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Received this as a free sample. The dried leaves smelled vegetal. The light green wet leaves also had a pleasant vegetal aroma. The liquor is a pale yellow. According to their site, one can brew it strong and you’ll get a bold and nutty tea or can brew it light and get a crisp and light tea. I made it my typical gongfu style which is 6g in 110 ml in a gaiwan, starting with a 25s infusion after a rinse, adding 10s each new infusion. It has a distinctive flavor. I liked it. Vegetal, grass, stonefruits, umami, marine plants, nuts. I did get a slightly nutty flavor but I also got the crisp and refreshing part so maybe I brewed it in the middle of what they recommended hehe. Good taste profile, and a good balance regarding bitterness and astringency.

A heavily oxidized tea and the dried form consists of long twisted, dark strips with a nice roasted, chocolate, maybe some nuts aroma. The wet leaves are a dark green and the liquor is a medium dark amber. It’s a smooth, full-bodied cup of tea with a dark chocolate malt taste without the bitterness, very light mineral feel compared to others, fruity but I can’t place it this time around (surprise surprise lol :P). Subtle sweet due to the dried fruit, not sugary. It leaves a pleasant coat on my tongue, with a long lasting finish of rich roast.

Yixing teapot, 5g, 140ml, 212°F, rinse, 9 steeps, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s, 1m15s, 1m25s, 1m35s, 1m45s
Note: Next time I’ll have to add more if I’m going to use this Yixing pot. I feel like I got a bit of a watered down version and the way I prepared it probably didn’t do this rich tea justice.

Quick note to add to my previous review that this is my go-to raw Pu-erh after a heavy meal. Just love the stonefruit taste and the mellow cup of tea in the evenings.

There are already some fantastic, detailed reviews on this tea (Reason I tried it and thank you all. :D I so so so enjoy and appreciate all of you who do detailed reviews.) so I’ll just add that I’ve been enjoying this tea throughout the week. A complex taste which evolves: Fruit, floral, nuts, citrusy. What-Cha has my all-time favorite sticky rice oolong, and I love their Vietnamese Oolongs too. This is an exceptional and smooth Li-Shan.

Yixing teapot, 5g, 110ml, 194°F, 9 steeps, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s, 1m10s, 1m15s, 1m25s, 1m35s

The third bag of this stuff. They come in 14 or 28 piece sachets. I drank this during the summer before I joined this site a few months ago. I have a tendency to bloat as I admit I love salty things. This seemed to help with that. Cloves, nutmeg, citrus aroma. It smells and tastes like cider yet there are no apples in it, feels “season-y” to me and I’m enjoying it on this cold morning. The cloves and nutmeg in it that makes me think of the holidays. Although it has green tea in it, doesn’t upset my stomach when I drink it on an empty stomach.

Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg, Cornflower, Green Tea, Organic Rooibos, Orange Peels, and Red Peppercorn.

Porcelain gaiwan, 5g, 195˚ F, 110ml, 15 steeps: rinse, 10s, 13s, 16s, 19s, 22s, 25s,28s, 31s, 34s, 37s, 40s, 43s, 46s, 49s, 52s

According to their site, this blend was made to celebrate the year of the monkey. So they blended 2016 Autumn teas from wild arbor tea leaves growing in three different areas of Yunnan and after several tries, they decided on this one. Sounded interesting. ^^

The liquor is a pale yellow. The medium green wet leaves smelled slightly tart. I have my morning stuffy nose so there’s that to consider :P lol. The first and second steep was mild, sweet, grassy, umami, slightly astringent. The 3rd steep is when a slight bitterness entered the profile but in a balanced way, not overpowering, not overwhelming. It remained in the profile until the last steep, along with a pleasant, savory umami taste. Fruity notes towards the end (could be my nose cleared up some by then lol) It lasted 15 infusions total. It’s full-bodied, has a crisp, pure, clean taste. I enjoyed it. If I were into aging Pu-erh, this one would probably be really good to age.

Another Mandala oolong to try.^^ It’s medium to heavily roasted rock oolong from Fujian Province, China. It has a gorgeous golden-amber-orange liquor. The dry leaves are darkly roasted strips. The wet leaves are dark green with a nice aroma that consists of stonefruits, floral, roasted nuts along with a hint of vanilla.

It’s a full-bodied tea with flavors of roast, ripe stone fruit, floral, citrus (orange?), nuts, caramel, honey, minerals, vanilla. Again, I could not pick up the root vegetables, bah. I need to work on that… Maybe go eat a lot of yams or something. :P It is complex and has a long finish. This is my first time trying this and I liked it, but it was a bit too perfumey on the first few steeps, although overall, I’m not disappointed. I have more so I’ll be able to enjoy it again and see how I feel.

Porcelain gaiwan, 5g, 110ml, 195°F (ramped it up to 200 later), rinse, 9 steeps, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s, 1m15s, 1m25s, 1m35s, 1m45s

I chose this for one of my free samples. The wet leaves are dark green, the liquor is bright amber with a slight leather, earthy aroma. The 1st steep, I got fresh hay, leather, maybe some seaweed, sweet tupelo honey, spices, wood and sugarcane with a very slight bitterness. The 2nd and 3rd steep had a much stronger bitterness but was quickly followed by sweetness so I agree with the ‘bitterness of first sip, quick sweet after-taste’ in the description. It actually fits this tea perfectly. The 2nd and 3rd steep was more viscous compared to all the other steeps, almost syrupy. Bold flavors. Sharp… Definitely not shy, mild, timid as say their Moonlight Pu-erh. The most bitter steep was the 3rd but again, a welcomed strong sweet sugarcane wash aftertaste made the bitterness ‘interesting’… Almost like grapefruit bitter, meaning that the bitter part is what makes the fruit tastes so unique, good. The following steeps the bitterness wasn’t nearly as pronounced or maybe at this point, I was used to it. The liquor at this point smelled like one of those honey-citrus coughdrops for itchy throats with camphor, menthol. When I breathed in and out, there was a cooling sensation. In between infusions, I could breathe really well out of my usual allergy ridden stuffed nose. Stone fruit, fresh hay, seaweed, marine, wood, sugarcane, honey, earth, smoke, floral, grapefruit and a bunch of other things I couldn’t decipher. Definitely a complex tea. If you don’t mind bitterness, you may enjoy this tea.

Great reviews on this already. I just wanted to add that I really love this Da Hong Pao. I try to keep it on my shelf. It seems more nutty, more chocolate flavor than most. Kind of like a fudge brownie without the excessive sweetness.