286 Tasting Notes
Rounding out my tour of puerhshop teas this weekend, I tried this 7542 clone tea. The cake looks beautiful. Smells smoky. The tea is quite strong, I had to trim my usual over stuffing of the gaiwan. The first infusion was smoky like a lapsang souchong. But it was fun to taste! It took several infusions just to tame the smoke. Later infusions were also smoky, but much less so. Kind of a fun tea to try, the leaves were good and held up for at least 10 solid infusions. I don’t know if it is really like a 7542, certainly not in terms of smoke.
Trying my first Puerhshop tea this morning. This is one of their house cakes. It is pretty good, I’d say. The leaves seem of good quality. It produces a thick yellow soup. Just a little astringency. Nice flavor, good body, and holds up well for many infusions. Currently sells for $47 for a full size cake. That seems a fair price for a tea of this quality. I’m getting the impression it may not age that well, but I have little experience to base this on. Worth a sample if you are placing an order.
Full steam ahead!!! This has got to be the most hopped up I’ve ever gotten from drinking a tea. I bought this on a whim, since the description implies it is similar to Mangfei teas. I love the Yunnan Sourcing Mangfei teas, which also get me quite hopped up, so I thought I’d give this one a try. It is pretty good. It holds up well, has a nice golden color. Some sweetness, astringency that you might expect in a young tea, and good all around flavor. It’s not stellar, but I like it quite a bit, especially for $22 a cake.
That cake used to be $12! Almost doubled in two years. We came about two years too late to the party.
This tea is fairly strong, bitter, and astringent, but seems like it might age well. It is sturdy. Light and crisp, citrusy, but with medium body. I wouldn’t care to drink much of it now, it is quite young. But it definitely has character. I will put it away for a few years and try it again. And it is only $17 for 200g.
I purchased this tea with a recent order from Chawangshop. It was only $6.50 for a 250g brick, and I love Langhe teas, so I decided to give it a try. It is also wrapped in bamboo, so how could I resist? It is a pretty good tea, and a great bargain. It is a light ripe, burgundy color. Not heavily fermented like other Langhe ripes I’ve tried. But it is clean tasting and has that Langhe smoothness to it. If you like light ripes, this is a great one to try.
I have to agree with Tea Urchin’s description of this tea. It is quite nice, smooth with a touch of bitterness, a little coffee type flavor. Clean and medium bodied. And it’s gushu (wild trees), so that’s a plus! A quality tea all around. This and the Lang He Yu Pin are great ripe cakes from TU, I’ve tried the other two they currently have and they are not terribly interesting.