Tea Urchin

Got a sample of this witih Liquid Proust’s Sheng Olympics 2017. This was a pretty good tea. It was a fairly balanced mix of bitter and sweet. I didn’t really pick up on the specifics so I will just generalize and say it was good. If I had any shortage of sheng cakes I would say it is good enough to buy a cake. But I have a lot of sheng cakes, although far fewer than I have shou cakes. It was very good and it was nice to try it.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. 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, and 2 min.

This is the pinnacle of sweet puerh. I’ve tasted a few that blend well into the “dessert” category, but this tea wins the game with longevity, qi, and thickness. The leaves are slightly darkened and loosely compressed. They give off a nice aroma of strong wood, subtle honey, and spicy musk in the background. I warmed up my pot and placed some inside. The becomes much stronger with a good heavy musk of fruits, tobacco, and cherry. A few sweeter notes of brown sugar and vanilla bean rise to the surface after a few sniffs. I washed the leaves and prepared for brewing. The taste is strong, full, and direct. I experience of whirl of flavors. The brew begins with a layer of resonated sugarcane, oak wood, and a crisp base of wildflowers. The next steep yields maple brown sugar, molasses, and a smooth honey aftertaste. A flourish of marshmallow rises from the tongue on the exhale. After that, I am greeted with a full bodied cedar taste that is wrapped in these same desert tones. The brew is potent. The soup continues darkened and filled with great flavors and tones that are mostly sweet and incredibly syrupy. The qi begins very aggressive and unstable, but it soothes out if you ease the session on. The sensation balances out to full body hum with powerful yet smooth waves. The feeling compliments the last steep which yields subtle floral qualities and sugar water. This is a tea I couldn’t drink fast enough. I really enjoy it, and it is one of my favorites. This is great example of the feminine qualities in yiwu tea. I don’t always reach for something sweet, but this makes a good desert tea, and its an instant crowd pleaser.

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This not a very pretty tea. The leaves are stout and heavily compressed; A gray sheen covers the surface of the tea. The chunk smells of brief char and wet grass. The compression was fairly tight to get any other scents. I warmed up my pot and placed a bit inside. I lift the lid to meet oak barrel, strong pipe tobacco, wet leather, and sweet plum musk. This is a burly kind of tea. I washed the tea for a bit and then prepared for brewing. The taste begins sweet and thick with a pleasant aftertaste. The base of the brew is of maple wood with chestnut. Later steeping brings tobacco, red fruits, and maple syrup. The tea takes about six steeps to finally break away from one solid mass. The taste is fairly decent with good complexity and sweet/bitter mix. However, the qi is what’s so unique about this brew. When I look back at my notes, I can tell how strong a tea was by how much profanity I tend to use. Lets just say that there was good vocabulary in my journal. The sensation begins slow and creeps behind you. The qi becomes powerful and heavy (a bit too much). The feeling acts as a ton of bricks and it slowly presses down on you. I took a few breaks away from my tea table. Personally, it was a bit too aggressive for me, but I think some others would enjoy this.

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This one smelled more green than sheng when it was dry, so I had high hopes for it. There is a bit of that green funk, but it’s accompanied by the formaldehyde and flowery soap that usually comes with sheng. My coworker, who actually enjoys it, describes it as Dial soap and flowers.

He’s benefiting immensely from my sheng experiments this morning.

Bitter, creamy, and green tasting. I liked the first steep a lot before that shenginess kicked in. Thank you tea friend for the sample, but I’m not yet converted!

I steeped this a little heavier than usual due to the almost nonexistent aroma off the dry leaf, 7g to 100ml at 198-200F. Very light flavors with cooler water, borderline boring was my first impression, actually, as it was a pretty one note, unchanging tea for the first 6 or 7 steeps or so. Not an unpleasant note, by any mean, in fact, it was quite mellow and calm and pleasant with an herbaceous, bassy sweet note to it and a soft, moderate thickness with a bit of roof drying astringency.

Later steeps the astringency dies down considerably and so I pushed it with hotter water (upped to 205 F and longer steep times that I would have called slightly overbrewed in most tea) and it returned a nice bit of sour-almost-not-quite citrus bordering floral notes alongside the sweetness, creating an interesting mouth feel dynamic with the astringency. The taste reminded me of sweet and sour stir fry sauce with a more vinegar than citric sourness at parts that helped contrast the sweetness. Nothing mind blowing, but a nice little last hurrah from this tea which had been quite boringly polite up til now. I haven’t tried this at boiling yet, but soon enough we’ll see what that brings out of this.

The aroma of the dry leaves is very light with vegetal sweet notes. After the rinse the leaves have a smoky, vegetal, a bit sweet and a touch of camphor.

1/5s: Thick, oily mouthfeel. Nice astringency with the tiniest touch of bitterness that punctuates the finish. Taste is honey and a little vegetal, but mostly honey. Some nice huiguan. Ohhhh man, after the earlier cha gao session, the cha qi just punched me in the face, LOL!

2/7s: Have to go easy on this one as pushing the steep too fast will bring out more of the bitter note. Not overbearing here, but it is peaking out here. Amazing huigan despite the increased bitterness. Lots of body; thick. I know this is the second session of the day, but this has to have some pretty strong qi!

3/7s: Very interesting bitter note. It’s not subtle, but the sweetness around it makes it… pleasant. Ha! There’s bitterness at the sides of the tongue but sweetness everywhere else. The bitter note fades quick and you’re left with that honey like sweetness. I have to try this one again when I haven’t had a prior session. Also… I REALLY should have gone with my 90mL teapot. This cha qi is threatening to kick my ass! Very dry/astringent ending on this one akin to a full bodied, dry red wine.

4/10s: Bitter is a bit subdued as the leaves get a little wake up. Honey note and sweetness continues.

5/7s: Dropped back down to 7s and good thing. Bitterness picked up a touch, but the sweetness and huigan are YUUUGE . Very thick mouth feel. First time having a tea that made me understand people’s description of a tea having an “oily” mouth feel. That said, the finish is still sharp, crisp and sweet. Something else going on too, but can’t quite place it. Maybe a camphor note coming through.

6/8s: Loving this huigan and the way bitter and sweet mingle on the tongue and give way to pure honey (perhaps a tiny vegetal note this time) in the aftertaste. Great mouthfeel. Oooooh, starting to feel that heady cha qi again. The caffeine content on this one has to be pretty high. The crazy thing yesterday was that I was SUPER awake and alert, but not at all jittery. Love that about these types of teas. :)

7/8s: Nice! The bitter note decided to take a break or perhaps blended into the astringency a bit more. Sweet, honey, with tiny vegetal and minty note. Note how short I’m having to keep the steeps to keep the bitterness down. I’m guessing this tea will go to 20 steeps easily. Bit of creaminess to that thick mouthfeel too. Love this steeping!

<The last 4 steeps have been downed a 20 minute time span and my head is floating a bit with this energizing sort of qi. ^_^>

<As another side note, my tea kettle, (Zoji) which I love dearly, is out of water so I have to refill and wait for water to heat to the proper temp. I’m always momentarily upset when it runs out as if it emptied itself of water out of spite. Then I remember that I’m the one that emptied it turning all that water into delicious tea, LOL!>

8/8s: Same as previous.

9&10/10s: Combined in the pitcher. Being lazy because it’s late. Man that’s good tea! Same quality

11-19/15-20s: Dang it, life got busy, but I kept drinking tea.
Unfortunately that means my notes aren’t what they usually are as sometimes I had to drink on the go or away from my computer. I’m continuing filling my tea pitcher (cha hai?) which is about 3 steeps/teapots with my zhuni pot.

If you cannot stand ANY bitterness this tea might not be for you, but if you don’t mind a little bit, this tea is awesome in its complexity. Just be careful not to push the early steeps too hard. In other words steep by taste not by time ie add 5 seconds with each additional steep. Listen to the leaves and you’ll be rewarded with amazing tea.

This is another tea that I would love to have a full cake of, but I realized that the slightly insane amount of money I’d spent over the last few months or so was only with a single tea supplier. Given that I’ve been buying tea from at least 4 or 5 other suppliers… I really, really don’t want to know how much I’ve spent on tea this year, LOL!

This was very yummy! The leaf is of moderate compression and is filled with soft fruity tones and some tang. A light floral (mums?) can picked off from the leaves along with brown sugar and molasses. I warmed up my gaiwan and stuffed this inside. The aroma picked up into crystalized sugar, wet oak, more molasses, and apricot. I washed the leaves and swished them around to prepare for brewing. The taste began an oil thickness. The drink is heavy, syrupy, and tasty. The flavor is 100% sweet with wildflower honey. The cup even smells like honey. However, a few steeping in, a light grass astringency blends with the desert qualities. The brew continues like this for some time. Later brewing yields some heavier floral notes (dandelion?). I really liked this. The qi is nice and warming and a constant buzz effect. The brew is nice, but it lacks some complexities. It’s a very yummy tea, but it’s not interesting.

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A beautiful tea. I love Bulang; there’s something about the peppery acidity that makes me happy. The leaf is loosely compressed and has a sharp grassy scent. The undertones include some light florals and sweet aromatic wood. I warmed up my shibo and threw it in. I gave the shibo a shake and lifted the lid to intense raisin tones with apricot. The scents are sweet and heavy. I can take in some dark wood underneath a massive amount of peach. This was going to be a good tea. I washed the leaves and gave em a steep. The taste has a sweet character with some light bitterness, at first. The peppery kuwei rises up from the vegetal and floral qualities to nip at the tongue. The next steep yields some roasted vegetable tones with a consistent rising peppercorn. The astringency appears at about steep three with a drying squeaky clean tone. The dryness is tart and cleansing. The brew then turns into a unique drink with bright tones; I can pick up daises, lemon, and hay. The aftertaste is potent and lasting with a tart sweetness; alike a lemon bar. The qi hits mid session and it hits hard. A nice vibrating sensation the creates a tingling pulse up the spine. By the end of the session, I can feel my hairs rise. This is a goosebumpin’ tea! I really enjoy this one, and I can’t wait to get some more of it!

Woah, this tea is a DRUNK, lemme tell ya what. Starts off medicinally herbal with an interesting twist on the dried date flavor if it was stored in weird conditions, and then a pretty heavy astringency kicks in that never leaves, unfortunately. There’s a fair amount of bitterness too, but that fades while the astringency doesn’t, and I hate astringent tea, :(.

The heavy brain tickling, lead finger weighing qi starts to trickle in early, around steep 3 or 4, along with a sweet, syrupy red fruit flavor I quite liked, but doesn’t stick around. Still that heavy undercurrent of woody astringency that is the base of this tea, but wow, I started losing track of the steeps we were on and where the last steep when and where did my notes go around steep 6. Flavors don’t really change much from that sort of ‘medicine woody goodness’ according to my jumbled notes there on, it seems.

Overall, I wasn’t much of a fan of the flavor profile of this one, although I did find the interesting variation on dried date flavor cool. The energy is where this one delivers, however, holy cow! Most tea drunks are like a muted giggly high or tunnel vision/heaviness for me, this was full on stop what the heck is going on, where did my tea go, oh, did I… drink it? level of drunk, lol. I’ll save the rest of my 43g and see if maybe the astringency dies down with more time.

True to the written description, this is a remarkably old tasting tea for a 2006. It’s starting to venture into shou territory (although without the fermentation taste, cleared or otherwise) in terms of color and flavor and is a very pleasant, calming tea. Got that nice aged thing with some storage must flavors to it, but not unpleasantly or overwhelmingly so.

Behind the storage, it is quite woody and savory, with wisps of smoke at the start and hints of dried fruit/date sweetness as the storage clears out towards the end. There is a bit of dry spinach acridity/astringency to the mouth as you drink this that never really goes away, but not quite off-putting enough to be a negative, especially as it’s a forgiving brew to steep even with that.

Overall, I liked this and it has a good aged flavor to it, but it’s not particularly complex or interesting, just quite solid.

A treat for turkey day! Super excited to try this, I cracked open the sample bag to unearth leaves that were not quite tall, but dark AND handsome, in addition to smelling like cocoa and burnt sugar and tantalizing danger to my wallet (we’ll keep this little encounter a secret from the SO, haha).

I started off hitting this with boiling water, which was a mistake. It was delicious nonetheless, with a strong mineral roast flavor across the spectrum, high and low, along with lingering sweet caramel afternotes and a bread-y flavor that ended in an intense dance of orchid bouquet flavors that accompanied each exhale, but was very strong on the roast bitterness and much improved when I switched to 180 F halfway through the session.

The lower temp water brings out an AMAZINGLY buttery slick, creamy mouthfeel along with a decadently rich honey and orchid flavored body and a distinct peach fruit aftertaste, well balanced and accentuated throughout by the now calmer, subtler roast.

There is astringency and bitterness to this tea, particularly at the start where I hit it with (I realize now) much too hot water and the roast stood out strongly, but it is well balanced throughout and I feel complements the underlying flavors, helping them to stand out rather than detract.

The mouthfeel, as mentioned before, is a lovely creamy slickness that coats the throat steadily across sips and brings out a nectar sweetness in the throat that slowly shifts to a more mineral, sugar sweetness and even a surprising subtle menthol cooling quality as it dies. It and the bright peach notes were the highlight of this tea for me.

The energy on this one was excellent and strong, I could feel it rushing to my head by steep 3 and it steadily built over the session in a very invigorating (but calm) way. It fades fast in flavor intensity after steep 10, but those 10 steeps are bursting with flavor and an intoxicating ride, definitely a great way to prepare for the food prep and festivities to follow today.

Here’s hoping it doesn’t break my wallet when it does get released, ^^;.

Hahah, this tea is something else. I real surprise for me. The leaves have slightly tight compression and give off a sweet squash flower and lemon grass aroma. The leaves are bright and cheery. I picked this up due to the words “early reserved trees”. I trust Eugene, and he is one of the few vendors I do trust. That being said, I put my wallet where my mouth is and trusted that these trees were the bees knees. Anyways, I warmed up my gaiwan and placed some inside. The aromas were nice and bright with some berries, fruits, grass, and sugar. These are all relatively common tones being sweet, tangy, and nice aromas. The flavor was maple candy sweet and lively. I noted some bitterness and viscosity along with butter and cedar. The taste became mildly sour along with some citrus tones. Then, it happened. The reason why I had put my trust in this vendor. The qi approached me. The qi looked me up and down and decided around steep three to take a 2×4 to my face. This qi was strong, and I mean young Hulk Hogan strong. The tastes became sweeter, the aromas became stronger, and the stars seemed brighter; I was lit. I experienced severe ringing and buzzing in my ears between wooden plank wacks. My notes state “…enough power to drive you to the sky”. I feel that this is suiting. To conclude, the flavors are decent and the tones aren’t bad, but I wouldn’t drink this for those reasons; I’d drink it for the power. This has a great punch and fair acidity, and I will be grabbing more.

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A very nice loosely threaded puerh. The leaves give off slight scents of floral with soft wood. It as approachable sweet and tangy note. I warmed up my gaiwan and slipped some inside. The scent opens into aromatic sweet herb with sugarcane. I can pick up some white grape jelly and blueberry in the background. An intoxicating scent rises from the lid. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste begins sweet and smooth with a mild astringency at the back. A prominent apricot tone lifts off the tongue, and a candied fruit stays at the back of the throat. The feeling is thick and silky as it eases my throat. A darker woody tone appeared after a few more additional steepings. The hardy wood balanced the flowery fruits. The brew creates a lasting flavor. A stark pear tone appears in final steeping along with some cooling sugarcane. This was a good tea, but the qi was lacking. I enjoyed the flavors and tones, but it seems like something is missing from this soup. I’m not quite sure, but it doesn’t seem complete.

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