This is my first sheng from white2tea, and it came in the monthly club. I like the orb idea for convenience sake. My husband thought it was a Ferraro Rocher chocolate! Ha!

When I got it, I thought it weighed 10g, as advertised, and was going to split it in half because my gaiwan isn’t that big. I also normally use about 6g for a sheng session. Thanks to TheTeaFairy’s suggestion, I broke it in half by bending it with my fingers! But then I weighed it and decided that half an orb was too small, so I went with the whole orb anyway! It was actually around 8g.

I did two 5-second rinses and then steeped 10/15/20/25/35/45/60s and beyond! I actually had this over 2 days, which is the first time I’ve done that. I just spread the leaf out on a small plate and let it dry overnight and went back to it the next day and gave it a couple of rinses.

This is the thickest, most buttery mouthfeel sheng I’ve had. Really delicious! The liquor is a beautiful peach color. In the early steepings, it seemed more savory, with a touch of tobacco and vegetal astringency, but the buttery smoothness was dominant. The sweetness emerged early, by the third steep, and got stronger as the steepings progressed. The buttery mouthfeel lingered throughout. This was one of those everlasting gobstopper teas. I lost count of the infusions. The later ones had a juicy fruity sweetness with that buttery mouthfeel.

I must warn you, though, that it was a bit harsh on my stomach, and had an extremely energetic effect. I was pretty tea drunk and giggly on the first day. On the second day, my heart was pumping fast with only a couple steeps! I wasn’t sure whether it was just this tea, or whether it was because of the large amount of leaf. I really enjoyed it though, and would definitely consider picking one up in the future.

Brian

im sold. ill be trying mine this wknd

Tealizzy

Brian – Awesome! Enjoy!

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Comments

Brian

im sold. ill be trying mine this wknd

Tealizzy

Brian – Awesome! Enjoy!

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Bio

Another profile facelift! My tastes have changed a lot from when I first discovered loose leaf tea.

I can trace my tea journey back to October 2012, when I discovered DavidsTea. Before that, I had the occasional cup and enjoyed high tea at An Afternoon to Remember, which has since closed.

I went through a period of wanting to try all the teas, and was really into flavored teas, especially dessert blacks, but my tastes have substantially changed over time.

I still enjoy the occasional flavored black or rooibos, but I’m more into unflavored black teas right now and recently, puerh. Chinese black teas are amazing…with their notes of chocolate or sweet potato, who needs a flavored tea? I had a much steeper learning curve when it came to puerh. I used to dump out cups of puerh for tasting like leather. Now, I am really enjoying them. I think it took finding good quality puerh and steeping them gong fu style to really enjoy them.

I also, on occasion, enjoy a good oolong, white, or green tea.

Favorite tea companies right now include: Mandala, Teavivre, Butiki, Golden Moon, Lupicia, and DavidsTea (for teaware mostly).

Just a note: I don’t rate my teas numerically because my iPad doesn’t like the scroll bar. Maybe someday that will change…hint hint, steepster! ;)

P.S. My profile picture is of one of my 2 cats, Holly, who is a little princess but very photogenic, and she loves boxes, including those that bring me tea! :)

Location

San Francisco Bay Area

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