Sheng Recommendations?
Someone wanna lend thier wisdom to me and recommend a good Sheng that I can either get a good sample of or buy? Also need to know where to buy. Any help would be appreciated.
I think you should put the dollar amount you’re wanting to stay at.
I recently went on this journey myself to find that the best sheng I was able to sample cannot be bought: Mandela’s 2012 Wild Monk
Since that wasn’t an option I searched around and found https://www.white2tea.com/tea-shop/2007-repave-hekai/ to be the best… however, I ended up buying a YS raw for the moment.
I think it’s best to obtain a ton of samples since everyone has different taste.
This is almost as vague as asking a recommendation for a good tea. There is about as much variety in pu erh as there varieties of tea in general. Any characteristics in a sheng that you enjoy? Sweet? Bitter? Not bitter? Smoky? Floral? Any more information about your tastes would be helpful. Also price range which has been mentioned.
Oh man…price range? Im probably going to embarrass myself by saying under 40 bucks? As for taste, floral is probably out. I don’t like strong floral teas…sweet, bitter, smoky… can deal wth that. Maybe that will help narrow to down? Maybe I just need to order some samples so that can see what I really like.
Yes, yes, yes.
YS.us is rather quick within the states and has a $7 shipping. They have quick a few cakes in your price range, but for $40 you can easily get four or five different samples of 25g. Now, 100g of sheng should keep you busy
(http://www.yunnansourcing.us/store/index.php?id_product=15&controller=product#/quantity-25_grams_sample_portion , this is the cake I recently purchased and the sample is only $5.50)
Random thought: WYMM is having a 30% off sale… so if you really wanted to, I’d be open to split this with you http://www.wymmtea.com/shop/gift-set-ultimate
It’s roughly $45usd after the coupon is applied which is $22.50 for 90g
You can find good stuff under $40.00 on Yunnan Sourcing for sure. Like LP said you could sample a bunch of stuff from YS’s site.
I second LP’s suggestion of Wymmm Tea. Their sale ends today, so getting some samples is a great idea.
Even better, I think Wymm’s samples come with free shipping, regardless of whether there’s a sale on. Thus, you could try a few without a huge investment – each sample is just enough for one good gong-fu session.
Obligatory self-promotion: I recently reviewed some of Wymm’s samples, and wrote a blog post about it: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/09/wymm-tea-sheng-and-shou-samples/
Yunnan Sourcing has some nice ones as well as White2Tea. I’d say hit some samples up. Age will dictate a big portion of the price. I bought a cheap 100g mini cake from Yunnan Sourcing that most people reviewed as smoky and bitter that I really like. Brews up sweet with no smokiness to me with the enjoyable type of astringency and its super cheap. http://yunnansourcing.com/en/2011/1939-2011-yunnan-sourcing-jing-gu-mini-cake-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake-100-grams.html You would have money left over for a few other samples or cake :)
This is a great value at $9 with free shipping. Smoky and sweet. Kind of unique for a sheng, but it’s one I really like. Good to drink now.
http://www.dragonteahouse.biz/legend-cai-zhe-yunnan-pu-erh-tea-cake-2012-200g-raw/
Crimson Lotus has some young sheng samples that shouldn’t break your bank.
Honestly I would just pick a pu retailer (YS, White2Tea, TeaUrchin…) and get a bunch of samples from them. Find what you like out of those samples and purchase a cake or seek similar recommendations. I think you’ll ultimately spend less doing it that way rather than buying a cake, not enjoying it and repeating the process. I find that those specialized retailers are also great if you’re looking for advice. You can e-mail them and let them know you’re new, what taste profile you prefer and they’ll come back with recommendations.
I second this. Samples are the way to go. You can get extra samples by doing swaps or travelling teaboxes too.
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