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While this tea has preserved most of its character over the last three years, I find that it is a bit more smooth and creamy now, with a light medicinal note in the aftertaste. The empty cup aroma also gives off a cooling forest floor impression – something I didn’t notice before.

Wuyi Origin’s MLX is more bitter and woody than average I’d say. It’s really nice, one of the most memorable things about it is the very sweet and long-lasting aftertaste.

When dry, the aroma is fairly standard, but also very pungent. You get stone fruits, honey, pumpkin seeds mix there. The tea remain fragrant throughout the session, with notes like vanilla, green pepper, and flax flowers present in the wet leaf aroma.

The mouth-watering liquor is juicy and has a vegetal bite to it. There is a quinine-like bitterness as well as mild woody sweetness. At times, I also get a peppermint note in the aftertaste. Mouthfeel is generally warming, bubbly and a little chalky, while the cha qi is of the sedating/defocusing kind.

This Ai Lao sheng sold by Farmerleaf is decent, albeit not spectacular. It has a green, burly leaves, a fairly well-balanced character, and a smooth mouthfeel.

The aroma is herbaceous and sweet with cooling forest notes, wet earth, walnut, hot hay, bone broth, celery and seaweed scents. Taste, on the other hand, is buttery, nutty, bitter and fragrant, followed by a very floral aftertaste. The aftertaste is kind of funny in a way. It feels like it should be sweet with its high floral fragrance and a sort of honey like character, but in fact it is more bitter than sweet.

This tea just keeps getting better each time I have it. Now that I finished my sample, I am going to be thinking about getting a cake.

It seems able to preserve a lot of its fragrance. The taste is pungent with a lot of high notes, but not overwhelmingly floral. The bright and crisp character is complemented by a gin-like bitterness and a heavy sweetness. There is a lot of focus on the aftertaste, which is refreshing even with all the returning honey-like sweetness.

This is my second review of a YQH production, the first one being the highly acclaimed Te Ji Pin. Compared to the other YQH teas I’ve seampled this one has the strongest bitterness which is definitely a plus. Other than that, the most notable aspect is the face-melting cha qi.

The aroma is not very strong, but there are hints of vanilla beans, fermented fruits, dry earth, and wood. The woodiness present in all YQH samples I tried is fairly similar, but I am not going to speculate why that is exactly.

First infusion starts with a tart, medicinal liquor that is a little drying and has a distinct buttery taste. Second steep bring more umami, woody, and fruity flavours. Peach and roasted barley are among the most prominent ones. The aftertaste is very sweet and displays a brown sugar flavour.

The texture is decently active and smooth from the get go, but around steep 4 is when it gets really thick and oily. The rest of the session is fairly consistent – this tea definitely brews out over a long period of time.

Not the most exciting tea, this one. It doesn’t have any glaring flaws, but I find that it lacks a bit of depth in taste. On the other hand, for casual brewing it could work really well – one of the notable things about it is that it lasts quite long.

Dry leaves smell spicy and slightly woody with notes of milk, black pepper, mint, and orange peel. After the rinse, the aroma is more earthy and displays notes of preserved lemons, vanilla, and mushrooms. Based on the bouquet, one would expect a dynamic session overall, but the opposite is the case.

Liquor body is medium to light with a bubbly, warming, and slightly chalky mouthfeel. At first, the taste is buttery, yeasty (a bit like fu hei cha) with a vegetal bite and tart finish. Most of the infusions are dominated by a sweet woody character. Slight minerality and bitterness appear at times, complemented by some honey notes.

Thanks for this sample derk :) It’s the first goishicha I’ve ever tried!

The tea has a pungent aroma. When dry, I detected notes of peach, alcohol, wooden cabinet, and lemon zest. On the other hand, after the rinse the smell is more milky, sweet with notes of fermented fruits and pollen.

Taste itself is very mild and dominated by milky sweetness and lemon-like sourness with a base note of sandy earth. Mouthfeel is very smooth and silky, but not thick.

At six years of age, this tea is starting to show definite signs of a semi-aged sheng profile. It is one of the more elusive teas to describe, but I also find that my impression of it hasn’t changed much since I last wrote a note a year ago. The one thing that I would highlight more is the aftertaste which has a lot of sweetness to it.

Nannuo sheng sold by Farmerleaf is not the most exciting tea, it is just very good. The clear highlight is its mouthfeel that’s among the most oily and smooth ones I’ve tried. Such a full bodied tea with no abrasiveness is a clear mark of quality material and processing.

The flavour profile is mostly sweet and floral with quite a lot of higher notes. Notes of cream, dry grass, thistles, pollen and alpine meadows appear throughout. Additionally, I picked up some fleeting aromas of orange zest, nuts and cooked leaf vegetables. There is a cooling aftertaste and a warming body sensation as well, neither of which makes the tea stand out in particular.

This is one of the best teas I can imagine as a young sheng introduction to newer tea drinkers.

We Go High is a high quality blend that is unfortunately too expensive. However, I can imagine that it could still be worth it for people who prioritize cha qi, don’t care about single origin sheng, and like their pu’er sweet and fruity. I wonder if some of the maocha was aged a bit, part of the leaves seem to be older than 4 years.

The aroma here is a bit simple and fairly standard for a raw pu’er, but also really beautiful. It lands on the sweeter side of the spectrum with notes of fruit juice and forest floor among the most prominent ones.

First infusion is sweet with only a touch of bitterness and flavours such as honey, longan and apricot jam. Second steep is a bit more floral and medicinal, but fruitiness still dominates. There are notes of butternut squash and rum, the latter of which is a common one throughout the session. Bitterness intensifies from then onwards and the tea’s flavour becomes progressively heavier and more grain-like too. Another interesting note that pops up every now and then is custard, which is a little unusual I’d say.

The aftertaste is a bit more on the vegetal and savoury side, but it also has a returning bitterness and a long-lasting soft sweetness to it. Sometimes the flavour reminds me of sunflower seeds a bit.

The liquor texture is oily, dense and smooth, which turns into a numbing and powdery mouthfeel after swallowing. A definite highlight of the session is the very strong cha qi. It is of the dizzying/sedating kind accompanied by a substantial body warming sensation.

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_LZ99hqLQ8