Indian Gushu Sheng Pu'erh Wafer (Spring 2020)

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Apricot, Barnyard, Berries, Bright, Citrusy, Juicy, Malty, Red Fruits, Tannic, Thick, Tobacco, Wet Dog, Astringent, Bitter, Bread Dough, Brown Sugar, Eucalyptus, Fruity, Malt, Mineral, Plum, Raisins, Red Wine, Rosewood, Round, Sweet, Vanilla, Wet Wood, Wood, Woody, Yeasty
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by derk
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 g 3 oz / 85 ml

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2 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Long rinse/steep the first: barnyaaaaaaaaard! I half-forget about these classic aromas, then stumble into one and feel hella joy. Saponin bubbles on every steep in my ceramic pot. Pours progressed...” Read full tasting note
    92
  • “Well, I bought this last year and have just now gotten around to it. And I’m going to have to play around with it some more because I kept severely oversteeping it. Severely, though? Hard to...” Read full tasting note

From Ketlee

Indian Gushu Sheng Pu’erh Wafer from Spring Season Harvest 2020

Made from Wild Gushu Assamica tea trees, this tea has been further refined by an year of experience in making Sheng Pu’erh style teas. The leaves have a lot less oxidation on them compared to the 2019 Spring and Autumn shengs. The maocha has been steamed and pressed with much more care and that makes sure the leaves undergo minimal damage during this process.

The dry leaf smells sweet with notes of honey and almond desserts dominating it. The wet leaves after the wash have aroma of red berries and Indian gooseberry. The first infusion is of pale yellow colour and has notes of black grapes and walnuts. From the second infusion you start getting notes of ripe red berries, black raisin and a woody dryness on the finish. The woody character is more apparent in the third infusion with a stark cedarwood note which is minty as well as woody. The fourth infusion has a bit of spice, specifically cloves. These spice notes are present in all our wild teas and there is no doubt about the fact that they present themselves wildly different in different teas. The fourth infusion is also thicker in texture and you can notice that the leaves have opened themselves for a complete infusion. As you go further into your gongfu session, you are greeted with various sweet and fruity notes like ripe plum, honeysuckle, raisins and honey. The woody notes are also better explored in later steeps with interesting woody notes such as sandalwood, cedarwood and even agarwood which develops into a lot more intense version of itself with an year of age!

This is just a start of the journey this tea has to offer and we are sure we’ll be able to age it into something even more interesting in a couple of years and would urge you to do the same. If you like to take control and age your Pu’erh and Pu’erh style teas, you will definitely enjoy adding this intriguing tea from Indian Old Tree forests into your pumidor! Going by the previous years of experience, the tea will evolve into more and more delicious and sweeter versions of itself every few months!

Appearance : Yellow

Taste : Honey, almond dessert, red berries, ripe plums, Indian gooseberry, honeysuckle, black raisins, clove, agarwood, sandalwood, cedarwood

Steeping Time : 3 minutes western style, 20 seconds gongfu style adding 10 seconds every subsequent steep

Leaf Quantity: 3-4 gms per 120 ml for gongfu and 4 grams for 400 ml western style

Recommended Steeping Temperature : 95°C

Recommended Steeping Method : Gongfu style

About Ketlee View company

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2 Tasting Notes

92
391 tasting notes

Long rinse/steep the first: barnyaaaaaaaaard! I half-forget about these classic aromas, then stumble into one and feel hella joy.

Saponin bubbles on every steep in my ceramic pot. Pours progressed super quickly from reddish gold to hong-colored. Now this is another tea that has me wondering about the processing — it’s only 3 years old, but brewing quite red/dark already. So was it oxidized further than traditional sheng puerh, and is it meant for young drinking? Will it age up into something else, or are we looking at what it’s destined to be right now? I’d absolutely call this more tannic than bitter.

Wet dog and apricot in the second, opens up to some poppy red fruit/berries and fuller mouthfeel in the third. Oof, yeah, that mouthfeel is nice.

Fruity tobacco on the wet leaf. The fruit here is interesting; I wouldn’t necessarily call this sheng sweet, but fruity for sure. Kind of bright-tannic and lightly malty as well — which aligns with the color of the liquor if we’re talking about processing edging closer to hongcha territory, I guess. Hm.

The huigan really starts coming alive now — juicy in the way that makes you smack your jaw around. The tannins are a little touchy — one steep after that, it felt like they tried to step in with a NO MORE SMACKING sign. I smacked anyway, and it worked.

There’s something about this that reminds me vaguely of my mother’s iced tea; bags brewed hot and crisp, with a healthy dose of lemon juice and just enough sugar to take the edge off (“My sister makes it too goddamn sweet!”). All this with a side of damp canine plopped in your lap, scootching for pets. Ah, home.

Thank you very much, derk. This was fun.

Flavors: Apricot, Barnyard, Berries, Bright, Citrusy, Juicy, Malty, Red Fruits, Tannic, Thick, Tobacco, Wet Dog

ashmanra

My mom added three cups of sugar to just a little over a gallon of iced tea. Everyone loved her iced tea! Ha ha! She was horrified when I started making it and only used one cup per gallon but she got used to it.

beerandbeancurd

Family traditions, always with a side of T E N S I O N

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1557 tasting notes

Well, I bought this last year and have just now gotten around to it. And I’m going to have to play around with it some more because I kept severely oversteeping it. Severely, though? Hard to say, since I did enjoy at least 3 pots’ worth that had been brewing for no less than 15 minutes each time.

The dry leaf has interesting aromas that are malty and fruity, waxed wood, redfruits, twigs. Sweet-syrupy. Bread dough, fermented camellia buds.

Warm has bourbon vanilla sugar notes w/massive red berry and yeasty bread dough notes, rosewood. Rinsed leaf brings more of an antique wood feeling, eucalyptus, port wine, raisins.

Overall vibe is —

Like the 2020 Ball Rolled Wild Oolong but without the intensity of feeling or sweetness. More mineral and antiquewoody like a Chinese pu’er. High oxididation (black tea) tastes such as malt and redfruits. Superficial bitterness, not the kind that penetrates but is like a sheer layer. I prefer feeling the bitterness rather than only tasting it. Does that make sense? It has that light astringency that is thirst-quenching.

Curious tea that has some good markers but lacks some punch? I hope Ketlee has set aside some of these Indian raw teas for aging and will re-release them in the years to come.

I have to try this brewed in a different vessel. I used my tiny duanni clay pot because I wasn’t sure if this tea was going to hijack my brain like the 2020 Ball Rolled Wild Oolong. It didn’t.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Bread Dough, Brown Sugar, Eucalyptus, Fruity, Malt, Mineral, Plum, Raisins, Red Fruits, Red Wine, Rosewood, Round, Sweet, Vanilla, Wet Wood, Wood, Woody, Yeasty

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 g 3 OZ / 85 ML
ashmanra

Drinkable at fifteen minutes is impressive, especially for sheng.

derk

No kidding.

Natethesnake

I think I still have a bit of this as maocha. Think I may grandpa it on a hike.

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