WymmTea

A sample from Wymm. Dry leaf aroma is familiar sweet like young sheng, but when the leaf is wet, a floral aroma emerges from the sweetness. One rinse. First steep was a flash steep and the flavor was too mild to really get anything from it. Subsequent slightly longer steeps of +/- ten seconds brought out more flavor, but still the brew is very light, somewhat sweet, with no discernible bitterness upfront, but it has that floral/medicinal (honeysuckle?) note that doesn’t usually sit well on my admittedly peculiar palate. Nice to try, but not in my wheelhouse so I wouldn’t likely go for this one again.

This is Wymm Tea’s most expensive offering and I have been curious about it for some time. I was delighted to receive a sample with a recent order during their Mid-Autumn Festival sale. High quality, carefully rolled beautiful whole leaves. Mild but solid aroma coming from the dry leaf. After two quick rinses, the wet leaves offer a dark earthy scent. First cup or two seem bitter and tart but the tea liquor smooths out and turns sweeter in later steepings. Thick mouthfeel. After three cups, my mouth is left rather dry. Nice longevity. This is a strong tea with a bite to it. I do believe that it is made of very good raw material but for my tastes, it will need to mature over the next few years. At that time, I am quite sure I would find it very appealing.

Got this as a sample with a recent Wymm order. In the mood for shu today so I chose this one because… well, it was there and it was loose and my pu pick looked surly and dangerous today. I love the dry leaf aroma: leather, earth, and mushrooms. When the leaf is wet the mushroom scent almost disappears, leaving just a deep rich, earthy, wet forest after-the-rain aroma. The color of the brew is really a lovely dark reddish orange, not unlike cola. Some mild sourness in early steeps eventually gives way to a smooth brew that coats the tongue and throat, and is robust and just a little bit sweet. I don’t know if it’s sweet like cherries because of the taste or if the appearance just gives the suggestion, but that’s what I’m getting from it. It’s also quite warming in the belly. And it goes on and on and on.

I don’t have a lot more to say about this shu. It’s pleasant enough and I’m glad to have tried it. The “third grade” in the name does make me wonder about the difference between all the grades though. I’ve never purchased the same shu in different grades and taste-tested them side by side. I think I’ll add that to 2016’s To Do list.

Thanks to Wymm tea for sending me a sample!

The dry and wet leaves for this tea smelled really sweet and fruity, like fresh apricots. I used 90C water with a quick rinse and a first steep of 5 seconds. The first steep was almost completely clear and without scent, but the flavour was slightly sweet, with no bitterness or astringency.

The flavour of the first few steeps was mild — I can see this being a really good tea for a beginning drinker, someone who’s never tried pu’erh before. The first few steeps smelled peachy, apricot-y, and grassy, like a summer morning! This tea had a great mouthfeel, too; it was thin but full in my mouth like wine.

By the fourth steep, the leaves must have really opened up because the colour of the tea darkened to amber. The flavour was still really fruity though, with grape added to the peach/apricot from before. This was also the first steep that tasted bitter. The bitterness was a smothering sensation rather than a sharp one, though.

By the fifth steep, astringency showed up along with the bitterness, and I also started to feel a tickle at the back of my throat. My mouth felt like I had bitten into a really underripe fruit. The next few steeps were more bitter than fruity, though, with fruitiness on the front of the sip and bitterness in the back.

As I continued to drink, the puckery astringency continued, and the apricot/peach flavour receded. The dryness in my throat stayed, though. However, at the 11th steep, the flavour became very mineral. By this point, my belly was full of tea but I wanted to finish off the pot, so I stopped sipping and started chugging. Luckily, the leaf was starting to wear out (and so did the bitterness) so it was easy to drink.

On the final steeps, there was a nice juicy, fresh aftertaste like watermelon rinds. Interesting!

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/09/wymm-tea-sheng-and-shou-samples/

Many thanks to Wymm tea for a sample!

The dry tea was somewhat glossy and dark, and the smell was fairly neutral — leather and earth, which is something I think is pretty common to shou teas. Once I rinsed it, it smelled like shoes, leather, dirt, and loam, with perhaps a bit of camphor. It reminded me of a root cellar, actually.

The brewed tea was dark. Like really rich, homemade beef broth. It had a slightly fishy, earthy, mushroom-y smell, and I was worried I should have rinsed it twice, but oh well — down the hatch it goes! The first steep tasted uninspiring and muddy, but the second steep developed a menthol/camphor note. That note developed and reminded me also wood, branches, autumn leaves, and cedar. And, oh yeah, this shit was dark. Almost like Guinness beer!

As I drank the third steep I noticed a cottony, gauzy feeling on my tongue. The fourth steep introduced mineral notes, but the initial fishiness was still there. Steeps 5 and 6 were fairly similar, though at the 6th steep I bumped the steep time up to 10 seconds. I noticed that as the steeps progressed, it tasted less of loam/earth and more of wood/cedar. By steep 7, my body became really heavy. I think I stopped after the 7th steep because I was so sleepy!

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/09/wymm-tea-sheng-and-shou-samples/

Thanks to Wymm Tea for sending me a sample!

The dry leaf of this was tightly packed, thin, and spindly, and the colour was dark green with white flecks. I put the entire sample (6 grams) in a gaiwan and gave the leaves a quick rinse before settling down into the first set of steeps. I kept the first 7 steeps fairly short, ranging from 5 to 12 seconds in 90°C water.

The first steep didn’t taste like much, but the flavour really opened up in the second and third steeps. I tasted grass and apricots, and the brewed tea was a pale amber colour. The aftertaste was long, lingering, clean and grassy — this tasted an awful lot like a green tea that had been suddenly transformed into a sheng. A few steeps in I started to notice some bitterness and astringency, but despite this, the tea was incredibly light and fruity, with a thick and nearly syrupy mouthfeel.

After the seventh steep I took a break, I brewed up a fresh pot of water, gave it a quick rinse to get the leaves warm again, and went to town. However, this second session was much bitterer to start with. Had the tea originally tasted this bitter? I didn’t think so. After a few steeps the bitterness toned down and the fruitiness returned, but I don’t know whether it was the tea that changed, or whether I did.

It got lighter over time, turning a pale yellow instead of golden, but there was still a subtle fruity flavour into the final steep. The leaves themselves smelled lovely – tart, tangy, and floral. By the end, they had greatly expanded in size and were a lovely mix of russet and olive.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2015/09/wymm-tea-sheng-and-shou-samples/

Thanks to Wymm Tea for sending me a sample of this!

I used the whole sample (6 grams) in my gaiwan with 90°C water. After a quick rinse, I managed to get 10 steeps, with steep times starting at 5 seconds and gradually increasing to 30 seconds. The dry leaf had that typical sheng smell: smoky, a little tart and funky, kinda fruity. However, after the rinse, the smell changed a lot.

Believe it or not, the wet leaf before the first steep smelled like cooked spinach and feta cheese. Spanakopita tea!

The first steep tasted and smelled strongly of cooked spinach — green, vegetal, and slightly metallic. It also smelled slightly fishy, but not fishy enough to put me off drinking. It was fairly mild-tasting, though, with a lovely medium-amber colour that was like honey or brandy.

The second steep was slightly stronger, with a deeper colour and more intense flavour. As the steeps progressed, the intensity of the cooked spinach flavour gave way to a huge variety of flavours, all centering on savoury and slightly astringent. I remember tasting freshly ground pepper, tobacco, stonefruit, iron, copper, camphor, and menthol in various stages of my tea session.

Steeps 3-6 were the strongest with the most intense metallic flavour, while the flavour and colour dropped off considerably around steeps 8-9. After the fourth steep or so I started to notice a tingling at the back of my throat and down my esophagus, which is what made me think of camphor/menthol: it reminded me of having a cold, a bit. The spent leaves were huge and smelled faintly of fruit and ferment; they were a lovely olive green.

Full review at:

This is so good before bed. I’ve had one of the 1-3 grade shou from this company. It was suggested I would enjoy a higher grade more. So, I got this one to sample. The maocha consists of long crimson leaves and stems. This assortment carries a wet earth and clay scent. I placed a bunch in warmed yixing and shook them up. The leaf gave off a savory scent. It was almost like roasted meat. I washed the leaves once and began my brewing. The soup is thick and red. The steeped leaves give off a wet wood and deep moss scent. The flavor is smooth and silky. This brew gave me a thick mouth-feel and earth flavor. There was an underlying fruity flavor. Altogether, this was a nice Shou. The flavors were consistent and very satisfying.

https://instagram.com/p/6llVRczGX8/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Of the three sheng in the sampler I ordered, this was my favorite. The other two were a bit too light for my tastes. This one was full of flavor, like a juicy, well-rounded apricot from the beginning of the session and lasting throughout. It had a bit more thickness to it also. The only thing that was disappointing for me was that it didn’t change much throughout the session. I think it would have been more interesting if it had started differently and then developed into this juicy apricot flavor after a few steeps.

Hello tea friends! I am sorry (not sorry) that I missed out on blogging yesterday, but I was super tired after getting no sleep the night before (unrelated) and celebrating the next day, in case you missed it, I got engaged!!! Ben took me to the zoo as a little going away present before he skipped town for a few days to attend a wedding out of state, and in the Australian bird enclosure while being watched by Ibises he proposed. My ring is quite wonderful, a simple silver band embossed with laurels (yay I finally have laurels!) and very comfortable, and apparently the little sneak bought it months ago when I was visiting my mom in PA, and waited for the perfect opportunity to surprise me, in typical Ben fashion it was all very romantic. I am still in a state of giggly bliss! Now to start planning the Deep Sea Cthulhu Cephalopod themed wedding!

So, giggling aside, today is a day for some Sheng! Specifically Wymm Tea’s Jingmai Sheng Pu-erh From Ancient Tea Tree 2013 First Spring, a Sheng Puerh from Jingmai Mountain in the Lancang Lahu Autonomous County in the southwest of Yunnan. This reminds me of how badly I want several very detailed maps of tea producing regions, that would be so cool hanging in my tea area. So, the aroma of this tea is not much to jump up and down about, the tea is very tightly compressed, so I am not surprised by the rather mellow and unassuming aroma. The notes I do get out of this sample are sweet hay, camphor, a gentle sharp woodiness, and a touch of spinach. It took a bit of sniffing to get those notes, but nothing wrong with a bit of tea snuffling!

Once I gave the tea its first rinse and brew, the leaves livened up a good bit. There are notes of wet oak wood and wet and dry hay, like a barn but thankfully without the animals! There is also a bit of sourness that fades to sweetness, like melon rinds, lastly there is a hint of green beans, specifically fresh uncooked snap beans. The liquid has a sharpness, wet wood and camphor, with a touch of smoke and sweetness.

I apologize for no photo of the first steep, I was unaware that my camera was suffering technical difficulties and ate my photo, all I got was a sad error. After the sharp aroma I was expecting a sharp taste, amusingly not so much! It is fruit sweetness and smoothness from the first to the aftertaste. Starting with honey and hay, moving to apricots, and finishing with a gentle woodiness that does give a bit of dryness at the very end. There is a very gentle camphorous cooling after sipping, but it is very light.

Second steeping! The aroma is not really at all sharp this time, it is sweet and fruity, fresh crisp apricots and honey with a touch of distant smoke. The taste is much thicker, especially in mouthfeel, it is heavily leaden with honey and fruit at the front, this fades pretty quickly to greenness. Notes of greenbeans and grass with a tiny bit of grapes at the finish.

Onward to number three! The aroma is now quite pungent, wet hay and wet leaf pile with a camphor note drift from my cup. What, the? Hey, what happened? It has gone from delightfully smooth and sweet to bitter, just like not entirely ripe persimmons, however the mouthfeel is thick and not dry, interesting! Maybe I steeped it too long, always a possibility (it was 30 seconds at 185 if you are curious) but woo, that was a twist! In me fashion I went for a few more steeps, the next couple were still rather bitter, but fading back into apricots and hay, with stronger camphor notes, so other than that kick in the face at the middle the tea was quite enjoyable!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/07/wymm-tea-jingmai-sheng-pu-erh-from.html

This was my early morning gongfu session. I was very excited to try this tea, for I have heard multiple good tings about it. The packaging from this company still gets me. I am a sucker for aesthetic qualities. The dry leaf is composed of loosely compressed dark green and platinum dusted maocha. These long tendrils twist and ravel together to form a sweet stone-fruit scented cake. I placed a chunk inside my yixing and gave it a shake. This tea had a very sweet and succulent odor. I could hint at a mix between peaches and apricots with a grassy undertone. I began my morning brewing ritual. The steeped leaves gave off a smoky green aroma. The flavor was fantastic. I got the memory of old fashioned oatmeal that’s been doused in brown sugar. The huigan from my first sip was amazing. My entire taste buds were consumed with an encompassing sweetness. Also, There was an underlying grassy note that followed each delectable sip. I could hint at a slight smoky wisp in the background. Sadly, this flavor faded rather quickly. I had lost the powerful sweetness by about the fourth steeping. This brew was still quite good, though it had lacked the hook that grabbed me at the beginning. This drink becomes dry and slightly bitter, like that of kale, at around the seventh steeping. I was able to get nine before I decided to call it quits. This was a wonderful morning gongfu session, and it was quite a treat of Sheng for me. The qi was partially non existent. It got me going and awoken my inner self, but it wasn’t something prominent. I still enjoyed this morning’s brewing ritual.

https://instagram.com/p/5kCqt-zGdH/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

So, I guess this is Wymm’s signature tea? I ordered a sample, and it seems like it’s included in each of the sample packs you can choose from. I had a nice afternoon session with it. It’s sweet up front, and continues to be sweet as long as you do short steeps. I also noted some butter and hay notes and some bitterness in the finish. It has low to medium thickness. It was good, but nothing stood out to me. I think overall, it’s kind of light for my tastes. Good quality though.

Yum! I just got some samples in the mail today and decided to try this one out tonight. Felt like some shou, and it’s been awhile, due to the heat. The leaf is so fresh looking even though it’s a 2008 shou. Once brewed up, it smelled fabulous! Sweet and a touch fruity. I steeped it a few times, about 20s in the first couple steeps, then longer. It’s silky in texture, nice reddish brown in color, and tastes like sweet dates. So good! Definitely on my wishlist!

I had it awhile ago and was pretty sure I left a review. Sorry.
I remember I had a very nice session with this tea. It’s smooth , fruity sweet and touch bitter which is really ties all the flavors together.
Many thanks to Wymmtea for giving me a chance to try their wonderful teas

https://instagram.com/p/24UCPxhwl9/

https://instagram.com/p/24WIDTBwpk/

My apologies for taking such a long time to review the samples. I think I got 2 more left. Will try them soon.
This tea. Leaves are so beautiful, long , not broken, some silvery.
Usually I use Gaiwan for tastings but I decided on Jian Shui pot.
The tea is quite strong, some bitter which I really liked. I’ve noticed I need some bite to a sweet creamy sheng not to be boring.
The brew is pale yellow. It is fruity and floral at the same time .
I enjoyed it a lot and will continue tomorrow. Pretty sure it’s durable to last longer than 10 steeps.
this tea didn’t make me sleepy or tea drunk. I’d say it’s quite energizing

Thank you so much Wymmtea for the opportunity to try your wonderful teas

https://instagram.com/p/4pgb1TBwui/

Nice, super thick sheng with citrus, stone fruit, straw and steamed vegetal notes. The texture is my fav part of feeling fluffy and thick. I got 12 infusions via gaiwan. It does get pretty dry in the later infusions, so if I were to have this again I’d probably not carry it as long.

Big leaf too!

Full review and pictures on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2010-kunlu-spring-sheng-puer-from-wymm-tea-tea-review/

I tried this with hubby last night. I did a rinse of about 5 seconds and then kept this tea at 30 second steeps based on the description.

The first steeps were grassy and had a little “bite”, but not unpleasantly so. It was the same sort I get from Chun Mee, which usually finishes with a late rising sweet note. Hubby said he didn’t notice it, but most reviewers on here mention it and I definitely got it in the first four steeps.

The fifth and sixth steeps were sweeter, lacked the bite, and became ever so slightly creamy. These were my favorite steeps of the evening. Strangely, the sweet aftertaste came in here instead of on the early steeps where I expected it, and it was light and fleeting.

If you like sheng with a little muscle but no real violent tendencies, this could be a hit!

The final of my samples from Wymm Tea. Thanks!

Kind of glad this one took so long to make it to the top of the list. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am used to sheng being very bright, metallic, and biting. This was very different.

First, the dry leaf looks so fresh and alive. The brew is honey colored. The first thing I noticed when tasting was a light note of smoke. No else seems to have mentioned it – so maybe its just me, but I liked it. This was followed by the flavor blooming into fresh floral notes. Not overpowering. The feel is thick. It leans toward sweet. In later steeps I got peppery notes and more than hints of apricot. There was some astringency but nothing unmanageable or even closely approaching what I normally find in sheng.

All in all, an easy to like old tree sheng.

Immediately likable. No rough edges. No off notes (well the wet leaf might be a bit… ahem… aromatic). Mostly this is earthy forest woods. There is a mild sweetness. Nicely creamy. Second western mug I noticed a touch of spiciness and a smidgen of fruit – possibly cherry. Anyway, this is a nice one.

sooo thank you Wymm tea for this sample! Sadly my other half thought he was being nice when he cleaned up the kitchen along with two of my samples from wymm tea. Luckily i had at least had a couple steepings of them. So without having run through the full round of this one – i can say that i need to try this one again.

the few steepings of this one that i did have were really… bland? I don’t think it had had a chance to open up yet as it was a really light brew, not tasting like water, but more green that the other one. Verdict is out on this one, esp since so many others really enjoyed this one.

Thanks to Wymm tea for sending me this sample. I feel bad that it’s taken me so long to try what they sent me but I haven’t been around at home that much to be drinking any shengs during the day. I was surprised a bit by the bitterness of this one. I don’t think it’s a good tea to drink on an empty stomach, I had to go grab a banana to eat with it and that’s kind of a nice combination. This has some very nice floral notes but I think it could benefit from some further aging as it seems pretty rough to me at this time. Some of the other tasters mentioned sweet notes which I am not getting at all but perhaps it’s a matter of individual palettes? Not sure how to rate this one.

The weather today has been kinda great, nice and cool (for summer) and overcast, sadly I did spend most the day sleeping, so I missed out on it. But when I woke up in the afternoon I was so happy to not be a melted pile of sadness! So in honor of the weather being nice, I decided to have some tea outside, and Ben decided to take pictures of me, really I wanted a new photo of myself for my various profiles, and I wanted it to be tea themed so it worked out perfectly.

Today on ye old tea blog, I am taking a look at another offering from Wymm Tea, specifically their Mahei Zhai Sheng Pu-erh From Ancient Tea Tree 2011 Spring, a Sheng Puerh from 2011. This tea is from the Mahei Village in the Yiwu Mountain of Xishuangbanna, one of largest of the tea producing mountains of Yunnan. The name Yiwu means The Habitat of Beautiful Snake Deity in the local Dai language, and I find myself wondering if they meant Nuwa, the ancient creator of mankind. The aroma of the leaves is quite aromatic and enjoyable, blending my much loves favorite note of camphor with sweet honey, broken vegetation, and a distinct anise-like note of lotus blossoms. I admit, I was not expecting that from a Puerh, but I am certainly not complaining, I love lotus blossoms. There is also a hint of woodiness and a tiny, delicate, apricot note at the finish.

Into the tiny shui ping the leaves go, for a short rinse and short steep. The now wet leaves only have a tiny hint of anise, instead it is intense wet hay and pungent camphor, sweet apricot, and a finish of wet bamboo. The liquid is sweet and wet, combining damp wood, soggy hay, and moist bamboo with a definite finish of apricot and honey. There is a delicate whiff of anise that is almost indiscernible, like the dream of anise.

First steeping time! Ah, now this is a first steep right after me own heart! It starts out light and smooth, with a surprisingly thick mouthfeel for a first steep. The taste begins with delicate sweetness of apricots and lotus, the lotus is super delicate but most certainly present. It then moves on to wet hay and a touch of mushrooms, with a finish of bamboo shoots and spinach. The aftertaste is a lingering lotus blossom sweetness.

Second steeping has the aroma of so much camphor! It is like an old cedar chest, woody and cooling, but with an apricot and bamboo accompaniment. Tasting the tea is smooth, that mouthfeel is still thick and soupy, but not much changed. The taste is primarily camphor and wet, sweet hay, very cooling and sweet. This blends with a finish of apricot and bamboo at the finish, with a delicate lotus finish.

For the final steep, the aroma is so refreshing, I almost wish that when I wrote my tasting notes for this tea it would have been a hot day, because the notes of camphor are very cooling. They are joined with delicate apricots and bamboo shoots, and a tiny hint of hay at the finish. Very smooth is the mouthfeel, not quite as thick, but still pretty soupy. The taste is again, primarily camphor and sweet hay, with a tiny hint of apricots and loam. The finish has a slight bitter kale like note, but this fades to lotus blossom pretty quickly. Sadly, this really is the final steep, where I end my reviews at three steeps, I tend to go further with them, and with Puerhs I usually add a very short summary of the other steeps. Shortly after this steep I was slammed with an ungodly stomach bug, not sure if it was food poisoning or what, but I was in no shape for drinking tea…believe me, I tried. So, I did not get to push this Sheng to its limits, I would love to get more because what I did try I really enjoyed.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/06/wymm-tea-mahei-zhai-sheng-pu-erh-from.html

Oh, apparently I’ve tried this one already. So that means I need less water, since I didn’t weigh the sample.

I am sick. Definitely coming down with some sort of terrible cold thing. MEH. And today I do need to go into work, but I think I’ll do that, then come home and get back into pyjamas and drink more tea.

I kinda like this one, even though it’s super green today, and a little watery because I keep mis-judging how much water I need to put in my pot. Haha. Oh well. I haven’t had a sheng in a while, so I’m hoping this gives me some energy to go deal with work stuff for a couple hours.

This tea is quite a bit different from the 2014 First Spring Nanpo Laozhai.

This one is a lot less bitter, there’s less bite. It’s still fresh and green, and reminds me of green beans or spinach water as well as matcha. I’ve just been doing flash steeps, but the liquid is a pretty yellow, and the flavour is also sweet. I would say that this one is more mild than the other. More approachable, although I do like the sharp biting bitterness of sheng.

Thanks so much, WymmTea, for sharing.