Stone-Pressed 2004 Yiwu Wild Arbor Sheng

I’m not sure how to describe it-woodsy seems to fit. This is my first Sheng, and I’d say I’m off to a good start. Hot or cold, it’s quite delicious.

I got a sample of this tea with my order. Really outstanding woody taste. It is much lighter than other pu-ers that I’ve tried before with a much more refined taste. Quality stuff.

I’m a strange person, not to say strange is bad or anything… just, what I do sometimes cannot be made sense of.
Yesterday I took this 2004 sheng and sprinkled some roasted mate ontop of it. The heck was thinking? Well, it was early morning so maybe I wasn’t.
I ended up steeping this through that way about eight times until it got funky. That was an odd experience.

Anyways: Today I brewed the remaining 8g(which is a lot for me) and steeped it 11 times to come to a conclusion that I don’t like the dark soup’ness to this tea that comes out in the fourth steep and continues to stay there. The stronger taste to this sheng ends up being a dry experience for me and that isn’t something I like about drinking tea of any kind which is why I’m picky about pu’erh and yancha. Since this already has some age on it, I don’t think it will really get any better :/

I’m kinda on a Sheng binge, and I knew I had to visit this one. I opened up the packed and revealed a large loose cake. The leaves are a deep dark green, so they almost look black. I can spot small golden strands throughout the bing. This cake carried a wet wood aroma. I placed it inside my warmed yixing and turned it over. The scent was amazing. This had aged incredibly well. My pot was enveloped with deep earthy and fungal tones. The cake was so loose it almost fell apart into maocha once it was heated. I then washed the leaves with some warmed water and began brewing. The liquor was a dark brass and had the same earthy aroma. The taste of this brew was incredibly smooth. The initial sip consisted of soil and wet moss with a dark fruit sweetness and mineral undertones. This was a rather long tea session. I actually had a couple people come in and out in mid session. The tea kept up for many brews. It became a hearty bitterness around the sixth brew, but this flavor did not keep for long. I was able to get over 16 steepings, and it still was earthy and sweet. I really liked this brew, and I even forget that it was aged before I steeped it. I am surprised every time by how aged sheng tastes, since I am so used to young sheng.

https://instagram.com/p/2uBrTLTGfO/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Not bad

I definitely got aged fruity flavor but only the cusp I believe this tea will be a lot better in the near future and if I am not mistaken white2tea carried this cake recently which is always a good sign. There was a nice scent still slight yiwu with a mild aged fruity smell and it being middle aged still had some bitterness. My issue was this tea was terrible thin and not texture at all. My aged tea benchmark is White Whale and personally I prefer white whale, which is thicker better longevity and more energy. This tea gave me a relaxed tea drunk but didn’t knock me on my ass thankfully as I have work to do tonight still.

In conclusion I don’t think it was worth the price I paid for the sample but my aged tuition tea bill is a lot small than other categories.

Brewed up some of this for the first time yesterday! :D A good friend of mine (and the first local friend I’ve been able to find that also really likes ‘fine’ teas!) was round, so I decided to finally break a bit of the cake off! It’s lovely and compressed, so it was easy enough to break off a little 4/5g piece to brew up (in my beloved Verdant Gaiwan).

It was really delicious :D I think we probably got through six or seven steepings over a few rounds of Magic the Gathering (which, I confess, I lost most of… I think it finished 6-3 or 6-4 overall…). Still, this was a lovely tea to share with a good friend :D I’ll brew it up again, at some point in the future, and focus on it more (and maybe take some notes, etc.), but I certainly do remember it having a surprisingly buttery flavour. It was a really ‘smooth’ sheng puerh, compared to others I’ve had – definitely not when compared with a shu puerh or a smooth white tea, but far more so than other sheng puerhs that I’ve tried. It was also a little sweeter, too, which was really interesting! :D

The wet leaves smell pretty freakin’ super. Fruity, smokey (very slight). A bit of leather maybe? Really good aromas!

This is so smooth. Been using that word a lot lately, but I’ve also been drinking teas that are a bit older. I hope I’m this smooth in 10 years!

I’m enjoying this in my tea nook with my TeaFFs on a cold Sunday AM. Bummed about going back to work tomorrow, but stoked that I am off Thursday and Friday next week! I’m almost done with 100 squares on my knit blanket and all the pups are snuggled on the bed with me. Abby is snoring!

So maybe I’m just in a really good mood, but yeah. This tea is super. It’s been aged well and just has a bit o’astringency on the end. Happy tea. Of happiness!

This is a lovely sweet and woody sheng. Lots of pleasant tongue tingling twang. Yiwu shengs seem to be pretty consistently tasty, huh?

Thanks a bunch, Terri

Happy Friday everyone!