LWXLJMJZC－Raw Puerh Tea - (150 cups)2010year Aged sheng (uncook) Pu-erh Tea Cake-357g/12.6oz

Wow. Just Wow. This was exactly what I was hoping for, but not expecting. I'd recently ordered some rather good looking cakes from another vendor on Amazon. The were aged, had good leaf appearance, and were from a pu-erh region I enjoy very much. Every one of those cakes had been stored and shipped in paper wrapping -- although they still looked good they tasted terrible, like there was bad scent contamination. Except the infused leaf also looked odd, and the base flavors were more like poorly-processed greens than any kind of raw pu-erh I've ever had. I almost stopped ordering puerh from Amazon. However I decided to give this cake from Lida a try, simply because the pictures showed leaf that stretched almost all the way across the cake and I have nothing quite like that in my collection. I was really pleased to see that the cake was wrapped in multiple layers of bubble-wrap envelope, with the cake itself wrapped in both the original cotton wrapper and a plastic wrap to prevent scent contamination. When that plastic bag was opened there was a very strong and very pu-erh-like aroma coming from it. The leaf was even better looking than in the pictures -- although mine are not quite as long, they are not bright green as in the photos but instead well-darkened and aged, appropriate for an 8 year-old cake. Of course the true test is in the infusion! The leaf flaked off whole with little effort (love those stone-pressed cakes!) and the scent of the infusion was wonderfully smokey in the kind of way that wild grown tea leaf often is. The flavor was even better, deeply rich with both sweetness and smokiness even on the first infusions. The liquor mouthfeel is thick and silky. The sweet/smokey aftertaste lingers and I experienced no dryness in the mouth with additional infusions. In short, if I'd come across this cake in my local tea store for $75 I would have bought it. At the current $25 price it's a no-brainer. I just ordered some more.

This is my first ever puerh tea so I don’t know what it’s supposed to be like, but I would say that this tea is weird but not unpleasant. Opening the plastic pouch it smelled very strongly of pipe tobacco, which honestly made me a little nervous. Upon brewing, the Smokey taste is there but not overwhelming, and there are floral notes as well, reminiscent of honeysuckle. It is mellow, a little sweet, round, and not at all astringent. Steeped colors are light amber darkening across steeps. I am told that every puerh tea is different, and that there is nothing good quality available at this price point, but in the opinion of this naive tea explorer, this tea is weird and interesting and okay. It will be cool to compare it to other puerh teas when I get the chance to try them. Five stars for now because I have nothing to compare it to.

You don't get to taste mellow honey or caramel type flavor because it doesn't exist.

I love green tea. I love raw puer tea. And I hated this tea. Pros: It arrived quickly (in 1 day). It is packaged in a resealable plastic pouch. It came with a tea pick. The cake is well formed. The cake comes apart nicely with the pick. Cons: This tea cake is very dark with a pungent, unpleasant odor. The tea itself has a pungent, unpleasant smell and taste. The taste is vaguely of Puer Tea but lacking the smooth gentle flavor of fine raw Puer Tea. This tea carefully steeped tastes terrible! The soaked tea has a lot of stems. Very few leaves. Mostly 'scraps'. I believe this is low quality Raw Puer Tea. I believe it is probably not aged since 2010. I would not buy this again. I do not recommend this tea to anyone. If you want to enjoy the experience of drinking a wonderful cup of Raw Puer Tea - keep looking. This tea is very disappointing.

Amazing tea; aromatic, smooth taste and pure quality. I especially likes that the company contacted me via email on the status of my shipping and to verify the package arrived.

Ok, Saw this neato program on the "lifestyles you would like to live if you were REALLY rich" channel. Inspired me to try some. So then watched the youtube videos on how to brew the stuff (sheesh)...Then went to this site and bought some.. Came in a nice cake, well wrapped, really nifty paper wrapper on the tea itself (cool am now going to be drinking the Rolls Royce of tea -Starbucks beware!!).. Well the youtube video shows a pretty darn complex process for brewing the tea. It is not just boil your water and dunk the tea bag in it for a few minutes and drink.. nah.. What you have to do to this stuff makes the formal Japanese tea ceremony look like making instant coffee. So to get the FULL benefit I followed the instructions. Broke off just the right amount from the cake (really really carefully with a dull butter knife) Put it in one of those 1 1/2 cup heavy ceramic tea pots you used to get in cafes when you ordered tea. Brought the water to a boil. Let it stand for a bit to cool from the fast boil, poured some in the pot, let it stand for about 20 seconds (did that nifty doop de doo with the lid of the tea pot that the youtube lady was doing) and poured it into a clean white tea cup. Then quickly poured this 'washing liquid' out.. Then poured some of the water that was JUST THE RIGHT temperature on the leaves. Let stand for like 30 more seconds (did not time it super carefully so it might have been more and less)... Drank..Ok, was nice, not particularly dark color, tasty, decent. Well there was still half a cup left in the pot. SO being a frugal kind of guy I just poured THAT tea in my cup. Now it had sat for a GOOD 5 minutes.. OOOOOOOO by the standards of the demonstrations and ALL instructions this liquid should have been good only for cleaning silverware. Was dark color looked like... well looked like TEA....Full of trepidation I drank it. Hmmmmm not bad, nice aroma, full flavor, great mouth feel, and a very pleasant aftertaste...Boy maybe im just a unsophisticated boorish tea wannabee. So the question is ... Is it worth going through the elaborate process of making several iterations of varying lengths of time etc etc to derive the full benefit of Puerh. Or do you have to be Chinese with several generations of tea gourmets to appreciate it..And is it REALLY necessary to go through the entire elaborate process to make a cup of Pureh tea??? The folks who sold me this included a packet of some really nice white tea. Is the Puerh tea THAT much better than the nice quality white tea? Is it worth the trouble and expense, and trouble, to properly brew the stuff? Well this tea after all IS only 8 years old. Maybe I should have waited for another 15 0r 20 years for it to age to get the full benefit.. Frankly I think in the future I will just do the 'washing' part and brew the tea pretty much like I have done for the past 50 years with (gasp) Lipton or if in a spendy mood Celestial Seasonings lose tea....Guess the take away here is if you enjoy the mystique and mythos of brewing the tea 'correctly' go for it. However I expect one can derive pretty much the full benefit by a somewhat truncated brewing process. I would not go so far as to advocate treating it as casually as 'store bought' tea leaves. But spending half an hour to get a 'cupa' seems like more than is needed. As to a review of the product itself. Yeah. If you want to try it, or if you are a real tea coniiseeor am sure this Lida raw Purea Tea Cake is a very good choice. I might just buy some more when this one is gone. MAYBE will spring for some 1980's vintage see what it is REALLY all about... Yours in tea hickdom jim in gold bar

Good moderate bitterness, pungency and green tea satisfaction. Color deepens as steeped. Little is needed to produce a fabulous pot. A nice, dense cake for raw puerh. One of my favorites now. Now second/third time around its true that there are many stems and it breaks apart easily not near as dense as first cake and I use more per infusion, but the smoky taste is just right not near a Lapsong. Am almost 'addicted' to this tea despite the stems and need for more quantity per infusion!

I love this sheng. Smooth, slightly smoked, long-lasting. Full-sized tea tips, low percent of broken leaves. Good for the money, recommended.

Good pu erh tea

This is not a very high quality tea. It was very Smokey, quite astringent, dryness. Taste best on its 4 to 5 brew. Not overly strong. Lots of stems in the cake. and the Cake itself wasn't well pressed as it was falling apart upon receiving, although hat might have been shipping. Affordable, drinkable. don't put high expectations on this tea.

The tea is fairly light in flavour, likely due to the fact that this was a harvest of lesser quality, non - bud leaf with much stem attached. Not in itself a deal breaker as this was not an expensive cake, however it also has a distinct smoky flavour similar to Lapsang Souchong. It's not clear if this smokiness was intended or the result of storing in a smoky location but the smoke is definitely there. Smoky Puerh tea can sometimes mean that the tea was stored in a smoky location and was not intended. Puerh tea takes on flavours from the storage environment, this seems to have happened with this cake. Not the worst cake I've tried, but my search for the 'perfect puerh' continues ...

It's not what I expected from the quality perspective, but it's huge.