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Another one that I’ve had prior joining Steepster and forgot to ever log. This is a good quality tea that delivers as it should for its age. It is floral a bitter with hints of sweetness under the floral tones. It is a young Sheng so it becomes really astringent and bitter as you continue steeping. I guess if you are willing to age it I can become a great one, for now its and Ok tea.

The dry leaf has a smoky and bitter scent with hints of floral sweetness; but when wet, the smoky bitterness becomes more apparent, the only thing I can compare it is to the smokiness that would come from a campfire that uses wild wood.
Gong fu gaiwan 5oz
1st Steep (2secs) – Sweet and clean with smoky body that becomes floral. It has a smoky, floral and sweet aftertaste that turns refreshing; slightly astringent.

2nd Steep (2secs) – Clean sweetness that turns slightly bitter with a heavy smoky body with strong but pleasant floral notes. It becomes refreshing after the flowery aftertaste with slight astringency.

3rd Steep (2secs) – Smoky and flowery bitterness that becomes sweet and floral without loosing its smokiness. The aftertaste is floral and smoky but it becomes refreshing/camphor like.

4th Steep (4secs) – Smoky and flowery with sweetness that accentuates the wood smokiness with slightly bitter floral notes. This steep had very refreshing/camphor feeling.

5th Steep (5secs) – A Cleaner sweetness into slightly smokiness that becomes more apparent as it washes down and it becomes floral with faint sweetness and it feels refreshing on the throat.

6th Steep (6secs) – Clean feeling that becomes smoky and floral with some bitterness. This steeps wears a bit more astringency but is not unpleasant as it becomes refreshing once again.

7th Steep (8secs) – Clean and refreshing and it slowly gives hints of the smoky and floral notes that become more apparent as it washes down and seem to last longer on my mouth. Once again becomes very refreshing as the smoky and floral notes fade.

8th Steep (10secs) – Very clean start that becomes smoky and turns floral with some bitterness(almost bittersweet, in a good way). This steep become slightly more astringent and later more refreshing.

I did 14 steeps of this tea and I’m pretty sure I could have made more (late and too many bathroom breaks), but to me its an amazing tea just because even though it might be a ‘basic’ Puerh, it is well aged and it has all the characteristics of the Maocha but subtle like a fine aged Sheng. And frankly love the smokiness, is like straight out a camp fire.

Dry Leaf – Milky, buttery sweetness with some sweet pea scent.
Wet Leaf – Buttery, Sweet and nutty. Slightly milky.

- 1st Steep – Sweet and slightly savory background with nutty taste. faint vegetal scent.

- 2nd Steep – Nutty sweetness resembles sweet corn and some raw honey. (smells like roasted sweet corn). Starts sweet and nutty with savory hints and buttery feel that then feels clean.

- 3rd Steep – Slightly smells like sweet corn when roasted. the leaves opened fully and the brew is sweet with floral tones and butter like feeling.

- 4th Steep – Sweetness fades away and more floral, is not at clean as the first steeps this steep has a floral aftertaste to it.

Good tea, not the greatest to me, but If you like smoother Oolongs this is one to try.

Dry Leaf – Sweet bread, sugary.
Wet Leaf – Raw sugar, cinnamon and vanilla scents.

1st Steep – Sugary clean taste with vanilla scent smooth and clean feeling. There is a molasses/raw sugar taste with hints of spices.

2nd Steep – Sweet vanilla, molasses/raw sugar scent. The molasses becomes more apparent as does the vanilla flavor (like vanilla bean), hints of spiciness that I can’t yet identify clearly. Clean fresh feeling.

3rd Steep – Leaves smell like caramel an molasses/raw/brown sugar. Its sweetness is still apparent with the tanginess of molasses; the spiciness comes back and then cleans away into that freshness. My cup smells like raw sugar and cooked cinnamon.

4th Steep – Slight sweetness with apparent cinnamon/clove taste, incredibly smooth for and clean feeling. Some clove aftertaste that cleans away.

5th Steep – Some of the sweetness fades and the spice notes become more apparent to the taste. I got a hint of the ‘morel’, a slight earthiness that can also be found in the clove and vanilla (if you eat from the bean).

I made several other steeps; to me they kept that slight sweetness but the spice notes and slight earthiness/woodiness of the spices or perhaps mushroom like were more evident.

Gong fu sytle in a 5oz gaiwan.

Dry Leaf – Chocolate, Oolong plum like scent, caramel/vanilla.

Wet Leaf – Plum Oolong, smoky chocolate, caramel, with sesame undertone; honey and vanilla scent from the lid.

1st Steep – Plummy and wine like with slight honey sweetness that turns smokey and chocolately. It has a clean mouth feel with plum after taste.

2nd Steep – Lid smells nutty with sesame undertone and strong warm honey smell. Plummy wine like taste with slightly smoky body, Mi Lan Xian/Keemum Mao Feng wine like aftertaste.

3rd Steep – Strong honey smell from the lid followed by plum essence nuttiness almost depleted. Honey taste with plum and some vanilla.

4th Steep – Floral plum with honey undertone and plum aftertaste. Slight vanilla scent and Honey, slight astringency present.

5th Steep – plum with floral aftertaste; Honey sweetness is faded with vanilla undertone and slightly nutty smoky background.

Overall to me this was an OK tea, It seemed to me like a Mi Lan Xiang that tried to become a Da Hong Pao(Big Red Robe) but remained within the plumminess of the Mi Lan Xiang. I wouldn’t really classify this one as a black tea, in fact the only hints of black tea for me were the initial chocolate taste and the wine like taste in the later steeps (almost like a Keemung Mao Feng) but it then turns more plum tasting like an Oolong.

Worth a try, good quality tea.

My first puerh from verdant… surely not my last.

I love the smell of the dry leaves, slightly bitter scent that should be present of a good Sheng with sweet undertone that I can’t really identify yet, maybe vanilla/caramel. The brew accentuates the scent of the Sheng, it almost made me think if would be bitter tasting but it is slightly bitter with an amazing creamy body, it becomes slightly fruity and musky like a cedar forest that just got rained on. The after taste is floral and fruity with freshness.

I love smelling my cup, the sweetness is more apparent and you can really smell the apple and caramel. The pepper is apparent right between the initial tasting and before the floral and fruity aftertaste appear. The aftertaste stays in the back of your throat for a while.

I haven’t been able to really taste the Hazelnut notes, that was a bit disappointing to me, since is one of the reasons I got this puerh. Non the less, this is a great puerh, it reminds me of the Aged Mao Cha (I think they are about the same age). It is well balanced with many notes/flavors that has nice bitterness, almost no astringency, balanced sweetness and freshness. I would recommend it and I bet it would be great to continue aging.

Finally added this tea to my ‘stash’. I endured the torture of reading endless amazing reviews that made me drool trying to imagine the taste. The package came pretty quickly and it still seemed like an eternity, waiting for tea packages is like waiting for presents on any Holiday as a kid.

I opened the bag to find beautifully rolled and twisted leaves and I immediately stuck my nose in. Smoky-chocolate sweetness with evident vanilla and a faint fruity/plummy scent.

The thing I loved the most about this tea… the color, the amazing light caramel color that just set you to be even more amazed about the strength of the brew. I love how tea can be ‘strong’ and still looking like light liquid ember under the light of the sun. Creamy chocolate and honey sweetness with the taste of a vanilla flavored caramel, to me it is slightly floral after a few steeps.

The leaves open beautifully and seems almost unreal how much they unfurl; makes you wonder, how could you ever roll and twist a leaf that way and make it look completely undamaged. One of my favorite black teas.

I’ve had this one for a while now and practically forgot to log it. This is a ‘casual’ tea for me. I love white tea and it’s subtlety, I feel it keeps me ‘awake’ in the sense that I have to pay attention to the tea to taste it better.

This is a good quality tea and the fresher the better. Subtle sweetness that resembles honeydew melon with some hay (in a good way) freshness in the background. Not the best but still pretty good.

I like this tea as an every day tea. It has some vegetal background with fruity sweetness. I like this tea at work and keeps me warm in the morning. Over all an OK tea.

The one! I found MY Puerh. This tea fooled me when I first opened the bag ‘Ooops I opened my silver needle white tea bag!’ then I smelled something different.. ‘Is this the silver needle puerh?… IT IS!’ It looks like a silver needle white tea with a slightly bitter-sweet fruity scent coming from the dry buds.

This one is my favorite because to me it captures bits of my favorite traits in different teas. Subtle in all aspects and yet complicated to the palate. I holds rock sugar sweetness that opens into a more fruity melon like sweetness, floral but never overwhelming in scent or taste, it has some of the bitterness you would expect from a good Sheng but it’s an undertone to its sweetness.

It becomes floral and has a good lasting aftertaste that is sweet, fruity and floral with a eucalyptus freshness in the back of the throat. The wet buds smell sweet and bitter with hints of citrus fruit peel. This tea doesn’t change much over course of the multiple steeps it can take but rather seems to offer a limitless supply of steeps, keeping the subtlety in its notes.

This is the kind of tea that has me smelling my cup after every steep. I’d recommend it to both Sheng lovers and newcomers alike. If you prefer ‘rougher’ notes then this might not be the one for you, but if you appreciate balanced and aged, this is your Sheng.