"Wild Monk" Raw Pu'er-2014

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – December Tea #7 -An earthy tea

This’ll fit for this prompt!  Not a favorite – but I do love the image of a Wild Monk… NOW the name just reminds me of the recent Buddhist temple that had meth in it, but anyway….  Today this tastes like berries somehow, along with autumn leaves, starchy, papery.  Three mini cups, as I had a tiny amount of leaf remaining!  It looks like I wrote a note for another sample eight years ago but not for the sample from Kawaii433, so thank you for allowing me to revisit this one years later!   Reading my first note, I have definitely learned to tame my steep parameters for raw pu-erh, but just like before, I’m still finding the first steeps of raw pu-erh are always tastier than subsequent steeps.  I REALLY liked the first steep eight years ago.
Holiday Tea 2022 # 26:  Georgia Tea Co – Nutcracker Rooibos
Holiday Tea 2022 # 27:  Angry Tea Room – Honey Nut Biscotti
Holiday Tea 2022 # 28:  Angry Tea Room – Cinnamon Apple
Holiday Tea 2022 # 29:  Bird & Blend – Jack Frost
2022 sipdowns: 131

From the sheng sampler. Brewed gongfu-style with a gaiwan. 10 second rinse. Steeping times: 10, 10, 15, 15, 30, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, 120, 180.

The dry leaf aroma offers a delicate fragrance of fresh honey, while the wet leaf smells of green peppers, and then of bamboo and a thick conifer forest.

The liquor is golden, clear, thin-textured, and full-bodied. The session begins with a light grassy and prickly cup, and a peach aftertaste. Thereafter, a bitter green pepper note dominates. The fourth infusion, additionally, has walnut and pecans, and the beginning with the fifth infusion, is a sweetness underneath. I also taste a forest floor, the sort of forest that big and crowded with trees, the sort of floor that has layered beds of moss and dried and freshly fallen pine needles. The feel is light yet powerful.

Despite my words, this isn’t for me (well, it is sheng, but I felt the need to broaden my tastes with the sampler anyway). I can’t be appreciative of it unfortunately.

I just realized that I had yet to try any of the shengs I got from the Mandala sampler, and decided to remedy that with this tea. I have only tried one or twoshengs before, so I’m quite inexperienced with them. That’s why I got this sampler, to explore the world of shengs withput having to commit to any.

7g, 6oz water, 200F, two 5 second rinses, then 8,10,12 second steeps.

Ok, so the first steep tastes like smoked meat. There’s definitely other notes here, there’s a lot of complexity, but I’m having a hard time identifying anything other than smoked meats, and maybe some pine. The second steep loses most of the smoked meat flavor, but still is slightly smokey. Again, smoked pine comes to mind. There’s also a sort of sweetness here, not in the tradition I just added sugar to this sense, more in a mouth feel, and in the salutatory response. (I didn’t add any sweetener, I generally don’t sweeten greens, oolongs, or shengs). There’s also some camphor notes, and with the pine needle like notes, creates a cooling sort of bitter end of sip/aftertaste as it cools.Third is much like the second, but less cooling/bitter.

I don’t know if I’m just not in a sheng mood, or if I’m not really in a sheng mood. But this just isn’t doing it for me right now, so I’ll be calling it a quits early. Leaving the rating off since it’s purely my tastes.

Well, I have not had a tea quite like this before, and it is a whole new wonderful experience.

Rinse, then brewed 10 seconds for a couple steeps so far, and saving the leaves for another time.

Tastes of dried fruits with the freshness of pine and wee hint of smoke; a bit of pleasant bitterness sort of like a green pepper. Smells incredibly like apricots – so lovely. The whole sensation of drinking it is different though, from my usual teas, and I almost feel like I am drinking a magical potion. :)

-Dry leaves: Deep dark purple/black leaves accented by a few reds and greens. Thick, musky aroma. Peppery, tropical fruit, touch of smoke.

-1st steep: Dusky yellow infusion common of purple sheng. Notes of caraway seed, camphor, honey, papaya, carrot, and fresh greenness. Mild for a purple tea, but not as mild as Mandala’s other offerings. Incredibly clean, fresh taste.

-5th steep: Calming, steadying qi sets in. Pomelo and pine flavors with a long lasting fruity/perfume-y aftertaste.

-Spent leaves vary in size, and colors range from dark green to reddish purple. Strong leaves with a slightly rubbery appearance common of purple tea.

Overall an excellent tea. Very flavorful, infusible, and not lacking in strength.

In addition to this tea, I also need to praise Garret’s almighty tea soak! For the past couple of months my stainless steel mesh tea strainer had hardly been letting any tea through (it would take about a minute to let 150ml through, on a good day). I’d tried boiling it in water, boiling it in vinegar, and scrubbing it to death with baking soda and NOTHING would help. I had already given up on it and ordered a new one. After soaking for about 20 minutes in the tea soak and then swishing it around it was like brand new! This stuff really is magical.

While this is certainly a fine quality tea, this was not my favorite of the recent Mandala Sheng Puer Sampler (which also had Wild Mountain Green, Autumn Song, and Heart of the Old Tree)

It tastes to me just like an aged Ya Bao, but with a stronger flavor and a hint of smoky finish. If I had to pick apart what Ya Bao generally tastes like to me (and thus, this tea as well), it is usually a strong note of cedar and some light notes of dried fruit, maybe apricot.

It’s a great tea, but I prefer the lighter buds to their bolder Puer cousin here. That said, if you loved this tea try some Ya Bao. I think you’ll like that too.

And after saying that, I fully anticipate at least a person or two saying this tastes nothing like Ya Bao to them, because tastes seem oddly differently like that.

Yay! Another puerh to try! Garret included a sample of this tea in my last order. Thank you!!

I’ve been drinking this tea all day…I’ve probably steeped it 20 times by now. Telework days are good for that. I might have to invest in a portable gaiwan set to take to the office with me so that I can enjoy puerh there too, but limiting my sessions to days when I’m at home keeps up the excitement, so maybe not. ;) Plus, not being able to drink puerh at work will force me to drink the other teas in my cupboard! I think pumpkin chai might be on the list for tomorrow. :)

In the first few steeps, there was a strong tobacco note, but that faded into a nice smooth sweetness that goes on and on forever! It’s definitely a fruity sweetness, a stone-fruity sweetness. Yum! It’s got this thickness to it, like nectar. Double yum! So glad to have tried it. Puerh FTW!

This tea is one of the best sheng puerhs I have ever tasted. I steeped this ten times in a 3 oz shui ping teapot. First 10 sec, then 5, 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 30, 30, 30. I used boiling water. By the fourth steeping all bitterness was gone from this tea and it was smooth. It continued to hold its flavor throughout nearly all ten steepings, not falling off until steeping 9 or so. By falling off I do not mean it had lost all its flavor, just a little. I have two of these and am considering buying another or even a tong.

My name is Kristie, and I’m a sheng addict.

It started innocently enough. I just tried a few, because my friends were doing it. I wanted to fit in. To be cool. It just escalated so quickly.

I was even scared of the tightly packed cakes at first. But now… I can’t keep from busting them all open. I say things like: “Come here, you little cake of yum yums! I am going to poke you with a pointy stick and make drinks from your tasty flesh!”

Some days it’s hard for me to concentrate on other things. I think about sheng in the morning, all through the day, and then again when I go to bed at night. Sometimes I sheng 4-5 times per day. I’ve already shenged twice today and I don’t show any signs of stopping.

The other day, I looked into my boyfriend’s eyes and said: “I love you, Sheng. I just love you so much.” My boyfriend replied, “my name is Brian, you crazy tea fiend!” Then he called Teahab and asked if he could have me committed.

The End. Or is it….

Also, this tea tastes like smoked apricots. Is smoked fruit a thing? Because it totally should be!