Streetshop88

One of Martin’s notes reminded me of the stash of puerh from Michelle that I should be trying!  Thanks again, Michelle! Looking through the samples, I was looking for “golden buds” specifically, as I recently realized that might be the trick to my favorite shou.  Put a big chonk in the infuser.  To be fair, the leaves don’t LOOK golden at all.  It’s all quite uniformly dark.  The flavor is lovely!  Sweet, so sweet.  No negative qualities here.  I almost want to call it the most breakfast shou?  But that is odd, since I would consider most shou for breakfast… and it could be lingering cinnamon from the last tea in the infuser.  The second steep is the same, quite deep, quite sweet.  Coffee, bittersweet chocolate, rich.  Everything I like about a shou.  Four solid steeps, a very slow unraveler.  I love it.  I actually tried a FIFTH steep, for 20+ minutes, but the brew was relatively weaker, so I don’t think I would bother with a fifth steep again.  This cake really does support my theory that it’s all about the “golden buds”.  Sadly, I can’t find a cake of this anywhere (I suppose streetshop88 doesn’t exist anymore either.)  Interestingly, Rich’s original note from 2015 says he paid only $20 for it!!! Rich also originally noticed a lot of golden buds in the cake which must have changed color by the time it arrived to my infuser! 
Steep #1  // 23 minutes after boiling // rinse // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
Steep #4 // just boiled // 10-11 min
Steep #5 // just boiled // 20+ min

Album: Gaz Coombes – Turn the Car Around
Song: Not the Only Things https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl2NQ8lK0k0

Another ripe puerh from Michelle (thank you!) and it seems I never had it before? In the pouch there was lots of leaf and there is no note from me.

Anyway, tried it and did several steeps in average 30 seconds long for 6 grams / 125 ml. But somehow, I couldn’t notice anything but shu puerh; like many others. That woody note and somehow smooth taste. I feel that all those puerhs are the same, nevertheless the origin and I wonder why it is this way.

Hmm.

Again, I’m questioning ‘gold award’. Not mine for sure.
Not that great, nothing special, I would not buy it a 2nd time.
Has some standard ripe pu-erh characteristics, but …

Flavors: Earth, Mud, Wet wood

I agree with RichD:
‘gold award’ left me wonder what award, really. Not mine for sure.
Not that great, but definitely pretty good.
Typical ripe pu-erh flavour, nice broth.

I bought this on a recommendation from reddit for someone else with the caveat it probably isn’t BanPen. I’m fine with that since it was cheap. What’s also clear is that it probably isn’t from 2010 either. But, it does have a nice green puer flavor that lasts through many steeps. I’m curious about how it would age.

This is from a sample I bought on a whim from eBay. Nice loose cake with good looking leaves. Starts off a light straw color with mild flavor, hints of tobacco. Works some astringency into the picture with some interesting flavors. Dropped the temperature and kept the steeps short and it brought out some sweetness and took away a bit of the astringency. Much more pleasant this way. Need to experiment with this more.

From the Beginner’s Pu’erh TTB.

Brewed with a ceramic gaiwan. Gave the leaf two 5-second rinses and let it rest for 10 minutes. Steeping times: 15, 10, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50; 2 minutes, 4, 8, 20.

Dry leaf smells of chocolate and leather. In heated gaiwan bowl, of hot cocoa and sticky rice. The wet leaf aroma changes: begins with sticky rice, then evolves to prunes, then to a chocolate-fruit note reminded me of those dark chocolate-covered pomegranate seeds.

This is originally from the regular pu’erh TTB, added by Rich. Having written the only other review, he commented on how bitter this shou was he tried it around a year ago. I think this is aged OK. While there was an under-note of bitterness until the seventh cup, this tastes nicely sweet and chocolately.

The soup is clear dark orange-red, clean-looking. The first cup is sour, with some fermentation, but tastes of chocolate just a little. Following the second cup, the sweetness and the chocolate note strengthen. They reach a plateau with the seventh cup and continue to be present at the last cup. From the eighth cup to the end, I can also taste fresh cedar wood.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGuBba-QNkJ/

The soup is full-bodied but feels light. Not a rich shou. Easier on the stomach, too (also in his review, Rich commented he got a stomach-ache). To get a better sense of an unbiased session, I should have used a porcelain cup, but I wanted to use a ruyao cup, which affected the soup in that it was creamy and very smooth.

Wow, this tea while steeping smells super sweet. Almost like a chocolate. The first steep, I went 30 seconds and I think I could have let it go to 1 min but it still has a nice malty flavor to it. I am picking up a very slight green grass bitterness to it but not in an off putting way. Bittersweet, perhaps? I let my son have a sipper and he enjoyed it.

Second steep at 45 sec and I’m getting a bit of a citrusy note alongside the malt.

3rd steep at 1:30. No bitterness here, seems to have steeped out. A very smooth and delicious tea is left behind. Thick, rich mouth-feel and a satisfying slurp.

4th steep at 2:15. Yup, still delicious. This tea isn’t missing a beat. I’m not exactly paying the closest of attention to it but it is still performing enough to grab my attention.

5th steep at 4 minutes. Still getting really good flavor from this tea. More than I would have expected. It’s very impressive.

Speaking of not paying attention, 6th steep, 15 minutes. Haha. I do believe I have extracted the last of this tasty treat. Even the last steep of 15 minutes was flavorful and smooth.

This tea is a little sweet, but the aftertaste of that sweetness sort of reminds me of wheatgrass. While it’s hot it’s quite good, but as it cools that aftertaste becomes more pronounce although I may just be using too much tea in each steeping. None the less, it’s a good tea that I keep in stock at home. The dried leaves have an aroma of dried apples that actually carries over to the tea a bit.
Note: The seller ShopStreet88 also goes by GoShopStreet and GOARTEA on eBay and they are a phenomenal tea seller! Highly recommend them. I’ve branched out, but much of my early tea exploration started with huge sample buys from this seller.

Puerh TTB

Solid aged taste, slight astringency. Not much complexity in flavor, though discernible notes are similar to an older yiwu with the woodiness. Lots of humidity. Probably not something I’d buy.

Bought this pair of bricks a few weeks ago and just got around to trying it. It was fairly loosely compressed. My first impression was that these were low quality leaves. However that taste says something different. There was a faint hint of wet wood or wet storage in only the first steep. After that it was just a delightful sweet, ripe puerh tea. I think you could say there were some notes of chocolate in there. You could even argue it developed a fruity taste in later steeps. The biggest thing I noticed about this tea was the fermentation taste, or general lack of it. There was a little. It has not cleared 100%. But it is closer than anything else I’ve drank lately. There’s very little doubt in my mind that Streetshop88 is telling the truth about this tea’s age. This tea also lasted quite well. I steeped this thing fourteen times and could have gotten more out of the leaves. The tea soup was just starting to lighten at fourteen steeps. I’d say it was pretty dark into the tenth steep at least. I did use a lot of tea on this one, slightly more than my usual.

I steeped this tea fourteen times in a 110ml yixing teapot with 10.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, and 3 min. This tea was really good for the price. You can’t go wrong with this one. It tastes really good and the price was quite low. Plus, it infuses quite a lot.

I purchased this tea from a local coffee/tea shop in the heart of downtown Canton, Ohio. My wife ordered a few bricks and cakes from Yunnan Sourcing, but I was too eager to try a pu-erh “the right way.” So, I went to this shop, where I knew I’d find bricks of tea, and bought one.

I’m currently on my fourth steep (after two quick rinses) and it’s a solid tea. From the research that I’ve done, pu-erh can go through this process quite a lot. Which is nice, since I enjoy having a tea that can be re-steeped abundantly. However, with this tea, the fourth steep is just as solid as the first; I can see myself drinking this chunk of tea for a long time today.

Anyway, the tea reminds me of a nice hike in the woods. It’s earthy the way a pu-erh ought to be…There’s a flavor that is left on the back of the tongue that I can’t quite think of, but it’s smooth going down. The tea is rich, earthy, smooth, and has me longing for a good hike!

(Side Note: I did two rinses before serving the tea. I did two 15-20 second rinses. I started with a 30 second rinse, and added 30 seconds after that to each steep. I’m not sure if that’s “the right way,” but it works for me.)

Here’s a short video that I shot after purchasing the tea. I’ll post a follow up video!

Oh, this is SO good! Thanks so much Dexter!

Very sweet. Dried fruits maybe. Somewhat carby but less than what I’d think from the smell. Makes my teeth feel a little squeaky. :)

I’d totally buy this one.

First note for this tea, and it’s a sipdown!

I think I got this as a swap from Ubacat. This is a very nice moonlight tea, with fruity and floral notes, and it resteeps extremely well, even with my bullshit bastard gong-fu style that I use when I’m at work.

I got about 2 big helpings from the sample that Uba sent. The leaves are large and fragrant, with an earthy sweet smell. Glad I got a chance to try this.

This tea has the deep golden color of a tea that has just started to age. It, however, has not lost it’s sweetness. It was very sweet as sheng goes with notes of apricots and stonefruits. That being said this was a complex tea. There were some notes of camphor in there and definite notes of spice. The spice notes could be a storage note but I am unsure. This tea also had an incredible feeling in the back of the throat as I drank it. I don’t know if that is huigan. This tea had what you could call a very strong mouth feel. As for qi I am admittedly starting to feel relaxed but the word tea drunk doesn’t come into the picture for me very often so I wouldn’t go that far in describing it’s qi. The notes of spice were the most persistent although not strong. I can taste the spicy note even in the eighth steep. Overall I have to compare this tea to some of the best I have had. I imagine if Misty Peaks had notes of camphor and spice it would taste like this. This was an excellent tea. It is said to be ancient tree, I cannot confirm this although the tea is good enough for this claim to be true. I do, however, take claims by Streetshop88 with a grain of salt. They have sold me some excellent tea over the past two years but I also think they lied about a tea they claimed was from 1997. At least I think they lied about the storage of it. It had wet stored taste but they claimed it was dry stored. I did, however really enjoy this tea. It is not an overpriced tea at $27.98 for 200g. It’s not super cheap but by no means expensive. I bought it a while ago and am just getting around to trying it today.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.1g leaf and 200 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. The tea was not weak at eight steeps. I think it would probably have gone at least another six or more steeps with longer infusions.

The cake smells smoky.

6sec and rinse. 100ºC

10sec 96ºC — Clear orange infusion. It smells less smoky (really low). It’s smooth, sweet. No bitter. some sweetness. Really soft.

20sec 100ºC — As the last brew. No bitterness, sweet and soft brew.

I will continue brewing it at night, but at the moment is the best sheng i have tasted and also (if it’s true that is a 2006 sheng) the oldest.

A nice, light bitterness at the beginning.. juicy.. some fruit-like flavors. Around steep 8, this tea got so sweet, it tasted like I was drinking sugar.

2002 Top Aged Yunnan CNNP 7542 Zhong Cha (raw)

Price:100g £8.95 ($13.98).

7g in Gaiwan.

Summary: This tea has an interesting aged taste, and has good longevity. Looking at the wet leaves I cannot see any black leaves, which leaves me to believe its age.

Dry: Dark brown; medium compression; dry dusty aroma.
Wet: Light porridge sweetness, dust, then hot fruit. Faint church-like aroma.

5s – Light brown. Woody-creamy. An aged flavour.
10s – Slight bitterness on the swallow contrasts with the mild woody-creamy body. Taste is smooth and interesting.
15s – More of the same.
20s – Some sourness, but still have that aged taste.

Dry leaf has a light musty aroma.
Wet leaf after rinse has a nice aged aroma.
First infusions tasted fine. Somewhat Light body but decent aged flavor.
Wet leaves are a mix of dark brown and olive green. small, broken leaves.

In my experience, this tea does not have the vitality, the oomph, the special character that good puer can have.
Its nothing like the 92 da ye loose leaf sheng from essence of tea, for example.

I keep returning to the conclusion that its more cost effective and satisfying to buy premium tea from well curated selections by reputable vendors than to hunt for bargains.

If I didn’t know the source I’d say I had drank a different tea than Rich. I wasn’t blown away by this tea. I definitely don’t think it was dry stored. There was a strong note of wet wood in this tea. This note usually means wet storage. This could still be a wet stored tea from 1997. This wet storage taste never completely went away, even in the tenth steep. I did not find any fruity notes like Rich did. I found mildly sour notes instead. There was indeed little bitterness to this tea and the sour notes could be the tea trying to age. I think there is an equal chance that this is a much younger tea than 1997 and wet stored. I don’t know enough about judging the difference in the tea liquid to be sure though. Younger. humid stored tea has a look similar to aged raw puerh. It would also have the notes of wet wood that were so prevalent in this tea.

I brewed this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.