Master Han’s 2013 Sheng Pu’er

Ugh I’m sick! I woke up with a bad cold today. So no tasting new teas until my palate recovers. I’ve been drinking this gongfu style from my new adorable tea pot all morning. Amazingly enough I can actually sort of taste the tangy goodness :)

I’ve been drinking this all evening. I didn’t read the suggested steeping parameters, so I only used 4G, instead of the recommended 5G. After letting the leaf relax in a prewarmed yixing, it smelled of honey & apricot!! That was enticing! And the tea didn’t disappoint, not at all! I gave a quick rinse, & steeped 5//10/15 sec/ etc all the way up to a minute & a half.
I didn’t document anything about it, but am looking forward to drinking it again.

The main features were a lovely apricot flavor throughout all steeps, a sweet fruit & honey taste as well, & a lingering tangy mouth. I’m no expert, but IMO this is a really lovely sheng. My only complaint, if there is one, is that the paper the brick comes wrapped in is very flimsy, & has already disintegrated on the edges.

the mail-dude just dropped this off along with a bing/beeng(however its spelled) of the Tian Di Ren,which I will try later…this is good stuff(like all of the other Master Han creations I’ve had)…it’s sweet,floral and has a nice bitterness if infused a little longer,which I really like…it starts out a little thin but thickens up around the third infusion…110ml gaiwan 8g tea…nice qi too…

dry leaves smell like dried persimmon. gaiwan quick rinse, 5 sec steeps. im afraid if it will go bitter. it does develop orchid notes, creamy. so far its delicious,smooth and sweet. im on my 3rd steep
Later on I decided to add tiny drop of agave syrup. Usually I don’t add any thing to my tea. It transformed into raw juicy sweet orange pepper

Looks like it’s time for a sheng-off. I really don’t want to launch my exhaustive pu-er explorations just yet and really just want to keep one around. I really, really love Mandala’s Wild Monk Sheng Pu’er Mao Cha. And I really, really love this too. This one leaves a trailing sweetness on my tongue, and it’s ’pu’er funk,’ for lack of a better name for that ‘pile of wet leaves’ thing, is lighter than the Wild Monk’s. That isn’t necessarily good or bad. Whatever, it’s wonderful, lovely, and bringing a light, complex, sunny note to my morning.

TTB Review #11: Oh wow, this one is very astringent with earthy/woody notes. I very much feel like I’m drinking tree bark. I don’t hate it, but I’m not sure I’d ever choose this again. Certainly a unique taste that was new to me.

Edit: Tobacco! That’s what this reminds me of! I couldn’t think of it at first but this is exactly it – like an ashtray, a liquid cigar.

Short steep gongfu sessions.

I overleafed this in the past, which created a wonderfully (terrible) flavour profile of sour smoke and bitter tobacco wood.

Then I caught on to my mistake and now my cups are full of tangy apricots and cream with hints of pepper, wood (citrusy-pine, eucalyptus) and smoke (savoury-sweet) notes. The aroma of the broth is floral, sweet-sour, and woody. It paired well with a Cobs cinnamon bun- particularly the cream cheese icing.

This is why I try to give teas many chances: the crowkettle error factor.

Edit: I swear I get jasmine from this as well. I’ve been tasting and smelling jasmine everywhere lately though, so who knows.

I’m really sad that this one tore my stomach up. Now, full disclosure if you are new to my reviews, I have an auto-immune stomach disease (UC) and IBS. So, this may not actually be a harsh one on the belly for most.

But, I am sad about it because I had a really good session with this. The flavor was really solid through 8-9 steeps. I first noticed how creamy and apricot/peachy it tasted. Then a few steeps in I noticed slight bitterness. Around steep 6 it got a little peppery. But smooth the whole way through. I would have bought more of that based on flavor alone.

However, I don’t think it was meant to be for me with Sheng. Too Russian roulette like for me.

Puerh Tea TTB. This was a potent and somewhat bitter sheng. Gave it eight steeps. There were some sweet notes towards the end. Even apricots in nature.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 100ml gaiwan with 5.2g 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.

From the Pu TTB

This was a nice and very mild sheng. Pretty nice thick mouthfeel in the early steeps. White grape, fresh camphor, grainy, and peppery notes. Starts to thin out pretty early in the later steeps. Despite what I think about Verdant’s marketing I’m yet to have anything that wasn’t good from them.