Haiwan Tea Factory

Here we have a factory puerh from Haiwan. This is a very inexpensive cake at ~15 USD from TuochaTea.

The smell is very clean, no funk, somewhat generic. Quite nice dry cacao notes.

This tea has a mild upfront bitterness that quickly fades to a pleasant toasty maltiness. There is some funky forest floor which provides a bit of dimension.

For the price, this tea is incredible. NIcely balanced, but a bit subtle. I would drink this every day and not regret it.

A nice dried fruit taste to this and a pleasantly light smoky aroma. Needs to be flash steeped or the bitterness is too strong. Quite good for the price.

A really nice budget ripe available from Yunnan Sourcing. (Actually, it’s sold out now, but originally sold for $16 for 357g).

Overall, a fresh hardwood note is the primary flavor. However, unlike many “woody” ripes, this one is not drying in the mouth. It is instead balanced by a very prevalent creaminess that is lubricated and thick. In addition, the hardwood notes carry some cereal notes (e.g. cream of wheat) and cherry wood flavors. The creaminess has hints of cocoa, vanilla, milk chocolate, and very slight bourbon cask.

This is one of those mind-game teas – I knew it was a budget ripe and thus used it as a daily drinker for some time. I didn’t think much of it until I brought it home for a real gong fu session. It really opened up and showed its character.

This is hard to give marks on because the flavor is spot-on. Absolutely no off-flavors, and the balance of woodiness and creaminess is excellent. Personally though, I just wish some of the underlying flavors had a little more pop – but that’s not exactly the character of ripe pu’erh anyway. For the money, this is a steal, particularly if you value smooth, well-balanced ripes.
*
Dry leaf – cream of wheat, grits, some almond, wet wood, some seashore notes, dark molasses, coffee grounds

Smell – cream of wheat, cherry wood, fresh hardwood, seashell, hints of vanilla-cask creaminess

Taste – woody upfront, cream of wheat, hints of creamy cocoa; finish of cherry wood and creamy cask. Some hints of coffee grounds (pleasant) in aftertaste. Later steeps develop an interesting minerality that reminds me of seashells – also very pleasant.

Received a sample of this from a tea friend. Initial steeps were a bit funky and sour, but once that faded it gave way to a very pleasant brew. Tastes a bit of camphor and leather, but also lemon and dried herbs. Nice light honeyed sweetness. Also a bit of Belgian ale funky yeasty-ness. Very little bitterness, just a hint of astringency. This is a tasty tea, and the storage is excellent.

Oh hey, just realized I’ve passed 300 tasting notes!

After four different sessions over the months with this tea, I think I have it down…

Coming from Adventure in Every Cup at a great value this tea offers: a workout for your mouth, appreciation for cinnamon’s cousin, and a dark raw puerh to make you contemplate what teas could also turn out like this.

With no regards to power, qi, energy, or whatever else we want to call it, this tea is one that is a bit more harsh to drink as it has that spice/wood note to it that demands that you follow every 5-6 brews with some water so it isn’t like liquid sandpaper. The taste is very lingering, but only in such of the notes that it has; just like a good cigar will leave the specific notes that it has in your mouth for some time.

(that’s a word now, but with less Ss)

If this was available to buy I would say put it in your arsenal so when you need something different or you want to show off how raw puerh can vary a lot in texture, taste, aroma, stuff, other words, and some more jargon, this would be one to share.

Very Good Taste..

Good one…

This is a nice semi aged tea. Thank you to the good tea friend who so generously gave me this sample. I was not in time to Wilson’s site to buy this. This is a nice smooth semi aged tea. There were little in the way of storage flavors in general. There were hints of leather and tobacco but not much. In it’s own way this developed a form of a sweet note. Not the sweet note of a young sheng, but the smoothness that comes when a tea is well aged. I am not sure what to call the predominant note of this tea. As to if this is real LBZ I don’t know. I do wish it was still for sale because if it was I would buy one. As to the theory that this tastes like old books, I don’t know. What do old books taste like. I don’t really know if I would use that phrase. I do know I got no wet storage flavors out of this despite that I think it was stored in Malaysia. There were little at all in the way of storage flavors interfering with the taste of this one.

I steeped this sixteen times in a 50ml gaiwan with 4.3g 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, 2 min, 2.5 min, 3 min, 3.5 min, and 4 min. I stopped at sixteen because I figured it was enough caffeine for one day. I am also beginning to discover that I like young sheng better than semi aged sheng. This was one of the best semi aged sheng I have drank but I still prefer the 2014 tea I had yesterday if truth be told. I guess I just like young sheng better than semi aged sheng. I am not sure I have ever tasted a truly aged sheng, something more than 30 years old. The oldest I can recall was a 1999 from Yangqinghao. That was an excellent tea but even that probably doesn’t truly qualify as aged sheng. I would say to qualify as aged sheng in my book the tea needs to be at least 30 years old. Anything less is semi aged. Still this was one of the best semi aged sheng I have drank and I wish he had more for sale.

Ordered this tea from blogger Wilson’s new store adventureineverycup.com. He is selling off some of his rather sizable collection. He likes to travel from Singapore where he lives to China and other destinations to buy tea.

This tea arrived with a nice smell of light traditional storage on the wrapper, a sign of a more humid climate like Singapore. The cake is nicely browned. I broke off a generous amount of leaf, maybe 7g and brewed in a Novak mineral clay teapot. I cold rinsed the leaves and then two hot rinses which I probably didn’t need to do.

The initial nose is a whiff of Chinese medicine that goes away quickly and changes to that fabulous old book storage flavor which I love and am always looking for. Tippy buds. Thick, motor oil tea leaves a bit of char in the strainer. The brew is very brownish red which makes the tea look like it has aged already.

But make no mistake, this tea is nowhere near aged. This tea is tongue curdling, ass puckering bitter. My eyes are watering and my hemorrhoids went up into my throat. Lively in the mouth is an understatement. The returning sweetness is almost because the tongue runs and hides and has nowhere left to go. I’m sweating like a pig in a mire on a hot summer’s day, and my scalp is coming off the top of my head. Straight up Menghai profile, cool in the throat with camphor and my mouth swallowed an unripe lemon. Omg wow…

This tea is one powerful son of a gun, and if you bought this, contact me and I’ll buy it right off you. Wish I’d bought more. I don’t care if it real LBZ or not. This tea is kicking me up left and sideways, and tongue rape in the afternoon tea saloon is just fine by me. Hell yeah. This is why I drink sheng. Still flash steeps at eight.

Points are 70+15 for Wilson’s fine storage and another 10 on the tea for what it is, whatever it is. Plus one for kicking Cwyn’s arse.

I appreciate the Anning Haiwan Tea Factory for their decent quality, fairly priced factory teas (Laotongzhi or “Old Comrades”). This one is a solid, inexpensive ripe pu’er brick, composed of middle grade larger mature leaves. This is a basic, straightforward shupu but pleasant enough to be considered a good everyday drinker. A value purchase since it is a 500g brick with all the characteristics that one should expect from a reliable shu – clear reddish-brown color; a smooth and balanced woody flavor; understated warm creaminess; reasonable longevity. I think I prefer the 2006 Haiwan Chen Xiang Zhuan brick I sessioned last week. Both are in the $33-$35 price range but since the earlier described ’06 shu is a 250g brick and today’s tea is 500g, this “Old Tree” is probably a better value for an everyday drinker (like finding a “buy one/get one” special).

I pulled a single mini Tou Cha from my Pu Erh stash, which I think is this tea, judging by the labels on the wrap. I washed it well, and made the first steeping at about 40sec. It was dark in color, this tea seems to be a one that keeps on giving. Rich and earthy, it has some bitter notes, but they seem to decapitate with the later steeping. Its quite silky and mouth watering, but a bit flavorless. I add some sugar for sweetness.

Have been tried today Haiwan No.968 shu puerh. Nicely blended Tuocha tea composed entirely from Menghai area tea material. The brewed liquor is red and thick, giving a bit sweet after-taste.
stringency(терпкость) – none
Smoke – none
Dryness-(mouth) – none
Mouthfeel – really thin, smooth
Aftertaste – fair shu, a bit sweet
Flavor – really good taste of shu puerh, thin and easy.
Easy going, light puerh tuocha, absolutely affordable. Should be good for storing long time, as it could be more mellow and smooth.

Been tossing this into the thermos on days i want to save money – and another 200g minicake

I received this tea in the mail today. The first thing I noted was that the smell of the dry leaves reminded me of these “jerky” treats that I used to buy for my dog. It was a smell similar to hickory smoke. Yuck! I brewed it up anyway, and the broth was pretty bland except for some smokey/sour notes.

I haven’t had the opportunity to taste many raw pu’erhs, but this one might be my favorite yet. It still tastes “green”, but it doesn’t have that sharp, bitter flavor that I normally associate with raw pu’erh.

This was a cake I purchased to experiment with aging pu’erh, and I am looking forward to seeing how it changes with age.

a moderately fermented cake from the haiwan factory. a slight touch of bitterness on the tongue with a tart taste on the end smooth as most aged shu’s are. a nice cup on a cold rainy day.

Where to start! First off this was two days ago! This was my first puerh and my first experience using a gaiwan (no spellcheck, I don’t mean Taiwan). It was amazing, even though I’m quite sure I did a lot wrong. :) It felt great to just set aside some time to really drink tea and enjoy it. Not that I don’t enjoy tea normally, but I usually just make it and then grab the cup and go do something else (like write about it on Steepster!). Anywho…

I did a quick rinse of the tea and then moved into the first infusion. This tea is nice a smokey (I love a smokey tea). The leaves smelled very smokey after the first infusion, but this lessened as the session went by. I have some awesome pictures I’ll link to later! So back to the first infusion, smokey and earthy, very smooth and maybe a bit creamy (not sure if this is the right word). The liquor was a really pretty deep straw color. I got about 10 infusions out of this but I don’t think I did the increments right, not long enough. However, I only used a bit of my sample, so I will try again tomorrow!

Also, I’ve been reading about “cha qi/chi” and I think that it may have occurred/the tea may have it? (Or it’s all in my head! :P) I’m not sure what the proper way to use the word is, but the Tea Masters blog says it nicely:

“You may feel the Chi because your whole body feels warm and you start to sweat. And/or your mouth will be secreting saliva because it tells you it wants more of that tea. And/or your mind will feel crystal clear, as if you had breathed very pure and fresh air.” (http://preview.tinyurl.com/d5mtomu)

I’m a little hesitant to rate this, only because I have no other puerh experience to really compare it too! However, I really enjoyed it so a high rating it gets. :)

This Shou Zhuan Cha tastes like buttered noodles. a thick broth with a warm, sweet melty aroma and smooth flavor. the 3-6th infusions are the best and it seems to die after the 8th. you can get 15+ infusions if you use more leaves and just keep doing immediate infusions but i enjoy the flavors more when the leaves have some more room to expand in my yixing pot. I’ve only had 3 or 4 ripe Zhuan cha and when this one is brewed right it’s fantastic but I think the 2007 Zhao Li Qiao from Dobra is more consistent.

I got a small sample of this puerh with an order from Jing Tea Shop. It came in a tiny bag that kept slipping to the bottom of my puerh box, so it was overlooked, quite literally, for a long time.

I set up a first infusion series this evening without remembering to weigh the small piece of leaves first—d’oh! It was likely between 1 and 2 grams of compressed leaf, set up in a cheap 60mL yixing pot. Water was heated to 205 degrees.

I first flash rinsed, then set up my first infusion and….forgot about it, for several minutes. I did sip that one momentarily, but though it had very promising anise and caramel notes, a strong bitterness on top of that made it undrinkable.

I managed the next half dozen infusions better. I put a splash of cool water into the cup while preparing a flash infusion of the tea, and the little bit of cool water drops the temperature when I add the tea so that I can drink it straight off, without waiting for it to cool. The liquor is anise-caramel-sweet, with a mild earthy undertone, delicious. Gradually I’m increasing the time for each infusion, up to about 45 seconds now, and while I think I’m going to get another half dozen infusions easily, it’s sad to think of how many I missed due to that first mistakenly long infusion—probably a good 6-8 more infusions were lost.

Fortunately, even the small sample should provide 2 or 3 more small sessions like this one.

First time drinking this tea in a while. Like most bricks, it is challengingly compressed, and one of the teas that inspired me to buy some particularly pointed letter openers. Success! several grams of tea have just soaked up their ‘flash’ rinse quickly in my gaiwan. Earthy, sweet, fruity, plummy scents arise—makes me want to eat it as much as drink it.

Greg warns about overly long steeps at first—suggesting a possibility of off flavors. I find nothing like, but perhaps this is in part due to letting it ‘air out’ loosely wrapped in my puerh drawer. The first two steeps—no more than 30 seconds between the—are combined in my small yunomi, and deep red-brown liquor, and I want to drink fast but am waiting….tap, tap, tapping impatient feet—for it to cool. And the first sip is rewarding—deep, sweet, lovely, all the things promised in the smell of the wet leaf. And nothing whatsoever ‘off’ about it.

The leaves are still swelling and will eventually fill a good part of the gaiwan, so this should have a lot of steeps in it.

10 or so steeps in, the gaiwan is at least 1/3 full with very broken up leaves. It still requires a bit of care to avoid oversteeping—and responds well to a little dilution if I overdo it. Earthy, sweet, fruity, plummy. Rich body. Compared to the Norbu private label Lao Tou Cha nugget brick, this is an earthier tea, but equally delicious in a different way. And like that tea, it is very potent due to the density—a little goes long way. I really thought it was such a thin little sliver when I dropped it in the cup….

Many infusions later—certainly more than 20, maybe closer to 30—it is getting on towards sweet water, that gentle ending, but this with what are still very short infusions. Will give it longer to see if I can coax more out of it before we’re done. …… 1.5 L into it, the kettle is empty, but the tea leaves still have some sweet & spicy scent left.