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A light roasted green tea with a smooth rich aftertaste like roasted oolongs. Not a bad tea but not one that I would likely buy myself.

The leaves are fine with some golden tips which are not only on the outer layer of the cake but mixed in throughout the entire cake. When brewed it yields a very nice medium strength shu puerh with a nice clean taste without any musty earthy aroma or flavors present. The brew has a nice mellow taste with a pleasant slightly smooth edge and the expected “Menghai scent” taste associated with good Menghai ripe puerh. The second infusion got away from me and ended up a bit stronger than I usually brew my puerh but luckily Adorned in Red is a very forgiving tea which took on a slight maltiness to the brew but not one that was overwhelming enough to destroy the smooth mellowness experienced in the first round. The third round I paid better attention to the brewing times and was just like the third round and for the fourth round I went for a long brew to finish off the leaves and successfully squeeze out one more yummy round of ripe puerh.

The first thing that stood out to me about this tea was the very fresh and green aroma of the dry leaf. The dry tea leaves are flat and needle light and appear to be all buds which show signs of opening up slightly when brewed. The taste overall is is light and sweet with flavor notes that are a tad fruity and woody but not grassy. A taste which is fairly consistent with what I remember bamboo tasting like so it is not by any means a stretch to call this a bamboo leaf green tea even though I’m confident that it lacks any bamboo. The tea also has fairly good multiple infusions for a green tea. As expected the first two infusions were clearly the best and the third was still very good. The fourth infusion started to go down hill but was still fair before the tea died on the fifth infusion.

The first round I initially confused the rinse water with tea and it was a very musty brew that was best fit for being dumped out upon the ground. The first real infusion after the double rinse had a medium body with an earthy edge to it. Not that much more to say about this brew as the earthy edge is the only thing really worth mentioning as if this brick were to mellow out more with age I think it would go downhill as it lacks any apparent depth. Overall I tend to avoid earthy puerhs which I typically bash as musty but I must admit that with a proper rinse this is one of the very few good earthy puerhs that I have experienced and one that the price is right as I have to admit that it is better than some of the bad cakes that I’ve had. Still in the end the brick is no value as its quality is still too low to result in a high level of enjoyment.

Brewed in a gaiwan, I found the Yunnan Silver Thread has some complex flavors in it. My first impression was wanting to day that it was light and sweet almost like white tea but then I picked up on the richer fruity taste that was also in the mix.

I brewed this tea in a gaiwan and got 3 infusions with fairly good results, although the 3rd brew was not that good. The tea has a medium light body with a sweetish flavor to the brew with a few fruity overtones.