I’ve been wanting to try quality Wuliang sheng for a while and my samples just arrived last week.
I noticed my experience with this tea is quite different from previous reviews. I pick up barely any bitterness until the 5th steep. Dry leaf has a sweet, candy-like aroma and wet leaf has that musky, orchid-like, deep forest fragrance. The first few steeps have notes of sweet peach, honey, and tannin. It’s very smooth and leaves a pleasantly sweet finish lasting more than a few minutes. Following steeps are similar to the first one except gradually reveal subtle tobacco and woodsy notes. Prominent honey and ripe peach notes, with increasingly more tannin, minerals, and cedar wood in the 5th and 6th steeps. Astringency is minimal and the flavors continue to please past the 7th steep.
Honestly, I find this tea to be less interesting than those from the Lincang, Baoshan, and Dehong regions. I’m just not into very sweet teas. The 2014 Qing Mei Shan is just as sweet, but has a much more impressive aftertaste that I got me considering to put some money down. Also, despite its name, this one also doesn’t have that wild tea tree element YS’s other teas have, but it’s very enjoyable to drink now.
