2015 Moonlight Sonata

From the Sheng Olympics 2015.

Very unusual visually. There are bright orange bits that I’ve never seen in a non-flavored tea. Looking at the website, I discovered that they are flower petals. The tea has an unusual vegetative taste that came to taste like peppermint. It wasn’t unpleasant but didn’t really excite me. Part of the problem may have been that I thought I was drinking an unflavored tea. Not a lot of cha qi, but i did notice a bit of effect.

“Honey Wildfire”

This tea brews a beautiful fiery amber colour and tastes of wild honey. Note: I tend to steep my tea for longer than specified, usually around 5 minutes. The sweet white tea is balanced by the floral notes of Snow Chrysanthemum Flowers. It seems to have a calming effect on me, much like chamomile tea.

The 100 g cake is a fantastic deal. Many of Brenden’s high quality teas can be a bit pricey, but this tea strikes a perfect balance between quality and economy. It is also beautiful to look at with beautiful orange, midnight blue and deep purple colours against a backdrop of silvery white tea.

Brenden’s beautiful description of this tea is what inspired me to sample his teas and I’m glad I did. Come to think of it, although the title of this post, “Honey Wildfire”, was meant to describe the colour and taste notes of the tea, it also melds beautifully with the description of Brenden’s love interest. She is Honey Wildfire.

5 Star.

This is the first thing from the Sheng Olympics that I have enjoyed. The others have been interesting, but overall, still not my thing. This is not really a sheng, is that correct, but rather a pressed, age(d)-(ing) white tea cake?

The scent is dill and herbs and flowers. Interestingly, as opposed to several others, I don’t taste much dill in the steeped liquor. I get a ton of citrus and floral. It does have a drying effect for me on the 3rd infusion.

It’a a lovely tea, both in the leaf and the liquor. So glad to have tried this! Thanks, LP, for including it with the share of the group and to James for sending a share of the group to me! I shall keep soldiering on as I try these shengs. I’m not reviewing most of them as I don’t feel that I know enough about them and don’t want to skew impressions for true pu-heads. :)

im writing this review later in the session- 6th steep i think. anyways, this cake has a lot going for it visually, it looks like a jackson pollock painting, with silver leaves, black, brown leaves and orangey flower speckled throughout. the cake is 100g but feels lighter to me. it is not pressed very tightly, you could break it in half with your hands if you tried.. this piece sheds leaves. it smells both floral and herbal with a spicy/pepper note at the front of the nose. i get both chamomile and a hint of fluoride as well.

i was surprised to see the liquor come out with the depth of orange it had on the first 5 sec steep. i wouldnt be caught tossing the first rinse/brew for this one. the color darkens and so on, becoming a little red.

im pretty sure there are buds in here..

sediment minimal.

a battle between herbal blends and floral perfume takes place, and some spice sneaks in. cant speak much on the notes here except for that its a little jarring, but i like it. i detect 0 bitterness and after you get past whats probably the chrysanthemum, its very smooth.

i would drink this late spring- summer, early- mid day. it would be nice to eat snacks with.

qi is mild and sort of a creeper.

inside the pot, what i see reminds me of a certain type of vomit. the size variation of leaf is amazing. the tea also reminds me of seaweed because it looks like it has a slick coat of something.. maybe all tea has that, maybe im crazy.

been listening to different renditions of oblivion by astor piazzolla while sipping, its a great pairing. with the music and the tea , my mind is more at ease.

- nycoma

Thank you Mtchyg for this sample! I’m going to brew this Gongfu style. The scent of the dry leaves in a warm gaiwan is really lovely; it does have a very prominent note of dill, but it is the aroma of fresh dill. I imagine this is from the snow chrysanthemums. If you smell the fronds of a dill plant without cutting it, it has this faint and nice dill aroma that this tea reminds me of. The tea also smells mildly floral as well, in a way difficult to describe. It also kind of smells like candy Valentine’s Day hearts. The wet leaves after the first infusion have a much more lush and complex aroma. Still smelling dill and flowers, but also now golden raisins, a bit of anise, pine wood and dry prairie grass.

The first infusion is a very bold golden color that I have not seen before in a Moonlight White tea, and I’m guessing much of it comes from these bright golden-orange snow chrysanthemums that are pressed into the cake.

I should have expected as much, but the first infusion still surprised me with its strong dill flavor. It’s also mildly sweet and a touch floral. There are hints of cinnamon in the liquid aroma. As the tea cools I am tasting more of a subtle malty black tea flavor that I am used to tasting in a moonlight white, as well as a bit of woody, hay-like white tea flavor.

Oh wow, the second infusion, which I only infused for about 5 seconds, is a deep amber-orange color already. These flowers surely contribute a great deal of color to the tea. i am going to add a bit of water, as I think I may have used too much tea. This flavor is peculiar. More of the tea flavor is coming through now, and less of the dill-like flavor of the flowers. Again, the taste of the tea is like a malty, slightly bitter black tea cut with white tea.

Third infusion, I’m tasting equal parts of the tea and flowers. It’s a bit tart now, and the texture is slightly dry in the finish.

On the fourth infusion, the flavor has mellowed out a lot, and is more sweet and rounded, blending the flavors all together very well.

This is a unique tea, and while the Moonlight White base is detectable, I think it is secondary to the taste of the flowers mostly. I’m a bit of a Moonlight White fanatic, and I would say this tea is probably not a Moonlight White fanatic’s tea, since the tea flavor itself doesn’t really shine too much. It is somewhat muddled amidst the flavor of the flowers. This tea would be great for people who like to try something unique though, or anyone who loves the flavor of dill, and I can’t deny how beautiful that pressed cake is.

Thanks LP for making this a gift to everyone :)

I thought this was a wonderful tea, I’m getting honey & woody floral perfume. Brews a lovely amber colour, and the taste is quite deep & nicely complex. Quite a range of flavours noted from the various reviews.

Ive never had these flowers in a tea before, and pretty bad at floral spotting in tea anyway, but I liked the added dimension. Seriously thick honey sweetness going on, for fans of bees for sure :)

Literally just dumped the lot it in the cup and on my second steep now. Super sweeeeeet!! theres a hint of something cinnamon or spicy in there, but not in the same way as some dongfang meiren, not as woody either. Nice, nice I like.

I pulled the chunk out first steep in case it was too strong, left it in this time. Really dark liquor. I also like how even with this much leaf in the cup, the aroma is so strong and dreamy, while the taste hasnt got any bad flavours. That is the mark of something I can drink a lot of. Also I drank this during a break from some 2007 repave. That was sending me to sleep, this one has given me a really soft jolt. Not harsh at all – probably that aroma!

Third steep now, still a deep dark amber colour. still a lovely taste. Good stuff! Just went to have to buy one for my ex’s daughter, its her birthday soon and she would love this – and the rub? $18 shipping when the cake is only $12 :’(

Still I bought some :)

2015 Sheng Olympics

This is my third time trying to leave a review for this tea. First time I got the filter turned on on my keyboard and couldn’t type anymore. 2nd time got interrupted and hit back losing my review. lol Lets hope the 3rd time works.

This tea is moonlight tea and chrysanthemum pressed together. First couple of brews the chrysanthemum is strong. Tea was very strong of chrysanthemum with a dill flavour. Not bad but since I love moonlight tea , I was disappointed that I couldn’t get much from the moonlight tea.

Infusions 3-6 more of the honey notes came through from the moonlight tea. I barely got any malt notes from the moonlight but supposedly this tea will age and the malt notes will come out when it ages. Chrysanthemum intensity came down a bit and blended well.

Overall, not a bad tea but I think I like moonlight tea on it’s own. Same with chrysanthemum.

2016 Sheng Olympics
https://www.instagram.com/p/BA4yZQFxYFa/
I was so glad that I had something like this to gift to everyone. This is a beautiful cake that is a type of tea that many have yet to try; moonlight. While it isn’t really considered a sheng, a gift is a gift!

Really looked forward to trying it after everyone said it was sweet tasting and notes of honey. I have tried this on two occasions now and the overall floral notes hit me as far too herbaceous for me to enjoy. The balance is wonderful though. Even though I don’t like the flavor, I am able to make remarks on other aspects. Visually this is one to own for sure. The scent is nice and does’t fade as much as you think it would over time. Break wise this is quite delicate and flakes easily.It is surely one to try if you are curious as I will say that the balance is nice, but if you don’t like the herb like floral taste it may not be for you.

Bonus tea from the Sheng Olympics. :) I drank this off and on for most of yesterday, and a couple of steeps this morning. I think the sample was about 6g, mostly all in one chunk, and I tried a variety of water temperatures and mostly short-ish steeping times (10-30sec for the first kettle full of water anyway). It’s an interesting tea – extremely beautiful dry leaf, wow, and quite a unique flavour. I’m finding it to be almost overwhelmingly herbaceous, with a strong dill flavour persisting throughout many steeps. So overall it’s hitting my palate as much more savoury than sweet. Interesting, but not really my “cup of tea” so to speak. :) Glad to have had the chance to try it though!

Puerh Noob reporting! I got this lovely sample from Liquid Proust who included this as a surprise goodie from his 2016 Sheng Olympic.

This is very different from the shengs I’ve tried. Love the gorgeous leaf appearance and the sweet dill aroma of the dry leaves. Gave it a 3 sec rinse. Combined steeps 5/10 and then 10/15.

I was pleasantly surprised not to get that “sour” taste that I’ve come to expect from shengs. I quite like this! It’s got a very nice pine and dill flavor and the liquor has that silky smooth feel that I really like. Steeps 3/4 introduced a slight astringency that I’m sure will get stronger with later steeps. I’m interested in finding a way to bring out the pine.. it seems to be a flavor I crave! o.O I would keep brewing this but I started late in the evening and the 2 “cups” that I’ve just has just helped bring on that wonderful relaxed feeling .. so I think I shall pop off to bed and add to this review tomorrow evening. ;)

This is the first sheng that I want to buy more of! Thanks bunches LP! I would never have tried this one on my own… and it’s such a winner for me! :D