2004 Hai Lang Hao "Big Snow Mountain" Raw Puerh

I have a feeling this tea is asleep, or maybe still in transit shock… it’s all whispers and promises.

I opened up the envelope and put it in my sheng crock. I’ll check back in on it in a few months.

Brick sample. Low aroma, but heavily-compressed, early steeps are incredibly sweet. As the compression lets go, the floral bitterness, pleasant, intensifies. Brewing carefully, it stays in check and is balanced in a show of strength that’s quite enjoyable. Late steeps pick up some of the youthful fruitiness of sheng. Good tea, with great endurance, a revealing story, and both strength and grace.

Barbecue meets Dark Forest meets Darjeeling meets Dark Chocolate!

Bouquet: Everything starts with steaming mist of smoked cranberry ham followed by flavorful waves of Worcestershire and hints of Barbecue sauce. Within the following deep breaths you’re also going to discover baked potatoes, subtle aspects of sweet paprika spice and oregano. Very thick and deep notes plus massively juicy mouthwatering! The roasted smokey atmosphere gets even stronger within the later infusions.

Taste: This amber colored cup delivers such a nice silky creamy liquor with woodsy elements of aged wood like a fine mix of sandalwood and agarwood, birch juice plus a leathery tobacco mix but not overpowering with a dark sweetness of dark chocolate at the end of it. Later those dark aspects of chocolate with a hint of raisins to it plus another subtle note of dried figs builds the second layer above the earthy aged wood base of this highly intense and delicious act. I never experienced something like this before but this is the first time that the whole composition of an aged Sheng reminds me a lot of a strong first flush Darjeeling red tea (if you keep the tea longer in your mouth). There is a lot of this typical red tea (black tea in the west) character to be found. You can literally taste all those twigs, fallen leaves and tree barks along the way with its dark sweet elements of chocolate, raisins and dried figs. There is also a certain subtle sour-ish comeback within the aftertaste which builds up a lot of juice inside your mouth. Within the later infusions (4+) the black tea (red tea) flavor completely vanishes also a lot of the dark chocolate aspects while the woodsy leathery and tobacco front stepped more onto the front stage of this play.

This is a fantastic example of a well aged Sheng with deep and strong flavors. But if you’re just into those more stronger aspects they might vanish soon. But you can enjoy its stronger side for at least 6 times.

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A sample via Dex from the April tea box!

My piece was like a rock. A rectangular rock. So I rinsed it long, twice. And let it sit a while between the rinses. Then I tried a 15 second steep. WOWSERS. That was strong!

It smells like sweet, bitter, flowers, and smoke. Interesting combination. Smoke being that tobacco scent that I find some puerh has.

Whoa. I’ve just dumped 18oz of this as not drinkable. :/

I am seriously flash steeping this. Water goes in, water comes out. It’s very bitter still, but starting to be drinkable. I think a few more steeps and it will mellow out into something my taste buds understand a bit more.

Hahaha. Ok. Over 1 litre later, I’ve removed some leaf.
https://www.instagram.com/p/-SrJzsx5ET/

It’s still way too much for me. It keeps promising sweetness in the smell, but then it’s just sharp, bitey sheng. Bleh.

Edit. Ok, ok. I removed over half the leaf. And now I’m flash steeping. 1.5 litres in. FINALLY the sweetness it was promising is starting to come through.

Tea should not be this hard.

I’m naming this: Reversal Sheng.
The first three steeps has this nice sweet undertone and after taste which was quite appealing and then after the four steep the bitterness storm began to come in over the horizon I didn’t know existed. Normally I like shengs as they tune down, but this one decided to tune up into something I did not like. If it stayed on it’s original path and din’t go bipolar on me, I’d really enjoy this.

Tried this one out today. After a quick rinse did a 10 sec steep and added a bit more for the next steeps. I could definitely smell hay and honey from this tea. I could taste mushroomy notes with a honey sweetness and it didn’t fade much with each infusion. It was a pleasant cup but after 4 infusions I was tired of the tea and wanted a change. I put the leaves aside to see if I can do a steep on them tomorrow.

Got this as a sample on my Yunnan Sourcing order. I brought out 10 grams into the Gaiwan to brew. Gave it a quick rinse to open up. Aroma of slight floral on this one. Not in your face but a light aroma.
This one has no smokiness to it at all. No astringency and a very good mouthfeel to it. It has hints of a slight woodiness and honey with some flower to it. It is very smooth and easy to drink compared to some of the other Hai Lang Hao teas. It is not punchy or in your face but nice and easy to drink. It gives a nice feeling of relaxation after drinking and the sweetness continues after the cup is empty. Actually day 2 on this one and it has progressed very well. A nice evening sheng that is great to unwind with.

I started drinking this yesterday and it is still doing well. As I noted on the pu drinking thread in the discussions area, my first thought upon drinking the first cup was “Crikey, that’s smooth!” So, time to write it up properly before getting back to my revision. Only two days to go! Eek!! I’m not panicking much. Honest. Actually I am calmer that I might be but I put that down to the tea.

The beeng is loose. Not so much as to just fall apart but a far cry from the iron hard beengs and bricks I seem to get so often. This makes it easier to pick apart and means that the leaves remain whole, which is no bad thing. It smells of horses and hay, a sweet aroma that carries good memories.

The liquor is a yellowish amber in colour. It smells of hay and honey. Sniffing the empty cup, I am struck by how much it smells of honey and fresh flowers. I think it might be a magnolia aroma, but I cannot quite put my finger on it precisely.

The first sip, as noted above, was incredibly smooth. It was sweet with a creamy mouthfeel. There’s a walnut nuttiness to it and the astringency only starts to make itself felt as the liquor cools. The aftertaste is sweet, sparkles and lasts for ages.

After the first cup, the tea starts to make itself felt in my whole body, especially in my legs. I can feel it forcing me to relax and I almost immediately feel slightly tea drunk. This tea seems to have a fairly strong cha qi. It calms my mind and I almost feel like I am entering a meditative state while becoming more focused. It is quite remarkable and certainly helps with the work I am doing.

The tea seems to tail off after a dozen steepings, but I probably need to increase the duration of the next one to see where that goes. I also found that it did not respond as well with steeping at 90 degrees C, whereas 85 degrees C works beautifully. I’m off to do that now, then it’s back to work for me.