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A very enjoyable lighter ripe puerh without without any traces of off flavors. The mellow richness is indeed smooth and sweet and is a safe bet for most puerh drinkers so I can see why a lot of people choose to stockpile this as their everyday drinking puerh.

The 2006 Aromatic Bamboo Roasted Puerh has a light sweet taste with wooden notes to the tea. The taste of bamboo is hard to describe but I think Jim got it down well as being like a hint of rice mixed in with the wooden taste. As it comes to most puerh stuffed into unusual packages it is not the best around but still an acceptable quality. Not to mention the bonus fun of getting to open up the bamboo to get the puerh out.

One’s impression of Liu Bao is a matter of perspective in how it compares to ripe puerh. Personally I love ripe puerh so Liu Bao comes off as a more plain puerh like tea without as much flavor. I have friends who like Liu Bao more than ripe puerh who say that it has a much cleaner taste. Regardless this is a tea worth trying at least once.

Never realized that Darjeeling could be so light with a fresh smooth taste to it and not the sharp taste to it that turned me off very early on in my tea days. The leaves appear to be a bit on the green side and honestly this Darjeeling seems a bit more like an oolong than a black tea in many ways. I was able to get a second infusion out of the leaves but the second infusion was not as smooth and more astringent so I’d recommend against doing so.

The first thing about this tea that struck me was its bring almost light lime green hue to the brew. The taste is very light, fresh and sweet, without any of the overwhelming grassy taste that is common with Sencha. I’ll have to say that this is the best Japanese green teas that I’ve had to date. If it wasn’t so expensive I’d consider buying more beyond the free sample I got with my order.

Brewed gongfu style in my oolong pot. This pouchong is light and sweet but unlike the charcoal roasted pouchong that I’ve had before it is a bit more floral and less smooth. Still an enjoyable tea but personally I lean a bit more toward the charcoal roasted variety.

Gaiwan brewed. I found this one impressive at how the light smoothness of the pouchong and coconut seemed to blend together very nicely at first. By the second infusion the tea seemed to pick up some slight off taste to it that was hard to place. After drinking around half of the second infusion I felt the need to dump it and throw out the rest of the leaves from how it was starting to turn my stomach in an undesirable way.

For the most part even people who hate teabags have to admit that they are a necessary evil at times when on the go when bad tea is better than no tea. With that being said while the Ten Ren puerh teabags are by no means the best ripe puerh tea around, it is made of a surprisingly high quality and much better than any other puerh teabag and even some cheap bricks and cakes that I’ve had. The taste is mellow and not earthy although it is a bit on the weak side so I always brew it with double teabags and for a really long time in my efforts to get it stronger. Would likely make a good safe first puerh for somebody that wants to try it as if you do not like this one it is very unlikely that you will like the higher quality ones either.

Brewed gongfu style in my oolong yixing pot which yielded lots of yummy infusions of tea. Finally a nice traditional style darker oolong that is more brown than green. Has a nice smooth richness that is sweet with a medium roasted taste that is not at all overpowering with lingering fruity notes. This is the best “Ti Kwan Yin style” oolong that I’ve come across in some time and one that I highly recommend if you like darker oolongs.

Gongfu brewed in my oolong yixing pot. This tea has has a strong sweet floral taste that seems a bit overwhelming to me but personally I do not lean toward strong floral teas myself. It is also a fairly forgiving tea as when I lost track of time brewing one of the infusions it did not get bitter on me, and does multiple infusions fairly well.