Jingmai Sheng Pu-erh from Ancient Tea Tree 2013 First Spring

The dry tea leaf looks dark and spindly with the occasional silver tip; its smell was fairly neutral — sort of an earthy forest floor note. After the rinse, the tea gave off a really strong funky, fermented smell, followed by a fruity finish.

I didn’t time the steeps too much, but I tried to keep them under 10 seconds. The first steep resulted in a pale gold liquor that tasted smooth and mild with no astringency. The flavour hadn’t woken up yet, but I could taste minerals and pale wood, like birch. What’s really cool is that after the first steep — and throughout the rest of the tea session — the leaves themselves smelled like sultana raisins. Raisins! Hell yeah.

The second steep resulted in a cup of tea that was deep gold edging into amber. The flavours were still very mild, but stronger than the first steep; I tasted metal, earth, wood, and autumn leaves. There was a little bit of astringency starting to peek through — on the back of my tongue I sensed a sharp aftertaste reminiscent of chewing on grapeskin.

The third steep was a deep goldenrod yellow. The wet leaf still smelled like raisins, and there was still a strong mineral/autumn leaf/wood note in the taste. However, I didn’t go much further beyond this point. I only did about 5-6 steeps in total because I was starting to get a headache.

Full review at: http://booksandtea.ca/2016/01/wymm-tea-samples-jingmai-and-mahei-sheng-puerh/

This is Wymm Tea’s most expensive offering and I have been curious about it for some time. I was delighted to receive a sample with a recent order during their Mid-Autumn Festival sale. High quality, carefully rolled beautiful whole leaves. Mild but solid aroma coming from the dry leaf. After two quick rinses, the wet leaves offer a dark earthy scent. First cup or two seem bitter and tart but the tea liquor smooths out and turns sweeter in later steepings. Thick mouthfeel. After three cups, my mouth is left rather dry. Nice longevity. This is a strong tea with a bite to it. I do believe that it is made of very good raw material but for my tastes, it will need to mature over the next few years. At that time, I am quite sure I would find it very appealing.

Hello tea friends! I am sorry (not sorry) that I missed out on blogging yesterday, but I was super tired after getting no sleep the night before (unrelated) and celebrating the next day, in case you missed it, I got engaged!!! Ben took me to the zoo as a little going away present before he skipped town for a few days to attend a wedding out of state, and in the Australian bird enclosure while being watched by Ibises he proposed. My ring is quite wonderful, a simple silver band embossed with laurels (yay I finally have laurels!) and very comfortable, and apparently the little sneak bought it months ago when I was visiting my mom in PA, and waited for the perfect opportunity to surprise me, in typical Ben fashion it was all very romantic. I am still in a state of giggly bliss! Now to start planning the Deep Sea Cthulhu Cephalopod themed wedding!

So, giggling aside, today is a day for some Sheng! Specifically Wymm Tea’s Jingmai Sheng Pu-erh From Ancient Tea Tree 2013 First Spring, a Sheng Puerh from Jingmai Mountain in the Lancang Lahu Autonomous County in the southwest of Yunnan. This reminds me of how badly I want several very detailed maps of tea producing regions, that would be so cool hanging in my tea area. So, the aroma of this tea is not much to jump up and down about, the tea is very tightly compressed, so I am not surprised by the rather mellow and unassuming aroma. The notes I do get out of this sample are sweet hay, camphor, a gentle sharp woodiness, and a touch of spinach. It took a bit of sniffing to get those notes, but nothing wrong with a bit of tea snuffling!

Once I gave the tea its first rinse and brew, the leaves livened up a good bit. There are notes of wet oak wood and wet and dry hay, like a barn but thankfully without the animals! There is also a bit of sourness that fades to sweetness, like melon rinds, lastly there is a hint of green beans, specifically fresh uncooked snap beans. The liquid has a sharpness, wet wood and camphor, with a touch of smoke and sweetness.

I apologize for no photo of the first steep, I was unaware that my camera was suffering technical difficulties and ate my photo, all I got was a sad error. After the sharp aroma I was expecting a sharp taste, amusingly not so much! It is fruit sweetness and smoothness from the first to the aftertaste. Starting with honey and hay, moving to apricots, and finishing with a gentle woodiness that does give a bit of dryness at the very end. There is a very gentle camphorous cooling after sipping, but it is very light.

Second steeping! The aroma is not really at all sharp this time, it is sweet and fruity, fresh crisp apricots and honey with a touch of distant smoke. The taste is much thicker, especially in mouthfeel, it is heavily leaden with honey and fruit at the front, this fades pretty quickly to greenness. Notes of greenbeans and grass with a tiny bit of grapes at the finish.

Onward to number three! The aroma is now quite pungent, wet hay and wet leaf pile with a camphor note drift from my cup. What, the? Hey, what happened? It has gone from delightfully smooth and sweet to bitter, just like not entirely ripe persimmons, however the mouthfeel is thick and not dry, interesting! Maybe I steeped it too long, always a possibility (it was 30 seconds at 185 if you are curious) but woo, that was a twist! In me fashion I went for a few more steeps, the next couple were still rather bitter, but fading back into apricots and hay, with stronger camphor notes, so other than that kick in the face at the middle the tea was quite enjoyable!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/07/wymm-tea-jingmai-sheng-pu-erh-from.html

The final of my samples from Wymm Tea. Thanks!

Kind of glad this one took so long to make it to the top of the list. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I am used to sheng being very bright, metallic, and biting. This was very different.

First, the dry leaf looks so fresh and alive. The brew is honey colored. The first thing I noticed when tasting was a light note of smoke. No else seems to have mentioned it – so maybe its just me, but I liked it. This was followed by the flavor blooming into fresh floral notes. Not overpowering. The feel is thick. It leans toward sweet. In later steeps I got peppery notes and more than hints of apricot. There was some astringency but nothing unmanageable or even closely approaching what I normally find in sheng.

All in all, an easy to like old tree sheng.

The last of the Wymm Tea samples. I thoroughly enjoyed them all, but I think this one is the favourite. Such a beautiful tea. Lovey thick mouth-feel that’s comes across as pudding like. Even the floral aftertaste lends a lovely sweetness to the tea. Yeah. Definitely my favourite.

Thank you so much, Wymm Tea for your generous samples!

The leaves of this cake are deep olive green and brown. In a warm gongfu sized teapot (100ml) they have an earthy smell that quite reminds me of the aroma of ripe puer. After a rinse, the leaves smell like forest floor, pepper, a hint of leather, and night air in dry grasslands, a scent you’ll be very familiar with if you grew up among them. There are hints of wildflowers.

I decided to brew this tea at 194F/90C rather than my usual 203F/95C for raw puer. With young raw puer, brewing it at this slightly lower temperature really softens the flavor and keeps the bitterness most young raw puer has at bay.

Mostly, the scent I’m getting from the rinse infusion is of sweet dough. The color of the liquid is a muted peach. The flavor is very mouth-filling and rich. It tastes leafy and a bit woody, but more on the leafy side. There’s a really nice earthiness to it, and it is mild on the palate, almost sweet, but not quite. As it cools, the flavor is more like vanilla bean and mineral. The taste really lingers after a sip.

Jingmai is a tea producing region I am very fond of. I have only had a few teas from there now, but every one I’ve had has been really special and of such distinguished quality. The terroir there produces some flavors you just can’t replicate elsewhere.

The second infusion of this tea offers a bit more of a peppery note in the taste, and hints of bitterness, but overall the flavor is very smooth just like the first. Again, I’m quite impressed by how this tea seems to hit the palate all at once, but in a very mild way.

So far, the flavor of this tea is not changing drastically from one infusion to the next. It’s a pretty straightforward woodsy puer, but it has a really nice calmness to it. Like the other teas I’ve had from WYMM Tea, this one has a very clean taste. I imagine this would be a great one for those who like a nice woodsy/herbaceous raw puer. As I steep this further, a little note of floral emerges, but it is subtle. By about the fifth steeping there’s a subtle note of citrus, and this continues on through the later steepings.

All in all, a really agreeable Puer. While this one didn’t have quite the exciting and unique flavor notes I’m used to from Jingmai Puer, it did teach me more about the diversity of flavors in that area, and this was a solid, really nice Puer, one I kept wanting to drink and not put down.

Last Wymm Tea sample!

These have all been good, especially the sheng. I’m a fan of jingmai…I say it tastes like floral custard. YUM! This one has a great thick mouthfeel, and nice sweetness to pleasant bitterness balance. Thanks again Wymm Tea this one is a winner :)

I quite enjoyed this sheng – thought I am partial to jing mai raw pu’er. This one is full of orchid notes with a powerfully lingering orchid aftertaste. There is a bit of peachy apricot (probably from the floral), thick body and a nice sweetness. There is a bit of dryness, but still easy to enjoy.

Full review on Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/jingmai-sheng-2013-wymm-tea/

totally gapped on doing a review for this today but i’ll likely pick it up again tomorrow in any case. I am trying really hard to get through reviewing the samples from Wymm tea that they were so generous about sending out to people. So far yesterday’s shou was my favourite but this one was quite nice. I remember most that this was slightly sweet – slightly floral but not to the point where i didn’t want to drink it. Only got through a few steepings today so more tomorrow.

Final Count: 131

As it seems our dashboard is working I can finally get this one in. This came in from Wymm as a generous sample.
I dropped it in the easy steeper and gave a short 5 second wash to start out. First brew also at 5 seconds. A nice orchid/floral aroma comes off this one from the cup. The color is a light golden honey color. I get into the cup and finally a Jingmai that is strong and sweet and no overly citrus y.
I usually don’t have a pen-chance for Jingmai tea for this reason. This is one that goes in the other direction. It has a good mouth-feel to it. Very thick across the tongue. It has a nice floral note that drifts into sweetness. This is no doubt first flush Spring tea as it has vigor to it. A nice sense of calm after drinking this and it has gone a cup or two a day for three days now. Nice tea.