Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Tea Description:
Production Year – 2005
Season – Spring
Production Region – Yunnan
Factory – Lao Lin Cang Tea Factory
Style – Sheng
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf aroma of this 2005 Lao Lin Cang Ancient Arbor Sheng Pu-erh Tea from Life in Teacup is a gentle, earthy scent. Generally, I find myself kind of put off by the strong earthy notes of Pu-erh but, this is such a subtle earth scent that I’m not finding it off-putting at all, and the sweet tones are very intriguing.
I steeped this the way I would typically steep a Pu-erh – in my gaiwan. I steeped the first infusion for 45 seconds (following a quick 15 second rinse), and the flavor was earthy and sweet, with a woodsy note to it that is sweet. There are hints of a fruit-like note to this as well. It’s a mellow tea with a pleasant sweetness. There is also a cleansing astringency to this that I don’t usually find in a pu-erh.
The second (1 minute) infusion delivered a flavor that is less earthy and more sweet. The woodsy note has developed and I am tasting more of the fruit taste now too. The finish is sweet and the aftertaste is clean.
The next two infusions, I noticed that the earthy tones began to develop, and these tones meld together with the fruit and woodsy notes, and are softened by the sweetness. Subsequent infusions, some of the earthiness begins to taper, and I find a nice balance of fruit and sweet wood tones.
Overall, a pleasant Sheng – mellow and relaxing. The sweetness of this one keeps me sipping!
Dreamsicle Puerh from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
Created for our recent crowd-funding effort on indiegogo.com, this is a lovely sheng puerh blended with freeze-dried oranges and organic flavors. This is a real treat, but there are only a few available.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
When 52Teas offered a special limited-edition blend as one of the rewards of the re-open Zoomdweebies campaign on indiegogo, I knew I had to buy in and get one of those limited-edition blends! And this Dreamsicle Puerh is the mystery, special limited-edition blend that 52Teas made for that campaign!
And while I wasn’t as excited about the prospect of a limited-edition pu-erh tea as I would have been about perhaps another type of tea, I really am enjoying this a lot more than I expected to like it. I guess it’s just another case of me pre-judging a pu-erh before I’ve tasted it. I do that a lot, as you probably are aware from my previous pu-erh reviews.
But the first thing that convinced me that this was different was when I opened the pouch and smelled the strong very dreamsicle-ish aroma. I didn’t smell an overwhelming earth scent. I didn’t smell fish or brine or dirt. I smelled orange and vanilla and a slight vegetative scent in the background. The brewed tea has a very slight earthy tone to it, but it isn’t off-putting nor does it overpower the delightful notes of orange and vanilla.
I brewed this the same way I’d brew any pu-erh … in my gaiwan! After a quick fifteen second rinse, I brewed the tea for 45 seconds for the first infusion, and the flavor here is pleasant and light. The “dreamsicle” flavor is prominent with lots of sweet orange and creamy vanilla tones. The sheng puerh adds a hint of vegetative taste to the cup and it’s vaguely reminiscent of a white tea. I notice notes of hay and a slight earthiness, but it’s not anything that overpowers the cup. There’s actually a really enjoyable balance between tea and flavoring here.
With the second infusion, I’m noticing that the orange notes have muted somewhat. The vanilla notes are more prominent than the orange now, as are the notes of the puerh. There is more of an earthy note, but not so much a “dirt” or “brine” kind of taste that is often associated with a puerh … this is the good stuff! There is no bitterness to the cup, but I am noticing a slightly dry finish that I didn’t notice with the first cup. With the subsequent infusions I found that the dreamsicle flavors continued to subside, allowing the complexity of the mellow sheng tea to emerge more fully.
At first, I admit that I was just a little disappointed by this development, because the orange and vanilla flavors are really delightful, however, I’m thinking about this in a different way now. I got to experience those delicious creamy citrus notes in the first infusion, and as I progressed through the infusions, the dreamsicle notes waned but I got to then experience a really lovely sheng puerh! I get the best of both: a flavored tea and a delightful puerh!
Another Verdant Tea Giveaway!
Hello Everyone!
This is not a giveaway that we are hosting, but, since the Verdant Tea giveaway last week was so immensely popular, I thought I’d let you in on another giveaway that Verdant Tea is hosting themselves! This is a great opportunity for those of you who still want that taste of Verdant Tea!
Here is a copy/paste of what David from Verdant Tea sent to me:
By the way, we are starting a giveaway today for the last ounce of our 1996 Mengku Sheng Pu’er. If anyone who doesn’t win the Tea of the Month subscription wants to participate, it is another chance to try Verdant Tea. Here is the product page for that Mengku: http://verdanttea.com/teas/1996-wild-picked-mengku-sheng-puer/ And here is the link to the giveaway: http://verdanttea.com/giveaway/
This was sent to me this past Friday, so, the giveaway has only been going on for a few days.
Best of luck to you! And don’t forget, we have a different giveaway going on every week during our Season of Giveaways! How long will this season last? I don’t know for sure, but it’s going to be a very happy, generous season, indeed!
2008 Raw Loose Leaf Pu-erh Yunnan Broad Leaf from ESGreen
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: ESGreen
Tea Description:
The raw material of this tea has been stored since 2008. Now it has been naturally fermented. The aroma is strong with the special raw tea note. But the tea soup is in amber color, mellow, smooth, a little bitter but has very sweet after-taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m always just a little bit leery when it comes to trying a new-to-me Pu-erh. I haven’t been disappointed by a Pu-erh lately, but my first few attempts with Pu-erh some years ago led to an automatic thought that I do not like it. I don’t know if my palate has changed or if it’s that I’ve gleaned information along the way, including better ways to brew teas like Pu-erh. Probably a combination of these two things.
This Pu-erh is a bit different from what I’m used to when it comes to raw Pu-erh… this almost tastes like ripe or Shu Pu-erh as opposed to raw or Sheng, because this is much more earthy than I am used to from a Sheng Pu-erh. It has a strong mushroom-like flavor to it, reminiscent of wild mushrooms. The flavor is mild, and there is a hint of bitterness to this which is also surprising me about this Pu-erh because very rarely do I notice a bitter taste in Pu-erh. It is almost a sour/bitter taste, somewhere in between these two flavors.
The earthiness is a little bit off-putting at first, I will admit. But once I got past that, I was able to discover this very intriguing sour/bitter taste that then morphs into a delicately sweet aftertaste. It’s very interesting and unique … as I said, it’s quite different from any Pu-erh that I’ve tried.
Because this is so unique in flavor, I would recommend this to experienced connoisseurs. It’s really quite lovely and interesting, and I think that those with some experience with Pu-erh would find much to enjoy with this Yunnan Broad Leaf. I don’t know that I would recommend this to those just starting out with Pu-erh because of the strong earthiness of this tea.
This is the first tea that I’ve tried from this company, and I would say that this is a promising start! And, after taking a look around on their website, I must say I’m intrigued, especially by this amazing tea set! OH my goodness – I WANT!
2006 Guan Zi Zai Sheng Puerh Meng Ku Bing Dao Ancient Tree Tea from Life In Teacup
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Tea Description:
Production Year – 2006/Production Season: Spring/Production Region: Yunnan, Lincang, Mengku
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! What a name, huh? With a name like that, this had better taste good. I want it to be worthy of so many keystrokes.
And I’m happy to say that it is – at least, in my opinion! This is remarkably sweet and incredibly smooth, with a pleasantly broth-like mouthfeel, and without some of the stronger earthy notes that I often expect from a Pu-erh. Sure, this has an earthiness to it, but, it doesn’t taste like dirt. It is more of a vegetative earthiness, but without tasting grassy. It has a nice warmth to it, as if it had been gently spiced with subtle notes of pepper.
Very often on Steepster, I read tasting notes from tea drinkers who describe the Pu-erh that they’re drinking to have a brine-y or fish-y taste to it, and I’m happy to say that I don’t taste that here either. The aforementioned earthy tones have a slight “saltiness” to them without tasting like brine.
Mostly what I taste here is sweetness. It is a sweetness that I find difficult to describe. It isn’t a caramel-y or honey-esque sweetness, it tastes like rock candy (aka rock sugar).
Overall, I find this tea to be quite mellow and enjoyable – a very pleasing Pu-erh. This is a Pu-erh I’d recommend to someone who has tried Pu-erh in the past and decided they didn’t like it because it tasted too earthy or fishy. This Pu-erh is deliciously different!