Mengku Bazi Laohuangpian Sheng Pu-erh 2014

“…the pale yellow liquor contains some grassy flavors, which remind me of a pleasant green tea mixed with a sheng.”

“In my third cup, which resulted from another thirty-second steep, I note that the sheng flavors have come forward. Those green, aromatic, almost-pungent (in a good way) tones that so often fill sheng pu’erh have reared their heads and now lurk in the body and aftertaste. Steep number four (another thirty seconds) reveals those flavors to an even greater degree. The dark vegetation aroma is warm and soft, yet seems full of vigor. Much as I am also enjoying them, these cups are being consumed quickly.”

“…with this tea, I could see it becoming a regular in my cup. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this tea a 95/100.”

Read the full review on Built from Ink and Tea, here: http://www.createwritedrink.com/2015/04/tea-review-tuesday-review-of-wymm-teas.html

I want to apologize to Wymm Tea for taking so long to taste this sample. I wanted to give it the attention it deserves and have not had time until tonight!

A few weeks ago I picked up an unknown puerh tuocha at a coffee shop nearby that was labeled “Black Tea Puerh”. I got it home and found it to be Sheng. It wasn’t bad, but hubby was not a fan and left me to finish it alone.

Fast forward to tonight. I got this out and informed him that he was going to taste tea with me and it was a type he had before and didn’t like, so he should brace himself. I wasn’t really trying to prejudice him against it, just give fair warning, because he is rather picky and I am not.

I rinsed the leaves for about fifteen seconds, then gave it a short 7 second steep. The tea was pale at this point. It had only the tiny sour bite of young sheng, nothing objectionable. The flavor was very light at this point also.

Second steep was a bit longer and each subsequent steep was increased by only a few seconds. Yet now it yields a golden brew, rather darker than I expected. On about the fourth steep as the cup was being passed to hubby, a strong aroma hit me and it was a really nice one. My first thought was bright citrus, so maybe that is what they call grapefruit, although it reminds me of the white rum flavoring in another that I own. It has a nice medium body. Not creamy, but not sour.

The big surprise is that hubby is constantly holding his little cup out and shaking it at me to hurry up the refills. He kept saying, “This is good!” So now I know it was just the one sheng he disliked, not the type in general.

We have made a full liter of tea thus far and I think I will heat another pot and see how much longer we can keep these leaves going. They don’t seem to be completely spent yet.

Thank you, Wymm Tea, for these lovely samples!

Sipping this away today and I’m not really tasting or experiencing anything that would define this tea as something ‘unique’- I understand that sometimes green teas are just green teas with variation of quality, but this tea is just eh in my opinion. Hopefully there is better news about the Mangnou sheng when I get to it.

I tried to refuse samples from Wymm mainly because I’m just too old to expect to age out tea this green. But they decided that makes me a challenging customer to win over. I suggested the Laohuangpian in the hope of getting some of the older and sweeter leaves, at least it might be a tea I’d consider purchasing. Plus it is one of their least expensive Sheng offerings.

Brewed up the single session sample, got about 8 decent steeps. Might have got the tea to go longer but I was already nearly a good two minutes steep time. It is huangpian so I don’t expect these leaves to have a ton of power. I was impressed at the initial bitterness which always bodes well for aging, and the grape flavor instead of apricot. To me the grape champagne is a better tasting leaf in drinkable young sheng, if not always the best ager.

I’d be happier with this cake at a $30-35 price point but it was pleasant enough. The packaging though gave me a huge blog topic to write about and for that I’m very grateful for the sample. My longer post is at http://deathbytea.blogspot.com

Unfortunately, I’m starting to concede that sheng is not for me. I received this sample from Wymm and steeped it gong fu style with the instructions, but I’m just not getting over the “earth” taste of the tea to be able to discern any of the other flavors. I’m going to keep trying with the various samples I have, but I’m feeling that pu is not for me :(

Guys, I am going to level with you temple rub I feel like absolute crap. I am not sure if it is from the antibiotics my allergy specialist put me on (me and antibiotics do not mix, probably because I was always a Sentinel in Mass Effect) or because of the yogurt I have to eat to keep my body from freaking out completely. I know (maybe) that I don’t have allergies (if that test is to be believed) but I have a growing suspicion I have a Histamine Intolerance, because all the foods that make me feel like I am dying are really high in histamines. Something to talk to the doctor about when I go back in a week-ish, basically, fair warning if yours truly seems ever so slightly out of it on the various social media places I linger. If you just know me from my blog…nevermind, carry on as usual.

Since it is spring, it seems fitting to take a look at a spring themed Puerh, specifically Wymm Tea’s Laohuangpian Sheng (Raw) Pu-erh From Ancient Tea Tree 2014 Spring, Laohuangpian meaning old yellow leaf, refers to the use of the third and fourth leaves to make this brick, rather than the usual buds and first leaves used to make more ‘prettier’ puerhs. These bricks are usually kept by the farmers for their own uses and not much seen on the market. Sneaky sneaky, keeping the good stuff to themselves, maybe. Personally I think this tea is pretty, the tightly compressed green leaves with bits of silver fuzz, it looks like some treasure, specifically it reminds me of Labradorite but not as full of labradorescence, or maybe moss agate. It does not smell like a rock though, which may or may not be good (depends on what you are in the mood for) its fairly faint aroma is a blend of sweetness and green, like fresh cut grass and honey, with a tiny hint of smoke. The faintness of the aroma did not worry me like it would with some teas, those crazy compressed to the point of being like a brick teas tend to have a faint aroma, at least the ones I have experienced.

It is not really a surprise that this tea did not break up after the initial rinse, so I gave it two, and it was still pretty compressed. I poked it with my puerh pick to break it up a bit, not that I had much luck, and I admit I did not poke that hard, because wouldn’t I feel like a real boob if I slipped and chipped my tiny Shui Ping. But now that the leaves are all hot and bothered, the aroma is much more intense, very leafy green like lettuce and fresh spinach, with a faint note of hay and honey, at the end there is a hint of mineral. The liquid is mild and sweet, a blend of honey and fresh hay, and also alfalfa (more teas need that note!)

Ok, I am going to start out by saying how much I love the mouthfeel of this tea, it is thick and almost creamy. When I hear the term soup or broth being used as the official way of describing the liquid state of tea, I always giggle a little because that is food, but the texture is quite brothy, almost sultry. The taste is a really neat blend of faint smokiness, sweet straw mushrooms, hay, honey, and a tiny bit meaty. It blends savory and sweet really well, much like how some BBQ sauces are rather sweet. As the tea cools it takes on a spinach and mineral note.

Second steep time, I honestly noticed no change at all to the aroma, except that the intensity of the notes were stronger. The taste is much the same at the beginning, that wonderful soupy texture is still present as well, this makes a happy me. Towards the midtaste a strong cooling effect takes hold and lingers well past the finish. It does not have the camphor taste that I usually associate with that level of cooling, but when it starts the taste turns more green, like spinach and broken grass.

Third time, the aroma has changed a bit, it is more green with a hint of smoke. There is still the sweetness of alfalfa and a touch of honey at the finish. Well well, what have we here! The texture is still the same (man that texture is killing me, in a good way, I love when my teas are thick and very noticeable) but the taste starts out differently. We start out with green beans, lima beans, and a bit of smoke, this moves into cooling mineral notes and a bit of cooked spinach. The finish is delightfully honey sweet and lingers.

As my usual Puerh adventures go, I traveled along with this one for several more steeps, sadly I did not get to go as long as I would like because I had to leave for the rest of the day, but I did get a total of six steeps in before that point. It stayed smooth and vegetal for the remainder of the session, with hints of smoke and honey at the finish. I really appreciated the fact that this tea never got bitter on me, it lacked the bite that some young Sheng puerhs can have, but that could be based on how I brew them. My secret is water temperature, I go to 195 degrees, tops, because I have found that hotter than that gets you that sharp, hoppy, bitterness that I am just not fond of. I will boil the daylights out of a Shou, but never again with a Sheng. I could see myself getting a brick of this tea and slowly hammering away at it like I am rock hunting and each chunk I tear off is a precious gemstone.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/03/wymm-tea-laohuangpian-sheng-raw-pu-erh.html

Brewing this in a gaiwan, 8 second infusion and slightly increasing each time.

This tea smells very fresh. The fragrance of the leaves after a rinse is very strong, but I’m not sure quite how to describe it. It’s pungent… and somewhere between maybe grapefruit and cooked brussel sprouts. I know those two scents aren’t all that similar, but what I’m getting from this is something that seems like it has fruit, floral, and vegetal qualities and is on the pungent side of things. I imagine there’s an exotic flower out there that smells just like this tea.

The flavor is also quite pungent and vegetal, quite buttery as well, and has a good deal of lingering bitterness. It also has some hints of orange blossom (reminding me in some ways of WYMM’s “Cane” puer) and there’s a very mouthwatering sour/tart finish.

After the first infusion, the scent of the leaves is definitely more floral, not the pungent vegetal from before. I’m also reminded of grapefruit again.

The second infusion is very buttery and green tasting like the first, and the bitterness is a bit less.This is a very clean-tasting and enjoyable Puer.

The third infusion is a little bit sweet, then becomes tangy, and has a mild bitternesss throughout. Same flavors reminding me of a chinese green tea. Grassy with notes of green beans and spring-like aroma.

The fourth infusion of this tea offers more of the same flavors. The floral note is coming through more. All-in-all this is a really enjoyable tea. I can see why the Puer farmers drink it every day. If I could do that, I probably would too. I’ll update this review if I notice any surprising changes in flavor from here on, but for now I’m off to enjoy the tea without analyzing and typing after each cup. ;3

Thanks, WYMM Tea, for this sample

Wow…I liked this tea a lot. It’s really sweet. Yum!

This was a very generous sample from Wymn Tea. Thank you!

I enjoyed this as my lazy saturday afternoon tea yesterday. I am just starting out with pu-erh so I am not sure how great my notes will be about the tea. This tea was very hard for me to get to open up. I did quite a few rinses before the leaves ever appeared to break apart. The flavors that I got out of the infusions ranges from borderline bitter, to tangy fruit with honey, a few infusions had a creamy feel to the mouthful, and then towards the end a few infusions showed hints of woodiness. Since I am new to pu-erh I will leave this unrated. It was an enjoyable afternoon tea, but it didn’t stand out to me as a favorite in regards to the few Sheng’s I have tried.

Having this tea this morning. I did 3 rinses on this before starting drinking. It was a tightly compressed chunk so I couldn’t break it up. I had slightly more tea to water volume than Wymm Tea’s recommendation.

The first brewing of this tea was very light and bitter. The leaves were still in a chunk and hadn’t separated. I just didn’t pick up much flavour in this cup which would have been due to the leaves still being compressed.

2nd & 3rd brewing – This is when the leaves started breaking up from the tightly compacted tea. Both of these brewings were bitter but a sweet honey flavour was coming through on Steep 3.

4th & 5th – Bitterness was almost gone. Sweet honey flavour kept getting more pronounced. Enjoyed cup 5 even more than 4. It kept getting better!

This is a rough sheng but the later steeps make it worth it. I’ll try some more steeps on this later today and see how it goes. It has a good energy. I feel alert and clear headed but not jittery.