Xiaguan tea factory(Berylleb on Ebay)

Another tea from the puerh samples I received. This tea smelled and tasted like a raw that has matured. There was a small amount of camphor smell in the wet leaves, but the taste had none and there was no bitterness that I could detect. This tea has an earthy sweetness not unlike the taste one would get from a shou puerh in later steepings, but not as concentrated. My understanding is that this was dry stored and is composed of small, tippy high quality material. It is a very balanced tea and easily approachable. This tea in one word is SMOOTH. I could just be tired, but I drank this in the evening and was concerned it might keep me up, but instead it relaxed me. This is one that could easily be a daily drinker. Someone new to puerh would likely enjoy this. To borrow a TeaDB phrase, I think it would pass the mom test.

I wish I could say this was an incredible tea. It was not. While there was a lot of improvement over ten steeps and I enjoyed the last couple of steeps, it had a bad start. The fermentation taste was initially strong and unpleasant. This taste lasted for about the average as far as the fermentation goes, about four or five steeps. However, an unpleasant taste persisted for several more steeps. I would say it had gone away by the ninth steep. This is from a small 125g cake. Berylleb has the option to buy a five pack. I am glad I only bought one. It’s not even that this was the worst puerh tea ever, it just wasn’t that good. As far as notes of things like chocolate go there was too much of an unpleasant taste to notice good things. Judged by the tenth steep it wasn’t that bad. But considering the first eight steeps were not that great I don’t think I’ll be buying another.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.3g 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.

This is one I had bought a sample of a couple of years back and just recently got around to buying it. There is a smoky flavor to this tea but it is not too strong. There was some bitterness in the early steeps but not too much. It did develop a mildly sweet flavor eventually but not initially. There were no unpleasant aged flavors to this tea, the sort of negative flavors teas this old often develop. That I think is this teas strongest point.

I steeped this tea eight times in an 130ml gaiwan with 8.2g 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. The tea was certainly not finished but as always I was watching my caffeine intake.

This was singled out by “Chairman Meow” this afternoon. The chairman was showed 2 choices and this was her pick. After making it she made a quick exit from the scene.
Brewed in the Gaiwan.
This was gifted by a tea chum because Xia Guan’s can be somewhat smoky. Well actually not somewhat but in about all cases.
The dry leaf has a little fruit and dried apple to it. I am thinking 10 years old maybe the smoke is gone. It was till I hit it with the rinse, poured it out and opened it up to inhale the aroma and it pops your senses.
Color is an almost bronze but I have 6 year old tea with more color. Probably due to XG’s tight compression. The brew is definitely full on puerh.
Full on woody, smoky, tannic ,citrus and bitter notes. The first 2 cups have been strong and punchy. It gives the slightest hits of sweetness as a quickly fading taste at the end of the swallow. It gives a nice feeling with a warming sensation as you finish.
Not for ones that don’t like smoke but it would be a nice one for those that don’t mind that or the bitterness of it.

Nice young sheng. Still has some of the astringency but less than other teas this young. My guess is since it is a tribute toucha then gong ting leaves were used to make it. Very good mouth feel, it has a camphor taste that last a while turning to a slightly bitter dryness. Has a salty almost “broth” taste to it with a little citrus in there too. Nice to be as young as it is. Hopefully in the years coming this will continue to evolve. I used 9 grams in the easy gaiwan 5 second steeps after a 10 second wash.

Re-visit from 2 years ago.

Still not overly impressed with this Sheng, it tastes musty and old. Compared to my knowledge 2 years ago I now see why, though the leaves are mostly whole they are rather dark too. I tend to prefer silver tipped, large leaf Sheng. This type I consider to be part way between Sheng and Shue which I’m not always a fan of.

Oh well, one or two more servings after this pot and I will know not to re-order.

It’s been a good day so far today. I managed to have a decent nights sleep for a change, I got my ninth tattoo (http://twitter.yfrog.com/obtdwcvj) and my ill fish seems to be feeling a little better.

While I’m playing Resonance Of Fate with my husband tonight after such a good day I decided to make a gongfu of this pu erh.

The pu erh is mostly loose leaf with the occasional chunk that has been broken from the original cake. It’s a medley of browns and smells a little floral and earthy. Once rinsed it picks up sweet floral tones.

Once brewed the liquid is cloudy burnt orange in colour and it smells a little astringent and perfumey.

So the tea is in my gongfu starting with a 1 minute steep and increasing each steep by an additional minute. Here we go.

It’s very earthy and deep with a bitter floral perfume effect. I’m actually thinking that I may have brewed this one a little too strong (though I used the same amount as I would with any other pu erh which is a rough estimate weight of two tiny sample cakes so what…about 7-10g).

Tea halved now for the second steep, lets see if that reduces the bitterness. The colour is now a cloudy yellow colour which to be frank looks like very unhealthy urine. Does anyone know why some pu erh is cloudy?

Much better strength now, it’s floral and earthy still but with a sweet fruity note and while being astringent has no bitterness. It’s still perfumey though which is a little hit or miss at times and honestly I’m not digging it at the moment. I was hoping it would be a little more floral or earthy and less perfumey.

Overall it’s not what I was quite looking for in a raw pu erh but it has it’s charm and I’m thankful to have tried it. Don’t think I would buy it again though.