Jalam Teas, Bada Mountain Raw Sheng Puerh

Raw Cake

Jalam Teas Description:
This raw green Puerh is a classic Puerh with what Jeff calls 'great qualities that should serve as some sort of example of consistent joy'. From the hands and trees of the Hani people near the village of Manmai, the tea has some of those wonderful slight astringent notes that tingle, dissipate and flow sweet into the throat. Long flavor legs stay in the mouth for long portions and the leaves because of the quality of each stage of production can handle many infusions. It is one of the teas we intend to carry once a year at a minimum and hope to include on our permanent tea menu.

Sample provided by Jalam Teas

My Review:
I have been waiting for the right moment to open this tea and enjoy it. I was up early and got my other work done - 6:00 am I was transposing songs from one key to another for the Praise Team, then I spent a few moments destroying spaceplanes on the runway in Kerbal Space Program. I'm really bad at planes. Now I am home alone with my tea. I'm almost giddy.

Steeped Leaf

Something else to mention - Jalam Teas gifted me with this out of the blue back in April. It arrived at the height of a recent health battle. As you can see by my summer postings, I am just getting back up to speed. Thank you Jalam!

So, opening the (rice?) paper wrapper released a ton of aroma. More importantly it was a very fresh and green aroma with hints of sheng. I am not by any means advanced in Puerh, and I am certainly not used to a sheng having made such a positive impression right from the beginning.

The leaf is as interesting as the aroma. Look at all the color. See picture at top of page. It is green and brown with a plentiful amount of silvery buds.

I used a knife along the outer edge, in towards the center and began to work my way around the edge. I removed about 10g for steeping. Placing it in my clay pot, a few ounces of boiling water was added and poured off after 10 seconds. I then let the leaf sit in the pot and awaken before adding water for the first cup.

Lovely Nectar

The result is an apricot cup with a little sediment because I did not use a proper filter. It doesn't bother me. This is a 2014 pressing. I braced myself expecting a sharp astringent sip. What I got was a tasty cup with only slight astringent notes and as the description says it flows in and out. I caught faint straces of smoke. It is slightly sweet and nicely gentle for such a young sheng. The aftertaste reminds me of peach.

The second cup starts out almost syrupy. It is even sweeter and the peach aftertaste is stronger.

I intend to have many more steeps from this leaf over the course of the day. While I am by no means an expert on Puerh, I know what I like when I taste it. This I like. It is full of flavor without assaulting you with the usual astringent bite.

You can find Jalam Teas Bada Mountain Sheng Puerh here.