Bought an ounce of this tea from the store while I was there last week. The leaves look for all the world like shou puerh. I have never seen sheng leaves that look like this. These leaves look fermented. My initial thought is that she was sold an aged shou puerh and her source told her it was an aged sheng. If it was a shou puerh it has cleared completely. I will attach the Instagram photos so others can give their opinions about this tea. She only sells it in store and not on her website. Also, I don’t doubt that 99% of her customers have a lot less experience with puerh than I do. This tastes for all the world to me like an aged ripe. It just doesn’t taste like a sheng to me. In the end I just don’t know. As to the tea itself. There was no fermentation taste to this so I suppose she could be right. It was fairly bitter throughout most of the eight steeps I gave it. In color I couldn’t tell if it was an aged sheng or an aged shou. Whatever it is it just isn’t that good.

I steeped this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with 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, and 30 sec.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCnyeV0zDRWmSAeS9jUn3K6YnsCCF57DV4gsrQ0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCn0lyDTDYQFYA2F037PyCSY6hi1Xoghnw-oUk0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCn1V8zTDaPtwAvf9a7TAH-p7jslPCGv_P150c0/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

Preparation
Boiling 7 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
curlygc

If it walks like a duck…

AllanK

curlygc, I called the woman who sold me this and told her it was shou. She continued to insist it was sheng. It still looks like shou to me, albeit an aged shou because it had no fermentation flavor at all.

mrmopar

The leaves look a little too black and carbonized to me for a sheng. Could you pick out any whole leaves from the brew to see if you could open them up?

AllanK

Mr Mopar. already threw the leaves out. Too late to pick out leaves and I am in no rush to drink this again. It wasn’t very good in truth. The dry leaves look like shou too. There is a subtly difference between the leaves of an aged sheng and a shou before you brew them and these look like shou. The woman who sold me this tea insisted they were sheng though. She could be lying, she could just not know what she is talking about.

Cwyn

Back in those days puerh often was mixed raw with shou. The thinking was that no one wanted to drink raw puerh, so it was made more palatable by adding shou. I’m sure this practice is still going on, just not to the same extent. I have a sheng/shou tea brick from the early 2000s.

AllanK

I did consider that possibility. But I was not sure from the taste.

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curlygc

If it walks like a duck…

AllanK

curlygc, I called the woman who sold me this and told her it was shou. She continued to insist it was sheng. It still looks like shou to me, albeit an aged shou because it had no fermentation flavor at all.

mrmopar

The leaves look a little too black and carbonized to me for a sheng. Could you pick out any whole leaves from the brew to see if you could open them up?

AllanK

Mr Mopar. already threw the leaves out. Too late to pick out leaves and I am in no rush to drink this again. It wasn’t very good in truth. The dry leaves look like shou too. There is a subtly difference between the leaves of an aged sheng and a shou before you brew them and these look like shou. The woman who sold me this tea insisted they were sheng though. She could be lying, she could just not know what she is talking about.

Cwyn

Back in those days puerh often was mixed raw with shou. The thinking was that no one wanted to drink raw puerh, so it was made more palatable by adding shou. I’m sure this practice is still going on, just not to the same extent. I have a sheng/shou tea brick from the early 2000s.

AllanK

I did consider that possibility. But I was not sure from the taste.

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Bio

I am Allan. I live and work in Long Island, New York. I have been amassing a tea collection for nearly two years and have spent way too much money. I now try to buy mostly Puerh as I like it most and it lasts nearly forever. Black tea has a habit of going bad. If anyone is interested in tea swaps I am open to ideas and have quite a cupboard.

Location

Bay Shore, NY

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