Mahei Sheng Pu-erh from Ancient Tea Tree 2011 Spring

I finished this sample, I drank half of it and used the other to season a lower grade pot I got and since I think I Shengs will have to grown on me I’ll use that pot for them. I have fancy pot for my cooked Puerhs. Anyway for me this was bitter, tasted like creamy Hay with a cooling feeling. and a bit of funk. Not my ‘cup of tea’ but since so healthy I drank so many infusions I lost count, it does go on and on. I’l give the others in the order a try as well as ones from other vendors in my stash. Perhaps It will grow on me. I’m going to reccomend it anyway because this is just my taste, the tea was tolerable and others seem to like it. This was my Cherry breaking Sheng.

The dry leaf for this one smelled intensely sweet. The main chunk of leaf was a murky tangle of dark green and brown, like camouflage. The rinsed leaf smelled creamy, sour, sweet and smoky — a combination of tobacco, prunes, and cheesecake that I found quite compelling.

The first and second steeps were similar in flavour and colour, with both being a pale gold. However, the second steep tasted more intense, with a smoky flavour that had a dry, sweet aftertaste similar to licorice. (That I kept on drinking this tea is amazing, because I absolutely hate licorice.)

The third steep was a rich golden colour and the brew smelled like tobacco. I liked this a lot, especially with the sweet aftertaste. The sweetness was dry and herbal, like stevia or dry wine, rather than being fruity, juicy, or honey-like.

The fourth, fifth and sixth steeps were similar: I got a deep golden brew, but the sweet flavour morphed to both metallic and fruity. I also noticed some nuttiness, like walnuts.

Where this tea really shines is in the mouthfeel, though. As I was drinking it, it felt like my mouth was full, like the tea was taking up more real estate than it had any right to. I could feel its warmth and lingering flavours inside my cheeks, on the sides of my tongue, and even on my hard palate. There was a roughness, too, to the tea in my mouth, like construction paper was sliding over my tongue.

The tea smoothed out by the sixth steep, but by then I had also started to notice a warm tickle at the back of my throat. I let the tea run its course over a few more steeps, but by then I was all tired and I could feel the liquid sloshing around in my belly. Not a bad way to end the evening!

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

The weather today has been kinda great, nice and cool (for summer) and overcast, sadly I did spend most the day sleeping, so I missed out on it. But when I woke up in the afternoon I was so happy to not be a melted pile of sadness! So in honor of the weather being nice, I decided to have some tea outside, and Ben decided to take pictures of me, really I wanted a new photo of myself for my various profiles, and I wanted it to be tea themed so it worked out perfectly.

Today on ye old tea blog, I am taking a look at another offering from Wymm Tea, specifically their Mahei Zhai Sheng Pu-erh From Ancient Tea Tree 2011 Spring, a Sheng Puerh from 2011. This tea is from the Mahei Village in the Yiwu Mountain of Xishuangbanna, one of largest of the tea producing mountains of Yunnan. The name Yiwu means The Habitat of Beautiful Snake Deity in the local Dai language, and I find myself wondering if they meant Nuwa, the ancient creator of mankind. The aroma of the leaves is quite aromatic and enjoyable, blending my much loves favorite note of camphor with sweet honey, broken vegetation, and a distinct anise-like note of lotus blossoms. I admit, I was not expecting that from a Puerh, but I am certainly not complaining, I love lotus blossoms. There is also a hint of woodiness and a tiny, delicate, apricot note at the finish.

Into the tiny shui ping the leaves go, for a short rinse and short steep. The now wet leaves only have a tiny hint of anise, instead it is intense wet hay and pungent camphor, sweet apricot, and a finish of wet bamboo. The liquid is sweet and wet, combining damp wood, soggy hay, and moist bamboo with a definite finish of apricot and honey. There is a delicate whiff of anise that is almost indiscernible, like the dream of anise.

First steeping time! Ah, now this is a first steep right after me own heart! It starts out light and smooth, with a surprisingly thick mouthfeel for a first steep. The taste begins with delicate sweetness of apricots and lotus, the lotus is super delicate but most certainly present. It then moves on to wet hay and a touch of mushrooms, with a finish of bamboo shoots and spinach. The aftertaste is a lingering lotus blossom sweetness.

Second steeping has the aroma of so much camphor! It is like an old cedar chest, woody and cooling, but with an apricot and bamboo accompaniment. Tasting the tea is smooth, that mouthfeel is still thick and soupy, but not much changed. The taste is primarily camphor and wet, sweet hay, very cooling and sweet. This blends with a finish of apricot and bamboo at the finish, with a delicate lotus finish.

For the final steep, the aroma is so refreshing, I almost wish that when I wrote my tasting notes for this tea it would have been a hot day, because the notes of camphor are very cooling. They are joined with delicate apricots and bamboo shoots, and a tiny hint of hay at the finish. Very smooth is the mouthfeel, not quite as thick, but still pretty soupy. The taste is again, primarily camphor and sweet hay, with a tiny hint of apricots and loam. The finish has a slight bitter kale like note, but this fades to lotus blossom pretty quickly. Sadly, this really is the final steep, where I end my reviews at three steeps, I tend to go further with them, and with Puerhs I usually add a very short summary of the other steeps. Shortly after this steep I was slammed with an ungodly stomach bug, not sure if it was food poisoning or what, but I was in no shape for drinking tea…believe me, I tried. So, I did not get to push this Sheng to its limits, I would love to get more because what I did try I really enjoyed.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/06/wymm-tea-mahei-zhai-sheng-pu-erh-from.html

Interesting. A young sheng that does not grab you by the throat with bitterness. In fact it has very little when short steeps are used. The dry leaf was field and leather scented. The wet was leather, asparagus, seaweed, and mint. The cup was apricot colored. The first thing I caught in the taste was a hint of smoke. I never catch smoke in poo. Everybody else does. Not me. Until today. Woot! The taste goes from light mineral to leather to cooling bite.

The next cup had a spicy cedar/cinnamon mixed with leather. Behind it was a light metallic brightness. The combination was an interesting cooling heat.

The qi hit me hard on the second cup. The medicine I take for my lungs reacts with caffeine apparently. I really want to indulge in more of this but I am putting it away until morning. Probably shouldn’t have taking the meds with poo. Yeah, I’ll be more careful next time. Anyway, for only a few years old, this was an amazing sheng.

I’ve been just enjoying my tea lately rather than rating; a combination of allergies and too much else going on. However, I need to catch up on my reviews of these samples from Wymm Tea.

I usually try to drink teas that are older than this. My first attempt I really enjoyed the flavors, but the tea was acidic and bothered my stomach. My conclusion was that it needed a lot more aging.

Shortly after this experience I read the review by Boychik saying she was careful not to oversteep the tea, so I tried a second pot with shorter steeps. This second pot was much more to my liking. The tea was smooth and sweet and very enjoyable. In both pots, the cha qi was so strong that I had to space out my cups in time or I would have been in such a fog that I couldn’t give an accurate review. (My unedited notes say : “Hard to tell where the finish ends and the strong cha qi takes over. I’m just sitting, enjoying the buzz”)

The flavor was a mix of wood and straw but at various times I detected toast in the aroma, and a bit of mineral. After about 4 steeps, it settled down into a very pleasant smooth straw flavor with caramel highlights. I’m at about the 10th steep now and it is still pleasant.

I really enjoyed the tea but hesitate to recommend it because it is quite pricey.

The leaves from this raw Puer cake are very dark brown and black. It already looks very well aged even though the leaves are only from 4-5 years ago.

The dry leaves in a warm Gongfu teapot (100ml) smell first and fore most like leather or dried meat, a secondary scent that I get if I inhale very deeply is menthol. After a rinse, the wet leaves have a very complex and strong aroma. The smell is of prunes, wood, and a musty forest floor kind of smell like you’d expect from aged Puer.

The brewed liquor is a deep golden yellow. The aroma is of croissant dough. As it cools it begins to smell more like cake batter and there is also a slight aroma of menthol just like before.

Whoa. The flavor is very nice. Tastes like pie crust, a hint of vanilla, a lingering aftertaste of fig. That is not at all what I was expecting! And that was just from the rinse infusion.

The second infusion smells more strongly of menthol. The wet leaves have a nice spiced aroma to them. The flavor still reminds me of pie crust with hints of fig, vanilla, and spice. There’s a little bit of wood as well. It’s got a very creamy texture.

Have you ever had a Necco wafer? Because that’s what the third infusion smells like, menthol and powdered sugar, sort of. The taste is very mouth-filling, very mild. This tea lingers on the light end of the flavor spectrum, vanilla, dough, minerals… it doesn’t have the woody, leafy green powerful note of many other Puer teas.

The fourth infusion tastes a bit deeper and mellow, some hints of wood peaking through.
The fifth infusion brings more of the rich, smooth vanilla bean flavor. This tastes like a flavored tea or specialty tea drink from a coffee shop that you could get in the winter time, like a tea latte.

There has not been any bitterness at all in tasting this tea.
After the sixth infusion, a lingering taste of pepper stays in my mouth.
Seventh, a little bit of menthol is coming through in the flavor.
Eighth, the flavor is quite a bit lighter. Ninth, the same, even after infusing for a full minute or so. Tenth, I let it sit a few minutes. Tasted a lot like dried fruit but with some bitterness coming in at the end.

I didn’t really add much time to each infusion. Each one was about 10-15 seconds long, other than the last few.

I’d say so far this was the second best tea I’ve tried from WYMM Tea, the first being their Mangnuo Cane Tea. Their selection may be small right now, but you can be sure you’re getting the quality you pay for. I respect that in a tea company much more than when one has a huge selection of hit-and-miss teas. I am eager to see how WYMM Tea grows as a company. They have started with such a great lineup of unique and delicious Puer teas.

This tea is part of very generous box of samples . Thank you so much for such a great opportunity to sample your great teas.

i went with the entire sample which was about 6g .
95ml gaiwan, 200F rinse/pause/3/5/5/5/7/7/10sec etc

The tea is wonderful. I was cautious not to oversteep it, so my steeps were very short, some even flash.
started mild, then progressed to a nice minty cool and spicy flavor. i cannot say i experienced any harsh bitterness or astringency. It was very pleasant. i really liked that minty cool freshness.
Later steeps lost the mint flavor but again no bitterness ( or maybe im getting used to it so i dont notice haha)

i highly recommend to try this tea. i really enjoyed it.

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The last of my samples from Wymm Tea. I have to say i’m impressed with this companies offerings so far. They have all been thoroughly enjoyable even if i haven’t managed to get very good descriptions of the teas out there imo. I recommend giving them a shot if you’re a puerh fan and maybe even if you’re not. As i’ve said before, i generally prefer shou but i’m not opposed to trying out sheng’s as one of my favourite puerhs is a sheng :)

this one is another that i would gladly put in my cupboard and will likely order once i’m allowed to. this one started out on the softer side of things but quickly turned in to a much stronger brew. I didn’t experience any sort of bitterness in these steeps but i was keeping them short with a bit cooler temp than normal.

This tea was gifted by Tashi and Sgrodka to myself and other Steepsters out there. A generous offer to our community and I wish to say thanks for the chance.

This tea was sent in a very nice pouch of paper that had me scrambling to identify it on the Wymm Tea site. I found out when I opened the pouch the type of tea it was. No second picks so I will go with this one.
The sample weighed in at 6 grams so I went with my small (5oz.) steeper. The tea was washed for about 5 seconds and then I started steeping. The brew was very light on the first brew as I thought since it was a very quick steep. The aroma of a faint peach smell came off the brew. First sip a bit stronger than I would have expected for a young tea. It carries a good amount of bitterness that turns into a steamed vegetable note with a touch of saltiness to it. Second steeps bring more punch from the bitterness and the color is starting to get a bit darker as well.
It is a strong drink after the initial early steeps . I pulled some leaf out and it seems to be 2 leafs and a bud on the ones with stems I pulled out. Very strong Spring tea and and complex. I would say this would be a great tea to put away for a few years years I think it will be a shining star in your cupboard.