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Soft, smooth, floral for the first five steeps. The aroma reminds me a little of a cocktail I’ve had a few times that is flavored with orange flower water. Starts to get a little bitterness and astringency in the 6th steep, holds up pretty well through the 10th with 5 sec increments in steeping time. Upping the increments to 10 sec, starts to feel a little thin after the 12th steep, though there’s still floral perfume, mouth-coating astringency, and some lingering sweetness.

Around the 15th steep I start spacing out and forgetting to drink the tea after I pour it.

18th steep, it’s starting to taste a little tart, and less astringent, still with a lingering sweet perfume aftertaste. I’m up to 2 minute steeps and am going to bump the increment to 15 sec.

Finally knocking it off after 22 infusions, with the last steeping time of 3:30. I’ve had a liter and a half of tea, and one urgent trip to the bathroom. No tea sweat though. I will be interested to note how long this sweet/tart/floral aftertaste lingers.

Intended to drink more puer today but left it too late. So I had this instead.

My packet says “spring 2015” not “autumn 2014” but the vendor description is the same.

Steeped like rinse/30s/1m/2m/3m/4m/4m/5m/5m. It was totally done after the 7th steep, the last one didn’t do anything.

Not much smoke in this tea, if you’re looking for tarry lapsong souchong or tea that tastes like Laphroaig, move along nothing to see here.

I’ve tried it a couple of times in a mug infuser, where it’s good for a couple of steeps. This session in a gaiwan, it lasted better than most red teas.

The dry leaf has a sort of aged scent, which surprised me. The first few steeps have a note reminiscent of aged white tea that I’ve been drinking lately. I don’t think that came out in the mug infuser. Slightly sweet, a little fruity, a little astringent. Smokey doesn’t even make the top three for me, again a bit of a surprise. Nice ethereal mouthfeel in the first few steeps. If you like gongfu hongcha give this one a try.

The tuo has a smell unlike any raw puer I have encountered, almost like shu. There is an undercurrent of the distinctive Xiaguan aroma, but not as strong as in dry-stored tuos of similar age. The leaf is age-darkened almost to black. The dry leaf in a warmed gaiwan has the Xiaguan scent (tobacco? leather?) a little more strongly.

The tea is not old enough for the soup to be really red: it’s more of an orangey-bronze. The rinse and early steeps leave more of a floral dry cup scent than I have found with other Xiaguan teas, though this one is probably higher-grade starting material than any of the others I’ve tried.

It is going pretty good by the 3rd infusion. The characteristic Xiaguan taste and roughness is there, but is not overwhelming. There is more sweetness than I have previously found in Xiaguan tea, and some floral notes near the end of each cup. How much of this is down to the quality of the tea v. the storage I cannot guess. I am not tasting humid storage at all.

Things fall off pretty rapidly after about the 7th steep, and by the 9th I am lengthening the infusion time, and again after the 11th. Still, considering that I would discard other Xiaguan tuos by that time it’s doing pretty good. There is still some tartness, sweetness, and that distinctive Xiaguan whatever-it-is when I’m up to 2-minute steeping times, at which point I give it up.

I needed some powerful tea to get my head working, and this one did the trick. At the price, I think I would rather drink higher-grade young sheng from Yunnan Sourcing or White2Tea, but am glad I bought this.

Did another session with this one. More tea does help. Rinse about 7s then steeps like 30s/60s/90s/2m/3m/4m. The last steep was useless.

Not enough cranking power to get me going, will have to have some puer.

Damn this stuff is good.

Nice sweet, fruity flavor with some tannins that seem to more contribute than detract. Probably will be better in a week or so. Next time I think I’ll use more tea.

This was about my 4th session with this tea, probably the best one yet. I was getting a nice full mouthfeel with perfumey sweetness for probably a half-dozen steeps. I kept hitting ‘reboil’ to keep the water temp up.

I could wish this tea had more longevity, or more strong steeps in it, but it really is pretty good.

5.5 gm in 100ml gaiwan, water 208ºF, 30s/45s/1 min/1min/1:30

Good tea for red tea shots. I’m about done with this 50gm lot, and am thinking I will get a larger quantity of the vendor’s better grade. There’s a bit of stemmy stuff in this lot, and I’m hoping the highest grade one will have better longevity.

Cocoa, sweet aftertaste, a bit of tannins in the later steeps. Falls off pretty fast after 4 infusions.

This is my 3rd session with this tea. As it was described as “purely dry stored” by the vendor, I was nonplussed the first time I drank it, as it had an overwhelming damp basement flavor. Now that I’ve allowed it to air out for a few months, the dry leaf no longer has the musty scent it had when I obtained it. It is the oldest sheng I have found which is reasonably affordable, but I’m glad I didn’t buy more than a small sample.

I gave it two rinses of about 10 s each with boiling water.

Earthy, slightly sweet, somewhat astringent. Whatever bitterness might have been present when the tea was young is entirely gone, as are any vegetal notes in the lid scent. The damp basement taste and astringency become more pronounced with later infusions. A woody note and an almost ethereal mouthfeel emerge around the 5th steep. The dry cup scent is floral perfume, strongly reminiscent of the better grades of shu.

By the 8th steep there is a profound mouth-drying astringency and the dominant flavor is of wet stone with a faintly sweet aftertaste. While still a deep clear copper color, the soup is beginning to thin out. I’m giving up after about 14 infusions, though there is more damp stone and astringency still in the leaf.