Bitterleaf Teas

Puerh Tea TTB. This was a very nice ripe. I didn’t notice any bitterness although there was a fair amount of fermentation flavor that lasted four or five steeps. There was a sweet note to the fermentation. It evolved into a different sweet note once the fermentation was history. Overall this was a very good brick.

I steeped this twelve times with 10.4g leaf in a 150ml gaiwan with 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 minutes. There were definitely a few more steeps in the leaves.

I would say this sheng is good, but not great. The dry leaf had a floral and lightly vegetal aroma. After the rinse, there was a bit of apricot fruitiness, with some slightly deeper floral notes. I found this one to be pretty easy drinking, with a lot of fruitiness that you can often find in young sheng, but also a pretty good helping of flowery flavors as well. I think I may have perceived a bit more of that than there really was, with it being called Secret Garden and all. The huigan was nice, but I didn’t feel too much of anything in terms of qi. If pushed, it can get a touch bitter, but not too bad.

Again…a nice one, but not too memorable for me.

This is the third time I have drunk this tea and I find myself particularly excited as I pour the leaves into the hot gaiwan.

The dry leaves in the hot gaiwan reveal two different sets of aroma on two separate sniffs. First dark berries, second (after a little shake) milky / cream.

The leaves are big, whole and very dry. I like to chew on leaves like this. The flavour is somewhere between red grape and cherry, with a background bitterness and the faintest hint of cream. In a blind test I’d think this was a high end gongfu red tea. The lingering taste in the mouth from chewing the leaves is pleasant. The moisture has been fully removed which suggests a longer, more careful withering and drying.

The aroma of the wet leaf after the wash brew reveals something more vegetal, almost earthy. Think I awakened something.

First steep the liquor is vibrant yellow, like a white wine. Viscous and oily. Fragrance reveals the creamy notes.

The mouthfeel is thick, the flavour milky / cream and the vegetal / berry notes are hard to find. Definitely transitioned into the creamy flavours while brewing.

It’s delicious actually – I really like it – the cream flavour is not overpowering – actually the liquor is very bright and clear, it looks like it should taste vegetal, which is confusing but interesting. There’s some floral there too. Quite dominant floral on the breath after drinking actually.

Fragrance in the cup holds on to the vegetal notes and cream equally.

Nice cool huigan on the sides of the mouth and back of the throat.

As the steeps progress we shift from the obvious, creamy notes fade into more mineral, watery, subtle flavours. There’s a herbal element that creeps in to the aroma on the lid of the gaiwan. Like rosemary. The flavour profile of this tea likes to bounce around and reveal all sorts of notes that you think wouldn’t work together, but they actually do.

I’m happy to see this one through for about 7-8 steeps.

There is an underlying ‘green’ bitterness to it, which I quite like. Overall the flavour profile holds together really well. No jagged edges, nothing that sits out of place. Balanced.

Definitely recommend this tea, would like to have some around permanently. This was a medium sized sample I got three sessions from.

Note to Bitterleaf: Thank you for coming up with a duck related name and not plastering profanity all over the packaging.

I got this tea before I had read any descriptions or heard anything about it actually, so I had no idea what to expect.

The aroma in the pack was giving off a kind of shellfish smell, which surprised me, but I think that was mostly just me picking that up. Underneath that was a dark, creamy sweetness and that is what is expressed in the liquor.

The tea is not tightly packed, it crumbles easily into small chunks, making a consistent brew.

After a wash brew, the first infusion is a strong deep red (I brewed the first infusion about 10 seconds) and the aroma matches the dry leaf aroma, just with a bit more life to it.

The liquor is not as thick as some puers, more mellow and somewhat transparent, vibrant red.

The flavour is simple – oats, malt, rice and other cereals. There’s not to much mystery with this tea and it stays consistent over the mutliple brews. Getting lighter and lighter as you go.

Very patient. After the first steeping I did a couple of flash brews then slowly increase brew time. I went right up to 15 brews, it still had something to offer, albeit much weaker than the first infusion.

The energy is very good. Comfortable. Warming for sure and positive, reassuring. Very balanced. I don’t feel I could get an uncomfortable or anxious feeling from this tea – it’s consistent and balanced. Really good for meditation and paying close attention to.

There’s not much of a kick to it, no overwhelming ‘hit’, just a nice, deep, mellow energy that moves quickly to your whole body. An internal warm bath of sorts.

It’s not the most complex of teas – wears its colours on its sleeves – creamy, slightly sweet, malty and oats – all the way through start to finish.

No signs of damp, mold, forest floor or compost – which is nice. Very much a ‘go-to’, happy to have it in the collection kind of tea when you’re looking for something that tastes and feels great without knocking your socks off energy-wise.

Would love to try the ’98 version to compare and contrast.

It would seem like I drank a different tea from the other reviewer on this one. Once I got past the wet storage flavors I found it quite nice. Not dirty or cloudy but clear and crisp. There was a fair amount of fermentation to it with an earthy note but I did not notice anything particularly unpleasant at all. In fact the wet storage notes covered up the fermentation taste to some degree. By the fifth or sixth steep all the wet storage taste and fermentation taste were gone and what I was left with was fairly nice. A bit of a light fruity note with an aftertaste of the wet storage taste or wet wood. Yes I guess in reality there was a little bit left of this throughout all twelve steeps but is was only a major factor for five or six steeps.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 110ml teapot with 8.3g 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 minutes. There were a few more steeps left to this tea but I didn’t want any more caffeine.

I feel like it’s taken multiple sessions over time for me to develop a better appreciation for this tea. Steeped up what will probably be my second to last session with this tea in a red clay teapot yesterday.

I drank it from the first steep without washing, so the initial steep was extremely light , but clean and sweet. As the tea darkened it became thick and smooth, with some mineral notes and an interesting cooling sensation offsetting the warm, creamy body.

Since I only got a couple of steeps in before it was time to leave work I tossed the leaves into my thermos and filled it with boiling water. It kept warm overnight and I finished it this morning. Still nice and smooth with an easy to drink sweetness, thick mouthfeel and that distinct cooling sensation.

I am glad I spent some more time with this tea and I think it is a nice daily drinker.

I unintentionally neglected my ripes for quite a while and have spent some time recently trying to drink them more. Last time I had this one, gave it a wash and a long rest before moving on to proper steeps.
Produced a nice, red liquor to start that gradually deepened, and started out light, clean and sweet in the first steep.

Developed a bit of viscosity and remained fairly mellow in flavor overall. I didn’t get pulled into this one enough to take super detailed notes, but it was easy to enjoy.

Gongfu!

I took a break from all of my new teas to revisit something older with a session of this ripe! This was one of the first Shou pu’erhs that I fell in love with enough to cake (well, in this case “brick”). Maybe even the first; it was long enough ago that I can’t remember for sure! It’s so unbelievably smooth and clean tasting but with so much richness and body. Though it has the expected wet earthy and decaying wood/forest undergrowth notes, it’s almost more darkly fruity at this point with really ‘bassy’ notes of dates, fig jam, blood orange caramel, and molasses with a bit of a leather note that makes me think of old libraries – in a very fond kind of way!!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CtXLqMUOcPD/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F7Q-4PZCjA

Grandpa style!

Really, really good tea to brew Grandpa style because of how thick and smooth it is while still having enough flavour notes to not really be boring at all. Kind of a fatty/creamy (in mourhfeel to – very thick liquor in this one) orange/caramel kind of note alongside one of the cleanest earthy profiles I’ve experienced in shou in a long, long time. No off notes to be found. And it’s robust/full bodied enough that it can just keep giving back flavour for ages!

No regrets in bricking this one.

Made a Western mug of this with a tiny chip from my brick of it.

All I could think the entire time I was drinking it was how bright and smooth the flavour was; just sold, thick mouthfeel and rich, sweet orange notes with wet earth and very light cocoa powder undertones. Really though; those citrus notes! What a bamf! It was delicious, incredible, and perfect in every way.

Last little ‘nugget’ from my sample of this.

I’d be very, very sad about this sipdown were it not for the fact that I caked this one! So, there’ll be many many more cups of this one waiting for me in the future.

It’s delicious though! I’m still very, very much getting that ‘candied orange peel’ vibe from this one when steeped up, but also a caramel like sweetness in addition to soft, smooth earthy notes. If you’ve ever had orange flavoured caramel/toffee before you’d know that’s some pretty fucking decadent stuff, and I’m kind of picking up on those vibes too. Just, so rich and sweet with such a dynamic mix of flavours overall. It’s honestly very unlike other Shou I’ve tried and I just love it.

Drank this one on the way home from work!

I was super, super pleasantly surprised by how good this one was. I mean, when I say I drank it on the way home I mean I scrambled in the five minute before I had to be on the bus to get this into an empty sachet and in a cup with hot water and I left the tea steeping in the cup for my whole twenty minute bus ride because it didn’t get steeped before hand and I didn’t have anywhere to put the sachet on the bus ride after an acceptable amount of steep time.

Let me tell you, the tea held up though – and it was great! Main notes here were cocoa, carmelized prunes/dates, sweet wet earth, and candied orange peel. Lots of candied orange peel, actually! It was a great, sweet fruity note and it really made me nostalgic for Christmas when I worked at Value Village. I had a coworker I was pretty close with, and both holiday seasons I worked there she brought me these absolutely delicious candied strips of orange peel that were so good. That was like exactly the note I was getting in the body of this tea: it made me really sad for the fact I wont be getting any of that delicious, hand made candied orange peel this year…

But yes! Delicious, sweet and fruity profile with actually pretty minimal earth notes overall for a Shou! It was so smooth too, and no astringency/bitterness even after like a twenty five minute steep. I bet this would be great done Grandpa style!

Drank this one Western at work;

I feel like Bitterleaf really wants me to love this tea as they’ve sent it along as a freebie in my last two orders now. Thankfully, I definitely enjoyed it and if this Western infusion was any indicator, I’ll probably like it a fair bit Gong Fu as well.

Just jot notes, ’cause like I said I was at work and such.

- Clean flavour; smooth taste and crisp non-lingering finish
- Hints of something fruity in the undertones (red fruits)
- Very earthy, but not overly damp/wet earth: more like clay?
- With honeyed date notes and cocoa

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkaMiaRLgvY&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=1

Whoever puts together the radio set/playlists for the various music stations at DAVIDsTEA must really have a thing for British Indie bands ’cause one of the stations/playlists we frequent (there are eight, all with varying themes) is CONSTANTLY playing The Smiths/The Kooks/The Wombats, all of which are English.

Wow! This tea got me really drunk, and over the past year, it’s done an amazing job at getting stronger and stronger. I got really tea drunk from this tea, and I even gave it the award for Best Sheng of 2016.

Bitter Leaf Teas did an amazing job at sourcing this tea, and honestly, it’s one of their best. IU think that this tea needs to come back. I wrote more about it here — a more in-depth review…

https://www.theoolongdrunk.com/single-post/2017/04/18/This-Tea-is-a-Weapon-of-Mass-Destruction

From Liquid Proust’s Sheng Olympiad! This is the first time I’ve opened up this package with it’s cute cats and it’s pretty fonts.

The tea itself is kind of ugly—it’s very flattened and in brownish dark green shapes. Despite that, I’m hoping it’ll taste good. I even found my first hair (as far as I know) in this tea—but I suppose those things happen.

The smell of the leaves after a rinse is sweet apricot. Probably my favorite part of younger sheng is this, so I hope it’ll persist well into the tea itself.

The first steep comes in as a light yellow. I flash steeped this one, so it’s somewhat light on flavor, plus the leaves still have quite a bit more room to open up in this tightly compressed tea. Nevertheless, it has a present body and maybe the ever-so-slight hint at a smokey aftertaste, though no fruity high notes yet (this is where I’d usually find them!). There’s no bitterness to be found here either.

In the second steep, a hair of bitterness and astringency work their way out, making an appearance at the back of the throat. The main qualities here seem to be the smooth body and overall rounded flavor profile. There is a hint of a fruity sweetness at the tip of the tongue, but it’s barely perceptible. It’s smooth and easy to drink, but overall falls in the realm of mellow and overall not super interesting to drink.

Steeping for a long time seems to make this taste super vegetal as well. All in, I only managed to get a few good steeps out of it. I’m kind of surprised with the outcome—maybe since it’s a huangpian it doesn’t have the same longevity? To be honest, I’m not too sure. Overall somewhat disappointed, but I’ll definitely revisit again another day.

Got a sample of this in my last order and recently got around to trying it. I took my time because, as I’ve mentioned again and again, I usually gravitate towards sheng more than shou.

This sample broke apart fairly easily and the leaves are nice and dark. I had totally forgotten how this tea was described, so I was shocked by the sweet, ricey aroma that emerged as soon as the water hit the leaves. Liquor started out a clearish red and quickly darkened over the next two steeps.

This tea has an addicting sweetness, and it’s ricey and smooth from the very first sip, even without washing it. The sweet aftertaste is strong and lingers with a faint hint of salt, which really boosts it and balances it out.

This is absolutely my favorite shou that I’ve tried from BLT!

Back to some puerh!
I have been searching for a decently aged sheng (besides 90HK) for “daily” consumption, and I have yet to find one that is both easy drinking and affordable; this may be an endless journey.
The leaf is heavily compressed and dark with very faint scents of earth and dry wood. I grabbed my zini and warmed her up and then put old lumps inside. The scents open up into some strong earthiness and slightly sweet with oak and cherry. The aromas are mild and this was definitely stored on the dry side. I washed the leaves once and prepped for brewing. The brew is dry with a heavy bitterness. I can grab at lots of cedar notes with a slight sweetness towards the back of the throat. I couldn’t much of any huigan, except for some slight dried plum notes that wandered to the back. The brew gave me quite a bit of tongue numbing. The qi is moderate and approaches soon with a good head buzz. However, the tea does not go down easily. The brew tends to leave an acrid taste on my tongue. I continue to brew and the soup still almost crosses over the line to the sweet territory, but it is stagnate above staying in its home land of wood, bitters, and dry. I finish the session with a nice qi in my head and some float-y feelings. The tea is fair. I peak inside my pot and do some digging, and I note that I spot a few green and yellow leaves; which is a bit odd for the vintage; however, this may due to the heavy compression. The tea is okay, but in relation to price and what my stomach needs, this is not what I am looking for.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQluGDiA9c4/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

Sipdown

I had received this sample a while ago from CWarren and have finally finished it off yesterday. I noted that this was a complex tea—it started out woody, but moved onto a nectar/fruity/sugary flavor—however, it was never consistent with any one flavor. I found this to be enjoyable.

Back to catching up on the backlog of notes stored in email drafts and on my phone. No longer have any clue when exactly I drank a lot of these, but that’s not the important part!

I picked up a sample of this as part of my last order on a tea friend’s recommendation, as I have recently discovered that I really enjoy bing dao material. Used 6 grams of leaf, which had a honey and beeswax aroma while dry and a stewed fruit aroma once wet.

The liquor had a slightly dusty aroma to it, but the flavor wasn’t dusty at all. This tea is smooth and tastes of a blend of honey and sweet cream, with a hint of something else. I got nothing but enjoyment out of this session, and would really like to cake this tea someday, tea fund allowing!

For a key to my rating scale, check out my bio.

I’ll start by saying that this tea is an excellent value and a great daily drinker for people interested in drinking Shu Pu’er on a daily basis. While the tea does have some visible mold on the leaf surface, the tea’s flavor is very crisp, clean, and sweet (and the mold is easily eliminated by rinsing the tea as should be common practice when drinking pu’er – I rinsed the tea three times and the flavor certainly did not suffer from this). While it is a very clean and light Shu, it lacks the depth and complexity of higher-tier teas in this category. The common notes of brown sugar, soil, camphor, and nutty/creaminess are present, but the mouthfeel is relatively weak – thin viscosity and (while certainly not astringent or bitter) not as round as many shu pu’ers. The best way to describe this tea is clean, sweet, thin, and light. Again, at just over $0.10 / gram, it is an amazing value, but there are better Shu’s on the market if you’re willing to spend a bit more.

I’ve had two samples, one free with an order and another gifted by a friend.

I have yet to meet a Hung Pian I didn’t like and this one was no exception.

Before finishing the second sample I ordered a brick which I think is a good buy especially for the quality.

In a 160ml gaiwan half full of dry leaf I did a quick rinse and steep, gradually increasing the length of the steeps over the course of a long session.

My scale is rarely used as I prefer to eyeball the amounts used, having samples first is a good trainer.

Although my palate for puerh isn’t developed yet I did note the stone fruit, sweetness, camphor and full body. There was some bitterness as I raised the temperature of the water and I enjoyed that too.

Sipdown

I wanted to really like this tea. In fact, I had higher expectations for it, on the account that a lot of Bitterleaf teas are splendid. Unfortunately, this wasn’t as great as I had hoped. I will admit though, that this was a sample that had basically the little bits left over. There was some of the “chunk,” but it literally was a lot of smaller bits. That could make for a bad time with sheng, so maybe that is why I had a lot of bitter notes throughout the entire session; however, it could be the tea too. I wouldn’t know. I could order another sample the next time that I order from BLT, but that may be a while and they may not have more of this to sample (I’d cake it, but the price is a bit high for me).

Overall, I’m assuming that this tea could be too new to really gain some age to it—therefore, it may remain extremely bitter/astringent until it settles for a while. I wouldn’t know, though.

PS. I’m basically at the point where I’ll only review a tea when I get near to finishing it or sipping it down. I drink tea quite frequently, and in my chaotic mind, I cannot write a review every time I have tea. But I’ll still be reviewing all of your content on an almost daily basis. :)