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If I can only have a minute taste of heaven this is it! When it comes to Pu Erh. Red-Copper-Golden hue with a sweet earthiness thru and thru with a slight lingering acidity. Very rounded mouth finish. Yes…Yes…Yes…
Health & Happiness in 2010!

Finishing up the last of my sample from Auggy. This one still doesn’t taste like an oolong to me but I’m a little sad to see it go. It brews up super dark for an oolong, but the taste is mellow and not bitter at all.

Anyone else in the US up for a tea swap? I have several greens and a few others that need a happy new home.

Here’s another oolong that doesn’t taste oolong-y to me. I think it tastes just like a light to medium body black tea. I taste an earthy, rich and lightly smokey tea. I usually do not eat while I am drinking tea, but this one would pair well with several dishes. Kind of a basic black tea taste…but I like it.

Lena’s logging of this one earlier today reminded me I hadn’t had it in a while. So I’m having some.

I’m getting a bit Darjeeling flavor from it – that muscatel-fruity, nutty taste – but a little smoother and lighter than the Darjeelings I’ve had in more recent memory. I’m pretty sure I got a Darjeeling read from it before but I’m not sure if it was this strong. Perhaps because I steeped it at a lower temp? (That’s what the zojirushi was set on, so I just went with it instead of waiting for it to reboil even though that really doesn’t take long).

Also, something smells like lavender chocolate (and it isn’t me) and it’s driving me nuts! I keep thinking it is this tea but it isn’t. Very odd.

Nice sheng, slightly astringent but not overpowering. A tiny bit smoky in the first infusions, but it mellows out. Keeping the steeps relatively short. Used 6g of leaf in a 6oz Yixing pot. One 10s rinse followed by a minute rest and went 15s, 10s, and up from there.

My only complaint is that the tuo cha is so tightly compressed. I decimated most of the leaves trying to pry them off.

This poor tea gets ignored a lot. Shouldn’t though. It’s tasty. But I think the relative mildness of it makes me forget about it. The smell of the dry leaf is sweet and earthy – like a old hay loft (that’s good). The tea smells like plums or maybe figs. The taste is sweet like molasses or brown sugar. Smooth sweet and mellow. A nice relaxing afternoon tea. That tastes of sugar and the barest hint of cocoa earthiness. Mmm.
3.0g/8oz

I had pretty much forgotten all about this one. But I’ve been moving some tins around and the short little tin I have this in finally poked out a bit, reminding me of its existence. I remember this being a nice if not overly special tea, which could be why I had forgotten about it.

But how did I forget about how pretty it was? Long, thin, dark leaves with shoots of golden laced throughout. The picture on the tea info doesn’t look as pretty as my leaves do, though perhaps because my leaves are in a brass colored tin and that really brings out the gold bits… Who cares for the reason why, though. It’s just so pretty.

Now that I’m drinking this, I’m not sure why I thought it was so unexceptional. It’s actually very busy taste-wise. Not stressfully busy – it just has a lot of lovely tastes mixing together. Earthy and sweet, it has a slightly heavier body than I remembered. Perhaps because I made two cups up whereas I think I’ve only done single cups in the past (the husband is working from home today and has a scratchy throat so I made him some tea)? There is a sweet taste that occurs right after I swallow but before I open my mouth after the swallow. It’s almost like the aftertaste of cane or maple syrup. The aftertaste of the tea, however, is very earthy and very tea-like. (Go figure).

There’s a lot going on with this tea. I’m surprised I’ve not really noticed that before. I’m thinking I actually made it a little stronger than I have in the past (more leaf) and that’s making the complexity more noticeable. Mostly, there’s a lot of different sweet flavors going on. Fruity sweet, sugary sweet, earthy sweet. It’s quite pretty.

But even with all those tastes going on, it’s not an aggressive tasting tea. It’s very pleasant and relaxing and mellow. I’m thinking it is the mellowness this evokes (vs. the wow factor other teas with this complexity might have) that what made me forget about this tea. And the husband likes it too – he managed to empty his cup before I did!

I’m steeping this a little longer than normal, but it’s still tasty without being astringent. Good stuff.

This tea benefits from low initial steep times (~15 sec. +- 5). It has that strange back of mouth perfume thing going on. Something’s right with this.

Sweet mild taste, flowery perfume and a muted bitterness. This is my first tasting. It seems counterproductive to rate a young pu-erh. Since the conditions for proper aging are not easy to replicate, it’s worth hording a couple of cakes only if you can also happily drink it as it is.
It will take a couple goes and an adjustment of steep times before I can say much about this cake. My first impression is positive.

I’m using the suggested steep times and really enjoying it.

Gongfu style: Full boil, 1g per 30ml, 20s rinse, stand after rinsing for 60s, 1st steep 20s, 2nd steep 15s, 3rd steep 15s … increase the seconds incrementally.

The first steep was light and ‘barely there’. On the second steep the flavor woke up, and I am enjoying it. It has a light scent of apricot and cut grass. It’s very mild with little bitterness. Still learning to taste.

Having ordered a selection of young sheng to educate my palette, I’m finding the elements I enjoy in a pu-erh changing rapidly and drastically.

The third steep turned out nastily bitter because I accidentally over steeped. The forth turned out pleasant light and sweet with little bitterness.

Gongfu style: 20s rinse, 20s first steep, 15s second, ~20+ third, ~15 forth…

This was OK. I tried longer steep times and that brought out the bitterness, that didn’t kill the taste though.

I totally botched brewing this at first because I tried to brew it using my newly acquired gaiwan. Note to self: practice using the gaiwan with cold water before using it with boiling water. I have used the gaiwan a couple of times fine with boiling water, but I found myself fumbling it when having to deal with the short steep times.
It’s quite a few steeps in and a few times I had a mouthful of nastiness for the above reasons. The last 40 sec. one resulted in a light honey infused brew with no astringency and a lingering sweetness. These relatively young green puerh can be very touchy, but give them some time and attention then they turn out to be just fine.

A surprise from the first sip. The scent of banana and mild citrus stands out. Tastes sweet and mellow, followed by a contrasting bitterness.
Gongfu style: rinse 10 sec, 1st steep 15 sec. …

Nice mouth filling amber cup, floral scent, smokiness and a bitter finish that increases with continued steeping. Gongfu style, 20 sec. rinse … still figuring out good steep times.

After trying a variety of young green puerh, I thought I might not like this first one I tried as much as I once did. I’ve found that I still enjoy it’s lemony, vegetal and somewhat astringent taste.

This tea was a true surprise when I first got it. The tightly compressed brick wasn’t all that pretty and, of course, its young. But it brews up a mellow sweet amber cup with a hint of bitterness that keeps to the background. It also changes considerably through multiple steeps as the teas opens.

Cooked and vintage pu-erh gets a lot of attention, but there are young greens that can be enjoyed for what they are.

Gongfu style, 9g with 2 rinses at 15s, 5 steeps at 1m, 40s, 50s, 1m …

Gongfu stylin’ – 9g in a coffee press, 1 rinse at 20s, 1 steep at 15s, so far…

Came back to this one after not having it for awhile. Though a good shou, doesn’t really stack up to the Dayi cakes I’ve been drinking. Used about 4.5g of leaf in a 4.5 oz Yixing pot. Rinsed it and rested it for about a minute, then did steeps of 15s, 10s, 20s, 30s, and 5 minutes.

I’ll be drinking this most of the day probably. Tastes good today.

This is the only pu cake I’ve been drinking of late because I ran out of my other tuocha. Placed at order at Pu Erh Shop today though, and hope to get a bunch of new sheng and shu next week.

I usually alternate pu erh every other day, since my one set of leaves will get me about 5 steeps (pretty much the whole day). I really enjoy shu, and I don’t want to get sick of it by drinking it every day.