Chen Sheng Hao Tea

Gongfu!

Yesterday’s afternoon session! Not an immediate favourite, largely because of the initial wave of bitterness at the top of each infusion. However, there’s something to be said and admired about the longevity of these leaves and how well the ride the line of green bitterness and deep sweet floral body notes. Some of my favourite infusions had heavy notes of sugared lilac, and a hint of red fruit in the undertones. Also, just a great body warmth to this tea overall, with a nice huigan.

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb-NY7zOAE-/

Also, I’d be remiss to not acknowledge how cute this teacup and teapot combination is; there’s something deeply charming about drinking from a cup that literally has the teapot you’re brewing from hand painted onto it!!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6osNgTwRn-M&ab_channel=L%27Imp%C3%A9ratrice-Topic

This comes as a sample from the “2020 Chen Sheng Dictionary Raw Pu-erh Tea”. I don’t have any other information and I can’t find it for sale anywhere. If anyone knows something more about this tea please enlighten me.

About the tea:
Aroma at first is something woody and dark floral, tasting the rinse I’m surprised by the strong power and pleasant bitterness, I drink the whole rinse feeling it would be a waste to discard it. The first infusion is… wow, astonishing cacao/herbal bitter-sweetness, round, full in the mouth. The flavour glues from the roof of mouth to the top of the throat, lingering for several minutes after swallowing. I find it really intense and satysfing. The qi hits immediately leaving me quite destabilised.
From the second infusion I get a nice spicy/woody/herbal/floral aroma, quite strong. The soup keeps being intensely sugary-bittersweet, with some ginseng/liquorice. The act of swallowing feels like downing a bucket of thick, oily, aromatic substance that permeates the whole body. There’s a bit of cooling feeling.

3
Aroma is more malty and fruity, soup is stable and strong, a bit more dry. Qi is very aggressive and feels like my brain is melting. This tea reminds me of W2T “I am”, I need to try that one again.

4
dryer, less sweet. Bitterness gets sharper.

5
aroma gets lighter and a bit more cooling. Soup is still strong but sharper more herbal.
Start feeling a hole in my stomach, maybe time to eat something.

6
I’m still doing 5 seconds steeps. More vegetal this time, strong bitterness but thinner body. Some vanilla.

7
Still strong but definetly dry and quite bitter.

8
more mushrooms. Now it’s hard on my stomach, and getting more stimulating. I should stop.

I wonder how many more steeps this would last… Anyway, it was a very remarkable experience. Not for everyday because of the heaviness. After 1 hour I still feel high in a strange way, I’m also sweating. I feel some more age would make the last infusions more friendly.

Gongfu!

Sipped on this one earlier in the week. It’s thick with a pleasantly smooth and coating mouthfeel. The top notes, especially early session, had a delightful deep fruity tang to them that reminded me of the juices of ripe summer cherries. The rest of the sip leans more dark and earthy with a mix of petrichor, beets, and wet garden soil. It’s really delicious, though I would be curious to see how those fruitier tasting notes would play out with a different steeping method like Grandpa style…

Tea Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CbfTNsRu5Mp/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeIHmYg7DJ0&ab_channel=TrixieMattel

Gongfu!

Just finished up this session. Needed a mental break from looking at excel for several hours, so I decided to brew up a shou since those are usually very relaxing for me. The dry leaf of this one smells so dark and earthy; very forest undergrowth vibes in a good way. It started off very petrichor and oat straw heavy in taste, but after a few steeps it’s picked up this really interesting and unique bright and tangy red fruit note that can’t help but make me think of Fruit Punch – with those same yummy wet potting soil undertones. It’s been very enjoyable, but the presence of such a distinct fruit note is making my brain do cartwheels. I think I need another session to digest all the flavours I’m getting!!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CK4uINNgyic/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g2HtLnnRsU&ab_channel=DaRen-Topic

Gongfu!

I decided to use this sheng, gifted to me by Chen Sheng Hao to break in a brand new teapot from a local ceramist who’s work I’ve just fallen in love with – Arbee Ceramics! The pot is stunning, with an unglazed black clay outer appearance, but a clear glaze inside so it can be used with any tea – and the perfect 90ml size! Quick pour, well balanced, snug fitting lid, and perfect handle for a secure and controlled grip – very happy to add this into my growing teaware collection!

The tea is a beauty too; sweet and fruity at the top of the sip but more bite in the body. Pleasant bitter vegetal and astringent finish, with lingering throat sweetness. No surprise that I enjoyed the Yiwu more, but this is a nice one too! I got quite a few resteeps, and for a very fresh pressing I thought it was quite flavourful and interesting.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKZk3tMAQin/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvpLu96uPfE&ab_channel=VariousArtists-Topic

Gongfu!

This tea has such a lovely soft and round feeling liquor with pleasantly light and sweet notes of different orchard fruits with a citrusy finish: ripe green pears, quince, red apple jam, and candied lemon peel. The undertones are a but more green, but far from dipping into a more vegetal territory. Definitely a session that showcased a lot of my favourite qualities of Yiwu raw pu’erh productions!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9SkrQ_Op3o/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2nrV4Pxh1o

Gongfu!

Just finished enjoying a session of one of the raw pu’erh that was gifted to me by this company. I started with the 2019 Yiwu Da Shu because, as many know, I have a particular love and affinity for tea from this region – especially ones with that syrupy sweet fruity liquor!! Yiwu teas are so good for lazy Sunday moods.

This is excellent; it’s quite smooth and approachable without any astringency. Very much like sinking your teeth into a just overripe pear; the kind so juicy, sweet and tender that it practically melts in your mouth. I’m also getting white peach and candied lemon peel, with just a bit of a floral undertone. It’s so soft and well rounded! I do not foresee this sample lasting me very long at all!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CKKPRqkAbD7/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8CUuL_Fgr8&ab_channel=Dijon

Easter is coming up so I’m at my parents dog sitting until they get back, but since I had a 400 word essay for my MBA application due in a week I decided to grab a tea I wanted to hit me hard because 400 words is tiny.

This tea is pretty solid but after having the 2013… Naka is something that when it has some serious humid aging, after some airing out and dropping of levels of time becomes a gem. I got all of the CSH Nakas to see which one will age the best because aged Naka is just splendid. Seems like this one is a solid choice, but they all are… the 2013 is just 3x further down the road than the others. The quality of leaf is different between all four years though. This is true by a decent amount too as I broke all the cakes. I’ll have to take the dust of each and compare that now that I’m about out.

Really enjoyable tea without anything to complain about and at around $90 for a full cake of 357g… great potential to store away