Menghai Wangshuji Shou Pu-erh Seventh Grade 2008

Receiving this tea with the Wynn Tea Sampler -D, it was one of the first shous I’ve had in a long while. Though shous are not my bread and butter I really enjoyed my experience with this offering, and it was great to change things up.

The rinsed leaf held the aromas of wet leather, and sour grain – not unlike a buckwheat pancake; sour, rich and malty. This pancake aroma carried into the brew many times during my sessions.

The body of the tea was round, slightly tannic, and silky smooth. The soup kept its smoothness until about the seventh steep, when my mouth began feeling slightly tacky.

The wood/forest flavors reminded me of the wet inner bark of a fallen Cottonwood tree – pleasingly sour and microbial. I also tasted sautéed mushrooms in butter, and wet oak heartwood in the later steeps.

This sample’s energy was very calming, a perfect tea before bed. I’m use to the heating aspect of a sheng, and was surprised by how cool I felt after my session.

For someone not used to shou, this tea was a real treat. I was impressed with its calming energy and how its aromas brought back memories of times in the forest and all its joys.

Many thanks to Wymm tea for a sample!

The dry tea was somewhat glossy and dark, and the smell was fairly neutral — leather and earth, which is something I think is pretty common to shou teas. Once I rinsed it, it smelled like shoes, leather, dirt, and loam, with perhaps a bit of camphor. It reminded me of a root cellar, actually.

The brewed tea was dark. Like really rich, homemade beef broth. It had a slightly fishy, earthy, mushroom-y smell, and I was worried I should have rinsed it twice, but oh well — down the hatch it goes! The first steep tasted uninspiring and muddy, but the second steep developed a menthol/camphor note. That note developed and reminded me also wood, branches, autumn leaves, and cedar. And, oh yeah, this shit was dark. Almost like Guinness beer!

As I drank the third steep I noticed a cottony, gauzy feeling on my tongue. The fourth steep introduced mineral notes, but the initial fishiness was still there. Steeps 5 and 6 were fairly similar, though at the 6th steep I bumped the steep time up to 10 seconds. I noticed that as the steeps progressed, it tasted less of loam/earth and more of wood/cedar. By steep 7, my body became really heavy. I think I stopped after the 7th steep because I was so sleepy!

Full review at http://booksandtea.ca/2015/09/wymm-tea-sheng-and-shou-samples/

Immediately likable. No rough edges. No off notes (well the wet leaf might be a bit… ahem… aromatic). Mostly this is earthy forest woods. There is a mild sweetness. Nicely creamy. Second western mug I noticed a touch of spiciness and a smidgen of fruit – possibly cherry. Anyway, this is a nice one.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the Moms out there and thanks to Wymm for this sample. Nice to have a shu puerh on this day we are having, which is mostly cold and overcast.

I steeped this tea about 4 times this afternoon and have been really enjoying it. Has a rich, earth taste with a little bit of sweetness. With my first steep, I was reminded of mushrooms and cherries. I had about 4 steeps only because I was worried about the caffeine. Definitely a decent shu and one worth checking out.

Going from the YS Blue Label shou that I didn’t care for, I found this shou to be more to my liking. I seem to be enjoying most of the pu that’s menghai, so that might be a deciding factor for future pu choices.
Anyway, I used the whole sample from wymm in a 100ml gaiwan. I didn’t measure, but I think it was about 6g. It has a very nice smooth and creamy texture with the foresty/mushroom taste that I’ve come to find in shou. Definitely a nice way to relax this evening.

Thank you Wymm Tea for this sample. This is quite good. It was earthy in the early steeps and had a nice sweetness. I have seen others describe this as having mushroom notes, not a bad description but I am not certain. I am certain I like this tea. I gave this tea ten steeps but could have gotten a few more out of it certainly.

I steeped this ten times ini a 120ml gaiwan with 7g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.

I liked this tea before, and I am liking it even more today. My daughter and I drank a liter of puerh from just one teaspoon of leaves and even the final steep has nice color and plenty of flavor. I didn’t skimp on early steeps, but made one or two of them extra bold with long steep times, because I enjoy strong puerh when it is smooth and has no bitterness.

I get the most flavor from puerh when I am patient and let it cool a bit before drinking. This is extra creamy today, especially the later steeps.

I don’t usually see puerh graded as first, second, third, etc. it is usually just named. So my first impression when I received the samples was that first grade was the good one and seventh would be passable. Instead, first grade is the layered and nuanced one good for quiet times, and seventh grade is the highly enjoyable daily drinker with lots of virtue of its own, my favorite at this moment being the creamy, weighty feel with its lightly cedar oiliness.

I think this would be an excellent choice for my husband’s new tea center that we are putting together for him at work.

Gongfu style brewing in a gaiwan, after the initial rinse, this tea has similar scents to the Third Grade version that I tried, but this one seems to have a more woody scent to it, with more of a damp forest-floor kind of aroma. There is still a subtle sweet dough aroma as in the Third Grade, but it is less pronounced. While I don’t find this scent as inviting as the Third Grade… it is also more complex and intriguing.

The deep red-auburn first infusion has a strong scent of cake batter. The taste is certainly much more woody and earthy than the finer Third Grade version. The wood flavor really lingers. It is mildly sweet. If I did not know any better, I’d say they mixed up the 3rd and 7th grade samples in my pack, as their website says the larger leaf grade should have sweeter, milder flavor, while the smaller leaf grades should taste more woody. I’m getting the inverse of that between the two that I tried, but I can tell you that the leaves of this sample were certainly larger, so they definitely didn’t mix the two up.

The second infusion has some interesting tastes. Something reminds me of the fermented taste of beer, and there’s an earthy kind of mushroom taste that really lingers.

The third infusion is more mellow. The flavor is mostly savory and woody. The mouthfeel is rather clean. Again, a flavor lingers like damp forest floor or mushroom.

My infusions from this point forward had similar flavors and were increasingly mellow, with some oat and wheat notes emerging later on. I honestly wasn’t particularly enjoying this tea, unlike the Third Grade, which I enjoyed a lot, so I didn’t push too many more infusions out of it.

To sum this up, I think this tea has a clean taste and feel to it, but the flavors are on the musty and dank side. If you are one who likes a more fermented taste or likes woody, earthy decay or fungus flavors, I think this Puer could be for you.

I’m going to skip the numeric rating, since I feel like the quality of the tea is good but it just didn’t suit my tastes at all. Hard to choose a number that depicts that.

Thank you Wymm Tea for the sample!

This is another solid shou offering. Similar flavor to the Fifth Grade, but I am getting less wood taste and I am finding it more creamy. Slightly sweet and earthy but very clean. Very enjoyable and accessible shou!

This is from Wymm Tea’s mystery box they were so kind to send out. I liked their simple packaging of the teas wrapped in the special pu’erh paper.

I am enjoying this tea this morning. I haven’t been a really big shu fan. It started out drinking shu but once I had sheng I wanted sheng much more than shu.

I did two 10 sec rinses on this first. I would describe this tea as very smooth. It doesn’t have the rough bitter taste in some of the earlier steeps of other shu I’ve had. It’s woody and a bit mushroomy with sweet honey notes. I found as each steep went on (I did quite a few steeps), it remains pretty consistent, but a bit less woody and sweeter in the later steeps.

Wymm lists this tea as low caffeine and boy is that ever right! I’ve had so many steeps this morning and hardly feel any caffeine at all. That’s a major plus in my books since I’m sensitive to caffeine. It has given me a good energy feeling though – very calm but alert. I’ve found that type of energy more with the sheng instead of a shu.

I’ve really enjoyed this tea and because of it’s low caffeine & mellow honey flavour it might just be one shu I will reach for a little more often than other shu’s .