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Having this tea again. I was unpacking my pumidor and putting the tea into cardboard boxes for my move to a new apartment so I thought I would drink this. It is hard to say if a year and a half or so in my pumidor has improved this tea. It is still sweet in nature with little bitterness. It has not developed much in the color of the tea soup that is for sure although it looks a touch darker. There is a moderate amount of astringency to this tea. It still has that characteristic apricot sweetness that in my experience Misty Peak raw puerh has.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with one rolled puerh or 8.4g leaf in 200 degree 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, and 30 sec.

Got this the other day as part of a Christmas gift and thought I might as well try it. It’s not bad. A blend of chocolate and caramel with s slight salty taste. It is pretty much as described in taste by Teavana although they overplay just how good it is. The brew itself is slightly cloudy in truth. It tastes good but it is by no means spectacular.

I brewed this onoce in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Teamaker with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 5 min.

This is a very tasty puerh stuffed mandarin. There is the earthy taste from the ripe puerh and the smoky taste from the mandarin. It is not quite as smoky as some I have tasted. The earthy flavor was clean and persisted for about four steeps. The smoky taste was present even in the tenth steep. Presumably because of it’s smoked nature this tea did not develop in my opinion a taste of chocolate. But it definitely developed a fruity taste as much from the mandarin as from the ripe puerh. This is a fairly expensive puerh at something like $9.50 per 30g mandarin but it is good. It has no wet storage taste to it at all.

I steeped this in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.3g 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, and 1 min. Judging by the color of the tea in the tenth steep I’d say this was nearly played out but I’m fairly certain I could get two more steeps out of it.

Got a gift of this and three other Teavana teas for Christmas. Decided it was a good one to drink tonight because it is caffeine free. It’s fairly tasty. The taste of the white chocolate is there along with the zing of the peppermint. It’s relatively good but not spectacular. This is one of the teas that Teavana really pushes. And it’s not their best or even their best rooibos. But it’s good enough for the moment.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with boiling water and 3 tsp leaf for 5 min.

Bought this last month in my Black Friday order. While I liked the tea there are a couple of things about it. There was a lot of fermentation taste and this taste was somewhat unpleasant if not fishy. There was also a lot of bitterness. That being said there were some good points too. I developed into something nice. It was thick and rich in the early infusions. Even if it was somewhat bitter. There were some notes of chocolate and it did develop something of a fruity taste later on. Rated on the first few steeps this was not very good. Rated on the eight steeps I gave this it was fairly tasty.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rest and a 10 minute rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. Judging by the color of the tea in the eighth steep I’m sure I could have gotten another six or seven steeps out of this tea.

Was planning on waiting until I had a chance to gongfu this. I decided to give up waiting and brewed it western style this morning. It’s quite taste with a sweet fruity note off the bat. This looks and tastes like a black tea, ,not on oolong. The sweet note might be described as plums, perhaps cherries. It hard to pin down. There is little in the way of bitterness or astringency here and I detect no malt.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz teavana glass perfect tea maker/gravity steeper withi 7.2g leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min after a 10 second rinse.

This is an excellent tea with a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it. I did not get any fishy notes to the fermentation. It was thick and sweet with very little bitterness. I’d say there were some chocolate notes in there but I really wasn’t paying attention so I’m not 100% sure. It was definitely sweet and somewhat fruity in later steeps. Overall I rate this quite highly as shou goes. I think a few more years of storage is necessary to remove the rest of the fermentation flavor.

I brewed this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g 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, and 1 min. The leaves weren’t done at ten steeps, if I wasn’t at my caffeine limit I’m sure I could get a few more steeps out of it.

This is an excellent ripe from 2005. Yunnan Sourcing says this was dry stored and I believe it. There was no taste of wet wood and no spice. There was a moderate amount of fermentation flavor left. It was there until about the fourth steep. This tea was sweet with little bitterness. There were some notes of chocolate in there and it developed a fruity taste in later steeps. This was not a cheap tea at $66 but was not horribly expensive either. This is in my opinion a classic example of a Dayi ripe cake that has some age to it. It could have been much more expensive.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.2g 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, and 1 min. I’m sure I could have gotten a few more steeps out of it if I was not at my caffeine limit.

This is a very tasty ripe with a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. The fermentation flavor was somewhat unpleasant but not quite fishy. It was dark and thick in the early infusions. There were a variety of sweet notes and little bitterness at all. There were some notes of chocolate in there and it did develop a fruity flavor in later steeps. At only $31 it was a good value too. It is unfortunately now sold out. Don’t know if Mandala can get any more of this.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.3g 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, and 1 min. If I wasn’t at my caffeine limit I’m sure I could get at least a couple more steeps out of this.

This tea has an odd taste, not sure if it is the cardamom or what. It’s pretty bad. I’m glad I bought the minimum on this tea.

I brewed this once in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 4 min.