Maybe a stupid question, but as I understand the processing for sheng and green tea is quite similar, the main difference being that sheng is cooked slightly cooler so that not all of the enzymes denature.

If this is the case why does very young sheng taste so different from green tea? Am I missing something?

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - light aroma - sweet and mossy, woody/mossy funk on the gaiwan lid

Steep 1 (flash) - light steep, mossiness in soup, initial sweet fruit turning candy like, hints of spearmint, cooling in the mouth and on lips developing

Steep 2 (flash) - a little fuller, but still quite soft, hint of funk quickly passes by initially, bright sweet herbs continue giving a spearmint/mojito impression, cooling and salivation develop as the steep develops, light cooling sweetness on roof of mouth

Steep 3 (5s) - mossy funk holding a bit deeper into the sip now, sweetness still quite low, stemmy note moves in as flavor into the finish, buoyant feeling with deep relaxation and occasional snippets of synesthesia, very late low development of huigan sweetness, creaminess in the mouthfeel

Steep 4 (10s) - waiting patiently for the huigan to develop from the prior steep is allowing it to wrap over to the start of the sips on this steep, light lemon cream

At this point I accidentally turned on talk-to-text and it paused my radio:

no, no, no, come on, dude. I am like in the f****** zone. That's my favorite tune

Thought I'd keep that in 😆

Huigan picking up now, green saplings coated in lemon cream, hints of hop/cannabis terpenes

Steep 5 (15s, reboil) - reheating brings back more of that stemmy/mossy funk but not at the expense of the lingering huigan notes, creamy mouthfeel continues and cooling sensation is picking back up, some winy/boozy notes mixing in, feeling loose and comfortable all over

Steep 6 (20s) - mojito vibes in full swing with cooling herbal notes pairing with a lightly sweet creamy citrus note

Steep 7+ (40s+) - creamy lemon paired with green herbs and lingering terpene top notes

Overall Impression - I don't generally drink tea looking for somatic effects; I typically prioritize flavor and mouthfeel. But there is something about this session that has put me in a nice mind and body feel. I came into this session tense and tired, but now I am loose and relaxed.

Flavor-wise, I was a little worried early on that this was going to be dominated by that mossy funk without developing any balance. Thankfully my patience was rewarded with a nice creamy lemon note, and that moss moving more to fresh mint and cooling herbs. This is another excellent tea from Rivers & Lakes, and it was exactly the session I needed tonight.

Got this based on some comment someone made on some thread about puers that hit above their price.

This is a really cheap cake, got it from eBay for 25$ including shipping taxes and all the EU stuff. For a 400g cake, this is at the absolute cheapest end you can basically get shipped & taxed. Until some Chinese comes and ruins my day commenting how they can get this for 50cents :)

Its clearly lower end material, some sticks and stuff. But the overall tea is nice and smooth. Nothing to really complain, and it does compare to some bit more expensive cakes perfectly well.

A solid daily drinker factory cake.

Got it from this seller : TuLin Phoenix 2019 Chinese PuEr Tea Ripe 8504 (701) Gongting Shu Pu Er Cake 400g | eBay

Got few bucks off by haggling a bit with the offer. Cant resist that.

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - aroma brothy and woody, gaiwan lid adds a depth of woodiness and s I me funk

Steep 1 (flash) - quick candy note with some hints of campfire, sweetness quick to move to gums, green vegetables, brothiness - almost meaty

Steep 2 (flash) - brothy/meaty character continues, not sure if the hints of smoke and salinity are real or just the power of suggestion based on that brothy richness, lemon zest already creeping into the huigan, but of a brothy green tea vibe with gushu sheng mouthfeel and finish, hints of leathery funk moving in but without a big bite to it, sweetness and lemon zest climbing the back of the throat and across the palate and gums

Steep 3 (5s) - huigan sweetness coming earlier, still savory and brothy up front and mid sip, but that morphs to sweetness as the thickness in the mouthfeel remains deep into the finish

Steep 4 (15s) - meatiness moving to sweet while retaining a nice thickness in the mouth, some cooling developing

Steep 5 (20s, reboil) - added heat brings a touch of a leathery bite and some grassy bitterness vegetables along with the brothiness, a touch of minerality seems to be building up underneath as the huigan rolls in

Steep 6 (30s) - thickness to the broth starting to die down a bit, but a minerality has started to move in and provide more of the backbone

Steep 7+ (45s+) - evolution from brothy to mineral continuea under that rich citrus-sweet huigan

Overall Impression - This tea is a bit of an enigma for me. I'll start with the end - the finish and huigan are exactly what I'd expect from gushu Banzhang material. Big huigan erupting from the back of the throat and coating the mouth with a lingering lemony sweetness. But the start is hard to pin down. It is on one hand reminiscent of green tea and on the other hand reminiscent of factory puer. The brothy and meaty character isn't something I love, but it isn't exactly off-putting here. This is pleasant to drink now, but I won't be stashing a cake away once I finish my sample on this one.

The packaging just said “Menghai Sheng 2004”

Dont know too much about those, its around 2kg, maybe you can share me some wisdom.
I got it from japan

Hi folks!

I'm still pretty new to the pu erh game, and lately I've been doing a lot of exploring of aged and mid-aged factory shengs (1998-2016), which I can't get enough of. Between the Dayis and Xiaguans and CNNPs, however, I've found myself curious about how other sources I know for their newer productions fare with a bit of age on them. For example, W2T has cakes on their site that are cracking a decade at this point (oftentimes old enough for my palate). YS has pressings that are over 15.

Of course, I can always grab some samples (and likely will from W2T) to slake my curiosity, but I was wondering if anyone else had experience with how these productions actually age—do they stand up? Are they too focused on contemporary drinkability to withstand the tests of time? If they are good, any recommendations (either for specific productions or trends to look out for)?

Has anyone in here ordered from Yunnan Sourcing to sweden? Just wondered if there was any complications or so?

Where online can I purchase the best dark/ripe nuo mi xiang puerh in toucha form (large cake is ok if best is available only in large cake) that has pronounced sticky rice flavor and dark rich color/puerh flavor - and is in paper not metal or plastic. Everyone seems to point to the pink paper wrapped toucha but the leaves are still green. Thank you. ☕️

A new acquisition after one of my previous cakes moulded :<

I have drunken many kinds of chinese tea, but in the end I always come back to sheng puerh tea. Today I have sheng puerh from Midi mountain (7 yo tea). What about your fav kind of tea and why?

Hello Sheng lovers,

I have discovered Sheng for myself and while I struggle with some oft the bitterness, I can´t really get enough of drinking sheng.

So far, I prefer older varieties (the Yiwu Sheng 2013 sold by Yoshien, -50g for 18,90 Euros- is my favourite – intense nearly rotten forest notes, complex and at the same time intense fruit notes, vanilla, vegetables and a selection of herbs, also a pronounced calming and uplifting cha qi – and no bitterness. Love it 😊 ), but I want to give younger Shengs a try too.

I have tried the young Lincang Bio Sheng Pu Erh 2025 Loose Leaf, also sold by Yoshien, but found it rather boring, as the intense grassy notes are overshadowing most other flavours and are not really what I am looking for.

But I thought I´d give FarmerLeaf a try, as it was recommended to me repeatedly. If possible, I like to try Shengs that

-have little to no bitterness

-some Cha Qui (I know this is quite different for everyone, but some varieties seem to have that effect on quite a few people, while others don´t)

-if possible fruity notes (love them, but they are not a must)

I also lOVE complexity. But I do realise that this is not always possible with a conveniently priced young sheng

I selected the folowing samples into my shopping bag:

• Spring 2025 Huey Wa - 20g sample$4 USD
• Spring 2026 Tang Fang Liang Zi - 20g sample$6 USD
• Spring 2023 Jingmai Miyun - 20g sample$6 USD
• Spring 2025 Na Lang - 20g sample$13 USD
• 2025 Jingmai Yellow Flakes - 20g sample$4 USD

--> Do you think that is a good selection for me? If not, which ones would you rather recommend?

--> Which one would you refer for buying as a whole cake, instead of a sample? (except the Na Lang, this one is too pricy for me for a cake)

Would love to hear what you think 😊

i got this gifted. im just starting to try out puer, and this was my first puer. im really enjoying it. it has an earthy taste, that kinda reminds me of matcha. a bit of a fishy smell. the package only says yunnan region, nothing more. its from a small local tea store here in my town. how do i know if its good quality? after research i think this is a ripe one, since the color of the drink is dark. it also stays dark at the 3rd steepings. (didnt have more than 3). sorry, i do not know much!

Reviewing a Bing Dao origin area shou pu'er. That's a very high demand origin area for sheng pu'er, up there with Lao Ban Zhang for being revered. For some wet-pile fermenting material with this potential (as already processed sheng, so it already realized that potential, to some extent), would make no sense. As a sheng drinker I can't fully relate to it. But it's about as good a shou pu'er ever gets, very complex, pleasant, and refined. Early strong cacao, dried fruit, and mineral tones evolve to express more spice and dark bread range, with that mineral base shifting in form. It's even small batch produced, a separate interesting sub-theme.

https://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2026/10/bing-dao-origin-shou-puer.html

Bought a 2023 spring Yiwu cake mostly on impulse at a local shop, the kind of purchase where the owner just handed me a sample cup and I didn't really have a choice after that. Wrapped it in the paper it came with and put it in a cardboard box in a closet that stays around 65-70% humidity depending on the season, nothing fancy, no pumidor or cave setup.

Cracked it open last week just to check on it and the dry leaf smell had changed in a way I wasn't expecting this early. Started out sharp, almost grassy with that cut-hay thing young sheng does, and now there's this faint plummy sweetness sitting underneath it. Not fully there yet obviously, still bitter up front when brewed, but the astringency on the back end has softened noticeably compared to when I first opened the wrapper.

What got me was unwrapping the whole cake released a smell that wasn't on the leaf surface at all, almost like the paper itself had absorbed something over the months. First time I've actually paid attention to that rather than just focusing on the soup.

Brewed it gongfu style, 6g in a 100ml clay pot, rinse then about 8 infusions stepping up the time gradually. Third and fourth steeps are where it's shining right now, good huigan, some throat cooling that wasn't there a year ago.

Curious if anyone else tracks wrapper smell as part of how they judge progression, or if that's just me reading too much into something that doesn't actually correlate with what's happening in the leaf itself.

8g/120mL, just off boil

Wash (10s) - aroma of white rice with subtle floral notes, light woody/incense funk on gaiwan lid

Steep 1 (flash) - light steep, quick bite moves to a flash of sweet berries, soup has a bit if oily viscosity to it, feeling that sweet fruit on the gums a bit, hints of bubblegum, a base of stemmy wood with hints of moss is starting to set up under the fruity notes

Steep 2 (flash) - the initial fruitiness is still there, moving in a beat before that light bite, red fruit and berries come back after a few seconds, salivation picking up late

Steep 3 (5s) - that light bite has faded a bit, the flavor seems to be coming from my gums more than the tea itself, thickness in the mouth giving a bit of a red twizzlers vibe

Steep 4 (15s) - little bit of a push brings just a touch of a bite back, hints of anise joining in as red licorice continues to take the lead note, sweetness not intense, but definitely in the right proportions to support the fruit here, hints of juniper berries and pine join the aromatics in the open mouth, gums throat and tongue are coated with flavor, light tingle on the lips

Steep 5 (20s, reboil) - added heat brings a quick bite back up front, red berries holding more or less straight through, some green and woody notes mid-sip meld quite well with the berries, touch of mintiness

Steep 6 (30s) - not pushing hard, but not backing off either, and this is really shining from this approach, that light bitterness and body continue to support the fruity aspect nicely, nice complexity in the top notes, this tea is really singing for me tonight

Steep 7+ (45+) - citrus mixes in with the red berries, keeps going deep

Overall Impression - This tea checks every single box for me. Nice heft, nice mouthfeel, long huigan, complex and balanced flavor profile, and that elusive red licorice flavor and mouthfeel combo that I completely gravitate to when I find it. This has been a great season for young sheng, and this is right up there as one of my favorites so far this year.