impuerthoughts Send Message

I’ve had this tea for quite awhile.. about 6 months. In that time, I’ve used about 70% of it but haven’t written down my thoughts. The cake has a sweet, dry grass/hay and apricot smell to it. It’s somewhat difficult to break up, but this could be a result of my dry storage. As time goes on, it’s coming apart in tuo style chunks instead of nice whole leaf pieces. I’m using 7g in my favorite ~90ml yixing pot this time as I find that this tea can be pretty light and it responds well to a heavy hand with regard to both leaf amount and steep time. A puer newbie could steep the snot out of this and it would still be drinkable.

The first steep, at 10 seconds, is very light in taste but the sweet aftertaste is already apparent. Not much to this one – I often toss it and start drinking at the second steep. With budget tea like this, I don’t feel too bad about it.

With a second steep, the liqour looks closer to what I expect from these leaves. It’s a pale amber color, and the flavor, though still light, is there. It’s sweet dry hay – really pleasant and familiar. There’s some florality but I can’t place it. As the tea in my cup cools, I notice that it tastes fuller and thicker – much better that what you might expect for a budget offering.

Hot water into the pot once again. This time, the brew is certainly darker. It’s thicker as well and there’s some mouth drying effect happening. The apricot flavor is more present now. I think this steep went on a little too long.

On steep number four, a vegetal green grassy flavor makes its first appearance. The astringency meter is rising, but it’s not too bad.

Five steeps in, the liquor looks like an amber sample. Jurassic Park vibes. It’s thick and sweet with more of that green grass flavor barging into the picture. There’s a slight minerality as the tea leaves my tongue.

From here on out, the taste is pretty vegetal but some of the original sweetness is intact. I know from experience that as I continue to steep this out, the vegetal green taste will be gradually replaced by a mineral sweetness. You’re not going to get 15-20 steeps out of this tea and I think that’s fine. It’s a budget daily drinker that’s pretty enjoyable for what it is. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just don’t want to spend 2 hours drinking the same pu. It’s intended to be an educational tool paired with the other cakes in the set, and I think it serves that purpose well.

I’ve measured out 3.5g of this tea for my ~80ml gaiwan. The leaves are predominantly green with some older brownish leaves thrown in. I spot a few fuzzy silver buds here and there as well. The dry leaf reminds me of a sweet, springy leaf pile with no autumn mustiness. In a warm gaiwan, the leaves smell like deeply savory, salty edamame.

With the first steep, I get overcooked edamame off the gaiwan lid and a spicy medicinal smell from the leaves. The liquor is a clear pale yellow with a green tinge. It’s quite strong in the mouth with a more savory, salty flavor.

The gaiwan lid smells more like fresh sweet greens on the second steep. The liquor is darker and the flavor is beginning to remind me of asparagus. Surprisingly, there’s a substantial sweet aftertaste recalling unripe fruit. The multicolored leaves make for a nice kaleidoscope-like presentation in the gaiwan.

The third (and fourth) steep is similar, but stronger and darker in color. If you’ve ever had soup with leafy greens floating around in it, this steep tastes like those greens. Gai lan or bok choy is a pretty close match. It doesn’t taste like the veggies have been stewed to death – they’re cooked just right. Some earthy bassyness that reminds me of huang pian is developing now. The sweet aftertaste from the previous steep has mostly left.

For steep number 5, I’m bumping up my water temperature to 195. I feel like I’ve seen what this tea has to offer at 180, so bring on the heat. The result is predictable – everything is a little bit stronger and the additional heat has brought out a woody note. Not a bad thing, but not something that I typically enjoy. The tea has decent body but it refuses to thicken up like I hoped it would.

Steep number… eight or so? I forgot about this one and left it about a minute longer than I meant to. A lively citrus (lemon, I think) note has appeared in the last couple of steeps. Pushing this tea doesn’t add any bitterness or astringency. A nice, accidental discovery. That’s got me thinking that this may be a good candidate for grandpa style brewing – I’ll give that a try next time.

This tea is not extremely interesting and that’s reflected in the price. It makes up for its shortcomings with consistency and its ability to shrug off abuse like it’s nothing.

Received a sample of this in Liquid Proust’s 2017 Sheng Olympiad. This is my second session with this tea as I had a generous 12g sample bag. I enjoyed my previous session with this tea and remember thinking that it definitely stands above the other Bang Dong samples in the package. Dry leaf has a typical young sheng clean apricot and grassy smell. Thrown into a dry, hot gaiwan, the aroma is similar, but more pronounced and fuller.

The color of the rinse is a pale yellow trending towards orange, not unexpected for the age of this tea. The gaiwan lid smells of spiced apricot, a bit more nuanced than the younger shengs I typically drink in the $.10-$.15/g price range.

The first steep brews up about the same as the rinse, perhaps a little darker. There’s a bit of cloudiness in the liquor. The taste is very soft and mellow with a pleasant lingering apricot aftertaste in the back of the mouth.

Steep number two is darker still and I can tell I’m getting close to reaching the juicy center of this tea. The fruity sweet taste is still there, but it’s now joined by a creamy vegetal note and increasing thickness. The vegetal flavor is, to me, reminiscent of white2tea’s Poundcake.

I let the third steep go on a little longer to see what happens when I push this tea a bit. It’s still sweet and getting thicker, but a pleasant bitterness has appeared.

By the fourth steep, the cloudiness has cleared up almost completely. The sweet creamy vegetable taste begins to overtake the apricot up front but the apricot is as present as ever in the aftertaste. This is, in my opinion, a rather dynamic tea. It’s something I look for as it adds interest to a session.

The fifth steep, at about 35 seconds, continues the trend of the vegetal, green taste overshadowing the soft apricot. We’re not at the stewed greens stage yet, but I can tell we’ll probably get there in time.

The leaves have just about fully opened at this point and the young green flavor has built up substantially. There’s some astringency creeping in and the bitterness has remained at a nice, manageable level. The qi is relaxing – not something I’d want to drink first thing in the morning.

For the back half of this tea, I’m bumping up the temperature to see what else I can get out of the leaves. At 205F, I’m getting more astringency and bitterness, but also sweetness. With quick back-to-back steeps, my face is feeling numb and my body’s warming up. This tea just keeps going. The color has been consistent since steep three and the flavor refuses to drop off.

After about 12 steeps, the aforementioned green sheng flavor is still quite present and doesn’t show any signs of changing.

This is a really agreeable tea. Approachable for puer newbies and enjoyable for vets. There’s something for everyone here, but it comes at a price. This cake looks to be sold out as of January 2017, but at $.44/g, it’s on the expensive side. Would I buy a whole cake? Probably not. Would I drink a whole cake? Yep!