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This is a relatively tasty ripe puerh tea from my local tea shop, Clipper Ship Tea Company. It has only a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left, but then again I have never tasted a loose puerh tea without any fermentation flavor, I don’t know why that is. It is sweet with dates notes and an aftertaste I just don’t know how to describe. It is not a bad aftertaste, I just can’t figure out how to describe it. There is no bitterness to this tea and I don’t discern any sour notes. This is good as it was somewhat expensive. I paid $42 for 150g of tea at a Black Friday Sale price of 20% off for a total of around $33.50. I will put this away with my other Shou Puerh and see how it ages. I think the thing I like most about puerh is unlike other teas, it doesn’t go bad.

I brewed this tea once western style in an 18oz teapot with 6.1g leaf and boiling water for 30 sec.

Bought a sample of this yesterday at Clipper Ship Tea Company. This is my second time reviewing this as Steepster is having the hiccups this morning. The first time did not go through at all. I find it is best to load the tea page on two separate pages so you can copy and paste to the second when the first one fails to load entirely, frustrating.

This tea is slightly floral, slightly vegetal, slightly sweet and quite creamy in nature. There is also a very slight sourness that could be from too high a temperature or too long brewing time. I only bought the sample size. Clipper Ship Tea Company has some excellent teas, this one is good but not great. The tea leaves have a honey like aroma to them and are dark green and appear to be either broken leaf or just small leaf, not sure which. They look very good. When I drink the Cloud and Mist from Mandala again I will have to compare them. I think that Mandala’s was better. This one didn’t come with brewing parameters so I was just guessing.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 175 degree water and 3 tsp leaf for 2 min. Next time I will try 160 degree water and 1 min and see if the slight sour note goes away.

Even though I have to be up at 5am I desperately needed a cup of tea. This was the first green I saw from my Mandala order so I picked it. I spent this evening at that most frustrating of things, dealing with a salesman over a new car. I used Truecar which turned out to be basically bogus. I think I saved a couple of hundred dollars, not what I was supposed to. They always find a way to put back your supposed savings. They use the strategy of wearing you down and to some degree it works. Thank god I only do this once a decade or so.

This tea is good. It is relatively sweet with a floral, vegetal taste. It also has a roasted taste that is not quite the roasted barley flavor of a wuyi oolong. It is a roasted tea.

I brewed this tea once in an 18oz teapot with 3 tsp leaf and 175 degree water for 1 min.

This is an excellent and tasty ripe puerh. It has a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left. It is not overly earthy. It has a very nice sweetness. It is hard for me to discern the exact notes of flavor because I seem to be coming down with something and while my taste bud seem unaffected, I am having trouble concentrating on the flavors I find. Suffice to say it is nice and sweet. I added sugar which has made the tea even sweeter.

I would also say that the leaves look and smell very tasty too.

I brewed this twice in an 18oz teapot with 6.1gt leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 30 sec and 30 sec. The second steeping I put in a thermos to bring to work with me.

This is an excellent, somewhat bittersweet tea with virtually zero fermentation flavor. It is about a par with the 2008 Song of Chi Tse as far as fermentation flavor goes, only much stronger. This is an excellent tea for someone who likes a strong tea but hates fermentation flavor. I was not paying close attention to the flavor notes of this tea but I did find some notes of dark chocolate early on which changed in character in later steeps. It got less chocolaty and more sweet.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 207ml Taiwan Clay Teapot with 8.5g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min, and 4 min. Judging by the strength of the eighth steep I am guessing that this tea had another six or so steeps left to it.

This is a very tasty tea. I taste the chocolate notes and the nutty flavor of the rice is nice. This is an extremely enjoyable afternoon tea, that’s why I steeped it twice despite the size of the teapot. I think its the cacao nibs that make this tea, without them it would just be genmaicha. This tea is so smooth however, its easy to forget just what is in it. The chocolate flavor is subtle. The rice nutty flavor is subtle. The malt flavor is subtle. None of these flavors punch you in the face like in a lower quality tea. I think this is a tea made for adding sugar even though in the strictest sense it doesn’t need it. The sugar really brings out the flavor of the chocolate. Didn’t I see another reviewer describe this tea as chocolaty goodness. That is this tea in a nutshell. It tastes even better to me than it did the first time.

I steeped this tea twice in a 12oz teapot with 200 degree water and 6g leaf. I steeped it for 30 sec, and 45 sec.