Pu-erhTea.com

Dry leaf looks nice on this guy. Smells good in a warm gaiwan. Wet leaf is a warm sunny fragrance with some hints of dried fruit. The warm cup after wash has a beautiful brown sugar and raisin fragrance. Reminds me of homemade oatmeal. I had this right before trying the lanhua. The tea has a nice subtle little aged flavor to it, of course at 10-11 years now it’s still relatively young. For a semi-aged puer it produces a very smooth drink, with pleasant aftertaste. I find that these teas are much more interesting after swallowing, which is something I quite love about them. Meihua’s liquor is smooth, carrying some astringency, and muted sweet taste in the mouth. It becomes more interesting with its brown sugary raisin huigan. This tea lasts in the throat and back of the mouth for quite some time. This tea claims to be bulang material, but for those that are worried about the upfront powerful stern characteristics that bulang often carries, fear not. Meihua has developed a pleasant and calm taste, despite its youth. A few more years will likely do it some good and I will likely sit on this for a while, but I would say this is ready to drink daily as an affordable and unoffensive daily drinker in a pinch.

Another tea from the Puerh TTB. I have never tasted anything from Awazon before, and I’ve heard mixed reviews of many of their teas. This one, I’m glad to say, was pretty tasty! It wasn’t anything special, but it was a very drinkable tea for me.

The dry leaf smelled lightly of grass or straw. After a rinse, it was full on wet hay.

First couple steeps were wet hay, almost like a wet storage taste, but not as intense – I agree with another reviewer that this has almost certainly been dry stored. The finish for these first two steeps was slightly sour and fruity. This fruity finish stayed in my mouth for a little bit after the sip – kind of like strawberries.

On the next steep, the sourish part of the finish was gone, leaving just a sweetness which I tasted as vanilla. Over the next three steeps, the tea thickened up quite nicely, with dry, sweet straw on the front with that sweet vanilla finish which, when combined with the vanilla taste, gave it a slight dairy kind of vibe.

The rest of the session was smooth and easy drinking. Texture lightened up, vanilla finish morphed into something a bit more floral, and straw note remained as well. Never really got bitter, even at the end. Pretty tasty session, but not super great. Absolutely inoffensive, tasty even. I don’t know if it’s convinced me to make an order from Awazon or anything, considering all the other nice puerh vendor options out there.

From Puerh TTB-4

This is about the 4th Awazon tea I’ve tried and this is my favorite so far. The powerful nose is grassy with some vegetive qualities. The nose suggested richness and the taste delivers. Good texture, with round, slightly fruity taste. Decent finish. 2nd steep was a bit disappointing. Just plain wood/straw flavor with a hint of bitterness at the finish. I oversteeped the third cup 3rd (40 s vs 20 s) but I like the tea. It’s woody and slightly bitter. Not much cha qi. Several more good steeps. Not a star, but a good solid tea and probably good value.

AllanK has been after me to try Awazon teas for months, so I suggested he put some in the TTB, both for me and so others could also try them. This is my first tea from the new box.

The first steep was very acidic, so had a citrus character, with a hint of apricot. The nose was very light, but there was a fairly decent finish. The second steep was more woody, with a hint of smoke and much less citrus/apricot. Also less acid. Starting in the third steep, it became quite bitter. The bitterness faded in subsequent steeps, but never went away. By the 5th steep, the taste was all wood and bitter. By the 4th steep, I was noticing the cha qi, which was present but fairly subdued.

There were aspects of this tea that were appealing, but nothing really stood out that made me like it. It might make a decent daily drinker, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink more. Ironically, I think my favorite steep was the first (what most people call “the rinse”).

I couldn’t get past the mouth pucker and bitterness on this one. Thought it would have rested enough to have that all taken care of, but I guess not. I have about 15 Awazon samples and this was the first. While it was a sad face producer, I already found one with a sangria taste in the background and a wonderful re steep ability; will review after work.

This tea was I think pretty good, not spectacular, but reasonably good. For the price I paid it was amazing. This is something they mainly sell wholesale in 4kg quantities. However they also sell a 100g sample for the low price of $2.10. I don’t think I’ve ever paid less for a loose ripe. While I think this is not quite up to the quality of a Yunnan Sourcing loose ripe I enjoyed it a lot. I think it was reasonably good quality. It was bittersweet at the start with a lot of fermentation flavor to it. The fermentation was a factor for at least four or five steeps. I’d say it was gone by steep six. The bitterness was also gone by then. It turned into a nice sweet ripe puerh. While like I said I don’t think it’s quite as good as something like the ripe Yunnan Sourcing sells it is not bad at all. You will also not find a Yunnan Sourcing loose ripe for this price either. I do think there were notes of chocolate in there. Hard to say if it developed a fruity flavor in the later steeps, but maybe. I have been drinking a number of teas from Awazon or www.pu-erhtea.com lately and I think in general the quality is there. If anyone is putting in an order with them go down to the wholesale section and buy a sample of this. For the price there is not much to lose.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.4g 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The leaves weren’t done at twelve, I’d say there were two or three more steeps in them if I wanted to continue.

This tea is pretty good. The first thing I noticed was a sweet note that I identified with white grapes but not as sweet. A little bitterness crept in around the third steep. There was a little bit of astringency too. Overall I really liked this tea. I believe it is a blend but I’m not entirely sure. It is a nice young sheng full of sweet notes. There was a mild qi to this tea. Not massive but there. I think this might age into something nice.

I steeped this eight times in a 120mml gaiwan with 8.2g leaf and 190 degree 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. The leaves were not done at eight steeps. I’m sure I could have gotten four or five more steeps out of them but I want to go on to something else.

This is in my opinion a tea one the brink of becoming an aged tea. It has not yet truly become what you can call aged. I, however, has lost that young sheng sweetness. This is not to say there were no sweet notes, just not as pronounced as a young sheng. It was strong and fairly smooth with only a little bitterness in the initial steeps. There is definitely a potent qi to this tea as I am feeling it now, quite energizing. There is one main note to this tea, unfortunately I am unsure how to describe it. It has a strong aftertaste and a potent mouthfeel to it. I will be interesting to see what this ages into.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8g leaf and 190 degree 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. The tea was nowhere near finished. It is supposed to be ancient tree. I’m sure I could get another four or five steeps out of it. Not sure it would go twenty but maybe. This tea deserves a high rating in my book on the qi I am feeling alone. The taste was good but I’m not sure that everyone would like that one main note.

This tea is fairly tasty. I am not 100% sure how to describe it though. It did not have any wet storage taste. It was definitely dry stored. It had not developed an unpleasant aged taste that some ten year old sheng will develop. It was not too bitter at the start, maybe a little. It had what I would describe as a sweet taste but not the apricot taste of a yound sheng. It was very smooth in general. I felt the qi of this tea by the second steep. While I cannot use the phrase tea drunk it has me very relaxed. Nice qi in general. I am not sure if I should describe the main note of this as tobacco or not. It was fairly astringent. I have no way to evaluate the claim of 100 year old trees but as that is not that much of a claim I tend to believe it. The tea was a good value at only around $40 for a bing, cheap for a semi aged sheng. It was quite loosely compressed. The color of the tea soup was dark yellow rather than red indicating it had not aged all that much. In the end I enjoyed the tea.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.1g leaf and 190 degree 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. I don’t think I will give this tea a number because I don’t have enough experience with older sheng to know where it fits but I think it was a good tea at an excellent value. So far I like what I have gotten from Awazon Puerh Tea or www.pu-erhtea.com.

Pu-erhtea.com is a company almost unheard of on Steepster I think. I had ordered from them once before, mostly ripe puerh and remember liking it. Got this one yesterday and decided not to let it sit for a week. This is an inexpensive cake, only around $25. The description states it is spring tea. I think it is a blend of theirs. I enjoyed this tea. It was smooth from the start with a lot of sweet notes and little or no bitterness. I would even say as to describe it as apricoty sheng. It has yet to become an aged sheng and lose that fruit sweetness. There was a little astringency to this tea and some grassy notes to it. The cake itself was loosely compressed and the tea soup still very yellow. I also found that Awazon shipping was very fast. This order went out EMS and arrived five days from the time it first tracked as accepted in China. I also think their shipping prices are a little cheaper than Yunnan Sourcing for the same EMS shipping. So far I can give an initial recommendation for Awazon or pu-erhtea.com. I bought two recent Dayis from them that they were selling quite cheaply and they both looked real and scanned green with the black light. It seems this company is a good one. The only thing I notice about them is their stock doesn’t change as much as other vendors. Their stock today is largely the same as when I ordered from them two years ago.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.7g leaf and 190 degree 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. The leaves were not finished. If I wanted to I’m sure I could get a few more steeps out of them.

This tea is better than it has a right to be. I bought this two years ago and forgot about it in my giant Yixing container. I only paid something around $10 or so. There is a fair amount of fermentation flavor to this tea. It has definitely not cleared. But the fermentation taste is not of the unpleasant sort. There were some notes of chocolate it there and it was think and rich in the early infusions. It is very sweet as ripe puerh tea goes. I don’t know if this improved in the two years I stored it or if it would have tasted like this originally. Oddly enough I think I’m getting some qi off of this. It is quite relaxing. Odd to find qi on a $10 ripe tea. I have only put in two orders with pu-erhtea.com, one two years ago and one last night. But I think they are a good retailer. I bought mostly ripe in each order. I am waiting to see how fast they ship the order I put in last night.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. If I could allow myself more caffeine this cheap shou wasn’t done. I’m sure I could have gotten another few steeps out of it. It was still dark in color at ten steeps.