Tag: Pu’erh Tea

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DavidsTea’s Sheng Pu’erh

Sheng Pu’erh by DavidsTea
Pu’erh Tea / Straight
$10.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Sheng Pu’erh is not a tea that I would have necessarily picked out for myself a few years ago, but 2020 is a year of confusion, mystery, and Michelle trying new things. Because why not? Sheng Pu’erh comes in a very familiar silver pouch from DavidsTea – sealed and resealable. It is a larger bag than you’ll usually find 50g of tea in, which lends me to believe that it’ll be an airy tea and just a very ‘light’ tea overall.

The leaves of Sheng Pu’erh are lightly twisted and have a range of colours from dark brown to a reddish brown colour to even a cream colour for the leaves that show some feathery bits to it. Sheng Pu’erh consists only of sheng pu’erh tea from Yunnan Province, China. The aroma is a mix of earthy and roasted nuttiness. I found out from the DavidsTea website that their Sheng Pu’erh is only a year old, so there’s still room for improvement on the tea itself if you allow it to age.

For those new to pu’erh, there’s two basic types: sheng and shou. Sheng is raw while shou is ripe – sheng is less processed and shou is more processed. I’m still not too familiar to the ins and outs of pu’erh tea and I don’t even remotely pretend to be an expert on it – but I’m in the process of learning! More on that later…

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Sheng Pu’erh in 95°C (200°F) water for 4 to 5 minutes. I opted to do a quick rinse of the leaves first with the same temperature water before doing a steep time of 4 minutes.

A quick rinse is just like it sounds: pour the heated water over the leaves in the tea pot, and immediately pour it out before it really gets a chance to steep. Then continue the steeping process as normal. Rinsing helps to ‘wake up’ pu’erh tea leaves a little bit, and is a common technique when starting a steep of pu’erh leaves.

First Taste

Sheng Pu’erh steeps to a light golden yellow. The aroma is slightly smoky, earthy, and something that reminds me of mushrooms. It has a nice slightly thickened texture, and is a smooth sip. The flavour stays the same throughout the sip, and it just has a bit of a gentle mouthfeel that allows the flavour to coat in the inside of your mouth without an lingering aftertaste.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Sheng Pu’erh four times (five steeps total), and added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The leaves really opened up from the dried state and you can see the texture in the full leaves after they opened up after all the steeps. The flavour does deepen as you go and remains fairly faithful to the initial steep. It does get a bit more earthy and the smoky notes lessen with the subsequent steeps.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Sheng Pu’erh. I found it to be a very pleasant cup of tea, and it really reminds me of a pu’erh that you might get with dimsum at a restaurant (I miss dimsum!). There’s a nice earthiness to it that isn’t overpoweringly robust, and the texture of the tea is just smooth. I would liken this to being a good introductory pu’erh because it’s not over the top in flavour, but it doesn’t lack in flavour either. There’s nothing particularly offensive about it, which I can sometimes find fault in for other pu’erh teas, but just makes for a decent, standard cup of pu’erh (which isn’t to say that as a bad thing, but it makes a nice introduction, and I kind of wish that this had been one of my introductory pu’erh teas myself when I first started branching out).

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The Chinese Tea Shop’s 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou)

1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) by The Chinese Tea Shop
Pu’erh Tea / Straight
$38.00 for 50g

First Impressions

This 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) was a 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival purchase (and March feels so long ago now, especially when I consider that the tea festival happened the weekend prior to a pandemic being declared – a lot has happened since that weekend). This was really an on-a-whim purchase after having a chat with The Chinese Tea Shop’s owner, Daniel. Every year, I end up talking to him about tea and he’s a wealth of information (so is his shop’s website!). The 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea was a recommendation made by him, and I was easily persuaded to give it a try.

1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) is a straight pu’erh tea, from the Yunnan, Xishuang Banna Region of China. The ripe/shou vs raw/shang categories of pu’erh will be discussed another day. The loose leaf tea comes in a plastic resealable pouch that has a clear front and white back and a simple label with not a lot of information – the product page on The Chinese Tea Shop’s website definitely has more. The leaves themselves are a dark reddish brown colour and there’s an aroma to the leaves that reminds me of figs and apricots.

Preparation

No steeping instructions on the packaging, but as per the website, The Chinese Tea Shop recommends 95-100°C (203-212°F) water for steeping pu’erh, and also the gongfu method of steeping. I’m still unpacking from my move, so I used a western style tea pot instead and steeped for 90 seconds using 100°C water.

First Taste

1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) steeps to a deep, deep reddish brown colour. The aroma of the steeped tea mimics the flavour of the tea really well – I get a lot of earthy and malty notes, sweet fig and apricot flavours, and there’s a thickened mouthfeel to the tea itself. It’s very smooth though, with no bitterness detected.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou) six times (seven steeps total with the same leaves), and added an additional 15 seconds for each subsequent steep. The flavour remained consistent throughout, I found that the sweet fig and apricot flavours began to wane a bit by the third resteep, but was still detectable by the sixth resteep.

My Overall Impression

I loved The Chinese Tea Shop’s 1990’s Loose Leaf Pu’erh Tea (Ripe/Shou). The balance of flavours in this tea make for a tasty cup of tea, and I’m happy that the leaves resteep so well, especially since it’s not a particularly inexpensive tea. My best pro-tip to share when you’ve got an expensive tea is to always resteep it (unless you didn’t like it) and get all that flavour out of the leaves before green binning it. I found this pu’erh to be really easy to drink and I found the malty part balanced really well against the sweet fig and apricot flavours that I found in there.

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The Chinese Tea Shop’s Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh

Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh by The Chinese Tea Shop
Pu’erh / Straight
$41.00 for 20g

First Impressions

Not sure who I am and what have I done with Michelle, but this is another pu’erh review for a tea that I voluntarily purchased. Crazy things happened to my brain during the 2020 Vancouver Tea Festival and this is one of those purchases! This is the Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh from The Chinese Tea Shop. This pu’erh is from the 1970’s, so even older than the last one I showcased here (from the 1990’s). Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh comes in a resealable plastic pouch. Clear window in the front so you can see the tea leaves themselves (and don’t worry – I keep my tea away from light!).

Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh has some amazingly huge leaves in the dried state. There some dark reddish brown colours  that are just lovely. It has a very soft aroma that reminds me of a bit of peaches, like the aroma that you smell when you walk by a pile of fruit at the grocery store. Just the aroma that wafts up at you when you walk by to entice you into purchasing that just ripened fruit. It’s subtle and doesn’t just smack you in the face, but it’s definitely present and enough to draw you in.

Preparation

No steeping instructions on the packaging, but there was plenty of information on The Chinese Tea Shop’s website. The Chinese Tea Shop recommends steeping in 95-100°C (203-212°F) water for short steeps in the gongfu method.

I opted to do an initial steep of Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh at 100°C (212°F) water for 60 seconds.

First Taste

Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh steeps to a deep burnt orange colour. The aroma is mostly earthy, with hints of sweetness in the background. The flavour of the tea is earthy and sweet, with some deep peach/stone fruit notes. It’s not quite as fresh peach aroma as the dry leaf, but still quite inviting. The texture of the tea is smooth, bold, with a slightly thickened mouthfeel. No bitterness, no astringency, and just the right amount of sweet to balance against the earthiness.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh four times (five steeps total with the same leaves). I added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep, and found the the flavour stayed very consistent throughout. It did wane in intensity, but the flavour profile stayed pretty similar to the initial steep with that earthiness, sweet, and peach/stone fruit notes.

My Overall Impression

I loved The Chinese Tea Shop’s Vintage Wild Gushu Camphor Loose Leaf Pu’erh. Is anyone else surprised? Maybe I do like pu’erh after all? This one has some great flavours – I loved the thickened texture that the pu’erh has, with the earthiness, peach notes, and just the right amount of sweetness that just makes it quite inviting. I think if this had been one of the earlier pu’erh teas that I tried, I would have liked it a lot better (who knows though, maybe not!). It’s just pleasant and enjoyable, and I like the depth of flavour in this aged tea.

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