Various Artists

Puerh Tea TTB. Jalam 2015 Bada Mtn Sheng Manyue Village. This tea was not actually bad tea but I didn’t enjoy it that much. On my third sheng of the morning it is just too much sheng overload. This tea was sweet with a bitter aftertaste and a fair amount of astringency. This tea would not convince me to join the Jalam club.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 75ml teapot with 6.4g 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.

Today I was watching my caffeine at this hour so I picked out something I bought on EBay, a 2016 Tea Flower Cake. While this cake made the claim of being ancient tree I don’t know if it was true or not. It might be true because I don’t think the tea flowers from any age tree are worth much and I didn’t pay very much for this tea cake. The tea flower tea has an unusual taste. It was a little unpleasant at first but got somewhat better, even sweet to some degree. Kind of a mushroom sweet I would say. I specifically bought this for times when I wanted tea but couldn’t have caffeine because tea flowers have so little caffeine as to be basically decaf if not quite caffeine free. Still I didn’t take any chances and only steeped it five times. Despite being from 2016 it brews up very dark in color. If this was sheng yoou would think it was ten years old from the color of the tea. In the end I didn’t mind this tea as something to drink but I would rather have had ripe puerh if there were such a thing as decaf ripe puerh. I worked early today not having time for tea in the morning and got home too late to risk having any significant caffeine so this seemed the perfect choice. If nothing else it was a chance to try out the new gaiwan I bought the other day at Clipper Ship Tea Company.

I steeped this five times in a 180ml gaiwan with boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, and 15 sec.

Yesterday I received the Puerh Tea TTB in the mail. Today I am starting on the teas. I just drank the Longyuanhao 2016 Banzhang Sheng. I don’t know the origin of this tea or if it is a real Banzhang. I was, however, pretty good tea. It was strong and fairly bitter but with a sweet aftertaste. After a number of steeps the bitterness was gone and I was left with a nice sweet tea. Maybe apricots but I am not certain of that. It was good.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 75ml teapot with 5.1g leaf and boiling water. 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.

Drinking a sheng today that I got from Dragon Tea House a couple of weeks ago. However they sold out and removed it from their website so I am not certain what it is. I think it is the 2015 Dr Puerh Small Bing Dao raw tea. But I am not sure. If anyone can read the Chinese on the wrapper I will post the photo.

This was a fairly nice sheng with very little bitterness at the start and a sweet note that developed into what I would have to describe as apricots and stonefruits. I gave this twelve steeps and it certainly would have gone a few more.

I steeped this twelve times in a 110ml teapot with 8.1g 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.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BTgtrhHBYbP/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

Today I drank a moonlight white tea cake. It is however a mystery as I have no idea where I got it. I thought I might have gotten it a Dragon Tea House but couldn’t find it among my invoices. I checked my EBay and Aliexpress orders and didn’t find it. I suppose I could have bought it from Chawangshop. In any case it was overall very nice. It had a very sweet taste with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Not entirely sure what to call the sweet note.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 185 degree water and 10.2g leaf. 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, and 30 sec. I could have kept going the leaves were not done but I want to move on to something else.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BS00UOEB0Ge/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

Steepster seems to be having hiccups again. I tried to add this tea to the catalog but was unable to do so. Today I drank Competition Grade 3rd Place Muzha Tie Guan Yin Roasted Oolong Tea Winter 2016 from Taiwan Sourcing. This was a very lightly roasted oolong tea. The roast was not strong but lasted through the eighth steep. A sweet note was hidden behind the roasted note. I am not sure how to describe it however. If I had been able to enter this into the catalog I would probably given it about a 90. It was really good.

I steeped this twelve times with 7.2g leaf and 190 degree water in a 100ml gaiwan. 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 min.

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.

Today I am drinking the 2014 Naka by Chen Sheng Hao from Liquid Proust’s group buy. This was a strong and bitter sheng. I’d say noticeably bitter for the first eight steepings before a sweet note started to emerge. So far I have tried the 2016, 2015 and 2014 Naka by Chen Sheng Hao. This one seemed the most bitter to me. They have also reminded me that I prefer shou to sheng in general. It’s not that this was a bad tea, just not really the sort of tea I really like. I am not overly fond of bitter sheng. And more sheng is bitter than not.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.5g 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 min.

Today I am drinking the 2015 Naka by Chen Sheng Hao from Liquid Proust. This is a nice tea with a fair amount of bitterness. The bitterness lasted until around the eighth steep and there was still a bit of a bitter aftertaste in the twelfth steep. Overall I like this one but I think I liked the 2016 better.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 100ml Ru Kiln teapot with 8.6g 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 mini, and 2 minutes.

My second tea today comes from Liquid Proust. It was an unknown ripe aged in a rum barrel. It was pretty good tea. The rum flavoring had the interesting effect of overwhelming the fermentation taste. I didn’t notice any at all but I am sure it was there. The rum taste was initially quite strong. It lasted into the twelfth steep that I gave this tea. It was not strong in later steeps but was present.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.3g 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 have gotten a few more steeps out of it but figured I was at my caffeine limit for today.

Today I have been drinking the 2016 Naka by Chen SHeng Hao sent to me by Liquid Proust. This was overall an excellent tea. There was a light bitter note for the first six steepings. Not the sort of bitterness that is very unpleasant. After this a sweet note developed. I guess you could use the overused words apricots and stonefruits to describe it but I think maybe just not quite that. Not quite that sweet. Overall this was very good. If I were to give it a rating it would probably be a 90 or so.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.5g 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 min. If I wanted to I could get another five or six steepings out of this I would think.

Today I’m drinking a black tea from Liquid Proust’s latest group buy. The tea was marked Nandi Hills Black but the thread calls it Monsoon Black. This is a nice tea. But it was in no way spectacular to me. It had notes of malt that were strong and notes of chocolate that were a little weaker. I steeped this Gongfu style and wonder if I would have had better results steeping it western style. In any case, there should be enough of the sample left for me to try an 8oz pot western style as I only used 6g for this. Don’t know when or if I will get around to this. I steeped this tea eight times and it seemed a little weak in the eighth steep. I don’t think I would have gotten more out of this one with the amount of tea I used. Overall I liked the tea but I have no plans to buy it.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 6g 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, and 30 sec.

Today I drank a sample from a good tea friend. It was sheng and labeled only 1998 Cave Storage. It was certainly an interesting tea. I’m still deciding if I like or dislike it. It had one main note that I would have to describe as bitter, astringent, and fruity all in one note mind you. It had none of the traditional storage flavors you would expect. No wet wood, no tobacco, no leather. I have no idea where my friend got this tea or how much it cost and I am on the fence if I would buy it anyway. That one powerful note didn’t lessen over the eight steeps I gave the tea. I might go back for a few more steeps.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7.7g 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, and 30 sec. The tea started out with a dark brown color and was red by the eighth steep.

Today I am drinking a mystery sheng. I bought it from my local tea shop and probably paid more than it was worth. It is supposed to be a 2008 sheng. If I were to guess it’s age simply by drinking it I would say 2014. It hasn’t aged much. It still looks and tastes like a young sheng. I suppose it could have been aged in very dry conditions. It wasn’t bad that being said. It started out bitter and over the course of eight steeps got relatively sweet. You could even say it developed an apricoty sweetness to it. Overall this was not bad at all but by no means spectacular. I bought it because of the novelty of seeing the tea before I bought it. I may be going back to this shop today. They go by two names, The Infuse Tea Bar and the Pleasures of Tea. They have a sit down tea bar in their shop which is nice because you can pick out any tea they have and have her brew it for you. They do not make you choose off a menu like some shops.

I steeped this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 7.1g leaf and boiling water. I ave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. I could have kept going with this tea but I have things I want to do today.

Puerh Tea TTB. Today I’m drinking the 2016 Monkey Memorial. Not entirely sure who made it or who sold it. I believe Liquid Proust put it in the box. Thanks. This tea had a fair amount of bitterness at the start and a certain amount of astringency. It developed some sweet notes although I would not use the term apricots for this one. It does not seem to have any qi to speak of. At least I’m not feeling any.

I steeped this twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.2g 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, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. This wasn’t finished at twelve steeps. I could have kept going but I had had enough tea to be honest and enough caffeine.

Drinking a raw tea from the Puerh Tea TTB, the 2015 Bulang Raw Mini Cake Sheng. This one must be no longer available on Bana’s website and there is no listing for it here. This is a relatively nice sheng. It was bitter at first. I’d say the bitterness was noticeable for the first four or five steeps then began to go away. It developed into a fairly nice semi sweet sheng. I used 7g for 120ml which is about my usual for sheng. I don’t use as much in the way of leaves for sheng as for shou. This could have been steeped a few more times but I want to go on to something else, maybe Rummy Pu, someone was nice enough to put that in the box, not sure if it was Liquid Proust because I thought I saw someone else talking about it.

I brewed this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Tonight I’m trying another herbal tea from The Clipper Ship Tea Company, peppermint tea. While this is quite good, it tastes a bit like spearmint to me. I know that is a subtle difference but that is what it tastes more like. Has a nice fresh taste though.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 4 tsp leaf and boiling water for 8 min.

Drinking a tea that was a free sample from The Clipper Ship Tea Company, a flavored rooibos called Citrus Rose. The ingredients for this are rooibos, grapefruit, pineapple, papaya, mango, lemon, rose buds, and rosehips. It’s got a strong savory note from the rooibos and an almost as strong sweet note from the fruits. The fruit flavors in this one are fairly well mixed. I can’t pick out any of them individually. It is pretty good and I might consider buying at some point. If any Steepsterites are on Long Island, Clipper Ship Tea Company is an excellent tea store. They have a large variety of tea and teaware. Nearly all their teaware though is aimed at Western brewing. I didn’t notice any small pots or gaiwans there today although I have seen some small ones there in the past. I guess most of their customers Western brew their tea. They do have really nice teawares. I would photograph them for my Instagram account but they have a no photography policy. I think letting people take pictures and post them online would actually boost their business but that’s not the opinion of the owner. The owner of the store is also not a part of Steepster. There has been a rumor they will soon have a website for at least a year now but it hasn’t happened yet. If you live anywhere near Northport Long Island it is worth a trip. They sell over 200 teas.

Today I’m drinking matcha just purchased from the Clipper Ship Tea Company. It’s their second highest grade of matcha and it was $30 for 30g. So it was not overpriced as matcha goes. It has a bit of a floral taste to it and is mildly sweet. It’s got that note common to matcha that I don’t know how to describe, a fresh, green kind of note. There is very little bitterness. Matcha is something I do not drink often. For this one I bought a matcha strainer they were selling for $12. I had been told by an expert that you should strain your matcha to make it finer first. It didn’t come out very frothy when I whipped it up. I don’t seem to have the technique with the whisk down. It does taste good though. If I were going to rate this tea it would probably get an 80 or so but if I rate this tea, every tea I have rated with this link will get that rating too, and I have rated a few bad ones with this link. This is a good tea.

Today I’m drinking Longan Nectar Red Oolong from Taiwan Sourcing. This was a free sample included with my order. It is not yet up on their site. This is an excellent tea. It is a roasted oolong. It tasted like a fairly light roast oolong but the color of the leaves made it look like a dark oolong. Immediately upon drinking this you get the flavor of the Longan. I’m told this is the same thing as lychee. This is a very nice flavor. I steeped this tea ten times. I would say I lost the longan flavor around steep nine. I stopped at ten steeps because I had had enough caffeine but this tea would have gone a few more steeps. I hope he starts selling this on Taiwan Sourcing because I definitely want to buy some if the price is not too high. In my experience flavored oolongs are usually not as much money as something like a Dong Ding oolong so we shall see. This was one good tea. I also thinkn it has some qi to it. I am feeling energized. I suppose that could be the caffeine but I usually don’t get that effect from caffeine even when I drink coffee which has more caffeine than oolong. I won’t rate this tea because that would then rerate all the teas I have reviewed using this link. But if I was to rate it it would get at least a 90. It was that good.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.7g 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 min. Judging by the color of the tea, it I hadn’t hit my caffeine limit, I think this tea would go another five or six steeps at least.

Today I drank an aged raw sample sent to me by Aleen from Instagram. She does not seem to have this on her website. It was only listed as Bulang Puer 1980s. It had a fair amount of wet storage flavor, I’d say for the first six steeps. There were some notes of leather and tobacco in there as well. It eventually developed into a note that I would call sweet bamboo. Not tremendously sweet but a little sweet. There was a 90s tea on her site that seemed to match but I didn’t find this tea there.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 6.8g 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 min. I could have kept going with this one but I didn’t want any more caffeine today.

Today I’m drinking another mystery shou from King Tea on Aliexpress. This one is, according to John at King Tea, twenty years old. This one has some wet storage taste. It is fairly sweet. It has I think cleared. It is probably not 100% clear but 95% clear. It is fairly tasty. It has a definite fruity note to it. I will include the link to this in case anyone can read the Chinese. I’m not really sure what this tea is. There is some English description.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 50ml gaiwan with 3.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec.

Today I drank a really good aged ripe. It was a sample sent to me by King Tea on Aliexpress. All I know about it was that it was thirty years old. It was labeled but in Chinese that I can’t read. It had the year 80 on it is how I know it was the thirty year old sample and not the twenty year old sample. This was a complex tea with a lot of flavor. It was very sweet from the start. It had no fermentation taste that I could find. It also had no wet storage taste. It had clearly been dry stored. There were some very feint notes of leather and tobacco often found in older teas but these were not pronounced. It had a couple of other notes to it also. One note seemed to me like dark cherries but without the sweetness. The other note was deep and dark in flavor but I did not pin it down. I will refrain from giving this a numerical rating only because then all the other teas I have reviewed under Random Steepings will get that rating too but if I was to give it a number it would be quite high, somewhere in the high nineties. It seems to me that this tea has had perfect storage, having no storage flavors worth mentioning at all. I only had a small sample and I gave it sixteen steeps. It was pretty much finished at sixteen steeps but I could probably have gotten another two or so steeps out of it. But I figure sixteen steeps is enough caffeine for one day.

I steeped this sixteen times in a 100ml gaiwan with 5.8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. 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, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min, and 4 min. Judging by the color of the sixteenth steep it was pretty much finished but I might have gotten two more steeps out of it. Now if I can just get John at King Tea to tell me what tea this is. I would definitely buy it if the price were not too high. I think the age is genuine as it had totally cleared. In my experience that takes at least twenty years of dry storage most times. I will post the Instagram photo just in case anyone can read the Chinese.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFUCReVzDeYnyAFkBLXHxGPcy2xtqIWB4Aq3kI0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea