Mengku Silver Buds 2012 Spring

This tea starts very interesting. There is a sweet aroma of pine wood and resin rising from the leaves that’s very invigorating. I also immediately notice the smooth colloidal texture that becomes quite bubbly in the coming infusions. The taste, although not too complex, is nice too. I get strong notes of wood, grains such as rye, croissants and light honey. Overall, it is a sweet drink which even intensifies in the aftertaste that’s also somewhat drying and slightly more sour and bitter.

The middle of the session is characterized by a more savoury profile with a sunflower oil flavour. Progressively, the later steeps get a bit boring though and the session end on a little underwhelming note. Thanks for the sample derk :)

Soft, sweet aroma. Tastes begin moderately sweet with honeyed apricot and hay tones, modest orchid bouquet, almost juicy with salivation. Light bitterness and astringency in the first handful of steeps fade away and hints of butter, wood and caramel come in. A pleasant returning sweetness emerges midway. Orange, brothy liquor is cooling in the mouth and body and produces a satisfying swallow — a bit of heaviness to the body. The tea maintains its moderately sweet quality for over 12 steeps before hinting at its final fade.

The energy is non-interfering… unless drank in the evening. I found myself awake at 4am after a 7pm session but I wasn’t mad about it since the wakefulness was smooth and collected. This tea seems like a good one to start in the morning at your desk and drink throughout the day, given its smooth stimulation and longevity. For the price, I’d say it’s a nice sheng with some age on it, currently selling for $0.19/g.

My housemate had a cup of it last night in the early steeps and commented on how smooth it was. She’s a tea drinker but had never tried pu before.

Used 4g in 60mL gaiwan with boiled water.

Had to be pretty careful with steep times early in the session, as this tea can get bitter pretty easily. This tea went for a pretty good number of steeps, probably around 15 as mentioned on TU’s site. Started out with bitter hay/herbal notes with a sweet honey huigan and decent cha qi. As the session went on, the flavors flip-flopped, and honey sweetness came more to the front with a mouth-drying (not particularly bitter) finish. I thought this was pretty good, but the mouth-drying effect did get a little bit intense in the later steeps, so I might try the 2009 version they have and see if that has softened any.

The tea had a thick mouthfeel throughout the session.

This tea was somewhat disappointing. First, the “Silver buds” name is largely marketing. There are certainly buds, but not a high percentage (though that may be due to the luck of the sample). It may just be that my palate is not refined enough, but I don’t detect the brown sugar, honey, etc. in the description. I just taste a somewhat bitter wood, with a hint of anise that comes and goes. There is nothing bad about the tea, but it just doesn’t appeal to me.

I won’t pretend to judge the ability of this tea to age, but for everyday drinking, I found it rather ordinary.

I tend to prefer lighter, more elegant sheng, so it is possible that someone who likes more powerful teas would find this to their liking. I steeped at 200 degrees, then tried a session at 185, with similar results.