Today’s tea is Bitterleaf Tea’s 2021 Body and Soul – a Bulang shou puer and Bangdong black tea pressed cake blend. I tried a sample of a previous year’s Body and Soul, loved it, but by the time I was going to review and buy it, it was long sold out. When they blended this cake again, I needed it so I purchased it.
Leaf and Steeping Method
My cake of Body and Soul smells like aromatic dried berries.
The ratio on this tea could easily be played with some more, but I went with 1 gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size, steeped with boiling water. After the rinse, I could smell a hongcha malty scent rising. But after the first infusion, the leaves smelled more fruity and earthy.
Tasting of Bitterleaf Tea’s 2021 Body and Soul
First, Second, and Third Infusion: The early infusions of Body and Soul are a mix of sharp malty dark raisins with a chocolatey earthy finish. Some sips have a bit of a smokey bitterness, but the majority of the flavor is bright fruity woody earthy sweetness. Body and Soul is smooth and thick, like drinking pudding. The aftertaste is a sweet wood.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: Finally, the shou is coming out more. These infusions are earthy chocolate, and the finish is a bright raisin. Each steeping gets more earthy chocolate milk but the aftertaste is more sweet cherry wood.
Eleventh Infusion: I power steeped the final infusion for 20 minutes. The shou flavor comes out as mossy chocolate earth. The black tea is totally spent without a lick of bitterness or astringency.
Comments
Bitterleaf Tea’s 2021 Body and Soul is an awesome mix of the best qualities of both teas. I drink this on cold mornings when I feel like shou but I want the amp of black tea. If you love both shou and black tea, this one is a safe bet that you’ll need at least a cake or two. Bitterleaf paired the right black tea with this shou as well, so there’s no dryness and the bitterness is low.
I do say I felt the previous year of Body and Soul had more shou flavor which I preferred a bit more. However, I’m not sure if that was the sample/cake isn’t well mixed (which is normal for all blends) or part of the recipe tweaks for 2021.
Storage is a big question with this tea. I’ve been playing it safe just going natural sealed. I enjoy black tea with age on it, so this is will be a treat to age.
