Farmerleaf’s Spring 2019 Bulang Shan is a sheng puerh made of material from younger trees in a left-to-grow garden in Bulang. This puerh is a fairly budget friendly one, coming in at just under $60 USD for a 357 gram cake, but if it’s like the other more affordable Farmerleaf teas I have tried, this should be a great value tea.
Initial Impressions
This sample came mostly broken up already, I actually thought it was just maocha until I found a little chunk in the bag. The leaves are nice looking and there is a mix of sizes but mostly they are fairly large leaves. Both the wet and dry leaves have a wonderful and strong fruity aroma.
For this session I am using 3.9 grams of leaf in my 55ml gaiwan, 90C water, and infusion times starting at five seconds and increasing by five each steeping, after one quick rinse.
Infusions 1-3
2019 Bulang Shan starts soft and sweet with the only note being raisin. Infusion two has a nicely building huigan and the mouthfeel is starting to fill out. The tea gains some savoriness and a bit of top end bite, but retains the lower fruit note as well. The third infusion continues to move to the brighter end, now shedding the low raisin note. This infusion is quite astringent and bitter, although this is what I call the good kind of bitter. This infusion doesn’t have much for tasting notes to me, just strength.
Infusions 4-6
Bitterness and astringency ease off for the fourth and fifth infusions, but remain present. These two steeps are vaguely fruity, but since the third infusion I am not getting much for clear, distinguishable tasting notes. It’s sweet, savory, and all around “nice” but I can’t pick much out. Infusion six continues on this trend, but looses some of the bitterness that is really driving the power feeling home. What remains is now a simple, sweet puerh that’s enjoyable but on the uninteresting side.
Infusions 7-16
This tea is definitely on its way out from the sixth infusion on, but the fade out is incredibly gradual. The tail end of the session continues on with the trend of being a more or less generic tea taste without any solid notes, but it’s still enjoyable and keeps me coming back to it until the sixteenth infusion when I called it quits.
Final Thoughts
This is through and through a daily drinker tea for me. Simple, sweet and easy, with nothing to complain about but nothing to get excited about either. For me this would be a good evening tea to wind down with after a hectic day, when you don’t want to dedicate too much brain power to drinking. I think this sort of puerh is an important one, and one that often gets overlooked. If you don’t have a cake in your storage that fits this bill, I would definitely give this one a shot.