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I tried this tea the day it arrived and was not particularly impressed, it had a pleasant honey sweetness but not much else going on. Revisiting it a week later reveals incredibly complex, pleasant flavors with a creamy mouthfeel and all around balanced sweetness. Incredible value at 13c/g.

This is an incredibly potent tea, I wasn’t really prepared for this and used my normal sheng paramaters, resulting in an almost undrinkably bitter first steep (though with intense floral huigan). After adjusting my parameters the tea was all around very enjoyable and complex with tropical fruitiness, wildflower notes and a mentholy mouthfeel. Despite this I wouldn’t recommend the tea simply because of its pricetag. It’s a good tea for sure but I don’t think it’s worth 40 cents a gram.

An amazing example of what heavy storage can do to sheng puerh. I’m very averse to “dank” notes but brewing 8g in a 240ml nixing pot seems to mute these entirely. Thick and oily liquor, sweet, smooth, earthy, beetroot aromas. I would note beetroot in the flavors below but steepster sadly doesn’t have it yet. Later steeps reveal slight vanilla. Despite being smooth and easy to drink, this tea still seems a bit controversial; my mother hates it, she thinks it tastes dusty, while my friend loves it.

This is by no means a cheap tea, at 60c/g I believe it’s my most expensive yancha at this time, however it’s so good that I believe the price is justified. The first infusions brew up a dark red, with dark chocolate, woody, and liquorice notes. I find that one of the most interesting things about this tea is the mouthfeel, it’s kind of oily in the best way possible. Later infusions are dominated by a smooth, creamy aroma.

I really didn’t care for this tea at all the first time I had it. I brewed it like most people recommend for dancong; using a whole lot of leaves and many flash steeps in a porcelain gaiwan, however I feel like this tea really shines once you push it a bit, I got fantastic results starting with around 20 seconds for the first steep, and increasing from there. This tea’s strength lies not in its high, fruity aromas, but rather in a deep, complex, mineral body. Brewing it like this did result in some noticeable bitterness, but in my opinion it only served to amplify the whole experience.
By the way, I have the 2019 spring version, but couldn’t be bothered to make a new listing for it.

A great, affordable tea! This tea has something for everyone, it’s very approachable yet has a lot of complexity that anyone can appreciate. My session moved from predominantly spicy cinnamon notes to sweeter fruity biscuity notes, though it consistently had a very nice tartness in the back of my mouth. At 16c/g, this is definitely one of my favorite daily drinker taiwanese oolongs.

This is one of my favorite teas of the Oldways yancha lineup. The first few infusions had a prominent berry note that I can only describe as raspberry. Through the session, it moved more towards a smooth, sweet creamy caramel.

This is a very smooth yancha with a nicely settled roast. Its aromas remind me of toasted coconut flakes.

This tea has a lot in common with Yang Qing Hao’s 2006 Shenpin Chawang, but at one sixth the price. It has a full, dark body and explosve fruitiness. The dry leaves had almost no smell to them, but as soon as the water hit them, a perfumy fruity aroma hit my nose.