2015 Sheng 1000 Year Tree

In March 2024 this tea seems to be opening up a bit with eucalyptus , bark, leaf, moss, and olive oil flavors with a hint of bitterness, a hint of orange pekoe in the background. It does seem like a complex, old tree tea to me. It still has an evolution ahead of it. Flavors are long lasting. I’m liking the depth of it.

My grandfather had a herd of black and white pigs. Their pen was located beside a large patch of bamboo. When it rained, the scent of the livestock and the scent of the bamboo combined to form something that this tea reminded me of.

2016 Sheng Olympics

I had this tea a few days ago already but just getting around to leaving my review now.

It didn’t look like a lot of tea in the package so I dumped the whole thing in my gaiwan and brewed away. 1st and 2nd infusions were great. Very little bitterness & fruity. It had a nice creaminess to it. That was before the leaves unfolded entirely. Next infusion was way too strong for me. Yes, I used too much leaf for me. I like my teas on the lighter side. So I took some out and continued brewing on the rest. I was a bit disappointed. All the next brews kept getting more and more bitter. The creaminess disappeared. As for the fruitiness, I think it was still there but the bitterness was throwing me off. By the way, I brewed this with 90C water. If I had any left of this I might try even lower temperatures. It started out fine but became too bitter and astringent in later steeps.

For reference: http://steepster.com/Proust614/posts/328940

2016 Sheng Olympics. This tea is pretty good too, although not quite as good as the 1800 year old tree. This was notably more bitter. It is, however, in my opinion just as fake as the 1800 year old tree. This is a tea that could easily have stood on it’s own to command a reasonable price. It has a nice, what would you say, mouth feel to it, very pleasant. There is some sweetness in here too, although not as much of the apricots of the 1800 year old tree. It is very nice to have tried this tea.

I steeped this tea 14 times in a 60ml gaiwan with 3.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min, and 3 min. If I wasn’t at my caffeine limit I’m sure I could easily get a few more steeps out of this tea. It was not finished. I was. This is another one where I wonder why they lied about it. They could have told the truth about the age of the tea and let it stand on it’s own.