VoirenTea Send Message

Today drinking this grandpa-style in a big 350ml mug. Gives a nice thick black liquid, tastes earthy without any off notes or getting too strong. The leaves sink to the bottom once they soak through, making it easy to drink with it straight in the mug. I got two mugfuls out of this, with a third that was quite watery but not all the way back at water.

Fine for a day with a cold! (So I wouldn’t have noticed anything subtle going on). 1 mini tuo varies from 4.5 to 5.5g.

I’ve had it gongfu style previously – it was much better in longer steeps (1 min plus) and I note there was a little sweetness at one point. That’s why I had it down as a candidate for trying again in a mug.

This is smooth and has a flavour that isn’t like shou, which I had difficulty placing. It isn’t exactly bitter and smells ‘hotter’ than shou. Another review said nutmeg – that might be it. Some spice that is not spicy. It has some mouth-tingling feel.

I also found this a very sleepy tea – I kept dozing off when drinking it.

4g/80ml in a glazed gaiwan rather than a pot, because this stuff is pungent!

This is exactly what I wanted it to be. I love sticky rice herb. I’ve been keeping the cake of this on its own out in the open in its wrapper, as you could smell the sticky rice even through the ziploc bag the cake was originally in. Far away from my other puerh!

The shou here goes very dark fast and gives a nice thick carrier for the flavour, while otherwise staying out of the way. (File under sticky rice tea rather than shou, really).

Nom nom.

Loose sheng, the dry leaves smell actually earthy and are fairly large.
Brewed 3.2g in 65ml Yixing.
After 1 rinse, the leaves smell earthy and sweet now.

First few steeps – this feels way more like shou. I know shou was developed to mimic aged sheng, but this is the first aged sheng I’ve had that actually tastes like shou – the others have all had camphor and mouth-tingliness.

It has a thick mouthfeel, works better with 10s or so steeps rather than 5s. I think it has a very slight damp plaster note along with the earthiness, but it’s a bit hard to say and it could be something else.

I thought this was merely ok. (Sample from YS, 11yrs Kunming storage).

It tasted of faded smoke and a tiny bit of camphor. The wet leaves smell much more interesting than it tastes – more rounded. Compared to other aged sheng I’ve had, it doesn’t have so much going for it. Takes slightly longer steeps than others to get the flavour.