, whole wheat flour, and a slight mushroom note. The infusion was a nice rich dark color with notes of mushroom, caramel, with a hint of salt and a hint of jasmine.

I brewed this gaiwan style with two quick rinses and started off with a 2 second steep, adding a second for every steep, working up to 10 seconds. The taste was really nice and different. It was light, but note weak. It reminded me of the way the Huang Zhi Xiang Phoenix Mountain Dancong was. How it was a dancong, but it was lighter, not POW in your face. That’s how this puerh is, nice and light, not aggressive at all, very pleasant.

As for the actual notes I got, and I’m not going to go through steep for steep, started with light notes of earthiness, mushrooms, raisins, and caramel dominating. There were lingering notes of cinnamon and other spices, with a musty note coming and going. The aftertaste of the first few had a salt note to them.

Somewhere around steep 5 and on I started to get a cake note in the tail end of the sip that was very fleeting. It was similar to angel food cake without the sweetness. It’s hard to explain, it was a plain cake taste, not those vanilla or chocolate or icing covered cakes. Just a plain sponge-type cake.

Further on a tingling sensation crept over the sides of my tongue and a nice wildflower honey note came through. The honey note was more texture than it was taste, but even at that it wasn’t a very strong texture, just enough to let you know it was there and be pleasurable.

I never did taste the jasmine note I had found in the dry leaf. Aside from that, this was a very nice mellow puerh. It still had those earthy notes that I found to be characteristic of shu, but they were mellowed, making it a much more pleasant cup.

sipdown! So only on the first steep at the moment but this is not the puerh for me if that’s a sign of things. I’m going to go through a few more steepings to make sure it’s not the taste in my mouth from my previous tea throwing things off and to see if later steeps are more enjoyable. Initial impressions are that this is too mushroomy/wet sloppy ground for me. But i’ll get back to you on that lol

Edit: Additional steepings make this a much more enjoyable puerh than i originally thought. However, it’s still not something i’d want to keep around. I much prefer some of the others that i’ve had through mandala as they’re great from start to finish. Thanks for sharing this with me terri!

oooo hello darkness my friend.
this 2nd? 3rd steeping? i lost track! hah imagine that. me. getting distracted.
i’m sharing with my sister. i read the descriptions out loud to her and we discussed it. so fun! never done that before. we agreed the caramel and raisin notes. and we like it.
i’m gonna steep it a couple more times. totes.
so good!

The puerh drinking from Terri HarpLady begins…I could try a new puerh every Saturday for almost half a year.

I moved everything back into my bedroom, which is in desperate need of being cleaned again, as is my entire apartment honestly, so I might get started on that while writing.

I did two rinses first.

First steep: I always love how puerh has that taste that you think is straw, but then you think hey this really seems more like flour. At least for me, that’s what I always get. It always tastes like all sorts of cake components, that eventually come together as cake.
This one tastes like that flour, plus just a hint of raisin.

Second steep: I notice mushrooms mentioned, and I hate them with a passion due to the texture, so honestly in tea I’m not gonna be able to tell a mushroom taste, probably, though maybe that’s more like without the weird sponginess the flavor is okay? I really haven’t ever thought about it, haha. This one has a good bit of earthiness along with the flour and raisin…maybe a hint of caramel.

Third steep: seems sweeter, more caramel then I suppose.

Fourth steep: seems even sweeter! still got that cake thing going on for sure, also making me feel really weird? Floaty.

Fifth steep: Took a break to eat lunch and get rid of the woozy. Rum cake for sure.

Sixth steep: Sebastian has taken interest again in the sound of water boiling. He perked up when I turned the kettle back on, cracks me up. This is the last one because I was getting tired of the person who lives above me (I guess his girlfriend was coming over or something so he vacuumed THEN blasted horrible music). It tastes like cake still but I was finally figuring out mushroom and I am not a fan.

This was really good, I wish I could spend more time with it but I was also getting kind of tired of drinking it especially with the floaty tea drunk feels.

A review of Xingyang 2007 Shu Puer by Verdant Tea

Date: 11/12/2012
Company: Verdant Tea
Tea Name:
Tea Type/
Region:
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf:
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color:
Leaf Characteristics:

1st Steeping:
Water temperature: 196 Fahrenheit
Time: 5 minutes

Note: I wanted to finish off this pu-er and I am not sure why. Anyhow, I take the remainder of the Xingyang in my mug and add the boiling water over it. I cover it for five minutes.

When the time elapses, I remove the cover and I find the tea’s color to be that raisin/prune color I had described before. It is the color that comes to mind; another might say darken amber, etc. At first there is this earthy aroma to the tea, but after a few seconds of immersion in the air, one can start to inhale the vapor of cinnamon and yes that soaking or prunes/raisin in the cup and a slight buttery residue that is left on the palette.

I steeped this for a good 5 minutes, thereby ensuring that the the earthy, forest-floor flavor would be emphasized at the expense of any subtler flavors. That’s fine by me—what drew me to ripe pu-erhs in the first place is the muddiness. I’m more likely to do short, multiple steeps for green pu-erhs. This 2007 tea is very easy to drink: smooth and sparkly.

Her water bowl and food dish are still on the kitchen floor. They’re empty.

I keep expecting to see her lying on the couch, waging her tail, with her head on the arm rest, looking at me or hear her dog tags on her collar clink and rattle in the other room as I make my tea. But here is only silence. I’m alone.

She was 77. In human years. And she was the only girl who ever loved me everyday of her life. Her name was Amy, she was my dog, she was my best friend, and she was put down yesterday. And I miss her terribly.

To get my mind off her not being here, I need to keep it occupied on something else. Tea me.

This is my first Pu’er so don’t judge too quickly. We all have to start somewhere and I can think of no other place that I trust to be initiated than Verdant. Here goes nothing.

The wet leaf smells of old book pages. Its wonderful and rustic. It smells a little rough, like dried leaves scraping against concrete in the fall. That’s the only way I can describe the smell, with a sound.

After the 10ish second wash, the wet leaves smell musty and sweet. Like fish oil capsules. I After I pour the wash out, I smell the leaves and theres a little, cinnamon, caramel sweetness that mixes with the smell of wet hay. There’s a musty but clean air to it. This is very hard to wrap my head around and describe all the things going on.

The tea is a deep amber, to the point of being a thick ruby but clean. Its like watered down table wine, if that makes any sense, or the blood that comes from a piece of cooked red meat. That’s not to make it sound gross at all, its just the color I think of. It looks intimidating.

1st: Weird. I thought this would be thicker. It has a very, very light mouthfeel. Leaves a mineral stamp on my tongue and coats my mouth quietly. Slight bitterness. Still old book pages though, and I love it.

2nd: Mineral and light mouthfeel dominates but the lingering aftertaste is different now. Its cottony, fluffy and soft. Its like theres a smile inside my mouth.

3rd: Sweeter now, less rock-like. This is my favorite infusion yet. There’s a quiet bean-like taste that is so subtle it might not even exist but its there. I’m not getting the caramel taste that others get but there is a richness to the aftertaste that compliments the faint mineral thing on my tongue.

Not bad for my first Pu’er. I was scared. Thought I’d be drinking dirt water or moss extract. How wrong I was. I’m very surprised and very happy to say that I have tried this style of tea and want to and will try more.

My head feels pretty good, too. Maybe I’m not “tea drunk”, or “cha zui”, but I do feel different, a little “heady” after drinking three cups of this. I feel good.

This is why tea matters to me. It brings me back up when I’m down. Finds me when I’m lost. Sits quietly with me when I’m alone.

Time will take care of these feelings. I won’t dwell or sulk for long.

Besides, life is what you make it. And I believe I will make a cup of tea. :)