2016 Silver Fox

This is the first of 7 teas I ordered from Whispering Pines, that I have tasted. First I would like to note I am a newbie, an amateur, so my tasting notes will reflect that of a novice. Second, I keep hearing from seasoned Chinese Tea drinkers that puerh is no good to drink unless it is at least 10 years old – any younger than that, you will not get much flavor or body. With that said — each time I try a raw puerh, I seem to get the same flavor results & thought = green/bitter. After drinking the 2016 Silver Fox, I definitely got similar notes – I went through 6 steeps. At first it started out very bitter but with each steep it dissipated. It tasted very “green” and around steep 4 I noticed a dry sensation in my mouth. The tea was not bad at all – but I wonder what it will be in 5, 10, 15 years down the line? The question is should I purchase another cake to store? I will have to go through a few more sessions to determine that for sure.

The first raw/sheng pu’er I’ve tried, and the second 100g cake I’ve purchased. (The first one I ever got, as a present, was the Ontario pu’er 100g cake from WPTC.) This is also the first tea cake I’ve ever attempted to crack apart. I think I did ok, although of course I did break a few tea leaves. This cake doesn’t seem so tightly compacted that it’s going to be hard to break some off for a cup of tea. The leaves are beautiful, of course, all twisted and varying in color from a light silvery color to dark walnut brown.

Since I’m still new to pu’er, I decided to follow someone else’s steepings on here as close as I could—first steep at 5 sec with 6.5 g of leaves and 5 oz water, though I skipped doing a rinse; the leaves I managed to get off were individual and not in a chunk, so I felt it would be unnecessary to do a rinse.

The dry leaves smelled amazing and the wet leaves did as well, with little difference between the two that I noticed. A nice floral aroma, sweet, perhaps more like hay or grass. The tea brewed up a pale green, similar to a silver needle tea I recently had. It actually tastes very similar, too, although the floral notes are stronger and it seems sweeter than the silver needle. Not a trace of bitterness, happily.

Second steep of about 10 sec. Tastes similar to the first cup, not much difference that I can tell. Third steep ~15 sec. This one has a more sour note to it, possibly the grass flavor I have seen others mention? Fourth steep ~20 sec. Grassy note is gone; back to the sweeter, more floral green tea taste. Fifth steep ~25-30 sec. Touch of the sour note again. Otherwise, the flavor is slightly fainter than before. Six steep ~40-45 sec. Tastes much like the first cup, with a faint hint of the grass.

Dry leaf: Sweet, small leaf material, well compressed. A little grassy, but clean, like a forest after a cool rain.

Taste: Sweet, clean, white grape juice, nice floral aroma. Very slight bitterness with a nice sweet aftertaste.

Liquor: Clear, light buttery yellow.

Spent leaf: Small leaves and buds. Very good quality and I was surprised to see so many buds. The leaf texture was very soft with an even medium olive color.

Vessel: 125ml clay pot (actual water 100ml)

Happy 5th anniversary Whispering Pines Tea and happy first raw cake production! I was very excited to get this cake. The wrapper artwork was beautiful and the pressing and leaf material were very nice.

As recommended, I went with 190F/87C water temp. This helped work around most of the young bitterness and I also went with a little bit shorter steep times. This tea had a nice light, juicy body that thickened up a little bit in later steeps. It had a nice warming effect and very nice sweetness.

While this tea wasn’t super complex, I’m betting it will age wonderfully and I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops. (I’m planning on saving about half the cake to taste next fall.) Thanks Brenden for this beautiful tea!

This is a really tasty tea from Whispering Pines. It is the sort or raw I like most, not real bitter and too young to have developed any unpleasant aged flavors. I brewed this tea at 190 degrees to lessen any potential bitterness. It was really good. As another reviewer mentioned there was a slight grassy note to it. It had what I would describe as a sweet note from the beginning, not sweet like sugar mind you. I didn’t find the flavor notes of apricots that are so often mentioned in young sheng. I am not really sure to describe the sweet note.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 100ml teapot with 9g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. Could have gotten a few more steeps out of these leaves. This is the sort of yound sheng that is good to drink now due to the lack of bitterness.

First!

This is a beautiful new photogenic cake from whispering pines. I haven’t drank from a 100g cake in awhile, so it seems so cute to me and bite sized. The leaves are long and several shades of pale yellow, green, and silver; in which, they are threaded in a mass of puerh goodness. The cake has a very faint aroma of soft grasses and some light florals, but it is hard to tell. The cake is a bit tight in compression, but I managed to jimmy off a section. I warmed my pot up and placed the fox inside. The tea opens into a sweet grassy and wet wood aroma. I can hint at what I call opaque tones (they are cloudy, somewhat milky, its hard to describe…) I washed the leaves once and began my brewing. The brew is incredibly light and subtle, but it has a decent thickness. The drink has the consistency of milk along with tastes of beans, grass, chrysanthemum, and a bit viscosity. The brew hits the tongue with smoothness and softness, but it retracts and bites with a brief tannic bitter. The session continues in this manner. This is a very clean and “springy” tea. The cup never colors darker than pale jade, and the tones never leave the grass and high floral notes of the spectrum. This what I imagine early spring tastes like. I liked the cake, but I am going to be keeping it in storage for bit. This is a fair cake at the price.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BRbQfqXg2Yr/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel&hl=en
its a multipic, so you gota scroll for more.