Qianjiazhai Old Growth 2014 Sheng

Not my favorite cup of tea. The more and more raw pu er I try the more and more I’m not sure I like it. This one has a strong tobacco aroma from my gaiwan, although there is little to no aroma from the liquor. The first infusion has a light color and a light, sweet taste. There are hints of dark fruit. Perhaps plums or cherries. The second infusion brings forth a tobacco taste and slight dryness in the mouth. The taste increases and the liquor darkens ever so slightly to a muddy green. The third and fourth infusions brought forth an almost smoky green tea flavor much like a gunpowder. Anyways, we’ll see what my next sheng brings…

On the savory side of the spectrum. The rinse smelled like baked macaroni with cheese, bacon, and bread crumbs. The taste is pleasantly sour and smokey, with a dash of oregano and some sweet syrup. I can’t shrug off the bacon. It’s there. I’m not crazy. I’m not.

Sipdown! 62/365

Inspired by the many pu’erh reviews in my newsfeed, I decided to pick one out. Sheng, because I generally like them. It didn’t disappoint, but i’m quite terrible at picking out flavours sometimes, and this would be one of them. Camphor? Juniper? There was a sharpness/freshness about it, which is not an unusual flavour profile for sheng (in my limited experience). Oh, and I did a 10-second rinse. Which… I must have drank, because I don’t recall dumping it, and I have a habit of just drinking through everything that’s in teacups on the counter. Hmm. No recollection.

So yeah. This was fine. Basically what I expect from a sheng, but again, very limited experience here so who knows.

Well, I struck out on this one. Surprising, since I’ve been very pleased with all the other Verdant teas I’ve tried. This was a 5 for 5 sample and it was burdened with a huge proportion of fannings. I suspect this was the problem, as no matter how I steeped it (in my gaiwan), it was just bitter, bitter and more bitter. I will not rate this one, since I think all those fannings were a fluke.

mmmmmmm sweet smoke :P

I opened this package and the beeng cha was gorgeous. It consists of loosely stranded long tendrils of silver, gold, and a dark forest green. The dry leaf carries a peppercorn aroma. I placed a generous chunk inside my gaiwan, and I gave it a whirl. The scent from my brewing vessel was amazing. It had a sweet and robust maple syrup scent. It was so succulent but yet spicy at the same time. I washed these leaves once and prepared to brew. The taste was incredibly smooth. The initial sip consisted of silky smoke and a light sweetness. The flavor kept consistently smooth; it wasn’t until further steepings that it dropped into a bitter zone. The brew recovered from this within a few steepings and returned back to a char and burnt sugar taste. This young sheng has some great potential in aging, and is exemplary for showing the varieties of Raw Pu-erh. This was a perfect smoky tea session for a rainy day.

https://instagram.com/p/2wlXkNzGcj/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Nice, A little camphor, peppery, some smokey tones with a nice sligtly sweet vegetal note, not bad at all.
https://instagram.com/p/2O7eqmkwK-/

This was my second experience with sheng. The first time scared me out of trying it again for a minute. I started with a rinse and then did 5-10s infusions in my gongfu. The flavor is nice. It’s sweet and has a slight bitterness to it.

Improperly brewed wont even attempt tasting notes but a reminder to use more leaf and/or longer time the brew was too thin and light.

Brewed this quite a few times with a friend as my first sheng tea done correctly- meaning I didn’t steep this for almost three minutes.

I find this to be what I would classify as a wonderful aged tea with its interesting roasted vegetable taste. While this may be a fantastic tea with its presentation and smell, the taste is a little dry and the aged portion of it makes it not taste as clean as I would like. Though this is my first sheng I can tell by the quality of the leaf a I examine it that it was a fine specimen .