Chen Sheng Hao Tea (King Tea Mall, AliExpress)

Been drinking a bunch of teas (yay) but have been too lazy to write tasting notes (boo) – so let’s remedy this. This came in the puerh plus box that I currently have and plan to send out soon once my Lupicia order comes in (hopefully tomorrow).

This is actually a really nice tea. Very smooth like someone else said. A nice standard ripe. Although I’m a little confused because “Sheng” is also in the name. Ay caramba!

I’ve been doing boiling water tonight and this tea is very forgiving and not bitter at all. Typically I use non-boiling water because I’m scared of astringency but this tea is pleasant to drink. I wouldn’t say the flavor is amazing but it’s a nice calming tea for tonight. I’ve been doing about 5 or 10s steepings. 15 and it seems to get a little TOO strong for me, at least in the beginning. Now that I’m on the 10th steeping or so 15 probably won’t be so bad.

This would be a great tea to get more of, but I went to the vendor website on Aliexpress and yikes it’s pricey. It’s a decent amount, but I really don’t need that much tea. Ahh well. And who knows what the fate of Aliexpress is these days anyway.

This is a very tasty ripe puerh from CHen Sheng Hao. They are probably the only big company whose ripe I think is superior to Dayi. This one started out with a fair amount of fermentation flavor and virtually no bitterness. The fermentation taste was not of the unpleasant sort and certainly not fishy. I would say it lasted about four or five steeps before it was gone. There was a nice sweet note to this tea throughout all twelve steeps I gave it. Not sure if I would say chocolate notes or fruity flavor but a very nice, sweet flavor. This was not a cheap tea going for around $75 a bing. But I have generally had good luck with King Tea on Aliexpress so I took a chance. King Tea is an excellent seller of puerh and he has by far the largest selection of puerh available online at something like 4000 different cakes listed. However, he doesn’t stock these, he orders from his suppliers when you put in an order. That is why it takes him about five days to ship out his tea. As to qi, I think this tea retains some. I am feeling an invigorating qi of moderate strength although no tea drunk sensation. This is an excellent tea. I definitely encourage any puerh drinkers out there to buy a few things from King Tea. He is in my opinion the best seller of tea on Aliexpress.

Steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 10.4g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. I could have gotten a few more steeps out of these leaves. The color of the tea was still fairly dark. I think it would have gone sixteen steeps if I wanted to continue.

This is one very smooth ripe. It doesn’t pack the punch that I like in my pu’erhs, but I can settle for the fact that it is simply pure tea that coats your mouth with a solid taste of tea.
Again, this is smoooooooth

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Drinking this for the first time in a while. It is still one of the best young ripe teas I have had. Some fermentation taste to it but this is a very smooth tea. It was clearly properly fermented. I like this one a lot.

I steeped this twelve times in an 85ml Solid Silver teapot with 7g 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.

This ripe from Aliexpress King Tea is insanely delicious. This is the best young ripe I have had in a long time. At least as good as anything comparable I’ve had from Menghai Tea Factory. Chen Sheng Hao is known for their raw Banzhang teas but this ripe is good. It was think and sweet in the early steeps with little or no bitterness. There were I think notes of chocolate in there as well as a fruity flavor in later steeps. I noted some notes of spice in there too, but only moderate notes. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor in the early steeps as this is only a 2013 tea but there was no funk or fishy taste at all. I am really tempted to buy a tong of this tea. Aliexpress King Tea has this about $25 cheaper than EBay at least.

I steeped this eight times in a 180ml teapot with 12g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. It was difficult to stop drinking this tea at eight steeps but I have to limit my caffeine. I think this tea would go fifteen steeps if pushed.