In Bloom - Bitter Leaf Teas

Hello hello!

Bitter Leaf Teas released a wide variety of sheng puer for their 2017 line up. These teas include Mensong, Mengku, and even Yiwu. However, this year they released a tea from a region that’s new to their shop. This year, they released a sheng puer from the Jingmai region; a region that is known for its boldness and ability to age. So how does their Jingmai sheng puer titled ‘In Bloom’ compare to their other teas? Lets find out!

Steeps 1 - 4

For this session, I started out with 4g of tea for a 60ml vessel, and used water heated to a temp of 185ºf. Anyhow, the tea started out with a faint medicinal wood-like body that brushed against the base of the tongue. After a few more steeps, and after the leaf continued to open up, a soft undertone of moss made itself known, and the texture of this tea turned from a light texture to a thick broth.

Steeps 5 - 8

The body of this tea quickly became aggressive as the wood and medicinal body became stronger and stronger. With the wood base and the progressive moss undertone, this tea almost resembled a Nannuo sheng puer. Anyways - due to this tea becoming more aggressive, In Bloom left a light bitterness and astringency on the tongue. Despite possessing a light bitterness and astringency, it left the pleasant mist of stevia in the back of the throat that seemed to last long after the tea was gone.

Steeps 9 - 12

The wood base of this tea began to settle down into a tranquil liquor that brought a softness to the tongue. The wood body, along with a velvety smooth undertone of moss and stevia, made an impression in the cheeks and left an aftertaste of moss and stevia in the back of the throat. The body was smother than before, and coming down off of its aggressiveness from earlier, was a nice transition. After a twelfth and last infusion, In Bloom’s tasting notes made a full circle and was more flavorful than before…

Conclusion

Bitter Leaf Teas once again brought a tea of exceptional quality to their site, and released a tea that was as clean as it was smooth. One thing about In Bloom that caught my attention was its complex tasting notes that continued to transition throughout the session. However, for being a tea that’s composed of both old and young tea tree material, you’d expect some sort of complexity to be added to the beeng. Overall, I think that this In Bloom is a great jingmai to try if you’re new to the region, and want to try a Jingmai tea that wont hurt your wallet.