2005 Haiwan "Spring Tips" Raw

Decent semi aged old school factory sheng for the price. Reminds me of a German rauchbier, an Oktoberfest beer made with malt that’s dried over a beechwood fire.
Smoke, malt and old wood. Not getting the fruit notes others mention. Got 9 steeps that were pretty consistent. A bit of chest tightening and energetic qi typical of Menghai teas but nothing to shout about. Would be a good breakfast tea to pair with smoked sausage. For a factory tea of this age/price I prefer the Changtai offerings as they tend to offer more complexity and heavier qi but this one is good and solid.

From the Pu’erh Plus TTB.

Used a ceramic gaiwan. This session was all over the place. Too bad I only had 4.2g to experiment with – I wanted to enjoy this as much as I could. I changed the brewing temperature twice – beginning with boiling, then to 200, lastly to 185 – because I thought an 11-year old sheng would do better with a hotter temperature. But the liquor was dark yellow and the amount of bitterness exceeded my expectations. Dry storage, it is then.

Five second rinse. Three minute resting period (looked pretty compressed, but loosened pretty quickly). Steeping times: 5 seconds, 5, 2, 2, 5, 8, 8, 10, 20, 30, 45; 1 minute, 2, 4, 8, 15.

At first, the dry leaf aroma has a sour note of pickled something (closest, red peppers), then sweetened to honey and cooked brown sugar. The wet leaf aroma is smokey and grassy, becoming lightly fruity later in the session. My tasting cup and the gaiwan lid held onto this fruitiness for much of the session.

212 degrees, infusions 1 through 5. Bitter, herbaceous. Only the first cup has huigan. The soup starts to have a thick texture with the fourth.

200 degrees, infusions 6 through 9. Texture is much thicker. Energetic mouthfeel. Still quite bitter and herbaceous with just a touch of sweetness underneath. Not much huigan.

185 degrees, infusions 10 through 16. The soup goes through the most evolution in this strand. The intensity of flavor has lightened. Tastes bitter but doesn’t feel bitter. The herbaceous note is still present and I also get some tobacco. The aftertaste is citrus zest. Abruptly (beginning with 13), the soup becomes purely sweet with a more noticeable huigan. Strong note of apricot until the end.

(what I have done to this sheng. oh well, still learning.)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKQ4aCKhuLI/

A classic dry stored cake, brews yellow-orange. Still slightly bitter with notes of kale, honey, and coriander. Slightly floral and citric.

Finding this to be an interesting sheng… the mouth feel is thick and leaves a nice sweet undertone aftertaste. To put it in ‘my language’, this tasted like I just ate some 7th steeped old sheng and then eating 3 pieces of smarties right after that sat in a small amount of the sheng.

Really enjoying the mouth feel as it lingers. There is power behind this liquid which makes me want to try other shengs of this sort to see if they have that ’meaty’ness to it.

I don’t know where I got this tea from. One of my August TTBs I think.

Anyway, I feel like dancing because this is the first time I’ve enjoyed a sheng. Evidence of my changing taste buds I suppose. I liked it so much I brewed it over and over! I think the leaf ratio had something to do with it too. I covered the bottom of my gaiwan with about 2 layers of leaves. The flavour was pleasant, not overpowering. A savoury roasty taste plus some sweetness from the sugar I added.

90 gaiwan
~200F
5 steeps: Rinse, 5s, 10s, 15s, 25s, 35s

Mmm, another awesome sheng sample!

This is tongue tingly stuff. Kind of sweet with pleasant bitterness/astringeny, too. When I exhale after sipping it is like spicy flowers. Very enjoyable and complex!

This tea is a sample from very generous Steepsterite. Thank you so much.
I really really like it. It’s maybe hard to pinpoint all the flavors but its smooth sweet creamy some nice spice. It also aging well and has some orangish tint . I spent whole afternoon drinking it. And it’s a must in my exploded cupboard. I should pick it up on US site before it vanishes.

Gongfu
5g 100 ml gaiwan 200F
Rinse/ pause/3/5/5/7/7/10sec etc

Thank you so much for letting me try this gem.

I’m kind of upset that I just placed an order with YS, otherwise I would be buying this tea. It is great. I decided to just enjoy it rather than write detailed notes.

It started out grassy, with a fair degree of astringency and wonderful cha qi. I spent all day drinking it, gradually adding water and steeping time until I was at 6 oz and about 4 minutes. It became softer and fruitier in subsequent steeps, losing the cha qi along with the astringency. What remained constant was the deep rich mouth-filling flavor and the interesting flavors. This is a tea to savor.

How could I resist a cake with a blend of good quality NanNuo, BuLang and BaDa tea leaves and a bit of age on it? I could not and I am delighted that I made the purchase!

Nice clean cake with moderate compression and whole leaves. Pleasant scent from the dry leaf and easy to pick apart. Clear light yellow tea soup with a sweet aroma. Smooth sip from the first cup with a nice mouthfeel. Very, very light astringency in the first two cups but not in an unpleasant way and this was gone by the third. Nicely pleasant blend from the three sets of leaves which provide a bit of complexity.