Qianjiazhai 2015 Sheng Brick

Figured i should try this sheng. I know that i vastly prefer shou, but there are a couple of shengs that i have enjoyed. This one isn’t bad…slightly sweet, but mostly wood and leather. I got distracted while i had this one, so i’ll revisit again later next week. :)

Final Count: 40 (Capital Tea order arrived today!)

After letting the dry leaves sit inside a prewarmed gaiwan for a minute, it definitely smells of Sheng… leather, wood, earth and a faint aroma of flowers and sap.

The first infusion is sweet and smooth, with notes of sandalwood and a hint of honeysuckle. The taste and aroma also remind me of summer trees in the rain. It has a silky texture, and while there are hints of dryness in the woody finish, and little sparks of white pepper flavor, there’s also a good amount of lingering sweetness, and a taste of golden raisins.

By the second infusion, the wood note is coming through much more, and the peppery note in the finish, while overall it is less sweet.

I won’t go much more deeply into this review except to say that if you’ve had good young sheng, this is good young sheng, and it has all the tastes and aromas you’d expect from your typical sheng, so that’s that. I have no idea what the asking price is, so it may be a good deal, but the flavor profile’s not one that is particularly memorable to me, so I’ll probably pass on ordering some.

This was delicious. I brewed gong fu at 80C on the first infusion and 85C all the other infusions. Sweet & juicy with a bit of fruity flavour. It was a light sheng with no bitterness at all. There was also a slightly creamy mouth feel to it.

The dry sheng leaves were dark brown with some khaki stems and slivers of white visible. The dry leaf didn’t smell like much — just your typical “sheng” smell: a little bit of smoke, tartness, and fruit. I used the whole sample in my gaiwan and did 6.5 steeps (during the 7th steep there wasn’t enough water left in my teapot to fill the gaiwan all the way) ranging in length from 6 to 12 seconds.

Throughout every steep, the liquor was extremely light and clear, ranging from a beautiful peachy colour in the first steep to a nice pale amber in the final steep. Verdant’s website said that this tea had strong notes of plantain and lychee, but I didn’t really get that here. Instead, I got some generic apple and grass notes, with a flavour of hay coming into play around the 4th steep.

Despite the relative mildness of the flavour, the tea did have a really good, thick, mouthfeel. Not quite syrupy or creamy, but there was definitely substance to it. There was absolutely no bitterness, but the later steeps did have some astringency to them, resulting in a cottony, gauzy feeling in my mouth. They also tasted some what mineral and smoky.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/10/verdant-teas-5-for-5-sample-pack/

Admittedly I’m not a fan of black and puerh teas but I’ve been trying to branch out and broaden my taste horizons. I received a sample of this with my last Verdant order and the flavor profile was intriguing – lychee, grape, pumpkin, and sandalwood are some of the notes described by Verdant. Sigh – if only this were true. Frankly, I would use less flattering descriptors for this tea. This tea apparently comes from an old forest and that’s exactly what it tasted like: soil and wet wood. The musty smell and earthiness was a little too much for me. It’s pretty much what most puerhs taste like to me anyhow.

Lesson learned, tasting notes are palette specific and highly subjective (including this one). Now for a nice cup of green tea to cleanse my palette.

This sheng pu’er is fruity and light on the palate. I do not have the actual brick, instead I am using pieces sent in the 5 teas for $5 pack (excellent buy). The leaves are still in compacted pieces. I used about 5g of leaf to 6oz boiling water in a gaiwan. I gave the leaves a quick rinse then infused for 6s increasing by 3s each time. The aroma of the infused leaf is very fruity and reminiscent of berries and grapes. The liquor has the color of champagne and is clear (not bubbly I’m afraid). In the first infusion the flavor is very fruity. In successive infusions a more woody flavor comes out. Great young sheng pu’er sampler and comes in an excellent value pack from Verdant Tea.