Master Han's Shu Pu'er 2002

Ha ha. I’m a total secret eye roller. Sometimes not so secret. This tea has one of my most favorite tea descriptions ever, especially this part “The musty and aged quality of this tea is so refined that it moves away from earthy and more towards the satisfying smell of old libraries.” Someday when I finally develop a taste for puerh, maybe that will sound appetizing. Not so much yet :-). But I am sipping on special dark right now. Finally found one I don’t want to just dump down the drain. Ha ha.

ah, subtlety is lost on me… i don’t do it in secret, i’ve been known to say ‘prove it’. not rudely, just candidly.

this puerh i would love to try….. august, august, august.

My favorite “old library” shu is xingyang golden leaf ’98. I love that tea, & it just happens to be one of the reserve teas this month too!

Oh lucky! (for both this and the Xiangyang). I need to hold off for financial reasons. I hear you on the skeptical. My mom is often mentioning workshops to me by “one of the great spiritual teachers/leaders of our time” or something similar. And though I may be inclined to what they are giving a workshop about: ancestors, journey work etc, my mom’s phrasing turns me off.

Autumn, I figured out a long time ago that the answers always come from within. Nobody in the world can intercede for me, or do anything to help me connect to the Universe (God, or whatever). If I sit down & ask for guidance, I will receive it. There are a lot of things that nobody can know…the Pope, the Dalai Lama, etc. I’m not saying they may not have some answers, but those same answers are available to me (or you) when we take the time to be quiet & alone, maybe journal a little, & breathe! Nobody can guide my spiritual experience except me!

You said exactly something that has been on my mind about Verdant. They go so far out there with their over the top selling hype, I find it a real turn off. It makes me want to boycott them because it seems so manipulative. That being said, their teas are generally wonderful. But I can’t help feeling cynical when I try their teas which almost takes some of the joy out of the experience. I hope they read these comments, though I might send them a note as well.

mine arrived along with a sheng and a hand picked laoshan in my tea of the month shipment…

on a separate note and playing the part of devil’s advocate: culturally there are chinese tea masters, and in the north america there are tea mastery courses… verdant (in my opinion) creates brilliant products. who does it hurt really if they refer to their tea engineer as master han? why assume it’s a manipulation and not a sign of respect.

i can’t say either way which would be true, and in my experience the middle road is often the most accurate. i suppose i like to err on the side the cup of tea half full.

All in all, in spite of my skepticism, I’ve loved almost every tea I got from them, LOL. I guess that really says it all, right?

terri, you are a lovely person.

Why thank you, James!

Just noticed this thread, bit of a late response here, but I’ll throw in my two cents…

I’m also a bit skeptical of anything/anyone with the title of “master”, but it recently occurred to me that it’s a traditional form of respect in the Chinese culture to call an experienced elder “lao shi”, which basically means “teacher” and I suppose could also be translated to “master”. Considering that Verdant’s relationship with their tea sourcers is one of friendship and respect, I can understand why they would refer to them as “Master so and so”.

I also have some slight issues with Verdant’s fancy descriptions, but after listening to some of the conversations David has with the tea farmers, I’m certain of Verdant’s genuineness. Up until then, I had a slight concern in the back of my mind that some of Verdant’s claims of friendships with tea farmers and sourcers were exaggerated, but his fluency in Mandarin is impressive— I almost couldn’t tell he had an accent (my family is from China so I hear Mandarin and a few other regional dialects being spoken fairly frequently).

Cool, Ag! Thanks for chiming in!
The truth is, I love almost every tea I get from Verdant, & I do feel that they are very genuine in all they share. I also really enjoy the info they share, & the personal way that they deal with the growers, & those of us who purchase the tea.

Sorry to hear you didn’t like it :( But every tea is a learning experience all the same :)

How short your steeps were? I’m quite successful with shortest steeps possible like 5 sec.
This particular shu I found too clean and too mild for my taste. Don’t dismiss it. Try some other time;)

Yes, it was a learning experience and I enjoyed trying it for sure!

boychik, I played around a bit with steeping times…probably a bit longer than 5 seconds, and as well tried longer times – still pretty earthy.

I would try it again some other time.
If any one told me 4 months ago that I would be so into puerh I wouldn’t believe. I started with shu( had a free sample) that was very bad quality, completely black fishy. But I had a feeling that it was a bad sample. It didn’t stop me;). I’m addicted.
Do you drink coffee? I find shu is similar to black coffee. I do drink 1 cup everyday no milk or sugar. If you like green tea then maybe sheng is the answer.

Yeah I think puerh takes a little time to get aquanted with you. My first was a disaster.

haha, yes I will have to try again another time. I really don’t know much about puerh at all.
And I do drink coffee but didn’t find this similar, except in color perhaps. ;-)

If you have only had this a short period of time let it “air” out. I usually put any new puerh in the pumidor for at least 2 weeks before I get into them. Just let it get some air and moisture and it will probably wake up a little. I get things from China that have been vacuumed sealed with no airflow or moisture and they are usually in transit a month or so sometimes. I just pull them out and hope they come “alive” again. I think this will change given a month or so.

Thank you, mrmopar. It was in a sealed bag – I will the rest of it get some air for awhile and try again. And, I never knew there were pumidors!

That should read, “I will let the rest of it get some air..”

Mopar, how big is your pumidor anyway? :)

Pretty!

Is that your cup? : )

Thanks. I didn’t write a note yet. Playing with my phone. I think it’s fun to add pics. Shu has so many shades. I’m obsessed …

Yes. My cup and my glass gongfu pot;). Review will come soon. You inspired me to drink this tea and wanted to take a pic. Thanks caile;)

haha, OK

+1 on the shou obsession. Almost for got, need to stand up for this. Speech is as follows “Hi I am mrmopar and I have a problem with shou puer, I guess I am a shou addict”.

Anyone with a severe shou addiction, to lessen your temptation for shou please box it all up and ship to ….. just kidding!

:)

woww what a gorgeous color!!

thank you

That’s great you enjoyed it! I will have to try mine again after some time and see if I like it any better. :-)

mmm trail mix!

I read somewhere here 5 sec rinse couple min rest then 5/5/10/15 etc. I hope you don’t mind me telling this . This works pretty good for me for shu. Sheng is tricky. Short steeps always work.

Oh, no, I actually really appreciate the advice! It’s part of the reason I record the time/temp. and check everyone’s puerh notes. Sometimes I get lucky and it comes out tasting great despite the experimenting, like this one did, but I’ve wrecked a few too. Thank you :)

for shu cha I typically do 2 rinses,the second being long enough to draw just a little color out of the leaf…steep times will vary quite a bit from tea to tea,depending on leaf size,bing vs.loose,lao cha tou etc..

there really is no wrong or right way though…I tend to brew “heavy”,I like to overleaf oversteep most teas…it just comes down to personal preference..

@cryptickoi. i agree there is no right or wrong. im a beginner so its easier for me to do shortest steeps and see how flavors develop. i’m more in control. once i know more or less what to expect from this particular tea i can increase the time. so many people are turned off by pu because of long steeps. i still dont feel comfortable with sheng :(

This one really is nice :)