First note for this tea!

I did some gong-fu steeping for this last night: 6g, 130mL gaiwan, 90C water, 5-second rinse.

The flavour and smell were pretty typical for a young sheng – tart, fruity, a bit smoky. I noticed that this had some bitterness in the first few steeps, but it was a sharp, thin bitterness, rather than the kind of juicy bitterness with a fruity aftertaste that I noticed in the Gu Shu from a few days ago. I prefer the Gu Shu kind of bitterness a lot more.

Ginkosan

Uhhh from what I understand this is gushu. Site says 120-200yr old trees.

Ginkosan

Gottcha. I’m not sure why Scott labels some of his cakes Gushu and others not, my understanding was that anything over 100 years could be considered gushu, but my understanding may be flawed…

tanluwils

Scott mentioned in one of his Q&A videos that gu shu is typically defined as any tea tree older than 100 years. In Chinese, the term ‘gu shu’ is often used interchangeably with ‘lao shu’ and ‘bai nian shu’ (100 year-old tree) and generally also refers to any tree older than 100 years. So, according to pu’er tea industry standards, what we have here is ‘gu shu’ material.

Also, not all gu shu cha is bitter—the Qing Mei Shan and Huang Shan from Scott’s 2015 line are great examples, and happen to be my favorite so far.

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Ginkosan

Uhhh from what I understand this is gushu. Site says 120-200yr old trees.

Ginkosan

Gottcha. I’m not sure why Scott labels some of his cakes Gushu and others not, my understanding was that anything over 100 years could be considered gushu, but my understanding may be flawed…

tanluwils

Scott mentioned in one of his Q&A videos that gu shu is typically defined as any tea tree older than 100 years. In Chinese, the term ‘gu shu’ is often used interchangeably with ‘lao shu’ and ‘bai nian shu’ (100 year-old tree) and generally also refers to any tree older than 100 years. So, according to pu’er tea industry standards, what we have here is ‘gu shu’ material.

Also, not all gu shu cha is bitter—the Qing Mei Shan and Huang Shan from Scott’s 2015 line are great examples, and happen to be my favorite so far.

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Bio

Updated March 2016:

I’m a writer and editor who’s fallen in love with loose-leaf tea. I’ve also set up a site for tea reviews at http://www.booksandtea.ca – an excellent excuse to keep on buying and trying new blends. There will always be more to discover!

In the meantime, since joining Steepster in January 2014, I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on my likes and dislikes

Likes: Raw/Sheng pu’erh, sobacha, fruit flavours, masala chais, jasmine, mint, citrus, ginger, Ceylons, Chinese blacks, rooibos.

Dislikes (or at least generally disinclined towards): Hibiscus, rosehip, chamomile, licorice, lavender, really vegetal green teas, shu/ripe pu’erh.

Things I generally decide on a case-by-case basis: Oolong, white teas.

Still need to do my research on: matcha

I rarely score teas anymore, but if I do, here’s the system I follow:

100-85: A winner!
84-70: Pretty good. This is a nice, everyday kind of tea.
69-60: Decent, but not up to snuff.
59-50: Not great. Better treated as an experiment.
49-0: I didn’t like this, and I’m going to avoid it in the future. Blech.

Location

Toronto, ON, Canada

Website

http://www.booksandtea.ca

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