Apr 14, 2015 NEW TEA REVIEW : The 25 STEEPS of HU'S ANCIENT TEA TREE SHENG PUER! I got a line up of new teas await me to try ! Exciting ! They are all the best teas selected by my Beloved father Mr.Hu. "Feeling full of LOVE now!" BESIDES giving tea lectures in tea school, My dad stays in YunNan few months every year to make our signature Ancient Tree tea and he also travels to collect teas from best tea regions in YunNan . (http://www.tanlongtea.com/collections/products-of-the-week/products/2014-hus-300-hundreds-year-ancient-tree-unfermented-puerh-cake-tea-357g) (Mr. Hu in traditional Chinese outfit) (Going deep to the undiscovered tea forest) The first day I got the new teas, I picked THE LEGENDARY MANSONG VALLEY to try because I was very curious about how special this tea is ! I steeped the ManSong Tea for over 25 infusions ! here is my review for 30 steeps of ManSong: https://www.facebook.com/TanLongTea/posts/464230627063816 It was such a busy week, I can barely find enough time sit down to taste the new teas from beginning infusions till end infusions. The teas I got from Dad are all very long lasting, you don't want to waste any infusions. It seems very leisure and luxury to have the time sit down and drink teas for couple hours. But this is my job as a tea merchant, trying the teas , understanding the characteristics of each teas. I decided to try THE HU'S VALLEY ANCIENT TREE TEA 2015 Spring first flush. I was very exciting and looking forward to taste our new spring production ! We have been harvesting the tea leaves from the same tea trees in our reserved area for many years. You can really tell the tea tastes a little bit different each year due to the climate and weather changes. THE Hu's Valley Tea has a special characteristic, notes of the wild mountain flowers. If we compare the Southern YunNan YiWu Mountain area teas with the Hu's valley Ancient Tree Teas, YOU CAN EASILY UNDERSTAND the taste differences between regions. Ohh I am actually at my 4th steep already . Now, I smell the steeped tea inside the TeaBowl , it has a deep floral hints, almost similar to Tuberose. Then the aroma gives me a feeling of how the sun light touches the wild flowers and trees in the afternoon tea mountain forest. I can only recall the afternoon tea mountain because I always go up to the tea processing workshop for lunch, then I start walking around to say hi to my friends . LOl they always leave the doors open, it is very safe in the mountain. Even in Canada, we close our doors most of the time. In the Hu's Valley, it is usually very hot in the afternoon due to the strong SUNLIGHT, this is ideal for the sundry process after Pan Frying . Take a sip of the tea again, Oh right ! The aroma of the Hu's valley also recalls my memory of the smells from the Drying Tea on the ground! When you are near the teas which under the sun, you can smell this Sun Dry scent from teas. The scent floats in the wind, and you can even follow the the scent to locate the tea ! For the Hu's Ancient Tea Tree , if you can control the water temperature well, steep the tea with lower temperature around 95C .. The first 1-5 steeps taste very smooth, the soup color looks just like the soup of wild honey which also can be found in the same mountain. There shouldn't been too much astringency in the tea while you are using lower temperature water for steeping. The tea gives u a very rounded after sweetness , u can feel the aroma goes deep into your throat. I think I like the 5th steep the most. Since in the first few steep, it is a treatment of aroma therapy, the tea soup taste for the 1-3 steeps are not as strong as the 5th steep, which is good ! The tea is being steep properly,and it can last for many steeps later ! I think I really like the 7th steep now ! After a sip, the tea delivers you a coolness in your mouth ! I can feel the caffein comes out now !! I HAVE TO be honst, this tea taste better after the 4th infusion. The first 3 infusions, I actually got a little bit of sleepiness. You can tell the tea soup colour did not change much at its 7th infusion ! Lets continue TALKING to myself. Lol I usually just drink half cup for each infusion, but this 7th infusion makes me want to drink all of them without a drop left in my ducky cup ! I BOIL the water again, and let it cool down for 1 or 2 mins while I am writing. I use spring water to steep this Hu's tea. I tried to use tap filter water to steep the tea before, the chemical in the tap water steal the sweetness and the floral aroma from this tea. The tea will become so flat if u steep with tap water. So! No tap water ! You may wonder how do I steep the tea now. I DON'T pour the hot water around the tea bowl or on top of the tea leaves like some tea ceremony artists do. The key for steeping a really good cup of tea is: "stay poise, pour the water by focusing only one point at the side of the tea bowl, one direction and one pouring point. While you pour the tea soup to the Pitcher, hold your TeaBowl , do not shake your hand. I call this movement "shh, quiet.. dont wake up the tea" By following this movements, your tea will become very soft like a girl~~ Forgot to mentioned that I used 7g for a TeaBowl, I only steep each steep for 2 seconds, sometimes 1 second if the water is too hot . The Tea St, LuYu from Tang dynasty, who wrote the first tea book says, "when you see the water boiling like fish eyes, that's the ideal temperature to steep the tea" 14th 15th steep I have to hurry up !! So I combine 2 infusions to one. At the later infusions. I use hot water around 100C . Hu's valley locates at the same region as the famous BingDao Tea Village (BingDao tea cost about ¥20000/kg now days) , you can see BingDao from Hu's Valley in the Sunny days. The 16&17 steepSince the 14th steep, I steep the tea with boiling hot water and steep the tea for 3-5 mins to extract its last flavors. I am quit suprise that even the tea become less strong since the 15th infusion, the soup colour still looks very bright and in rich yellow ! The tea is still looks quit nice at the 18-20th infusion. The taste is lighter, but if you are a green tea lover , I am sure you will like this light fragrance taste, especially the soup delivers a very cool effect to your throat, and you can still smell the scent of Snow Mountain wild forest. 18-20 steepOh My God.. I don't know how to explain the taste of this steeps ! Have u taste chamomile flower? It has a little bit of the chamomile flower hints in the tea, plus the tea liquid colour shows there are actually very rich in essential properties ! Full colour. It is the colour that some other teas would have at their 5th steep. I gotta say that the Hu's Ancient Tea Tree has so much so much potential for further storage due to its lower price point and long lasting taste. In compare to most of the Ancient Tree Teas, the Hu's ancient tree tea is only half of their prices. I stored some Hu's Ancient Tree Teas at 2011, I tried the 2011 Hu's last week before mailing the tea to a tea friend; the 2011 tea still have that wild flower scents, except it has more layers, and a little bit of the aging aroma comes out from that 2011 Hu's . This is actually my first time drinking the Hu's Ancient Tree from the beginning till the end infusions. The only thing about Sheng PuErh is.. It makes you very hungry.. Lol but it is a good thing because I can feel that I am loosing weight and and it cleans my body ! The advice is to have some snacks or drink the tea after meal ! But this tea is a significant tea to understand the characteristic of The LIN CANG BangMa Snow Mountain. ! I must clarify something here. MANY SAY that the YongDe Snow Mountain is the most popular in LinCang Region . Infact, the BangMa Snow Mountain should be the mother and the ancestor of THE PuEr teas in LinCang Region. It is well known for having the largest wild tea forest, and the oldest thousands year old tea tree on the peak. Soooo what is better than drinking the tea which "born and raise" just 1 hours away from the thousands year old tea tree ! !? Let's conclude the writings with a picture of the 23-25th steep !
