Purple Pu-er (Sheng)

sample sipdown…i think i’m going to try this one again in future. it really didn’t taste like a whole lot of anything so i’m not sure how that works lol i even steeped it for super long after a few sessions. go figure

A gift from ashmanra — thank you so much! I think this might in fact be the final sample I have from you!

This tea is a lot of work and patience. I wouldn’t call this bitter; there were some surface tannins and astringency in the first few steeps, which progressed into straight astringency, which finally released the grape skin goods. Not enough sweetness or flavor for all that work, mind — but at least it went somewhere.

I’m so so SO happy to be drinking real tea again. I was given a disgustingly large amount of David’s Tea blends as a gift and have just recently finished that mountain of mediocrity. Sadly no one I knew wanted any of it either, so I was stuck drinking it for many months (I don’t like being wasteful). Anyway, an order I placed with my local Chinese tea shop arrived yesterday afternoon and I am now at peace with my stash once more!

Today I’m trying this loose leaf aged purple sheng. I bought this with caution as many loose leaf pu-erhs I’ve tried didn’t live up their compressed counterparts, but I can happily report that this is in fact quite a good pu-erh, especially given that it’s only been ageing since 2009. The leaves are quite dark brown and black with a soft bluish huge to them. Pretty to look at, and lovely to smell! The wet aroma in the pot is one of wood and smoke with a strange sort of raisin-nuttiness to it. Reminds me of pecan pie for some reason, although not sweet at all. The flavour though is something I truly was not expecting from such a young tea. The first pot had a deep smokiness to it like a burning campfire or nice aged whisky, followed by a tart tobacco/leathery aftertaste. The flavours almost entirely overpowered the bitterness to the extent that I hardly noticed any at first. I also found it to be quite lubricating and not really astringent as described by others. Consecutive infusions coaxed out more of an oatmeal and chocolate flavour while staying smooth and rich.

Perhaps this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea as the flavours are certainly bold, bitter, and not sweet, but I quite liked it. Great to drink on a rainy day like today, it pairs very well with lightning storms haha!

I have really liked some other purple leaf sheng that I’ve tried, so I was pretty excited to grab a little baggie of this from the TTB last time it came into my possession. Unfortunately, this one was a bit of a let-down. The dry leaf had a slightly fruity aroma – after a rinse, they smelled sweeter with a bit of a vegetal note and another something that was really familiar, but which I was unable to place.

I didn’t get a whole lot else from the tea. Some bitterness and vegetal sweetness, maybe just a touch of raisin-y fruitiness. The tea was pretty drying from the start and got more so as the session progressed. Pretty meh the whole time. I only had about 4g of this one, so I don’t have enough to try it again, so that’s that I guess!

I’ve had this tea for quite some time, so I finally decided to brew it up. The leaf is very dark (and Purple) and it carries a nice dry wood with some malt and a very faint grape juice aroma in the background. The juice note is very slight and tangy. I warmed up my gaiwan and threw some inside. The warmed leaf gives off a definite grape skin aroma. The scent is very fragrant and direct. I can also pick up some dark wood and plum that lingers. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The scent instantly changes to a char and bitter green scent; all the fruitiness has vanished. Luckily, they reappeared in the cup! The taste was very smooth and dry with a sweet fruity plum aftertaste. This is good tea. The flavor is pretty full and eases through the palate. The qi is mild and mostly directed at the head. A dry woody tone carries the flavors consistently and throughout the session. The tea lacks character and any depth, but it is a nice “purple” tasting tea. A later steeping brings out a wild bitter taste, and then the tea completely falls out and becomes astringent. I was able to get a good amount of steeping out of this tea, and I’m glad to have tried it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFwRwlyTGXa/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en

This is an interesting tea from Tao Tea Leaf, especially for me as I’ve never had a purple sheng before.

The package directions say to use boiling water and steep for 2-3 minutes. I was definitely skeptical about that but it turns out they were right. I did the first steep for 2 minutes, and the second steep for 3.

At first it doesn’t taste like much, just kind of woodsy. As I’ve been sipping on it I get some nice fruity notes, raspberry and cherry come to mind. I do get the bit of cocoa that TTL describes on their website but not vanilla or white wine. The flavor most closely resembles a wuyi oolong for me but is lacking the roasted flavor that wuyis have.

Soon I’ll have to try this using the gong fu method, but I kind of like it steeped Western style. It didn’t turn into a bitter mess like I was fearing it would. There is a slight bitterness but that compliments the raspberry notes well, I think. Bitterness seemed more prominent with the 3 minute steep so I’ll stick to 2 minutes or less with this one. Nice tea, I’m glad I got some!

I am so fond of Purple Zi Juan teas. I find them so intriguing and different.

Beautiful. I mean literally beautiful. I love how sleek this tea looks like. Long dark blueish grey strands with some brown shades in the mix.

The leaves are equally stunning once steeped.

Using 5g in little glass gongfu pot.

This tea has such an attractive taste, full of warmth.

First few steeps produces a rather light brew. It intensifies around steep three, where it reaches a nice medium body.

Hard to describe the taste.

It’s creamy and tart at the same time. Very lightly astringent.

A mellow white grape taste brings a nice fruitiness to it. It’s a bit woodsy, but not smokey at all.

It’s what I call a cleansing tea, you just get a sense of wellness out of it.

It’s late in the night, a nice cha qi feeling going on. All warm and peaceful inside.

This is another high quality tea from Tao Tea Leaf.

I’ve been so impressed by their standards so far.

Pics:

http://instagram.com/p/r_Bykzwh6w/

http://instagram.com/p/r_JYk1wh0H/

http://instagram.com/p/r_RcG7Qh9g/

Dexter3657 sent this sample my way so I’d have another sheng to try. I wonder why there’s only one review on here for this tea…
I brewed it up, quick rinse and then 20 sec. It was strange but I didn’t taste much of anything (like Sil in her review). I tried another infusion but still wasn’t getting anything. By the 4th infusion, I figured I would use up the other part of the sample and do gong fu brewing like on the Tao Tea leaf website. I thought I must be doing something wrong. On the website they say this tea has complex flavour with hints of chocolate , vanilla and the tartness of raspberries and a bit of white wine. It sounds wonderful. Maybe i don’t have a refined palate for tasting but to me all I got was a weak pu-er earthy flavour with a bit of bitterness. I suppose there MIGHT have been a hint of chocolate. Even doing gong fu brewing didn’t bring out all those flavours for me. I’m puzzled that a tea described sounding so wonderful was nothing like that for me.

Glad I got the chance to try it though. Thanks Dexter3657!