371 Tasting Notes
Brewed Western-style in a ceramic tea pot. Steeping times: 4 minutes, 8 minutes.
Leaf: very short, a couple centimeters long. Medium browns with spots of yellow gold.
Dry aroma: spring flowers (hycacinths)
Wet aroma: fruity
Liquor: Full-bodied, clear.
First infusion – Muscatel, which stays and becomes stronger in the aftertaste.
Second infusion – Melon-like flavor. Esp. Cantaloupe.
Preparation
Brewed in a glass test tube steeper. Steeping times: 20 seconds, 30, 45, 60, 120.
Complex aroma, changing as the leaves air. Dry leaf: malt, bread, sweet potatoes. After staying for thirty seconds in the heated steeper, still dry, pure fudge. Wet leaf: chocolate fudge cake, returning to sweet potatoes.
Amber-colored liquor, on the lighter side for a Chinese black tea. Clear, with the exception of fuzzies. Full-bodied.
The first infusion yields notes of sweet potatoes and malt. Quite light in flavor and thinly textured, though – the leaves would have needed to steep more. The ball gets rolling in the second infusion – thicker texture, with chocolately flavors – but the third infusion is the high point of the session. There was even more chocolate, followed by smoky sugar, then grains, and, lastly, sweet potatoes cooked on fire. All at once, though easy to pick out separately.
After a two-hour break, the fourth infusion tasted of sweet potatoes. The final was very smokey (not any kind in particular).
Preparation
Brewed Western-style in a ceramic teapot.
A palatable, every day shou, especially for a beginner. I recommend letting it steep only once, for 10 minutes. The leaf doesn’t yield much flavor in the second infusion, following a 6 minute steeping. This way, the broth has as much flavor as it can have. The color is very dark brown, like coffee. Has a one-dimensional flavor profile, but delicious: cream of mushroom. Very mushroom. No qi effects, but it is soothing on the tongue. The dry leaf aroma is very earthy; wet leaf aroma, damp wood.
Preparation
Brewed with a test tube steeper. No rinse as recommended. Steeping times: 40, 50, 60, 75, 90, 180.
Such a wonderful aroma. The dry leaf smells of malt and wood, and the wet leaf of sweet potatoes and a little hot fudge. I started craving sweet potatoes… The liquor is amber-colored, mostly clear (fuzzies from the leaves), creamy-textured, and full-bodied. Depending on my mood, the flavor profile switches back and forth between pine and dark chocolate. Always sweet, if on the woody/malty side, but never bitter or to woody. There is a sweet cinnamon aftertaste. Cozy feel, seems to be best for late autumn or a cold, rainy spring day.
Preparation
Last one from the Sheng and Shou TTB. This is the loose leaf version, but I didn’t want to create a new “tea” for this note.
Brewed gongfu-style with a ceramic gaiwan. Used enough leaf to fill half the gaiwan. 10 second rinse. Steeping times: 5, 8, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60, 90, 120.
Despite being an autumn sheng, spring is in the dry leaf, which smells of flowers, notably hyacinths, and a newly mowed lawn. The wet leaf aroma reminds me of leafhopper oolongs. Purely stonefruit after the rinse, and then i becomes richly jam-like.
The liquor is a clear pale gold. Slightly thick texture. Light-bodied. Bright personality. Uplifting yet calming feel. The first couple infusions resemble white tea. Airy feel, tastes of field grass. Beginning with the third infusion, this becomes more sheng-like – sweet grass and asparagus notes appear. Infusions eight and nine are fruitier, very fruity. Plum lingers in the mouth long after the very last sip.
The dry leaf is something to admire. I think this is my first sheng in which the leaves are so long, unbroken and full. They’re also lovely in color and texture.
Preparation
I was just thinking that I was hoping to see more reviews coming from the TTB, then when I went to my dashboard I saw this. Cheered me up!
@Dr Jim – I am about to start digging into the ones I took from it and will be posting in the next week
Woohoo! Too bad it’s my last one :P
You should have taken more!
I shouldn’t throw any stones. I have a lot of trouble writing reviews of pu-erh. Seems like everything tastes of wood or tobacco. I read these reviews of various fruits, but I have real trouble seeing it. I think my palate isn’t refined enough.
You should write Dr Jim. Took me long time but I found practice/drinking it brought me along.
I didn’t have enough in my stash to replace what I took, but I’ll have more the next round for sure!
The first time I drank sheng – from Verdant, two years ago – it tasted like bitter dry grass. I was totally turned off. I’ve been reading people’s notes over the past few months and the fruit notes they tasted made me too curious to pass on trying more sheng. The amount I’ve been drinking of late escalated because of the box. I guess my palate evolves rapidly. I’m still getting grass or hay or tobacco (blurgggh) but I’m getting there. I liked shou right away, and I’m slowly coming to like sheng. And I like the qi that comes drinking it. It’s like a clearer “tea tipsy” compared to what shou causes.
I’ve done one of the teas I took, and I plan to do more this week. I didn’t want to spend too much more time with the box since it sat there unopened for so long while I was sick. I just jumped in, picked a handful out and sent it on its way.
That’s pretty much what everyone did. I figured with pu-erh, people use so much for a pot that it made sense to just take one sample. For the next circuit I intend to ask people how that worked out and whether it makes more sense to let people take all they want. The up-side is that the box is just flying around the country. We’ve had 8 people have the box in only 40 days, which has to be some kind of TTB record.
From the Sheng and Shou TTB.
Brewed with a gaiwan, gongfu method. No rinse. Steeping times: 10, 10, 20, 20, 30, 30, 35, 60, 120.
Dry leaf aroma smells of white sugar. The wet leaf aroma also smells sweetly, and has notes of hay and (somewhere in there, lingering at the end, mostly after the first infusion) mint.
The color of the liquor is pretty in a white porcelain cup – green-ish orange, then more orange-y as the session goes on. This sheng is smooth. It begins with a thickness that eventually thins out. Starts off as clear, then a lot fuzzies from leaf float around in the Pyrex cup, starting with the fourth infusion. There are consistent flavors that pop out all at once: dry hay, green peppers, fruit (especially apricot, noted by Stacy from Butiki), and musk. Sluggish qi. Made me feel tired-tipsy.
Here’s Hoping TTB Round 4
I forgot I already tried and wrote a tasting note for this! I gave a 76 rating last time?? One year makes a difference even for flavored teas.
I must have underleafed. Last night, this was so good. I thought it really did taste like a milkshake. Rich with chocolate flavor. No need for dessert!
Thank you for providing a sample, Just Organic Tea!
I was looking forward to this one the most out of the bunch, and it is one of the two that I really liked. Spearmint is my favorite herbal tisane. I was expecting peppermint so it was great to to the former on the packet. Spearmint and lemon (and lemon myrtle) go well together. Tastes mostly spearmint-y. There is a hint of the lemon/citrus notes. I drank this over the past couple days. The weather was so cooooold, but this was still refreshing to drink.
I appreciate the free sample!
I took this without milk or sugar both times. A gentle masala chai overall. The liquor sweetly smells of cardamon and cinnamon, and tastes mildly spicy (the ginger is most prominent), which doesn’t linger in the aftertaste and allows the base tea – malty, bread-like – to take over.
This masala chai blend would be perfect to have in mid-autumn.
