Sheng dragon ball
Sheng compressed into individual balls of roughly seven grams, a modern format designed for single servings. It is a convenience format rather than a traditional one and ages more like loose leaf than like a cake, because the surface-to-volume ratio is much higher.
Character
A convenient way to drink sheng without breaking a cake, and an unsuitable format for long ageing — the two facts are related.
- Flavour
- Sweet, Vegetal, Woody
- Aroma
- Honeyed
- Mouthfeel
- Full bodied, Complex
- Complexity
- Moderate
- Notes
- honey, green wood, smoke
- Aftertaste
- Sweet with a bitter edge.
Bold intensity: full-bodied, astringent or bitter enough to lead the cup.
Provenance and production
- Origin
- China
- Region
- Xishuangbanna
- Oxidation
- Not applicable
- Post-fermentation
- Natural ageing
- Harvest
- Spring
- Processing
- Withering → Kill-green (fixation) → Rolling and shaping → Sun-drying (shai qing) → Compression → Ageing and storage
Brewing
Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)
5–7 g/100 ml · 98–100 °C · 6 authored infusions
Western brewing (teapot or mug)
1.5–2.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea. TeaHQ does not infer one from its category, because category predicts caffeine poorly — matcha and gyokuro carry more than many black teas.
If you like this
Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.
Editorially linked
Someone wrote down why these two belong together. The note below is theirs.
- Sheng maocha
From a pre-portioned ball to the loose sun-dried leaf every cake starts as. Same material, no compression, and a much brighter cup.
- Tuocha
Both compressed pu-erh in small formats, and both often assumed to age like a cake. Neither does.
Similar sensory profile
Shares controlled flavour, aroma and mouthfeel descriptors. A looser match — two teas can share descriptors and still taste nothing alike.
- Nannuo sheng pu-erh
Shares 6 descriptors with Sheng dragon ball: sweet, woody, vegetal, full bodied, complex and honeyed.
- Shan Tuyet
Shares 5 descriptors with Sheng dragon ball: sweet, vegetal, full bodied, complex and honeyed.
- Ye Sheng black tea
Shares 5 descriptors with Sheng dragon ball: woody, sweet, full bodied, complex and honeyed.
- Aged Liu Bao
Shares 4 descriptors with Sheng dragon ball: woody, sweet, full bodied and complex.
- Aged Shou Mei
Shares 4 descriptors with Sheng dragon ball: sweet, woody, full bodied and honeyed.
- Aged white tea cake
Shares 4 descriptors with Sheng dragon ball: sweet, woody, full bodied and honeyed.
Written comparisons
Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison.
- Sun-dried vs machine-dried pu-erh — The step that decides whether a pu-erh cake can age at all, and the one a buyer cannot see. It is the most consequential invisible difference in the category.
Journeys featuring this tea
- Exploring pu-erh — Someone who has had one pu-erh, could not tell whether it was raw or ripe, and wants the map.