Had some time before a doctor appointment today, so decided to get the little 180ml pumpkin pot out again and go through another of the old 2017 Dazzle Deer samplers. This time I’m taking on my least-liked tea-type, pu’erh. Though I admittedly have had much more experience with shou than sheng, so I wonder if I can get a different experience than the “dirt and marsh water” that I usually taste…
Used the full 7g sample and filled the pot to 140ml (so it wasn’t quite to its capacity) with 205F (lowered to 195F, and then 185F) water.
140ml miniature teapot | 7g | 205F (Dropped to 195F, 185F) | Rinse/10s/15s/10s/10s/10s/10s
The wet leaf after the rinse smells like wet autumn leaves, raisin, bitter melon, and sour vegetables. The first infusion has a surprisingly sweet/floral aroma!? As well as honey, and raisin and autumn leaf. I definitely have never had these kind of scents in a pu’erh before… and… it tastes good to me?! What the frack, this has a lightly floral (lilac? lotus?) taste, a touch of that fruity honeyed raisin quality, and then a slightly more bitter vegetal (cabbage?) finish. On the second infusion the tea had suddenly grown uncomfortably bitter (the description for the tea says it has “no bitterness or astringency” so I can’t help but feel like I’m doing something wrong?), so instead of increasing the steep times for each infusion like Dazzle Deer’s site had recommended, I decided to try sticking at the 10s and also lowered the water temp slightly to 195F. That helped some, but it still was a little more bitter/astringent than I prefer… What happened to that lovely first steep?! Lowering the water temperature even further (185F) helped a little, but I still felt an almost medicinal bitterness left afterwards on my tongue. Only by my sixth steep had it mellowed, but by then I was tired of the tea and ready to wrap up the session…
I think this is closer in flavor to something I would like (while I never seem to have much luck with shou, unless it is in flavored blends), if it weren’t for the bitterness that overtook the tea after the first steep. And I don’t know if that bitterness is a sheng problem or a Sara problem. Will need to explore further.
Flavors: Astringent, Autumn Leaf Pile, Bitter, Bitter Melon, Floral, Honey, Raisins, Vegetal
Sounds like a typical young Jinggu sheng to me. The bitterness and astringency isn’t a Sara problem. A lot of young sheng possess both qualities. Supposedly they mellow in age and with the right storage conditions. Oh, if only you weren’t on a tea-buying and acceptance ban.
Isn’t three years aged though?!
How’s your dashboard looking in comparison to recent? There’s a glitch on mine where my dashboard is missing notes from between 20 and 3 hours ago.
Aged? Newp, it’s still a baby.
I still have those notes open on another tab, but on this one (new tab) I’m seeing the same thing. If you look at the Steepster Migration page, Ilya said a database table had been moved and things should’ve only been affected for a few seconds. I’ll go report it…
Bah, and here I’ve been dutifully trying to drink all my oldest teas (2017) for space/storage reasons! Three years certainly seems like a long time to me, hahaha! :-P
Sorry to butt in re: Dashboard. Mine is quite dysfunctional.
Hide yo sheng, hide yo strife. Really, just toss all your sheng and shou in the back of a closet. Don’t let their presence feel like a burden. And one day when you find them, maybe they’ll have transformed a bit.
So how long is long enough, then?
38 years.
Next year, it will be 39 years.
I kid. There are lots of factors involved, so I’ve read from my position in this here armchair. Over a few years, I have noticed changes in my sheng collection, both the sample bags that have remained closed with no humidity or temperature additions, and the cakes and open sample bags that are stored in crocks with added humidity to keep it around 65-70%. The ambient temp in my room is usually between 60 and 70 degrees.
Then there is the sample of tasteless sheng stored in a compartment in my truck. I’m really curious about how a year of that storage will turn out.
Just give it a try new and then… I don’t think there is some clear “long enough” time line. I liked very fresh ones and I liked as well aged ones.