AllanK Send Message

The best way I can describe the prominent note of this tea is wet, rancid hay. It was unpleasant in the extreme. It tasted absolutely terrible. It did improve somewhat by the eighth steep. I couldn’t get past eight steeps with this one. This is one that looked interesting. Perhaps if I air this tea out for six months the negative notes will go away. I don’t recommend anyone buy this one.

I brewed this eight times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10g 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. I think I will send Scott an email over this brick this was terrible.

Bought this a while ago and didn’t remember where I got it. But luckily Boychik was able to ID it for me. This is a pretty tasty ripe. It was a very dark and rich tea throughout all twelve infusions I gave it. I really think that this tea would go twenty infusions if I had the patience for the long steeps. There were some notes of chocolate in this but bittersweet. The bitterness only lasted a few steeps maybe four of five. It was replaced by a sweet note that I do not know how to properly describe. It was quite good overall. For a tea that only cost $30 it was really quite good.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.2g 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. It was still pretty dark in steep twelve. With longer steep times I think this might go twenty steeps, sixteen at least.

This is an excellent tea. It has a strong note of malt. There are some other notes in there too, not sure how to describe them. This will be a good tea to drink before work. It seems to have some of the elements of a breakfast tea.

I steeped this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 minutes.

This was a very bitter sheng. I gave this ten steeps. I would say there was strong bitterness in the first eight steeps. It did get better. There was an underlying note behind the bitterness that began to emerge. a sweet note not sure what to call it. No apricots or stonefruits in this one.

I steeped this ten times in a 150mml gaiwan with 8.2g 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. I will put this tea away for a couple of years and see if it improves.

This is quite possibly the best ten year old ripe I have ever had. It started with some bittersweet notes and I would venture to say some notes of chocolate. These notes were fleeting and other notes developed. I would say it developed a dates note by the eighth steep or so. It also evolved into the sweetest and smoothest ripe puer I have ever had. As to qi. I am feeling a little, quite relaxing. Usually I get no qi off of ripe tea but I am getting some. Now to the big question about this tea. The description of the tea says it is from 500 to 800 year old teas. This certainly has the staying power of ancient trees. I am on steep 16 and plan to go back for more. The main question is do I trust the seller. I do believe I trust the seller to be telling the truth on this matter. And every tea he has sold me has been good. I definitely recommend some samples from him if you have not ordered. This is also my most expensive cake purchase. This cost $310 for 400g.

I brewed this 16 times in a 110ml Yixing Teapot 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, 20 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min, and 4 min. The tea wasn’t finished at 16 steeps, will probably go back for more.

Bought this recently with my Yunnan Sourcing USA order. There are some different notes in this one but I find myself at a loss to describe them. There is some malt and some bittersweet chocolate in there as well as a few others. Only brewed this western style this morning due to a lack of time.

I brewed this one time with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker for 3 minutes.

I have only had a few Gyokuros so I am not sure where this one fits in. It is a fairly tasty tea. It has a strong taste of umami with a sweet note in the background. It is almost as good as the Gyokuro I reviewed about a week ago that was more than twice the price. I guess Gyokuro is a type of tea I am still learning to like.

I steeped this three times in a 360ml Kyusu Teapot with 160 degree water and 8.2g leaf. I steeped it for 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

This was an interesting puerh with a surprising amount of age to it. The color of the tea was a dark orange. It had developed the beginnings of aged flavor of leather and tobacco. I had been going on the assumption that this was pressed from older maocha. But the pictures from the seller clearly show a tea liquid that is very yellow. It does not seem possible that this tea has aged in my storage but it looks like it may have. I did buy this tea in 2015 when it was fairly new. I found no information on the King Tea page to suggest that this was made with older maocha. That leaves my storage by default. We do have humid summers here but it shouldn’t be good enough to age the tea this much. Who knows. I guess the only way to confirm this theory is to find something of comparable age that I have been storing and see what the flavor is. If the pictures on Aliexpress didn’t show such a yellow tea I wouldn’t even be considering this idea. And this tea was not in my pumidor. It is a question I don’t have an answer for. The taste of leather and tobacco did go away after four or five steeps and a sweeter note emarged. It became quite a tasty tea in general.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml 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 tea got off to a bit of a rocky start. It was initially bitter and a little sour. These notes disappeared by around the fifth infusion and were replaced by a better note that you could call sweet, although it did not have the apricots of a young sheng or the sweet taste of a good ripe. It was a different sweet note from these, not sure how to describe it. This is a cake that I think needs further aging. I will put it away at least until the 2020 presidential election and try it again.

I brewed this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 9.6g 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 min, and 2 min. I should note that it had an initial color darker than the average ripe in some ways, a dark brown. Judging from the spent leaves I would say there were more ripe leaves in it than raw leaves.

Overall this tea wasn’t terrible. It was however not all that great. It started out with a note I can only call turpentine and a lot of bitterness and astringency. There was a massive drying sensation to this tea. It did improve dramatically over twelve steeps. It developed into something smooth with a sweet note. By the twelfth steep it was actually enjoyable. This one might be a good candidate for aging.

I brewed this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.2g 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, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.