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This tea was strong and bitter at first. It took about six steeps to begin evolving into something else. By the eighth steep there was a sweet but grassy note. I would not go as far as to describe this as apricots as it did not seem quite that sweet to me. It started off a little harsh but did improve dramatically.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9g leaves and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. The tea was not done at twelve steeps. I am sure I could have gotten a few more steeps out of this one but twelve was enough for me.

Received this with some free samples from The Tea Guy, thanks. As to the name of this tea, it conjures up what should in my imagination be the best puerh I have ever tasted. I cannot say that it was. It was also certainly not the worst. This was over the course of twelve steeps fairly nice. I did start off with a note of wet storage. Surprising for a tea from December of 2016 but it was there. It was not overly strong but it did persist for about six steeps. So did the fermentation flavor too. I think this tea actually had a little less fermentation taste than I was expecting. A nice sweet note did develop, at first masked by the wet storage taste, then very noticeable. Even in the end there was a little bit left of the wet storage taste so it is hard to pin down the sweet note. I have decided not to give this tea a numerical rating because I don’t want to be unfair and give one too low or do the opposite and give one higher than it deserves because I got the sample for free. I did really enjoy the tea. That is the truth. Once the wet storage was gone it was quite nice. I should also note that there was no bitterness to this tea.

I brewed this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec,10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes.

This is a nice tea, but it tastes more like a black tea than any oolong I am used to. There are no grassy or vegetal notes. Certainly no roasted notes. If anything it has a malty and slightly sweet characteristic that tastes like a Darjeeling second flush black tea.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

This is a relatively nice shou with a lot of fermentation flavor. It was initially sweet until the tea opened up. After this there was a bittersweet note for several steeps, bittersweet dark chocolate I think you could say. Then it evolved into a sweet note. Perhaps the word fruity describes it but I cannot pin it down specifically. It was quite enjoyable.

I steeped this twelve times in a 110ml teapot with 8gleaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 mini, and 2 minutes.

This is a nice tasting black tea that has little bitterness, a slight malty flavor and a subdued sweet note. It is very good.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

This I think is a good tea but the roast profile is just too strong for me. Next time I will try brewing with fewer leaves. There was a sweet note behind the roast but I couldn’t really taste it enough to pin it down.

I brewed this eight times in a 110 ml teapot with 7g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

This is an interesting tea that I bought from a relatively new EBay seller. It is a reasonably good puerh tea with some hints that it was dry stored. While the tea was sweet from the start and you could even use the words apricots and stonefruits to describe it, it also had a bit of a sour note mostly in the aftertaste. I expect this means it was in dry storage. That note lasted about six steeps and was gone by the seventh. It left behind a nice sweet tea. I didn’t notice any bitterness at all but there was some astringency.

I steeped this eight times in an 80ml teapot with 6.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 seconds.

This ti,e I decided to see how far I could take the tea. I brewed it in my new 50ml teapot by Bero from Puerh.sk. I gave the leaves eighteen steeps. It was pretty much played out at eighteen steeps. I suspect if I had the patience for 10 minute steeps I would have gotten two more out of it. This was initially on the sweet side until it opened up and then a bittersweet note took over. This didn’t last long and the sweet note took over again. I guess you could call the sweet note in later steeps fruity but by the eighteenth steep this note was pretty much gone. It was still sweet just not as flavorful. Eighteen steeps is really a lot for any puerh and these were not ancient tree leaves. It is still an incredible puerh that I recommend people buy a sample of to taste for themselves.

I steeped this eighteen times in a 50ml Tetapot with 4.4g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min, 4 min, 4.5 min, and 5 minutes.

This is a very nice tea from Vahdam Teas. It has a very light color to it and there were a lot of green leaves. There are some notes of malt and some sweet notes. The sweet notes might be described as fruity. It is good stuff. Need to try this as a cold brewed iced tea.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 minutes.

This is a very nice raw from the White2Tea subscription box a couple of months ago. It does not seem to be available on their site. It was quite good. Very sweet at first and then a little less sweet as the leaves opened up. After the leaves opened up there was a mixture of a sweet note and very, very weak notes of leather and tobacco. So weak I barely noticed them. There was also no wet storage flavors. I don’t doubt that this was dry stored. As to the color of the tea. It was just barely orange at first but as the leaves opened up it turned a dark orange color. It is too bad this one is not for sale. It would be worth buying a bing.

I steeped this ten times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute. I am sure I could get a few more steeps out of the leaves if I wanted to continue.