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This is the unflavored Jin Xuan milk oolong from Teavivre. The tea was produced by pinching off a stem that contains several leaves, and then rolling this into a tight ball. It’s really amazing to see one of these small rolls of tea unfurl. I read a review where someone thought this teas was better brewed western style. I’ll try that next. I brewed this gong fu style. It lived up to its billing. In the first two infusions, it had a distinctive milky, creamy note. As the infusions increased, the milkiness was no longer present, and it took on more of a vegetal taste. The tea remained sweet throughout.

This morning, I had Planet Jingmai raw puerh from Crimson Lotus, so this afternoon I decided to have some small moons from Teavivre. Most people seem to be using 3 or 4 balls of Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea, but I went for a full 4 grams, which came out to be 6 balls in a 110ml gaiwan. I did a rinse, then started with a 30 second infusion to open the balls, then went back to 10 secs for the next infusion and began adding seconds from there. Compared to a Laoshan Black, this tea doesn’t have as strong of a chocolate note, and for me it is less of a chocolate taste and more of a faint chocolate smell. There is also that malty note that others have reviewed, and I find that it fades by about the fourth infusion. I get some sweet potato taste. In fact, this dragon pearl tasted a lot of like a more delicate version of Laoshan Black. I never experienced any bitterness or astringency. I could drink this tea as a daily, though I would go with Laoshan Black for the more pronounced chocolate note. I happened to have an Oreo nearby, and I have to say, this tea goes great with an Oreo. As most probably know, this tea is shipped directly from China. Packaging was excellent with sealed foil smaller bags inside sealed foil larger bags, the larger bags being wrapped in bubble wrap and packaged with more bubble wrap inside of the box.

Planet Jingmai from Crimson Lotus is the down sleeping bag of teas. There is a lot of material compressed into this little orb of raw pu erh. After the first rinse, the tea has floral and hay scents. It takes a little work to get this ball to open, so for the second rinse, I poured just off the boil water from high. This helped open the ball. You can watch air bubbles rising as the water penetrates the tightly packed leaves, and the dark little orb begins to turn green and open. After two rinses of about 30 seconds each, I no longer detect the hay scent. Now, it’s floral and vegetal. The first infusion after the rinses is done for 10 seconds. The liquor is pale. The first sip is sweet followed by just a touch of woody tannin bitter, but proper bitter. The second infusion, I let it go to 30 seconds when I was momentarily distracted. The leaves are opening up nicely. They now are at the half-way mark on a 150ml gaiwan. This was a bit too long of a steep for me, but if you are looking for a punchy bitter sheng, 30 seconds will give it to you. Third infusion, I try 15 seconds. Sweet honey immediately followed by bitter and now astringent toward the front of my mouth. Fourth infusion, and that first sip is sweet again. It is the sweetest it has been, and as long as the tea remains in the mouth, it remains sweet, but as soon as it is swallowed, the bitter notes begin to appear, and soon after the mouth begins to dry. It certainly has a nice push and pull balance to the tea. Fifth infusion, keeping it at 15s, and this is nice. Still that hit of sweetness on the first sip, honey and apricot, still a bit of wet wood, but this infusion remains wet, creamy, and smooth in the mouth. A touch of bitterness is still on the finish, but almost no astringency. Interesting. Others described smokiness. I get no smokiness in my Planet Jingmai, not even a trace. I’m doing this on a practically empty stomach, first thing in the morning. I had a small cookie before this session. I feel relaxed, calm, but I tend to remain calm even in extremely trying situations, so maybe it is more my personality than the tea. I took the temperature down a bit and did a longer steep of 25 seconds. Sweetness is still there but has faded. Bitterness is more immediate. Smelling the leaves in the gaiwan, they are still floral, but it doesn’t come through in the liquor now. I’ll keep going, but I suspect this tea will remain about the same as it is now through additional infusions. Now in my 8th or 9th infusion—I lost count—the sweetness has continued to fade and more vegetal comes through. I detected no mustiness or earthiness with this sample. I will order a couple more of these to see how they will age. I enjoyed this and would recommend it. For those wanting to try a raw pu erh for the first time, it’s a convenient way to try it, and not overwhelming.

Laoshan Black (Autumn 2016 – He Family Collection). This one is going on my keeper list. This tea is excellent. When I opened the package and smelled the dry leaves, the chocolate note was already present. After a rinse, the leaves smelled like a dessert. So many have reviewed this tea, I won’t go into much detail other than to say the Autumn 2016 release of this tea is very chocolaty and very, very smooth and sweet. I’ve had this same tea in its green form, and it is nothing short of miraculous the transformation this tea makes. I evidently still can’t post pictures, because I keep trying to upload a photo and it never shows, but I think the Laoshan green tea I received had an unusually high number of very new tender stems VS leaves, and I took a photo to show the tea. Perhaps the supply was running low and that caused the quality to drop. In contrast, this sample of Laoshan black had beautiful leaves.

I received this as part of Verdant Tea’s 5 for $5 promotion. I did an initial wash, then 8 sec steep, +4 secs for each additional infusions. I initially used 200 degree water, but dropped that down to 175. This loose leaf sheng is very much a green-leaning tea.

This is not at all what I was expecting. VT describes the tea’s dominant note as very fruity-plantain. Perhaps they were thinking of green plantains, because I love fried ripe plantains, and you should definitely not expect to find those notes in this tea, at least with the sample I was provided.

As others have said, I did get the hay aroma coming through initially, but that faded after the first couple of infusions. There was also a dark chocolate note in the aroma, but it was short lived and disappeared by the third infusion. What I get mostly is vegetal—leafy greens like turnip green pot liquor, a bit sweet, but finishes bitter and leaves the tongue dry.

This is a roasted oolong. To the nose, it is sweet floral and light smokiness. On the tongue, the roasted leaves come through as char and earthiness with a touch of sweetness. I brewed this gongfu style with an initial wash. If brewed longer than 15 seconds, this tea will deliver bitterness and mouth drying astringency, bordering on a chalky dryness, but if the tea is brewed quickly in the 8-10 second range, the result is much smoother and wet mouth feel, but still will finish with a hint of astringency. Even with quick infusions, the resulting liquor is strong and leaning more orange than yellow.

Dark roast coffee lovers would probably enjoy this tea.

This is my first review on Steepster, and I am new to the world of high end loose tea and puerh teas. Like many of you, I began my journey by ordering many samples from various companies, several shipping direct from China. The first sample to arrive was from Verdant Tea.

I think Verdant Tea’s description matches closely to my experience. The tea is extremely vegetal and savory and has a resemblance to a green vegetable stock. Unlike some green teas that have a hay or grass scent, this was definitely more green bean in smell and taste. It also possessed savory notes of grains. VT also lists light citrus, but I did not detect that, but others certainly may. The liquor produced was a pale yellow-green. There was no astringency in the mouth feel.

I brewed this gongfu style with a very small 70 ml glass, so that I could get two mornings out of the small sample provided. I did a short 5 second rinse with 175 degree water, then began infusions at 8 seconds and increasing 4-5 seconds per infusion. I tried slightly cooler water for slightly longer, but found the liquor to go bitter with the longer infusion.

While my experience is limited, I can say I prefer green teas with more of the grass/hay/meadow notes. This is just my personal preference. I think the tea lived up to the description on VT’s website.

I’m hoping I can attach some photos, because while the tea produced a nice tasting and aromatic liquor, I was somewhat surprised by what I found in the cup after several infusions. It looked like 50%+ of the tea was pure stems. They were very small and tender, but it was almost as if the new growth leaves and buds has been picked for another tea, and then the stems were snipped with a small amount of leaf remaining. While the leaves were still moist, I laid them out on a paper towel and blotted them, then transferred them to a piece of paper. Is this normal for Laoshan Green? (picture coming I hope)

I look forward to sharing more tea tasting notes and getting to know everyone in the community.