Fengqing Ancient Tree Spring Chun Jian Raw Pu-erh Cake Tea 2012

I know I have been absent for quite a while. September normally is one of the best if not the best surfing month of the year. And this one was of the best ever. So everything gets postponed. Sidetracked. Except for Tea. I drink it religiously. I just did not write about it. I have to tell you all about my first experience with this Sheng. I never brought a Pu-er to work before because quite frankly they can be wild. Normally it is an Oolong or a green for my 9pm tea. My friends and I enjoyed this. It provided superior flavor and mouth texture and an incredible buzz. I went to my GFs house with this feeling of utter calm and hightened state of well being. Then she gave me the soup made with black chicken, spinach and goji berries and ginseng and some other herbs. Three spoonfuls of the soup and I was sicker than sick. Apparently this is a no-no to combine a young Pu-er with what my friends call a “hot” soup. Not temperature wise but energy wise. OMG it was awful. FF to today I brewed this in my gaiwan and I lost count of the steeps. It started out slightly bitter with a golden hue and morphed into a sweeter liquid later with a flavor that seemed to linger. I feel the same euphoria as before only now I am wiser. I can only imagine how good this will be with aging.

Been busy all weekend, so I have had no time to try any tea and it has been driving me crazy! So now that I finally have time I decided to make this up from the sample bag that Teavivre.

The dry smell is very pleasant, which was surprising to me for some reason. It’s probably because the last Pu-erh I had was very fishy. The wet smell is very interesting as it smells kind of spicy like chili peppers or cooked green peppers. The color of the liquid is interesting as well since it is kind of a copper color similar to Oolong tea or a light black tea. The taste is a little oily in the mouth with a nice plum flavor. I sort of like it, it’s interesting.

I have been sipping on this one for the last couple days. Thought I should do I note although you probably can’t find this one any more. I was digging through the drawer craving a ripe puerh, I grabbed this instead. I almost put it back because it is a raw puerh. I am so glad I didn’t. My only other note of this one is two years old so I wrote it while this was very new. I loved it then. After only two years it has lost almost all of its young sheng brightness. This is wonderfully smooth and mellow with solid obvious leather notes. It is no where near as intense as a ripe puerh but personally I find its depth and character to be super enjoyable. I’d like to see what happens in another two years but it just may not last that long.

A sample with my Teavivre order! Their article on pu-erh helped me figure some pu-erh stuff out, and I wish I had seen it before I ordered, because I probably would have requested a ripened sample rather than a raw. Ah well, I will try this anyway! Though this is supposed to be a cake, the leaves have already fell apart in the sample bag… they are long, black and dusty. The leaves actually smell like spinach which I just happened to have for lunch today. Teavivre’s instructions:
10 grams for 8 ounces of water – 212 degrees – rinse, 30 sec, 1, 2,3,4 min

Steep #1 // a few minutes after boiling // rinse, 1 min
I went with half my sample package. The brew is light.. a lighter brown. I expect raw pu-erh to have this color now which means I love the others – the dark color of the ripened pu-erh, and the flavor. The flavor of this one is a hint of spinach and also like cedar, which is probably why I dislike them more. I don’t like the woodchip flavor. Maybe a bit like apple and/or chamomile is here too.

Steep #2 // just boiled // 2 min
This steep seems a bit overdone – a little too tangy and astringent for me. But the flavor isn’t my favorite anyway. I wonder if everyone willing to sip pu-erh has a preference to either ripe or raw pu-erh. This reminds me of Fengqing Paddy Flavor Raw Pu-erh Cake Tea 2006, but I prefer the flavor of that one better, unless the steep on this one was just terrible on my part. This isn’t a terrible pu-erh, but I know that if I bought any pu-erh for my cupboard, it would certainly be ripened. It’s just to my taste better! I appreciate that I could try it though!

I have bought over 1000g of Pu Erh in the last few days… it would seem my tea cravings are for ripe rather than my preferential raw. Well I have this sample with me and now is as good a time as any to indulge myself with some Pu Erh magic.

This Pu Erh has beautiful reflective golden tips with dark brown and mature green leaves all compacted into one chunky cake piece. I love reflective leaves, like cats eyes, just so beautiful. The Pu Erh has little hairs and looks to be wonderful quality.

Still raw it has a sweet earthen floral scent. Like dirt and flowers and wood all blended together. A tree would be perfect to use in my explanation as it has all three.

I have my Gongfu teapot with me so I shall use that to brew this tea. Using Teavivre guide here is my layout -

Tea :10g 5 steeps:30s,1m,2m,3m,4m 100ºC/212ºF

First Steep – 30 seconds

The tea soup is light yellow in colour with a gentle wooden yet grassy scent.

Flavour is sweet and a little smoky. Picking up wood, grass, flowers and dark honey. All in one gentle and mild package.

Second steep – 1 minutes

Much stronger with new sensations of musk and perfume. Less sweet and no longer honeyed and has been replaced with a slight dryness.

Third steep – 2 minutes

Side note – The cake piece has almost fully broken apart and expanded to reveal fresh, long, green leaves.

Flavour is thicker with more musk and wood but carrying on well in style. Only a little astringent towards the after taste but still very nice.

Fourth Steep – 3 minutes

Side note – Pu Erh is completely broken up now.

Mellowing a lot in flavour and the astringency has completely gone. The sweetness has still not quite returned but it is more noticeable than the previous steep. As to what is left I can taste clearly grass, flowers and musk.

Fifth steep – 4 minutes

Very little left at all in this now. Wood, grass and musk in a pinch can be tasted but personally for me it’s one steep too much.

Overall – It’s been a nice raw Pu Erh but it was not as special as some others I have had from Teavivre. I love raw Pu Erh (despite my recent cravings) and it’s such a shame that I didn’t love this one. I really liked it though and enjoyed drinking it. Would not buy it again in the future mainly because I prefer a few others but would drink it again very happily.

I’ve been away for a bit. However, if anyone cares, I am now a tandem reviewer. With great pleasure and endless frustration, my dear father-in-law is visiting for a few months and will be teaching me how to properly evaluate tea!! He is a fairly well recognized actor who starred in the highest grossing Malaysian movie to date. Nonetheless, he is a kind old man who has tolerated a white devil son-in-law, therefore I hold him in fairly high esteem. He has (of course) been drinking Chinese tea for his entire life (>7 decades). I’ll try to be a good student. Anyway, onto the tea!

I humbly express a huge “thank you” to Angel for the generous samples.

Sheng Ancient tree Puerh

Dry aroma: puerh, not remarkable
Wet aroma: sweet, honey, freshly cut cherry or maple…Pleasant and exciting

Yixing small pot…208F 30-45 sec after two washes (substantial discussions with Chinese grandfather as to the reason, but OK)

First steep: (I’m going to go narrative from here on because the flow, as the tea demand it). The pre-drink aroma was pleasant if unremarkable, but the first sip was oddly delicious and a bit scary. My mind thought, “strange brew”, but I must have more. This is definately Puerh, but Puerh with a funny, not unpleasant twist. I couldn’t put a finger on the curiosity….therefore I had to wake my wife to translate for Mr Lim (my FIL) He did a lot of gesturing and loud talking to express himself. Turns out, he was saying “cats should be grass” “Mao Xu Cao” which translates into Orthosiphonius (Chinese herb). He was quite excited at this point.

The second steep was for three. My wife joined us in the evaluation. This tea is getting stronger and smoother. The partakers are becoming happier. An interesting thing happened at this point. My esteemed Father-in-law began speaking about the goodness, tastiness of the bitterness. I hadn’t noticed much if any bitterness, except for a little bite at the end. What I might have thought as a detriment, my father knew as an attribute…. New way of thinking and tasting….
He is correct. He has experience. I could explain the taste in terms of barkyness or mossiness, but I will simply say that this tea has everything you might expect from a sheng puerh, but it has a significance that appeals to the novice and is noticed by the expert.

This is a tea that should be tasted because it has some uncommon attributes that are exceedingly pleasant.

Just started a session of this one. The dry leaf smells like fresh hay. The liquor is a light amber colour and the taste, so far, is sweet with a slight bitter, but not unpleasant, edge to it. It’s smooth and slightly sweet, and I can feel the after-taste prickling on my tongue, a bit like space-dust.

Another puerh sample that my husband go into when I wasn’t around. He reports that it was very good. Being a 2012, it would be fun to get some more to age awhile. Fortunately, I have one more sample, so will report later.

This is a very good Pu’erh in my beginner’s opinion. It’s not fishy at all and it tastes a little sweet.

Eek. Thanks for the sample, Teavivre, but this was not for me. I think I need to make sure I use a lighter hand when brewing pu’erhs, and being a raw one, there was no fishiness, but it was just too much for me. I’ll try it again at half strength or so; perhaps I overleafed.