JalamTeas

I had some friends over last weekend who were open to trying puerh for the first time, so I served them some of this tea. It was really fun serving them tea gongfu style. I used my Juan shui pot and my cute 1 oz. cups that I don’t normally use for myself. I realized when serving them why you want those tongs…that way you don’t handle everyone’s cup around the lip. I also realized why the presentation vessel and a tea towel are useful. I guess I might be looking into a proper serving set! Fortunately I have a sharing pitcher. :)

When they started to try the tea, one noticed a fishy smell! I never get that, but I know people who do, so that was awesome! That person also decided they liked it though after a few steepings, as it got sweeter. Aha! Then my husband, who never drinks hot tea, smelled it and said it smelled like mushrooms! Yes! I loved sharing it with them! Maybe someday I’ll have to open a tea bar. ;)

This is a tasty, tasty shou! The information card for this tea, which I love reading by the way, said that this is a mild shou with not too much stimulant effect and not bitter, but with strength. I definitely noticed the strength! I did a rinse, let it sit while I ate a brownie ;) and then gave it a 15-second infusion and the color was intense! Super dark for a first infusion.

The flavor was mild. It was smooth, with a clean finish. After a few infusions, I decided that I was detecting notes of cinnamon and caramel. Very yummy! I think my favorite infusions were probably the fourth or fifth infusions. The info card also said it was one of very few shou offerings this year. They like sheng, which is fine by me, because their sheng offerings have been really delicious. Nice to mix it up though!

When I got this in the mail I couldn’t wait to bust it open! Er, I mean, carefully separate the leaves. ;)

The information card notes that this tea is better in the next 12 months rather than aged…which is weird, but okay, I wanna have it now anyway!

The leaf smelled smoky, the kind of grilled smoke I remember from January’s offering, which I loved! The tea tastes like that too, but with sweet vegetal notes. In later infusions, I noticed a nice lemon note. Overall, I liked it. Maybe not as much as the Jinuo or Naka, but it’s decent. Have I mentioned I really love this club?

Thank you for the sample Cheri

But MEH…this sheng is not for me. It started out extremely smokey, which, I don’t generally have a problem with but it pretty much overwhelmed the first steep. The following steeps were less smokey but mostly a one note tea and that note is “pleasant bitterness”. Which don’t get me wrong, I like an assertive, even aggressive sheng at times. I just wish there was some sweetness, fruit flavor, or floral aroma to balance it out. Not a terrible tea, just not right for me!

I’ve been out of pu erh commission for several months now, but am making a comeback. I was having some stomach issues, and pu erh was especially hard to drink. I’m still having some issues with ripe pu, but today’s raw want down smoothly. this is a Jalam tea club offering from several months back. I was only a member for a couple months because I figured it was too expensive on a per unit basis. $24 for a 100 g cake is about a $84 per cake. not cheap. But the tea they offer is damn good.

This was a very nice cake. Super fresh smelling, like fresh cut flowers. The tea was not bitter, very smooth, flowery, and honey like. The quality reminds me of Tea Urchin. A superb tea. I just rejoined the club.

It’s a very light and smooth shou puerh, which is so light and delicate, yet dark and tasty… I think that I can finally convince my Mom that although it is as dark as night, it really has no caffeine and will be a great before-bed tea.

I really enjoy the aroma most of all… very sweet, almost like baked bread. It’s very smooth and balanced. As always, difficult to describe in terms of foods and flavors that are familiar, but I believe that this qualifies as a tremendously smooth and easy entrance into the world of shou puerhs, and would be great for new tea drinkers and connoisseurs alike.

Bada is an area familiar to me for sheng puerh, and I know that the raw materials are good, so while I’m surprised that more punch isn’t jumping out of this leaf, something about the region, Jeff’s sourcing, and knowing that a robust underlying leaf brings me comfort and enhances the cup!

Although I’m not a huge shou puerh (ripe) drinker, I can definitely appreciate a good one for a combination of its smoothness and the nostalgia it brings to pot after pot of puerh that I’ve consumed post-dim sum in Hong Kong… This Ba Ka Ngoi “fermented puerh” is a great example of one that I can drink for hours on end with very little change in flavor and a smoothness that is unlike some lower quality ripened leaves…

I often struggle to find tasting notes for a ripe puerh — simply, well because, it tastes mostly like a ripe puerh. Few things quite have that unrecognizable palate of flavors that make up the general flavor of this nostalgia tea (at least for me)… Oftentimes, I think that a lower quality shou will taste like cardboard, and a higher quality will taste like the sweet earth… this is definitely example of the latter.

I’m about 8 steeps in with a small gaiwan and while the mouthfeel and body of the tea has changed and become lighter, the flavor and color are fairly consistent. Again, I’ll steep this until I remember that I want to switch to a raw puerh, or maybe an oolong, but overall, it’s a GREAT tea and I recommend this for reading before bed, slowly waking up, or basically anything in between.

If I must place some notes on it, I’d say a sweet baked wheat aroma with a hint of charcoal (almost like a smoldering campfire)… The taste is gentle, smooth, silky-smooth in fact, and tastes something like a post-dim sum concoction of shou puerh and dried tree bark!

Puers make the best teas for reading, they resteep so many times. I’ve resteeped this yesterday and then saved this today and its still going strong!

My first green puer cake…excited and yet nervous about messing any of the prep up.

Read through the website, did my first 15 sec steep, so this is the second infusion of 20 sec steep. Its very light, some faint barnyard notes and vegetal notes.

Third infusion is definitely getting more intense in colour, did this for 30 sec steep. Flavour is more potent, also beginning to feel some dryness at the end.

Out of curiosity I tasted the first infusion that you’re supposed to discard…and yep, its definitely not meant to be drank at all :P Very barnyard-y and nothing else.

Remaining infusions to be continued separately…

I started a session with this one today. So far I am at a loss for words. I am really enjoying this puerh but can’t come up with the words to explain it yet. I used about 7 g in my 90ml gaiwan. I am doing flash steeps – fill, put lid on, and pour. The tea is almost as dark as coffee from the first cup. Very little rough edge, no bitterness. It does not taste at all like the menghai palace I had recently, yet the cedar and leather keeps coming to mind and that is what is throwing me. I can’t explain how it is different but it is. I see other reviewers found it creamy. Maybe I’ll get that later.

Until I figure it out, I’ll just be happy with it. I am also kind of impressed at how well I have handled the gaiwan today. It’s almost like I know what I’m doing. I haven’t even burned a finger yet.

Herbal Punch(not your grandpa’s pu erh)

Still under the weather so again can not comment on flavor or taste too much. As for dry leaf nothing discernible keeping in my mind I have a cold, but wet leaf is where it gets interesting. This is the second offering from jalam I have tasted and the second tea to be unusually fragrant, not sure if its a theme or just a consequence of autumn plucking and/or being processed for immediate consumption or a combination. These pu erh so far have not been young sheng as I know it, very different but in a nice way. Not sure if “tea masters” would call this blasphemy but I enjoy them.

Once again the scent was hard to place it was surprised me as I was again not expecting such a unique smell. It reminded me of a high elevation green tea I have had from taiwan which also strangely enough smelled like an herbed pasta sauce, with a slight extremely short lived soured/fermented lemon almost alcoholic front nose. The body was notable as well especially when I increased the time the visual viscosity and oils made me a happy camper as I look for body in my pu erh. That being said I did get a tannic drying almost soap like texture at a 2 min steep later but that was obviously pushing the limits of normal session steeps so early any how. About three steeps in I might also note my vision when to fish eye lens (tea drunk) but only slightly and relaxing which is nice because with all the tea I have been drinking lately I have a high tolerance for sure.

I never tasted much bitterness that everyone else is mentioning I am not sure if this is a my preference for “strong” tea or result of my new found storage (boveda pak 75% RH) or my upgrade to mineral spring water or once again a combination but supposedly I have read others comment that those factors can change a tea dramatically.

All in all a keeper in my book checks all my boxes for preferences in pu erh decent body (check), tea drunk(check), unique fragrance(check), pleasing bitterness(check). Once again I will try to up the leaf next time and see if I can coax anymore pleasing bitterness without the super tannic drying resulting from high infusion time.

Tame for a young sheng

My first of jalam offerings wasnt sure what to expect so I braced myself used cooler water (195-205) and all flash steepings. The aroma was quite impressive after the i heated the gaiwan and through the first rinse. None of the harshness I usually associate with young sheng, this was slightly floral not like rose or jasmine but like a white tea. It was just barely sweet and barely astringent dainty and faint. The liquor was light on color and flavor i suspect because this was a autumn plucking but very interesting indeed. It was slightly fruit almost like some yiwu I have tasted but lighter and less tannic.

The complexity surprised me unfortunately I had to leave before I got a proper session so I will come back to this tea but very interested to uncover all the ethereal qualities I caught a glimpse of. Before I left I boiled water threw it on and prepared to leave so a good 5-10 mins must have past and even then the cup was only slightly bitter, almost all other of young shengs would have tasted like petrol soaked in plastic had I put them through that torture test. Not sure if thats a good or bad sign to be so asymmetrical as I have heard many a people claim young harshness shows it will age well and tolerable young sheng is a sign of poor quality tea meant to only be drunk immediately. As I live in a dry climate I’d rather pay for aged or young tea that is immediately consumable and enjoyable anyhow I don’t really trust myself to age anything but just a interesting note.

I will surely use more leaf and time with my next session. This tea but me in a fairly good mood and was rather easy on the stomach. I would recommend it yiwu palates and/or newer sheng pu erh drinkers as there seemed to be lighter friendly tones from my short experience with this tea.

I’ve been craving this tea ever since I had it the first time and I finally got around to enjoying another session with it. It has to be one of my favorite shengs. It has a delicious grilled taste with a buttery feel, and after many infusions, a nice sweet peach note pops out. Amazing! I was actually enjoying it with my lunch, and the flavor still popped. I like it so much I looked on Jalam’s website to see if I could get more, but alas, they are sold out. Bummer! I will have to savor the rest of what I have because it is really delicious!!!

I could smell this tea the minute I opened the mailing envelope. It has a smoky aroma, even the dry leaf does. The dry leaf is a very pretty silver green. Here’s a pic, but it doesn’t really show the silver effect well:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/97273956@N03/16296255385/

When I brewed it up, there was an old man tobacco smell. No other way to describe that. ;)

The tea had a warming effect on me from the first sip…interesting. I gong fu-brewed it as usual. About the third steep or so, it tasted like grilled veggies, which turned into a grilled meat flavor. According to JalamTeas, they make a soup out of this tea with garlic…I can see why that would go well together. The grilled veggie/meat flavor was kind of good, and I’m a vegetarian!

This is a tea that I probably would have hated when I first started drinking loose leaf, but I really like it! It does sweeten up like most shengs, but in much later steeps. The smoky grill flavor is nice for a cold day like today.

Nine years after my last note, and recognizing that Jalam teas recommended drinking this tea when they sent it out, I tried this again today. It has evolved. The camphor flavor is just a hint now, but still adds interest, along with the vegetal taste (green/hay). It is a very light tea, but one that creates a strong salivary reaction for me. Still not exactly delicious, but still interesting.

In May 2020, this tea has mellowed (2013 pick), and the smokiness, tobacco flavor, and pleasant bitterness are more integrated than previously. Aroma in first cup is of orange and tobacco, with a touch of green vegetable, and it tastes much more seamless than it did as reflected in my previous note 5 years ago. The smokiness is pleasant and I can sense it in my sinuses. Quite interesting and it tastes pretty good. It does have a long, smoky aftertaste which is pleasant.

This is an interesting tea! It has some camphor aromas that cleared up my nose, some black tea elements in the flavors, a touch of green bitterness which gives me an awakening sensation, and a touch of tannin to pucker my mouth. I can’t say it is delightful, but it certainly is interesting.

A very strong flavored, orchid sheng! He Kai also has a strong vegetal finish. I found this tea not that flexible – if you over steep it it is quite bitter (or maybe that flavor intensive vegetal). The after taste in this tea is really floral, more floral that drinking it!

I love the floral in this one, but I need to play with it more to minimize the punch it packs as I found He Kai too strong for me, even with 5 second infusions.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/kai-unfermented-puerh-jalam-teas-tea-review/

How did I end up joining 3 tea clubs?
I’m so behind on samplings, just finally getting to this one for the first time, & all I can say is Delicious!
It starts out as baked crusty whole grain bread, then develops a smooth creaminess, & wonderful sweetness. I’ve been at a loss for words in describing teas lately, so all I can really say is that I’m loving this one tonight.

Really nice sheng. It has some good punch to it and the dry, sweet astringency, lingers inside the mouth. Taste like a cross of a Bada & Yiwu mountains. Very very pleasant.

Love this sheng! It has a wonderful sweetness that comes on soon…like 3rd steep! I upped my leaf to 7g this time and I’m definitely feeling it! A bit tea drunk, but also a good energy that will hopefully get me going on this lazy day. I want to get some weeding done!

My first Naka tea! Woot! I’m loving this Jalam Teas subscription. Such variety and the teas are of great quality. I feel like all the teas I get from them are so fresh, especially the raw puerhs.

This tea is so JUICY SWEET! I immediately thought of this: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=84zZPUYimWU
It’s sweet off the bat and just gets sweeter and sweeter. I’ve also got this great feeling of well-being. Not sure if that’s what Naka Teas are supposed to impart, but I don’t mind it! I’m very very happy. Oh wait, getting a surge of energy now that’s making me have the munchies. Time for a muffin!