2012 Ming Sheng Hao Bulang Arbor Puerh Tea 357g Certified Organic

I think Allan wrote an accurate review of this tea. It is strong, dark, and full flavored with just a touch of bitterness and fermentation flavor. Bittersweet is a good characterization. It is quite tasty and a good bargain.

This is a relatively inexpensive tea from Chawangshop at $30 if I remember correctly. It has in my opinion value beyond its cost. This was good tea. It was not without fermentation flavor. It was thick and creamy with fermentation flavor throughout the first four or five steeps. There was, however, very little bitterness to this tea. It had a sweet taste from the beginning. While I didn’t notice the chocolate flavor that everyone seems to want in ripe puerh it did develop a fruity note after the fermentation taste faded. I would aadd that while there was a lot of fermentation flavor I didn’t notice any fishyness to this tea. So far everything I have bought from Chawangshop has been good. We will see if my luck holds with a couple of really cheap teas I also got from them. This was like I think I said a very strong tea. It was very dark in color and held its color throughout the twelve steeps I gave this tea. I think this tea would have gone at least fifteen steeps but twelve is enough for me.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 85ml Yixing Teapot with 7.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. Again this tea would probably have gone another three or four steeps. It was a strong tea.