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This tea is fairly complex with some sweet notes. It is also slightly bitter, just slightly. There are some smokey notes as well. This is a relatively good tea but not one I would probably buy again. I will have to gongfu it to see if it improves.

I brewed this once ini an 18oz teapot with 4 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

This tea is very slightly bitter with a strong roasted barley flavor. It is a good basic Da Hong Pao tea. For the price I paid I was not expecting much, this is better than I expected.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 190 degree water and 4 tsp leaf for 3 min.

This is a good tea. It has a nice camphor taste balanced by a sweet taste. The camphor taste is not overpowering. It has only a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left to it. Mr Mopar’s review of this tea was on the mark. There were some buttery notes. I liked this tea even though I did not like camphor teas in the past. I guess my tastes have changed.

I steeped this tea 6 times in a 170ml Yixing teapot with boiling water and 6g leaf. I steeped it for 10 sec, 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, and 30 sec. It was fairly weak by the sixth steep. Either it is a slightly weak tea or I did not use enough leaf. Thank you Mr Mopar for this sample. I have enough left for one more gongfu session in the future and may try a little more leaf.

Thank you Sarsonator for this sample. This is a good tea but not the sort I usually drink. It is floral tasting with sweet notes. It is not bitter. I can get the notes of nuts, pine, and floral. The notes of butter are a little more subtle but seem to be there.

I brewed this tea once in a 18oz teapot with 2 tsp leaf and boiling water for 3 min.

This is a very tasty but slightly, very slightly bitter tea. Next time I will lower the temperature to 190 degrees. It is a complex tea with a lot of different notes to it. The ones from the list I can notice are malt first and foremost, then dried fruit, molasses, smoke and sugar. The tea does not quite live up to one thing that struck me in the description, it was fried in raw cane sugar. You would think it would be even sweeter. Still it is quite good and rates highly in my book.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with boiling water and 3 tsp leaf for 3 min.

This is an excellent tea with very little fermentation flavor. It is actually 2010 tea pressed in 2014 so has aged a bit. I was a little skeptical about the description of this tea on the puerhshop page. The page describes coffee and cocoa notes as well as plum and black currant notes. This is actually not far off although the specifics are open to interpretation. I definitely got the coffee, cocoa, and plum notes. I think I get the black currant notes in later steeps although I am not sure. In any case it is an excellent and complex tea at an excellent price.

I steeped this 6 times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 10g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, and 1 min. It did not get appreciably weaker even in the sixth steep. It is an excellent tea at an excellent price.

This is an excellent sheng puerh with almost no bitterness and notes of honey and apricots. I added a very small amount of sugar to this tea which may have helped bring out these notes. This is extremely good tea. The good news is I called Mandala Tea, they are not near to running out. It will still be there when I get around to another Mandala order. This tea had a nice golden yellow color. The spent leaves have the aroma of apricots.

I steeped this tea 7 times in a 150ml gaiwan with 200 degree water and 6g leaf. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, and 2 min. There is still more left in these leaves but I have had enough sheng for today.

There seem to be two alternating flavors in this tea. One I would describe as a sweet flavor, not sure how to better describe it, the other is roasted barley. The roasted barley flavor is not too intense, but mild. The roasted barley flavor also got less intense as I drank my cup. Once this flavor got less intense, a third flavor was noticed. This third flavor I would describe as mildly fruity, but just barely.

I steeped this one time in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min. Overall this is excellent tea. I give it a high mark.

This tea is among the very best shou puerh I have ever drank. Thank you Mr Mopar for this sample. There were at various times notes of plums or apricots, not sure which is the best description and dark chocolate. This tea has staying power. I steeped this fourteen times over a four hour period. There was a touch of fermentation flavor in steep 3 and 4 but that was it. I didn’t weaken until around steep 10 and was not too weak at steep 12. Steep 14 was pretty weak. If I had the patience I would steep it a fifteenth time for an hour but I don’t have the patience and want to clean up my tea table. This was arguably as good as the 2008 Song of Chi Tse although it may have had a touch more fermentation flavor, which is to say not very much fermentation flavor. This is a highly caffeinated puerh. The first six steeps had me on a caffeine high. I could also feel the qi of this tea, not as potent as some but definite.

I steeped this 14 times in a 150 ml gaiwan with 6g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 15 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 3 min, 4 min, 5 min, 10 min, 20 min, and 30 min. It did not start to lose a noticeable amount of strength until around steep 10. This was damn good tea.

This tea is good but very malty. I taste a variety of complex notes including malt, burnt sugar, cocoa, and caramel. I am afraid I don’t notice the whole list. It is very good but a little too malty for my taste. By malt I don’t mean chocolate malt.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with boiling water and 3 tsp leaf for 3 min.