943 Tasting Notes
[Spring 2019 harvest]
This GABA tea is pleasant, but it didn’t strike as particularly special.
Dry leaves smell of cinnamon buns and poached pear, while during the session I also get a kind of metallic scent on top of those. The taste is sweet, fruity, tannic, and lightly woody. There are notes of pear, dill, mint, and a sort of char bitterness. I found the profile somewhat disintegrated to be honest. The liquor texture is very interesting though. It has a body kind of like red wine and a foamy, chalky mouthfeel.
Flavors: Astringent, Char, Dill, Dried Fruit, Fruity, Mint, Pastries, Pear, Sweet, Wood
In the last year, this tea hasn’t changed much. It is still quite astringent with a complex profile of the vegetal and woody kind above all else. There is also a strong, almost quinine-like bitterness, nutty and grainy aspects, as well as a cinnamon spiciness.
Today, I compared it with a sample of a 2014 vintage. Interestingly, that one is a tiny bit greener in leaf colour and has a slightly lighter liquor colour, which might be either due to processing or storage (or both). Recently, I have actually moved the 2015 cake into my semi-aged sheng pumidor (for reasons of space rather than anything else), which could account for the quite different and more funky aroma.
Regardless though, the main difference I found was that the 2014 vintage has a sweeter and less complex aroma, and a more pungent taste with a heavy sweetness that dominates the aftertaste. In comparison, the aftertaste of the 2015 tea is more flowery, cooling and airy. The former has a slightly thicker body in early infusions, but the bulk of the session presents almost indistinguishable mouthfeel.
Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Cinnamon, Floral, Grain, Nutty, Spicy, Sweet, Vegetal, Wood
Preparation
An unusual shou, but not one I would be too eager to recommend unfortunately. If you are looking for a shake up to your standard shou and like savoury notes, this is definitely a good option.
The aroma is maybe the most unique and funky. When dry, leaves exude scents of red cabbage, chestnut, and malt. After the rinse (or two), I get further notes of butter, cranberries, leather, red apples, and mead / dark honey.
The taste is sweet and savoury with a little bit sour and bitter aftertaste. There are flavours of dried fruit, yeast, bamboo, soybean, sugar, earth, and leather. The soup is generally very cloudy and the mouthfeel lighter and more airy than most shou. It does get somewhat creamy in the middle of the session and a bit chalky towards the end.
Flavors: Apple, Bamboo, Bitter, Butter, Chestnut, Cranberry, Creamy, Dried Fruit, Earth, Honey, Leather, Malt, Red Apple, Sour, Soybean, Sugar, Sweet, Vegetables, Wood, Yeast
Preparation
An interesting concept – blending leaves and flowers from the same garden. The resulting tea is resinous and flowery in a way that reminds me of Oriental Beauty a little. Overall, it doesn’t strike me as an overly exciting tea though.
The aroma has a strong note of pine resin, complemented by raisins, custard and forest floor. It is a very sweet and floral scent, in line with the rest of the experience. The medium-bodied liquor displays several muted flavours such as grass flowers, fermented cabbage, and cherry wood. In the spicy, expansive aftertaste, I also detected a celery like note.
Flavors: Cherry Wood, Custard, Floral, Flowers, Forest Floor, Grass, Pine, Raisins, Resin, Spicy, Sweet
Preparation
This winter I am storing my pu’er warmer than in the past and it shows. The aroma is definitely more pungent and I consistently find the flavours more lively as well.
Among the best teas as far as such comparisons go is this cake, which I’ve had for more than two years now. It shows clear signs of aging now, such as the liquor colour moving into the orange territory. It still has a smooth, oily texture and a nice calming cha qi just as before.
The taste is a bit more nutty and displays a nice honey sweetness. Overall, it is very comforting and retains a lot of the qualities that I remember – vegetal bite, well-integrated bitterness, apricot note (a bit like an unripe one), and towards the end of the session also a marine, yeasty character. Among the new flavours I picked up today are thistles and apple, the latter especially in the aftertaste.
Flavors: Apple, Apricot, Bitter, Coffee, Floral, Honey, Marine, Nutty, Smooth, Sweet, Thick, Vegetal, Yeasty
Preparation
Nothing drastic :)
I’ve lived in a different house each winter over the course of the last few years and this year I have a room where I can keep tea at 23C as opposed to 20C or so. It makes a surprisingly large difference, even if the relative humidity is kept the same – around 65%. Of course the difference I am picking up on relates to the activity of the tea in the moment, it is hard to say how much would a couple degrees do in the long run, although Marco’s experiments suggest that quite a lot possibly.
An unusual but comforting tea, this one is. It has a complex aroma, a memorable taste, and a nicely relaxing cha qi. It might actually be the sweetest pu-erh I’ve ever had, it’s up there with aged shou mei and red oolongs in that regard. However, the sweetness is never overpowering or unpleasant. There is a good longevity to the sessions too, in line with the price category.
The main notes in the dry leaf aroma are wood, beeswax, and alcohol – and all of those keep appearing throughout the session. After the rinse, many new scents emerge, among them stewed fruits, hot hay, butter tart, earth, apple crisp, perry, and brown sugar.
The taste is likewise sweet and fruity with a mineral, tart finish. There are flavours such as grape juice, citrus, carrot, honey, and taro, besides those mentioned beforehand. The sweetness persists for a long time in the aftertaste as well. I also get further notes of pine, tropical fruits, butter, toasted nuts, chia seeds, and elderberry.
Liquor has a medium body and a buttery mouthfeel, but even when the thickest, it retains a certain lightness (in terms of weight rather than viscosity) to it. Cha qi is not overly strong, but I do get a warming and relaxing sensation overall.
Flavors: Alcohol, Apple, Berry, Brown Sugar, Butter, Carrot, Citrus, Earth, Fruity, Grapes, Honey, Hot Hay, Pear, Pine, Roasted Nuts, Stewed Fruits, Sweet, Taro Root, Tropical, Wood
Preparation
This is a nice sheng whose character is somewhat rustic, sweet and floral. In some sense it reminds me of a mixture of a more old school Yi Wu (especially in the aftertaste) and a Menghai area (Meng Song?) tea. At the same time, I also notice some similarity with Yunnanese green teas.
It has a thick buttery mouthfeel and a cha qi that is both energizing and very warming. It’s a good winter tea for such a young one and albeit sold out now, the price was very good too.
The aroma is predominately flowery and spicy with notes of bacon, thyme, and peppers. The taste is crisp, floral, and a little toasty with a bitter and nutty finish. Permeating the whole experience is a lasting molasses sweetness. In the aftertaste, it is complemented by a floral, mineral and tart flavours with notes of jasmine and rice water.
Flavors: Bitter, Floral, Flowers, Mineral, Molasses, Nutty, Pepper, Spicy, Sweet, Tart, Thick, Thyme
Preparation
Despite its fame, I haven’t had many ya shi xiang oolongs to date. This one is amazing though! It has a very sweet, bitter and mineral character, which is hard to pin down exactly. The aftertaste is very attention seeking without being overpowering in any way. It feels like it should be well-defined, yet I am unable to find the right associations to describe it.
Likewise, the aromas are very complex and elusive. Some of the notes I noticed in the dry leaf aroma include caramel, cream, and honeysuckle. After the rinse, the smell is sweet, floral with milky and vegetal undertones. Additionally, there are also hints of fish and bread.
Similarly, I also noted a mild yeasty flavour in the taste, especially in the finish. Another interesting flavour that kept reappearing is that of white currants. Overall though, as I already mentioned, it is a sweetness dominated tea with just a bit of floral notes that nevertheless intensify over time. Aftertaste is again very sweet – a bit like brown sugar – as well as mineral. Fennel and butter are among the new flavours that emerge after swallowing.
As seems to be the theme with this one, the mouthfeel is also hard to describe. At first, the liquor is both soft and chalky, and rolls around the mouth very easily. It gets pretty thick and cooling in the middle of the session too. I’d describe it as active yet elegant overall. The cha qi is warming and very pleasant; and one can get a lot of tea from these leaves in the course of one session.
Flavors: Berries, Bitter, Black Currant, Bread, Brown Sugar, Butter, Caramel, Cream, Fennel, Fishy, Floral, Honeysuckle, Milk, Mineral, Sweet, Thick, Vegetal, Yeast
A really lovely example of a GABA oolong here that has both complexity and depth that can sometimes be a bit lacking in this category. The body is medium with a lovely slick, oily liquor texture that’s super smooth at first and develops a bit of astringency in the finish. It does, nevertheless, have a subdued aftertaste. That would be my main objection with it I’d say.
As for the notes, the dry leaf aroma is a mix of cinnamon, peach, pear, danish pastries, custard, and chocolate – all blended into a pungent mix. After the rinse, scents of stone fruits, menthol, and brown sugar emerge to take over.
The taste is sweet and smooth with main flavours being represented by those of char, orange zest, and cloves. There are, however, many more fruity ones of varying intensity. In the aftertaste, I notice hints of oats, forest honey, and dried tangerine as well.
Flavors: Apricot, Brown Sugar, Char, Chocolate, Cinnamon, Citrus, Citrus Zest, Cloves, Custard, Dried Fruit, Honey, Menthol, Oats, Orange Zest, Pastries, Peach, Pear, Smooth, Stonefruit
Preparation
This tea displays a lot of gushu qualities – strong minerality, long-lasting, expansive aftertaste as well as a thick buttery mouthfeel – but it is generally very muted in flavour. As such, it is not one that would impress on the first date.
Aromas are classic and slightly skewed towards the greener side, they are mostly sweet and floral with hints of nuts, gasoline, and evergreen vegetation. The empty cup aroma is especially pungent, which manifests itself later on in the aftertaste dominating over the taste.
Flavors: Astringent, Floral, Mineral, Pear, Sweet, Thick