Chawangshop

This tea is my first naka but I am at least somewhat fimailar with sheng puerh.
The effects from this tea were unique. Sedative and calming.

I found the taste to be excellent. It was very smooth even with boiling water 2 liters into the session.
This sheng was sweet and rounded with an overall clean and refreshing mouthfeel.
Hands down one of my new favorites. Thanks boychik for the sample.

i got just one small mini brick with my recent order. it looks so cute. i had to brew the whole thing around 10g. it was hard to separate and i didnt want to break those gorgeous full long leaves.
To my surprise it wasnt heavy roasted at all. But it was pleasant despite that im not huge fan of floral notes. its very fragrant and sweet, not bitter at all.
I may get more of these. They all vacuum packed and i think it will be nicer with takeouts than green tea. Green tea i find finicky even though i have a variable kettle. they do get bitter no matter how careful I am.
You can steep this brick forever and it doesnt go bitter.

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This is my 400th note. how ironic
last night i had a session 2007 Naka Qiao Mu Bamboo Raw Chawang Shop
I got it based on Cwyn review. yes, i got stoned. not immediately. after 5 steeps. i was very happy smiling then fell asleep and couldnt get up. I still feel drugged. Flavor wise its very pleasant, bittersweet stonefruits and spice. 6g for 100g gongfu glass teapot

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Brewed up 9 grams in about 110 ml water, two rinses and long 30 second first steep. This tea cake is only a few months old, essentially fresh green tea leaves and not really fermented at all yet. My tong of this tea is quite fragrant sitting in crock storage.

Laos tea cakes are often compared with Yiwu because the Phongsaly area of villages is just over the border from Yunnan. The tea doesn’t disappoint in this comparison, very floral and mellow, with lemony undertone. I pushed the tea because I am used to a much stronger puerh brew.

My shoving of the tea got me 5 good steeps before showing signs of fade in the soup color. No real smoke here to speak of. The leaf quality is excellent, with buds and whole leaves. I am not sure why this tea cake costs less than half the price of the neighboring village cakes which Chawangshop also sells, maybe this cake is just more mild. But the $22 price tag drops to $19 per cake with a purchase of a tong of 5, I paid $96 for the tong. I think this is a great steal either way if you want a mellow Yiwu flavor.

At the same time, Chawangshop’s own 2012 Yiwu costs only $12 for the same size cake. I have that cake too, but don’t feel it is fair to compare Yunnan with Laos cakes even though the border is a political division and not really how tea trees decide where to grow. We do know about the Laos cakes as the government there strictly bans any pesticide or artificial fertilizer use in the region on tea trees.

Great choice of tea cake for people who enjoy fresh “puerh” cakes. Gulp without guilt. Works for me.

Much different narrative than this plus a couple photos at http://deathbytea.blogspot.com

A fruity sheng made entirely from You Le Mountain tea leaves now aged over 10 years – a very nice tea for a decent price! Tightly compressed cake with many whole leaves and buds throughout. The material used is from an autumn picking and yields a clear golden yellow tea liquor with a spicy scent. The first infusions offer a fruity flavored tea but it carries a tart sweetness (a sweetness with a bite). Later cups are more mellow and fruity – berries and peaches. The aftertaste is long and sweet.
Produced in the Jinuo Mountain tea factory of Xi Shuang Banna. Handmade by the Jinuo minority group inhabiting the You Le Mountain area. Cakes are made using classic traditional methods developed over hundreds of years of tea growing.

This Nannuo Mountain tea is sun-dried and fairly potent yet easy to drink. There is an appealing bitterness and it provides a surprising spectrum of tastes – aged-worn leather, forest wood and tobacco but there is also a bit of fruity sweetness (maybe plum) present. The gold tea soup was a tad cloudy and there were a few stem pieces in the mixture of leaves I picked off from the moderately compressed cake. Nice huigan which builds throughout the session leaving an aftertaste which offered a pleasant cooling effect. I found this tea very easy to like. A good moderately aged tea at the very fair price of $39 for the 357g cake.

I purchased this tea looking for a less expensive comparison to white2tea’s 2005 Naka which is a real stoner tea. Chawangshop doesn’t make claims about this tea, but it appears to be the wild mountain leaf tea just like the other Naka I like. This tea has been dry stored, and has no humid smells, but it is very green, tightly compressed with hardly any aging. It comes wrapped in paper rather than in the bamboo.

I don’t taste any bamboo flavor which is slightly disappointing, but the apricot taste is pleasant and not smoky. Psychoactive effect confirmed, not as intense as the other Naka I like, but there. I ate a bag of chips afterward. At $7.50 per 100 grams, this is a value buy and I don’t expect to see it in the shop long. I just wish it were a bit more aged, and that I would have time left to age it.

More and comparisons with other Naka teas on my blog: http://deathbytea.blogspot.com

Dry – Sweet, faintly flowery and fruity, refreshing.
Wet – Honeyed sweetness, faint bittersweet floral notes, some thickness, fruity.
Liquor – Golden/Light amber.

The initial cups are sweet that resembles mellow honey and has subtle fruity and floral notes. The body is medium to full, but not the most lasting. I would describe it as being full initially and keeps a medium body as it washes down. The broth is sweet, fruity,floral and mellow with a smooth body and some thickness. The bitterness is very subtle, almost non-existent at this point.

Mid session the liquor has some more floral notes and the sweetness is not as strong as the initial two or three cups. The Honey notes are still there, but take a backseat to the floral that is still gentle and smooth, the liquor maintains a medium body and is mostly smooth with minor astringency appearing at the end of each sip.

The final cups have an initial floral with faded fruity notes and some ‘vegetal’/green notes with some astringency. There’s still sweetness left in the cup, just not as apparent or as forward, but still enjoyable. The tea is holding up pretty well for the age and most of the young notes are herbaceous with astringency.

Final Notes
A very nice tea, specially for the price range. This is a recommended for those who enjoy mellow teas or people still getting used to Puerh. It isn’t flashy, it is subtle and mellow with not much change in the session. The huigan fairly lasting and the final astringency is not overwhelming at all.

Got a sample of this with my recent Chawangshop order, based on a positive review from the Half Dipper. It is indeed a power pu, nice and thick, some real bitterness at certain points in the brews, and good flavor, though not outstanding. It gives and gives. I liked it, though not enough to order a cake. I’d recommend giving it a whirl if you order from them.

Full steam ahead!!! This has got to be the most hopped up I’ve ever gotten from drinking a tea. I bought this on a whim, since the description implies it is similar to Mangfei teas. I love the Yunnan Sourcing Mangfei teas, which also get me quite hopped up, so I thought I’d give this one a try. It is pretty good. It holds up well, has a nice golden color. Some sweetness, astringency that you might expect in a young tea, and good all around flavor. It’s not stellar, but I like it quite a bit, especially for $22 a cake.

This tea is fairly strong, bitter, and astringent, but seems like it might age well. It is sturdy. Light and crisp, citrusy, but with medium body. I wouldn’t care to drink much of it now, it is quite young. But it definitely has character. I will put it away for a few years and try it again. And it is only $17 for 200g.

I purchased this tea with a recent order from Chawangshop. It was only $6.50 for a 250g brick, and I love Langhe teas, so I decided to give it a try. It is also wrapped in bamboo, so how could I resist? It is a pretty good tea, and a great bargain. It is a light ripe, burgundy color. Not heavily fermented like other Langhe ripes I’ve tried. But it is clean tasting and has that Langhe smoothness to it. If you like light ripes, this is a great one to try.

A nice average tea for everyday drinking. Great value for money if looking for that kind of tea. Good stong flavor with good aftertaste.

Tried a sample, very good pu-erh, wanted to buy a cake, but the cake is out of stock now :) Balanced flavor, sweet and earthy.

Lubitsch and Guangdong Feng Huang Dan Cong Wudong Song Zhong: a mouthful one is not likely to forget!
I sip this rapturous oolong while watching pre-code Ernst Lubitsch musicals. The flavors in the cup seem to flirt, wink, intermingle like the characters on the screen. Innuendos of passion beneath a flowery dress. Always hinting at something all-together naughty and wild. But, ah, here is the mouthfeel, honeyed as if sung by Maurice Chevalier himself. With eyebrow raised. Irrepressible sweetness, notes of Turkish Delight, fresh apricot, tiger lilies, dancing girls, glitz, and clever wit.

Leaf Quality:
The brick looked more green than another Fu Zhuan I’ve had. This tea was comprised of mainly cut leaves and stems; there were quite a bit of stems. As I started to separate chucks of tea from the brick, I noticed “Jin Hua” or “Golden Flowers” growing on the inside. The brewed leaves smelled musty and sweet.

Brewed Tea:
The brewed tea was medium brown, and smelled sweetly musty just as the leaves did. The flavor was light, sweet, a bit earthy, grassy, and nutty in the aftertaste. On the second sip, mossy undertones were also noticeable.
Second Steeping
This brew was more full-bodied than the first, and wasn’t as sweet. There was a fungal flavor present in the aftertaste this time. The mossy qualities had gone down, but a light earthiness was still present.
Third Steeping
This steeping smelled a bit sweeter than the second, and tasted likewise. A coppery fungal flavor was still present in the aftertaste. The nutty and woody flavors mingled well. The third sip reminded me of honey.

Though this tea had many stems and is comprised of 2nd quality material, I still enjoyed it. This offers quite a good tasting experience given the price. I’ll let the rest of the brick age as it will be quite interesting to see any changes.

This tea was packed in a small bamboo basket. I decided to brew the tea using two separate methods in one full review. The first method is without the bamboo wrapping, and the second is with the bamboo wrapping. It will be interesting to see the differences between the two.

Leaf Quality:
As I opened the top bamboo basket, I was welcomed to a sweet fragrance. The short, dark tea leaves were mostly caked lightly together, however a few on the top were loose. The brewed leaves smelled sweet, chocolaty, and a bit woody. The leaves softened up quite a bit, and some revealed themselves to be a dark brown rather than black.

Brewed Tea:
Without Bamboo Wrapping
The brew was a reddish brown, and completely clear; it smelled sweet and mossy. The flavor was sweet, floral, woody, and very smooth.
Second Steeping
This steeping was sweeter than the first. There was an aftertaste similar to a nutty honey. It was lightly floral, and remained woody through the finish.
Third Steeping
The color of this brew was much lighter than the first. The nuttiness had increased from previous brews. A sweet smoky flavor had also developed in the aftertaste.

With Bamboo Wrapping
The complexion was much the same as the brew without bamboo wrapping. The flavor difference was apparent immediately upon sipping. The tea was sweeter, smoky, woody, and just as smooth. The aftertaste was more noticeable, and tasted the same.
Second Steeping
This steeping was sweeter than the first, paralleling the brew without wrapping. Though the separate methods result in similar qualities of flavor and aroma, they produce different combinations of each. The different combinations of flavor and aroma made this steeping of the bamboo wrapping-infused tea more full bodied and concrete than the other. It tasted woody, sweet, and a bit smoky, but also a bit grassy and nutty in the finish. This steeping had more character.
Third Steeping
I noticed a bit of earthiness in this brew. Perhaps it was the mossy and woody qualities mixing together more. There was a definite nutty aftertaste which lasted quite long.

This tea was very smooth, woody, nutty, and sweet throughout both methods. I prefer to enjoy the tea with the wrapping.

In order to remove the tea, I had to peel the bamboo shell away from the tea. There was quite a bit of bamboo dust caked on the outside of the tea, and it looked like an insect had previously burrowed tunnels throughout the inner wall of the bamboo- perhaps that was the cause of the dust.

Leaf Quality:
After removing as much bamboo dust as I could, I split the cylindrical tea into little cakes and separated the leaves from each other. There were a little bit of “Jin Hua” or “Golden Flowers” growing on the leaves, but the fungus was scarce. The brewed leaves smelled earthy, woody, mossy, and had a slight hint of baking flour aroma.

Brewed Tea:
The brewed tea was dark brown with a slight reddish hue, and smelled nutty. It tasted earthy, woody, and sweetly grassy. Each sip left a long lasting nutty aftertaste. The tea was very mild
Second Steeping
This steeping was very earthy and nutty. The flavor reminded me of mild pu-erh. The aftertaste this time was sweet and mossy. Each sip was silky smooth and the liquor was surprisingly clear given the bamboo dust that was previously caked on.
Third Steeping
This brew was the mildest. It tasted malty along with the woodiness and earthiness from the earlier brews. It wasn’t as sweet, and the nutty aftertaste had returned. The grassy notes were completely gone.

I decided to brush off any remaining bamboo dust from the rest of the dry tea and stored it in a separate container for further aging.

Leaf Quality:
The long, dark leaves were quite fragrant. They smelled slightly smokey, floral, and fruity. The brewed leaves smelled fruity and sweet. The smokiness wasn’t present as in the dry leaves.

Brewed Tea:
The Oolong was a reddish-brown color. The tea smelled buttery, floral, and fruity. The first sip tasted like honey. Then I began to taste the buttery sweetness from the aroma, as well as the fruity and floral notes.
Second Steeping
The second brew was again buttery-sweet. There was a long-lasting floral aftertaste between sips. The fruity notes changed a bit from the first steeping, but were still present.
Third Steeping
This brew was a golden color. It was also the fruitiest tasting. The aftertaste was more like honey than it was floral. The tea was very smooth, and crystal clear as well.

The tea was packaged in a small bag, which was encased in an ornate silk bag.

Leaf Quality:
The leaves of this Oolong were lightly compressed into a small square brick. I was able to remove every leaf whole by gently wiggling the brick. The leaves were dark green and black, with some white tips showing. The brewed tea smelled very fruity. It reminded me of plum, blueberries, and perhaps a citrus.

Brewed Tea:
The brewed tea smelled fruity and floral. The brew’s color was a light golden-brown. The tea’s flavor was very delicate. It was sweet, floral, and fruity. The aftertaste was long-lasting between sips, and tasted of honey.
Second Steeping
This brew tasted more fruit-like, both during sips and in the aftertaste. A hint of smokiness was also present.

This was a very light and fruity Oolong.