I had this a few nights ago. I wasn’t expecting much considering a Taiwanese oolong vendor sells this and he was most likely fibbed to about this tea’s origins as explained in the product description. I wanted to try a 25g sample for educational purposes.
It’s a very simple, one-note sheng. Barbecue. But not overwhelmingly so. Very light-bodied and lacking any depth with only a hint of bitterness and sweetness and no astringency. Interestingly, for a young sheng, there is a bit of an aged floral aroma and taste and the leaf is kind of dark. I’m guessing low quality material that was fired longer to make up for it? Or it was processed in damp weather and needed more fire to dry out the material? Or? And I’m wondering if it was wet-stored for a short amount of time? I’m not armchair-experienced enough in puerh processing and storage effects to say, so for now I question. So much to learn.
I’m glad I have enough of this tea to play around with leaf amount and will leave a rating after I finish the sample. My initial gut rating is 50.
Addendum: bitterness definitely increases with more leaf and the liquor numbs the tip of my tongue which I’m not too keen about. There are also flecks and very small grains of some kind of shiny gold substance in the cake that settle to the bottom of the brewing vessel and cup. Because of that, I’m not going to finish my sample. Rating: even lower
