TeaChat

Hi Emmy
I enjoyed reading your review and your descriptions of harsh/bracing etc. brought on a bit of a smile to my face because I too have trouble with some young green pu-erh. I've been able to control harshness by lowering the water temperature to 180 or even 160 F while using those infusion times. Maybe that might help.
Rod

emmy wrote:I have never had tea that bracing/harsh before. ... Last two infusions were almost enjoyable.

Emmy, I also liked your review. It kind of made me realize that maybe I'm a bit insane with the young shengs lately... They *can* be pretty harsh, even the quote "good" ones. Actually, if I'm borderline sick, at all, sheng makes me feel sicker.. I think it might be robbing me of my energy. (Hence my shu reviews the past couple of days, while I recover!) There was a good little discussion of this sort of thing on the LiveJournal pu group a few weeks ago..
Anyway, on *most* healthy days, a nice sheng is just what I need. Perhaps you'll agree when you try a good one... or perhaps I'm just insane
best of luck,
dave

Salsero wrote:Reprise: Well I kept brewing 2, 3, 5 and 8 minutes and found a different tea, a sort of light bai hao oolong like, with wonderful oiliness on the lips.

Sal, good info -- I'm definitely going to try that!! thanks...
-dave

Wow, this one seems like just plain good sheng. This may be what I was dreaming of. A first class cake at $12.60.

So far I've brewed: 5.00 g in 120 ml pot, off boil: no rinse, infusions: 15 s, 30 s, 45 s, 60 s

I think it may benefit from a bit more leaf next time. But I have found no astringency or roughness to speak of, even though I pushed the times more than I usually do. I feel that my head is bathed in a lovely perfume of bass notes aftertaste. I love that when you walk around for an hour after drinking and still feel swathed in the tea fumes.

It made me feel a little poetic and off center, "1st infusion: Dark straw color, light and sweet typical sheng aroma, dry grasses on a summer day, I can hear the insects buzzing and chirping. The first sip is a perfect completion of that promise, reminding me that a young sheng is closer to a green or white tea than to anything. Even second infusion is not astringent or harsh. More of an apricot taste in #2, and nice smokey (?) aftertaste. The taste transforms a bit from infusion to infusion, has adequate viscosity, sweet like a Yiwu sheng, but darker flavor."

Am I dreaming this?

**** My rating "I liked it a lot."
**** Ron's (interpreted) rating "= I concur"
**** Dizzwave's rating
*** silverneedles' rating

What a wonderful review Salsero! Even if it was only a good dream it made you produce some first class poetry - like first class teas often do. That is the thing with good tea, it makes us associate and float away...

Am drinking Lapsang right now at my desk, but also sitting besides a smoking pine-fire at nighttime. *sigh*

If you don't change your opinion, I think I will order only Mengsa Arbor, not the Year of Green Puerh. Some reviews of the other teas scares me...

Thank you, Salsero, for your wonderful review of the 2007 Mengsa Arbor. I'm drinking some of it right now and I concur (although I'm not sure I can find the apricots). I think this one may be our star sheng out of the sampler, although my fondness for the 2004 CNNP Old Tree Green continues.

Hey Rod,

Are you trying the Year of Green samples? I'll try lowering the temperature and see what I get, but I'd be curious in what you thought as well if you are playing along.

Thanks so much.[/quote]

Emmy
I will not be trying any Year of Green samples as I prefer shu. So I am waiting and looking forward to Taste of Mellowness. Should be here in about a week or two.

Hey Sal, great review! I love the buzzing insects.. That's my favorite part of tea, the imagery it brings if you just let it.
Hehe, I'm relieved to hear that there's a good one in the bunch too. As soon as I kick this cold, I'll be back on the sheng-wagon and trying that one!
-dave

Dizzwave wrote:...the buzzing insects...

Yeh right: purple prose - I think that's what they call it, and not with honor fraught.

Dizzwave wrote:...As soon as I kick this cold...

You and Wesli both down sick is a great loss to our thread. Recover, damn it, recover!

Salsero wrote:purple prose

Haha -- I had to look that up on Wikipedia. Don't be giving away the secrets of a good review now.. it's all about the purple! erm, just kidding, of course.

Salsero wrote:Recover, damn it, recover!

It's ok -- The cold is a great excuse to lay off the sheng and get back into the shus I've been ignoring. I've got a changtai banna review coming soon.. (spoiler: I'm likin it!)

I just came across this "Crab's Claw" cake on Yunnan Sourcing.. it has a little bit of interesting info, as well as a picture of the parasitic vine growing on a tea tree. Kinda cool..
http://cgi.ebay.com/2006-Crabs-Claw-Par ... m153.l1262

I tried this sample last night: 5.00 g in 120 ml pot, off boil: no rinse, infusions: 13 s, 20 s, 30 s, 40 s, 1 m, 90 s, 3 m

I got very excited after the first steep. My notes: "The dry leaves don't look bad. They smell nice and include a fair number of tips. 1st infusion is light, floral, mushroomy, tastes like white fruits. I might even say a little complex! It's giving me lots to think about and a nice perfume aftertaste. Lovely."

The next infusion and all the following ones were very pleasant and all, but nothing like the heaven I was expecting after being clobbered by the first one. I am curious to see if I get this VaVaVoom first infusion next time I brew or if it was just a fluke of my perception. Good tea; and at $11.20 a cake, a good bargain.

*** My rating "I liked it."
*** Dizzwave's rating
** Ron's rating "Weak and fishy."
* silverneedles' rating

When I smelled the lid of my gaiwan during that Banzhang session,.... "rotting urine"

It is said.

Jenkem?