Hi-Tech Raw Puerh Tea Dragon Ball Rolled Puerh

Knowing the nature of these balls, came into this session with no expectations. Poured boiling water from high above to rinse, let the leaves sit for awhile and then did one more short rinse. First steep was pretty weak in flavor, but once the ball opened up I got a nice balance of sweet and very, very light bitterness. Nothing super distinct, but still good! I have a couple more of these so I look forward to seeing how they differ.

Sheng Olympiad 2017

I’m happy to be able to participate in the Sheng Olympiad this year. Last year, as I started involving myself in the tea community via Steepster, I have also learned about LP and his group buys. Fortunately, I was able to participate in this one, so I’m quite excited to get start digging into these samples. :)

This is the first tea from the Sheng Olympiad to be had. I must say that I’ve been considering whether or not to purchase a Hi-Tech ball from YS eventually; however, I was happy to see that LP had included it in the Sheng Olympiad.

Notes: The tea started out quite sweet, with notes of apricot, honey, and stone fruits. After a few steeps in, I had noticed that the tea had subtle astringent floral notes in the back of the throat. The flavor lingered for a bit, but it was the kind of this is good feeling.

Side note: My three-year-old nephew wanted to try some tea, but I think he mainly wanted to play with the tea pets. When I told him to tell me what he thought about the tea, he took a sip, said, “Mmmm. Another cup please.” So, I think even children can give this tea a thumbs up, so to speak.

It’s great having a good cup of tea with others; especially one with a child who is completely new to tea, and yet can start out drinking the good stuff. My sister believes that tea is an obscure thing, and that there is no such thing as “relationships built on tea;” however, with the simple cup that her son had shared with me, had proven that people can and do bond together over tea. There is such a wonderful place in this community, and I’m utterly grateful to have had the opportunity to grow in such a wonderful community, with great people to share tea, stories, and experiences with. And maybe as my nephew grows up, he can start sharing tea with me more often, and realize that there’s no better way to bond than over a cup—or perhaps playing with tea pets as normal tea people do. :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BO-7QqShcF5/?taken-by=s.g_sanders1

I bought three of these to see how the differed, and I never posted the review.
If ya care enough for a long read, go ahead!:

Ball 1:
The balls are super tightly compressed, so I can’t get much aroma of this one. I think I smell dry wood or hay, with a dash of spice. I warmed up my gaiwan and plopped the pebble inside. The aroma opens up to vegetal, sage, and other herbaceous scents. I washed this twice and prepped for brewing. The taste is odd but sweet, heavy, and full. The aftertaste has a pepper kuwei bitterness. I described this one as “muted”, “overpowered”, or “blocked”. The taste was sweet with some tang, and it was very vegetal and peppery. However, the leaves give off an intense fruity scent. The taste was nothing to write home about. Honestly, I had trouble differentiating between the flavors. They didn’t meld well. On the other hand, the qi was incredibly heavy! It’s a definiete stoner tea; I actually almost passed out.

Ball 2:
Same case as before, but I picked up some silky greens (?) from a sniff. I warmed the brewer up and popped this inside. The character was sweet with some smoke. The leaves are darker and have a mahogany aroma. I washed them twice and brewed away. The taste was bright and airy with bitter greens and a lot of sweet fruit. The astringency was present, but it wasn’t too overwhelming. A cooling sensation appeared and it was a nice feeling at the back of my throat, and it followed down to my chest. However, a direct lemon note appeared, and the brief citrus wiped clean all flavors. The brew went dull, and a overwhelming bad qi feeling took over. The feeling was crippling, and it hurt my stomach.

Ball 3:
Same as Ball 1, except I got cooked greens as well. Again, warm pot place ball inside. The scent is sweet like an yiwu, but it also has a few flat tones. I swooshed the ball around and gave it another sniff, and I picked up an odd plain tone; it smelled off clean plastic. Another swoosh, and I picked up some dark honey, and bitter prune. Odd. I washed the ball twice and scorched away. The taste was bittersweet with a nice huigan. I could hint at some mouth dryning, but it was otherwise smooth. The taste reminded of lincang material. The brew becomes grassy and begetal bitter. The sweetness would be comparable to a green melon. The brew fades with an oak drying bitter. I didn’t hint at any qi with this one.

All and all, I didn’t care too much for these; however, they make good travel buddies.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIGUUD3AWS_/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

I believe each one of these are different…

Anyways, this smelled good even before the brew which made me happy. The result came in as a nice semi sweet brew over and over. Not as delicate as CLT or even W2T Smooch (which surprised me), but it’s a solid material that has depth that comes through in the later steeps. These seems to be good as young as they are with those sweet notes and vibrancy of the raw pu’erh in there.

This tea is pretty tasty. It was weak in the first infusion because the tea needed to open up. Starting in the second infusion it was good. It was both bitter and sweet in all truth. It was fairly smooth though. This was at least as good in my opinion as Misty Peaks rolled puerh. Yunnan Sourcing says however that there will be a lot of variation in these. They are not from one single source so the next one might be better, might be worst, might be spectacular. This one was nice. It had the classic notes of young sheng, apricots and stonefruits.

I brewed one dragon ball or 8.2g leaf in a 120ml gaiwan with boiling water. 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 have gotten a couple more steeps out of the leaves if I hadn’t hit my caffeine limit.