Master Han's 2014 Sheng Pu'er

I had this as a quiet celebratory tea this afternoon after a long morning of scans, but I got cleared at this six month follow up. Nothing that looks like cancer, they said!

My brain, when I heard those words, immediately projected a picture of the box of Bissinger’s chocolates that I got for Christmas and have only eaten three pieces of. Angels were singing and bells were ringing, and of course, I wanted to have tea with my chocolates.

This good sized sample has been hanging around here for a while and I chose it for my celebration. I was going to take out my Awakening Bell from Woodstock Chimes but as I began to set things up, the wind chimes on the porch began to ring beautifully.

I decided to toss the rinse as it was very clear even after twenty seconds. There wasn’t much aroma yet, either.

I only made two steeps because there was a good bit of leaf and I was making a fair amount at the time. The first was 30 seconds and the second was 45.

I didn’t get any strong chi but I was already high on my good news so that could be why. But the flavor was quite good! This was a very easy to drink sheng. There was a bit of camphor, a bit of chilly cave with mineral scent, a fleeting fruit note, and some light and fresh vegetal flavor, slightly savory like a root vegetable. The sides of my tongue tingled just a little but not enough to be perceived as sour or harsh.

This would be a great starter sheng for someone afraid to dive into the sheng pool but interested in easing in one toe at a time. Have saved the leaves for more sessions tomorrow.

Back on this great tea again this morning. It remains a lovely, easy drinking sheng puerh. I find it to be a really lovely breakfast drink (and it went very well with my lovely apricot custard danish…!). It always seems to just out-last me, too, steeping on and on with loads of flavour and presence.

This is one of the better Pu-Erh’s I’ve had, and honestly, it reminds me more of a green tea with the same grassy, bittersweet tang. I definitely get sour notes, and it is also fairly sweet like a pineapple skin. Tropical might be a way to describe it. I am glad that I sampled this and I think it deserves a fairly high rating, but I am not a huge fan of it merely put of preference. This tea might be a better introduction to Pu-Erh- it’s more grassy or even broth like than musty.

A random Verdant sample! (I have amassed quite a little collection of Verdant samples due to my multiple purchases over the past year). Put the whole 6g sample in the 100ml gaiwan, boiling water, two 10 second rinses, and so far a few steeps of about 10 seconds.

This is a nice sheng, with good balance of savoury, sweet, and bitter. The wet leaves are very aromatic, with a bit of smokiness that doesn’t translate too much to the liquor. Quite a bit of sweetness already building up in the back of my throat. Clean, fresh, zingy, with a bit of a mouth-coating quality and a bit drying in the cheeks. Lots of flavour, even with quite short steeps. I like it!

Got this as a sample in my last Verdant order. I’m hoping my review is on the correct page; the package said Master Han’s 2014 Bamboo Wrapped Sheng Pu’er, I am assuming this is the same tea. Anyway, I decided to try this during my “Rediscovering Sheng Summer Tour” now that my palate seems to have completely changed. I really, really like this sheng. It’s light, sweet, smokey, and not too bitter at all. Right in my wheelhouse. I like this so much I went to the web site to purchase some, and much to my dismay, it’s not there. How dare they send me a free sample of tea and then run out! Damn you Verdant Tea Pushers!

[Recommended? Yes. But don’t hold your breath because IT’S GONE]

This is the first pu’erh I have ever tried — I just received Verdant’s pu’erh sampler in the mail. On the first infusion (10 seconds) after 2 rinses, it tastes just like mushroom broth made from cremini mushrooms plus a a very small amount of shiitakes. I’m not sure how I feel about this or if I’m really interested in drinking mushroom broth, will see how it develops. It’s so mushroomy, I feel like maybe I should add salt. Is this what people mean when they say pu’erh is “earthy”? I don’t think this is at all earthy — it doesn’t taste like the bottom of a forest, just mushrooms. It’s very gentle and mellow — even smooth — not at all what I was expecting from raw pu’erh. I like tea with natural sweetness, so this is a totally new tea experience. I don’t dislike it… It’s just that at this point, it seems like it should provide the base for a soup. As it cools, I do taste a slight sweetness.

Infusions 2 and 3: Mushrooms plus a new woody, slightly nutty flavor. Ah, and there are the bitter notes. So far, I can’t really say whether or not I like or dislike this tea. I’m on the fence, so clearly I don’t love it. It also leaves my mouth very dry, more so than black teas — and I don’t like that. Maybe I should’ve eased into this with shu or a more aged sheng pu’erh.

Many more infusions: Well, I’m still kinda on the fence, but It might be growing on me a little. It’s become quite sour, and again, not quite sure how I feel about it. I find it drinkable in kinda the same way that I started eating extremely pungent plan yogurt imported from Lebanon.. And now that’s the only yogurt I think has any flavor or is worth buying. I love that yogurt now — I am not at that point with this tea. I’m just saying I’m comfortable with the sourness and pungency mainly because of that.

I love the way raw puer clears my head & brings me back to life after a long day.
This one is no exception.
I actually starting sipping on this yesterday afternoon, & now I’m back for more.
The initial flavor reminded me of pineapple, and was sweet, & it’s still sweet.
I’ll keep sipping.

This is beyond a doubt one of the best puerhs I have ever drank. Part of me is angry at Verdant for putting this on sale today. It was on sale for only one hour and I didn’t happen to check my email during that time. Part of me is happy they made the sale so unfair, because I don’t need more tea anyway. Now I won’t rush out to buy more. I do wish I had bought more than an ounce. I will eventually have to buy more. Maybe they will read this and decide a one hour sale is very unfair. One day maybe, but one hour?

That being said I steeped this eight times. First for 10 sec, then 10 sec, 15 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 2 min. I used 5g of leaf in a 140 ml Yixing teapot. It was basically smooth from the start and the fresh leaves had an incredible fruit like aroma. There were some bitter moments too but it was mostly sweet tasting and smooth. I didn’t notice any of the chocolate or dates notes often found in good ripe puerh. I think you need an aged raw puerh for that but this was good. I wish I had bought more than an ounce, but it is expensive.