Farmerleaf

With my Farmerleaf sample order, I received a couple of samples which were not for sale on their site. They were labeled 2014 Jingmai Shengtai, and there was both a Spring and Autumn version. This seemed like a fun opportunity for a comparative tasting, so I went back and forth between the two for a couple of days. I really don’t know much about these teas – for all I know, they might not be very related at all, and they did in fact taste quite different.

The spring tea’s leaf had an aroma which included grass, spice, straw, tobacco, and fruit. It was a very interesting tea. Early in the session, I noticed notes of pine and sweetness, along with just a bit of mintiness. The texture was thick and creamy, and the flavor filled my mouth upon swallowing. The middle of the session was more of a sugarcane sweetness, with a bit of fruity to back it up. The late session threw me for a loop, as the sweetness remained alongside a resurgent minty flavor – it was kind of like drinking Creme de Menthe. The tea went for a good 15 steeps before it was done also.

The Autumn tea was also enjoyable, but had a much less diverse and deep character to it. This tea had similar notes in the aroma, but it was a little more airy if that makes sense. The early session was characterized by a crisp and vegetal sweetness – I would almost call it beany. It was not particularly heavy though there was a bit of thickness in my mouth. Later in the session, the flavor was more sweet floral hay, like an alfalfa field in bloom. The flavor did not linger for more than a few seconds, a marked difference from this tea’s spring counterpart. The Autumn did have similar longevity.

I have often heard Autumn puer described as more aromatic and less thick or deep than Spring puer, and I certainly found that to be the case when comparing these two. There were many differences in flavor as well, which was another fun comparison to make. I think I enjoyed the Spring one more, but the Autumn tea was easier to drink, both because it was more approachable and simple (not a bad thing), and not quite as heavy in the mouth or stomach.

Thanks, Farmerleaf, for including these samples in my order!

I got three really enjoyable sessions out of this sample – another hit from Farmerleaf for me. The dry leaf has a very sweet aroma – reminiscent almost of icing or marshmallow. After a rinse, it remains sweet, but more like dry pipe tobacco.

The tea starts off pretty crisp, with rather bright and grassy notes, accompanied by some sweet straw undertones and a quickly thick texture. The taste is quite clean and the tea feels good in my mouth and down my throat. Easy drinking from the beginning.

The grassy flavor doesn’t last beyond steep number four, though it is replaced by just a whisper of a fruity flavor. It’s hardly there, more as another dimension of the tea’s sweetness. Around the fourth steep, I started to feel a bit of qi from this one. Within the next couple of steeps after that, a bit of drying astringency started to creep into the tea – still quite a small amount for a young tea though. This astringency was completely muted when I brewed it in my Jianshui pot for the third session.

Steeps 7-10 were very enjoyable, with a slightly fruity/floral sweetness – it was hard to distinguish precisely. Here the tea’s long-lasting and powerful huigan shone the brightest. I also found myself feeling steadily energized by the tea.

Steeps 11-15 were a little bit different as well. Some of the sweetness dropped off to a degree, allowing the tea to take on a bit more of a savory character. It was nutty, with a bit of vanilla in the finish. The tea was certainly still sweet, most notably in the lingering aftertaste. The tea lasted through another couple steeps, which came out lighter, but still pleasantly sweet. In my Jianshui pot, it only went around 13 steeps, likely because that thing has such a slow pour that just using the pot ends up pushing the tea a good deal harder.

This is definitely the highest quality tea I’ve tasted yet from Farmerleaf. I don’t know if it technically counts as Jingmai tea, as it says Nanzuo is a hamlet “bordering Mt. Jingmai” on their site. This has a decently different character than their Jingmai teas I’ve tried so far, but I’ll be interested to compare it with their other higher-end offerings. Very easy to drink, clean, almost zero astringency, pretty solid texture and energy. There’s a lot to like about this tea.

Don’t beat around the bush, if there are thorns they will get you regardless how careful or not you are.

This tea is more or less better described as a black tea with honey notes coming through like neighbors talking at 2am and your walls are thin; you know its there and you get about 40% of what’s going on.

I think this is only the 2,3, or 4th batch… and there is much to be worked on as it tries to emulate OB; it’s not actually OB if you know the processing and all, or at least that’s my understanding (which I didn’t even describe, woooho scapegoating with my own knowledgessssssss)

I’m tired. This tea is fine and all, but go into it like the orbs… it’s pretty much 90% black and 10% OB/shoumei

While finishing The OA today, I was able to brew this out 14 times.
The leaf has nothing unique when looking at it, but like most of the Jingmai raws… it’s very light and easy to drink.

Slight viscosity, end note comes through as sweet, up front high notes of vibrant honey that are masked by some bitterness which may end up being overcome through age; damn you toddle, grow up already.

Anyways: This is probably the honey comparison to spring bangdong when it comes to price, ease of brewing, accessibility, and potential; bangdong being the floral.

All that to say, this brews out one clean cup after another.

This is probably in my top 3 straight blacks of all time thus far: https://www.instagram.com/p/BOKcjehg_mo/

Thanks to Daylon suggesting the 10 second steeps with more leaf, this is one wonderful cup from beginning to end.

The leaf is easily identifiable as pu’erh material as you can see in the video. That might be what makes it so wonderful and unique.

The dry leaf on this smells amazing, complexly citrus-y, herby, floral-y, fruit-y, and more. The taste isn’t nearly as crazy, or so crazy I couldn’t pick out all the tastes, I couldn’t tell which by the end. Regardless, it’s very friendly with a soft, bordering a drop of cream mouthfeel with very little astringency or bitterness unless oversteeped (and then it tastes a bit like sour lemon-y, herb-y pennies, but surprisingly still low astringency).

The main taste throughout is that lemon citrus taste with the herb and light mushroom broth heartiness that gets stronger as the leaf opens up. The aftertaste reveals hints of lemon sourness giving way to a lightly sweet mineral sugarcane at times, especially as the tea cools in the cup. The qi hit me HARD on this one by the middle steeps (around 5 and 6), surprising me since it seemed so bouncy and floaty and dreamy, when all of a sudden my fingers felt like they were weighted down while the rest of me felt like it was flying with the clouds. It left me full on retarded for a good couple minutes, I would say, but I am a light weight—my more sturdily constructed drinking partner of higher constitution described the experience more as a mellowing, delayed processing, chill feeling.

The flavors did turn a bit more peachy and more mineral mossy towards the end as the lemon started to finally fade off a bit, but it clung as the most noticeable flavor throughout until steep 10 which is where I stopped. It could have probably gone a couple or even a few more steeps, but the shengry claimed me at this point and I abandoned the tea for some rice crackers. I agree that the 5 years of age hasn’t had much noticeable effect on the flavor profile of this one, although it does seem to have settled into some consistency if nothing else. The dreamy energy was the highlight for me, although I would say the taste was certainly enjoyable as well, if heavy on the citrus.

Jingmai was all the hype in 2015, and I think the craze is dying down some and moving into other areas. Personally, I think Jingmai is a good place for easy drinkers. This tea fits into that category. The leaves are loosely compressed and offer aromas of honey, hay, grass, floral, and light lemon. I warmed up my shibo and placed some inside. The scent opens into a sweet buffalo grass with candied fruits and tangy syrup. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste begins with a honey sweet thickness. The brew is intensely sugary sweet with a smooth sticky finish. I can note a light astringent tone present. The brew continues in this manner; however. there is no depth or complexity to the brew. The brew falters a bit and moves from sweet into woody and hay. The huigan ends once the transit takes place. The tea is somewhat bland and basic, IMO. I couldn’t feel any qi. This is a good easy drinker, but I don’t view it as anything more.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BNj3CIPg36g/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I’ve let this rest for some time, so I decided to break it out. The leaf is loosely compressed and smells of hay, lemon, floral, and some smoke with roasted savory notes in the background. I warmed my shibo up and slipped some inside. The scent expanded into something odd. The lemon note was more pronounced and some sage came up from behind. A distinct mineral and oak tone wafted in and out with an underlining of fruity flavors. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste is sweet with a brisk finish to cleanse the palate. The brew is nice and smooth and balanced between sweet with a slight bitter. The huigan is fairly decent and the tea is somewhat thick. I can hint at some light smoke in the background that follows throughout steeping. However, the tea goes flat very quickly. The astringent character grows tremendously and pronounced bitter greens took over. The flavor has vanished and the brew is soon consumed by bitterness, smoke, and astringency. I was flash steeping the entire time. I continued to steep a few more times in hopes of recovery, but I saw no sign of the smooth drinker from moments before.

The aromas of smoke, wood and just a hint of smoke greet me as I begin preparing the last of my Farmerleaf samples. Nice, clear gold liquor, and the first steep has a lingering throat feel and soft woody taste with a hint of sweetness.

It was getting a bit late in the day by the time I was drinking this, so I continued with these leaves into the next day, and they kept on giving with a steady, pleasant flavor. I would definitely agree with the description of this tea’s middle age being clear, and it is definitely a friendly tea that I will be spending some more time with soon!

Third sample from Farmerleaf that we’re trying. Nice gold liquor, and I sipped a bit of the wash of this one and it tasted quite sweet. I notice a distinct richness from the first steep with nice huigan. Nice, oily mouthfeel that becomes increasingly more apparent as the tea cools. A nice, honey-like sweetness up front emerges over a few steeps.

Simply put, very enjoyable!

Second of the Farmerleaf teas I’m trying. The leaves have a nice sweet and slightly smoky smell, and the section of the cake I received wasn’t too compressed.

Light gold liquor and very light taste in the first flash steep. It has sweetness and almost a creaminess, and a very comforting effect. The texture is very smooth. Even more sweetness comes out in later steeps. Overall, this is very easy to drink and very relaxing. Several steeps and definitely good as a daily drinker.

The dry leaf on this one smells crazily strongly of dried apricots! Took me aback, honestly, despite someone else describing the taste as oatmeal apricot, heh. This starts off smelling more complex when I poured water on it than it actually ends up being, but the strong prevailing taste of different parts of the apricot remained throughout in a nice way.

First couple of steeps is Jingmai citrus sweetness with a hint of tobacco on the nose and in the cup that blooms into a strong, juicy apricot that turns to a sour tart peel if the liquid cools (although not in a bad way). The apricot goes from juicy to peel to meat minus the juice up through steep 4, with a mild sugar sweetness that lingers in the throat and a heavy/thick creamy texture with an almost basil herb aftertaste quality to it. A strong tobacco nose and flavor kicks in in the mid steeps, overwhelming the sugarcane and almost drowning out the apricot for a while, but then fades out to the sour apricot and then returning with a plummy depth when pushed later.

Very fruity, tobacco-y sheng! I quite enjoyed this, although the energy is kind of giggly and caffeine heavy, almost anxiety jittery level, which wasn’t so pleasant—might be because I back to backed this with another sheng. I thought this was very solid, especially if you like sour apricot fruit notes and tobacco (not the burnt or ashtray kind, thankfully!) as those are the predominant flavors throughout the session. I feel like this would have delivered past the 8 steeps I made, but the jitters made me stop here for this session.

Finally getting to try these teas! I’ve let them rest for two weeks since they’re arrival. The dry leaves have a very fresh, vegetal smell.

5 grams go into the gaiwan for a quick wash to let the leaves sit for a minute. The smell of the leaves is stronger, and the liquor is a very light gold. Flash steeped to start, and the first sip tastes quite strong, and quickly mellows out. Definitely getting some florals. Light bitterness and astringency are also present.

Sweetness starts to emerge in the second steep. I feel like, in addition to the florals, there’s another familiar flavor here that I’m not quite able to place at the moment, so maybe it’ll come to me later on in the session. rhinkle has, apparnetly, been feeling the qi from the first steep. It hasn’t hit me yet. The huigan emerges with this steep, for me.

The liquor thickens up in the third steep and remains so throughout most of the session. The flavor remains pretty consistent throughout the session. All in all, this was an enjoyable one that I will need to spend some more time with.

A quick session for today while scrambling to get my holiday shopping out of the way on a somewhat decent schedule for once. Light and fruity in a citrus way in the standard young Jingmai fashion, the flavor has a sour pineapple tinge in addition that I found interesting. There’s a bit of a honeyed tone that you can pick out if you search for it in the early steeps, but it succumbs to the focal sour citrus flavor quickly.

This is one of their cheaper teas, I believe, and an autumn production. While it is not particularly complex in flavor profile, it is very approachable, possessing a decent vegetal depth to the fruitiness while having no astringency and very little bitterness to it, I’d say it was quite solidly pleasant for the price.

I liked the pineapple notes I got from this (I’ve only had one other tea that I got pineapple off of before) and consider it quite light and pleasant, although this is not difficult to turn distinctly unpleasant if oversteeped. It is surprisingly generous with the resteeps at this price point as well, and I’m curious to see how that pineapple flavor would age, but I prefer something with a little more complexity to my tea, so I’m looking forward to see how the taste progressions change as I drink my way up the ladder of Farmerleaf’s offerings.

I’m pretty impressed with this tea. Second sheng I’ve tried out of my Farmerleaf order. The dry leaf smelled mostly like straw. After a rinse, I got just the barest hint of smoke, along with some apricot.

The tea has a nice and creamy texture for most of the session, along with a milky sweetness to it. Combined with apricot notes which are present near the end of the sip throughout the session, I found this tea comparable to a bowl of oatmeal with apricot in it. There’s some kind of starchiness to the sweetness which really makes me think of oatmeal. The tea also shows just enough bitterness to keep it interesting, allowing the flavors to dance on the tongue, rather than just sit with their heavy, sweet character. Occasionally, I found myself tasting just a hint of cinnamon in the finish, but I was never sure if it was actually there or just my imagination putting cinnamon onto a big bowl of oatmeal.

The qi from this tea wasn’t particularly strong – a slight warming body feeling to it perhaps, but no more. The tea had an impressive longevity – I could get 16+ steeps out of it pretty easily. Not sure what kind of aging potential this one has – texture is good, but there’s no reason for the bitterness to be tempered by age or anything. At a pretty impressive price point for the quality, I could see myself potentially getting a cake should I decide to make a bigger order at Farmerleaf, probably to drink up at a younger age rather than sit on for years.

This is the second sheng I have drank from Farmerleaf. I like this tea. It started out very smooth and with no bitterness. But the leaves had yet to open up. It was a very densely packed cake. When the leaves opened up around steep three the bitterness too over. This was not the sort of bitterness I call an abiding bitterness but it was the dominant flavor for a few steeps. I would say the bitterness persisted until about steep seven. After this a smooth note took over that was not quite apricots but almost. It was definitely a sweet note of a young sheng, one peculiar to young sheng that I am not really certain what is the best description for. There was also a mild amount of astringency to this tea. Judging from the sample, this is a good one to buy if you want to drink it now. I have no way to know how it might age. As they are a new company they don’t yet sell anything aged to my knowledge.

I steeped this teat twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8g leaf and 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 min. The tea would have gone past twelve steeps it was not yet watery but I was at my caffeine limit.

I was prepared to not like this tea. It is the younger sibling of the single-tree Nanzou that I drank yesterday, and I expected it to do poorly by comparison. It turned out to be a very good tea.

The flavor is very similar to the single-tree, whether due to the terroir or the processing, I don’t know. It has that dark, almost meaty flavor that reminds me a bit of raisins or meat broth. The aroma, taste, and finish were all very strong, and it also packed a pretty good cha qi. The main difference between this tea and the single-tree is complexity. This tea is fairly straightforward, though rich enough to be interesting, but lacks some of the fruit/spice/straw overtones that made the single-tree so enjoyable. Still, at $30 a cake, this strikes me as a great bargain for a daily drinker. My problem is that I have more daily drinkers than I have days.

I’ve been drinking some of the samples that I bought through the group purchase arranged by Liquid Proust. I got greedy and ordered samples of all of their teas, so it will take a while to review them all.

This one pushed all of my buttons. From the first steep, the tea had a powerful nose, strong taste and long finish. Best of all, each was different, making for a really interesting, complex tea.

The first few steeps had a nose of spicy straw, and a deep rich, fruity finish that went on forever. Oh yes, and a really strong cha qi. The taste was a mix of the two, that I swear reminds me of raisin oatmeal cookies, probably because of the cinnamon and molasses flavors. The finish was so long that it resonates with the taste, each sip adding a layer of richness.

The rea isn’t at all bitter, although there is an astringency that showed up in the end and 3rd steeps. I"m currently on the 5th steep and the deep richness is fading, leaving the straw and spice to dominate the flavor, which is still very strong. The nose, taste, and finish are all still very strong.

I have the feeling I may have to buy more of this.

To date this is the second company who I honestly think sells old tree.

When I heard of Farmleaf’s old trees and single trees, I was skeptical. I picked him brain a bit on facebook and while I could tell he knew some stuff, I was not confident that he had the goods. I ordered a few samples, and the tea spoke for its self.

I have never and Jingmai tea (except once), so I didnt know what to expect. As I flipped through the different bags deciding which bag to start with I noticed a common cranberry note. Off the dry aroma non of them reached for me. None of them smelled bad, no red flags, but none caught my attention. As we know pu er teas dont age linerally, they go up and down, so I chalked this up to them being a lower point. I came across the Jingmai and it smelled lighter and sweeter than the others, a little more flowery, this one was clealy at a better point.

For me the sign of an older tree is the body. Not so much how heavy is it, but how does it feel. Younger trees are a little more liquidy, older trees tend to have a little more viscosity and feel closer to olive oil. Upon first drinking this tea I notice the liquid was thicker which suggested an older tree. The tannins were also more refined which also lended toward old tree.

Flavor wise this tea is subtle. I brew in a gaiwan slightly smaller (100ml) which amps it up a bit but this tea will deffiently put your pallate to the test. Notes of flowers, vanilla, apricot, light honey, minerallity, riesling (yes the wine), with a bit of toastiness were all present.

The throat feel of this tea was the final sign of a good tea. Rich, a little thick and flowing. The tea lost a few points on the aftertaste, it left me a little dry and the toastiness lingers, but there was no other clear flaws.

All in all this is a good tea. It gives out many even steeps, it has a body indicative of an older tree, with a good throat feel. This first looses a few points on flavor. The flavor isn’t bad but it could be more confident. The aftertaste I think is the only noticeable flaw, its a small detail but good tea should leave you with a good taste in your mouth after, even basic teas do that. The flaws are very small, and by no means take away from the tea as a whole. This is deffiently a good tea and recomended to anyone trying to get a taste for the effects of age on a the tea.

This is overall a very nice tea. There was only a little bitterness to this tea and it was very smooth. There was something of a sweet note from the start although I would not characterize it as apricots of young sheng. Not entirely sure how to describe it. This is the first of my Farmerleaf samples I am trying and I do like it. Not getting much qi off this one despite that it is said to be gushu, maybe a little. Overall a good tea and I don’t think the price was that unreasonable.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.1g leaf and 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 min. The color of this tea was the yellow of a young sheng. It had not aged much in the five years since it was produced. I suspect it was dry stored.

This is the first puerh I’ve gotten into from my Farmerleaf order. I was very pleasantly surprised by this. It’s really dirt cheap, coming in at about $0.06/g if you buy a 357g cake. The aroma off the dry leaves, which looked nice and green with some silver strands in there as well, was sweet and floral. After a rinse, I smelled mostly tobacco, and a green floral note, maybe with a bit of honey.

This tea is a light one – maybe the best illustration I’ve seen thus far of the differing characteristics of Autumn vs. Spring puerh. It’s got an airy sweetness to it – with boiling water, it was a bit grassy and vegetal. With 200F water, that flavor was more of a clean corn sweetness (it still vexes me that I can’t list that as a flavor on Steepster). The finish, bleeding into a slightly lasting aftertaste, is a rush of aromatic floral taste. Not sure what kind of floral it is – maybe honeysuckle? There’s also a barely tangible fruity undertone present throughout most of the session – it came and went, and I couldn’t pin it down. Probably the fruitiness which is often part of Jingmai teas. It has a surprising longevity to it, going 15 or 16 steeps. Despite the light and crisp, almost green tea-ish flavors, it does leave a bit of a lightly oiled feel in the mouth, especially in the earlier steeps.

I really need to do something to get my different floral flavors down – anybody have any suggestions? Should I go to a florist and just smell all the flowers, taking notes like a weirdo? Should I chew on them? Incense? Oils? Anybody have any experience with this? I guess it sounds a little crazy. I can tell that different floral flavors are different, but can’t place them due to lack of experience.

Anyways, regarding this tea – It’s a great value for a light daily drinker. After seeing that this is indeed a quality tea, I’m really looking forward to getting into the rest of my Farmerleaf order.

The leaf on this one is preeeetty! Very unique looking and loosely rolled or just giant leaf in the style of rolled oolongs with variegated yellows in there. I got hit by a whole lotta hong must when I opened the bag for a sniff first time, but on my second and third sniffs a distinctly sharp-sweet citrus that is characteristic of jingmai puerh (in my experience, at least) was very evident. Exciting!

Interestingly, the color of the brew on this is much like you would imagine if you took a hong and young puerh and mixed them together—a reddish, neon orange that corresponds to the flavor. The harder this is pushed, the more malt and bitter hong character was evident in the rich red hong soup that results; the shorter and lighter the steeps, the more of the puerh sweetness and flavors came through in the neon orange gold liquor.

Flavorwise, this tastes and smells a lot like how it smells at the very start for the first steep before it really opens up—hong malt with a citrus edge. Second and third steeps continues the hong trend with bitter cocoa and that malty hong-bread flavor traced by sweet and caramel edges. Steep 4 tastes like it is already starting to fade, doesn’t seem like much longevity on this one so I picked up the temp from 197 to 207 at steep 7 and steeped a bit longer, which gets more of a clean sheng taste out, backed by a cleaner malt body with only a trace of red to the soup now. Still not quite a revival of flavor but quite different, however, I ran out of time and stopped it here.

Steeps 2 and 3 were my favorite from this one as I’m a fan of chocolate hongs. This does change quite a bit thought just over the course of this session as I messed with it, and I’d be curious to try this from the start at a higher temp next time or to western this and see how that changes things. Not much energy that I noted, but an interesting experience all the same.

This tea’s a little difficult for me to review – I have very little experience with Oriental Beauty oolongs, which this tea is supposed to be similar to. The dry leaf smells malty with just a hint of raisin to it. After a rinse I smell mostly malt with a bit of cocoa. The leaf looks very interesting – rolled up kind of like a Taiwanese Oolong.

The first steep is mostly some malty sweetness with just a touch of pleasant bitterness. Doesn’t really tell you a whole lot about where the tea is going after, but a pleasant enough cup.

After that, the tea moves into the flavor profile which it has for most of the session, dominated by a sweet milk chocolate note. It’s sweeter than a dark chocolate and there’s really not a lot of bitterness to it. It also has a bit of a milky texture – somewhere between skim and whole milk. I know it’s super pretentious sounding to say that a tea has the texture of 1% milk, but that’s pretty much what I’m saying here. This goes steadily for around six steeps. Other flavors try to poke their heads through at times, but are unable to assert themselves for more than a single steep – some floral or honey notes, just a little bit of dark fruitiness, like raisins or dark grapes. I almost feel like I might be imagining them trying to pick out different flavors.

It finishes off with two or three more steeps that are pretty light and a little bit drying. More malt than chocolate in the sweetness by this point.

I would put this one more in the category of a black tea than an oolong. If it is technically an oolong, it’s oxidized almost to the point of being a black tea anyways. The flavors were pretty enjoyable, but I was underwhelmed by how quickly it vanished from my mouth. With a lot of quality teas, I enjoy how long the flavor lingers – this one is pretty blunt, you taste it while it’s in your mouth, then it’s gone. Might linger a few seconds but that’s it. I don’t know why this is the case – I think it’s decent leaf, but perhaps because it’s a summer harvest? Not sure.

This one was good, and could be nice for fans of chocolatey black teas who want to taste one specifically from Jingmai, but I don’t know that I’d recommend it to somebody wanting something like a typical Oriental Beauty style oolong.