Tea Urchin 2009 Guan Zi Zhai Bulang

I got a little sample of this from mrmopar through a swap (thanks!). I decided to go into this tea blind without looking the tea up first.

My initial impression after hitting the tea with boiling water was “burly” and “tobacco”. Interestingly that went away pretty much immediately and was replaced by gentler scents of mild pine-like woodsy character, musk, and a thick sweet pungency. The rinse smelled woody. After cooling off the wet leaves smelled wonderful with that sweet pungency.

I’ve brewed seven steeps so far (10s, 10s, 15s, 15s, 15s, 15s, 20s). This tea is quite relaxing and somewhat “stoney.” The fragrance of the brew and leaves were sweetly pungent and woodsy. A more noticeable aged character slipped in around the 3rd brew. The mouthfeel was pretty nice, slightly thick for the first and second brews, and slipping to a mild drying after the third. The beautiful greenish-brown leaves were fully hydrated and open by the 7th steep. All steeps were a nice orange color.

I quite enjoyed my experience with this tea, and was thrilled to see that it is also affordable.

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.

Broke this one out as directed by Chairman Meow. The Chairman “pawed” and pointed this out tonight for me to try.
I got out 10 grams and let the Chairman approve of it and in the Gaiwan it went. I gave a quick rinse before starting. The aroma was nice and very sweet an fruity. I can’t really describe which one but very nice. I did 5 second steeps on this one. The liquor is a medium yellow level of darkness. It has a nice aroma to it. The brew has a bit of bitter bite and astringency to it but not overpowering. Not a lot of discernible smoke as in the vendor’s description. It does creep up on you and give a semi-sweet and pleasant bitter to it.
Multi- faceted in terms of flavor notes. maybe a bit more complex than my taste buds. Pleasant and very reasonably priced for a 5 year old tea. I think I should have bought more than a sample.