AllanK Send Message

I guess you can’t like them all. I have tried a number of Liu Bao teas now and have found only a few that I truly liked. This one started out with a note of bamboo then moved on to a note of whiskey. Then it moved on to something else that I am not sure how to describe. It never got truly sweet like the ripe puerh liu bao is an attempt to emulate. I bought a whole bing of this one so I will age it for a year and see what I think of it then.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 150ml gaiwan with 12.2g 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. There were more steeps in the leaves but I did not have any desire to continue.

This is a very nice ripe puerh from Puerhshop. It seemed very good but not quite spectacular. A very good value for the price at only around $17. To me this one proves you do not have to spend a fortune to get a nice shou. This one was bittersweet at the start witih a fair amount of fermentation. The bitterness and fermentation were gone by about the fifth steep or so. I might describe the sweet note at the end as dates but this is only an opinion. It could well taste like something else to someone else. But my thought is dates. Did not really notice any chocolate notes in this one but I could have missed them.

I brewed this ten times in an 180ml Jian Shui teapot with 14.8g 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, and 1 minute. Judging by the color of the tea there were a few more steeps left in this but ten steeps from a 180ml teapot is a lot of tea.

Sticking with western brewing today as it takes less of my time while I am building a new display cabinet from Ikea for holding tea and teaware. This is a fairly nice black tea. Not as tasty as a first flush black tea but much stronger. So far all thye teas I have tried from Vahdam Teas have been good. This one is not bitter or astringent but I am not sure how to describe the main note. This one is strong enough that you could add milk if you wanted.

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.

Now this one from Vahdam tastes like a black tea. It is strong and robust with notes of malt in there. There is a little bitterness but not much. This is one I could see adding milk too but I did add sugar. I won’t go as far as to say I found chocolate notes. It is not as good as their first flush Darjeelings but still good. Of course this is a Assam so I expect it to be stronger. This is a good one to buy if you like a nice strong cup of 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. I think it would have been better with a 2 minute steep.

This is an excellent tea. It has got a fruity note to it. It is a much lighter brew than the average black tea. It has no malty tones nor any astringency. I really can’t think of this as a black tea but it certainly does not taste like a green either. In my opinion first flush Darjeelings are a type of tea of their own.

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 was a nice tea and not expensive. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it for the first few steeps. The brick was tightly compressed. It took until the third steep for the tea to open up. First two steeps were a little light. I would say a note of dark bittersweet chocolate developed but that is an interpretation. It was definitely bittersweet at the start. It developed into a nice sweet flavor. Not sure what to call the flavor that had developed by the twelfth steep but I suppose generally fruity might describe it, but not a heavy fruit flavor. I enjoyed this tea.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10g 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. Judging by the color in the twelfth steep I would say there were between two and four steeps left should I wish to continue.

This is a tasty and somewhat malty breakfast tea. It is not as strong as an Irish breakfast tea I think but somewhere around the strength of an English breakfast tea. I am fairly sure this is a blend of teas but the website doesn’t seem to say. It is very good and not so bold as to need milk.

I steeped this twice in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water. I steeped for 3 minutes and 5 minutes.

When I grabbed this to brew I thought I was grabbing a black tea so I brewed it at a bit higher temperature than green tea normally gets. Doesn’t seem to have effected it though. This is very good tea but it doesn’t taste like a green to me any more than the first flush black tasted like a black. I am somewhat at a loss to describe the flavor of it. Sweet but not bitter. Not vegetal or particularly grassy like a green. It is just very tasty.

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

While this tea is a little bolder than the first flush I drank a few minutes ago it is not a real strong black tea but still a somewhat lighter taste to it. It had a sweet note with only a little bitterness and no astringency. There were fewer green leaves as in the first flush but there still were some. I don’t know if this tea is 100% oxidized like a regular black tea. It is quite good.

This is a very good tea that I would buy again for sure.

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

Drinking this one now. It is quite good. It has a very light flavor to it and is not a dark a brew as the average black tea. There were a fair amount of green leaves mixed in with some black leaves. This as I understand is common with Darjeeling first flush. This tea has a natural sweet note to it an really no bitterness or astringency. This was my first direct order from India and it was lightning fast at about three days from when I put in the order. They shipped via Fedex and it was delivered before 10:30 this morning.

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. I should note that while this has a lot of green leaves it does not taste at all like a green tea. In taste it is really somewhere in between a black and green with it being closer to a black tea.