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Sample from 2016 Puerh Plus TTB.

I made sure to grab some Mandala samples since their store is only a few hours from here which as far as tea vendors go means we are practically neighbors. Plus I’m going to have to place an order some day for some tea soak anyway and its not like I’m not going to order any tea as well.
Im not very experienced with sheng, the vast majority of what I’ve had has been either very young (1-2 years) or nondescript (unidentifiable “green puer”). One of the things I sort of got a handle on while sorting through the TTB samples is how older sheng said start to smell when fermentation gets underway, and thus sheng smelled older to me. I brewed about 175F and didn’t rinse. The 1st cup came out with the fruity apricot of a young sheng. The 2nd steep was a bit bitter, but with an earthy flavor. A ruddy color started to come out here which continued to darken over the next few steps into a dark gold color. 3rd steep was tobacco, smoke, and acrid bitter. 4th became so pleasant that I drank it without taking notes. After that the tea smoothed out considerably and became a little sweet. There was also a silky texture to the tea. I lost count of steeps after this,but it lasted awhile. The leaves at the end of this were mostly green with some with dark purple brown coloration. There were quite a few fat buds as well.