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Wow I must admit that I was very skeptical of the free sample included in my last order as in my experience aged ripe puerh tends to be both overrated and overpriced. While I would not buy a full tuocha of this one given its price the sample made an enjoyable set of gaiwan infusions. It is indeed sweet and smooth but I can not really say too much else about it as it is a fairly weak and plain tea, which is a bonus for a lot of people but not for me given my love of strong puerh. No off earthy or musty tastes or bitterness in this one but that is how it should be with a good ripe puerh.

This is the most unique old nugget puerh that I’ve seen in how it comes off more as little bits of loose puerh leaves twisted together instead of the more typical nugget shapes, so maybe this is what is meant about it being unusually clean in how it is still possible to make out the individual leaves in the nuggets. Personally I would say that this puerh has some smoothness but it also a bit of malty so I would not call it very smooth, yet the vendor description is right on with no bitterness or bad aftertaste. Overall a safe middle ground puerh that is a safe bet for most people. For me I did not get within the 8 to 12 infusions but I would not hold it against the tea because I like my puerh strong.

I feel when it comes to ripe puerh that puerh nuggets are always a safe bet for your money as I have yet to have encountered bad quality among nuggets. This is a puerh that demands to be brewed strong to have a thicker texture otherwise it comes off as a mediocre puerh. It produces a dark color brew with a light silky texture that is not too thick with the expected sweet mellowness. Although what sets this one apart is that it also has a bit of a fresh crisp taste to it that I have not encountered before in a ripe puerh. I am not sure if this is a result of the ripe puerh being aged as at 7 years old it is also the oldest ripe puerh that I’ve had to date. Regardless while it is not the best puerh that I’ve had recently is clearly in the upper middle range when it comes to puerh.

I have bunch of this. Came from a kayaking buddhist monk in Bhutan, who chants while running hard rapids. I like it. It isn’t very interesting, it’s a very mixed grade tea and it might actually be way older than 2006. It brews the color of gas station coffee, has a true bitterness to it, and tastes like tea without the fluff (I like fluff sometimes, don’t get me wrong). It’s probably fair trade in the way that it comes from some small plantation run by a couple families. It’s probably organic because the families can’t really buy chemicals. It is tea without the adornments.

After a double rinse and dumping the first 2 infusions in the hopes that the later ones would be better I gave up on this tea when the 3rd infusion was not any better. Way too smoky and reminds me a lot more of really bad green tea than raw puerh.

Honestly I had very low expectations coming into this sample given a number of bad experiences with so called bargain cakes. Lacking an entire cake, I am not sure if this is a blended cake or a pure gongting cake as if it was blended with a cheaper grade of puerh it was done very well. As with the other gongting puerh that I’ve had before as it lacks any off tastes and has some smoothness to it but not enough that I would call it creamy or silky. I would say that this cake represents the quality mid-range ripe puerh well as it is a fairly good tea overall but lacks the extra quality that comes with the upper end premium cakes for an added price.

Brewed from a free sample from the vendor which was unfortunately too small of an amount for my larger ripe puerh yixing so I brewed this one in a gaiwan. The sample also contained a lot of dust and crushed leaves which I am not sure is at the fault of the cake or the person who broke up the cake. Even though the vendor claimed that rinsing was not needed for this extra clean puerh I started out with a quick rinse anyway for consistency purposes. The first infusion was clean and very light with a slightly fresh minty taste to it; which I think I might have under brewed. The next infusion I brewed longer and it was still on the light side with some smoothness and a light taste that reminds me of being a bit like Liu Bao. Depending upon one’s overall preference Liu Bao either comes off a as a cleaner taste than most ripe puerh or as a more plain and boring taste. Personally I am not that fond of Liu Bao overall so unless you do or you are curious about it I would not recommend this cake to you. I’m guessing that it probably would have been possible to get 2-3 more infusions out of the leaves but I had no desire to drink more of it so there was no third infusion.

This is probably one of the darkest rolled oolongs that I’ve been blessed to drink that was not overroasted to the point of having a burnt taste to it. This Premium Tieguanyin tea brings a wonderful sensational experience upon each sip in the range of flavors that roll upon my tongue. During the initial start of the sip I experience the initial roasted taste before it fades away into a sweet mellow smoothness that lingers in my mouth. The later infusions maintain the same shift, although it slowly becomes less subtle as the roasted taste slowly fades out and the sweeter mellowness becomes more predominate in the tea. In the end I lost count of how many infusions I was able to enjoy out of the leaves but I can safely say that it was over 5 which was really impressive for such a dark tea.

This one brews up a very beautiful golden amber color brew with a very enjoyable fresh flavor without any smoke or strong bitterness commonly associated with young green puerh. The background has a very faint astringency but in a good way that adds complexity to the brew that is well balanced out by a sweet smoothness. At around 3.5 years old this is a very nice puerh that has the extra “puerh notes” that set it apart from the stronger green teas and greener oolongs. It is wonderful sheng puerh samples like these that make me lament my body not being able to tolerate too much sheng puerh but in the end I conceid and admit that it is better to abstain for the most part than have my stomach complain for indulging in them too frequently :(

I wish I could have also tasted this tea when it was young to be able to understand how aging during the last 7 years has affected it. Like the other aged ripe puerh teas that I have gotten to sample it is not that impressive to me. While it lacks any off tastes of being overly musty, earthy or malty, it does not have that much else going for it. Overall the taste comes off to me as bland and washed out without much to be desired. Yet another example to support my view that beyond a year or so to let a new ripe puerh air out from any lingering off smells and tastes after postfermentation it does not make sense to age already artificially aged ripe puerh.

I brewed this tea from a sample that came in a ziploc bag after sitting around the previous owner’s house untouched for a few years so lacking air to breathe this tea’s “real age” is probably younger than 4 years. The first thing that struck me was the mixed grades as while I can taste the sweet mellowness of the gongting puerh on the outer layer it is mixed with a stronger almost rubbery maltiness of the cheaper grade of puerh that made up the center of the cake. While this is normally a practice that I heavily frown upon as deceptive of hiding lower grade puerh in the center where it can not be seen till its broken up, this time, maybe because of the extra age it has rounded out with more complexity to the brewed tea than a pure gongting grade puerh. Maybe cakes like these just need a bit more age than the very short lifetime that puerh generally has around me.

I used to dig green tea but haven’t had nice plain green tea for a while, so I might be a tad biased or weird on this.

I heated the water until it was hot but not boiling, but I didn’t actually check its temperature or anything. It worked just fine, though, so…yeah. I brewed it and strained it into my mug. It was very nice. So…green. That’s all I can think of. It was all the things I used to love about green tea, and it reminded me why I had liked green tea. Very tasty. If I think of just how to describe it in more detail (it’s so hard to find the words, but I loved it), I’ll probably log it again. Would be worth getting in the future.

This log brought to you by the man who sent me a sample of this. Thanks, John!

While it has improved from the last time I had it when it first came out, this is nowhere near being a good example of a fine puerh. While age has caused it to loose its unusually strong sour taste for a ripe puerh, it has mellowed out to be a fairly plain and boring tea with remaining but much softer lingering sour notes. It goes to show how there is limits to how much age can help a ripened puerh that was not the best to start, not to mention if after 4 years it is still not the best one would be better off buying green puerh to age than a ripe tuocha like this one which has very little to show for itself after 4 years.

Slightly smoky fragrance with a leather undertone. The first cup was bitter so I dumped it and poured a second which had a leather taste but not much more. (Puerh improves with re-steeps.) Third cup still has a strong leather component and a slight bitterness but is developing something fruity in the fragrance. Third cup the fruitiness is gone replaced by a sober, rich flavor and fragrance as if apricots had dried without their classic sweetness.

Throughout this tea has a nice calming quality to it with just a little of the puerh buzz, that sense that one can be both meditatively alert and drunk on summer flowers at the same moment.

This is a very good example of fine ripe puerh at its best. Mengku like Menghai puerh is described as having its own unique scent taste so it is a more unique taste to it among puerh, both are different but very good. This one has brewed up a dark ruby red with an enjoyable smooth mellow richness with a bit of sweet taste with expected Mengku scent taste. If you’ve had Mengku ripe puerh before and enjoyed it I’d strongly recommend this cake to you but if you never had Mengku puerh before I’d recommend buying a sample first as while it is good it is not a typical ripe puerh.

This was the first tea I brewed in my new yixing teapot, and I’m very glad I chose this tea for that honor.

The tea itself steeped a nice clear red-brown color with the scent of chinese medicine, golden raisins, and earth. There was also the scent of camphor in the lid of my yixing pot. The mouth-feel was very smooth and full-bodied without a hint of dryness or astringency. After two infusions flavors of anise, jujubes (chinese date not the candy), and a honey raisin-like sweetness appear on top of a nice woody, earthy bitterness.

The tea lasted went on for 10 infusions and then started to loose its strength. Overall a very good tea: good, complex flavor; full-bodied and smooth; lasting strength; and pleasant chaqi. Too bad the cake isn’t available anymore.

I wanted to like this tea, because it was a free sample that I received with an order, however, I just couldn’t.

The dry leaves were very chopped and very tightly compressed. They had a typical pondy, off smell that one associates with shu-puerh. The tea soup was a deep ruddy-brown with the aroma of wood, chocolate, raisins, and sewage. Honestly the flavor was not bad: sweet chocolate flavor with notes of wood, wet leaf, and raisins; but right after I swallow heavy notes of pond water show up, making the tea taste incredibly…odd.

The ‘pondy’ taste remained through the 4th infusion. I couldn’t bring myself to drink anymore so I called it quits. I should also note that I don’t like the flavor of chocolate, which was heavy in this tea. On the other hand, the mouthfeel was incredibly smooth and thick. Full-bodied and very rich. There was also a minty-cool quality to the aftertaste. I just couldn’t get over the chocolatey-pondiness of it, but if you’re a fan of that then I guess this would be a good tea for you.

The 2006 Aromatic Bamboo Roasted Puerh has a light sweet taste with wooden notes to the tea. The taste of bamboo is hard to describe but I think Jim got it down well as being like a hint of rice mixed in with the wooden taste. As it comes to most puerh stuffed into unusual packages it is not the best around but still an acceptable quality. Not to mention the bonus fun of getting to open up the bamboo to get the puerh out.

One’s impression of Liu Bao is a matter of perspective in how it compares to ripe puerh. Personally I love ripe puerh so Liu Bao comes off as a more plain puerh like tea without as much flavor. I have friends who like Liu Bao more than ripe puerh who say that it has a much cleaner taste. Regardless this is a tea worth trying at least once.

This is the first real sheng pu-erh tea I’ve had so I can’t say that I have anything to compare it to. However I did find this tea very enjoyable.

The leaves let off a very strong peachy sweet aroma after the first rinse. The tea soup was a nice golden-yellow color. The tea itself was full-bodied, velvety smooth and sweet with notes of peaches and flowers. The finish was clean and there was no astringency at all, even at the 12th infusion. There was a bit of chalkiness, but not in a displeasing way.

The strength was nice throughout the whole sitting with the peachy sweetness coming in still at the end. There isn’t a whole lot of complexity to the tea, but it was still very pleasing and enjoyable. A nice daily tea, and for the price I might actually buy the whole cake.

Steeped in a 180 ml gaiwan for 12 infusions.

A sample from Puerh shop. Brews up a dark amber brew that is surprisingly light and fresh for its color. While Fu Zhuan is described as being fermented or cooked, it has a freshness and a slight hay like taste more commonly associated with green puerh yet at the same time a smooth richness and sweetness which is more common among ripened puerh.

Yixing brewed with multiple infusions. I found this one to be smooth as described but overall I was not too impressed with it. Sure it is a good tasting and mid-range quality ripe puerh cake, but I’ve had a lot that were better.

This was the first ‘real’ pu-erh tea that I have tried.

After reading all the criticism of shu pu-erh and brick pu-erh, I was surprised at how this tea was pretty good. The bricks have a little bit of a fishy, pondy aroma but given a week or two to air out and the smell virtually goes away.

After the first rinse the leaves, very chopped, give off a very deep, woody and earthy smell, without any of the pondiness. The same goes for the flavor. Like drinking a piece of forest in Fall: woody, bitter, earthy, smoky and a little sweet, with a slightly astringent finish in the throat. The aftertaste is a long lasting woody bitterness.

The tea soup is a very deep, dark, murky orange brown, which clears up to a clear orange-brown after the first two or three infusions.

The tea begins to give off a sweet flavor in the back of the mouth at about the 4th infusion. The tea does not infuse for too many times, at least not when I have tried it. Towards the end, the woody earthiness is very faint, with a sugar-water-like sweetness on top of it.

It is enjoyable and the price is pretty good ($1-$2 for 10-12 little tile-like bricks); however not a tea for those long tea-steeping sessions.