2016 Chawangpu Jinggu Zhen Shang Gushu Puerh

I got a sample of this one in the Chawang Group buy I participated in earlier this year. I found this to be a pretty powerful tea. Flavors I noted were floral and slightly piney; this tea absolutely possesses a good amount of astringency and bitterness (more bitter than astringent though). This can be mitigated by brewing with a very light hand (or likely by using cooler water, though I did all my sessions at a boil).

The tea’s texture was quite thick in my mouth and as it went down my throat. I perceived a slight bit of energy, at points during the session, but only when I was really focused on it. This one seems like it would take well to aging. From what I’ve heard, Chawang selects more for teas which will be good with age rather than ones which are good young. While this one is tasty at this age, I think it would benefit from aging for sure.

This is a fairly nice tea. Got it with the Chawangshop group buy. Got them a while ago but am really just getting to them now. This one started with a bit of a sour note but I didn’t notice it in the second infusion. It was slightly bitter and slightly sweet. A nice raw to drink now because it did not have an abiding bitterness that some sheng has. In the end I am not sure if it was sweet enough to say apricots and stonefruits but a nice sweet note was there.

I steeped this ten times in a 75ml teapot with 6.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

Another solid 2016 production from Chawangshop. I have been impressed with the 2016 teas I have tried so far. This one is thick, with a mix of savory and sweet, with a subtle but noticeable huigan. The tea brews a pale yellow-gold. Buttery in early steeps, just slightly bitter in later ones.