Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Life In Teacup
About Life In Teacup:
We are enthusiastic tea drinkers and students of tea culture. As tea drinkers becoming tea sellers, we have in depth understanding of tea drinkers’ expectations and will always strive to provide you with the best options. We carefully taste every incoming tea product and only offer you teas that we truly enjoy.
Our Mission: We are committed to providing tea drinkers with high quality teas at affordable prices, introducing more Chinese tea varieties to the world and promoting discussions on tea culture.
Taster’s Review:
Before writing this review, I attempted to locate this particular tea on the Life In Teacup website, but could not. This was a tea that I received as a tea-blogger sample, and I do hope that Life In Teacup plans on offering this to a wider audience because it’s a delightful Oolong!
I find these “wild” teas to be extremely interesting, because I can actually taste the “wild” in the teas. It tastes less refined and a little rugged.
The sip starts out sweet. It’s a slow kind of sweet, as if it takes its time to fully express itself. I can taste a nutty flavor, as well as a hint of flower (honeysuckle?) and a distant fruit-tone that reminds me of a fresh, juicy plum. Toward the end of the sip, a sour note hits the palate. Not a pucker-y kind of sour, but more like a sweet-and-sour sauce kind of sour. Savory and sour, but not so much that it overpowers the sweetness.
Another extraordinary tea offering from Life In Teacup!
Wild Fresh Buds – Puerh from In Nature Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: In Nature Teas
Product Description:
Wild Fresh Buds – Puerh, hand picked in the high mountains of Yunnan.
This naturally grown tea is a delicacy which is produced and delivered by Mother Nature without any human interference. It is the purest form of tea one can drink. The sweet taste and aroma are a feast and its endless health properties makes it a very special treat for the body, mind and spirit.
Taster’s Review:
This is really unexpected. Unexpectedly delightful!
The first thing I notice is the aroma – or should I say lack of aroma? Normally when I open a package of Pu-erh the surrounding air is immediately filled with that distinctive earthy quality. That didn’t happen this time. Instead, I was greeted with a very soft, vegetative scent that sort of reminded me of the salad bar when I visit Sweet Tomatoes.
Then I notice the leaves. They look like dry, white leaf buds. Very young leaf buds. Think of the earliest days of spring, when the tiniest of leaf buds begin forming on the trees. Yes, that is what they look like. Tiny, white, and covered with fluffy fuzz.
The flavor these soft, delicate leaf buds produce is amazing. This … THIS? … is Pu-erh? It tastes like no other Pu-erh I’ve ever tasted. It tastes light and crisp. Clean. Slightly vegetative. I wouldn’t describe it as earthy, at least, not in the same context as I would describe other Pu-erh teas that I’ve tasted. There are some earthy tones to this cup but it is more like a vegetal earthiness.
As I continue to sip, the earthy flavors develop slightly, but they never become overwhelming. What I taste mostly from this tea, though, is sweetness. The cool sweetness you might expect after biting into a crisp piece of celery.
One of the most surprising and delicious Pu-erh teas I’ve yet to taste! I like this very much.
Wild White Tea from Shang Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Shang Tea
Product Description:
Our wild white tea has been harvested from the untamed hillsides on the edge of our farm in the Tai Mu Mountains. Untouched by human hands for years, these white tea plants developed a robust character with earthy undertones but a silky finish typical of fine white teas. Quantities limited of this extremely rare tea.
Taster’s Review:
This is a wonderful white tea. While it might look like a typical Bai Mu Dan, It has stronger presence. It is unusual for me to call a white tea “robust” (in fact, I can’t recall ever referring to a white tea as robust before this evening) – but this one qualifies for such a description.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a rugged tea like a black Assam. But for a white tea, this Wild White Tea has a lot of gusto. It has an earthy characteristic. It is as though I can taste the “wild” in this one. It tastes a bit untamed, a bit undomesticated, and I really appreciate the differences that this white tea offers. And while it does have that untamed quality to it, it also finishes very clean and fresh like I’d expect from a white tea.
I steeped this in my gaiwan, using short steeps (first steep was just 1 minute, adding 15 seconds to each subsequent steep). This produced a beautiful flavor, and allowed for many steeps from the same measurement of leaves.
Truly a memorable white tea.
Yiwu Wild Puerh Cake 2010 from Qing Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Puerh
Where to Buy: Qing Tea
Product Description:
Yiwu moutain is the biggest mountain among the famous 6 mountains in Yunnan. The region grows a great amount of old tea trees.This puerh cake uses spring tea leaves from Yiwu and is shaped in traditional way. The soup is already friendly and rich of sensation.
Taster’s Review:
I am still a little afraid of Pu-erh… I think more than anything, it’s that very pungent earthy aroma that puts me off on the stuff. However, I was very pleasantly surprised when I opened the sample pouch that I received of this Pu-erh and noted very little (almost NO) earthy scent.
This translates into the flavor as well, with very little earthiness detected in the taste. There is some earthiness in the flavor, it just doesn’t dominate the cup.
What I am finding most intriguing about this tea is an almost wild note in the background. I don’t know if one can actually taste the “wild” in a wild-grown Pu-erh, but, this flavor is a bit different from any other Pu-erh that I’ve tried.
There is a lightness to this particular Pu-erh, and this allows the flavor to come off as a bit more crisp and bright. I taste notes of spice in this tea, as well as a hint of sweetness. It has an almost rustic tone to it. The finish is dry. A very pleasant Pu-erh!
Wild (Yie Sheng) Pu Erh Tea from Cloudwalker Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-Erh
Where to Buy: Cloudwalker Teas
Product Description:
This 15 year old sheng pu erh tea is hand-picked from tea trees growing in the wild of Yunnan province in China. If you are looking for a pu erh with a slightly wild flavour, this one is smooth, with a touch of roughness around the edges suggesting its ancestry. Much of the competition suggests the best pu erh tea comes from wild tea trees. What they don’t do is say that their pu erh teas are actually wild! This is the genuine article. A pu erh tea cultivated from wild tea trees in Yunnan province and aged in Taiwan.
Taster’s Review:
It surprises me how much I’m enjoying this Pu-Erh.
The flavor is remarkably smooth, but as the above product description suggests, it is a little rough around the edges. It has a very autumnal feel to it, it is rugged and somewhat masculine, but with a sweet undertone that lingers into the finish.
The aroma of this tea is quite earthy and I found it somewhat disconcerting before I took a sip. What I noticed is that if I inhale deeply before taking a sip, a strong, earthy essence arrives onto the palate. Since it is the earthy quality that I like least about Pu-Erh (I don’t actually dislike earthy flavors when they are delicate, but when they are quite strong, I find them somewhat off-putting), I do not inhale deeply for taking a sip of this tea. The earthy quality then becomes a mere trace of what it is when I do inhale deeply.
There is no bitterness to this Pu-Erh and I’m finding it exceptionally sweet that reminds me of burnt sugar caramel, and it lends itself well to the rustic appeal of this tea.
I can really feel myself “warming up” to Pu-Erh – in more than one sense! As this year comes to a close and the dawn of a new decade approaches, I am happy that I have finally shed much of my fear about Pu-Erh!