EBay Shanghai Story

Oh… I may have found my Holy Grail. The search for the elusive replacement for Min River’s JJM may have come to an end. This is a fantastic JJM. It’s cocoa and malt and sweet hay with a medium body. And I’ve had basically a soup bowl full of it. :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKMVdkahHGE/?taken-by=midwestteafest

Judging by all eight steeps this was a good tea, it was overall very tasty. Judging by the first couple of steeps not so much. There was an initial unpleasant note that persisted for three or four steeps. I never did pin down a specific description just that it was unpleasant.There was also a fair amount of bitterness in the early steeps. There was also a fair amount of fermentation flavor in the early steeps. This also dissipated by around the fourth steep. What was left after these flavors were gone was quite nice. What was left was sweet, almost fruity. In the end I will neither recommend or not recommend this tea. It was quite good in the end and not so good in the beginning.

I steeped this tea eight times in a 180ml teapot with 12.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. If I wasn’t at my caffeine limit for the day I am sure I could have gotten another four of five steeps out of it.

Bought more of this recently, forgot that I had it somewhere. This time it got the full gongfu treatment, using my new Anta Pottery Clay Boiler. Initially, there was a bittersweet taste from the ripe puerh and a certain amount of fermentation flavor. The sticky rice flavor, however, does to a certain degree cover up the fermentation taste. The sticky rice flavor had a sweet taste to it but is hard to describe. It’s kind of an earthy taste, but not the earthy of the ripe puerh. If I remember correctly, this mini tuocha uses real sticky rice, not the herb that mimics that taste. Overall I liked this tea. It is nice to drink but not spectacular.

I brewed this eight times in a 120ml gaiwan with two mini tuocha or about 9.5g leaf 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, and 30 sec.

According to the description of this tea it uses real sticky rice added to the tea, not an herb which I think is also used for the sticky rice flavor at times. This one is good. It has a nice sweet flavor from the sticky rice and a sweet flavor from the ripe puerh. There is a fair amount of fermentation flavor but the sticky rice flavor does a good job of covering this up. In any case I detect none of the extreme nastiness that is sometimes found in bad ripe puerh. I am afraid I was too lazy to brew this gongfu this morning so my review is based on one steep.

I brewed two mini tuo cha or about 10g in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker with boiling water for 30 seconds after a long 20 second rinse to break up the mini tuocha.

5g. Gaiwan.

I bought this after reading a favourable recommendation from AllanK. Thanks – keep up those reviews.

Dry: Dusty, musky, chocolate. Loose leaves. The leaves looks like roasted Oolong. There is a powdery dust on the inside of the zip lock pouch.

Wet: Aroma of porridge, sugary sweet and hot milk. There is a mixture of dark green and dark brown leaves. No large twigs.

It brews dark brown in seconds and has a soft flavour of porridge oats, with a soft sugary sweetness that is picked up on the sip and continues into the finish. No fishiness here. Not creamy sweet like White2Tea CNNP and not as dark as YS Menghai 2008, so somewhere in between.
This tea sits well above low quality ripe, but is too singularly porridge-sweet to be outstanding. It delivered an impressive number of steeps (7-10) and is still going.

This tea is inexpensive and very tasty. She implies it was made in the early part of the century but who knows. I don’t detect any fermentation funk so it is possible. It is good, nice and sweet. I will admit though, I was too lazy to gongfu this this morning and just western brewed it so I don’t know how far this tea will go. Judging from one steep, I like it. While I added sugar to my tea I’d say it was sweet before that. It has a sort of sweet flavor that sugar just doesn’t add. It is good. For the price I paid I am glad I bought it. She sells 500g for $17.99, a bargain.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and boiling water for 30 seconds after giving it a short rinse.