111 Tasting Notes
Shipyard used to make a beer called Fuggles IPA. ( I don’t know if they still make it or not because new ridiculous hipster beers with peanut butter, pomegranates etc with ridiculous alcohol content has pushed many a solid traditional brew off the shelf). Shipyard Fuggles IPA had a thick caramely body balanced by a woody bitterness and resiny aniseedy flavor. Nothing really complex but satisfying. In early steeps this tea has these attributes, thick, sweet body with balanced bitterness, anise and wood. The qi is relaxing but not overwhelming. The tea is solid and good but for a wild tea of this age I’d prefer a more attitudinal Wuliang which would be a bit cheaper as well.
When tasting the first steep my thoughts were like “oh great…another POLITE tea” as is was so mild and subtle. Funny thing is halfway through that steep my eyebrows became noticeably heavy…this was indeed peculiar. Second steep, notes of the Hawaiian Lehua honey my mom gave me began to emerge and this tea began to make sense. First steep had no notable huigan but this second steep made up for it. Third steep is thick with more honey and perhaps a bit of woodiness. At this point my whole body is limp and grinning at the floor pondering the patterns in the tiles. Now I’m at steep 10 and the tea is fading out as I ponder taking a hike as I have cabin fever from being cooped up with a stomach bug that’s finally relented after 5 days…will I venture out into the winter air or will I sit here and drink more tea? Decisions decisions….
Until a couple years ago I was a black tea fanatic, particularly 2nd flush Darjeelings, Assams and Fujian blacks. I typically drank them western style with cream. When I got into drinking young sheng gongfu style I quickly determined that a good young Yiwu gushu is what Darjeeling wanted to be when it grew up. I bought some samples of this stuff in 2017 and was impressed with it western style…of course I should be at over a buck a gram! Yesterday I found this in a cupboard and decided to do a gongfu batch in a gaiwan 2g to 60ml 90c. I must say this is the best tasting unaged tea I’ve ever had. Better than young top tier sheng from WanGong. It explodes with tropical fruit, wildflowers and honey. Every steep is amazing and different…but there is no cha qi and for this price I expect that. Would I buy this tea at this price again? Maybe. The flavors are truly remarkable but this tea is at a price point where I expect to get some funky body feels.
Another masterful blend from Two Dog. Flavorwise, perhaps the most complex I’ve tasted from W2T. It almost reminds me of a port or Choya plum wine with hints of camphor and tulip poplar honey. Thick and cooling like a Lincang, fruity and muscle relaxing like a Naka or Kunlu but not really reminiscent of either. This kind of reminds me of the Into the mystic only much much better. I imagine that dry aged 20 yrs this stuff will be pure heaven. The qi is just nice…real nice. It is a little pricey especially for a mystery tea but I’m pondering a cake of this or the not listed tea The Box, which is even more expensive but has the most bombastic qi I’ve ever experienced.
Interesting. I think I enjoyed this more than most high end Lao Man’e offerings (although pu-erh.sk Lao Man’e maocha was phenomenal this year) because I like complexity in tea and I find most Lao Man’e to taste of quinine and slate but not much else, bitter, powerful and intoxicating but give me BaKaNan or Naka over it any day. This stuff otoh being Huangpian starts off tasting like sweet tobacco and tamarind for the first 4 steeps then the bitterness hits and it starts tasting like the Lao Man’e I’m used to…not Huangpian but regular cake. The energy is pretty good and warming too. Not something I’d break out often but I think this would be awesome snow shoveling tea…
When I received this tea it had a sour lactic acid twang indicative of too dry of storage. Remembering that I fixed a similar problem with the 2006 Xigui by breaking it up and humidifying it in a canister (thus making it at least as good as the 2005 Naka that’s 3x more expensive) I decided to try this with this tea…and upon steeping was immediately reminded of my favorite fishing hole in early June. There is a huge patch of wild spearmint and multiple types of berry bushes blooming in June . There is also an aroma of decaying willow branches. That’s the character I get from this tea…very contemplative. Of course my dad drank a little and gets white wine and herbs so get a sample and decide yourself.
Has anyone bought a brick of this tea and put humidity on it for a while? I’m half tempted to do this and would have at the old price of $70 but am leery of the gamble at $125 as the qi is stellar but the taste is so so.
I bought a 10 gram sample and stored in a humidified crock for a week, did 2 rinses and rested it about 20 mins. Early on I’m greeted with sour flavors telling of a tea that was stored too dry for too long. I also get flavors reminiscent of Skoal chewing snuff which to me is the signature flavor of fairly young dry stored 7542. After the 5th steep, the sourness is gone and the cheap tobacco flavors give way to notes of good cigar tobacco, raisins and figs. After 12 steeps I’m totally glued to the couch blasting Leonard Cohen tea drunk as anything I’ve had that’s under 30 yrs old. Judging from the qi and the thick stems I have little doubt of the claim that this is old tree from LBZ (or a surrounding village like BaKaNan). I also suspect that another 10 yrs of somewhat damper storage will transform this tea into a real monster. At $1.25g I’m almost willing to gamble.
The WMD was one of my favorite teas of 2017 and this years is up there as well…but I’m a big fan of Mansa teas as they seem to combine the floral notes of Yiwu area teas with the backbone of a Menghai. This tea is no exception. This years WMD is very similar to how last years tasted this young except last years was fruitier early on while this years has a more vegetal pea soup character akin to a Japanese sencha or gyokuro. This seems like a common theme this year. Teas that had lots of apricot notes the past few years seem vegetal and minerally this year. Don’t know if it’s different climatic conditions or what. This tea steeps forever and bitter vegetal oily sage and camphor notes fade to sweet orchid and lemongrass. Potent, meditative energy emerges from this tea starting with a tingle in the forehead then spreading through whole body. I see why some monks believe that to drink the good stuff and not meditate afterward is a waste. This is a small vendor that sources a modest but diverse assortment of teas. All are worth sampling but this one is the flagship.
Nice floral and fruit notes with a subtle backdrop of camphor and mild bitterness. Nice balance and quite refreshing. There is a honey like sweetness that grows in later steeps. Not super thick and oily but not thin either. The qi present and uplifting but not brain zapping either. A fine tea to sip while lazing around the garden on a summer afternoon. I examined the leaves after steeping this out and the stems were nice and thick . Pretty bud heavy too. Very nice material for the price and well processed as well. I’d recommend this tea for sheng beginners who are transitioning over from green and white teas.
