John Grebe Send Message

While it has improved from the last time I had it when it first came out, this is nowhere near being a good example of a fine puerh. While age has caused it to loose its unusually strong sour taste for a ripe puerh, it has mellowed out to be a fairly plain and boring tea with remaining but much softer lingering sour notes. It goes to show how there is limits to how much age can help a ripened puerh that was not the best to start, not to mention if after 4 years it is still not the best one would be better off buying green puerh to age than a ripe tuocha like this one which has very little to show for itself after 4 years.

This tea has a very smooth almost creamy and sweet richness to it with the classic “Menghai scent” notes as one would expect for any Menghai ripe puerh. A very wonderful example quality ripe puerh at its best with a light silky texture in a sweet mellow taste. Just be careful about using too little leaves the first time I brewed it I did and it came out a bit plain tasting and disappointing but the fault was mine and not the tea.

I bought this 5th grade dark oolong with the plans of using it as an ice tea tea only to find that it is almost too good to use for iced tea. I’m blown away at how this $12.50 a pound oolong can hold its own against other dark rolled oolongs that I have on hand that were double to triple the price or more. It has a medium roasted body with nutty notes with a lingering sweetness. The later infusions became sweeter overall while maintaining enough of the roasted notes in the background to remain interesting.

Brewed gongfu this is not the best Oriental Beauty out there as it has a light and sweet dark oolong taste that comes off as plain and almost borderline black tea as their is no roast taste to make it more interesting like wuyi. Although it is a cheap oolong it makes a great ice tea in the ice tea maker which is one of my summer staples.

I found Scarlet Robe to be a really enjoyable Wuyi oolong tea. The roast is subtle but strong enough to be present in the tea while not being overpowering. I am not sure if I would agree with the vendor’s claims of floral undertones but I would say it is an enjoyable lighter roast with a lighter than most smooth sweet taste that is enjoyable. When brewed gongfu I got 6 wonderful infusions out of it and probably could have gotten out a few more if I wanted to but I didn’t bother because the taste was starting to decline, still it is significant as I was able to get more infusions out of this one than I do from most of the other Wuyi oolongs that I’ve had before.

This one has a stronger black tea base than I’m normally drink given my bias toward Chinese blacks over Indian. But that black tea base is made up for my the enjoyable Icewine flavor which comes off as a mix between grape and wine flavored, which I’m guessing is what Icewine tastes like. I normally have a bias against most flavored teas but I have to admit this one is really good and I might have to also pick up a bottle of Icewine sometime to experience how realistic this tea tastes. Regardless it is a good one. I personally only like Icewine tea hot but my grandmother also loves this one as an iced tea so it is worth trying at different temperatures.

This is a very good example of fine ripe puerh at its best. Mengku like Menghai puerh is described as having its own unique scent taste so it is a more unique taste to it among puerh, both are different but very good. This one has brewed up a dark ruby red with an enjoyable smooth mellow richness with a bit of sweet taste with expected Mengku scent taste. If you’ve had Mengku ripe puerh before and enjoyed it I’d strongly recommend this cake to you but if you never had Mengku puerh before I’d recommend buying a sample first as while it is good it is not a typical ripe puerh.

This is one of the more unique Wuyi teas that I’ve yet to have had. It has a light to medium roast which is hard to distinguish as the taste of the roast blends so well into the overall base mellow sweetness of the tea itself which has a very wonderful taste that I do not know how to put into words.

Personally I was a tad disappointed with Adagio Wuyi Da Hong Pao and personally enjoyed their cheaper Wuyi Ensemble more. Da Hong Pao is the lighter of the 2 wuyi oolongs offered by Adagio and it has a slightly fruity taste to it. The brew is still light and sweet but there is none of the rich earthy taste that goes along with a good roast to be found in this tea.

A stronger wuyi oolong than the others that I’ve had before. It has a nice medium roast with a bit of a slightly smoky nutty notes to the overall earthy sweetness.