Qianjiazhai Old Growth 2012 Sheng

I haven’t had sheng in quite a while, and it definitely was calling out to me today, so I’m having a gongfu session with this amazing tea. I’m debating ordering a few more shengs during verdant’s cyber Monday sale, and eventually want to try mandala, but I really do not need more teas at the moment lol. But we will see :) anyways, this is sweet and pure today. So much honey! I love how this one changes, I will continue to enjoy quite a few more steepings this afternoon. See previous notes :)

Master Han has a couple of new Puers that Verdant recently added to the webpage, including another Sheng. I’m curious to see how it will differ from this one, & it’s coming in the TOMC box, so I’ll get to find out! I’m hoping my TOMC will arrive by next monday, as I’m leaving town Tues AM, flying down to Orlando area (Apopka) to visit my Mom & Dad for a week. I still need to figure out which teas I’m bringing!

This one came in the TOMC box in March, along with Master Han’s Wild Picked Yunnan Black, and Xingyang’s Golden Buds 2010 Shu. Some months of the TOMC interest me more than others, but that was a particularly nice month!

This tea starts out lemony, with a tangy green-ness of a fresh peppery olive oil. It maintains some tartness as it leans towards a sweet grapey fruitiness, & in the later steepings it reminds me of Kolkannon, an Irish dish of potatoes & Kale, in this case drizzled with a bit of olive oil & a pinch of salt.

Sooo…Shengs are part of my tea no man’s land, having tried just a couple I have very few references when it comes to write a review… I always envy those of you who seem so taken by it (Charles, if you read this, you know I’m thinking of you!)

Following up on my resolution of drinking special teas at non special times, I reached for my special box tonight and fetched this one out.

I’m using 7g and a gaiwan.

Dry, it smells so strongly of spices and raisins, one would think it’s a flavoured blend!

I’m thinking, this will render a similar taste, but not at all! I wont describe each steep as I rarely do, but I’m on the 4th right now and I’m just in awe…

I can already tell this is not a tea that will appeal to everyone though. It has lots of bite and astringency. Loving these characteristics, it’s tailor made for my likings.

I visited an olive oil shop a few months ago in Montréal. They make you sample the oils the way you would for wine at a winery. You get to experience all the subtleties this fruit of the gods has to offer.

This Sheng reminds me of a peppery olive oil I bought.

First, the bite tickles your tongue and your mouth is filled with a nice fresh citrusy and woodsy feeling. Then emerges a round coating sensation that balances everything out.

Now, I know this is a young Sheng, and I have yet to experiment a lot more in order to make up my mind and see if Sheng is a new found passion, but I have this cute yixing pot I’ve been saving for I don’t know what. I have a feeling it will be dedicated to Sheng in a very near future…

Sorry for those seeking a more specific tasting note, but as this happens very often when I come across something new that blows my mind, I can’t give much more as a taste description. This is what I classify as a «feel tea», it gives me clarity and makes me see colours…

As I’m on a leave of absence from work for at least a month, I might start painting again. Haven’t done that in years, and I realize my creativity has been put to rest for way too long…

Thank you Verdant for that.

Mmm… This is so incredibly good. I already liked it the first time I tried it but I over-steeped it then. Today I did things the right way and this tea is simply delicious.

I used 7g tea in about 7-8 ounce of water. I rinsed it and then steeped it for just 10 seconds. The resulting liquid was pale yellow. The taste – delicious. Slightly vegetal, slightly floral, slightly astringent. The first cup went way to fast… I gulped it.

Second steep: 15 seconds in 8 ounce of water. The resulting liquid is still pale yellow. The wet leaves smell sweet and almost fruity. The taste is more pronounced now with well balanced astringency tingling my tongue throughout the sip.

Third steep: 20 seconds this time in 8 ounce of boiling water. It’s much more potent right now, the color is darker yellow, but I think I like it the best steeped for 15 seconds.

I’ll continue steeping this for the rest of the afternoon. For me this is one fine tea. I know that some people say it’s a young sheng and hasn’t reached its full potential yet. I don’t have any experience with shengs so maybe they are probably right, but I still love this sheng. If it can get better with time, then that’s even better.

meh. like i said before, verdant’s puerhs seem to not jive with me. I don’t hate them but they tend to not taste like much. I’ll send the rest of my sample to terri since she seemed to enjoy it more than me but i’m glad i tries it. Must try all the teas!

Ok, moving on to the next tea, this already makes me want the subscription. Since it’ll cost me about half a day of work per month I may have to go for it once I actually do get paid…eee.

So with this sample I just decided to use it all and make an 7-8 oz cup with it.

This is like my third or fourth sheng and I don’t like them as much as shu so we’ll see how this one goes.

It really tastes like olive oil, minus the weird texture there would be from consuming ounces of olive oil. I’ve only had one decent olive oil ever and it wasn’t even this green tasting…of course most of those are too much money for my tastes. I definitely taste the holy basil too. It’s not spicy but more herbal.

Third steep was getting into that hard astringency I don’t like with sheng.

Fourth steep…I can’t drink this. That astringency has become stronger and SHARP.

One day I’ll get there. But once I hit this point I just can’t bring myself to keep steeping and see if it moves past that.

I got a sample of this pu-erh from cheetah pita (thank you!)

It is a pretty good pu-erh. I’ve been putting it off after my experience with the raw pu-erh sample that I got from Misty Peak. Although I have had good sheng in the past, I was still recovering from my most recent experience.

Im only on the third infusion of this one right now, but so far its yielding a very creamy cup with mild mineral notes and bitterness; slight astringency. There are other earthy spice-like flavors too that I can’t place, but they are nice. This is not my favorite sheng pu-erh ever, but it is helping to put me in the mood for pu-erh again.

ETA: I had to write this note quickly because I was running late to pick up my cat from the vet.

After I took some more time to contemplate the flavors notes of this tea, I think I can sort of recognize the olive oil and basil notes that it is advertised to have. Also, now that I think of it, the sheng I’ve tried in the past was aged at least 5 years or longer. Maybe very young or raw pu-erh is what I don’t like as much. Although so much more palatable than the bitter Misty Peak pu-erh that I tried, I just don’t dig mineral flavors.

And since I’m here writing, let me tell you about the cat and the villainous vet’s office. She needed a dental. She needed one last year but we could afford it. She really really really needs it now. We can barely afford it, but I budgeted it in and took her to her appointment today. Her blood work showed that she has a high white blood cell count so the doctor called me 4 hours later (about the time I expect them to say that all went well) and told me they couldn’t do the dental but that they wanted to do more blood tests and xrays to check for cancer. I ended up paying nearly as much as the dental would have cost and walked out with my cat in the same condition as before save an antibiotic shot in case it is an infection. So now Im really wondering why the heck I couldn’t have just gotten the antibiotics and then test her for other stuff if they didn’t have an effect. . .I am so mad. (>.<)

First non-generic pu’erh! First tea using a gaiwan and those itty bitty cups! Mine are so cute! First month (free!) of Verdant’s Tea of the Month club, which I’ll probably be continuing even if I don’t like both pu’erhs that came with this month’s selection. Such cute little packages, good for just about one tasting session.

Anyway, I just poured my first steep after 2 rinses.

1st Steep (5 seconds)
Water is mostly clear and smells like black tea except…more. More earthy, more…something. More pu’erh I guess. I did manage to get water everywhere and burn my fingers again. Third time so far this morning since I burned them on both rinses too. I did not drink the rinses.

Well it’s very…bitter. And…I don’t know how to describe this flavour except I’ve only gotten it from pu’erhs. It’s probably blasphemy but I think I’m going to have to add a tiny bit of sugar to each of these infusions if I’m going to make it through this tasting.

With a tiny bit of sugar added, not enough to make it sweet, just enough to take the edge off, I’m getting less bitter and more actual flavour. Something…composty maybe? Hard to describe. I’ve always been terrible at describing flavours.

Second Steep – 10 seconds
I now understand why a sharing pitcher is necessary. I’ve decided to pour each steep into my gravity infuser before draining it into the cups, if only because I won’t splash everywhere and it’s really the only thing with a wide enough opening to work very well for what I have at my desk.

Still not tasty, quite bitter, a quite ‘sharp’ flavour on the tongue that lingers.

Steep 3 – 15 seconds
Okay it’s much better if I drink it very hot, rather than cooled down a bit, but it’s still not what I would call tasty. The taste is changing but there’s again nothing I can really identify except a sharp bitterness.

I think at this point I’m going to turn in the towel and truly give up on pu’erhs for the time being. If I can’t get through one using the right methods and as high quality as Verdant is known for, I’m obviously not going to like any of them. Thankfully I think that I already have a trade going out that I can slip the other pu’erh from this TOTM into, she likes pu’erh.

Not going to rate because that would be unfair to this tea.

this is a very nice sheng cha….complex,sweet and nice qi…I just ordered a second cake so that I can drink one now and age another…good stuff…8g in a 120ml gaiwan….

Finally trying this from my trial tea of the month club box….it tastes like the forest floor. I haven’t decided yet if that is a good thing or not! :)