Bitterleaf Teas! This new puer seller has been high requested and lucky me Bitterleaf Teas contacted me and sent me goodies for me to hoot through. First up, Spring 2016 Secret Garden Sheng Puer, which is old tree jungle yiwu material. Jungle teas are so in. This tea is so jungle that apparently the teas are surrounded with banana trees. Maybe Jungle Owls? Secret Garden reminded me of this weird Garden tea I reviewed years ago. My tastes have certainly changed, but 10/10 would do it again due to weird factor.
Dry Leaf and Steeping Method
The scent of the puer is quite nice – it smells like golden raisins and sugar.
I went with a pretty classic 1 gram to 15ml, 200f water temperature ratio, gongfu style in a gaiwan. I’ve had some bad luck with boiling the 2016 shengs so I’m starting with 200f just to be safe.
Tasting of Bitterleaf Teas’ 2016 Secret Garden Sheng Puer
The hot leaf smells like buttery steamed rice and floral. The tea steeps up a beautiful watered down peach.
First and Second Infusion: Secret Garden Sheng Puer Sips in soft and buttery, with a background of steaming hot grass. The sheng sweetens at the end of sip to something like fresh corn and white peaches. The texture is melted butter oily and feels great to drink. The tea was really light. Sigh, another time I predicted wrong water temperature, or my tastes are just impatient.
Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth: I switched to boiling water temperature and it is much better. Secret Garden is subtle and secretive, is sweet, thick, and vegetal. Not a lick of smoke or bitterness, but I am getting a hint of dryness after each sip, enough for my mouth to feel squeaky clean. The puer has a soft fragrance after each sip of light sweet floral. The best part about this sheng is the lingering floral fragrance. Bitterleaf mentions there was banana trees present, I don’t get banana but I get that mellow smooth vibe like banana.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: The floral is reaching maxim. These steepings are more floral perfumey than before with a buttery mashed pea finish. There is a slight bitterness end of sip and the dryness is getting strong coating my cheeks. The body has thinned out but I like the floral here.
Ninth and Tenth: Boom, super bitter! The bitter ants crashed the picnic. the floral fragrance is strong if you cna get past the bitterness. I think what got really bitter here was the leaf finally got overcooked. I think most would abandon it at 9 due to the bitter level. The aftertaste is quite nice as it is a lingering sweet cute floral.
Eleventh Infusion: 10 minute steeping here. There’s just a touch of sweet floral left and a crushing bitterness.
Comments
Bitterleaf tea’s 2016 Secret Garden is quite pleasant and easy to drink, plus the floral fragrance is really nice. It is a light, subtle, sweet, and floral sheng that has some mellow rounds and perfumey points. If you love a more subtle tea with long floral fragrance, you’ll enjoy Spring 2016 Secret Garden Sheng Puer. I found it a bit more vegetal and mellow than other yiwus I’ve had – the magical secret garden influence! It does get violently bitter at the end, so some might not ride this tea as long as it can go. Secret Garden would be interesting to try with some age on it!
I’ll more Bitterleaf Teas in my stash, so I’ll have more to compare to. Stay tuned!
(tea provided for review)
