Alright, it’s time to break into a cake that I have been fearfully looking forward to for some time – Bitterleaf Tea’s 2019 Bitter End Xtra Bitter. This is my first time trying a Lao Man E sheng puerh and based on all my reading I’m pretty sure I’m going to dislike it. As the…
Author: The Weekend Sessions
Farmerleaf Spring 2019 Jingmai Miyun Sheng Puerh – July 2019 Early Look
Farmerleaf’s Jingmai Miyun is a blended cake made from several natural tea gardens close to the village where Farmerleaf is located. This blend has been made for the last few years and it has a good reputation online. It’s one of the more affordable teas from Farmerleaf but they still hand process it rather than…
Crimson Lotus Tea 2018 Spring Lao Man’E Gushu Shou Puerh Review
The time has come for my final tasting of the three one-of-a-kind shou puerhs – Crimson Lotus Tea‘s 2018 Spring Lao Man’E Gushu Shou Puerh. Lao Man’E is a new region for me and one I’ll be exploring a bit over the next few months, but starting out with a shou from there should be…
White2Tea 2019 Duh Sheng Puerh – July 2019 Early Look
Recently I tried White2Tea’s 2016 teadontlie and while I liked the general flavour profile of it, it was a bit too soft for my taste. I reached out to White2Tea’s TwoDog on Instagram to see what he would recommend as a similar but bolder tea, and he suggested that I give 2019 Duh a try….
Crimson Lotus Tea 2018 Spring Lao Ban Zhang Gushu Shou Puerh Review
For part two of my three part tasting on Crimson Lotus Tea’s “one-of-a-kind shou” set, I opted to try out the Lao Ban Zhang. Of the three ripe puerhs this is the most pricey, coming in at a whopping $32 CAD for eight grams. Even though this comes in at $4 CAD per gram, this…
Zheng Si Long 2017 Wan Gong Sheng Puerh – June 2019 Review
For my first Zheng Si Long review I tried their most “budget friendly” sheng, so I figured I would jump to the opposite side of the spectrum and try the most spendy sheng – the 2017 Wan Gong. This cake is made from gushu material from Wan Gong Zhai village which, according to Tea Encounter,…
Crimson Lotus Tea 2018 Spring Yiwu Gao Shan Zhai Gushu Shou Puerh Review
Lately I have been hitting the shou pretty hard. I’ve only posted a few reviews so far, but in my non-critical-review-mode drinking time I have been gravitating towards shou for the last couple of months, and have been doing so in lead up to this. When Crimson Lotus put their three one-of-a-kind shous up for…
Bitterleaf Tea 2019 Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good Sheng Puerh – June 2019 Early Look
Bitterleaf Tea‘s 2019 Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good is a tea that’s made from Lincang tea leaves that are supposed to be similar to Xigui material. To quote Bitterleaf, this tea “is definitely not Xigui, but still Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good.” A while ago I decided I wanted to purchase a fresh puerh cake and do…
Intro to Aging and Storage Experiments
Since getting into puerh I have been wanting to run a couple of experiments, but they required freshly pressed cakes so I have been patiently waiting for my favourite vendors to drop them. Earlier this week I received my order of new 2019 puerhs from Bitterleaf Teas, so I can finally get things underway! The…
Zheng Si Long 2017 Man Zhuan Sheng Puerh – June 2019 Review
Zheng Si Long’s 2017 Man Zhuan puerh is made out of spring gushu material from Man Zhuan. While I was looking through all the Zheng Si Long offerings on Tea Encounter’s website, the description for this one caught my eye. It should be ” thick, smooth, having a strong fragrance, a long lasting sweet aftertaste…