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This is a very nice tasting inexpensive tuocha. I would not call it spectacular but it was very nice. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor that lasted about four steeps. There was just a hint of bitterness. And there was an evolving sweet note throughout all ten steeps. At one point I thought of chestnuts but this is only an interpretation. I didn’t use quite as much tea as usual so the brew was a little light but still very tasty, not watery.

I steeped this ten times in a 160ml solid silver teapot with 10.2g 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.

This is a decent sheng for the price. The first two steeps were a little weak until the tea leaves opened up. There was little bitterness. There was what I might describe as a grassy sweetness to the tea. I would not go as far as to say apricots but it was a sweet tea just more subdued in it’s sweetness. This tea is a good value for the money. I don’t know if it is a good one to age as there was little bitterness to it and I am told bitterness is a sign the tea will age well. This I think is a good one to drink now.

I steeped this ten times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.8g 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

This tea, once you get the steeping parameters right, is a nice tea. I started out with a 10 second steep. The tea was relatively flavorless. I upped it to 30 seconds for the second steep. It got a little better but still not good. I was using 8.2g leaf an a 150ml gaiwan mind you. At one minute it was finally what I would call enjoyable. There were notes of malt and baked bread in this steep, as well as some bitterness. Steeps four and five were decent at two and three minutes. But it does seem that this tea does not have a lot of good steeps in it. It might be better brewed western style with a large amount of leaf and a long five minute steep. I think there is flavor in this tea. It was just hard to coax out. I only gave the tea five steeps and I think that was about all I was going to get out of it. I definitely don’t think it is as bad as the other reviewer. If I had stuck with the standard gongfu short steeps I would probably agree but this tea required a longer steep from the beginning.

I steeped this five times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 10 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, and 3 min. I think this was a tea worth buying as it was not too expensive and once you get it right it is tasty. It is not a tea for a lot of steeps however.

This is a nice ripe that started out with a fair amount of fermentation taste and a bittersweet note. One might interpret this note as bittersweet chocolate but that is a matter of opinion. After about six steeps the fermentation was history, I would say the bitter note lasted maybe four steeps. It developed into a nice sweet puerh. I think this one will be really nice in a few more years when the fermentation clears completely.

I brewed this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.5g 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. The tea was not finished at twelve steeps. I think I could have gotten another 4 or 5 steeps out of it judging by the color of the tea.

Today I have been catching up on my Global Tea Hut samples. I drank the tea sent in March, the 2016 “Golden Thread” Liu An BLack Tea. This tasted very much to me like a regular black tea but perhaps a bit sweeter. There was some bitterness and some maltiness to this tea. A sweet note did develop by the eighth steep. Kind of a weak fruity note. This is an interesting tea to drink. I always thought Liu An would taste very much and more different than a black tea but this one had a great deal in common with black tea.

I steeped this eight times in a 100ml teapot with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

Today I drank the January 2017 offering from Global Tea Hut, 2014 “Old Town Gathering” Shou Puerh Tea. This tea got off to a bad start. It had a lot of fermentation taste and that taste was definitely fishy and funky. I would have expected better from Global Tea Hut. The tea did improve over the course of twelve steeps. And there was little bitterness to this tea. It evolved into a nice sweet tea after the fermentation was history after about six steeps.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 100ml Teapot with 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 two minutes.

This is a nice teat with a fair amoount of fermentation flavor and very little bitterness. It had a nice semi sweet note from the start that evolved over ten steeps. There were some chocolate notes in there and a somewhat fruity charact6er at the end. I really was not paying attention to the specifics beyond this.

I steeped this ten times in a 160ml Solid Silver 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.

This was overall a very nice aged ripe tea. There were no traces of the fermentation left. You could still tell it was a ripe tea and not a raw mind you. Even when all the fermentation is gone it does not taste like an aged raw tea. There was some wet storage taste but it was not strong. It lasted perhaps four or five steeps. There was no bitterness to this tea. There was an evolving sweet note from the beginning until I finished my session with the tenth steep. There was also a taste that I would call an aged flavor but not entirely negative like the leather and tobacco you get with 10 year old raw teas. As to defining the sweet note. The exact description eludes me. You might say fruity but not a strong fruity taste. Very hard to pin down. Now the real question was this worth the price I paid, $105 minus 12%? I would have to say almost worth the price. I will I think continue to drink this one along with the 1996 CNNP from Yunnan Sourcing. This is I think not an incredibly long lasting tea. While I think I could have gotten two more good steeps out of it, it was a little weak at ten steeps. Overall I think this one is worth a sample.

I steeped this ten times in a 150ml Ru Kiln Shui Ping Teapot with 10g leaf and boiling water. I gave 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 min.

This was an interesting and fairly tasty tea. It did seem to have some fermentation taste in the beginning. But this taste was not unpleasant and not quite the same as a ripe puerh. I am at a loss for how to properly describe this tea. It was initially sweet. When it opened up there was some bitterness for a couple of steeps. There was a very slight wet storage aftertaste, I could taste it but just barely. The tea got progressively sweeter as I resteeped it. By the twelfth steep it had developed something of a subdued fruity flavor but I couldn’t pin it down specifically. I like this more than most of the other liu baos I have tasted.

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. There were a couple of steeps left in the tea but twelve was enough for me. I would recommend this tea but anyone who has not tried liu bao, it doesn’t taste like ripe puerh which it generally tries to emulate.

Got this last week with my order. The other Bing Dao teas I got from Yunnan Sourcing were phenomenal so I had high expectations for this one. I have to say it lived up to those expectations. It was somewhat sweet with a grassy note at the start. The grassy note didn’t last long. As it opened up a little bitterness crept in but not much. Thihs only lasted a few steeps and it was back to sweet notes. While you might use the words apricots or stonefruits to describe these notes I think they were a little more subdued.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9g 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. I could definitely have gotten a few more steeps out of this if I wanted to continue. It was not watery in the twelfth steep.