Dong Banshan Sheng Pu-erh from Ancient Tea Tree 2014 Spring

Yay, my first sheng pu’erh or young pu’erh. A beginner tea for a beginner. After “waking up” the very sleepy leaves with the recommended 3 steeps, I got a wonderful floral (jasmine, as described) aroma off of the cup. I then burned my lip trying to taste it too soon. All in the line of duty.

Flavors: Delicately sweet fresh green pea, soybean, jasmine, wildflower honey, caramel…

Taking a break to smell it again. Ack! Smells so good.

Ok, more flavors: Daisies, white grapes, hibiscus … I don’t even know. I’m making it up now based on things that are also this delicious.

Finally trying some more of my Wymm Tea samples! 5g sample in my 4oz (ish) gaiwan, steeped at 90 deg – very fast steeps initially, then gradually adding some time. This was a very nice sheng, especially in the earlier steeps. The scent of the wet leaves was this amazing spicy tobacco-y freshness, and the flavour was quite complex, with a really prominent sweetness both in the back of the throat and on the lips. As I kept steeping, more of a grape skin bitterness and astringency came to the forefront. And then it eventually just ended up in bitter greens territory, which is when I lost interest. :)

What caught my attention first was this shengs beautiful dry leaf! My tightly compressed sample was a few pleasing shades of green and brown with beautiful white buds, looking slightly blue under the down. The dry leaves had the aroma of clover honey or very ripe apricots, transforming into steamed dark greens with sweetness after a few rinses.

The soup started off sweet, with a woody tobacco flavor mixing with grape seed and stem bitterness and a vegetal ‘collard greens’ aftertaste. The body started off heavy in the mouth with a dryness that gained momentum with each steep. The sweetness disappeared after four steeps leaving tart apple and stonefruit flavors that lasted for many steeps.

In the middle of the session the mix of sour, sweet and woody tobacco flavors reminded me of a local upland meadow coming to life after fall rains; the sweetness and tobacco from the woody twigs rehydrating, and the sour from the microbial rich soil coming back to life.

I was a little disappointed in the Mangnuo Tengtiao so I decided to try this because it’s my last Wymm sample, I don’t feel that great today, and I wanted an enjoyable if not comforting sheng session. The verdict is that I saved the best for last! This sheng is definitely spicier and less sweet than the Mangnuo, but also more complex and (thankfully) less floral too. When I have to really think about a tea, and struggle to figure out what exactly it is I’m tasting – that for me is a sign I’ve got a good one. It’s lively, slightly sweet but also spicy/peppery, but not bitter. The energizing qi hit me right away whereas with the Mangnuo, there was none at all. The only downside to this tea really is that it doesn’t last very long (less than ten steeps) but otherwise it was enjoyable for me. As for whether or not I’d buy it again, I’m not sure. There is such a huge world of pu’er out there to discover, but I also have about another 20 grams of this to enjoy, so who knows?

Thanks to Wymm tea for sending me a sample!

The dry and wet leaves for this tea smelled really sweet and fruity, like fresh apricots. I used 90C water with a quick rinse and a first steep of 5 seconds. The first steep was almost completely clear and without scent, but the flavour was slightly sweet, with no bitterness or astringency.

The flavour of the first few steeps was mild — I can see this being a really good tea for a beginning drinker, someone who’s never tried pu’erh before. The first few steeps smelled peachy, apricot-y, and grassy, like a summer morning! This tea had a great mouthfeel, too; it was thin but full in my mouth like wine.

By the fourth steep, the leaves must have really opened up because the colour of the tea darkened to amber. The flavour was still really fruity though, with grape added to the peach/apricot from before. This was also the first steep that tasted bitter. The bitterness was a smothering sensation rather than a sharp one, though.

By the fifth steep, astringency showed up along with the bitterness, and I also started to feel a tickle at the back of my throat. My mouth felt like I had bitten into a really underripe fruit. The next few steeps were more bitter than fruity, though, with fruitiness on the front of the sip and bitterness in the back.

As I continued to drink, the puckery astringency continued, and the apricot/peach flavour receded. The dryness in my throat stayed, though. However, at the 11th steep, the flavour became very mineral. By this point, my belly was full of tea but I wanted to finish off the pot, so I stopped sipping and started chugging. Luckily, the leaf was starting to wear out (and so did the bitterness) so it was easy to drink.

On the final steeps, there was a nice juicy, fresh aftertaste like watermelon rinds. Interesting!

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/09/wymm-tea-sheng-and-shou-samples/

sooo thank you Wymm tea for this sample! Sadly my other half thought he was being nice when he cleaned up the kitchen along with two of my samples from wymm tea. Luckily i had at least had a couple steepings of them. So without having run through the full round of this one – i can say that i need to try this one again.

the few steepings of this one that i did have were really… bland? I don’t think it had had a chance to open up yet as it was a really light brew, not tasting like water, but more green that the other one. Verdict is out on this one, esp since so many others really enjoyed this one.

This tea is quite a bit different from the 2014 First Spring Nanpo Laozhai.

This one is a lot less bitter, there’s less bite. It’s still fresh and green, and reminds me of green beans or spinach water as well as matcha. I’ve just been doing flash steeps, but the liquid is a pretty yellow, and the flavour is also sweet. I would say that this one is more mild than the other. More approachable, although I do like the sharp biting bitterness of sheng.

Thanks so much, WymmTea, for sharing.

I’m very sorry to see this go. This will be the very last sample given to me by this company, and it was an extraordinary experience.

I opened this package to treat myself after a long night. The dry maocha was a beautiful assortment. I could see long thick tendrils of forest green, platinum, and brass. They carried a slight hint of a stone fruit aroma. I placed these long sweet smelling leaves in my warmed yixing and gave them a shake. I gave the warmed leaf a whiff, and I actually “wow’d”. My brewing vessel filled my tea room with a sweet succulent aroma of sweet dried apricots and magnolia. I knew that I had chosen well to treat myself with this brew. I washed the maocha once and brewed up a few cups. The steeped leaves deepened into a spinach and collard greens aroma. The liquor was an opaque topaz and kept consistently dark throughout the session. The flavor was sweet and delectable. The initial sip was sugary and floral with a slight Qi kick. The body was full and refreshing. I wished that this was a neverending tea! The best part of this brew was after the twelfth steeping the leaves carried a brown sugar and maple scent. This was a memorable tea session, and the sheng helped cure any ailments from the previous night. Thank you again to this company for an amazing opportunity!

https://instagram.com/p/3o5OQ0zGcA/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I am going to start by saying that this is my favorite sheng to date. As in, ever.

I gave it a five second rinse. I steeped and used my aroma cup. The scent at first was typical sheng but with a secret sweet sparkle. I expected just another sheng. But this has the complexity I find in some of the nicer oolongs. Wow.

There is a sense of having an herbal tea with floral notes, and maybe a little honey. It reminds me a little of getting the flower nectar out of petunias when I was young. With short steeps, this is smooth and sweet enough to entice even the most fearful puerh novice. Steep it longer for extra zing and briskness if that’s how you roll.

Thank you, Wymm Tea, for this delightful sample.

My last WymmTea sheng sample :)

This is another winner in my book. First steeps were gloriously floral and became sweeter as they went along. Definitely my kind of sheng!