2005 HAI LANG HAO “YOU LE ZHENG SHAN”

The scent and taste is quite different with this more than 10 years aged fellow and this is in fact a very pleasant aspect about it! The taste is very minerally even a bit iron related and medicinal like dried TCM herbs plus autumn foliage like. I had an Shou Mei white tea some time ago which was an aged one from 2006 and this is exactly the vibe

I received from this aged buddy. Instead of the woodsy notes the strongest ones are more the cigar tobacco nuances beside the already named ones. The coloration of the cup is quite bright and light considering the age. Also and maybe because of its dry aging there is still a lot of the fresh green character left which isn’t a bad thing in fact it blends perfectly in with the already aged aspects and creates an own unique deliciously universe within its small cosmos. You might also discover some fruity aspects like very young early harvested pears mostly noticeable skin-wise with a bit of fruit pulp plus a fine bitter note of grape seeds. Herbal-wise there is definitely a good amount of chamomile and Greek mountain tea aka Greek vervain to it. There is also a very mouth & tongue coating feel to it which passes on an aftertaste feel as if you had swallowed down a pill (Paracetamol or something like that)!

Normally I would give this aged Sheng a 4 1/2 because it is a very nice composed piece of pu-erh sonata but still for my personal taste not the profile I would normally search within a pu-erh with an aged History to it. But that’s just my own matter of taste ;)

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I read some glowing reviews on this one so I picked up a 25g sample from YS on my last order. I used 8g in a 150ml gaiwan. My portion was near the center punch, but the compression was loose and it broke up easily without breaking any leaves. Steep times were something like 10s, 5s, 10s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 45s, 60s but I didn’t specifically keep track. Initially I noticed a honey flavor and a vegetal flavor that seemed to balance each other out. In the first few steepings a noticed a strong apricot aftertaste which I liked, but it was only there the first few steepings. Great mouth and throat feel, and not much bitterness or astringency. I noticed as the steepings progressed the honey flavor and vegetal flavor were initially pretty distinct, but began to blend together and became more one smooth flavor. The fully brewed leaves were mostly intact, medium size, and gorgeous!

The description on YS said this one had less cha qi than other similar teas buuuuuuuut I disagree! I was doing some cleaning up in between cups when the cha qi hit me. It was very grounding, centering… I became more aware of my joints in motion and my movements. A very “in body” experience. This was a nice contrast as a lot of sheng pu erhs produce more of an “out of body” experience for me. I was even having a little trouble typing this up due to it’s effects.

I really liked this tea, but the $120 price tag as of writing this is a little steep but for a high quality sheng with 11 years already on it what do you expect. I’m on the fence about getting a full cake for long term storage. I’ll finish the rest of my sample in 2 more sessions and then decide. I wouldn’t be surprised if this one found its way into my collection.

I just don’t think pu is for me… Everyone is raving about this tea and what I smell and taste is menthol, mold and wet sofa. :( I did just off boiling, 5 grams, 150 ml water, rinse, 5 seconds, 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 40 seconds, 1 minute. I will say that it wasn’t bitter at all and had a lovely color. But tastewise, I’m trying but I just don’t get it I’m afraid.

From the Sheng Olympics

Initial steep: Rich nose is earthy and nutty. Surprisingly pale color. Taste is sweet and vegetative with hints of straw and leather. Excellent mouth-feel. Good finish. 2nd: Rich aroma. Excellent taste. This is the kind of rich, full-bodied, complex tea that I love. Taste is leather with hints of straw, vegetation, and earth. Finish is long, strong, and smooth. Some cha qi, but not overwhelming. Later steeps showed a bit of acid. I want to buy this, but have absolutely no need for more tea. Lucky for me the YS sale just ended.

2016 Sheng Olympics
This was fantastic! I opened the package and gave these dried orange leaves a sniff. I took in a dry tobacco and leather aroma. I could note a slight sweetness lingering in the background. The chunk I had was too big to fit fully in the Jianshui, so I propped the lid atop it while the tea warmed inside the pot. I gave it quite some time to sit and soak up steam, and then I lifted the lid and a very unique scent arose from my teapot. I took in a savory note of a sweet and sour combo of Cornbread and Teriyaki. I could also pick up some leather and an underlying menthol aroma. This warmed tea brought the memory of Skoal to mind for some reason. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The tea still didn’t fit, so I hit it with the scorching spring water and it finally sunk into the pot. The steeped leaves gave off a completely different and powerful aroma. My tea room was filled with some smoke, tobacco, oak, resin, and the underlying sweet syrup of red fruits. This was going to be a very heavy tea. The first sip was sweet, oily, and thick. I was picking up tons of huigan and mouth action. The flavor began with some oak wood, honey, and sugarcane syrup. The body was thick and heavy with tons of flavor. This is an exceptional aged sheng. The brew grew with some astringency that lingered in the background. This tea was packed full of sharp tones and tons of flavor. I was picking up a drying leather, warm honey, oak wood, tobacco, and ripe fruit. The huigan was massive; I was almost drowning in it. The flavors lasted well after drinking, and a slight cooling sensation persisted on the tongue. The later steeping sessions kept the consistent heavy bodied flavor profile; however, a slight sour tone appeared in the aftertaste. The qi was an odd one. The feeling began in the mind as a warming and slowing feeling. The sensation mostly stayed in the head and surrounded the mind. The feeling progressed and bestowed a clouded mind. This qi slowed me down and relaxed me. The qi disappeared quickly, and my head began to clear up shortly after the session. I really enjoyed this tea. My favorite aged shengs are the ones with a thick and heavy body. This is a tea I could see myself drinking regularly. I can only imagine what another decade will do to this.

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My Sheng Olympics sample for the day. :) 6-7g sample in a 4oz gaiwan, water 90-100C. Started with 10sec steeps, gradually added time. This is interesting to drink fairly soon after trying the 2015 version, because you can really see the effect of the aging. Interestingly, there’s not much of an “aged” flavour to this – a bit of that old books note in the scent, especially smelling the wet leaves, but tea liquor itself doesn’t really have the musty, earthy flavours at all. I’m guessing that means the storage was fairly dry? Anyway, what’s noticeable is how much the tea has mellowed out with age. I found the young version a bit more bitter than I prefer, but this has a lovely balance between sweet and bitter. It’s smooth, with a medium thick mouthfeel and aftertaste. I didn’t really pick out a lot of distinct flavour notes, but I found it really easy to drink – I just kept steeping and drinking over and over (while somewhat distracted by my laptop). I had to force myself to slow down and sip more mindfully so I’d have something to write in this note besides “Yum!” It held up to longer steepings very well, getting darker in colour and thicker in flavour without developing any overwhelming bitterness or sour notes. Quite nice.

2016 Sheng Olympics sampler. Picked this one today largely at random. It is pretty good. It has not lost all it’s apricoty sweetness from when it was a young sheng. It is very smooth. It is a little astringent. No real negative notes at all. No wet storage, no off tastes. The only thing I would say about it is from the color of the brewed tea it doesn’t seem to have aged that much. Probably because it was dry stored. This is one I would consider buying if the price isn’t too high. I think to put this tea away for ten years you would get something amazing but it would take a while. It did have, what do you say, a very strong mouth feel and a bit of an aftertaste.

I brewed this tea ten times in a 100ml gaiwan with 6g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. I could definitely have gotten another four or five steeps out of this tea but am at my caffeine limit.

Used half the sample for this tea and brewed gongfu today. I was doing a little reading up on the tea on YS’s website with Scott’s blog about the tea and how it’s processed while I had my first infusion.

I did about 5 infusions and then I was done. I can’t get past 4 or 5 because I just can’t drink that much tea. The tea was pretty consistent though. A really good quality sheng.

2016 Sheng Olympics

I couldn’t tell you why I took some of this to work with me… but I did. With that being said, I used a kamjove and water that was probably 90c from what I have been able to asses while brewing at work. My session, which lasted six hour , consisted of 10 second steeps. The amount of steeps that I ended up with was over 14 and I stopped counting after 10. I’ll be honest to say that I feel like there might be a possible write up in the future for me as I take a lot of pee brakes because of how much tea I drink at work.

This was one of the most looked forward teas for me because it has some time to sit and do it’s thing. What was really weird about this was the background taste of honey for the first six steeps. Unsure if any other raw puerh has ever had me taste a thick sweetness hidden inside it, but it was there. This tea for me is in the medium area for thickness and darkness. The taste is comprised of very smooth notes that stay on the lower area of the mouth and the roof of the mouth. There’s some roasted vegetable notes with a small hint of stone fruits because the sweetness mixed in there appears that way for me. Since I was at work, I am unsure if this provided any real feeling or not because I stay quite busy and never notice anything besides the ‘I have to pee’ feeling.

I will say that I was very pleased with this. I do have some more to try at home with better conditions and I think comparing it to the 2009 and 2015 will be quite interesting :)