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I haven’t drank many senchas, and those which I’ve drank were low quality ones, so I can’t compare it with something good.

I’ve steped this tea with 80ºC and 70ºC and 15-20sec steps (5gr).

The 80ºC ones were grassy, strong and a bit bitter (it was like that robustness with a hint of bitterness.

The ones at 70ºC became more gentle, grassy, no bitter, with a sweetness touch. Quite good.

I have received a well packed and presented bunch of samples from teabento (thank you very much) and this has been the first one I tasted.

I have steped it as follows:

-30sec – 80ºC: Sweet, clear colour, reminds me of grapes and floral. This is a soft white peony, quite good for what I have tasted until now.

- 1min – 70ºC: a bit stronger, still sweet and floral, the grapes notes are nearly dissapeared.

-1.5min – 60sec: a bit stronger, still floral but a bit astringent at the same time, less sweet.

I still have enough tea for another shot so I’ll try to vary the steps time and temperature in order to see how it evolves.

I’ll wait until the next shot (tomorrow) in order to give a veredict.

I’ve been taing this tea for a week now as an english breakfast tea, with a hint of mil and a dessert spoon of honey.

I’m a red version lover of this tea, simply amazing, so I wanted to taste this one.

The thing is that’s too wea for me to do a propper english breakfast, it’s more a more delicate tea, with less caffeine, velvety and weaker. espite all that, I thing that’s a really good choice for someone that wants just this.

I’ll have to taste it alone to see how it tastes without mil and honey.

I need to review it deeper but at the moment this is not worth buying more of it.

With 5gr and 90ºC water steeped for 15sec the brew is too weak, not much flavour. For 95ºC and 30sec it’s a bit bitter. Maybe a small sweet afetertaste.

What I don’t like about it is that I found 2 small green plastic threads.

I will let it age a bit before brewing it again.

I have received a sample from MrMopar and I’m going to review it during today and tomorrow.

I have done a quick rinse and I’m going to use flash steeps for this one. 5gr and boiling water (well, to be precise water just under the boiling point).

The first brew takes me around 5-7sec: The colour is orange/amber. The wet leaves smell like lemons or something like that. The taste is quite similar to the smell of the wet leaves, it has no bitterness or astringency, no smoke. It’s sweet and it has a touch of lemons (something cirtric).

The secod brew It’s with excatly the same pattern, boiling water, flash step: the wet leaves smells like the previous step. The colour of the infused ater it’s exactly the same as previously. SOme of the citric flavour has disapeared, now its more smooth, sweet. Still no bitterness or smoke.

I will contunue diring this afternoon and tomorrow to see how it develops.

3rd brew/ 10 sec, boiling water: it’s sweet, smooth, orange colour. It has some citric flavour but really weak. It has something like mineral flavour.

15sec boiling water: sweet, smooth. No astringency/bitterness, no smoke. Low body.

This is a quite sweet pu but too smooth for me. In my opinion it lacks some complexity and maybe a bit more of body, but for someone who likes really soft pu erhs this is a great choice.

I want to thank to Mrmopar for this sample :)

Mine is not the premium version, it’s the normal:

I find it vegetal, with a floral aftertaste. It’s soft and sweet. I like it.

I use to brew it western style with:

2.5gr of leaves
1.5’ of infusion
85ºC water

A good everyday drinker.

I bought this tuo to compare it with the 2009 boxed version as I was dealing with the doubt of buying more boxed tuos or a tong of non boxed (and finally I bought a tong of Te Ji).

I don’t know if this tuo has been stored in a closed tong, but if it has been it will benefit of a few years of ‘outbox’ storage.

I’ve used 3.6gr of leaves as I know that xiaguan tuos use to be really strong in flavour. The tuo smells smoky. It’s really really high pressed, I had some trouble to break a part of it.

I have used boiling water:

7sec: the flavour it’s soft, with a hint of sweetness and spices. No bitterness or smoke flavour.

10sec: it’s a little bit astringent, the flavour it’s more spicy, sweet aftertaste.

10sec: sweet flavour, spicy (pepper) and astringent aftertaste.

After resting for a night:

15sec: softer flavour than in the previous step. Smooth sweetness, soft spices, light astringent aftertaste.

I have brew it today with water under the boiling point and flash steeps (around 5sec) and the spicy flavour it has been really weak. I have step it 3 times, the same leaves amount than the previous session (the detailed previously) and it’s really smooth. I will continue with this tuo this evening after the gym and I will update in comments. I will continue steeping with water under the boiling point.

After some hours resting, I’m going to do 3 more flash steps:

*The first one it has some smoky flavour and astringency but with a light sweet aftertaste.
*The second one it’s sweet. With no smoke and maybe a very light astringency.
*The third one it’s sweet and smooth.

This is a really good everyday tuo if you like something strong and spicy as it’s not expensive. I think that it will be better to age it at least an other 3-5 years.

It’s very different from what I remember about the 2009 boxed tuo. I will review it this Christmas to compare it properly and I will also compare it with the Te Ji when it arrives.

For what I have read, this is the typical Xiaguan taste.

I’m going to review it fast & dirty.

The sample that I get (50gr) smells smoky (not too much).

Boiling water 5sec — it’s smooth, sweet, with no bitterness and no smoky favour.

20sec with boiling water — there’s some sweetness, mid body, no smoke, no bitterness, really smooth.

I need to review it deeper with a long session, but at the moment I like it because of the lack of bitterness and smoke. A its price ($24 for 400gr) I think that’s a good deal for a daily drinker. ($0.06 per session).

I bought this cake a while ago but I haven’t taste it since till now.

The cake smells like grapes liquour. It has a dark brown colour and it’s not too pressed (I broke it with my hands)

The first brew was at 90-95ºC, 45sec — it has a really weak flavour, amber colour, really weak sweet flavour, mid body, mellow, smooth and not too sweet.

The second brew with lower temp (80ºC aprox and 1min) has the same flavour but maybe a little more sweet.

I don’t know if I have burned the leaves with more than 90ºC for the first brew or that bai mu dan is like this when ages…

I’m not going to buy it again. This 65 rating it’s due to the lack of ugly flavours, but in my opinion it’s too weak in flavour.