Bitterleaf Teas

It’s young, still, but the taste is palatable enough. But the buzz…wow! I could barely sit through the 5th steeping after a long day at work. This is what I call “housework tea.” It’s almost like a small bump of coke without the disgusting crash. I got another 10 steeps the following day and would’ve kept going but I cold brewed the leaves in a pitcher of water…still good to go.

Brewed about 8g in a 120ml zisha.

First brews are full of grass, honey, and some florals – Then the tea starts to take a twist getting a bit drier and woodier. Solid mouth characteristics with a decent lingering aftertaste. Good huigan with a decent amount of cooling. savory herbs on the wet leaf aroma. Qi is energetic, but not a qi bomb for me. At the price this is a good tea, but I’m not crazy for the smooth sweetness that is huang pian. Recommended if you like huang pian.

Rounded flavours, slightly grassy, with a sweet-bitterness that is backed up by a pretty strong aroma which is not quite tobacco, but somewhere around that region. Not sharp, sweet like candy floss.

Had to shift my perception a bit as steep 1 & 2 were curling my tongue a bit, the sweet oily residue left on my tongue has a bitter edge that needs to met with concentration, like a whisky – If left un-thought about its an ‘adult/interesting/weird’ taste rather than a ‘nice’ one. But this is very much a central part of the experience for me – concentrating & enjoying.

By steep 5 (25 seconds) & onwards It was all about rounded sweet weird-bitter taste. Terrible description, but thats the best I can do.. the flavour started leaving and about steep 8 or so I was doing minutes trying to wring as much as I could out of it, ended up milky-bitter.

I dont know if this is a classic Bulang taste, but was engaging enough for an enjoyable session. Not always nice, and the combination of bitter & milky was sometimes off, with a lack of magic huigan, but there was a little bit of dimension to it – and the price – its cheap!

The pearls here are very tightly rolled and give off a wonderful jasmine scent. The scent is a little on the heavier side which I happen to enjoy. Interesting thing though is that on the first steep, the jasmine scent didn’t overwhelm the liquid.

The first sip of the brewed tea actually made me think buttery. It is a very smooth and drinkable first steep and somewhat lighthanded. To be fair, the pearls haven’t opened up yet but this is a nice start.

The second and third steeps yield a bit more jasmine scent as the beautiful leaves start to open up and dance. But the liquor remains fairly balanced. This is a nicely done, somewhat light-handed jasmine pearl.

This cake looks weird. it’s a very loose compression, and the leaves are black with hints of gold, it looks like a black tea cake

This is really weird stuff I gotta say it took me aback a bit, granted this is the only purple varietal sheng I’ve had, but for the first few steeps it was somewhere between a rock oolong and a sheng puer. I got citrus/apricot notes, and seafoody plumminess and sweet grass, and a lot of minerality. Smokiness entered and this charcoal roastiness came forward, with a lot of sweetness and astringency throughout, it sort of fell into this pattern of smoky, sweet, sour, dry sheng, which was still quite enjoyable, the smoke eventually fades to bring sour florals and vegetables

I didn’t know what to expect from this so I brewed in my gaiwan, I’m sure my qinzhou (young sheng) teapot would’ve helped with the astringency, but I don’t think I’d be comfortable brewing this in it, the charcoal roastiness in the middle was really potent, I wrote here in my notes that if in the future I have a rock oolong teapot, I would actually be comfortable brewing it in that.

I really like this though. I always seem to love purple teas. Anyone have any purple puerh recommendations?

*Ok so this qi just hit me like a half hour after I started drinking this wtf kinda drunk now

so, i generally think of myself as not liking oolongs. somehow they lack the complexity i crave, they aren’t enough like sheng, i don’t know. and yes, i realize there is a huge spectrum described by ‘oolong’.

i keep trying though. this and the BLT duck sh… kinda changing my mind. (also w2t’s hot & heavy.)

can’t really give brewing params; took a yixing or “yixing” 120ml pot i acquired years ago, warmed it up, stuffed it with leaf, rinsed, and carried on, starting with flash steeps.

strong flavours and quite good sticking power. the flavours in the aftertaste seem to evolve over time.

Bronze grade.
Have had this for a while and been meaning to try it. I got the podium, which has a sample of each grade, and decided to try the bronze grade first. The sample consists of a few black shards wrapped in bronze foil. 1 gram goes into the gaiwan, and after a flash rinse, matter from the shards begins to release, collecting at the bottom of the gaiwan.

The liquor is an orange brown as expected. I do get a familiar, shou-like aroma, and the first steep tastes of iron to me, kind of metallic and salty. rhinkle gets giggly pretty much immediately.

For the second steep I use my puerh pick to scrape the bits away from the surface of the gaiwan a bit and stir for about a second. By the time I sit down to start sipping from this steep, I’m definitely feeling the caffeine. The taste is completely different. No longer getting the iron, more of a light, clean earthiness. I can feel the energy coursing through me, but not in that disturbing jittery way that I really don’t like.

Sweetness really comes through in steep three. I have to take a break from it after this one as the effect is strong. When I come back to it I do a more concentrated round and finish it off it ends up cooling down quite a bit before I get to drink, resulting in an iced coffee flavor.

Overall a very interesting experience. Can’t wait to try silver and gold!

2017 sheng olympic, underleafed a bit by accident (5.5g/100ml)

This tea is mostly frontal flavor, beyond a firm kuwei most other throat sensations were minimal. Very light huigan and cooling. Sweetness is there but minimal. notes of tobacco, pine, and peppercorn. A good amount of smoke. Light florality here and there. Enjoyable but lacks deeper character. Very much a fall material tea. I think the name and imagery is fitting for the tea though. Would do a higher dose next time, i think the tea would benefit from it.

Last hawkband1 sample to try, I have all of them to keep! I’ve always wanted to try a dan cong from Bitterleaf, and I’ve wanted to try their hong chas. Thanks to hawkband1, I get to try it.

I’m not sure if this is the higher grade leaf, but I think it might be the regular one based on the image. I’m not too picky about leaf grade and I love me some Dan Cong especially if it is from a good source.

Gong fu as instructed on the website, maybe less leaf. The honey taste and fragrance was strong on this one with the orchid floral, some definite fruitiness that leans more towards apricot and grape than grapefruit. The grapefruit is still there. Who knows, imaginary approximations are always fun. Second steep had a honey-oatmeal like taste that I thought was pretty coal. I don’t always get oat notes and they are fairly welcomed.

This was a pretty typical Dan Cong, but a high quality one. I think I’d let a newbie try, but this is for someone trying oolongs for oolongs specifically.

haha those are some ropey looking leaf, looks like free internet huang pian, not 1080p blu-ray huang pian.

Shoved it all into my gaiwan & it was a few steeps in when I thought ‘must go on steepster!’, so i stopped what i was doing, jumped up & started writing this review.

I havent tasted this taste before & i like it. Its the kind I can mash about with my gaiwan lid & leave for a while & the sour taste hangs around in my mouth.. i just dont know how to describe it but the complexity is something I really go for, maybe not all the time but its nice to have this taste around for when you want something Yiwu-but-sour.

Its a weird one, defo not to everyones tastes but that price is great.

I like the name of this one; it made me excited to try it. The leaves are slightly darkened with some light tobacco tang with some sweet greens. I washed the leaves and placed it in my pot. The warm aroma carries some notes of smoke and pipe tobacco with a familiar fruity bitter greens. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste begins thick with a molasses sweetness; however, I do not note any depth. The tones seem to be very upright and in your face (mouth?). The next steep yields some heavy peppercorn spice with a grassy (ish) base. The brew continues in this manner with a good kuwei and a nice honey aftertaste. The qi is fair with back of the head sensations and vibrating buzz, but I didn’t notice any depth in each subsequent steeping. I tasted this a few times after and noticed the same. I have never been too much of a fan for fall teas, maybe this is a reason why.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BONTsMKAkFu/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Decided to move onto pu after a failed oolong. Gave this one a wash and started sipping on the following steep. The wash water looked almost like it had a pink tint to it, and the first steep is a deep red and starts off delicate and buttery with a hint of earth.

Second steep brings more buttered earth up front with a sweet finish. I enjoyed this all through the afternoon, to the point that I lost track of how long I went with it. This has a nice, consistent flavor and is very easy to drink. I would like to steep with more leaf next time.

OMG! I’m caught up!!!

This was the 2nd shou of the day. I leafed this a little heavier than the other 8g at 212F. Same shibo setup. 10s rinse. 10s – sweet, fruity, earthy
15, 25s, 35s – menthol, sweet, thick
45s, 1min
I ran out of steam for this tea here. I mean I liked it, but I got a call and went out to eat with family, saw my brother off back to Colorado and didn’t pick it up when I got back.

I had a delayed reaction to this tea or the one before it, feeling floaty and disconnected. Also, my stomach is slightly upset and gassy. I may be overcaffinated too. I’m not too sleepy even though it’s way after midnight. Good thing I’m off tomorrow. Still reserving judgement on ripe.

Hey, I’m not backlogged anymore. I tried a couple of shou puerhs today. This was the first. Still trying to decide if I like it or not.
Dry leaf didn’t smell like much. I preheated the shibo, cup, and pitcher I was to use with boiling water. Followed directions on the label.
6.4g, boiling water, 7s rinse – smells earthy, menthol
10s – tastes cooling, menthol, 15s- cooling, smooth, hint of sweetness,
22s- cooling, tingly on my tongue; continued to be cooling and sweet over the next three steeps.
I took a break here – ate a grapefruit and re-heated my water.
40, 50, 60s- earthy, smooth; 2m, 4m
Overall smooth,earthy, sweet, cooling/menthol especially at the beginning. Started out pretty light in color getting darker over subsequent infusions.
This tea didn’t make me a convert, but it wasn’t a bad first impression/introduction to shou.

Backlog. The second of my Bitterleaf puerh samples.

This tea had an inviting wet earth and woodsy aroma. I detected a little fruit as well – plums, or maybe raisins?

The 1st steep was rich and earthy. I get wet wood and autumn leaves. Very smooth with no off flavors. It helps to have a cookies or other sweets nearby to counter the small tinge of bitterness that creeps in towards the end. Matcha pocky paired well with this tea.

In the 2nd steep, the earthiness softens and notes of tobacco emerge. In later steeps, it develops a more vegetal, green tea like character.

While I liked this tea, I preferred the Spring Yiwu Puerh more. Compared to it, this is less sweet and earthier. It also lasts longer without becoming metallic.

Received a sample of this as part of the Sheng Olympiad of 2017 and pretty fricking happy with this one. Started out with some meatier flavors up front giving way to stonefruits. Later steeps lose the meaty notes, but in a good way that lets the rest of the flavors blossom. Gave it a 5s rinse followed by a 15s steep and increased by 10s after that (Bitterleaf recommends 5, 5, +5).

Great texture on this jing mai sheng – I got nice creamy feels. The flavor notes are sweet vegetal, cream, buttery, wet stones mineral, tobacco, and raisin with a floral fragrance. I also boiled this sheng, so you likely can get sweeter if you played with it. Just a light amount of bitterness, but overall easy to drink and flexible to steep.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013-hummingbird-spring-jing-mai-sheng-puer-bitterleaf-teas/

This is a lovely surprise from a teafriend, and it made for a wonderful morning, so thanks!

It’s gorgeous. The smell of the brew is earthy, a little cocoa, malt, and flowers. The aroma and the initial flavor reminds me a lot of the simao spring tips from Yunnan Sourcing.

The brew itself is brown sugar, molasses, maple, floral, earth, malt, and a little fruit. It’s complex, sweet, and oh so comforting.

My first try of Bitterleaf, and oh so lovely!

Got this as one of many samples in my BLT order and drank it towards the end of last week, but didn’t have Steepster up to note at the time.

Steeped this according to their recommendations to get a deep-colored brew with a dark, sweet, earthy aroma. I got sweetness and a nice, thick mouthfeel right from the start, and the sweetness really started to come out in the second steep and carries on throughout the session. I’ll need to give this one more dedicated attention in another session, but I found it to be an easy to drink and enjoyable tea.

Sample from Matu. Thank you sir!

I was drinking this throughout the day on Christmas, so my notes aren’t as thorough as they might be if I were writing continually throughout the day. However, fortunately enough, I carry a pocket notebook/pen on my person at all times, so I did happen to note that there were subtle notes of leather, smoke, and a dark fruit (plum, I suppose) within the profile. I also noted that the first two steeps were quite astringent, but died down a little after the third; although, I appreciate these notes whilst drinking Bulang/sheng.

This tea could’ve steeped further, but I moved on after 12 steeps.

First review here! Eeek!

Steep times: Rinse/5/10/15/20/20/25/30/40/60

The dry leaves were so fragrant and sweet. After the initial rinse, the inside of the pot lid smells like a summer day in my childhood backyard after the grass has been mowed. The taste is somewhat (not overly) sweet and not really bitter; mouth dries out after sipping by the second steep but just a little; third steeping tasting a little more grassy and less sweet, dry after taste; 6th steeping is grassier and a little more astringent; 9th steeping is milder with less grassy notes and astringency. Feeling a pleasant little head lightness in these last few steepings. No noticeable huigan.

Broke off a chunk of this and threw it in the gaiwan. What I noticed in the first steep (after a rinse) is how clean the flavor is initially. Granted the tea hasn’t properly broken up yet but it is a promising, smooth, clean start.

Second steep (10 sec) gives off more of that classic rain soaked earth scent with a cinnamon red color in the liquor. The flavor is still very clean with absolutely no hint of fermentation. The wife agrees with me. Very nice.

Third steep (15 seconds) and I might be slightly distracted from getting accurate smells and tasting notes as my wife is cooking gingerbread cookies and the smell wafting from the oven is intoxicating. Mmmm… Oh, right, tea. The color is darkening to a chestnut brown. The flavor is a classic ripe but very clean. I have a feeling this is going to be the norm for this tea. Classic and clean.

OMG I just got a sample of the finished gingerbread cookies nom nom nom. They actually pair very well with this tea. Not sure if it is the cozy joy of the season or the slight tea buzz coming on but happiness is abundant here in this moment and time.

Yes, I will end it here but for now, it is a very good, consistent, and fairly priced option. I appreciate the clean flavor it provides.

*Edit: Another hour or two later and this tea is still going strong. It is a bit lighter but I am on close to the 10th steep at about 90 seconds and it is still sweet, smooth, and very drinkable. Uptick in the rating.

Sipdown

It’s a sad day now that I’ve drank the last of this tea. I’ve held on to the last 20 grams for ages. I caved about a month ago and drank 10g of the remaining leaf, but now, the tea is finally gone.

It was pleasant one to be had. I remember this was the sheng puerh that sang that sweet tune to my palate. It is soft, lightly floral, & pear notes throughout the session. I ended with the last steep sitting for 20 minutes in full boiling water. It was still soft, never bitter. I think at one point, toward the beginning, it couldn’t handle such abuse; now, it took all of the punishment, only to award the drinker.

I’m sad to see this one go, but was happy to have had the chance to see it develop within the past three years.