Tasting a sheng and a shou puerh tea for the first time can be really confusing. "Wait, what? These are the same kind of tea?" Well, yes and no. Puerh is considered to be a type of tea, but really, it's two types of tea (sheng and shou), one of which (sheng) can be further subdivided into two categories (young and aged). Yikes!
Thankfully, telling a young sheng and a shou apart is easy. The former is bright and often bittersweet, while the latter is often dark and rich and coffee-like in flavor.
Telling an aged sheng and a shou apart? Much. Much. Harder. However, with knowledge of some general taste leanings with unfermented (young sheng) puerh and fermented (shou and aged sheng) teas, you can tell a young sheng apart from a fermented puerh.
Below, you'll find common taste descriptors for these two categories. Keep in mind that tasting descriptors for puerh can get pretty exotic. OK, OK, so you probably don't know what leather tastes like... but you DO know what is smells like. Keep your olfactory-taste connection in mind when reading these descriptors and they'll make a lot more sense. (See also: How to Taste Tea)
Young Sheng Tea Taste Descriptors
- Astringent / bitter (potentially a good sign for long-term aging)
- Bittersweet
- Flowers
- Fresh leaves
- Grassiness
- Green grapes (sour)
- Jungle-like notes
- Light
- Minerals, rocky notes
- Peach pit, stone fruit, slightly unripe fruit
- Smoke
- Spring water
Shou & Aged Sheng Tea Taste Descriptors
- Cave-like notes
- Coffee (a smoother one)
- Creamy (mouthfeel)
- Dark
- Dark chocolate
- Espresso
- Fallen leaves / autumn mulch
- Nuts (especially pecans)
- Leather
- Licorice / anise
- Loam / rich earth / peat moss
- Menthol / cooling minty-ness (See also: hui gan)
- Molasses / maple syrup / wildflower honey
- Moss
- Mud or mold (sometimes an indicator of poor quality)
- Mushrooms and other old-growth forest notes
- Old books / old paper
- Plum or stewed stone fruits
- Raisins, prunes and similar dried fruits
- Rocks / rocky land
- Smoke
- Wood (especially cedar)