Puerhshop Tasting Group's "Year of Green Pu-erh"

[Ron Gilmour]

I'm afraid I can't share in Sal's enthusiasm for the Banzhang. This one tasted weak and fishy to me. I'd only give it two stars.

I just busted open the tuocha (thanks for the instructions, Sal) and really like that one. I'll write more about it after I've had some more.

[silverneedles]

just had a quickie with the 2007 Mengsa: yunnan green (meaning a specific yunnan tea flavor as can be found also in yunnan black tea) but milder than fresh yunnan green tea (as had from YSLLC). didn't play much but getting astringency after 3rd steep. might be too much leaf. it is right up my alley tho tastewise. nice.
i'm a sucker for yunnan tastes

starred: 3/5 (kinda mild)(i'd buy it, occasionally)

[Deleted User #16625]

So I tried again with the Old Green Tree. In a gaiwan this time so I could control the steeping time better. I started drinking this tea in the late morning. I used too many leaves (the gaiwan was full when the leaves expanded). I ended up drinking the tea all day (17 cups and my gaiwan is large) and the tea was still going strong and I was still under a minute in infusion times when I finally couldn't drink anymore.

I liked the tea a whole lot better this time. First 6 cups were bitter, but that faded to a low level. The astringency was present again, but wasn't so bad. I'm still not impressed with the actual taste of the tea. I'm not so good with describing tastes. It didn't seem like there was much to taste. Definitely rough would describe it. What had me continuing to drink the tea and will have me going back to it is the aftertaste and the feel it left in my mouth and throat. I wish I knew how to describe it, because I loved it. The Feet of Crab had a similar aftertaste too it, but this was nicer.

I've got enough leaves for 2-3 more tries I think and I definitely will be trying again (hopefully with the right amount of leaves this time). I do have to say though, I'm not sure I'd go back to buy this tea on it's own. Maybe if I knew something about aging shengs.

[Salsero]

So I tried again with the Old Green Tree. ... I'm not sure I'd go back to buy this tea on it's own.

Aside from using too much leaf, your experience this time seems to mirror the others, including your evaluation. Often with pu the aftertaste is an important part of the package. A light taste is pretty standard in young pu, but some have more charm than this one. You may not get as many infusions if you use less leaf, but it should be less painful on the mouth.

You are a hearty and adenturous soul, emmy. Thanks for sharing.

[silverneedles]

'sup. me went try the 2004 old tree.

~ 2x2x0.5 cm piece --> 4oz gaiwan + 3oz filtered water 200F

20s & drank 'wash' = ...wash
20,20,30 = watery, very distant tanninic/astringent... sort of metallic mouthfeel

2min = much the same, more intense astringent
4min = concentrated astringency/tannin into a harshness...
not much flavor of any kind
last infusion left a "dry mouth"

still have a huge piece left...[/img]

[Salsero]

Even Little Piggy is excited about trying this sheng a second time.


Ok, brewed another pot of the Mengsa. I pushed the tea a little less, by which I mean I did shorter infusions. Piggy excitedly waited sitting among some cups. Actually, he was hiding since we had a little crisis this morning. There was a death threat and we thought we caught a whiff of bacon!


Overall impression again is that this is a very sweet tea with a nice feeling on the lips. It seemed a little rougher on the mouth this time despite shorter infusion times. Maybe four stars is a bit much, but definitely the best performer of the five in this tasting set. Piggy liked it enough to consider taking a pu bath, but he doesn't swim too well and finally decided just to catch some rays.
If I didn't already have so much sheng sitting around, I would seriously consider buying a cake of this ... in fact I am considering it anyway! The spent leaves are mostly large broken pieces of modest sized leaves, quite green, with some stems.

[Deleted User #16625]

So tonight I tried the 2007 Mengsa Arbor Sample. Used the yixing pot. It took 11 cups to exhaust the tea. First one was 25s, last was 12m.

I loved it. The first cup tasted like a plant. Heh. Bark, grass, earthy, but in a good way. The taste gradually faded over the infusions. The only two cups that were bitter were the 2nd and the 3rd, but it wasn't bad in any sense. All the cups were astringent, again in a good way. More like just enough bitterness to make it interesting. Yum.

The only thing that made this not perfect was that the aftertaste that was so prevalent in the Feet of Crab and CNNP Old Tree Green, was barely there. I missed it.

I would buy this. I'm not rushing out, but I would buy it. And then I look at the price and I'm really tempted. Only thing holding me back is the amount of tea sitting in my kitchen.

[Dizzwave]

2007 Mengsa Arbor Pu-erh Tea Cake (year of green)

wet leaves smell nice, much like Liu An (one of my favorite "everyday" teas -- pan-fired like a green tea, but pressed and aged like a pu-erh). Very green-tea-ey, almost like a longjing (dragonwell).
1: ~30s. yummy, light and greeny. tastes kinda like Liu An too. So *this* is the winner of the bunch, the last one I try...
2: ~20s. brew is a little darker, and flavor is a little woodier. now tasting a little more like some of the others in this tasting set, with that woody taste. but still better than the rest. more complex, with a little sweetness. some tongue-tingle too!
3: ~20s. used too much water I think. still good. tingly. a floral, sweet aftertaste lingers minutes later. wet leaves still smell remarkably like Liu An (though that could be something from my yixing).
4: still dark and flavorful, and interesting enough to keep me wondering what these flavors are -- it's not like other pu-erhs I've had. feels very lively in my mouth. (qi?)

This is a really nice tea. Though it still has a lot of the "woody"ness that the other teas in this pack had, the wood is gently hovering over lots of other interesting stuff (rather than a mouthful of twig). Sweetness, flowers, and a lot of pleasant tingling in my mouth (has anyone else noticed the tingling with this one?).

I give it 4 stars, considering the price: $12.60 for a 357g bing. That's a lot of decent tea! Still, I may not go out of my way to buy any. I don't know a lot about aging potential, but my "feeling" is that a young tea with lots of strong flavors -- smoky, jerky, citrusy, etc. -- has a lot of stuff that's going to mellow into a complex blend. Though this is a very pleasant tea now, I'm not sure that there's a lot of "strong" flavor in there for such a young sheng. Anyway, that's just my feeling about aging sheng, and I'm most likely wrong. Anyway, this is hands-down the best one in the Year Of Green sampler, IMHO.. oops, I haven't tried the Crab Feet yet. I'll get to it...

[silverneedles]

...liquor smell ...maybe ....flowery.?...taste:...bitter astringency up to the tip of the tongue. other flavors: maybe green twigs... aftertaste of the leftover tannins on the tongue, could be interesting but dont know if i can make it without the astringency...

#2 ,30sec 3oz --> many minutes later i'm getting a sweet aftertaste on the tongue !!!! +7minutes after

ok now the sweet aftertaste/any aftertaste is gone. +8more minutes (ok maybe still a little bit left)

(tho i remember having sweet aftertaste after some overbrewed-bitter teas, so not sure what is what)

#3, 4 30sec each, 3oz water, more of the same astringency

#5 = 1-2min, 5-6oz water --> getting some apricot? sorta fruity. (but sorta watery as well) not much astringency.

starring: 2/5 (intrestin', but me wouldn't get some)

[Salsero]

me went try the 2004 old tree.

Enoyed the review and looooooved the pics you added! Do you feel you could assign a netflix-style star rating out of 5 stars?

[silverneedles]

yeah yeah laugh at my simple unexperienced tongue
i got the bigger pics on my site - its kinda difficult to add thumbs+link in this forum,

stars... 2/5 ... 1.5/5

[Salsero]

yeah yeah laugh at my simple unexperienced tongue
stars... 2/5 ... 1.5/5

I'm moving your Banzhang down to 1 star because I can't do a half star and we don't have any 1 star ratings yet.

I wasn't laughing. We are all pretty much in the same boat here except MarshalN and Bearsbearsbears. You might be a few months behind the rest of us, but not much. You opinion is just as valid as the rest.

[silverneedles]

ok 1/5 ,
i'll go change the half rating on the mengsa to 3/5 (= i'd buy it, occasionally).
i was kiddin around Sal

[Wesli]

I found this tea pretty boring. I got some dead-plant smells and tastes at first, but they failed pretty quickly. To put this into a story...

I arrive at the grove. The area is arid. The orange trees have all but died, spewing forth only a number of green leaves. I crunch over the dead grass and kick up some dust and grass pieces from the ground as I walk. Noticing oranges on the trees, I become curious. I grab an orange and rip it off with modest force. It comes off with a snap along with a sizable portion of the branch. Pollen is released from the branch. I squeeze the orange, but it is dried-out and solid as a rock. I smell it, but the smell has dried away. All that's left is me in this dead field. It's time for my nomadic-self to grab up my spear and depart.

Check out my full review with pics.

[silverneedles]

the tuocha has something in there...
but
there's lots of astringency/strong tannin (or whatcha ma'wanna call them).

some interesting flavors, some similar to King of Pu-Erh, but then its hard to infuse & enjoy because the "astringency" comes on pretty quick and strong. one plus is sometimes it goes into a sweet-tingly? feeling aftertaste on the tongue, but also frequent dry-throat sensation if astringency reaches strength. there's a very distant medicinal feeling(to me), also something like aged? no pond/fishy.

all this, so far, when astringency/tannin is high, i've infused it shorter or more water, but it comes out watery = the flavors and astringency are diluted...not sure what else to try, maybe cooler water?

the leaf seems like alot of young buds which probably contribute to the high astringency/strong tannin.

edit:finished the pics: clickr