Hai Lang Hao "Cha Wang" 2010

I steeped this for four minutes ( I know, sacrilege), but it yields such a full robust taste I couldn’t resist. Very light smoke, no bitterness, with apricot, black licorice and scotch flavors. This is the best sheng I’ve ever had and truly a benchmark for all future tastings.

Re-saved as the link was not working anymore – a re-review will be coming shortly.

2010 HAI LANG HAO “CHA WANG” YI WU ANCIENT ARBOR RAW PU-ERH TEA
4g used.
Note#1: My notes from 25s on will need confirming in a further session, as I’m not convinced the sweetness came from the tea alone.
The dry leaf is loose leaf. I guess a 10g chunk was not possible. This tea is expensive at $12.50/£7.98 for a 10g sample.
The wet leaf: Wow. Lemon on top; concentrated fruit underneath. When I say ‘on top’ I mean the aroma is layered in a way I have not come across before. Very complex. Citrus fruits, plums. I was tentative about brewing this, as it is so expensive. I only ordered 10 grams, hence the small amount of leaf used. I was pleasantly surprised to find 11 grams in my sample; wow, an extra one gram . The aroma shares some notes with the 2008 XIAGUAN “DREAM OF THE RED CHAMBER”, but this does not have the mushroom direction. As it cools it has strawberries, lemons, light concentrated herbyness and no smoke.
The rinse was a clear, pale orange; at this price, I was tempted to drink this.

5s – Here goes. Liquor is very light yellow and very clear. Amazing. Liquor is thick, syrupy, lemony – very similar to 2013 YUNNAN SOURCING “WU LIANG YE SHENG”. Notes of honey and lemon cough medicine.
10s – Liquor is pale yellow; the same as for a Dayuling high mountain Oolong. Soft, sweet, with a long ‘ringing’ finish.
15s – This tea is subtle. It requires focus and attention. The flavour is light. The empty cup smells of honey and lemon cough medicine.
20s – Subtle. Light fruits, not so strong on the lemon. This tea is one to drink in silence to appreciate.
25s – Spice – where did that come from? Punchy with a sugary sweet after taste that fades away. Interesting: this tea makes the mouth water, the sweetness then increases to a dry sugary sweetness, then it settles down, finally leaving a dry sugary sweetness. This sweetness remained for up to a minute afterwards – a dry sugary sweetness in the mouth and teeth. Intriguing.
30s – Not so subtle now. It has a bold sweetness that leaves a dry sugary sweetness on the swallow. It’s like I’m drinking tea with sugar in.
35s – Liquor is almost clear with faint yellow. Crystal sweetness; chlorine is appearing. This cannot be attributed to tap water, as I used bottle water.

-Review
Best I have had to date a little anxious that I accidentally tried my two most expensive cake samples in the last few days, zero smokiness, zero bitterness, zero petrol taste, can not comment on qi or aftertaste as I have a huge caffiene/theanine tolerance and I took flavored fish oil which have their own orange flavored aftertaste lol. Started out herby then sweet like a melon and finally I am getting a mild fruitiness with a slight bite like a meyer lemon or blood orange.

-Take-away
I am finally starting to understand sheng and it’s appeal. Reading something a while back only now just hit me because this tea reminded me of a white tea, something along the lines of "Pu’er starts out tasting like green tea(bitter and astringent just like a green tea would be if you were to throw boiling water on it), later they taste like white tea(slightly fruity with a little astringency, more adept to higher temperatures as technically you can use near boiling water on them), after like an darker oolong (Have not tasted anything this “old” yet), and supposedly finally smooth like a black tea or ripened pu’er(smooth as possible and complex sweet flavors).

This makes sense if you think it existentially and how all types of tea come from one plant so theoretically it is slowly oxidizing itself through the stages of different types of tea. I am pretty jacked on tea at the moment so maybe I am just rambling but whether correct or not I feel a moment of clarity and understanding.