2003 Farmer's Cooperative (Mt. Banzhang) Wild Arbor Sheng

Happy new year!

Maybe I used too much tea. I’m in my nook, so I wasn’t measuring. Also, I may need to let the water cool a bit more. This was pretty darn bitter, even with just 10 second steeps. I’ll try again soon. Switching to shou for now!

Oolong Owl confession: I have a whole bunch of Verdant Teas, unopened. Many of them pu’er and oolong. I have the tendency to save stuff for the “perfect” day to sample, sometimes forgetting about it.

So I found this tea in the bottom of my box of sheng pu’er. I probably was going to review it on Oolong Owl, but looking at Verdant, this tea isn’t available anymore, and I don’t like to review teas people can’t get their hands on. Anyways, I had a late night last night, trying to watch my calories so I’m feeling drained, so I thought it is the right time to sample an 11 year old tea.

11 year old tea! YES! Mt. Banzhang tastes rustic – kind of musty, light spice and hazelnutty. Big cedar notes too that are pretty tasty. Really neat sweetness at the end of sip that is kind of fruity, with each infusion getting sweeter and cleaner. As per instructions, I only used 3 grams, and with 4 second steepings, this tea certainly has lots of flavor!

I’m on my fourth steep of this sheng and am really enjoying it so far. The amber color, along with smoky earthiness, is a nice change from all the sencha I have been into lately.

I was hesitant about whether or not I would like this tea. When I was in China a few years ago, I bought some oolong and jasmine green tea, along with a yixing, gaiwan, and other tea accessories. What won me over was the oolong – light, floral, and slightly sweet. Because I had a sizable purchase, they threw in a tiny brick of pu’er that didn’t interest me at all. I associated it with black tea (or the way I would end up drinking black tea) – oversteeped and bitter to the point where it would make me nauseous.

Every once in a while, like when I was sick with a cold and needed to take a break from coffee, I would tear off a big chunk of pu’er and put it in a tea ball to steep for a couple minutes. The end result – gut wrenching. I figured I was given this dried up tea because no one wanted it.

Fast forward six weeks ago when I had the killer flu. During this time, I miraculously lost all interest in drinking coffee and started drinking tea. I wanted to learn more about the varieties out there and became addicted to researching what and where to buy. I came across Verdant tea through Steepster and decided on giving the Wild Arbor Sheng a try (now that I broke all my bad steeping habits).

I’m happy to say that this tea offers a dynamic profile unlike the other teas I usually drink. It’s a full dose of earth, if that makes sense without sounding gross. It really does change my perspective on pu’er teas.

Today I jumped into the world of Pu’erh. And what a magnificent world it is. I was not expected the whoof of strong, earthy smells to come out of the bag when I unzipped it. It’s a great aroma, and I’m so glad it stuck around after the steeping. I only steeped it very shortly as I was scared to make it too strong. Even with about 10 seconds of steeping the tea turned out with a good, wooden taste that lasted throughout. It went down smoothly and was a pleasure to drink. For my second steeping I’ll be trying longer times to make the tea even stronger.