The Essence of Tea

Heavy, buttery-smooth, slightly woody and with notes of dry plumes.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2007-qi-sheng-gu-eot

Very smooth with a slightly bitter sweetnes and a great Qi.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2012-baotang-eot

Velvet smooth with a heavy sweetness.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-yunya-eot

Quite a bit of bitterness in this one with maybe some slight spicy notes. That’s not really the right word for the note, but I don’t know what to call it. Couldn’t find this one on the site anymore so it must be sold out. Not particularly good enough that I bothered to look up any more details about it.

Yay, my tenth review! I received ten grams of this tea as a free sample with my order from Essence of Tea. The bag has been sitting opened in my pumidor for over a month so it has had ample time to air out and acclimatize. My sample consisted of one larger piece, big, intact individual leaves as well as some smaller ones at the bottom of the bag. The sample had an air of being prepared with care.

Since there weren’t enough leaves to fill up the rather large Yixing teapot I usually use for sheng, I put 8.9g of leaves in a 130ml gaiwan instead. The dry leaves had a much darker and aged smell than you usually get in a sheng of this age, which leads me to believe what I was smelling may have been acquired in storage. This was a non-issue, though, because after a ten-second rinse the dark aroma was gone and I was greeted instead by a sweet, vegetal scent. After a customary ten-minute rest, I got to brewing. I did a total of eleven steeps, for 10s, 10s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 80s, 2 min., 3 min. and 4 min. respectively. The tea could have gone longer, but I gave up. I did all my drinking from a silver cup that I received from Crimson Lotus Tea the very same day, in case you are a believer in that silver makes a difference in taste. I have yet to do a direct A/B, but the potential influence on flavor is not why I bought the cup.

The first infusion had a thick, soft, creamy texture and a very prominent vanilla note, but also some astringency in the finish that I’m not used to seeing in the very first steep when brewing in clay. I hardly ever brew sheng in porcelain, so I can’t say if this tea is more astringent than average or if I’m just not used to it. In any case the first infusion was excellent. The second steep was less thick and in it the vanilla note was replaced by a creamy taste. It was also much more astringent than the first one or what I’m used to.

The third infusion was still creamy, but started to taste greener while still remaining reasonably astringent. The fourth one was the same, while having perhaps a bit more body and also possibly leaving a smoky tobacco aroma in your mouth. After that the creamy character dropped off and for the next four steeps the taste was green and astringent with some emerging green sweetness. Very typical young sheng flavor.

Starting with infusion nine the other flavors were finally starting to taper off, making way to typical young raw pu’er sweetness, although the sweetness wasn’t especially sweet. The tenth steeping tasted very clean while still maintaining strength really well. The eleventh infusion is where I stopped and that was probably the first time the tea was starting showing signs of dropping in strength.

All in all this was a good tea and a positive session. I didn’t like the tea enough to warrant a purchase, but my pumidor is already starting to get to a point where a tea has to be really special or interesting for me to be willing to devote room for it. If I were to magically acquire a cake of this, I would store it rather than drink it. The tea can be drunk now, but although the early infusions were nice, I think it’s still underdeveloped in other areas and tastes quite young. I found the tea quite astringent at every step, but even at its most intense it remained manageable. The biggest shortcoming I noted for the tea was a seeming lack of discernible cha qi. Normally I would regard this as a bigger issue, but I feel in this case the tea makes up for the seeming lack of qi with its seemingly excellent longevity and the way in which it maintains its strength extremely well throughout the session.

If you like creamy sheng and this tea sounds promising, I recommend trying a sample to see for yourself how you like it. For an Essence of Tea offering the cake is quite affordable and I think this is certainly a quality tea. The tea is okay to drink now, but frankly I think it would be a waste to do so. I can see this tea becoming very yummy in ten or fifteen years and drinking it now would be a waste of potential. I’m sure there are other creamy shengs out there that are more suited for immediate consumption.

In its current state I think this is a good tea. In the future I can see it becoming a great one. I’m trying to be conservative with how I hand out Recommended badges and reserve those to only teas I would buy myself or buy more of if I ran out, so therefore this doesn’t get one despite being something I recommend trying out.

This tea, being a factory production, does not walk in beauty.
It does not go gentle into the good night.
Its flavor was perfectly adequate. Enjoyable, even. No hint of questionable storage of either the excessively damp nor murderously arid varieties. Good color, good nose, good aftertaste, acceptable huigan.

What really stood out for this tea, which is regrettably unavailable I believe, was the feeling. If I were to make totally unfounded suppositions (and when, really, do I not?), I would say that it made me feel like a beloved pet in the lap of its master, being stroked and fed treats. The sort of contentment that essentially no longer exists upon reaching adulthood, in which you feel all is right with the universe.

So would I recommend it, were such a recommendation even actionable? Of course not! I can’t even be sure I’ll get the same feelings from a second session with the same tea, much less anyone else.

But I’d recommend you give it a go, if you get a chance. Any chance to feel that pleased is well worth one’s time.

This tea is amazing.
I could stop with that remark, but since it’s Easter I sat down and drank this for hours while catching up on The Flash with my dad.

The smoke is still there, but it’s almost like a overpowering camphor at this point which is quite interesting. The taste lingers for awhile and the brews are incredibly dark. At 16 years old, it’s apparent it has been living a good life becoming something that is amazing.

Depth of smoky earth that has hints of spice that stick around for awhile. Highly recommend trying a sample if you get the chance, the brew is darker than when I brew my dianhongs which impresses me and the depth follows the color of the liquid as well.
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I had set this bag aside of ‘2000 CNNP camphor EoT’ for when a specific friend came over and today was that day. Due to the darkness of the leaf, I really thought this was a ripe puerh which is why I put it to the side. The first brew came through and I said “wow, this tea has REALLY aged out fast because it resembles an old raw at this point” and so we drank it and I was mind blown. Excused myself to grab my phone, this is because I don’t have my phone with me when I do tea sessions with friends generally, and found out this was a raw!

Some strong tingling with this tea and serious aging on it. Really solid brisky brew each pour towards the end (being 3 hours, 18 steeps). Really enjoyable.

Story time: So we are outside drinking the end of this tea when this dog walks up to us and we are like ‘ugh, what the hell this is a big dog’. Staring at each other, minutes pass and this lady comes by with a Budweiser in her hand and just goes “that’s Luna, she’s a baby”. Then we realized the dog was staring scared that we would move rather than us being scared that the dog would move : )

So we are just chatting away about how she works with autistic children, which is her job since humans are so prone to knowing what people do for a living, we poured hot water in this clear glass device called a gaiwan. Now for the most past in Ohio, gongfu brewing is not a thing. She looks right at us and goes “what the fuck is that”. We both laugh and respond, “tea”. Then as always, we got some confused and somewhat concerned looks. So at this point it’s been a bit so she opens another Budweiser and we talk about poverty until someone brings her Chinese food and then she leaves.

It was beautiful. I don’t know who she was, but at 10pm at night she was able to just stand there and talk to us for an hour not even knowing who we were either as we poured hot water into this gaiwan thing and drank it over and over making remarks like ‘does your mouth tingle still near the roof of your mouth?’. Thinking about it, she was probably somewhat amused by the odd stuff going on with these two men talking about how their mouth feels when a liquid is introduced.

This tea has made quite the turnaround since I first tried it a few months ago. I first received it and was incredibly disappointed by the pungent and quite off-putting medicinal aroma that emanated from the sample bag, such that I was terrified that the 2012 Qi Sheng Gu cake I had bought would turn into this after a couple years. Thankfully, after giving this a second chance and placing my sample of it into a little cup in the open air for a few days to mellow whatever was left of that medicinal character from being in the sample bag, I’m almost able to drink this with an unbiased palate. This tea is a nice and pleasant semi-aged sheng It’s now nicely brothy and a little bit dry and earthy with a bit of fruit and floral character.

This tea seems pretty classic Yiwu, albeit a high quality example thereof and more changeable than I expected. Throughout the session I had with it today, it kept a noticeable honey aroma and maintained a decent thickness. Oddly, the tea started lighter in flavor than it ended, beginning with predominantly sharp notes amid background sweetness, but developing an almost juicy fruitiness in the last several steeps after a brief citric period. The mouth activity was pretty solid on this; the aftertaste lingers and a few steeps towards the end had a genuinely cooling finish. Other than a little bit of head feeling, I didn’t notice much actual qi on this; mostly just some uncomfortable jitteriness early on from a fairly strong caffeine presence (I overdosed on caffeine some yesterday, and some of this may have been aftershocks).

This was the latter half of a sample I’ve had around for a good seven months. I ended more impressed with this tea than I started, but I’m not totally sure how I’d rate it; ideally, I’d really want to play around more with it. As it is, I’ve got a lot of tea sitting around, and I’m not enough of a Yiwu fanboy to pay the asking price at this point. That said, if you consider yourself a stronger fan of the genre than I, it’s definitely at least worth a look.

This is a great everyday hongcha. The leaves are large, wiry, and shimmered gold and black bits. They carry a deep rich grape scent with some dry cedar, burnt sugar, malt, and a brief sweetness. I warmed up my pot and slipped some inside. Once warmed up, they give off some good hearty wood tones with milk cocoa and hazelnut rising up. The scent and nice and roasted campfire peanuts; good and toasty. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste is sweet yet dry. I can pick up tons of smooth wood tones that is mixed in with sweet malt. The brew is dessert like, but a bit burly. The drink is an easy drinker and carries some good energy. However, the next couple steeping yields a drier, woodier, maltier brew than I would care to drink. It’s a simple tea.

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Backlog

Malty and astringent throughout the session. I wanted to like it, but I’m particular with my black teas.

This is a nice young sheng, smooth vegetal flavor, I also noticed some very pleasant sweetness in it. I felt a long lasting mellow Qi, I was not expecting mellow from this tea because of its age and I was very pleased with the body and mind calming, meditative effects. 3 hours from the first sip I still feel nice and relaxed.

Having now tried this tea, I completely understand why the reviews are a bit all over the place. Even beyond the simple fact that being in a trade box might not result in optimal conditions for the leaf (no disrespect intended to the wonderful Dr. Jim, whose efforts for this community I hold in the highest respect!), the tea itself is somewhat of a puzzle box.

The first few steeps, it is entirely possible, even likely, that I referred to this teas flavor as “repugnant” and “not unlike steeping a carton of unlit Benson & Hedges”. I understand, I think, why some people described a smoke flavor while others noted none – it’s so precisely a mimic of tobacco, at least to my palate, that if like myself you have never lived near where the plant is grown the natural reaction (which I had myself at first) is to associate burning, ash, and unpleasant eye-watering bar scenes with the flavor. However, critically thinking, I cannot say there actually was any smoke present, although what was present I did not enjoy.

However, the flavor was very full. This is not necessarily good when it’s a bad flavor to your tastes, but still notable as an indicator of quality. It had unfortunate length. But the body reaction was altogether pleasant, and kept the desire to continue the session alive and kicking. It was rather a reversal of something like French fries, as a kind soul pointed out to me during pontification over this odd sample. With junk food, the mouth wants more and the body suffers. This was completely the opposite.

Son where around steep 6-7, the flavor took a complete left turn and became rather pleasant, but at the cost of the vital force that made the early steeps so penetrating. It was as if the station was abruptly changed from music you dislike to your favorite tunes, but simultaneously the volume was halved. I found myself wishing the strength of the earlier steeps had intersected somewhat with the flavor I more enjoyed – but it’s entirely possible that the flavor did not alter as much as the notes I disliked weakened, allowing me to see the treasures lying beneath the surface.

The tea did not end quickly either, although it may sound like I am implying it did – a dozen or more of the more tasty infusions ensued, they were just more of the “calm and gentle” variety as opposed to the initial “boat in a maelstrom” feel.

Perhaps next time, I shall try my hand with rather less leaf, and see if that tempers the early going. I sense I haven’t found the trick to open this puzzle box yet – but as it’s out of stock, I suppose it’s all right if I never do.

If nothing else, I found this a unique experience, and those are often worthwhile ofor their own sake.

Drink well, until next I prattle at you endlessly.

This is a tea I bought back in 2013 and have slowly been consuming since; eyeballing, I’ve got roughly half a cake left, and I currently plan on dragging that out for the long haul. Looking back on some notes I took when I first tasted this, it’s interesting to see how this has evolved. At the time, I noted tobacco and smoke, with some mild qi; this differs substantially from my impressions today.

Admittedly, the nose on the initial steep was much as I remember it, with camphor and notes that I can best describe as minty (common to a lot of semi-aged stuff; I’m pretty sure this is wrong); this was present in the flavor and recurred a couple of times throughout the session, but didn’t dominate. Instead, I noticed mostly lightly bitter, alkaline notes on the first several steeps, not unlike those in the 2012 Essence of Tea bulang, although not quite as pronounced. The flavor was remarkably pure, with no noticeable smoke and a slightly bitter, cooling finish. As the session continued, the flavor deepened, moving into dark fruit territory, albeit with a distinct sour note riding atop it. This sourness was new, even in the past six months; it came and went throughout the session, missing from some steeps entirely only to reappear on the next, and I’m not quite sure what to think of it. The qi was gripping: while drinking the last of the third steep, I suddenly found myself, cup in mid-air, staring intently at the bookshelf.

The evolution in this tea has been interesting, though the appearance of sourness has me more than a little concerned. I recently exposed my tea to far too much cold, as I currently keep it in my apartment in a sealed plastic tub, which had been by a very large window; this worked fine in the summer, but with temperatures dipping below freezing, the tea got properly frigid. I’ve relocated my storage away from the window, and with any luck, things will normalize themselves. Suffice it to say, though, that I’ll keep an eye on this tea and revisit it in a couple of months.

I finally got back to another tea from the Pubertea group buy! I have only tried a couple teas from Essence of Tea, but they’ve been pretty good. This one is I believe the oldest sheng I’ve yet tasted. It’s not too tightly compressed – it looks like it is, but it comes apart pretty readily when subjected to boiled water. The dry leaves have a light, slightly musty aroma. After a rinse, I smelled some woody sweetness, along with a bit of a sour/sweaty note.

The tea started out earthy with a bit of sweetness in the first steep – the tea was really still opening up. The next four steeps were probably my favorite from this tea. They were nice and clean, with a pleasant nutty sweetness – none of the astringency often associated with a nutty flavor. There was still a good bit of earthiness to it, along with some deeper sweetness, almost reminding me of very dark chocolate.

After this, the tea took a rather unwelcome turn, gaining a bit of a sour note which I couldn’t really shake for the rest of the session. There were some really nice and clean wood notes in there as well – not aromatic or spicy wood, but just straight up wood. Unfortunately, there was also a bit of a sour finish, and the tea got a bit drying as well. There was also a bit of a salty note at times.

I brewed this up in my Jianshui pot, which doesn’t have the fastest pour time – I’ll have to save the rest and brew it in a gaiwan to see if keeping infusion times low for longer helps with the sourness. Also to see what differences I might notice in brewing this one in Jianshui vs. Porcelain. Based on this session, I wasn’t a huge fan of this one – it was alright, but not too great.

Another sample out of the Puerh TTB here. This is one of the few teas I’ve tried from Essence of Tea – for some reason they just haven’t really been on my radar as far as puerh orders go yet. The leaf had a nice straw aroma, along with some fruitiness and sugar once I rinsed it.

The tea started out with some bitterness in the first four steeps, along with a pretty mouth drying effect. I tasted straw and a fruity finish, sort of apricot, but more the rind than the fruit. That fruitiness started to move more into a pineapple area around steep 4, but not as acidic as pineapple would be.

Steeps 5-8 were mostly just soft straw sweetness. The fruity notes were almost gone in the finish. 9-12 got a bit of a new sweet finish, slightly burnt sugar along with the straw notes. The tea was noticeably drying for the whole session – people who don’t like the mouth drying feeling might not be into this one. I’m really not a huge fan of it usually, but it didn’t detract too much in this instance. At this point in the session, I was feeling a decent amount of qi. Decently powerful, almost jittery.

The tea went on for another 4 or so steeps, getting progressively weaker – still mostly just sweet straw with a drying mouthfeel. This tea was pretty good, but will probably be better in a few years. It probably has decent potential for developing into a really good tea down the road.

Knowing that I had a long night on my laptop ahead of me I decided to pull out something from Pubertea. Due to this being old, I went ahead and rinsed the tea twice before letting it sit for about 8 minutes. This is how I start my serious brews with stuff regardless of new/old.
First steep has a nice orange tint to the liquid and a stronger aroma on the musky side. Starts out with a slight sour note and some salty residual taste that comes out in some oolong teas. The depth doesn’t seem to be there and that’s what I am hoping comes out of this or some feels later on. A little mouth dryness towards the back on the very first steep though.
So… I meant to continue to write notes and everything… but, I didn’t.
Now on steep 22 I believe; 6g, 100ml, 95c constant. This tea really smoothed out and the funk is gone. Has a pretty strong medicinal taste at the end similar to menthol. Solid mellow feeling, but no enery or warmth. The taste has gotten what I called darker and deeper so I’m really just diving deeper into it and it hasn’t quite on me yet. I’ll brew the rest out over the night and music, time to see how far this will go.

It’s malty and astringent, and when overbrewed or overleafed, turns bitter and biting—nothing new for a hong.

It’s bright and dark at the same time. There’s a bit of an autumnal leaf pile and sweetness that lends to the bright side, with a hint of cocoa lending to the dark.

I think the astringency is a bit much in this tea to keep me from getting any more.

This tea is a gem!
The leaves are smooth and crisp with light notes of mint ice cream, oak, and musky eucalyptus. The leaves are very delicate. I warmed up my shibo and prepared for brewing. I especially enjoy Malaysian storage when it is done right. The contrasting tones of dark wood and piercing mint just match so well. I carefully slid the leaves inside my vessel and let them steam. The lid of the shibo gives off some strong pipe tobacco; whereas, the leaves give some aged spice tones with plums. A very nice beginning. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste begins thick and sweet with a spice at the tip of the tongue. A lingering tangy sweetness naps at the back of my throat. The qi is fiercely slow burning like whale fat; it begins with a spark behind my head. The eucalyptus chill builds while sipping and tangos with the bitter wood bite. A thick honey sweetness interrupts them to begin break-dancing on my palette. This session is a wonderful show! The whale fat inferno has long since spread throughout my body and is now reduced to a smoldering tar resin that leaves me stoned. I am sweating from the heat and slow moving to get away. The perfect flavors, the great vibe, and my happy mind make me stay put as I take in the embers of this qi. This brew is deeply satisfying. The huigan is thick, the kuwei is prominent, and the tea keeps burning well into the night. I am kicking myself for not grabbing a cake while this was on sale. I am praying that a black Friday sale is in the near future, for my wallet may not forgive me for the sins I am about to commit.

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