301 Tasting Notes

drank Ancient Forest by Zhi Tea
301 tasting notes

I try to evaluate teas on their own merits and I can say that I always enjoy this one. While it is not as strong as most of my morning selections, I appreciate its character – smooth, mellow, sweet, a little fruity. It’s always good for a resteep but I do use a little less water in the second brew to enhance the flavor of the cup.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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The cake has the classic flavors of good ripe puerh. Smooth to the taste with all the sweet, earthy notes one would expect from a high quality shu. Always nice to come back to this one.

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I am really enjoying this wild black tea from Norbu – smooth, sweet and fruity. Deliciousness in a cup! Beautiful long twisted dry leaf; rich red-brown tea liquor; a very mellow sip. This one is a keeper for me.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 45 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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I am still in the early stages of my developing relationship with sheng. Today I enjoyed a nice encounter with this sheng from Verdant. I’ve only worked through the first two steepings but the flavors have moved from lemon and greens to pepper with a bit of astringency (although an astringency that seems quite pleasant). Anxious to see what the leaf reveals in the many steepings I intend to put it through.

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This one is a keeper!!! A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this cake held by a trusted seller I’ve been dealing with lately. I have long been intrigued by this 2005 Six Famous Mountains series, so I did not hesitate to purchase it. The original rice paper wrapper was a little worn after years of storage and it had a few rips in it. It was too tempting – I usually put my puer cakes directly into a special cabinet for aging but in this case I dumped out the loose leaves and scraped more so that I could fill the gaiwan and enjoy a few cups.
That was three days ago and I am now on the tenth steep. This little gem has not yet lost steam. It was a bit smoky in the first three brews (this surprised me a bit). Once I got through to steep #4, it was delightfully smooth, bright and sweet. I have been beside myself looking forward each day to a session with this tea. The cake is now in the cabinet where I plan to let it age for another year before I pull it out to pick off several chunks. I can’t wait!

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec
mrmopar

Spill the beans on the seller please……

Sammerz314

Sounds very nice hehe

DigniTea

Picked it up at Angelina’s Teas. It was the last one which is why the wrapper was not in great shape.

mrmopar

Lucky lucky you are!

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I like kukicha. Cocoa nibs enhance the flavor but I should note that I added extra nibs. Good lower caffeine option to have on hand.

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First experience with this one. Definite astringency. Complex flavor. Not sure I appreciate this one yet but since the leaf should have staying power I’ll continue to work through lots of resteeps.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 6 g

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Broke open another orange today — to me this is the pinnacle of natural flavoring in pure tea leaf. Gong Ting fermented in an orange rind and it is delicious. You break off as much orange peel as you want to add flavor to your puerh. This is a highly enjoyable find!

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A pleasant cup of earthy warmth. I enjoyed its very smooth deep oak flavor with a rich dark brown clear liquor and I detected a touch of dark chocolate and honey. Double 3 second rinse and then I combined (4) six second gaiwan infusions into one sixteen ounce travel mug and hit the road. This was part of a very generous sample which accompanied the 357g cake I recently purchased. The cake is for aging a year or two but I look forward to continuing with the sample very soon.

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Smooth, sweet and seductive. This shou is a joy to savor and enjoy. However, it did not start out that way and I almost gave up on it after the third steep. Luckily I continued because the fourth steep was magical. At the core is a solid oak flavor with delicious fruit (perhaps dark cherries) around the edges with hints of a dark bitter chocolate. The liquor is a beautiful clear dark brown with an appealing richness. Very fair price for this offering and I’m on my 9th steep and plan to try another two or three tomorrow before tossing the leaves. This was a sample included in my most recent order and I plan to pick up a cake with my next order.

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Bio

I drink mostly puer and sometimes what we as Westerners think of as black tea.

I no longer assign numerical ratings to teas because our enjoyment of tea is very subjective. Reactions to a particular tea vary from person to person and within the same person across different tasting sessions.

My tea notes are simply comments reflecting my impression at that specific point in time. They are helpful to me and if they happen to be useful to someone else that is good.

For me, tea is magical with its ability to transform by bringing one back to center and inspiring both peace and contentment.
Reformed coffee drinker. Switched to tea as part of my goal to work on living a healthier, more balanced life — haven’t looked back since.

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