The Essence of Tea

5.3g in a 90 mL hongni pot.
wet leaf aroma of grape jam, smoke, toast, and wood.

1st: honeyed taste. edge with some astrignency and malty taste like oversteeped hongcha. 2nd: not strong taste, but a floral aroma on breath.
3rd: grape jam and smoky.
moves to base steamed/oversteeped young ish sheng taste thereafter. Guess the additional heat retention of the pot did it no favors. Still young and heady in effect, so not too comfortable. Probably will pass on caking this one.

i bought this last year and haven’t gotten around to it until this past week… anyway.

3.7/90. wet leaf is smoky, honey, berries. can’t remember if youle is a small leaf varietal or if this is just my sample, but the leaves are very small, hongcha-like. leaf is quite green still, so storage was likely quite dry for this to be from 04. first steep is a honeyed and dried jujube taste w slight bitterness underneath. good mouthfeel and rounded. aftertaste is kind of grassy and sweet. later is honeyed graham crackers with berry, sort of minty aftertaste. 4th was oversteeped. smokey note and bitterness, then quick burst of clarity and focus, nothing after. Not very strong on fifth and fell off completely after. a ginseng like note in the fifth, and then just leaf taste

https://imgur.com/a/dQgZ1P9 Hard to tell in pic, but leaves are quite young sheng like in appearance. also small.

November 2023 Sipdown Challenge – a bold tea

Taking bold out of the context of taste or mouthfeel, this tea makes me feel all nice and inflated. It swells in the body and expands in the mind. Good stuff, and delicious. Looking forward to another harvest.

Everytime I drink this , it’s the greatest moment I’ve ever lived.

Today it tastes like a really – and I mean insanely – fruity, complex and rich ale made with a variety of herbs. Gruit.

Feeling: restorative and enlivening elixir, it pushes and courses, clears and fills and swells

Upfront and penetrating aromas (osmanthus!!) and tastes. Bright and deep, fruity and sweet, fluid and full, smooth, almost sticky but leaning more soft and oily. I don’t know how to say this without turning people away, but it has a strong cat pee character. Reframe that as black currant, ginseng and hops and you’ll be in love. Throw in strawberry, grapes, mango, apricot, banana and dates and I guarantee you won’t turn your nose up at it. There’s probably some tropical fruit out there that embodies this melange. Turns more honeyed plum and passion fruit with forgotten steeps. Long, cooling finish and savory-fruity osmanthus aftertaste with spice notes. Also, it’s very easy to brew and long-lasting. I know a lot of people brew leaf only once but if you do that with this tea, I will weep at your folly. This is what it sounds like when a derk cries.

Now a word about the energy. This is powerful stuff. It knocked my socks off, unscrewed my head, screwed it back on straight and had me FLYING. Intensely uplifting, beautifully intimidating. I’m scared to try this gongfu with more leaf.

Highly recommended for anybody that can appreciate the, um, black currant character.

Album pairing: AIR — Moon Safari

10g/100ml to start. 10 second rinse and 5 minute wait.
This is a really good tea. It has had enough storage to even it out and sweeten it but not too much as to wet age the sheng aspect away. It has a wheat granary style sweetness that I think David does a good job finding and storing. Long leaves and many hearty brews over a couple of days. Would write a touch more but this is no longer available in the market. Good tea, invigorating and a little buzzy kick in the mouth on the early steeps. Sweet water at the end.

EDIT: Remembered that I tried a shu pu in here a few weeks ago (December 11th, so awhile back) for the first time that had a slight fishiness (Huang Chen Hao LME Shu that LP was carrying a while back). I’m surprised it stuck out here though, since initially I thought it might’ve been the Vesper Chan branded 2017 樟香春韵 (also LP sold a while back as the Vesper Chan Camphor Flavor) I also had in it a few days ago that definitely doesn’t have any fishiness to it. Guess keeping a spreadsheet was useful! It’s odd to me that it could’ve affected the tea so much later though I haven’t used it much recently.

Review:

8g pack in a 100 mL duanni pot. A lovely tea for the price, and would probably pick up a much larger quantity if I had a place to store it. It had a milky creaminess to it along with the woody medicinal taste and a touch of coffee-like taste that a friend and I both really enjoyed. Very easy drinking; probably hard to mess this one up. The initial cup/rinse had a slight fishiness to it that I was confused by, but the rest was fine. Not too strong of aftertaste on this one, maybe some fleeting sweetness occasionally. Was scared off by the strong roast in the name, since I’ve definitely tried roasts that killed off the tea taste, but I’m glad that the note from a Teaforum member who’d tried it before when I placed the order swung me to try it.

I had this tea at least 10 times and I still find it quite elusive. I had sessions where it was delicious, and others where it was very insipid, bland or plain bitter/astringent. This notes represent a satisfying session. I think this tea needs to be brewed with particular care and attention.

Dry leaves: sour plums, tobacco, light smoke. Beautiful.
Wet leaves: very fruity and layered fragrance, with a touch of smoke, wood, plums

1
the liquor feels medium-light, but at the same time carries a lot of flavours that spread in the mouth after swallowing, lingering with the help of a controlled astringency. It’s plump with smoke, hay, fruits and fermentation. Pleasant acidity. Beautiful aroma.

2
Some bitterness. The body is light but with good tannic presence. Light sweetness and forest floor aromas make the tea feel “alive”. As it cools down feels a bit like “melted ice”.

3
Austere with light umeboshi acidity. Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico comes to my mind.

4
Incense, very ripe fruits, dried flowers. Sense of “purity” and “cleanliness”. Light cooling sensation.

5
Qi is present but light and comfortable. Slightly relaxing, improves focus. Flavours of cured meat with herbal/root bitterness. Juicy mouthfeel. Aroma gets sharper.

6
Warming. Chalky mouthfeel. More incense and bitter herbs. light camphor.

Brought this one out last night to start. A special tea for sure. It has that kick in the mouth BuLang punchiness and goodness. Reminds me of all the good things I have in life. Family , and the friends I found on this site years ago. Happy Thanksgiving all I am glad to have you in my circle. The last few years have been rough on us all and I hope today finds you all well and blessed.1

Tea that I have received from derk, originally apparently from ashmanra, with prolonged California stroring, one month in Czech customs warehouse and now with me… for a week or so.

Derk noticed, it is very bitter. That discouraged me, so I took only three grams (from 7) and prepared gongfu. Quick rinse that I tossed out.

Several — rapid, short, longer, long steeps. I haven’t counted time nor number of steeps. I started about 10 seconds and ended up with 5 minutes maybe.

Honestly, it doesn’t deliver much. It starts with forest floor, quite dry one. Then there is some bitterness, but not overpowering, not in a single steep. But alas, it doesn’t deliver much more. It is rather boring. There is, again borrowing words, this time from Tea-ass, pekoe aroma (and taste). Light, unharmful tea. Last steeps are rather vegetal and the astringency arises, but not upsetting my stomach.

2020 Essence of Tea Xu Jia Liang Zi
6.8g, 100 mL gaiwan, 212f, Brita filtered tap
dry leaf is dried sweet fruit
8s rinse
Wet leaf is a sweet and smoky honey, in the vein of a green oolong smell

6s: a light honeyed pea-like floral sweetness, with a dried minty edge in slight aftertaste, much like LP’s Bubble gum yesheng I had last week. Aftertaste transitions into a light honeyed taste as it fades

12s: a smoke light edge in the taste, with more prominent crisp crushed mint note that lingers on the tongue. Slight tingling in lower legs and warming in lower back. Leaves tongue sort of dry and teeth feeling oddly dry in that uncomfortable way when you bite into something too hot or too cold.

16s: that same sort of sharp smoky, but not quite bitter taste. Honeyed and rounded, again with the minty edge. Sort of a soapy floral in aftertaste, again reminiscent of LP’s bubble gum sheng.

Not sure if it’s the water, my storage, or brewing temp. or what, but I was expecting more from the reviews on EoT page. I’m not a huge fan so far, especially given sample $/g. Sample cost (96c/g) aside, I guess I haven’t drank as much young sheng as many Westerners into puer, but I’m curious what this will age into. Yeah yeah, me and everyone else. That said, I’m certainly not willing to gamble this kind of money on a cake that I don’t particularly like and would have to probably age 50 years in this climate (knock on wood) to see any changes, and I’m hardly sure we’ll even be around by then. I really need to hop into the heated storage game sooner or later… Anyway, as of current, I’m not sure if I’d agree with refined in the tea’s description, rather than boring. I do consider softer, gentler profiles “refined” in some instances, but this one just strikes me as boring.

30s: Ah, bitterness. Mint edge in aftertaste, which then fades into a lighter floral rounded taste. I would stop here, but I’m determined to get my money’s worth out of this session, whatever that means.

1 min: bitter and astringent. Minty edge in aftertaste. I changed my mind and will just accept this one as tuition and toss into thermos…

Overall: slight warming. I’ll pass on this one. Even taking cost aside, I couldn’t see myself drinking through even a 200g cake of this (which at 71c/g is quite hard to argue for when you can buy very nice mid-aged boutique productions instead…). Had dinner beforehand as usual, and can’t seem to escape the later stomach pains after drinking young puer, even though it’s not like they feel particularly punchy to me. What happened to being young and invincible??! Doubtful.

Lots of off-topic rambling today. Anyway, in sum, tastes like an upgraded version of LP’s bubble gum yesheng. Wouldn’t buy more of either, though if you’ve tried one or the other, they’re very similar in my mind.

Edit 10/2: this was actually quite interesting from the thermos. There’s a very creamy aspect in the way of milk oolongs almost, but very fruity/floral otherwise. I never know if these unexpected things are normal or if it’s because it’s starting to go bad from being in the thermos for over 24 hours lol. I drank two mugs pretty quickly since I had to run off to something else, and started sweating suddenly on my forehead, so that aspect is retained in thermos. A short headache and then I felt like I was burning up for a few minutes. Probably won’t do that again. Still wouldn’t purchase a cake, but it’s been quite a while since thermos has yielded anything unexpected.

Coming back to this tea a little over a year later. https://steepster.com/derk/posts/421128

The impression in the mouth and body remains mostly unchanged. Where it has changed the most for me is in its aromas.

The dry leaf at a short distance smells like limeade sweetened with brown sugar, a touch of cherry. In hand, it’s verging away from the previous experience’s prune into cherry, tangier, without as much that dried fruit richness; dates. Warmed leaf is tangy fruity with a deep sweetness — cherry limeade, dates, brown sugar, a chocolate undertone. Surprisingly, none of this carries into scent of the rinsed leaf which is like wet vegetation and uncured tobacco. The color of the liquor is a golden honey brown. First few cups’ aroma is of roasted barley.

The body is rather thin and astringent but refreshing. It is somewhat fruity with a mild, smokey dark bittersweetness that comes out on the back of tongue. The first steep is cooling in the mouth only, presenting as a small puddle of mintiness where the bitterness also sits. Fluffy sweetness is cut quickly by astringency and acidity. I begin to get warm and sweat but it’s nice on this day of stifling heat. Aftertaste is the same as before — mostly cherimoya with some apricot — though less pronounced. After that fades (rather quickly), the mouth is left with a tingling, metallic feeling. The leaf still needs to be pushed hard after the first few steeps to bring it back to life. In later steeps, the smoke shifts from feeling to taste. The tea is not dense with flavor and has the longevity of plantation leaf. Body feeling more subtle than before; then again, I’m pregnant with a super burrito baby.

This tea is in a state of change, with those more acidic notes of middle age pushing through. I feel like this is definitely going to head in the tobacco-dried fruit-chocolate direction with hints of cola spice, but I do think the leaf needs a more humid environment than mine to successfully age into that. Right now, I’d put this at 70.

As part of my unhurried exploration of Meng Song area sheng puer, I’m having a Sunday afternoon sit-down with Essence of Tea’s 2014 Da Meng Long Gushu.

The dry leaf smells like fruit punch in the forest. Warmed leaf has a thick and rich date-caramel sweetness with faint wet smoke.

The tea is pouring golden orange with a brown tint.

At the lips, it’s rich with dates. There’s a bit of tang to the cup and early a quick bite in the throat. Bitterness is certainly there, structured, and passes at some point (who knows, I’m relaxed) after the swallow giving way to a strong returning sweetness. The aftertaste is drying and creamy, impression of cherimoya then apricot. After that fades, a metallic-astringent feeling/taste lingers; it’s pleasant, my tongue tingles far past the last sip. A comforting, expansive warmth in the throat and chest, a relaxing cool. Once the initial bitterness and astringency pass, the leaf needs to be brewed harder to elicit its hidden richness.

There is lingering depth of feeling to this tea. It rushes with a slow, smooth rumble and recedes like a warm wave break spreading across the sand, barely touching your toes before heading back out to sea. It courses and flows and grounds.

My first Bulang. Very enjoyable aroma: smoke, leather, spices, ripe fruits and something herbal/camphor. The camphor is very subtle and merges well with the other elements without being overpowering. I find this tea very solid and balanced, the qi is strong and gave me a grounding feeling. No tension, no faster heartbeat. I felt comfortably high and unfocused. The aftertaste is medium strong, with wood and spices. As the session goes on it gets more herbal, pungent with some vanilla. Bitterness and astringency are never off-putting.

At first a very creamy tropical yogurt aroma from the wet leaves. Mouthwatering.

1
Liquor mineral, creamy, fruity. Vegetal. Peach. Brown Sugar. Chestnut. Complex, warm. Mmh, interesting…

2 tropical, milky , a bit of bitterness/astringency. Silky. Sweet. Delicate flavours building in the mouth. Empty cup smells like burnt sugar.

Slightly Cooling, like a layer of fresh air coating mouth and throat. Heart beating faster. Peach Bellini.

3
Cooling feeling intensifies. Tingling in the throat. More astringency. Beautiful long lasting acidic aroma.

4
Complex acidic flavours.
Liquor is stable, more astringent. Not very thick. Very mineral. Keeps carrying the initial fruitiness.

I get this feeling of half relaxation and half restlessness. Maybe relaxation is 60%

5
More grassy-herbal notes appear, slight harshness. Drying. Less intensity.

6
Harshness keeps increasing but it maintains a memory of more innocent first infusions. I think of an innocent girl that few years later ends up being a prostitute.

My head feels heavy, it’s a nice feeling I guess. My body feels calmer now.

7
Something is changing, I get an alcoholic feeling, like soured bellini.
The liquor is weak. My body starts protesting for having too much tea.

8
Harsh but low toned dirty mushrooms kingdom. Not very sweet anymore.

Overall the tea is not the most powerful or long lasting but anyway it’s a very pleasurable experience.

The first times I had this tea I wasn’t impressed. Now this is the last bit of my sample and it became suddenly delicious. Is it because I’m more concentrated on writing a review? It’s the weather? It’s the silence of this room, the absence of sensorial stimulus? It’s because I’ve been cycling a lot and my body needs nutrients and everything taste better? Or maybe because I know this is my last session with this tea?

I already had a lot of tea when I stupidly decide to start a session with this one.
I’m feeling quite anxious. I’ve been very busy working in the last 5 days. And now it’s Sunday, I’m at home, and suddenly the awareness of my human condition hits me with dreadful thoughts, confusion, and feelings of hopelessness.
At some point in the morning I decide to start a session with this one. Maybe not a good idea, since my body it’s telling me to stop drinking tea. Anyway.
The wet leaves have a warm, low-keyed aroma. This is the last bit of my 25g sample. This tea feels like shadowy and unclear. A black pepper spiciness lingers at the roof of my mouth. Not super thick. Rough texture. On top of everything I found something that I may call “pekoe aroma”. Everything else is a sweet-dirty-roots kingdom. I start feeling some kind of pressure on my brain, and slightly stoned.
I don’t see much dynamicity here, there’s some floweriness like tiny flowers growing in a rotten tree trunk. Spicy aftertaste with “generic tea” aroma on the roof of the mouth.

Later steps: dryness. Cooling sensation. Herbal. Spicy. Sugarcane sweetness.

Actually as I’m writing this I’m feeling quite tea high. A paralysing heaviness. I like it. Now I’m gonna say the magic words that’ll turn me into a tea connoisseur: strong qi.

This wild tea is gloriously bitter. It reminds me of somebody. Beneath the bitter pill exterior there is a world of depth and insight; a powerful, dark and discerning, truth-revealing energy. A sniper skirting the fine line between good and evil with an intensely romantic preference for cherrywood stocks. Listen to some Deftones and it will make sense.

Anybody have a cake they want to sell? This question applies to anybody reading this note in the distant future — message me.

So EOT is offering 3 new Guyolin teas. 2 from 2020 and one from 2019. They recommend comparing the 3 here which I will do here. I blind bought a cake of the 2020 Tianmenshan because one of my favorite teas from last year came from that village in the form of dragon balls sold (bc there wasn’t enough material to cake) by Yiwu Mountain Tea and cost $2g, $1.50 on sale. The tea from EOT from this village this year is $1.20g so I took a gamble hoping they would be similar. They are. Same big oily tropical fruit and coconut oil notes, penetrating qi and both steep forever. The other new Guyolin is the 2019 Yao Zhu Di which has a balanced bitterness, nice balance between herbaceous notes and the signature Guyolin fruit notes. It has active grounding qi but to its detriment drops off rapidly after 6 steeps which is disappointing bc you want the session to go on twice as long. That tea is $1.10g and I would recommend it if it steeped longer…but…now for this tea…

This tea is a shapeshifting monster and the most expensive at $300 for a 200g cake. The first 2 steeps remind me of WanGong area border tea with big, potent evergreen forest notes and coconut oil thickness. From the 3rd steep onward this tea is almost identical to the tianmenshan with its big tropical fruitiness (I want to call it Manzhuan’s big sister). The qi is similar to the Tianmenshan as well but goes deeper. I can feel it in my bone marrow and it lasted most of the day. Not saying I regret buying the Tianmenshan cake instead of this because it’s an amazing tea but this offers everything it does and a bit more. Oh yeah and I lost count of the steeps. Not sure if I’ll cake this or not as the price is close to that of Chawangshu or Tongqingue which are my favorite gardens and I’m waiting to see if anyone releases teas from them this year before exhausting my tea budget but I am tempted. If you are a fan of the more attitudinal Yiwu teas, this is a must try.

Like Slumbering Dragon from CLT? My guess is that this is basically the same tea at 1/3 the price. Bitter gaogan yesheng from Kunlu Shan? Check. Medium light body with intense but smooth bitterness with notes of citrus peel and blueberries? Yep. Does it have the same spacy but energizing wi? OMG I have to be at work in a half hour. Do I intend to try to trade my remaining cakes of SlumberIng Dragon? …if anyone is still interested in that tea. Bottom line, if you like Slumbering Dragon buy this tea. 3 years ago when I was new to sheng I was smitten with it and bought a lot of it. Now I mainly drink it when I’m fighting a cold…

I got a sample of this tea recently as part of a surprise package from the lovely derk, thanks! ❤❤❤

It is my first encounter with Essence of Tea and it turns out amazing. The storage is somewhat reminiscent to Yang Qing Hao, but I find this one interesting overall than the few I’ve sampled from YQH. The character of the tea itself is somewhere between a Bu Lang gushu and a wild, forest overgrown Yi Wu sheng.

The aroma is intoxicating and I find myself sniffing the leaves as well as the empty cha hai continuously during the session. The taste is bitter, sweet and somewhat sour at times with notes of camphor, wood, cocoa nibs, spearmint, and many others. An interesting aspect is the mouthfeel, which is not too heavy, yet quite viscous. At first, it is a bit egg white-like, while later it becomes smooth and bubbly (maybe a bit more like lightly beaten egg whites lol). One is also rewarded with a long-lasting, cooling aftertaste with notes of aromatic wood, spices, and butter, as well as a strong huigan. The cha qi is mind numbing but not overly aggressive.

All in all, EoT’s Baotang is a tea that is fully capable of capturing one’s attention and not letting go easily; today I got 15 infusions before I called it a day.

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oFnjWS4cpU

2018 EoT Wuliang Wild brewed in a clay gaiwan. Light and refined woody ‘wildfruit’ and grassy pear taste with no smoke or bitterness. Active in the mouth with tangy minerality and drying/mouth-watering qualities. I can feel it going down. The straw-like astringency grows stronger and leaves a pleasant bite in the throat. Kind of nutty/mushroomy/very light iodine aftertaste. Camphor and mild returning sweetness are quick to show. Beautiful floral aroma — don’t forget to smell the lid.

This is a wild tea with a more ephemeral, contemplative almost oolong feel than the aggressive nature of others I’ve tried. That chest-forward energy is there, though; gonna say it’s not suitable as a night-time brew. I’m happy with this tea even if it is short-lived.

Edit: I oversteeped several cups and it still turned out lovely with only a mild background bitterness. I do want to compare brewing the leaf in a porcelain pot and again in the gaiwan with longer infusions. This tea seems like it has wiggle room.

This tea is a very strong contender in the “pine/resin/astringent/drying” category. There is a surprisingly mild, yet very balanced array of complexity in the flavors of this tea. The body is smooth and viscous and the color is a nice deeper golden yellow. It is slightly sweet, slightly herbaceous, and has a reasonably sufficient amount of the astringent mouth-drying effect, but without the offputting bitterness – this is a character I look for in these types of teas, and value quite highly in evaluation. Overall, I’d say this is a lighter, more balanced, “little brother” version of the 2005 Shenlin YQH (a personal favorite of mine). The Baotang delivers in quality without the mushroomy/earthy notes and the more potent drying effects of the 05 YQH. I do recommend giving this tea a try, it is certainly high caliber.

Farewell, Long Lan Xu. Going well with a lunch of red lentil soup :D