Bitterleaf Teas

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Recent Tasting Notes

80

I very much enjoyed this tea! A nice sweet character, but not saccharine. Bitter Leaf Teas is new to me but clearly one to watch!

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80

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Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Creamy, Floral, Pleasantly Sour, Sweet

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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84

This tea was really good quality, and had tasting notes of medicinal wood and moss. It was a very full tea with a broth-like body, and left a sweetness in the mouth that reminded me of stevia. Overall, I’d recommend this tea to people who are new to the Jingmai region, and wants to try a jingmai that won’t hurt their wallet.

You can read my full review here…

https://www.theoolongdrunk.com/single-post/2017/07/07/In-Bloom—-Bitter-Leaf-Teas

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40

Earlier reviewer was correct in noting shellfish aroma, like a tray of shrimp the day after the party. If you can get over that flaw the underlying tea’s pretty boring and lacks the aged notes I’ve enjoyed in other mid-90s shou of less questionable provenance.

Preparation
6 g 3 OZ / 90 ML

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80

Great tea, pairs well with the common cold. A drink-now candidate for me.

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78

- good daily drinker when the rain starts.
No prominent aromas but a nice huigan can occour after a while.
Also probably a good and clean bridge Shou for Coffee-people.

Flavors: Coffee, Earth

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 30 sec 1 tsp 3 OZ / 100 ML

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40

Earthy, smoky and sweet, remembering me of liquorice.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-black-magic-blt

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79

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Flavors: Chestnut, Dark Bittersweet, Peat, Smooth, Spicy, Walnut, Wet Earth, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 2 tsp 4 OZ / 120 ML

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70

Strong with smoky and intense bitterness.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2007-dear-comrade-blt

Flavors: Bitter, Smoke, Spicy

Preparation
10 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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55

Smooth and spicy with interesting bamboo-note but a bit sour.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2002-old-stalk-blt

Flavors: Bamboo, Smoke, Smooth, Sour, Spicy

Preparation
10 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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70

Velvet smooth with a subtile bitterness and spicy.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-straight-no-chaser-blt

Flavors: Bitter, Smooth, Spicy

Preparation
8 g 3 OZ / 80 ML

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85

Thick, super spicy and a heavy Hongcha-like sweetness.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-dragon-blood-blt

Flavors: Heavy, Spicy, Sweet, Thick

Preparation
8 g 3 OZ / 80 ML

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91

I’ve found that the so-called curated puerh vendors tend to have a house style. This is largely due to their buying teas that reflect their own taste. After drinking about 8 Bitterleaf teas in 3 days, I can conclude that at least part of the Bitterleaf house style is that they really like teas with a thick texture in the mouth.

This tea is an exemplar of that style. It is thick and fills the mouth with flavor. The first steep had good tobacco flavor with some straw and wood. Good texture and finish. Lots of interest in the mouth; flavor varies during each sip. 2nd steep: Good nose. I really like the texture. Flavor good but not as complex. 4th (30s): Medium nose is tobacco and spice. Taste has a touch of bitterness but also some spice, wood, and perhaps a hint of fruit. Great mouth-feel and texture, and an excellent finish. I’m also really feeling the cha qi.

Funny: after writing my notes I read the vendor blurb and they talked about strong orchid aroma, so I took a sniff and thought: “Oh, so that’s what orchids smell like.” There was a definite aroma that I thought of as a blend of straw and spice but could certainly be orchid. It was pleasant but not IMHO that powerful.

Part of my buying strategy is to find vendors whose taste is similar to mine. This tea punches all of my buttons. It isn’t as fruity or floral as I would like, but is rich and complex, which are my main criterion for judging puerh. There was some bitterness around the 4th steep, which is usually a negative for me, but in this tea, it just felt right.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 g 3 OZ / 88 ML

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80

I’m sipping through a pile of samples from Bitterleaf, trying to decide if they will be the source of my big birthday order. So far, the results are mixed. I almost ordered a cake of this unseen, since I really enjoyed the 2017 Year of the Monkey Yiwu. I’m glad I didn’t because I didn’t like this one nearly as much.

The first cup was very sweet and viscous in the mouth. Not much taste other than the sweetness. 2nd steep had a bit more flavor, but nothing to write home about. Reminds me a bit of a silver needle puerh but without the floral character. Later steeps were disappointing. Not much there. Glad I didn’t buy a cake.

This isn’t a bad tea and might not be a bad way for someone to ease into puerh, but it just didn’t have enough character for me to want to buy more.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 g 3 OZ / 88 ML
mrmopar

I have a hard time with Yiwu and JingMai a lot of times myself.

Inkay

I am sort of feeling the same way about this one so far, but often tend to find myself underwhelmed by young Yiwu material, though there are some mountains I really enjoy the material of. Interestingly enough, my early steeps of this one were almost tasteless, but it became more interesting later in the session. Hoping to see this one develop into something more over time.

Bitterleaf

Like Inkay said, I find Yiwu teas tend to take a few months to a year to spread their wings, so to speak. Of course there there are exceptions, but this one is probably in the former category. We have stock of this tea for every year going back to 2009 though and it’s fairly consistent, in my incredibly biased opinion. If you have the Year of the Monkey from last year then it should be a relatively good indication of where this is going, although neither this nor last year were typical weather-wise. Time will be the final judge!

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89

1st steep (10s): Mild nose. Taste is very sweet and approachable straw, with floral notes and a hint of spice. This isn’t terribly complex, but is VERY enjoyable. Pretty good texture as well. (10s): Similar to first steep. Moderate cha qi snuck up on me. 3rd (10s): A bit more to this one. A bit of a meaty flavor, with some tobacco. Good finish. 4th Mostly wood and tobacco. Long finish. Overall, I liked this tea. Very approachable at first, it gained interest in later steeps.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 g 6 OZ / 177 ML

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Tea: TTB review: Bitterleaf “Diamond Cutter” 2002 Lincang sheng

Prep: 60cc gaiwan, 4g. Longish steep to open her up, flash steep x2, 10s, 10s, 20s, 30s, etc..
Sessions with this tea: 2

Taste: this tastes like young apricot with the skin still on, astringent at first with lots of sweetness at the end. Unfortunately the sweetness is stevia and thin and plain and kinda boring, without many extra notes. As the tea steeps out there are some non-specific woody notes.

Body: mouthfeel starts medium, eventually turns thin. Moderate energy. Not much going on in my body or headspace with this tea

Sample: chunk o’ cake traveling around in the box. This is hard to break and fragments a bit.

Summary: I wonder if this tea would have been more interesting as an adolescent. The flavor is understated in both astringency and sweetness, and the body is very mild. Maybe I could leaf this a lot harder? Maybe it has changed temperatures too many times as a result of the traveling box? This would probably be described by many people as “clean.” I guess I like my teas just a little bit dirtier.

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83

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Flavors: Fruity, Smoke, Smooth, Tobacco

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 0 min, 15 sec 2 tsp 4 OZ / 110 ML

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100

The new Secret Garden is a fantastic tea thats complex and has a large array of tasting notes. I personally think it’s a step-up from last years Secret Garden because it’s more complex, full bodied, and all around heavenly. At first, the tea opened up to a broth that was sweet, fruity, and full bodied. The tea’s tasting notes kept progressing as it continuously transformed through out the entire session.

You can read my full review here -

https://www.theoolongdrunk.com/single-post/2017/06/09/2017-Secret-Garden—-Bitter-Leaf-Teas

Flavors: Fruity, Hay, Medicinal, Sweet

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 0 min, 15 sec 4 g 2 OZ / 60 ML

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I’d hesitated to try smokey tea again after a Lapsang souchong smoke bomb I’d bought on a trip; but after reading the description of Red Star 7542 I got a sample along with a tea ware order.

I gave the tea a rest and when the bag was opened was happy to find the leaf pleasantly smokey and not overwhelming for my taste.

The brewed leaf with water off the boil had a semi sweetness which lasted many steeps. I think if I bought a cake it would be an interesting tea for aging.

Edit: I ordered a cake during their 2017 BF sale.

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86

I normally do my tasting notes in a text editor first so as to not lose anything, but unfortunately I didn’t do that this time.

This tea was good enough that I seriously considered buying a cake despite the ridiculous amount of tea I already have on hand. Still, very tempting.

Preparation
0 min, 15 sec

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83

Puerh Tea TTB. This was a very nice ripe. I didn’t notice any bitterness although there was a fair amount of fermentation flavor that lasted four or five steeps. There was a sweet note to the fermentation. It evolved into a different sweet note once the fermentation was history. Overall this was a very good brick.

I steeped this twelve times with 10.4g leaf in a 150ml gaiwan with boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. There were definitely a few more steeps in the leaves.

Preparation
Boiling 10 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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