Tea Urchin

Oh wow! This is my favorite Tea Urchin yet… yes I think even better than Bulang Beauty. I almost didn’t want to write this review because it is on sale right now and I don’t have the money for it or shipping.

Per the description you really can smell the caramel while you drink this tea. The taste is a sweet flower and bitter stem sort of mix. This is not subtle or gentle like most of Belle and Eugene’s teas. It is a kick in your face, like the horse on the label suggests.

The after taste lingers and is wonderful and captures more of the caramel. I NEED more of this… one or two cakes assuming it doesn’t sell out before I bring home the bacon! This is so creamy and sharp at the same time. I Love it.

Om nom nom nom nom stumbles off into tea drunk bliss

TL:DR: The most elegant salted caramel you can eat on a diet. Gives you a serious punch in taste and energy. Reminds me of a dessert bulang.

I used to have a bath oil that was suppose to be “Butterfly Nectar” but was a bit sweet and cloying and artificial. This tea is what I bought that hoping it would smell like. A little floral, a little spicey, a little bitter, a little fruit… but all together light and ethereal! You need to pay full attention to the tea to really get all of the notes, and I wasn’t prepared for that on the first steeping. I had to have a lil bit of a heavy hand brewing this, but it is totally worth it.

Wow… and the second time brewing it… (I should note I had a cold for part of it, but was sharing with my sister) I was super surprised how much it blossomed after I would have thought it was long dead. In the late teens early 20s steeps… I am getting serious dark peach notes. And the taste lingers forever. This is the magic of GFZ and why people pay crazy prices… its after taste and steepings that get better and better and longer and longer…

I had to edit this and up my rating. I drank it again and it’s having a super good tea day… I upped the steeping time and leaf ratio… and the fruit is a lot more aggressive in a delicious way! it’s like biting into a peach, and lingers forever.

woof this is a rough and tumble bitter masochistic puer. Strong as can be but still drinkable IMO. If I ever order from tea urchin again I will be sure to grab a cake

I really enjoyed this as the temperature of the water decreased a little bit through the session. It has a great “menthol” taste or cooling sensation, which is something that I haven’t had in puerh before.
Thanks, Stephanie!

annnnd this session was completely different I had shorter steepings which helped the “soapy” taste vanish but the liquor was no longer a darker reddish hue and now it was a deep honey. It didn’t help that I used 3 different types of water (spring, alkaline, filtered tap) in the same session but this time I had none of the dark fruity tastes and mianly just a generic sheng puer slight sweetness.

The only things that have held constant through all steeping of both session is it bubbles every steepings, not tea scum per say but definite bubbles maybe higher sapponin content? and also none of the steepings were ever bitter. Another interesting twist is that I read on yunnan sourcing this area has some “Camellia Taliensis growing in Jing Gu’s red soil has prominent large fat leaves and hairy white buds. Tea from this region is well-known for it’s beautiful appearance, and tea sellers have been know to blend this tea with Yi Wu tea to make it more beautiful and bright in appearance while at the same time bolstering it’s sweetness and thickness.”

so maybe this species has isnt own unique characteristics? and maybe that’s why it’s a cheaper price?

Your what hurts?

Too much confusion drinking this tea. The leaves look very dark and the liqour looked to be from puer at least 3-4 years older??? Every steep baffled me I will have to come back to this one. I can say it was on the dark fruitier end and VERY minerally almost metallic. Strange after every cup my brain couldn’t register anything flavor wise so I slammed cup after cup. I can also be certain it had a Very nice longevity as a result but I would say next time use more leaf but keep flash steepings the whole time longer steeps had a soapy taste. Nice silky feel and thirst quenching rather than throat drying.

?Glad I got a full oz sample no way I can figure this tea out in one go.

Light, no bitterness or astringency what so ever, grassy/sweet hay, slight “grass fed” butter flavor and hint of waffles in the aromatics , lasting flavor and feeling on the outer sides of the tongue.

A great value if lighter grassier teas are your thing not a favorite of mine personally but definitely indicative of older tress from a spring flushing.

This is VERY good! Thanks for the sample Marzipan <3

It has a creamy mouthfeel, and floral vibe which I always appreciate in a sheng, and is a little sweet but with a slight toasty or burnt sugar note I don’t normally get from sheng. If I ever win the lottery I’m going on a TeaUrchin bender…so many fine puerhs!!!

I got this sample as a surprise from Stephanie. Thanks so much!

I was really excited because Tea Urchin has been on my list of companies I want to buy from at some point. The shipping is a bit cost prohibitive though. I love their website and their puerh wrappers are awesome!

This tea is very juicy, but not really fruity…more juicy in texture than flavor. It’s also really delicate and floral sweet. There’s a touch of tobacco, but overall it’s very smooth. Very enjoyable. Someday, I will have to take the plunge and order from Tea Urchin!

Lang He Tea Factory is known for producing fine ripe puerh. Light fermentation which results in it being free of that fishy flavor common in more heavily fermented shu. This is one of the finest Lang He products I have tasted. Clean, smooth and sweet with very high purity of flavor. The 2010 Tea Expo award winner is built upon a foundation of high quality material and it offers high quality flavorful sips through the session. Creamy chocolate notes frequently reveal themselves. This is an easy drinking tea and the moderate price makes it a good candidate for daily drinking. A bit difficult to find for I’ve not seen it listed anywhere except Tea Urchin.

I believe this is my first experience with a Baotang tea. The quality of the material used in this cake is excellent. Baotang is a village in Mengsong township, Menghai. Apparently, in Baotang the trees are large & ancient, growing in biodiverse, organic gardens. Beautiful leaves produce a bright and clear gold tea soup with a crisp vegetal aroma and taste. Pleasant but not impressive at this point. Very soon the leaves open up and begin to produce a much more interesting cup of tea – increasingly thick in the mouth with a nice bitterness that turns into a pleasant lingering sweetness. Moving through five quick steepings, the cups become increasingly mellow and smooth. I was left with a lingering mouthfeel and a good mellow feeling. I like this tea!
Update: Seems to be enjoyable for 6 steepings and after that it fades.

Thanks for the sample Marzipan!

I really enjoyed drinking this tea all day at work. It is definitely my kind of young sheng. Bold, punchy, strong cha qi and nice pleasant bitterness to sweetness balance. Creamy and floral too. The only thing that would have made it more perfect is if it had some fruity notes and a little bit more sweetness. I enjoyed the heck out of it though and would happily drink it again some day!

I had a crazy busy day at work and I’m serious, the tea definitely helped me! I get like a calm energy from sheng sometimes that is super perfect for stressful days at work where I need to be energized but not jittery or overwhelmed. Very centering/balancing :)

I may have reviewed this tea before under a slightly different name. I’m a little confused about it!

ANYWAY a sample of this tea was part of my Christmas gift from Marzipan <3

I really didn’t enjoy my first steep of it this morning, but the 2nd steep is very very nice :D

It has a nice combination of aged and younger sheng flavors. Mmmmm :)

Happy Friday Steepster friends!

I was a bit nervous drinking such a young sheng as I prefer a tea that isn’t too powerful. The initial two steeps surprised me by being mild and subtle, though with a strong, silky feel in the mouth. There was also a very strong cha qi

The dry leaves were very dark, almost black. Yet the tea was a light straw color. After a few steeps I noticed that the wet leaves are now green.

The power only became apparent later, as the 4th and 5th steeps were very strong and woody. I wound up shortening my steeps, which produced a very approachable tea. The dominant flavor is still wood, but it isn’t overpowering. By the 8th steep, the cha qi and taste are both still quite strong. Wood isn’t my favorite flavor, but this tea is otherwise very much to my taste: it was smooth and flavorful, with reasonable complexity. I suspect it might age well, given the power, but I can’t really predict that.

This is a very interesting pu. The first steep smells like a shu, but has the amber color of a sheng. The taste is a mix of shu and woody sheng. I’m not a big shu fan, but this is pretty good. The second steep has: less shu flavor; lots of smokiness. Powerful woody flavor. Smooth but very powerful. 4th steep: Moving back towards shu, but balanced on the edge with an aged sheng character as well.

The Tea Urchin web site says that this tea was stored as maocha for 5 years, the pressed and aged, which accounts for the shu flavors. I’m not going to give a numerical rating because I haven’t been enjoying shu lately and this tea leans in that direction, even though the Tea Urchin lists it as a sheng. I suspect that someone who enjoys shu might find this very interesting. I probably wouldn’t buy more, but I’m glad I bought the sample.

This tea is apparently no longer available, so I couldn’t post the description or photo from the web site.

Drinking this tea is a bit like taking a long journey. The trip starts out gently, with a mild floral taste, but then becomes woody and astringent (though not at all bitter). Around the 6th steep, a hint of cooked vegetables (peas) appears briefly, but the tea then becomes gentler, with a smooth straw/hay flavor.

I enjoyed all the various tastes, though the first was probably my favorite. I’m still enjoying it, though it’s running out of steam (at the point where my 3 gram sample has produced about 20-25 ounces of tea). My rating is a blend of all the different flavors: the best cup was probably a 91, and the worst about an 85.

This tea was somewhat disappointing. First, the “Silver buds” name is largely marketing. There are certainly buds, but not a high percentage (though that may be due to the luck of the sample). It may just be that my palate is not refined enough, but I don’t detect the brown sugar, honey, etc. in the description. I just taste a somewhat bitter wood, with a hint of anise that comes and goes. There is nothing bad about the tea, but it just doesn’t appeal to me.

I won’t pretend to judge the ability of this tea to age, but for everyday drinking, I found it rather ordinary.

I tend to prefer lighter, more elegant sheng, so it is possible that someone who likes more powerful teas would find this to their liking. I steeped at 200 degrees, then tried a session at 185, with similar results.

Another delicious and complex young sheng from TeaUrchin! Lots of floral notes, a little fruit in later steeps…I like Yiwu sheng :D

One of those teas that instantly knocks your socks off and I wasn’t wearing any to begin with. Used a thin walled gaiwan, rinse and 10 minute stroll to feed the birds then steeps of 30/30/30/30/40/40/40/50/50/60/60/70/70/90/115/130/145/160 and so on. Liquor was thick pouring and on the tongue, with flavors starting out floral and then turning sweet. Not a trace of astringency, a slight bitterness but you have to be paying attention. The spent large leaves are all whole and uniform and as I looked in my strainer not a piece of broken leaf to be found. A most amazing tea, will be buying the whole cake next time.

Ooooooh! Another sample from my Tea Urchin gift from Marzipan :D

I’ve never had a sheng quite like this one before. It reminds me of Silver Needle white, sort of hay like and a little sweet, with a floral shengy vibe, and mousse-like creaminess! I keep thinking of it as flower custard :D

YUM!

Most young sheng is coarse and powerful. This one is elegant. I have trouble calling out specific flavors because the flavors are so well integrated, but straw and wood are obvious, with hints of flowers early and black pepper and anise in later steeps.

There is a lot of cha qi, so I’m getting very relaxed. The first two steeps had very little astringency or acidity, and no bitterness. Later steeps have some acid and astringency, but still only a hint of bitterness. The finish is excellent, and much of the complexity comes via the interaction of the finish with the aroma and taste.

I really like this tea. I have no idea how it will age, but it is really great for drinking right now. I got it as part of the recent Tea Urchin Sampler set.

Above standard raw puerh, has a soft dry sweetness with all the prerequisite flavors of hay, pine nut, kelp. Hui gan much in present with a solidness on the tongue and that seeping of sweet coming off the parotids. Used a gaiwan one rinse and a rest then steeps of 20/25/30/35/35/35/40/40/40/45/45 after that it became a blur, as I needed to do some chores around the house since the cha qi was coming on strong. The spent leaves were all uniform and quite green with flecks of brown.

This tea starts out with a light straw flavor with hints of spice, then gradually shifts to a more woody taste. Each steep is elegant and balanced, with some astringency but hardly any bitterness.

I’ve had the tea twice. In my notes from the first session, at 190 degrees, I raved about the cha qi. In the second session, at 200 degrees, my tasting notes were similar with respect to flavors, but I noticed only moderate cha qi. I’m not sure if this is due to the temperature or just my mental state at the time of the tasting.

I enjoyed this tea, but it didn’t excite me the way some teas do. At the price, I’m not sure it offers good value, though it seems that you really have to pay for Yiwu tea these days.

I got a Christmas present in the mail today from Marzipan! She got me a bunch of TeaUrchin Samples! SQUEE! <3

This is my first shou offering I’ve tasted from Tea Urchin. It is very nice! Smooth, with a creamy mouth feeling, and not too dark/rich. No puerh funk at all. Reminds me a little of dried dates though it isn’t a super sweet shou. Mmmm….shou.

<3 <3 <3