Haiwan Tea Factory ( Yunnan Sourcing)

We thoroughly enjoyed this shou. So much so, we consumed two 500g cakes in short order.

Decent semi aged old school factory sheng for the price. Reminds me of a German rauchbier, an Oktoberfest beer made with malt that’s dried over a beechwood fire.
Smoke, malt and old wood. Not getting the fruit notes others mention. Got 9 steeps that were pretty consistent. A bit of chest tightening and energetic qi typical of Menghai teas but nothing to shout about. Would be a good breakfast tea to pair with smoked sausage. For a factory tea of this age/price I prefer the Changtai offerings as they tend to offer more complexity and heavier qi but this one is good and solid.

This is a great factory ripe from Haiwan. It is quite smooth, a bit chocolatey, and packs a hefty caffeine wallop.

I’m just starting to try some Haiwan ripes. This one was surprisingly good. The first steeps were a little rough, but it smoothed out very nicely. Just a touch of smoke. Very tasty!

Anyone have a favorite ripe from Haiwan?

From the Pu’erh Plus TTB.

Used a ceramic gaiwan. This session was all over the place. Too bad I only had 4.2g to experiment with – I wanted to enjoy this as much as I could. I changed the brewing temperature twice – beginning with boiling, then to 200, lastly to 185 – because I thought an 11-year old sheng would do better with a hotter temperature. But the liquor was dark yellow and the amount of bitterness exceeded my expectations. Dry storage, it is then.

Five second rinse. Three minute resting period (looked pretty compressed, but loosened pretty quickly). Steeping times: 5 seconds, 5, 2, 2, 5, 8, 8, 10, 20, 30, 45; 1 minute, 2, 4, 8, 15.

At first, the dry leaf aroma has a sour note of pickled something (closest, red peppers), then sweetened to honey and cooked brown sugar. The wet leaf aroma is smokey and grassy, becoming lightly fruity later in the session. My tasting cup and the gaiwan lid held onto this fruitiness for much of the session.

212 degrees, infusions 1 through 5. Bitter, herbaceous. Only the first cup has huigan. The soup starts to have a thick texture with the fourth.

200 degrees, infusions 6 through 9. Texture is much thicker. Energetic mouthfeel. Still quite bitter and herbaceous with just a touch of sweetness underneath. Not much huigan.

185 degrees, infusions 10 through 16. The soup goes through the most evolution in this strand. The intensity of flavor has lightened. Tastes bitter but doesn’t feel bitter. The herbaceous note is still present and I also get some tobacco. The aftertaste is citrus zest. Abruptly (beginning with 13), the soup becomes purely sweet with a more noticeable huigan. Strong note of apricot until the end.

(what I have done to this sheng. oh well, still learning.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKQ4aCKhuLI/

A classic dry stored cake, brews yellow-orange. Still slightly bitter with notes of kale, honey, and coriander. Slightly floral and citric.

I bought this in 2013 and have had it in storage for a couple years, but never tried it. Since it’s around 5 years old now I thought I’d try it out. I used 10-12g in a 200ml yixing with boiling water and longish steeps of 12, 7, 10, 15, 30, 60, 120. This tea was really smooth and well balanced. Not too bold, but plenty flavorful. Notes of bitter sweet cocoa, dark leather, and a faint mineral earthiness were evenly prominent and blended together very well. It had a decent little hui gan too, I noticed a gentle mouth numbing in between cups. There was a mild relaxing cha qi, but not much. I liked this one a lot more that I thought I would, so much so I may buy another cake or two. Although the 2011 has sold out on YS the 2012 is available and at $7.20 for a 200g cake it’s priced right to be a solid daily drinker.

While trying too slim down my samples from swaps, because I just sent out 11 or 12 more swaps, I am just pulling packages out and abusing them until they are gone.

Yesterday I pulled this one out and realized I had enough for two sessions. Yesterdays session was pretty long because I came back to it after an oolong break. Today I am using the rest of the leaf and seeing how it does with longer steeps because I made it a bit light yesterday. This is a tea that would be ideal to have at work as there is nothing special about it that would require some real focus, but at the same time it does lack something unique to set it apart; granted, it is very smooth and the one brewing it can control the depth of the earthiness by volume and steep time, I would want something a little sweeter.

Unfortunately this one is sold out on YS which makes it hard for me to evaluate its price tag with the usage of it because now I use ripe to make pu’erh extract, broth, and hopefully truffles… aside from the solo drinking, tea for swapping, and then tea to share at events.

Finding this to be an interesting sheng… the mouth feel is thick and leaves a nice sweet undertone aftertaste. To put it in ‘my language’, this tasted like I just ate some 7th steeped old sheng and then eating 3 pieces of smarties right after that sat in a small amount of the sheng.

Really enjoying the mouth feel as it lingers. There is power behind this liquid which makes me want to try other shengs of this sort to see if they have that ’meaty’ness to it.

I don’t know where I got this tea from. One of my August TTBs I think.

Anyway, I feel like dancing because this is the first time I’ve enjoyed a sheng. Evidence of my changing taste buds I suppose. I liked it so much I brewed it over and over! I think the leaf ratio had something to do with it too. I covered the bottom of my gaiwan with about 2 layers of leaves. The flavour was pleasant, not overpowering. A savoury roasty taste plus some sweetness from the sugar I added.

90 gaiwan
~200F
5 steeps: Rinse, 5s, 10s, 15s, 25s, 35s

TEA DRUNK PARTAY TIME YEAH

I bought this ripe pu’er for a fantastic price – $20 for 500 grams at Yunnan Sourcing. I was hoping this would be a great daily pu’er. Turns out, first infusion are really rich – tobacco, bitter cocoa and nut shelly. Middle infusions lighten to a pine, fruity sweet and sap – getting sweeter and sweeter with each infusion – very delicious. The texture is my favorite part of this pu’er as it’s slick and creamy, so feels amazing to drink!

Around the 9th infusion – MEGA TEA DRUNK. Woweee – this tea packs a punch – that deep breath, heart tightening, manic, I feel fantastic tea drunk feeling.

In the end, not a daily tea – the tea drunk is too strong in this one.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2010-haiwan-peerless-ripe-puer/

Mmm, another awesome sheng sample!

This is tongue tingly stuff. Kind of sweet with pleasant bitterness/astringeny, too. When I exhale after sipping it is like spicy flowers. Very enjoyable and complex!

This tea is a sample from very generous Steepsterite. Thank you so much.
I really really like it. It’s maybe hard to pinpoint all the flavors but its smooth sweet creamy some nice spice. It also aging well and has some orangish tint . I spent whole afternoon drinking it. And it’s a must in my exploded cupboard. I should pick it up on US site before it vanishes.

Gongfu
5g 100 ml gaiwan 200F
Rinse/ pause/3/5/5/7/7/10sec etc

Thank you so much for letting me try this gem.

I’m kind of upset that I just placed an order with YS, otherwise I would be buying this tea. It is great. I decided to just enjoy it rather than write detailed notes.

It started out grassy, with a fair degree of astringency and wonderful cha qi. I spent all day drinking it, gradually adding water and steeping time until I was at 6 oz and about 4 minutes. It became softer and fruitier in subsequent steeps, losing the cha qi along with the astringency. What remained constant was the deep rich mouth-filling flavor and the interesting flavors. This is a tea to savor.

How could I resist a cake with a blend of good quality NanNuo, BuLang and BaDa tea leaves and a bit of age on it? I could not and I am delighted that I made the purchase!

Nice clean cake with moderate compression and whole leaves. Pleasant scent from the dry leaf and easy to pick apart. Clear light yellow tea soup with a sweet aroma. Smooth sip from the first cup with a nice mouthfeel. Very, very light astringency in the first two cups but not in an unpleasant way and this was gone by the third. Nicely pleasant blend from the three sets of leaves which provide a bit of complexity.