The Bitter End Xtra 2018 Spring Lao Man E Bitter Varietal Raw Puer

This is an excellent bitter Sheng.
Beautiful leaves, long brewing session, and INTENSE bitter flavor that somehow manages to not be flat.
I really enjoyed it, and would buy a large amount if I could afford it.. Oh well.

Update: last time I brewed this tea the bitterness was too much and I suffered.. I guess it’s so bitter it’s on the verge of pain for me, and depending on my physical state I’ll end on either side of that ledge.

Update 2: Still can’t afford it, but bought 100g for blending with the sweeter Bitter End version, since the Xtra is so powerful..

This tea delivers unforgiving, punishing, mouth puckering bitterness that lingers. Needless to say, I was so impressed by this effect that I had to write a couple of lines about it here :)

Having found the regular Bitter End more sweet than bitter, let’s see if its bitter varietal sibling delivers that Xtra bitter goodness. Since I only have ten grams of this tea and to ensure the speed of pour, I decided to go with 3.7g in a 55ml gaiwan. Good decision, it turns out, because this tea ended up going for twenty infusions! The timing for these were 4s, 4s, 4s, 4s, 4s, 4s, 4s, 4s, 4s, 7s, 10s, 13s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min. and 4 min.

I started off with a short rinse for about seven seconds, taking some time to cram the long leaves in, and tasted the wash while I let the moisture soak in and prime the leaves for about five minutes. The soup was bitter as expected and very cooling in the mouth. This tea was fairly straightforward, so I’m not going to go into it on any sort of steep-by-steep basis. Most of the time it presented you with a combination of bitter and sweet, occasionally giving you a glimpse of the fruity citrus flavors characteristic of this village. From start to finish the tea was very clean with great strength and longevity. The bitterness is not abrasive or persistent, but leaves the mouth fairly quickly. Notable cooling was present in the first few steeps, but then died down.

While Bitter End Xtra was not mouth-numbing like the Hai Lang Hao 2016 Lao Man’e, it should satisfy all but those seeking the most extreme sort of bitterness. While I enjoyed the tea and the quality is obviously high, one shortcoming it does have is that it’s not very dynamic at least right now. Not that teas from this village are necessarily the most complex and varied when young, but I’ve had Lao Man’es that offered a richer overall experience with more depth, although they’ve had a bit more age as well. While this is not something I normally do, I’m looking forward to trying a simple mix of Bitterleaf’s own regular The Bitter End and this tea. Probably a simple 50/50 blend. I’m hoping this will bring out the best of both teas.

If you’re looking for a bitter sheng, don’t be detered by the price. For me Xtra gave twice the amount of infusions as most raws, which can be equated to using half the vessel size to produce the same amount of tea. I’m glad I picked the smallest gaiwan I have for brewing this, because, man, I can’t imagine drinking twenty infusions of any larger quantity. This leaves only The Bitter End Lite to be reviewed. I’m interested to see how it compares to the other two.