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IM IN LOVE! This is perfection. One of the most complex teas I’ve tried. Flavors are plentiful and they pop into existence as the tea sits in your mouth. That said, the most predominant flavors to my tongue are papaya and cream. Even with so much complexity and flavor, there is NOTHING harsh about this tea. No bitterness or excessive flavor. Mild astringency develops starting at infusion 3. Yields ~10 infusions.

Drop brewed this beauty and I think the parameters were fine. Could potentially push the heat more in the middle infusions, but hard to believe this could get better :).

Mouthfeel is creamy and thick. Hui gan is strong and lasts many minutes. Hou yun is full and like rolling an “r.” Headiest oolong I’ve tried, and a cha qi that I enjoy. Relaxing, day-dreamy qi. Medium-high sweetness.

My first Shan Lin Xi (translates as Pine Forest Stream) and I’m thoroughly impressed. This batch comes from the Fanzaitan area specifically. I can’t claim to get any floral or pine notes as others have mentioned.

Do my eyes deceive me? Is this tea really so cheap? I’ll be buying this by the barrel. Thank you, Eco-cha, and I SO look forward to trying the other samples from your shop.

Harvest: Winter 2022
Origin: Fanzaitan, Shan Lin Xi (elevation 1400 m).
Cultivar: Unspecified, but usually Qing Xin.

Dry Leaf: Dried apricot, dried pineapple.
Wet Leaf: Apple pie.
Flavors: Cream, cucumber, broccoli, sugar, sweet, pineapple, coconut, sugar, papaya.

Second of three shou samples from KTM and this is good stuff!

No bitterness, astringency. Maybe the slightest hint of sweetness, but not much to my palate. Wonderful clay-like mouthfeel and deep, earthy flavor. Flavor profile is a bit one-dimensional to me. Still quite the nice tea. Highlight is definitely the mouthfeel.

Will need another session to determine if it’s cake-worthy.

First of three shou samples from KTM. Pretty nice!

Thick, wet mouthfeel. Very fragrant dry and wet leaves for puerh. No bitterness or astringency. Medium fruity sweetness throughout. Impression is rain-soaked soil of a decaying forest floor. Brings me back to hikes on the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica.

Don’t think I like it enough to cake it at the price point, but it’s definitely nice and I might reconsider if I had more money and hadn’t just bought a bunch of cakes. Certainly not overpriced!

Last of the samples from PJ. This one is sold out in cake form. Definitely a nice tea I’m glad I got to try. Will enjoy drinking the rest of the sample for sure, but I probably wouldn’t have caked it even if there were any left.

Smooth drinker with no bitterness and medium-low astringency, but flavor is fairly weak and hard to decipher. My palate may have been having an off-day, though. Tea seemed to peter out after 8-9 infusions. Mouthfeel is at least very full, creamy, and intriguing. Don’t get any dulce de leche notes as PJ lists on his website, but certainly some cream flavors and hints of vanilla. Will certainly enjoy drinking the rest of the sample.

My experience with this PJ sampler was fun and certainly worth it. It has been interesting to try teas from a boutique factory. I plan to order more from him in the future.

Blind bought a cake of this shou because it was cheap and reviewed favorably by mrmopar. This tea has the darkest flavors of any I’ve tried for sure. Nothing fruity, nutty, or sweet. Just pure, dark, relatively intense richness.

Mouthfeel is thick and nice. No bitterness and trace astringency. 12+ infusions. No noticeable aftertaste.

A blind purchase well done! Glad I followed mrmopar’s opinion on this one :).

Also, if anyone would like to try any of the teas I’ve got, I’d be glad to swap some samples – just DM me!

7542, take 2. Different vendor, different year. From a fresh order of KTM samples, most of which are shou. Had I known how hyped the 2010 vintage is before making this order, I would have gotten a sample of that instead haha.

This one is hands-down better than the 2006 vintage. Not sure how much of the difference is due to storage parameters. Pleasant tea to drink, although I cannot discern much flavor no matter how hard I try. Mouthfeel is neither watery nor full. No bitterness with low astringency. 10+ infusions. Like its predecessor, this tea is also heady, with cha qi kicking in at infusion 7-8.

I find it hard to fathom that the 2010 vintage is superior enough to this tea to warrant caking it. Perhaps I’m wrong, however, and the vintage really does matter that much. Or maybe I just don’t enjoy the cha qi experience as much as others?

Surprised they have this one on Steepster haha. Blind bought a cake of this because it was so cheap (< $0.04/g!) and I wanted to try a different type of heicha than shou puerh. This tea is in bits – some of the smallest I’ve seen in loose leaf tea. Lots of bits of stems too.

I think this is a decent value for what it is. I was hoping for it to be tolerable at least, and that it is. Flavor is a bit sweet, but fairly simple. No astringency or bitterness. Mouthfeel is decent, but not as full or interesting as many shous I’ve tried. Flavor profile is very different from the shous I’ve tried. This one completely lacks any earthy/forest floor notes that are common in shou. Longevity is poor at 5-6ish infusions, but I didn’t try to push the times in the later infusions.

I can see myself sipping on this from time to time, as a break from shous. Will likely take me a long, long time to get through the brick haha.

Why did I buy this sample? My wallet is trembling. This stuff is perfectly balanced, complex, and refined. It’s not just the high price (although I’m certainly not immune to that bias) that makes me like this tea. I’ve tried plenty of more expensive teas that I don’t like.

This is the last sample from my FL order and definitely the most impressive. This tea is from an ancient garden in the town Ba Meng, which is located directly below the highest peak in the Xishuangbanna mountain range and in all of the southern Puerh-producing regions. The tea definitely has that sophisticated air that high mountain teas tend to have.

According to the FL website and consistent with my own observations, these leaves are smaller than those in other samples. I believe this is somewhat common in mountainous areas. The closer you get in elevation to the treeline, the shorter trees get. In general, shorter trees in forests with higher, thicker canopies by necessity have larger leaves in order to collect more sunlight from the little bits that make it through the thick canopy. The inverse could contribute to smaller leaf size in these higher elevation trees…

Anyways, bitterness is trace with medium-low astringency. Longevity is 16+ infusions. Mouthfeel is generous, juicy, and full. Aftertaste is tangy-sweet and lasts many minutesssss.

Probably out of my budget to cake this at $0.60/g, but I might splurge after I finish the rest of the sample and weep tears of great loss.

Another one from PJ sampler. This one hasn’t had any Botox treatments or used any anti-aging creams, unlike the other samples. The leaves still have some green to them, and the liquor doesn’t look any darker, but flavors have definitely shifted darker.

Smooth tea with muted flavors and nice mouthfeel. An enjoyable, easy drinker. Mild sweetness with no bitterness or astringency. Can take boiling water and longer steeps; perhaps more leaf, too.

Main issue is that the flavors are milder than most shous, which makes me nervous about the further aging potential of a cake.

The description on FL’s website for this tea is pretty spot on. An all-around balanced, generic sheng with subtle flavor, no bitterness, and enough astringency to make you want more. Certainly a nice tea, but not sure if I will cake it yet. Might rather cake one of the first two for the money. Jury’s still out and will decide after further comparison.

Mouthfeel is medium fullness. Longevity is 10+ infusions.