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This is one of my first Pu-erh tried at the begining of this year.
I forgot that it was in my cupboard yet, so after passing some months and after trying other new Pu-erh teas, I came back to drink it.

These are loose leaf form, single leaf or group of two (including bud), brown colour with light and dark tones, shaped flat. It smeels earthy and delicate wood.

The liquor is red brown, clear, with light body but astringent, after it starts to be a bit creamy.

I’ve rinsed it for 15’’ and the aromas surprised me: earthy but also smoky, malty, robust, intense.
Also in the mouth I taste smoky, earthy, woody notes, not so much intense, and bitter; the aftertaste of mild smoky and bitterness is long.
By the delicate notes in the mouth and the bitterness for me it’s difficult enjoying these tea.

Not too bad, not too good…

Steeping time: 15’’, 20’’, 30’’, 45’’, 1’, 1’20’’, 1’40’’, 2’10’’..

This is one from the six samples of spring 2016 taiwanese oolongs received as present by someone. :) <3

The dry leaves are rolled, with the stem visible, and they smell fresh and vegetal.

I washed them for 15 seconds at boiling temperature, the leaves just half opened.
The next steeping was for 1 minute and the leaves were finally full opened, showing entire stem with 3-4 apical leaves. The leaves are intact and they have a beautiful dark green colour.

The body liquor is soft and creamy, it’s clear and it has a vibrant light yellow colour.
It has a light and vivacious flavor with floral (flowers with strong smell), weeds and, secondly, vegetal, herbal, and marine notes. These notes remains as aftertaste in the mouth for long time.
I think that the second steep is the peak, from the third it starts to die, but I continued to steeping it also for 12 minutes. Yes, at the end it’s flat, but it’s a very pleasure to taste floral and vegetal notes, delicate by then.

My first (superficial) thought when I tasted it for the first time was: “that seems an hybrid between Sencha and Pouchong!”.
Sorry, lol.

Steeping time: 1’;1’15’’; 1’30’’; 2’; 3’; 5’; 8’; 12’.

This is my first young raw pu-erh and I feel very enthisiastic.
As a newbie on pu-erh teas I was just tried only 1999 raw pu-erh and Liu Bao by GrandTea and I was mostly drinking just ripe pu-erhs.

This one really surprised me, well…I read other reviews about this tea and I should expect such notes; but I felt surprised anyway.
That’s beacuse I was just get used to tasting classic notes on aged Raw Pu-erh, Ripe Pu-erh and Liu Bao. _

I like so much the cake, it’s a beautiful mosaic of leaves and buds, with green and beige colours.
Before brewing it for the first time I waited a month, and after this time I noticed that these dry leaves smeels a bit fruity. :P

I used 5 g for 100 ml; I rinsed for 10 sec and than brewed for 15’’, 20’’, 30’’, 45’’, 1’, 1’30’’, 2’. 3’, etc….until 30 minutes.

The liquor has a golden yellow colour and it’s clear, with a creamy body .
It immediately release his sweet, vegetal (seaweed), fruity (apricot) aromas.
In the mouth feel these notes, plus herbal, and, secondly, also floral notes; sometimes I taste a little bit of astingency.
It leaves a good vegetal-fruity aftertaste, it’s a very vivacious tea.

After many brewings it start to die, but the fruity notes keeps on and it’s a very pleasure drinking it also after a 30 minutes of brewing.
I can’t get tired of this. _

This is a 50 g cake received by KittyLovesTea from an her giveaway. :3

This is my second experience with a GABA Oolong tea, and finally I changed my opinion positively.
With the first GABA oolong tried, purchased from Teaway.it, I thought that it wasn’t a tea for me; then when I got a free sample from Grand Tea I believed that it would remain for eternity in my cupboard, but when I tried it…. well, it finished in a short time.

It comes from Huangshan, in Anhui Province, China, harvest of 2015.

Damn, I really enjoyed the liveliness of this tea, with a round and creamy body, floral and tomato aromas, vegetable tip.
The liquor color is orange, tending to brown tones, clear.

Even in the mouth there is, initially, a mainly floral notes, and secondly tomato; subsequent infusions begins to predominate tomato notes and floral notes fade into the background.

It is balanced, relaxing, I liked even infusions of 20, 30 minutes by which time they felt only vague aroma of tomato.

The dried leaves are rolled, brown, with a light floral aroma, but its aromas must be awakened.

I have performed a wash of 20 seconds and the leaves are open completely in the second infusion of 1’.
Successive infusions: 1’15 ‘’, 1’30 ‘’, 2 ’, 3’, 5 ‘, 8’ …

I tried this sample from Grand tea (thank you!) and I’m so surprised how much I liked this tea!
I brewed it on 80’C, started from 1-2 minutes, in the first infusion, to 5 minutes on the fifth and last infusion.

Just in the first infusion I can taste the floral and honey notes.
Accentuated notes but at the same time it’s delicate, sweet.
The colour of liquor is very light yellow and clear, the body of the liquor is smooth and creamy. The taste persists in the mouth for some minutes.

From the first until the third infusion is equilibrate and static, from the fourth infusion it start to lose notes.

It’s fantastic, I would so much drink this tea also in the future. I recommend it! ____

In this period i’m experimenting with cold brewing tea. This morning I’m tasting Iced Keemun tea after 9 hours of infusion in the fridge; I putted around 3-4 teaspoon of this Qi Men Hong Keemun superior in 1000 ml of water. I’m surprised that this tastes good! The infusion is deep orange, more clear than the hot brew, which is very dark. I can instanty smell the tipical flavour of a keemun, while I’m drinking the tea taste is more delicate, but I can clearly notice the tipical lightly smoked but sweet flavour, a little acidulous. After drinking the taste persists in the mouth for long time. Successfull experiment…for me. -

Any suggestions for better cold brewing are appreciated. ^^"""