Wild Purple Buds Puerh

I am revisiting this tea this afternoon, using the same measurement of leaves from last night, and steeping them yet again. And again! This tea just keeps on going, like the Energizer bunny.

The flavors today are remarkably smooth, noticing only a trace of the mineral-y taste I experienced yesterday, sweet, a little bit of the honey-esque tone but more of a floral sweetness.

This is one of the most incredible Puerh teas I’ve encountered.

sipdown! (178…so 28 teas to go until black friday!) That makes me super happy since i suspect the next week or so will be less sipdowns than normal. I will likely reorder this as it is an interesting puerh that resteeps super well. I’ve been drinking this for most of the afternoon while i tried to wrap up work for the weekend.

I had to evacuate my home yesterday. One never knows what a hurricane may do. I decided to bring this along if things get bad. The center of the storm is coming soon and already there is flooding of historical proportions. The first few sips are tingling my tongue and throat. An immediate warmth is felt upon my whole body. After sipping, I sigh. What a lovely tea. My pores feel as if they are all open and breathing in this intense tea. My mouth is wet and the tea flavor continues to linger. There are moments in ones life when certain teas help one cope with certain situations. This is when one turns to Sheng.

Wooo Hooo 200 Tasting Notes! Well, if you don’t pat yoursef on the back, who will?!

What to do, what to do? My 200th review should be something different. I love me some Puerh…yes I do. Today’s tea should be something different. Stacy (owner of Butiki Teas) had graciously provided me with an ounce of Wild Purple Buds Puerh (Sheng) and this seemed the right choice for this 200th occasion. Thank you to Stacy!

The dry leaf looks amazing. The leaves don’t look like tea leaves, or not what I’ve ever seen before. The leaf is large, full of spiky buds that look like wheat…green, brown, gold and lavender tipped.
The instructions are 3-5 second steep, 195F for 20+ steepings! Begin the day with this tea!!! I started today at 7:30 a.m. and I’m not going to write about 20+ infusions.

I used my PIAO glass infuser pot to watch the leaves and control time.
The liquor color was consistantly pale champagne yellow through all infusions.

Wet Leaves:
1. Floral, vegital, smoky tobacco, and brine scented. Brown, golden and purple tipped.
2.-4. Strongly vegital scented.
5.-6. Leaves were greener and not as multicolored. They opened up, especially the buds and the scent was still strongly vegital.

Flavor:
1. The first impression was on my lips, the coating of cream that I could feel like butter then spreading throughout my mouth like the flavor of creamy white sweet corn. The taste was a little salty and completely smooth and without any tannin or bitterness at all.
2. A little tannin was present on this round right up front, then sweet and creamy like new Spring green beans. There was no bitter or acidic finish.
3. This was the best pour. The buttery feel was coating my lips and the vegital flavor had become cooked greens or butter lettuce…and the tannin had jumped to the finish…leaving a slightly peppery feel on the tongue. This is a Puerh? I am not able to comprehend that this is a Puerh. No earthiness…it tastes like a green tea. But not.
4. What now? My brain was confused. When I took another sip, the flavor was mineral, sweet and juicy, smooth and buttery with a tingling…then a honey wheat bread and greens taste. Sure, how did that make sense? Was I almost discribing a salad with croutons?
5.-6. These steepings brought out more buttery, smoothness and a little saltiness. A new floral quality that I found to be vaguely like paperwhite was now present. Tannin was dry like linen on the finish making the tea very juicy.

Here I added a little sugar. The saltiness of the Puerh and the vegital quality with the tannin with a bit of sugar created a beautiful balance of sweet/salty tea that brightened the cup tremendously. Here is where I would play with this effect. It made this tea dance and sparkle with flavor.

I have been pleased with the tea’s from Butiki…the new ones that are not commonly available elsewhere like the Wild Purple Bud Puerh and the Blue Nettle and some of the African Tea’s. Most of all the wonderful customer service has been so appreciated!

http://youtu.be/PSH0eRKq1lE Bagpipes…Well! (Bonnie Cameron-Johnstone)

I’m in an adventurous mood, so I’m going to try a tea I bought on a whim and am most likely not going to like. Yep, it’s my second experience with the dreaded puer!! Dun dun DUN!

Just from reading the label, it’s already a new experience for me. You’re supposed to steep 4 grams in 4 oz. of boiling water for 3-5 seconds. And you get 20+ infusions??! Wow. Okay, here goes nothing.

First, the aroma. Leather. It smells exactly like leather. I like wearing leather and smelling leather but drinking leather? Hmm. First sip is…surprising. I do taste leather but there’s a lot more going on too. It’s very complex. Naturally sweet and a tad spicy. Aromatic and interesting. Wow!! Maybe I can enjoy puer?

I’d never be able to go 20+ infusions if I drank the whole cup each time, so I’m going to take a few sips, pour it out, and then move on to the next steep. Please forgive this blasphemous behavior. I can tell from that first cup alone that this is a high quality tea that any puer enthusiast would drool over. Lucky for this tea, I just set up a swap with someone who does like puer. So, the rest of this ½ ounce sample will go to the loving home of Shmiracles!! :)

Anyway, back to the mission at hand. Here are my thoughts from my inexperienced tongue:

1st steep: As described above, but also with a bit of something akin to dry autumn grassiness. The aftertaste is reminiscent of a high quality green; something like Organic Dragon Tip.

2nd steep: Wow! Burned my mouth. That’s HOT! Anyway, the leather is a little more enjoyable now and not so horse saddle-like. The grassiness/vegetal flavor is more pronounced now as well and reminds me of buttery vegetables. I had to read the description for more ideas of how to describe this unique flavor. I definitely get the association with oak. It is oak-y.

3rd steep: Leather is continuing to fade and is being replaced by a floral oak-y-ness and buttery vegetables. This is the first steep that I detected floral notes. This infusion also has a great umami!! Buttery and silky smooth. My favorite mouthfeel and flavor so far.

4th steep: At this point, the buds are open. Leather is almost completely gone now. Floral oak is the most prominent flavor now. It still has that buttery vegetable aftertaste too. This is becoming more and more drinkable for me! I can say that I’m actually enjoying it!

5th steep: Floral oak. Buttery vegetable. And some unidentifiable puer-ness that distinguishes itself as definitely not a green tea, despite the similarities I’m finding. After this cup, my teapot ran out of hot water. So, I had to wait while I boiled more.

6th steep: Same as 5 above but maybe a tad lighter on flavor. Very enjoyable.

7th steep: Went with a little longer steep this time. About 15 seconds. A tad more spiciness is apparent, matching what I tasted in that first cup.

I’m getting a little bored now though, so I think I’ll call it quits here. Although I’m rating it a 79, I’d probably rate it a 100 if I actually liked puer. A 79 from me is extremely high considering that my only other puer experience gathered a whopping 25 and was thrown out after a couple sips. No re-steeps there. So, don’t mistake me; I’m giving this one high praise!!

I have the 2012 variety by the way. Also, the liquor was extremely light yellow the entire time for me. It never reached that light brown color as pictured. But I did use very short steeps. Another thing to note, it’s really hard not to burn your mouth in between steeps. How do you puer drinkers do it? I don’t have a gaiwan, so I just used my regular stainless steel infuser basket and 8 ounce owl mug (although I was careful to only fill it up halfway each time).

This is a highly interesting cup.
There is a nice floral note, and a honey juice flavor if juice were made from honey I imagine it would taste like this. Its not sappy sweet though, clearly, but it has such a nice honey nectar flavor that is light and bursts in the mouth with juiciness.
There is a deep woods like note in this cup, sometimes I think I get a little cinnamon but as soon as I taste it its gone so Im not sure lol.
This is young and has so much more it can unfold for us.
If I had better storage I would grab some and put it away for much later.
I don’t trust my knowledge level or ability to sustain the quality of this tea for that long however.
This is a really easy pu’erh to drink and I feel equally good for both beginners and those who appreciate a fine pu’erh.

Sipdown! Thanks for sending me a sample of this tea to satisfy my curiousity, Boxermama!

I wasn’t sure how I should go about brewing this (I always entertain notions of properly gong-fu brewing pu’erhs and other fancy teas)… but rationality won out, and I went with Western-style gong-fu, which is more what I usually do (if not strict Western-style). Hence, a full tbsp of leaf in about 8oz. water (instead of 4 oz.), and a 20 second infusion. And no, I didn’t rinse.

First impression? Wow – this sure coloured/flavoured up nicely with such a short infusion! And the taste? Light, a bit spicy and earthy. And now for a momentous occasion… while sipping, I thought to myself “gee, this sure tastes like a sheng. I wonder what type of pu’erh it is?” And sure enough… it’s a sheng! Woaaaah I can differentiate the two major types of pu’erh! What an accomplishment. (Yes, there’s a bit of self-directed sarcasm there.)

Anyhow, as per usual, I really have no other taste descriptors for the flavour. It’s enjoyable, and it reminds me of other shengs, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have guessed correctly (or likely thought to guess, for that matter). Providing descriptions for things has always been a weak spot for me; while I do think I am capable of tasting nuances in fancy, expensive, delicious teas, I am incapable of describing them. [I’m the sort of person who picks up on off-flavours in various items quite readily.] It’s kind of annoying, but certainly nowhere close to the top of my current list of annoyances, so perhaps sometime in the distant future when my life no longer belongs to my thesis, SAS, my advisor, the university… I will attempt to remedy this. Until then, you get “tastes like sheng” and “tastes like yabao”. Le sigh.

On that note – my memory for flavours is also rather crappy sometimes, and I can’t remember the last time I had a sheng… and so really couldn’t tell you how this ranks up against others. I do enjoy it though!

ETA: Second infusion 30s, stronger sheng flavour, still with a bit of sweetness. I suppose smoky or leathery might be some good descriptors here.

I might as well do this Leeroy Jenkins style and try it out since I’ve had it since the summer. I’m not going into a fancy schmancy 20+, or even 8+ steep fest here because quite frankly, I’m not a fan of pu-erhs, and I anticipate crying in my sauerkraut after the fifth steep.

First steep: Ultra smoky and meaty. Like smoked meat. Barely any sweetness or anything. I can feel the shreds of charred steak between my teeth. I haven’t had a steak in over fifteen years, so this isn’t a pleasant steep for me.

Second steep: Not as smokey but still meaty. Touch of sweetness.

Third steep: Meaty with some vegetal note creeping in. Smoke in the background. These first three steeps all smell the same, though.

Fourth steep: A bit smokey but less meaty. The vegetal note is somehow softer than before. Beef jerky.

Fifth steep: A bit more vegetal with the smoke + meatiness. This is a little more balanced than the previous steeps. Even though I can see that this is getting better for my own personal tastes, I’m stopping here.

Interesting experience but this has reminded me that I’m not a fan of pu-erh. And that I don’t miss steak.

Liberteas thanks for this one!

This is almost a cross between an oolong and a pu-erh type flavor on my tongue. It’s a bit drier but still pleasant. I ended up doing three infusions and on the 3rd it was a woodsy type taste. Not bad at all :)

this tea is kinda almost too complex for me! i mean that complimentary.
it keeps changing it’s prominent flavors. i feel like i can’t even track it.
buttery but vegetal, sweet but earthy, oakey and light, and then something new still. like a mealy apple? idek.
the first steep wasn’t so great but i know you should sometimes rinse puerhs too, which i never do. i just drink it anyways hah. i’m sure i’m not the only one.
i’m gonna do a handful of more steeps, until i get bored or tea drunk. whichever comes first. start your bets now!
thank you CHAroma for being so generous and sending me this wonderful sample. it was on my wish list and everything. this wish has been granted!
(my sister thanks you too!)

hey PS this is my 450th tea tasted!!
ding-a-ling!