SampleTea

sampletea seems to be dead, website won’t even load. but this tea can be found elsewhere (although it may have different storage).

This tea reminded me a lot of Hojo’s 2012 lao cha tou shu…same flavor, aroma, everything…except I prefered Hojo’s shu to this aged sheng, everything in Hojo’s tea seemed to be enhanced where this tea was lacking.

what I enjoyed most about this tea was the delicious vanilla aroma when I first put the dried leaves into the warmed teapot

rich and prominent dark ripe fruit, raisins, dates, very clean, no storage aromas/flavors, chi is lacking, no bitterness. the body is the same as regular water…nothing to note here. light aftertaste which was more of an astringent feeling, this tea was overall kind of average and uneventful. it wasn’t bad, just not exciting

I’m confused whether this is a shu or sheng puerh. Sampletea states it is green, and it does not have the typical shu character, more like a a bit wetter stored or simply old sheng. I was really surprised this tea still has a good amount of bitterness despite the age. A complex aroma of dried plums, sweet earthy forest floor, and warm weathered wood. Taste is sweet and charcoaly with powdery and a little oily mouthfeel.

Amazing, exceptional tea. Very strong aromatic fragrance of bitter fruits and tea tips, and a strong clear fruity taste with smoothly fading bitterness on the edges and a distinct tippy flavor. Lasts easily for many infusions. Highly recommended for those who like aromatic semiaged puerh.

Fragrance of forest floor, toasted almonds, and dried fruits. Dark and musty mouthfeel with velvety bitterness and strong astrigency, but the taste has an energetic up-beat vitality. Aftertaste is woody and just a little bit earthy sweet.

The cake has a definite youthful tippy flavour in the early infusions, and it takes a couple of rounds for the age to show itself. After that the flavor fades away pretty quick, but those couple infusions are nice with rich round fruitiness, floral edge, citrusy bitterness etc. Quite little aged for a cake this loosely pressed.

The 7212 is a nice complex semiaged tea with still some youthful bitterness. Really good now and will probably still keep for years. The fragrance is aromatic, woody and foresty but not earthy. There are notes of dark fruits and brown sugar, later infusions also reveal a classy aromatic profile.

The mouthfeel is silky smooth, thick and refreshing with a bit of bitterness to give structure to the taste. Most of the flavor comes from the amazingly long aftertaste and follows the fruity character of the fragrance. At times the aftertaste seems almost flowery.

The fragrance of the infusion is slightly earthy, but not too damp and aged. There are clear powdery notes and sweetness in the aroma as well as some perfumatic notes.

The taste is sweet and velvety soft with notes of warm wood and nuts, maybe almonds. There is only a hint of bitterness left and very little earthy taste. The apparent lack of taste and aroma is proven wrong as a strong aftertaste slowly creeps in after the first couple of sips.

A distinct aroma of white tea, presumably from the tippy leaf material. Fruitiness develops in the subsequent brews, but overall a bit too bland. There is also a perky but not too astrigent bitterness in the taste which gives an impression of citrusy notes. I’m going to give this another go a bit later once it has aired out.

(short version of the longer review on my blog)
First i thought the leaves still need some time to open up etc.
I found this tea boring than… i hoped for more aroma… more than just dry earth … but from brew to brew, i got more familiar with this earthy flavor. There is 0% of anything that is not tasting well… but there is no good deal more of anything else… mhmm.
Wait, there is! There is a lot of Cha Qi things going on… heartbeat-rate, sweating, “opening up feeling between my eyes”, much much more awake…
… and it has a good mouthfeel.

Not really any sweetness, not really any bitterness… at the same time, not thin… as i mentioned before: like very dry earth.

All together, the (well tasting!) dry earth aroma, the strangeness of this tea, the Cha Qi, the mouthfeel… i did actually enjoyed the session, but i would not recommend this tea right away.

Overall the tea is fairly smooth and easy to drink. Smoke detected in the aroma of the dry leaf but this barely appeared in the tea soup. Orange liquor with a woody base, hints of nutty notes and a light sweetness. Not much (if any) bitterness found and no astringency. Good mouthfeel with a nice tingling on the tongue. The flavor held up nicely through 6-7 steeps. My experience with this tea was rather pleasant and enjoyable for sipping through the day yesterday.
—-Some recent tea notes for samples obtained from finepuer mentioned dry, flavorless tea and I can say that for this one, I opened the three sample boxes I had and dumped the chunks into a small yixing crock to sit for two weeks before trying. When I opened the boxes and plastic bags, there was really no aroma but after storing in the yixing for two weeks, there was a sweet, floral aroma with a little smoke and the results of brewing the leaves were very pleasant.

Summary: Lapsang souchong, grey, electric smoke overwhelms the fruit, unfortunately.

Free sample with my order.

4g Gaiwan.

Dry: Dark. Light smoky, light toasted wood.
Hot Gaiwan
Wet: Very dark grey smoke; some clay.

5s – Light bronze. Dried fruit. Light smoke. Thick syrupy texture. The fruit combined with the smoke gives it as upbeat electric/chalky taste. 82/100
10s – Light bronze. More smoky, and of the dark grey kind. The fruit is soft and sweet. It is not raisin, it is more like subdued mango. The fruit goes to the roof of the mouth. My mouth is left with the grey smoky taste.
15s – Lapsang Souchong, pine like smokiness (Twinings teabag version) Gives a nice sweetness in the throat on the swallow.

Had some Camembert.

30s – Med bronze – Mild bitterness and astringency.
~40s – Med bronze. Good mix of fruit and smoke with a good texture.
45s – Med bronze. Aroma is slightly smoky Mild flavour now.
60s – Light bronze. Mild fruit and smoky End of session.

4g in Gaiwan.

Dry leaf: Very dark. Loose compression.
Wet leaf: Bird cage, pigeon loft, chicken hut, subdued wet-dog, church (old, dusty, bird cage).
The rinse was dark brown.

Summary: An interesting tea with a church-like flavour that is long lasting, in the number of brews and the after taste.

5s – Liquor is medium brown. It tastes old like a church; subdued raw beetroot skin. It has a good body and a good bite for a tea as old as this. Nice, interesting, complex finish.

I rest the leaves for about 20 minutes.

10s – Liquor is darker brown. Syrupy sweetness on the front of the tongue, bird cage / chicken hut in the body, which intensifies; on the swallow there is a lingering syrupy sweetness and more of the bird cage / chicken hut. It has a good action in the mouth, with the sweetness and body intensifying and thick’ish syrupy liquor. It makes me feel calm.
15s – Dark brown liquor. There is a sweet / bitter friction in the mouth action. It is very smooth and well rounded. It raises you up. No astringency.
20s – Lesser dark brown. It has a good bite. It is lively in the mouth, with the syrupy sweetness. This tea is the Jazz tune that is cool, has a good deep beat and the solo infuses with the rest of the music, giving a muddy, laid back combination. For example: ‘Samba De Uma Mota So’ on the album Jazz Samba by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.
25 – This tea has had some humid storage. Raw beetroot has arrived. It’s possibly that the syrupy sweetness has opened up and transformed. This tea is now showing signs of 90s Hong Kong storage by White2Tea. If you like that tea, I recommend you give this a try.
30s – A strong, old bookshelf, mustiness is showing. Swirling this tea around the mouth shows a variety of old flavours. Interesting; and it is interesting what I paid my money to find.
40s – Dark brown liquor. More of before.
1 minute – More of before; good stuff. Slightly astringent.
14 minutes – Stronger.

4 g – the remainder of my sample.
A quick check of my previous review tells me this is good. Having done two rinses, I then separate the leaves using a fork; this opens up the aroma, which has an aged, musty building scent. After all, this is from the 90’s. I have now left it to open up and I will return to it later this evening. I want to know if this will improve on the score I gave it last time – 82.

5s – Doesn’t look like ripe pu-erh…
30+s – No sure what happened. I will abandon this.

4g in Gaiwan.
Dry leaf: Dark.
Wet leaf: Dark chocolate; electric smoke.
Summary: The darkest cooked pu erh I have had. It has a surprising amount of complexity.

20s – This was a rinse.
20s – Browny liquor. Very mild with an unusual sharp/bitter note, that doesn’t seem to fit.
3 minutes – Dark brown liquor. Dark, sludgy, tarry and bitter. This is a very interesting, heavy going cooked pu erh. Thick mouth feel. It leaves a dry, dark chocolaty flavour, but not a dry mouth. This is the darkest chocolate in the box.
5 minutes – There appears to be a dark version of White2Tea’s 90’s Hong Kong in here. Raw beetroot still in the background. There is some soil and earth. No milky creaminess here. This is Darth Vader.
7 minutes – There is a vegetal, earthy sweetness. The darkness has mainly gone and left the skin of raw beetroot.
15 minutes – Has a raw beetroot / turnip (swede) sweet taste. It would be interesting to do a side by side comparison with White2Tea 90’s Hong Kong with this brew.

I think a bit of background to this tea is useful. This is one of 5 reproductions of 5 ‘master piece’ teas. Jakub gives a less an average review of this tea with, ‘The taste reminded me of bland, sweet wood, with below-average amount of smoke and some camphor. Not too interesting, in my opinion.’ I will give my account of this tea below.
If you like your tea dark then you may like this. I received it as one of two free samples with my order from SampleTea.com.
Dry leaf: Dark; no aroma.
Wet leaf: Bacon profile; dust, toasted fruit, dry smoke from smouldering wood. An old book shelf. Peat smoke.
Summary: Rust nail with smoke.

5s – It is subdued, slight smoke, faint herbyness. It has a matured flavour; that is, it has no sharpness, but it has some complexity.
10s – It is wrapped in the Lapsang Souchong (toasted pines) smoke. Mainly wood, smouldering wood.
25s – Liquor is dark orange. I brewed it longer because I think it needed it. It has astringency. It is more punchy; the smoke is stronger. There is a flavour I cannot describe yet – possibly stewed tea or rust. My empty cup has a strong dry smoky aroma.
25s – Liquor is dark orange again. Dry smoke; tingling sweetness. The profile is not linear, but it is a bit flat.
30s – Smoke. I feel like I’m engulfed in smoke from all angles. Kipper smoke; rusty smoke. Astringent. Good one if you like smoke. It is not a thick smoke like 2013 Yunnan Sourcing “San He Zhai”, but it is constant, a range of smokes and heavy on the smoke.
30s – Didn’t reboil hoping to improve it. The smoke has an element of fishiness in cooked pu erh that has not been aired off.
40s – Less smoke; still flat; woody.
50s – There is a spicy element, which is rusty sweet.

I think this tea has had some humid storage as the liquor colour being bronze suggests this and it has a lack of complexity and clarity, which I find in most dry stored teas.

I’m very honored to have been given a small sample of this tea. Thanks ChaiVeck!

I am still very new to aged sheng, but so far this is the most palatable one I have tried. There is a little woodiness, but nothing aggressive or overwhelming. I am having a lot of trouble describing the other flavors. I really hate that I am the first official reviewer and I feel like I am not doing it justice! it’s smooth and lightly sweet. I still find I prefer young sheng. They tend to be more complex and interesting in my opinion.

PS- I gotta say the torn up old wrapper in the picture kind of freaks me out…insect damage???

Dry – Earthy and woody, very straight forward, very faint medicinal.
Wet – Earth, strong earth-wood and medicinal bitterness, thick, some musky scent, mellow smoke. (Evolves into a more creamy, earthy, licorice and sweet scent).

First two steeps are earthy with strong bitter earthy-woody notes with a medicinal base and very apparent creamy thickness and a sweet Huigan.

In the following steeps the medicinal root notes take the front with tobacco-wood notes and faint smoke. As it goes down it is mellow, thick/creamy and sweet with camphor. Oddly enough, even though it is refreshing it has a lingering thickness almost oily/buttery.

Later steeps (pushing the same day and continued the next day) are still thick with earthy tobacco/medicinal notes and very smooth, thick body. The buttery/oily body linger with sweet and refreshing Huigan.

Final Notes
This was very pleasant, I’ve never had a ripe with such apparent oily body. I’ve had creamy/thick ones which in contras seem more residual on the tongue but this was sort of slippery on the tongue :P

If you have a few minutes, check out my blog
http://thetinmycup.blogspot.com/

This was a free sample with my order
Dry – Bitter to bittersweet woody(Tobaccoey?) and floral notes, medicinal, faint tart fruits and some sweetness.
Wet – Very apparent Bitter wood/tobacco notes, some smoke, floral-wood-medicinal and hints of sweetness.
Liquor – Amber

Initial steeps are bitter and harsh up front with apparent tobacco and green wood notes that hints of Chinese medicine and hints of floral notes, all under a noticeable but not unpleasant hint of smoke. There’s some thickness as it goes down and the harshness mellows as it washes away.

By the third maybe fourth steep the Harshness is not as aggressive on the mouth and the thickness seems cumulative and almost tongue numbing, which to me balances in the ‘not sure if I like it’ sensation. The smoke has dissipated for the most part and the medicinal/tobacco notes are very apparent, the Huigan is pleasant and sweet with a herbaceous finish that lingers.

The compression is a bit tight on this one, which is usually bad for a tea this age, luckily the tea is very infusable and the outer layer doesn’t over steep before the piece opens.

Final Notes
At first the tea seemed a bit too harsh with bitter-wood notes (not the pleasant ones). It sort of reminded me of a lower grade version of W2T’s Repave, but missing some of the licorice-medicinal notes and ‘youth’ harshness. The thickness starts weak to medium and pleasant and develops into a numbing sensation that I didn’t really get to appreciate. If you like these notes and like them to last several steeps this cakes holds up well. To it was more pleasant towards the later steeps.

If you have time – Check my Blog
http://thetinmycup.blogspot.com/

Eager to sample this tea, I couldn’t wait any longer. I use about 5 grams in my 85 mL 1970s Dai Cao Qing Factory 1 teapot – reserved for teas with age, A >=20 years. The wet leaves produce an aroma that brings spices, wet wood and some chocolate to mind – slightly different from the 60s GYG. The soup can be a little thicker in the mouth but offers a very nice hui gan and pleasant sweetness that is accompanied by notes of earth, wood and perhaps black licorice? Nice qi that seems to be bringing me into a state of bliss. Pretty nice tea.