#apoostrotea5

[apoostrotea]

15 Years Aged Golden Melon Ripe Tuo | Yunnan Sourcing

This aged ripe has a strong energy and thick flavor. It’s now one of my favorites from Yunnan Sourcing! The wet leaf smells of wood, chocolate, and mashed berries. I may have a bias for aged shou, but the flavors are very pleasant. A nice broad wet wood flavor with hints of vanilla at the forefront. Behind it, there are notes of brown sugar and rich earth. This tea lasted me many steeps, however the tuo is tough to break apart. You will need a strong tea pick for this one! I found this shou to be a perfect example of what an aged ripe can be. If you’re planning on making a Yunnan sourcing order, and have never tried aged shou, this is the tea for you. It’s affordable, but is a lovely goalpost for new sippers.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[apoostrotea]

2004 Nanqiao Bulang King | Teas We Like | Raw Puerh

Aroma is a cooling, smokey, incense. Medicinal at first with some wood smells coming in underneath it all. Very bitter wood chip kind of start, so I steeped for shorter periods of time and the tea kept its color. After dodging around the bitterness, later steeps get some pine flavors and a creamy texture. After the first few steeps, this sheng goes from bitter wood to a milky, sweet, herby drink. Lots of flavors I look for in sheng. Qi hits really strong at first, can and will knock you out. Glad I stuck with this one, it ended up being very enjoyable.

Cannot believe it’s Monday already o_o I really enjoyed this sheng, much more than expected. It’s a good example of what I like about sheng puerh.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[apoostrotea]

2006 YQH Chawangshu | Raw Puerh

Trying to blow through my homework so I can get some YouTube stuff done this weekend.

I’ve returned to trying teas way above my power level. I really lucked out being able to try a 6 gram sample of this. Yiwu region gushu quality leaves sourced from Chawangshu one of the famous old puerh plantations. When you start reading stuff like that you realize this is a special tea, very powerful, pricey stuff. So I ate some fruit loops first to really hammer in the irony and avoid getting too tea high. Aroma is super strong, sweet notes dominating those first steeps in both smell and taste. Clear golden liquor, a bit medicinal, some menthol. Something I’ve noticed with these more sought after aged raws is how difficult it is to compare the flavors and aroma to familiar foods. This is a tea I would start drinking in the morning and finish later tonight or even tomorrow morning — very long lasting. Definitely a tea anyone would enjoy because of sweetness, the very potent Qi, and smooth mouthfeel.

My teapot is thanking me for finally giving it teas worth its time lol.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[apoostrotea]

Milk Oolong | Mandala Tea | Oolong Tea

Been wanting to try this one forever, heard good things about it on Steepster.

I’ve had the desire to drink some milk oolong for some time now, and I’m super happy to finally have my hands on this one. Right away this tea is extremely aromatic; smells of coconut and buttered popcorn. The leaves open up quickly on the first steep and are massive. Liquor color is very clear and slightly yellow-y green. The drink itself is crazy. I had high expectations for this tea but it somehow managed to hit them. Super sweet, toffee, and buttery flavors with a very creamy mouthfeel.

Absolutely lovely tea! Lives up to its hype. I urge you all to give it a try.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[apoostrotea]

Daily Milan Dancong High Roast | Liquid Proust | Oolong Tea

I’m back in classes already, spring break went by too quick!

Another oolong per the request of the people! I don’t think I’ve had the chance to discuss any other dancongs here before. This one hit me with an immediate coffee aroma, and then followed up with this smell of lemon hard candy. Am I going nuts? No, it seriously smells like that. Very strong fruit flavor to back up the aroma. Coffee notes linger under it but completely disappear in later steeps. A bit dry in the mouth. LP recommends brewing this one light so I have been keeping my steep times short. Very lovely little tea, I’d love to try cold brewing it too.

Having a hard time getting myself back into the groove with doing school work. Sitting down for tea every morning always helps.

★ ★ ★ ★.5 ☆

[apoostrotea]

1999 “Smoked” Maocha | Liquid Proust | Raw Puerh

This tea was fast to become one of my favorites, it’s too bad I’m hitting the end of my sample here. Something about smokey aged sheng always makes me happy. This one gives off the aroma of sweet barbecue when the hot water first hits. Nice red liquor color to go along with it; this tea is as old as I am! Taste is very clean with little to no bitterness, you can taste the smoke along with slight hints of sweet fruit and dry wood. Mostly that sweet sweet smoke flavor all the way through. Calming bit of qi in the head and chest. I could enjoy this one all day!

Just got my cholesterol checked and my levels are officially good! I had high cholesterol for years and finally got myself back in shape. Lost about 20lb this year and am actually healthy for once (‘:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

[apoostrotea]

2016 Brown Sugar | White2tea | Ripe Puerh

I wonder what the perfect White2tea ripe is. Right now Flapjacks has my heart.

White2tea has a lot of shous I hate and a lot that I absolutely love. I like this one a bit more than Smoove Cocoa, which surprised me. It’s light, completely lacks bitterness, very smooth and enjoyable. Has a completely different vibe than the aforementioned Smoove Cocoa and Flapjacks, it’s very easy. Both teas mentioned are quite heavy drinks, while this one feels like it could be drank at any time. Does taste quite a bit like brown sugar and some biscuit flavors too; buttery sweet. Off topic, below is a photo of the tea. I’ve been trying to capture this phenomenon for a while and I think this is the best photo so far. The room I’m in is a cold that a fog layer of steam gathers on the surface of the water. It happens almost every time I drink tea and it’s quite pretty.

It’s dawned on me while drinking this that shou puerh is probably my favorite type of tea.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★