Mei Leaf

knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 16
Theme: The First Noel
Song: The First Nowell by Canadian Brass

Another nice and mellow yellow tea. This is smooth and sweet with a creamy and buttery hay flavor. Touches of soft green grass and edamame add a bit of freshness as well. It’s a bit like a mashup of a silver needle and a mellow Chinese green tea. Tasty!

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=v8o39GaXtvc&si=6y_4HSBuK_1ext8z

I had a sampler of this tucked away from a Mei Leaf order back in November. I haven’t been ordering much from them lately, owing largely to the better value I’ve been getting out of the W2T orders. Nevertheless, I have so much tea that I’ll probably be putting non-club orders on hold for a while. It gives me the opportunity to clear out my drawers and try some teas that I had forgotten about.

Bliss Beholder is one of Mei Leaf’s most expensive sheng puerhs that is available right now, retailing at about 180 USD. I purchased this sampler right when it came out, and now it only seems like the tea is available in whole cakes. It is a sheng from Man Zhuan, advertised as one of the six ancient Puerh mountains dating back to the Qing dynasty.

Initial impressions off the bat were strong, steamed rocks and the fruitiness characteristic of much of the Mei Leaf sheng catalogue. However, the rest of the session was largely lacking especially at the price point. It’s a fruity sheng with an exotic nature to it; I can detect the hints of sandalwood to complement the apricot, and it is buoyed by a strong minerality, but I have had much better.

I still have two more sessions of this tea so this review may be subject to change, but as of right now it’s ‘ok’.

knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2025 – Day 1
Theme: A song for decorating the tree
Song: Adeste Fideles by The Three Tenors

Finally done with all (five!) of my black teas and getting around to the tea that Marjorie sent me for today. I’ve had some yellow teas in the past, but it’s been a while. The instructions recommended a temperature of 165°, which seemed silly to me, so I did 175°. It’s nice enough, definitely quite mild, but has a nice toasted grain-like flavor to it. Maybe a bit of corn as well, and some more green-tea-like beany notes. It’s a bit like a combination of a tender green tea with a mellow sobacha. Very light and refreshing, yet comforting at the same time, with a slight butteriness and hint of grassy astringency in the finish.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ncT1wolO-i0&si=EnvAAP9MJcksbclf

Of all the sheng puerhs which Mei Leaf released that I tried, perhaps they have struck the most gold on the ones to come out of Mengsong. Straight-Faced Playmate and Potion Scholar, two teas that have long been out of my collection, provided some of the most unique and enriching productions for a vendor that I feel is largely a purveyor of overrated and overpriced sheng. Honey Tripper is intended to be the sequel of the former; it comes from the same mountain (Hua Zhu Liang Zi) and is advertised as having the same honeyed flavor profile. This was enough to intrigue me to drop the big bucks on a Mei Leaf cake.

Off the nose, it does present as a heavily medicinal tea. The strength is there off the nose, and the tricombs are visually present in the liquor, but its first impression doesn’t translate to the tongue. From the scent alone I can tell they’re being authentic from the sourcing (it reminds me exactly of its antecedent). However, given that Straight-Faced Playmate was made with Spring 2011 aged material and Honey Tripper is Autumn 2022, I can taste the difference, and the slight weakness on the tongue is characteristic of Autumn sheng in my experience, but honestly it’s close enough to the former for it to be drinkable and not a dud to me. Sure it’s not in the same league as Straight-Faced Playmate, and it’s overpriced, but it’s absolutely drinkable. I’m not here to grade the price, I’m here to grade the tea, and this is a pretty good experience. Definitely deserving of daily drinker status.

More rain has come to the North Bay, and today I felt like cleaning out the annuls of my tea drawer, especially after hearing the news that my Kuura Esprit de Corps shipped. In line with my tradition of drinking dancong during rainy and overcast days, I broke out the last 2 grams of this short-lived production from Mei Leaf. Dancong cultivars generally correspond to certain flavors, and this one as the name implies, corresponds to gardenia. It seems to be a more uncommon cultivar.

With only two grams instead of the usual five to play around with, I made sure to be cautious with my infusions. The smell of the wet leaf is gorgeous; super sweet and floral. I would argue it smells better than Duck Shit. The taste of the initial infusion is even better, with tons of exotic fruits such as lychee and mangosteen, reminding me as to why I saved the tea. I smelled the wet leaf again and got the distinct scent of goji berries, another favorite of mine.

My only qualm about this tea is that the flavor wears off rather quickly. Perhaps this was just due to the small amount of leaf I had on hand, but judging on the longevity of the smell on the wet leaf, it might just be the nature of the tea. That’s the only thing that holds this one back from being a 100, for it lacks the durability of the Mei Leaf Duck Shit. All in all a very lovely and feminine tea, and a cultivar that hopefully will get the recognition it deserves in time.

Probably one of the better hot weather shu puerhs I’ve had. A limited production run by Mei Leaf back in like 2021 or 2022 that sold out quickly. While its two sequels have had larger production runs, this one has been largely forgotten (especially in my cupboard). Not much to write home about besides the fact Don was smart pairing a largely mineral and smooth shu with the chen pi. He tried to replicate it with the sequel but it was a bit soupier if I recall correctly.

The first rainstorm of the year, an early and humid one in early September, spurred me to bring out my favorite rainy day tea type, the dancong oolong. While I had exhausted my stocks last winter, I still had some left over of my favorite Ya Shi, truly one of the best teas that Mei Leaf has put out. Year in and year out, this one hits hard, being a wonderful companion to the smell of petrichor and the sound of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.

Butterscotch, toffee, and lychee dominate the taste buds with a thick sweetness on the back of the tongue. It holds up very well, with several rapid infusions in the Chaozhou teapot leading to endless bliss and introspection. It’s hard to find a tea better than this, perhaps one day I’ll find some better material from a better vendor, but then Steepster would need to change the rating domain from 0 to 200. Until then, this is probably the best tea I’ve ever drank, only challenged by Taiwanese high mountain oolong and aged sheng with tobacco notes.

Finally found my cake of this, it was hiding deep in one of my drawers that I don’t normally store tea in. There only seems to be a few sessions of it left, but perhaps I bought another cake of it and that’s hiding somewhere as well. I regret to inform everyone here, TMI warning, that this tea was used to rehydrate myself after a night of college drinking (for some reason I’ve always felt that white teas served this purpose best), so I never had the opportunity to truly get to know and have a fully lucid session with it.

The first infusion reminds me a lot of another Mei Leaf white tea cake, that being the wonderful Peony Chirps in all of its milky sweetness. It is silkier but less full of the exotic incenses and woods of the current Jade Star iteration, and the subsequent infusion does not help but give me the impressions of a mediocre Bai Mudan. Even in the Yixing, it lacks body, as well as the ability to differentiate itself from the rest of the Mei Leaf white tea lineup. Like Diogenes, with each passing steep I searched with my tastebuds for the complex character that was seemingly promised to me, but I was left in the dark as the flame of hope in my lantern fizzled out. The taste profile feels amateur, feeling more like a young tea than something aged in checks notes …. 2016 (!). That being said it’s still drinkable, but I wouldn’t say it’s enjoyable for the price point, especially with how competitive the white tea market is – don’t believe me, put this tea up against W2T’s Tiltshift (yes i know it’s a yue guang bai not a shou mei + bai mudan blend) and it gets blown out of the water.

Jade Star VII came out on the heels of the massive success of Jade Star V, which I was never able to secure a cake of. It feels like Mei Leaf rushed to name a successor as a means of capitalizing on what I’m sure is one of their bigger cash cow teas. Fortunately they seemed to have rebounded with #8, a sort of redemption.

Shou puerh is hard to get into, I get it. Not everyone enjoys drinking sweetened mulch and having their teeth irreparably stained. I beg to differ, but I can appreciate this tea type whether it is an ancient from the 1970’s or something new and more radical. Mei Leaf’s Bling Rock Kingpin, the sequel of Gem Juice Outlaw, fits squarely into the latter category. By taking the oddball purple Zi Juan cultivar, which is normally used to make black (purple-black?) tea and subjecting it to the ripening process, the London-based vendor stumbled onto something which can make the most ardent shou hater blush and swoon.

Towing the line between the floral fruity notes of a black and the earthy fermented notes of a shou, this tea impresses with a dynamic range of enjoyable and frankly addictive steeps ranging from thin and floral to soupy and sweet. It shines when its at its strongest, with a liqueur akin to that of a sweet vermouth, strong with grenadine and fig newtons. Not much else to say – this is a classic and a tea that I bought a few cakes of back in its heyday. It is now long gone, replaced with its own sequel in Amulet Majesty which I unfortunately haven’t gotten around to trying yet. If it’s even just half of what this tea offers, then it will be well worth it. A strong dessert tea which works in any season and in practically any circumstance.

Average teas are average teas, and it seems like Mei Leaf has more than enough of them to go around in the sheng category these days. This isn’t a problem on its own – I don’t expect every vendor to only stock incredible teas, and it’s not as if Mei Leaf only pumps out mediocre puerh cakes. However, as of late it feels like most of their shengs are indeed painfully average. Making matters worse is the 120 USD price tag for what should be otherwise classified as a daily drinker. Hasn’t stopped me from burning through half of the cake in like a month, but I always remind myself that I could have gotten a tea of similar quality from a competitor for like a third of the price.

What else is there to say about the tasting notes? It’s a run of the mill sheng puerh. My mom always says these teas smell like apricots to her so that’s the tasting note I’ll go for with this one. Really hope Don hunts down that tribe that made the Potion Scholar tea; that was unironically one of the top three sheng puerhs that I’ve ever drank, if not THE best. I know the sourcing capability is there, but I definitely feel like the company is oversaturating their own selection, and sooner or later it’s going to hurt their reputation.

In terms of presentation, Hot Glove might be Mei Leaf’s finest hour. Seriously, I would hang the art design on the wrapper up on my wall if I could. But in all seriousness, the cover evokes a mystique, a sort of tea modernity which normally I would scoff at. Sure enough, it’s a unique blend, something pushing the boundaries – a rock oolong/rose petal blend.

Yancha is my favorite tea type, and my erudition in it, largely in thanks to the Old Ways Tea clubs (very underrated vendor, check them out), gives me the confidence to push the boundaries of my criticism for teas like this. I was a little disappointed looking at the description to see Bai Rui Xiang, which is its own distinct cultivar, marketed as a ‘Rou Gui’. I figure this was done to increase the market appeal of the tea, as rou gui is probably the trendiest cultivar coming out of Wuyishan these days. Nevertheless, I bought this knowing full well the difference, and mostly out of intrigue. Surely enough it was the last cake of this tea on their website, so unless there is a repeat run (not out of the question with Mei Leaf these days), this experimental bland will be confined to the annuls of history.

Hot Glove immediately makes an impression, not just from the wrapper but also the appearance of the cake, with hues of red and purple. A friend requested I sample this tea with him just based on the outlandish appearance of the cake alone. It brews light, and right off the bat the mineral notes hit the tongue with a hint of rose in the background. The yancha is providing all of the minerality with very little florality, something which would otherwise consign this tea to failure was it not for the rose. After the initial steep, minerality gives way for a tart, floral blackberry sweetness as the roses are worn out. But that’s it – the tea quickly goes flat and one is left with slightly mineral water. All in all, I’ve tasted much better yancha, and while it’s a very novel idea, it comes off as quite gimmicky like the smoked W2T puerh releases of late. Call me a purist all you want, but Hot Glove is one of the reasons why one shouldn’t judge a tea by its cover…. I mean wrapper.

Souchong Liquor is Mei Leaf’s most reliable daily drinker tea, affordable especially by Mei Leaf standards and available on an annual basis without any negligible change in flavor profile over the years. It is an unsmoked lapsang suchong, or small leaf black tea from Fujian, an area known for being the cradle of hongcha in China.

The most characteristic note of this tea is malt chocolate, which seems to be a general theme among other reviewers. It’s a very tough one to miss – it reminds me of the ovaltine I used to drink (and eat powdered, yes) as a kid and it is worth the price of admission. Call it one-dimensional, this tea is at the price point where it can be a one-trick pony. Excellent for drinking in any season, I would not go so far as to say it’s a strictly winter morning tea because of its thinner body, but it’s one that I’ll break out in the morning even on a hot day.

The 10th edition of Mei Leaf’s annual Young Gushu series, which features loose leaf sheng with a focus on adolescent exuberance, not limited to a particular mountain. These teas tend to have a kick, with medicinal notes given prominence over the fruity notes of most of the Mei Leaf shengs.

2025’s Young Gushu is a Lincang product, with easily recognizable medicinal, steamed bamboo, and custard notes. Like all shengs with this taste profile, it should work great as a dim sum tea. The chaqi is strong, keeping up the tradition, but it is not nearly as epic as those of the 2020-21 YG’s, which still stand as the most psychoactive teas I’ve ever drank. Lincang is a wonderful and distinct puerh growing region, and this tea is a strong representative for that region. Does it stand out among the ever-growing roster of young gushu offerings by Mei Leaf? Probably not, but I don’t think you will find yourself disappointed with a session of this stuff on a hot Californian summer day, right after spending the afternoon in the smoldering heat of the valley that Jack London once called his home.

As Mei Leaf’s most popular line of tea, Jade Star is one that usually commands attention. In past years, editions would sell out almost instantaneously. Rave reviews and high demand led the company to expand production, and both the 7th and 8th iterations of Jade Star seem to be easy to obtain (a recent promotion was ran where one could get 40% off a cake of JS8 if they subscribed to Mei Leaf’s email newsletter – overproduction much?). This dropped the 100 USD price tag to a respectable 60, about in line with the rest of their quality white tea cake productions.

I’m not as big of a fan of white teas as the rest of the community, mainly because I prefer to brew them in porcelain, which makes for a weak body. I decided to brew this one in Yixing and boy does it make a difference; this tea becomes a heavyweight, and can take a lot of abuse at high temps and long steeps. Its taste profile is complex, exotic, and rich; sandalwood, myrrh, and impressions of the fleeting days of a long Indian summer; it feels like the elder brother of a quality Bai Mudan and I like drinking it late in the day, if not at night. My only complaint about this tea is that it somehow leaves me more parched after every sip; it’s a true succubus which will keep bringing you back for more and more abuse. Get it while you still can.

Sip Down & backlog

For the past few weeks, I went on a sun tea kick when the weather was cooperating. I only had 25-ish grams of this leftover and felt that ½ gallon jar was plenty to brew the remaining leaf in. I allowed the tea to sit from 06:00-20:00ish on Thursday, so that I could sip the tea throughout the work shift on Friday. I know that this was a perfect tea gongfu’d but wasn’t sure how it’d turn out sun brewed.

Because of the price, matcha shortage, and my desire to be quirky and different and non-conforming to the trends (ive bee, I have been searching for alternatives to my favorite tea powder. I’d say this is the closest thing I’ve tried. After opening the pouch, I was immediately hit with a cloud of finely ground leaves that smelled exactly like matcha. I whisked it with a small amount of cool water, resulting in a liquid of relatively mucilaginous viscosity. When I tasted it, yep, the first notes were just like matcha. Afterward, it got a bit too vegetal and pond scummy for my liking, though not awful. Tried it again with oat milk and honey, helped with the displeasing aftertaste. It was priced half-off, which I think is because I bought it a year after its harvest, which is probably why it didn’t taste like pudding and avocado as advertised. I’ll review it again once I get this year’s harvest.

texture: kinda silty, not gritty, but smooth soft particles, you can tell it’s really super finely ground leaves. and yeah viscous, more slimy, doesnt froth up, just has big mucilaginous bubbles

taste: like matcha. doesnt have a tannic taste like matcha at all, not tannic or astringent, but a bit of bitterness in a dried vegetable way if you get what im saying. i do taste a hint of unripe avocado, the flesh close to the skin, even with a bit of the skin mixed in. a bit of spinach. natural tinge of sweetness. very green.

yeah in conclusion, really promising expectation fulfilling start, letdown end, but letdown end isnt there if you make it a sweetened latte, but i still have hope for plain milkless fresh harvest

I LOVE Nannuo sheng pu’er and this was my introduction to that flavor profile. So jungly green and with just a hint of a vague tropical fruitiness. The thing I love most about Nannuo is its deep mineral character (which I call River Stone Essence.) It gets you in the later steeps, and tastes like the pure nectar-like essence of the Earth in all its glory. It pulls at the sides of the tongue with a slight drying sensation…so satisfying! The crazy thing about this tea was when I was drinking it in 2019 the qi was so powerful: it felt like a rising energy into my chest that built into a vibrating sensation. Sort of an intense sensation, but after 5 years that has mellowed out a bit.

Sipdown

It’s great to sip a green tea that’s moderately fresh (at least not sitting for 2-3 years in the stash) in the winter! Sweet Dew was refreshing, grassy, and crisp while the weather outside was biting, cold, and bitter.

I have a tendency to ignore Don’s tasting notes since I’ll likely taste them or miss them entirely during my sessions. I want to go into a session blind, figure it out, and then backtrack to the notes the tea vendor lists.

I’ll note that this is a “boozy” tea in the way that liquor (if my memory serves me well. I’ve not partake any heavy alcohol in months) gives you a bite/tang and hit of warmth. I’ve made several notations of “burnt alcohol from a cake or dense sweet bread.” I like it, but don’t love it.

knittingopera Swap Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 6
Theme: Icicles
My pick: Yunnan White Jasmine from Verdant Tea

Once again, Marjorie and I are of one mind, ha ha. We both chose a silver needle to fit the “Icicles” theme. Adorbs.

Anyway, I steeped them both grandpa style because I thought it would be fun to drink them together. Obviously I won’t get all the subtleties and whatnot but I’m okay with that, ha ha. Casual steeping is more my speed these days. :P

I was actually surprised how different they taste (ignoring the jasmine, of course). This has a much heartier, deeper haylike flavor that reminds me of a mellow aged shou mei. Wet autumn leaves and piled hay with a drizzle of a dark honey, some dried apricot, and a sprinkle of oats. Love the little hint of tangy stonefruit in there. Really a lovely and cozy tea for a chilly day, though not necessarily flavors I associate with bai hao yin zhen!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DDQOqyYOheF/

I started this review three times…

Notes: Young coconut (slightly sweet, papery), thick tea soup, edging toward bitterness (but never reaching it), and a good bit of energy. Not worth the $96 USD, but not terrible.

The dry leaf had me thinking of butter biscuits, which was a lovely start. As the wet leaves unfurled, I caught hints of tobacco and pears, with the gaiwan lid giving off this rich dark chocolate aroma.

The liquor steeped into a beautiful golden yellow, and at 205°F for 25 seconds, the first steep had this intriguing tartness, almost like a fruity wine. But the real magic was in the flavor sweet, like peaches and cream, with a dry mouthfeel that lingered on the back of my tongue. The honey milk aftertaste was just addicting.

Fast forward to the 5th steep (brewed for 1 minute), and the wet leaves had a fleeting ash smell that quickly faded. The taste was lighter, but still carried that delightful sweetness. This tea really knows how to keep things interesting with every brew!

This tea is so delicate; if you overbrew it, it might not be pleasant. But when you get it just right, it’s the perfect relaxing tea with a lovely umami taste. Loving this strong yet balanced flavor.

This was a black Friday buy. Ugh, I really need to make more tea friends in the area or just make a community group so I can bring tea to have others drink too. ^^; My wiffer is a little off because I got sick so I’m going to have to revisit this another time. But I had a noticeable moment last night while drinking the barley tea I bought in Japan where at some point something in my sinuses changed and went from a mute cup to oh there it is! I can’t smell the leaves well yet but I can detect some hints of marzipan, rose, and dry wood. It is a very uniform leaf of the small darkness of brown, the same medium size, and twisted leaf. By the way, hand rolling is hard. T_T Oh for crying out loud. I could taste my cinnamon cereal but the notes in the tea are muted. Steeping past the suggested time imparts some dark wood tones and liquor notes. I will be interested to see what this one really shows when my nasal cavities fully clear.