Tea Urchin

My experience with this tea represents a cautionary tale not to judge a raw pu-erh on one session or even the first couple of steeps in a session. One’s relationship with a sheng is a story that unfolds over time, with turning points, climaxes, different moods and tones.

When I first tried this tea I thought it was pleasant, a bit mild for my tastes perhaps, but clean and friendly. And that impression continued into the first two steeps of the latest session. But then something happened on the third steep that caused me to adjust my estimation of the Wan Gong. All of a sudden it became a little sweeter, thicker and duskier, with a juiciness you get from eating a red grapefruit.

It could be that I first tried this in the midst of drinking stronger teas and it got lost in the cacophony of those noisier teas. Anyway, this is a really well-processed, calming tea with beautiful leaves that has some surprises in store when you find its sweet spot.

It has taught me to soldier on with All the Light We Cannot See, a book that is a bit precious for my tastes but hopefully will hit some other notes and prove worthy of its considerable reputation.

Breaking this out for review tonight.
Nice thick wrapper on this one. I broke off about 11 grams to brew in the Gaiwan.
I gave a rinse and a little sit time before starting out. This carries a nice sweetness to it.
First brew are 5 seconds. The tea carries the sharpness and bitterness of a Bulang tea without being as intense as some. Still strong and still punchy. The tea is almost thick and viscous that coats the mouth and tongue in a good way.
Kuwei is nice and it causes some salivation between sips. There is just a hint of floral in there somewhere. Aftertaste lingers with this one.

Pu’erh TTB 2015 Tea #15

I’ve had less than a handful of TeaUrchin teas which has been different than my experience with everyone else. This is one of the few sheng that I can say has no notes of bitterness which makes me a happy camper right now. Also, this one is high in caffeine. I drink a lot of tea throughout the day but once I began drinking this today I had a spike of energy. This is a rather nice tea with just a pure taste and no bitterness. No smoke or wood, just great. I wish it had a little ‘wild’ to it though.

The other reviewer summed this one up well. It’s delicious, but a little light for me. It’s super sweet, with clear notes of peaches and vanilla. There is a wonderful tingly cooling mouth feel after too.

There isn’t the normal bitterness most teas have or florals most yiwus have. I could see this being a great entry puerh for people coming from green and white teas.

People who like Xikong or Yiwu Beauty from last year would like this. It’s a sweeter cleaner, but less complex version of that. I think it would have a very broad appeal.

The cup smells like caramelized peaches after. Delicious!

This tea has a very thick and creamy mouthfeel. It somehow seals my throat… very very gluey (and i like that). This tea is very sweet, with honey aroma… i thought i even taste some vanilla. It has a powerful elegant deepness in it`s rich sweet flavors.
But, for my taste i would wish for a little bit (more, there is just very little) bitterness….
Yes i love young sweet Sheng / Raw Puerh … but this is very sweet and could have some more bitterness to make it just perfect…
But, who wants a perfect world?! :-) The tea is already very good as it is.

Ban Pen is a BuLang village found close to Lao Ban Zhang and Lao Man’e. It is home to the LaHu minority people who earn the majority of their living from tea and ancient tea trees surround the village. Reported to have less bitterness than Ban Zhang but a fast huigan and a lingering feel in both the mouth and throat. Medium sized, spindly, dark and twisted leaves. Fresh clean scent (tangy and sweet) from the dry leaf. Clear golden yellow tea soup with a sweet herbaceous aroma. The first sip revealed a fresh pure taste with a light hit of bitterness. A few sips later I began to detect a warming sweetness which became stronger and more dominant in successive steepings. Buttery mouthfeel builds up throughout the session. Overall, healthy balance of sweetness and low level bitterness; good strength of character – complex and rich; calm and relaxing chaqi, invoking a peaceful state. Included in TU’s “Bulang Maocha Tasting Set” or you can buy a 50 g packet of just the Ban Pen.
Update: Endurance – good for 6 steeps than it fades rather quickly.

Sometime during the summer I was fortunate to receive 3 samples of Bulang gushu maocha from Tea Urchin’s 2015 spring harvest. I’ve let them sit and develop a bit and now ready to taste. This HeKai sample is a rich and potent young sheng. The dry leaves are whole and project a fresh sweet aroma. After (2) 5 second rinses, the tea liquor from the first steeping is a clear yellow-gold. The taste is fresh and clean with a honey sweetness and fruitiness dominating the early cups. A pleasant taste-sensation follows in the later infusions as the tea becomes simultaneously bitter and sweet. Good body feel with a lingering sweet vegetal taste in the mouth and throat. Happy to have tried this very appealing tea! Looks like you can try this solid example of He Kai leaf in TU’s “Bulang Maocha Tasting Set” or you can buy a 50 g packet of just the Hekai.

Thank You Mr Mopar for this sample. This was one tasty sheng. There was only a little bitterness to it but not a pronounced strong bitterness. There was a sweetness, somewhat fruity, from the beginning. Not sure if I can pin this note down specifically. This was a very mild sheng. I didn’t find myself adding sugar to it as I probably would have a year ago. I get a bit of a spicy aftertaste to it along with a sweet aftertaste. I can taste this one when I am done drinking it. While I get no major effect from this tea it is quite relaxing after a long day. I steeped this twelve times in my 60ml gaiwan and would have continued but for my insomnia. It’s time to stop drinking tea. But since I only used a small amount of tea for my little gaiwan I can have another session with this. I really have to order from Tea Urchin one of these days. That is if I figure out where to put it. I am running out of space to store new puerh.

I steeped this twelve times in a 60ml gaiwan with 4.1g 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, and 2 min.

Dry the leaf has a very sweet floral aroma, but as soon as you warm it up you know you’re smelling a relative of Manzhuan. That rich vanilla depth. But here it is paired with some subtle floral notes and something akin to nectarine or apricot skin that becomes more pronounced as the infusions go on. A stellar tea if you are a fan of Tea Urchins 2014 Manzhuan or W2T’s 2015 Poundcake. This is their more complex sister.

I’ve only brewed this one up once (and only have enough for one or two more sessions) but to me this seemed a little less tricky to get right than those two. I only had to minorly adjust my default brewing method on the second steep to bring out the complexity of this pot. I’d say this is something someone new to puerh could enjoy as well as people who are more seasoned. It’s not mind blowingly complex, but it is complex enough to make you take notice. It’s comforting but challenges you to taste a little more closely. It’s fresh but familiar all at once. Over all this is a good tea that I think could be enjoyed by many. It’s a blunter version of GFZ but I think could be loved by someone who wants GFZ but doesn’t want to pay more than twice as much for the cake.

I don’t know if this screams special occasion… but it definitely screams I am wearing my fancy PJ pants and want to treat myself to something extraordinary. It’s something you could serve to guests who love green or white teas… and you want to bring them to the puerh dark side.

Another high quality tea from Belle and Eugene.

Sorry for the utility tasting notes. I don’t think one tasting is enough to truly describe this tea, but I’m hoping that this is enough to guide people who will enjoy this tea to sample it and improve upon my tasting note.

In short: yumm this is all peaches and vanilla and green tea!

I’m really enjoying this one today after emerging from a little cold where I couldn’t taste anything. I will say this for a cold: I can get drink and deplete my teas I don’t like very much and not have to actually taste them.

Tea Urchin teas seem to share a similar profile—fairly sweet and clean with a spring water freshness. James @teadb: maybe it would be interesting to do an investigative episode about the small pu-erh vendors like Crimson Lotus, EoT, pu-erh.sk, to discover whether their offerings share similar traits or characteristics regardless of terroir.

Ineffable rock-candy sweetness with notes of corn and hay, the broth generously lubricates the mouth and is quite persistent in the throat. I’m really amazed at the consistency of this tea that steep to steep pumps out consistently sweet, clean, full-bodied mouth-watering liquor with no ebb in flavor and no bitterness. People talk about price per gram of tea, but maybe there should be a price-per-excellent-infusion category in which the Guang Feng Zhai would challenge for supremacy.

Thank goodness someone gifted me this… I am sitting here insanely tea sloshed and it feels amazing. This is the second best sheng I have ever had. Number one is easily Mandala’s Wild Monk because . However, just because this isn’t what I would label as #1 doesn’t mean it isn’t amazing. This sheng is absolutely beautiful. The color is deep and solid as if it is thick. The texture is wonderful but I can’t explain it well enough.

The taste is very pure and it has a touch of wild with any bitterness which is making me a very happy person. The deep taste to this is very intriguing because the mouth feel lingers for a good 12 seconds or so, the feel not just the taste.

As I take nice gulps of this I feel my eyes begin to weigh more, or so I think. This feeling is amazing… almost like drinking gyokuro while laying on a cloud on a beautiful spring day. It provides the same feeling that food does for the itis.

This wonderful sample came to me from Stephanie.

Having lots of new sheng since May i tend to overleaf them.
I wasnt thinking and put whole 7g of the sample in my tiny 75ml shibo.
Its a first time i recognized immediately my mistake.

This tea is very powerful. It hit me from the very first steep. I was tea drunk right away. Looked up on their website they recommend 6g/100ml.
Transferred to my 100ml yixing. Much better.

This tea is incredible. it is very thick, very sweet and smooth . Starts from yellow but on a 2nd steep it becomes pretty orange. And bitterness comes in. Not slight, pretty pronounced along with some astringency. Followed up with sweet aftertaste, but not like honey sweet, more floral syrupy.

I continued the next morning ,its pretty long lasting. Bitterness faded away. It was just smooth and pleasant. then i decided to increase the time to almost a minute and it was quite punchy and bitter again.

Thank you Stephanie for sharing this incredible tea with me. it was a great experience.

https://instagram.com/p/600OM8hwuS/

https://instagram.com/p/609ZVKhwoo/

From the Sheng and Shou TTB #2

I’m feeling guilty. I realized that until this week it had been 3 months since I posted comments. I’ve been mostly just drinking and have been concerned about how accurate my reviews of puerh have been since I’m relatively new to the type.

This tea is a good example. It didn’t hit me at first: a bit of off flavor in the first steep. After that, every steep just seemed to get better, through about the 5th steep. I’m now at the 8th steep, and there is still a lot of flavor. Mostly wood flavors, but fairly complex. A hint of bitterness and acid around the 3rd steep, but has since mellowed out. I wound up liking it a lot.

Talk about some amazing breakage. The sample of this that I was given looked like 100% loose leaf. Quite beautiful :)

This woke me up this morning quick quickly with the strength and bitter tones to it. I will say that it is always interesting to notice the difference in taste from 15s to 20s, there’s a lot that goes on within 5s. This is one that I have to almost flash brew to enjoy it’s liquid.

I ordered 30 grams of this tea along with another Gua Feng Zhai blend a couple of weeks back. Upon arrival, I was rather eager to get this one into my Gaiwan. As usual, I go with about 6 grams to 100 mL of water. The wet leaves have a pleasant look – complete intact leaves with a brown colour with a subtle green tint to them. I really enjoy the nose off these leaves. The wet leaves produce a pleasant soft, sweet, fruity fragrance. I suppose one can say its typical of the region. The liquor isn’t too light or too thick in the mouth but rather nice. Definitely a nice sweetness and mouth feel to it. The Hui gan is definitely there as well. Easily lasting up to 20 seconds. I feel that this is a great tea to drink, however, I wouldn’t pick up a full bing at the asking price. I’d give this tea an 85/100 :).

I completely love the story behind the wrapper! From the dragon arms pointing to time Miles was born to the significance of the trumpet! Got to love Miles Davis!!!!! In fact, this entire tea session was accompanied by Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue!

Birthday tea #16

Got back from the meetup and popped open a bottle of hard cider I bought for my birthday.
After that, meaning I drank all of it, I decided it was time for something strong being some pu’erh. Thankfully I was given a gift of this lovely Tea Urchin ripe :)

This tea is quite smooth! My best friend really enjoyed drinking steep after step of this, but I found it to be a bit robust for my taste buds. She drink coffee and I do not so part of me thinks it was just a little to deep and dark of a taste for me; however, I drank quite a bit of this so despite my flavor preference the quality had me coming back.

Can someone post on the thread I’m linking for any help? https://steepster.com/discuss/15051-searching-for-a-1989-raw-puerh-for-my-30th-birthday
I still cannot comment. Theres 59 days until my 30th birthday. Would appreciate any help! Contacting me through IG is the best option it seems. Cannot even view my messages here. Used my phone and PC at this point

Birthday tea #2

Let me just say that I am very grateful to be able to have a tea from my birth year; also, I am very thankful for members on Steepster who organize group purchases which make it more accessible to try/purchase pricey teas that came in larger quantities such as 100g or a whole cake.

Before even drinking this tea I went back to my memory of drinking Butiki’s 1991 oolong. Those thoughts reminded me of the smoothness of a tea that comes about through aging which is true with my experiences with pu’erh as well. This piqued my interested in an aged roasted oolong. Oolongs may be my favorite variant of tea, but many times I grow tired of a roasted taste as it leaves the mouth dry’ish.

Looking at this leaf doesn’t really tell me much to be honest and neither does the smell. I suppose this is to be expected with something that has been aged (in this case 26 years). Since this is in an aluminum bag inside a tin, I decided not to use my hands not a scoop to get the tea out; I simply just tapped the bag gently and let it flow out.

The first steep was quite bizarre in a way I cannot explain fully. It didn’t taste like an oolong at at. What I did taste was a roasted caramello bar. It sounds odd, but I am 100% serious when I say that there is a cocoa note in this which is not separate from the caramel. With that being said, I went online to look this tea up because I was utterly confused by what I was drinking. Tasting notes for this tea are rather low, if any at all.

Second steep, third, fourth, fifth… this tea goes on for quite awhile and it stays smooth and sweet (with such a mild roast taste that gets overpowered by the unusual caramello taste).

Pretty crazy tea, in a good way. This is the kind of stuff I am looking to buy to put together a taste testing group buy in which I will purchase 5 expensive and 5 inexpensive teas that have great reputations (company wise) and just labeling them with numbers. However, I’m holding back on this because I don’t want to have some sort of weird issue with being a tea company myself to promote certain other companies; but lets be honest, for instance: If Butiki was still around I would ask for all my customers to try their teas out since I view tea as a collective type of product. No reason to not support all the other people out there doing it. Everyone who talks to me eventually realizes that I hate the restraints that come about with the concept of fiat currency (aka, money).

I’m quite excited to be able to showcase and share this tea with 12 different people who are coming over for one of my hosted tea events on August 22nd. They are all in for a treat :)

I’ve been enjoying this tea all afternoon, even into the evening.
The first couple of steeps were a sweet meadow. There was a slightly soapy taste mid-tongue, but otherwise it was very nice, & in the following steeps it was gone.
Throughout all steeping, the taste was of olive leaf, with a shiny clean sensation, & a satisfying tanginess, gradually getting a little sweeter with each cup.
The taste didn’t really change otherwise, but it was good, so that didn’t really matter.
No major tea buzz, but a pleasant tea to spend my afternoon with.
Thanks Stephanie for sharing a sample with me! :)
Sipdown!

My mouth is numb and I can hardy speak, much less type. Love this Sheng—not too sweet, moderately fruity and a tad bitter, with a pleasant smokiness emerging in the mid-steeps. And teak.

Very little viscosity. A little bit of vanilla custard sneaking in.

With the Tea Urchin group buy coming in within the next week’ish, I decided to try one of the teas I already have from them. Even though I purchased some 1989 oolong… all I have from them is pu’erh currently.

I will say that I have high expectations because of their pricing :P and here is what I found out about this tea:

The first three steeps of this tea have nothing unique about it, it’s just another ripe… once you go into about the 6th steep is when you really get a glimpse at the beauty of this tea. I preformed my normal test for high end pu’erh teas by leaving out a few steeps for 30 minutes to get luke warm to see how it taste. I do this test because I have found it to be true that quality pu’erh will have a wonderful silky feel and great taste as it goes down at a normal temperature.

This tea just takes a little time to get ‘awakened’ and then it’s smooth sailing.
:)

I’ve been finally working my way through the samples the Stephanie sent to me!
One of the many things I love about using a yixing pot is that every time I open the lid, the tea has grown. Its like opening a present over & over again. I know that probably sounds silly, but my inner child, little terri, loves it. It makes me smile.

So…what to say about this tea…the aroma is very sweet, almost syrupy, the liquor is a beautiful amber. The tea itself is a little tart at first, then sweet like apricot, but with a bitter edge on the tip of the tongue to balance it out. The tea buzz is very clarifying, and a real ‘feel good’ kind of energy. I like that.
There is a floral after taste, especially in the 4th & 5th steeps, which also taste of dried bell peppers. Weird, but true.
Thanks again for sharing Stephanie!