Tian Di Ren Bulang 2006 Sheng Pu'er

Yay! My first tea of the month club package from Verdant came yesterday!! A big thanks to David & the Verdant Team!!

So, this is the 1st of the 3 teas they sent. I’m not sure, but this may be my first Sheng Pu’er. I’ve been dabbling with Shu’s, which I really like. I like this tea too!

Dry, it has a mildly mineral ocean scent, like wakame or another sea veg. The wet leaf has a more astringent green aroma.

I actually brewed this 2 different times. Yesterday I used my gaiwan, running through several steepings (in tandem with the other 2 teas that were sent, so that I could enjoy the contrasts of this pairing). This morning I’m just having a western-style cup.

In both cases, it’s a very mild and pleasant tea. I get the sticky rice reference, and there’s almost a chrysanthemum-like floral in there, & another flavor I still haven’t identified. I’m still not 100% on my tastebuds, but luckily there is plenty left in the bag, & I also have a few other sheng samples that I plan to sample soon, again, so that I can look for similarities & differences. Anyway, it’s light, but satisfying. There is the grounding element of pu’er, and it’s a very smooth tea, not astringent in the least! A nice start to my day!

Blown away by the intensity of this tea! I’m at loss for words of its complexity and brilliance. You’ll find peppercorn spiciness, sticky rice aroma blended with stewed tomatoes and roasted garlic. There’s something in the flavor that reminds me of pine resin and moisten moss. I didn’t notice any bitterness or harsh/sharp dryness during or after the sip.

This was my first care package from the Verdant Tea Club membership and I couldn’t ask for any better pairing of teas! I’m definitely looking forward enjoying this tea, along with the others sent. Thanks, David and Verdant Tea for providing excellent quality!

First off, thank you so much Pureleaf for giving me the chance to taste this fantastic tea.

Dry smell: It is a fairly light smell. I can sense a grassiness with a light sweetness like fresh cut plants. It also has a darker spicy not.

Wet smell: This tea has a very smoky smell. It has a light sour smell and a light vegetal taste but the spicy smokiness is by far the strongest smell.

Taste: This tea is very hard to place. I can taste the smokiness and a spicy peppery taste. There is a starchy note but also a vegetal undertone. It is nice and a lot darker than I thought it would be. My favorite part about this tea is the mouthfeel and aftertaste. It is a very smooth tea and slightly thick. The aftertaste is fantastic. The smoky flavor is left in the front of your mouth and the vegetal taste sticks in the back of your throat. Overall it’s a very nice light but deep tea. I thoroughly enjoyed this tea. Thanks again Pureleaf

First tasting note for this tea! I’m guessing others that got this tea as a free sample are waiting for a special occasion or perhaps some time alone as I was (this isn’t from my most recent Verdant order, but rather from July). However something was pulling on me today to try it and the toddler is doing a relatively good job entertaining himself right now so here it goes. First a great big thank you to David and the folks of Verdant Tea for offering this Pu-er Reserve Project!

I figured with a small sample like this I could either be generous and use all the leaf or risk having two lighter sessions with this tea, I chose to be generr… cautious. I didn’t get much scent from the bag, but when the dry leaf hit the bottom of the warmed mug I knew I was in for a treat: vanilla and smoke. Yes sweet vanilla from a sheng! I’m accustomed with this from Verdant’s shu, but a sheng? Mmm I’m excited!

I did a single rinse, probably could have used two, as in this first infusion I am getting primarily a charcoal and horse stable “taste” (not that I have ever tasted the stable, but it tastes how it smells), with some wood, a slight sweetness and is that eucalyptus? It left a cooling sensation on the tip of my tongue and when I licked my lips the felt creamy.

Second infusion is like cool mountain air and my tongue is positively tingling! The stable has shifted to a damp forest floor and I’m tasting mineral rich soil and rice. This is prickly, with a hint of spice, a bit drying but at the same time cool and dark and moist. There is a floral scent in the cup that I am having a hard time pinpointing. Breathing it in, there is a menthol quality. Ooo a cool coating is developing in my throat and just breathing long after the last sip feels amazing.

Third, the tension between dry and cool, soil and vapor, spice and eucalyptus continues. This is the most astringent of the infusions, probably due to the quickest pour off the boil, will wait a bit longer next time. I still smell horses in my cup and while this might seem strange or even unsavory to some, it brings up fond memories for me.

Fourth, this is much more palatable and a bit minty, but at the same time fiery. I have a confession to make: I am not a huge fan of sheng. I love shu, but I’m afraid my palate isn’t acclimated to the drier more astringent teas which still include most blacks and some oolongs and greens for me. However I am loving the experience of this tea, the sensations it creates. I am going to take a break from it for a bit and come back later. For those curious, I have been getting hints of the sticky rice through all these infusions though it is not nearly as straight forward as the tuochas made with Nuomixiang.

Thank you David Duckler!! This was a generous sample added to a purchase I made for a sheng cake David found for me on his last sourcing trip to China. I was not expecting any samples or a note since I didn’t actually buy from Verdant Tea. As it turns out, I received both! What a nice guy, that David Duckler.

Anywho, I was excited to try this pleasant surprise. I was not disappointed! This is a very clean sheng. Almost no earthiness, no musty or musky smells, very nice, delicate leaves. I was actually able to see the fuzzy, downy hairs that are quite apparent on the wet leaves, and the dry leaves are abundant with silvery down. There is a huge range of colors, though. They range from a faded yellow to a dark brown-purple. Nearly every leaf has patches of bruising, making them look more like the leaves of an oolong. Some empty stems were present, but nothing abnormal.

When dry, the leaves smell amazing. Definitely one of my favorite dry leaf aromas so far. It’s something like vanilla, cream, and smelling the skin of a ripe fruit. When wet, this transforms into Raisinets, vanilla, florals, and tart berries. Later on, the aroma becomes darker and heavier, with some earthy notes.

The liquor is a beautiful golden amber. In addition to the scents mentioned above, there is this very slight fresh cucumber smell that appears in the eighth or ninth steep. The flavor is pretty light and mellow. Very minimal cha qi to this sheng. The mouthfeel is quite smooth and creamy throughout most steeps, becoming sparkling much later on. There is a very delicate bittersweet huigan, but it isn’t very lasting. It’s most apparent in the first few steeps, along with a tingling spiciness. But again, this tea isn’t very energetic. These “lively” textural features fade off during the middle steeps and return (barely) into the final steeps (around the tenth). I used between 3.5 and 4 grams in my gaiwan, but I think next time I’ll do closer to five. I started out with 13 seconds for the first steep and still received a pretty mild flavor.

There are some very interesting flavors in this sheng. Most notable are the florals and fruity notes. At first they aren’t too noticeable, but they climb in intensity and remain strong from steep 4 on to the end. The fruit notes started somewhat berry-like, and gradually became more plum-like (there is even a hint of melon in the final steeps). These fruity flavors blend well with a strong, lingering sweetness on top of every steep. However, to balance this sweetness, a nice tartness is present, coming through as a grapefruit/citrus flavor. It seems to be taking aging quite well. There isn’t a very strong youthful taste to this one, but then again, I can’t really taste that “aged” quality either.

So, this sheng isn’t as stimulating as I was expecting, but it has great flavor. Oh yeah, another thing I noticed was that the aftertaste didn’t linger much. The flavor evolves slowly, but then just seems to evaporate once the sip was over. Around steeps 4 and 5, this improves a bit, the body becoming more full with increased depth, but still, on average, a very light tea.

Two posts in one! What a deal!
I decided to try this one again before I made a post with a different gong fu method for young sheng pu’ers that I saw online involving a great deal of pouring into multiple vessels to cool water during the infusion: <http://www.puerh.fr/en/article/to_brew_a_young_puerh.htm>. It seems similar to traditional Chinese glass methods used for green teas. It sounded interesting so I thought I’d give it a try with this sheng, since it is relatively young, with more dry leaf than used for the above notes.

It turned out quite well! I was surprised by large difference in the level of depth and complexity. It was much sweeter also. However, I’m not sure whether it was more or less bitter. It t seemed like it was more bitter than the first time, but I’m betting that it’s because I used a higher leaf to water ratio and the extra contact with the water just resulted in natural bitterness from the extra steeping time. Yet, the steep times were far shorter than the first tasting I did (only 3-4 seconds compared to the 13 seconds for the first steep). At any rate, it is a pleasant bitterness, not overpowering, and doesn’t subtract from the actual flavors. However, the sensation of huigan and extra creaminess of the liquor was definitely noticeable. The aftertaste was much sweeter with an added melon-like flavor and left the mouth feeling cool like after eating a mint candy, but without the minty flavor. It’s also a bit more stimulating.

I’m always learning :)

Verdant tea is ripping people off selling this ten dollar bottom shelf Puerh for well over a hundred dollars trying to pass it off as a boutique production. This is a great tea for ten dollars. Which it what it cost from other vendors. The fact that verdant tea is selling this tea for a hundred some odd dollars means they either are dishonest or know nothing about Puerh.

Sigh, I really try to avoid fangirling, but the team at Verdant Tea is just awesome. This was from my first monthly tea subscription package, and having access to this limited offering just feels like I’m a part of something special. And the tea came along with a lovely description of the teas and the stories behind them and why they were chosen for that month; it’s so very apparent that these guys have a lot of passion for what they do, and it’s wonderful to get to share in that passion.

As for this tea, it’s a little boggling to taste rice in a tea that isn’t genmaicha. But I’m also getting a bit of warming spice, and definitely a lot of savory elements. A tea to tide me over when dinner is running late, I think. Very happy to have the opportunity to try this.

2/19/2015 Evening gaiwan

I’m using a new tea set up, so decided to drink an old favorite tonight. I have a glass gaiwan I’m using for the first time, and I recently picked up a small cast iron tea pot and warmer stand. So….. light candle, preheat cast iron with tap water, fill with fresh boiled water from my kettle. Proceed to make and drink tea until water runs out or seems too cold. Refill from fresh boil in the kettle as desired.

A tea light isn’t quite enough heat though – it holds the water in the cast iron at only about 130F. I think I’ll pull out my alcohol stove here in the next day or two, and see how that works.

The tea, of course, is yummy. There’s less upfront tang and bitter then I noted when I first tasted this last year. More smoke and leathery honey notes.

This is a wonderful Sheng! Thanks so much Terri HarpLady for letting me try it :D

So much going on here…where do I start? Pleasantly astringent, mineral notes, a little bit of resin or fresh cut wood, and a wonderful strong cha qi. I’m still in the midst of several steepings, so I may update this later if it morphs again. It is really opening up for me now :) It is a little grassy with a faint fruity or floral aftertaste…gah, I love sheng so much! Gives me a happy :D :D :D

As soon as I got my gaiwan from Butiki today, I knew I was going to brew this up. I was a disciplined woman, though. Instead of doing it right away, I used this tea as a reward for sending out applications to 5 different jobs. Fingers crossed!

I’ve never brewed with a gaiwan before so I’m not sure if I did this right. I heated the gaiwan and my teapot with boiling water. Then I added enough leaf to make a little mound at the bottom of the gaiwan. Then I did a rinse, but didn’t time it much. After that, 5 steeps total, at approx 15/20/25/30/35 seconds. This is an estimate, though – I don’t have this down to a science.

Anyways, the tea!

Dry, the leaf smelled smoky and sweet, almost like tobacco or leather. Wet, the smell is just intensified. Holy moly, what a bouquet!

The steeps were all fairly similar in flavour – hints of hay, leather, tobacco, and a sweetness near the end that kind of reminded me of jasmine. All 5 times the liquor was a lovely clear amber. It was a tad drying throughout, and the final steep was slightly astringent. The final steep was also the sweetest.

EDIT: I saw TerriHarpLady’s post about this and she was bang-on about the chrysanthemum flavour. The sweetness at the end is very reminiscent of chrysanthemums.

I think I like pu’er teas? Not sure yet. I’ll have to try more. But I loved being able to use my gaiwan. So contemplative. I think it would be best to save this for the weekends though. Sunday morning sounds perfect.

Thanks very much to De and aisling of tea for giving me a package of this to try.