Many many thanks to Nicholas for sending me a sample of this tea. Just a tad over 4g in my 100ml gaiwan. Initial wet leaf aroma of cooked green vegetables, apricots and white grapes. (I know that sounds like a weird combo, but that’s my nose!) Initial steeps are smooth, soft, no smoke, no bitter, slightly sweet, lovely, & delicious. I found that I needed to push the steep times a bit after about five; later steeps are still ok but it does fade a bit and the first few steeps are the best.
This is a good starter sheng I think, because it’s so mellow. For me, not much in the way of qi, but that’s ok. I don’t need to get ripping tea drunk to enjoy a nice sheng. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked and lost count at my number of steeps, but I’m guessing I got to at least 12. This last one I steeped for 3 minutes and it was just ok. I have to say that if I had a tea friend that was interested in trying pu’er, I would recommend this tea; while not overly sweet, I can’t say enough about how easy to drink it is. I will probably purchase a bing. It would be interesting to see how it ages.
EDIT: I have a good amount of the sample left, and I think I will try brewing more like 6 or 7g in my 100ml gaiwan for my next session and see what happens.
I’ve heard conflicting reports about this vendor’s tea. I guess you liked it!