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This tea is excellent. I bought this because of Sarsonator’s review. It was on the mark. While I am usually a Shou drinker. I do have a Yixing reserved for Sheng. I brewed this seven times in a 140ml Yixing teapot with boiling water. I used 5.2g of leaves. I steeped it for 15 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec, 30 sec, 1 min and 2 min. There was some bitterness iin the early infusions but none of that Sheng unpleasantness often found in cheap Sheng. By the fourth steeping it was sweet and smooth. If it didn’t contain caffeine I might have brewed it several more times but I will want to drink something from my Teavivre black tea order later. I very much recommend this tea while Mandala still has it in stock.

A previous reviewer described this tea as grapenutty, and I agree. It tastes like what I imagine grapenuts taste like, I haven’t eaten them in two decades. It also has the slight taste of what I would describe as baked beans, slightly burnt. I steeped 6g four times in a 220 ml gaiwan with boiling water. First 15 sec, then 15 sec, 15 sec, and 30 sec. It is smooth and tastes a little like an oolong. It has a slight bitter aftertaste. Last time I brewed this tea I brewed it western style, this time I brewed it gongfu style. It definitely benefited from this steeping method. It was noticibly better than last time. The Gaba effect is there but very mild. Sometimes Gaba tea can have a serious effect today it was mild.

This tea is quite good. I brewed it with 6g of tea in an 18 oz teapot for 3 min, one steep, 185 degree water. The flavors of the apricot and mango really come through although the tea has a slightly smoky flavor too. I can’t properly describe this other flavor but it is not an off taste. This tea is sold by Simpson and Vail, an excellent tea shop with reasonable prices at www.svtea.com.

This is a sweet and slightly pungent tea. It has flavors of rooibos,berries, lemon, orange, and peach. I think the sour taste comes from the acai berry. I brewed it once with boiling water for five minutes in an 18 oz teapot. It reminds me a bit of something like sangria to be honest. The rooibos flavor is not strong as the other ingredients predominate.

I am not sure if I should recommend this tea or not and I am pretty sure I didn’t brew it quite right.I steeped it in a 220 ml gaiwan with 8.5 g of leaves. The dry leaves had the smell of tobacco, for lack of a better description. I used boiling water. I first rinsed it twice. The rinses were quite light in color so I steeped it for thirty seconds. This seemed oversteeping so I steeped it again for 15 sec. This steeping came out better. It had sweet notes, sour pungent notes, sour berry notes and an overriding flavor I did not identify. It was my first experiment with Fuzhuan teas and was an interesting flavor. I sourced it from Streetshop88, an EBay tea shop that has sold me some excellent Puerh and Oolong. I think it is worth exploring more in a couple of days or weeks.

This tea is my favorite and most expensive Liu Bao. I only have about four or five usually buying Puerh. I went back and steeped it tonight. I steeped it five times for 15 sec, 15 sec, 15 sec, 25 sec and 45 sec. I used boiling water in a 220 ml gaiwan that I recently got from Aliexpress. I detected notes of berries and a couple of other notes I just can’t properly describe. Fang’s Gourmet Tea is an excellent tea store in Flushing, Queens, NYC. They have a small selection but it is all good. Their website is www.fangtea.com. Nothing they sell is cheap and it is all I believe high mountain tea. I have steeped this in the past and sometimes gotten quite tea drunk. In any case it always relaxes me like it did tonight. Alas they no longer seem to list this one on their site. it does not have the same flavor profile of other Liu Bao teas I have drank. There is no off taste to it or stale taste like in some Liu Bao teas. There is also no trace of the fermentation of this tea. I do not know its age. It is a good tea and Fang’s Gourmet Tea is worth a trip if you live anywhere near. For a small price she offers “sampling” which she does as a proper Chinese tea ceremony. Her store is hard to find. If you go in to Queens to see it write down directions. I recommend both this tea if you can get it and her store.

Steeped this six times in a 220ml gaiwan. First 15sec, then 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min. I used 7g of leaf and boiling water. This is really good tea. It is high quality ripe puerh with no vestiges of fermentation flavor. The tea broth is no longer at all murky. It has cleared. I found the notes of chocolate, baked bread, and berry. Sort of baked bread anyway. I just got this today with my Mandala order. It was an afterthought added to my order over the phone the day Garret shipped it. It is good.

This is a nice basic ripe puerh. It has a nice somewhat sweet flavor with not off taste and still some fermentation flavor left. I didn’t give this the full gongfu route. I steeped it twice in a 10 oz mug for 15 sec at boiling. It is good.

This is an excellent ripe puerh that has lost some but not all of its fermentation flavor. I brewed this once in an 18 oz teapot with 12g leaves and boiling water. It yields a pleasantly sweet brew with no bitterness or astringency. It has a very nice mouthfeel and is quite tasty.

I received an 8g sample of this with my last order. I used the whole thing. This tea was good. I steeped it six times in a 160ml teapot. First 10 sec, then 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec, and 30 sec. I immediately noticed the chocolate notes. They were very strong notes of bitter chocolate in the first two infusions. The chocolate notes changed their character in the remaining four steeps. They took on the notes of half bitter chocolate, half sour plums/dates. This tea has no remaining fermentation flavor to it, the tea broth has cleared. I just bought another four ounces of this, and I had not yet tried this sample that Garret gave me with my last order.