Master Han’s 2013 Sheng Pu’er

Damn, this is some good raw.

I was expecting some astringency to wake me up a bit since I’m exhausted from frisbee golf today… but no, there is no astringency. In fact, as weird as this sounds, I am eating chocolate along with it because the texture has a bit of silk/cream to it which is making me one happy happy person.
The leaf is ugly though which made me already think negatively of it, but again… looks are deceiving.

I love surprise sheng from tea friends! I thought I had tried all of this company’s Sheng, but I must have missed this one. I opened up my present and reveled long Maocha consisting of a light pale green with brass and silver streams. The dry leaf carried a strong pipe tobacco scent. I placed these beauties in my warmed yixing and gave them a shake. The aroma became more distinct and a wet forest floor scent mixed in with the tobacco. I brewed up a few cups. The steeped dark leaves gave off a strong tobacco smoke aroma. The flavor was astounding. The initial sip was perfectly smooth and creamy. This reminded me rather of a fresh Ti Guan Yin, rather than that of a Sheng. This unbelievably smooth raw puerh had a slight floral hint of orange blossoms, and this brew gave a tingling astringent tongue feel in the aftertaste. This brew grew deeper with each steeping until about the eighth whereas it went sugary honey sweet. This was a perfect brew for a sunny spring evening. I wasnt able to get more than eleven steepings out of this brew, but it was a delactable treat :)

https://instagram.com/p/3KXHjnTGW4/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Finally got around to prying a chunk off this brick. Brewed gongfu style. Got some faint smoke in the first three steeps but then it subsided. Camphor, pine, citrus, pepper, and a nice underlying sweetness dominated the first six steeps, yielding to sweetness, slight pepper and a pleasant tartness in the next six. The liquor was a beautiful, clear amber color. Overall a very nice sheng which I’ll drink it sparingly to see how it ages over the coming years.

I haven’t been writing many tea notes lately..I have been drinking tea, but just haven’t felt like logging. Mostly some sipdowns too. But today I feel like I should log this yummy sheng, as it is making my Saturday a good one. The bf got called to work unexpectedly at 6 am, so that kind of threw a wrench in the day/weekend. So I have been brewing this tea with a killer headache (it seems to be helping) and working away outside cleaning up the raspberry patch. A messy, scratchy job but I’m happy it’s done!

Anyways, this tea is light, fresh, fruity, and a bit of a grape flavor today. It could still be the apricot, my allergies are running rampant so I had a pill today and my sinuses are dried up now haha. But this tea is still delicious as always, I see it is now archived on Verdant’s site so probably won’t have a chance to order again once I finish this bag. I should try Master Han’s 2014 to see how it compares one day :) see previous notes on this tea!

Oh, and in entirely unrelated news that I want to share because it makes me happy – we have a robin nesting under our deck right outside the kitchen window! They are in the process of building the nest and have been sitting in it a bit already! I will try to get pictures at some point and post on IG :)

ETA – I found the apricot flavor :) about the 4th or 5th steeping. Sooooo delicious.

So I don’t drink Sheng often enough.

And when I do, I keep telling myself, jeez, why don’t you, silly?

Maybe cause it requires more commitment than some other teas? Like, I can’t have this while cleaning up the house or doing chores. No, that would be disrespectful. If I have it, it has to be at a moment when I know I can dedicate time to it.

I think Terri said it propels her into a cosmic state of mind. I agree, this is legal drugs.

This being so “young” feels almost like a white tea, it has that White Peony apricot-y peachy taste, with very sweet honey notes.

3rd and 4th steep bring something very floral with soft woody notes. The wet leaves smell spectacular, wet wood and eucalyptus.

I find zero astringency in this, very smooth and soothing.

Then, something unexpected happens…it morphs into a fuller bodied tea, stronger bark notes and assertive spicy sweet taste. It reminds me of Ginseng Oolong. I also get some roasted almond. The colour of the brew intensifies as well.

I’m just starting to play with it, my afternoon will be peaceful I can already tell.

Doctor prescribed new anxiety pills yesterday…I think I should just keep drinking this instead :-)

I have been drinking up the odds and ends of tea sitting around my place since Sunday. I am getting twitchy. Even though I have teas I have yet to sample for some reason I really have been wanting to place an order:) Oh the addiction, you know so i can try EVERYTHING!

Besides drinking down bits of tea I have also been playing with my new qaiwan. This is the tea I tried last night, and my first official pu’er. I tried the pu’er from the TTB, but really what I did was drink the rinse water so I will not count that.

Last night was all about the process and the exploration. I don’t remember much about the taste, but I do remember enjoying the tea. I have found that as I am brewing with the qaiwan I really enjoy the teas more in the middle set of infusions. This was the same for the pu’er. (This could be me still getting the parameters right? ) This tea started out a bit scary, and the middle infusions were full of life and flavor. I found myself craving this as I went to bed. I won’t say I am hooked just yet, but I will say last night experience just added to my want to try more tea, in this case more pu’er!

I am a little confused …. I have honed my sheng brewing skills (6-7g/100 ml, rinse then 25 sec steep +10sec subsequent) but this tea tasted polar opposites from what I remember. This was my first sheng and being so Im sure I over brewed it the first two times. I remember a smokiness, bitter, petrol-like barely tolerable cup. This time maybe 1-2 months later I got minimal, if any, smokiness from the first cup (infusion 1&2) and zero astringency the whole way through. This scares my a little because I have switched it to a few different tins and my kitchen where all my tea is kept has been rather humid at times due to cooking/showering/opening window on nice days. Hopefully I just learned to tame sheng and I am not speed aging all my teas.

Mmm… my second time drinking this and I’m loving it more than the first. There is woodiness/smokiness to it that just drives me crazy… I love it! For a second I swear I smelled bacon! What is this? I so intrigued by this tea… It’s floral, it’s fruity, it’s woody and smoky with delicious notes of honey coming through.

I steeped 7 grams in 6 ounces of 95C water for 5/10/10. I’m on the third steep right now and the astringency picked up a bit once the tea cooled but it’s a well balanced astringency, something that I enjoy.

This is some quality sheng. I really want to age this but I’m not sure how long this brick will last.