2015 Poundcake

I’ve lately built an obsession with Poundcake and i’ve already had 8-10 sessions with it. It’s incredibly creamy and smooth, and reminds me of a good milk oolong. This tea os definitely worth the money and is something that i’m going t continue to enjoy in the future.

You can read my full review on my blog-

http://coolcodyc.wix.com/theoolongdrunk#!I-Brought-Cake-to-the-Party/c21kp/56eed8040cf276e9de24959f

Great tea. Filled my gaiwan with this and steeped it throughout the day. Energy energy energy. I feel reinvigorated after each cup. The mouthfeel is as aggressive as the energy.

Flavors are in sync with each other, making this tea very well-rounded. The aftertaste is powerful and sweet. The floral and astringent tastes come through with each sip, also accompanied by a mellow bitterness.

Not harsh on the stomach, but it becomes alive after it has been drunk.
Great tea through and through

From Pu TTB

The early steeps are very mellow and somewhat spicy with corn and green notes. Well balanced and mildly sweet.

Later infusions become more buttery and mineral with an excellently thick and lubricating mouthfeel and a light sugarcane sweetness.

The spent leaves are lovely with nice stout stems and veins. Not the most flavorful sheng, but the mouthfeel is killer!

This was a sample that a friend provided :)

It went well with all my other W2T that I tried yesterday. This one was a bit creamy for the lightness that it brewed. I really enjoyed this one as it didn’t dry out my mouth while it was the last tea I drank it would have the highest possibility to do so. The leaf of this one looked a bit dark and yet it brewed lighter than the rest which was fun to observe.
Not as tasty as the old bear that was tried next to it (for only 12 steeps each) but it was smoother with nice light tones.

Christina was so kind to send me a substantial sample of this tea. Thanks Christina!

I tried it almost as soon as I got it but just didn’t get what the fuss was about this tea. I have to admit I was busy at the time and just not enjoying the tea experience as much. I put it aside and thought I would come back to it again before leaving a review. Glad I did.

Brewed it up today in my gaiwan at 90C. Don’t remember how much tea I put in but I tend to go on the lighter side than most with my tea. Two quick rinses and then tried it out. It was light with a brown sugar sweetness, No bitterness at all.

2nd infusion – Not as much brown sugar. Picked up a hint of vanilla. It had a creamy mouth feel and just a bit fruity (not as much apricot as I get in other shengs)

3rd infusion – Vanilla note stronger. Brown sugar just a bit less but still sweet & creamy. I picked up a bit of astringency in this one. At this point the sweetness of this tea made me hungry and I ate something with garlic in it. Tsk Tsk. Yes, I know. A bad decision but I still kept enjoying the tea.

I don’t know which infusion I am on now but thoroughly enjoying this young sheng. It’s an amazing sheng and definitely worth ordering.

From the Puerh TTB #3

One of the benefits of organizing the TTB is that I get first crack at the promotional teas. Two days ago I received a huge box from Paul at White2Tea, which was really exciting, but then I found that I already owned about 80% of the teas, so won’t be taking samples. This was one of the few I hadn’t tried.

I also want to set an example in writing reviews, so I’m posting this right away. I’m afraid the review may be a bit confusing as I’m kind of emotionallly involved with the tea. When I made my purchase for the moving day sale I went back and forth between this and the If you are reading this… and went with the latter. Then I started reading all sorts of reviews of how good pound cake was and was filled with regrets. Now I don’t know whether I’m doing a sour grapes thing (oh I bought the right tea) .

So, on to the tea. I wasn’t as excited as some of the other reviewers. I think part of the reason for this is that there is a vegetive/weedy element to the taste that while not unpleasant doesn’t add to my enjoyment. I’m mostly a black tea drinker and I think a green tea drinker would find this more appealing.

The tea is structurally sound: good nose, reasonably strong taste that blends smoothly into a good finish. Early steeps have a weedy straw flavor to a more woody style that has a lot of acidity but not much bitterness. Moderate cha qi. Not a lot of complexity in any given steep.

I have an unusual steeping style: 2 grams in 50 ml for 10, 10, 20, 30, 40, 60 s. Usually the flavor peaks at the 3rd steep, but this one kept going and I found myself liking the 4th steep better than the 3rd and the 5th better than the 4th. There is an appealing richness, and I’m noticing more complexity.

I figured I had better try my 25g sample of this in case I feel the need to immediately buy a cake of it. (Note to self: you do NOT actually need any more tea!)

The scent of the dry leaf when I opened up the package was really remarkable – very sweet and slightly floral/vegetal. I put 5g in my 100ml gaiwan, did one quick rinse, and then steeps of 10, 15, 20, 20, 25, 30… seconds. I started out with boiling water, and then dropped down to 80-90deg water a few steeps in when it started to get a bit bitter on me.

The first infusion was really light, flavour-wise, but had a lovely texture: fresh, crisp, clean. The next few infusions developed some stronger flavours – a bit vegetal, a bit of apricot, a bit of that zingy fresh sheng flavour – but maintained that sense of airy expansiveness in my mouth/head. Once I dropped the temperature, it settled down into a sweeter flavour and thicker mouthfeel, with a sweet coating building up on the back of my throat. The body feeling for me is warm and mellow, and I’m starting to feel a bit hungry.

This is pretty tasty, but I’m not convinced I need to aquire a cake of it (thank goodness). I’ll have to try the rest of my spring 2015 samples first and see how they all compare. :)

Another gongfu session of this from last night.

I followed the advice mrmopar gave after my previous session and stuck with shorter steeps at a lower temperature this time around. 6.5g of leaf in a gaiwan with 90C water and steeps ranging from 5-30 seconds.

Mrmopar was right – brewing at a lower temperature with short steeps does get rid of a lot of that bitterness. I think I’ll stick to 90C as my default temperature for young shengs from now on.

How was this tea based on these new steeping parameters? Fruity, vegetal, with a typical “sheng” tart flavour. It kind of reminded me of vanilla yogurt. No smoke. Some astringency on later steeps as it coated my tongue. However, near the end of the session I was developing a headache and I felt bloated from having over a litre of liquid in my belly.

This wasn’t bad, but I don’t think I’ve been quite as seduced by this poundcake as other Steeptsterites. Considering that Paul from White2Tea has announced he only has about 100 cakes of this left in his new warehouse, I’m happy to let others have their chance with it.

In the meantime, I used up about half of the free sample I got from the W2T sale. I’m going to send the rest off to Ubacat, since she expressed some interest in it.

I was busy losing my mind last night, so I couldn’t really write a review until today.

There’s scene in Field of Dreams where Timothy Busfield’s character, after trying in vain for most of the movie to get Ray to sell the farm, turns to his sister, eyes finally open, and says “when did these ballplayers get here?” And that pretty much sums up my summer of pu, tasting shengs, one after the other, too bitter too smoky too grassy too harsh too strong not for me, not for me. But I kept coming back. You’d think that at some point, more than a dozen teas in and well enough money spent, I’d stop. But I could not.

And then eventually there was a spark of something – some tea that wasn’t so bitter, not so displeasing to my palate. And so I tried more. I went back and tried teas I didn’t like, and tasted what wasn’t there before. Now, there’s nothing at all strange about a person’s palate changing. When I was younger I hated sprouts and broccoli rabe, now I love them both. While it’s odd how quickly it happened with respect to tea, the really strange thing I’m talking about here is the sense of familiarity that just never stopped nagging at me, never allowed me to walk away. Now, don’t ask me why that is. An Italian girl growing up in New Jersey for whom tea was something to be suffered through black with honey and cream and sugar, and only when sick – why now this thing with pu’er? It’s like when I met my wife, she was everything I never knew I always wanted. She grew up on another continent, in another culture, but when we met we were both home.

Which, strangely enough, brings me to Poundcake. Why, when I tasted Poundcake last night, did I freak out, run all over my house, ranting like a loon, drinking and drinking more, well into the evening, and not sleeping much despite having to work today? Pardon my salty language, but what the actual fuck is going on here? Maybe that doesn’t matter. Maybe I’ve entered some strange and wonderful tea portal. Maybe I just need to chill out and drink more tea. You know, go the distance.

Now that my metaphysical rambling is done, I need to go send an email to Shoeless 2Dawg Jackson about getting more of this tea.

mmmmm this is a dessert tea. The dry leaf smells of sweet vanilla and kettle corn. This cake consists of long maocha loosely pressed together. I placed these long slender tendrils in my warmed yixing and shook them up. The aroma that arose from my brewing vessel was phenomenal. It was so sweet and caramely, yet it had a slight floral tone. I could hint at the scent of magnolia along with sugar and baking flour. I washed the leaves once and began brewing. The steeped leaves smelled alike that of a smokey Ti Guan Yin. The leaves were vegetable and creamy scented. The brew itself was incredible! This actually tastes exactly like poundcake. This tea yields a light yellow colored liquor that had heavy vanilla tones. I can taste a slight earthy undertone, and this is covered by a plentiful huigan sensation. The aroma from my cup was so delicious. This tea stood up well against steeping. This was a long lasting brew. The qi was moderate. The body feeling was present, but it wasn’t overwhelming. This was also my first gongfu session in bed. I was having an off day, so I retreated to my room. My new kettle enables me to not even have to get out of bed to enjoy my tea. This makes me happy but slightly worried at the same time, hahah.

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