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Opening up the bag I was hit with a smoky, earthy aroma – surprised to find a hint of smoke in the dry leaf but it is pleasant and not offensive. Medium brown, clear tea soup. The taste is marvelous and nicely balanced – malt, dark chocolate, and leather mixed together. Silky smooth sip and the light smokiness serves to make the other flavors pop. A very nice complement to breakfast foods.

Sweet potato and earthy aroma with the pleasant taste of fruit, dark cocoa and tobacco coming through in the sip. I really do like this sweet and mellow tea – always reliable and always delicious! No bitterness or astringency. Can’t wait to try the new harvest.

Needed a shou hit this morning. Searched for something I had tasted before since I did not feel like any surprises -2007 Gu Ming Nan Nuo mountain tea. The tea is comfortably woody and robust with an undertone of honey. All in all a very easy ripe tea to enjoy. I picked this cake up at Angelina’s Teas for a mere $21 and I think it is still available. If you are looking for real Nan Nuo mountain leaf at a very reasonable price, I would highly recommend it.

This is a very nice sheng. At $17/ for a 250g cake, it is fairly priced for wild arbor YiWu leaf. Quite young for a sheng but amazingly smooth and sweet.

The cake has light compression making it very easy to pick off the dark dry leaf. A fairly high number of stem pieces found. The tea soup is a very light gold color and appears very clear in the cup. Sweet fruit aroma from the wet leaf. The taste is smooth with only the slightest bite of astringency. There is definitely the sweetness of raisins and stone fruit. Smooth mouth feel and a nice Qi. In later steeps there are the beginning notes of tobacco.

Frankly, if I had tasted this one blind, I would assume that it was at least five years old (not two). I’ll drink this cake now and I picked up another one for aging because I am really curious to try it in 5-7 years. I’m a big fan!!

Quite pleased with this tea. The leaf brews a smooth soup and returns a thick mouth-feel with a quick sweet, earthy aftertaste. Overall, this tea offers a tasty, sweet, dark brew with a little spiciness and is a solid choice for everyday enjoyment.

Beautiful leaf from 100+ year YiWu tea trees so I was anxious to try this one. First few steeps were very subtle – pleasant enough but little depth or complexity. For a moment I wondered if I should just move on to another tea but I decided to keep working with this Yiwu. After the fourth steep there was stronger flavor but certainly not overwhelming – sweet taste, coats the mouth and throat and lingers; enough subtle bitterness slips in to balance nicely. In general this is an easy to drink tea with beautiful high quality leaf. It won’t knock you over with its flavor but a good tea to keep on hand. I used 6.5 grams with a 5s rinse and a 30s idle followed by 10s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 40s steeps. Not my favorite YiWu but definitely worth owning. Note: fairly priced at $35 for a 357g cake.

This Boyou ripe is smooth to the taste with all the sweet, earthy notes one would expect from a good cooked puerh. Brewing the leaves produces a bright brown, ruby red liquor with a creamy, sweet taste. I was able to detect special and intense aromas of spicy dried fruits with a lingering finish. I’ve worked through six steeps and it has more to offer. Found this one at royalpuer.com and I am glad I picked it up.

I am fond of the teas from Big Snow Mountain (Da Xue Shan in Lincang) and have picked up a few different cakes over the past six months. My interest actually developed through the Mengku side of the mountain but this particular cake is made using Yong De leaf – dark almost black leaf with just a few brown buds mixed in. Very light and clear tea soup with an enticing aroma – a light flowery aroma. The mouth-feel is strong and fills and stimulates the mouth long after it has been drunk. The taste is very welcoming – smooth, a little green tea like, only the lightest touch of bitterness, just on the edge of sweetness, a nice lingering aftertaste. Bottom line: the tea offers a very nice fragrance with a smooth sip and solid Qi. This one is a keeper for sure and I’ve just ordered a cake since YS has a 15% off sale today.

This cake is 100% Ban Zhang Wild Ancient Arbor material. Leaves seem to be complete – undamaged during gathering and processing. Very clear pale yellow tea liquor. Nice leaf; medium compression but quite easy to pick. The tea offers a nice bitterness followed by a quick, pleasing sweetness. Plenty of energy in this one. The cake may seem pricey but actually a bargain given the difficulty of finding 100% high quality LBZ material with a few years of aging.

Note: If interested in this same high quality Lao Ban Zhang material at a much lower cost, Yunnan Sourcing has 25g samples of this 2006 leaf or 100g bricks using 100% 2007 LBZ material.

A truly exceptional tea! Traditionally processed; sun-dried early spring tea leaf from very old Yiwu trees; manual stone pressing. A beautiful cake to look at with nice whole leaves and light compression making it very easy to pick apart. Honey-yellow tea soup; sweet and buttery flavor; sweet aftertaste. No astringency and no bitterness at all. Resteeped seven times and it’s still going strong! A valued gem in my puerh tea cake cabinet.