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This brick’s virtues have been described a lot more eloquently than they will be here, but I thought I might as well corroborate. While I don’t quite share Hobbes’ level of enthusiasm for this thing, I think it’s a great deal, even with the rising price. The taste of the 5g I (very messily) liberated the brick of was consistent throughout all the steepings — dark wood, a little caramel, a slight cooling effect and a dark undercurrent of sweetness. It brews up a deep, visually pleasing orange and the leaves continued to yield quality tea for about 4 mugs. My only complaint flavorwise is that there is a bit of a sour aftertaste and not quite as much bitterness as I expected. My most substantial issue with this tea is that the qi isn’t very strong for the amount of caffeine present. This isn’t a huge gripe for something as cheap and as tasty as this, though.
Usual brewing methods, though I didn’t have to extend steep times for quite a while…

After seeing all the positive ratings, I gave this one another couple of runthroughs to see if I was missing something. I don’t think I am, though. While it’s not offensive in any way, and has a pleasant sweetness and a little huigan, this is just not a great tea at the moment. There’s very little in the way of distinctive flavor, very little lasting mouthfeel, and almost no bitterness at all. Slightly sour. Nice and relaxing at least, but I think I’ll drink through the rest of this when I want to conserve samples.
W2T ruyao gaiwan, boiling water, flash brews. First and second tries were 5g leaf, third was 7.5g.

This is an interesting tea, at least in my small base of experience. Just getting around to adding notes now, but it was one of the first I had, along with the nannuo bama. Crisp lemon-like flavors, a bit grassy, rather astringent. The huigan is slow to start, but when it does it’s very pleasant and strong. Qi is gentle, calming, not too intense. The leaves don’t endure as long as some — by the end of mug 2 it was beginning to falter, and I didn’t chase it further in any of my sessions.
5g, cheap chao zhou gaiwan from jing tea shop, boiling water as usual.

Might as well at least add something short on this one. While the qi was very potent and goes a way toward redeeming this tea, I found it to have way more shu “funk” than I’m comfortable with. Maybe I’ll revisit it someday — it’s certainly cheap enough.

This is for the 2013 version, which doesn’t appear to have an entry. Sweet and mellow as mentioned, almost grainlike flavors. Not very grassy. There’s a little huigan, but it’s not that pronounced. The main reason I’m rating this as high as I am is the qi. For an hour after consuming it, I was very dizzy and euphoric and found all manner of decidedly unfunny things funny. I was still shaking after two hours. This is far and away the strongest qi I have encountered in my puerh journey thus far. (Though I do have a nice HLH Cha Wang sample sitting unopened for next week…)
The main downsides I can see are the lack of bitterness/staying power and that the qi doesn’t lend itself well to relaxing or to contemplating much of anything. Drinking it in excess also gives me a rather nasty headache.
I flash brewed this tea using boiling or very near boiling water, 5g of leaf, and White2Tea’s standard ruyao gaiwan. I got somewhere on the order of 15 steepings before it began to lose strength.

Starts out a little bitter, but clears up at around 3 infusions in my gaiwan. From there, it’s a pleasant, woody, spicy brew until it loses strength (after about two large mugs’ worth, normally). Hay and dried dark fruits are also present. One of the first puerhs I’ve had in what will hopefully be a long and pleasant journey. Nice qi, very active and energetic, but still calming.