Out of all my tea drinking and evaluating in a year I am most excited about these fresh 2026 puerh!
I have been sampling fresh puerh from Tea Encounter since their inception and it’s always on of my highlights of the year! This year more so because I was left contemplating if this is their best offering of teas yet… and I believe it is…
Please join me for my annual dive into Tea Encounters 2026 puerh line up!
Peace
Jagasilk Yabukita Hasegawa by the Takaki Family goes for $59 CND for 30g.
It is from their “Cafe Standard” line which, I image to be, at a lower price point and is likely a bit bitter or astringent or simple in taste and feel than their Competition or Reserve grades. I should note that the Competition and Reserve grades have virtually no significant astringency nor bitterness. However, I am also looking for cost effective options and enjoy the other products from the Takaki Family in Yame producing region so was interested in trying this more budget friendly option…
Powder has a roasted sweet cashew with green forest and wildflower.
There is a creamy roasted sweet almond milk with pea pod mildly bitter taste with roasted spinach taste and underneath emerging sweet taste.
A flavourful emersion with deeper roasted notes and billowy sweet notes creating balance.
Alerting and calmingly reassuring Qi.
Peace
Many thanks to Paolo and Una for sending me many of Puerh.uk’s 2020-2025 line up as a gift with purchase or sample to review! The 2020-2023 picks, some of which were maocha pressed later, and the 2024/2025s were selected fresh, I believe. This is Puerh.uk first attempts at bringing to market their own line of fresh Gushu Sheng puerh. Throughout the years of sampling and purchasing from Puerh.uk they always seem to over preform and I end up getting something better than my expectations. This is a true for this line of puerh as well.
Puerh.uk line has obvious Gushu feel and has a focus on subtle and elegance although I feel like I have not sampled some of their higher priced line. Overall the price seems fair. I mentioned in previous post on astronomical prices of some of these puerh but that one was actually the tong price.
I look forward to sampling others from this line in the future.
Peace
Jagasilk Yumewakaba by Fujioka’s Uncle goes for $53.00 CND for 20g or $2.65/g. This is in the reserve line of matcha at Jagasilk.
Powder is an icing sugar sweet with emerging pastry sweet notes and faint floral.
Sweet roasty pastry bukchoi with mineral evergreen forest depth. soft mouthfeel. Faint pastry sweet finish in mouth.
Peaceful slight spacy feeling.
Peace
Jagasilk Okumidori by Professor Wada goes for 20g for $48.00 CND or $2.40/g. It’s from the reserve line and is from the Wazuka region.
Powder is a sweet candy odour very light and sweet almost fruity and nutty.
Spinach and ash with a chalky powdery mouthfeel. Sweet underneath oily soil wildflowers. Lingering lesser sweet candy in mouth.
Mild but steadily energetic Qi…. I think … I was drinking this one in the early morning last week outside in the garden and it certainly woke me up nicely!
Peace
Jagasilk Samidori Blend by the Takaki Family goes for 75$ CND for 20g or $3.75. It’s from the reserve line at Jagasilk. One of my favourite from Jagasilk so far was also a reserve from the Takaki family in Yame the Okumidori Okubo!
Dry powder has a rich roasted odour with layered florals and sweetness.
Roasted nutty sweet with floral wildflower and distant chocolate covered almond. Chalky slippery mouthfeel. Nice roasted deeper taste profile.
Happy uplifted feeling with calm focusing Qi
Peace
This 2025 Puerh.uk “Beyond Yiwu” Single Ancient Tree goes for approx $300.00 for 200g cake or $1.50/g. It is the last of Puerh.uk line of 2020-2025 line of samples for review… they have really been a beautiful experience and a sign of Puerh.uks growth. There are still a few super expensive ones that I have not tried… I like the Youles the best and the TianMemShans!
Loose mocha lime dry leaves are very very sweet candy creamy almost berries odour.
Rinsed leaves have a rich berries odour I’m thinking it’s Yesheng/ Wild Tea.
First infusion has rubbery fruity long taste and is immediately apparent that this is Yesheng/ wild tea. Minutes long berries finish sugar layers and berries taste. Subtle rubbery mild here. Sugar lingers on breath with stronger chest swelling big qi expanding feeling.
Second infusion has a berries and faint hard to grasp rubbery. Sugary pop long spice berries finish long breath. Big chest feeling almost jitteryness energy boost again had the Qi and long breath finish of a Yesheng.
Third infusion is left to cool and has a nice very sweet sugar and berries and faint rubbery long breath sugar finish. Uplifting energized high boost.
Fourth infusion has a rubbery sweet woody sugar and berries. Strong chesty feeling and high. Long breath taste of rubbery sweetness.strong intense energy boost high to the point of jittery.
5th is left to cool and is a sweet sugary berries long rubbery sweet taste big face sweating and chest beating uplifting high feeling. Big inside strong intense high feeling.
6th is left to cool is a sweet rubbery sugar sweet taste with long sugary woody rubbery minutes long cooling sweet taste and profound mind high feeling almost jittery. Mind melt and useless feeling.
7th I got back to flash steepings the next day… they are sweet with ashy woody berries sugar slight rubbery. Long sweet rubbery aftertaste with cooling throat.
8th is a long thermos…
