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I brewed this tea in a more respectful fashion today than when I wrote my last note, and I ended up with 13 infusions and a bit more palatable profile. My overall impression hasn’t changed much though. It’s a nice one for a 0.1$/g Yiwu, but hardly suitable for anything other than casual drinking imo.

The taste profile is indeed pretty sweet and tart with a short-lived bitterness. Today, the flavours I wrote down in my notes include apple, meat, wood, passion fruit, straw, honey, and pattypan squash. Additionally, vanilla and lemongrass also appeared in the aftertaste which has a strong huigan for a huangpian.

When ordering from Tea Side some time ago, I tried make use of their offering of various samples of aged raw pu-erh, a category I have very little experience with. This particular one is very much an educational experience rather than anything else, which easily justifies even the price of $2 per gram. Even though I won’t be rushing to get a cake of it, I can actually see myself looking for a similarly aged tea even in this price range in the future. To a large degree, I would find its value to be in terms of being just pretty distinct from the rest of my collection. However, one thing to take into account absent other considerations is that this tea lasts about twice as long as I would expect from teas with good endurance! In this particular session, I oversteeped some of the early infusions and I still ended up with about 400ml/g eventually (the last five steeps being boiled for several minutes on a stove).

Now, the tea itself is very earthy and woody, but ultimately I think it would count as an example of a “clean” aged tea for sure. The cha qi is calming and very pleasant, but much more subtle than younger examples of premium sheng I’ve had the chance of getting to know. I don’t know if it can be partly attributed to the tea, but I did relax pretty well after a stressful week and managed to reduce the tension in my neck and back. Somehow, one of the most memorable aspects is probably the mouthfeel though. The liquor is smooth, heavy, soft and incredibly oily. It is engaging from the first infusion all the way until the last, 22nd, one.

I can’t really think of many ways to describe the aroma, but it does have a milky and woody nature throughout. One scent that stands out among my notes from the middle of the session as quite an unusual and unexpected one is rose – I am not sure if I was imagining it honestly.

The taste, on top of the underlying earthy and woody ones, displays medicinal, nutty, herbaceous and flowery notes. There are flavours like cumin, tree sap, coca leaf, nutmeg, parsnip, fenugreek, vanilla, orange blossom and others. It is pretty sweet throughout, while retaining a nice bitter bite. Late in the session, the flavour profile moves more towards the mineral and higher notes, but still keeps significant earthiness present until the end.

Early on in the session, the aftertaste is very protracted, but it starts somewhat benign and ramps up over time. It is subtle overall, not pungent in any way and yet complex and evolving. Sweet, tart and camphor like sensations dominate, with notes of fireplace, molasses and licorice among others.

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eE5Swq7N-Ns

I drank through almost my entire 50g sample before I started to ‘get’ this tea. Maybe it just needed an extended period to acclimatize though. At this point in time, the tea no longer feels like it absolutely needs more aging before one could enjoy it, even though it could definitely benefit from further fermentation. It doesn’t seem to possess a hard-hitting qi, but I actually found it to be pretty defocusing at first and body-warming overall.

The first few times I tried this tea, I found it to have a boring, bitter taste profile with a relatively light body. The latter still holds, but it’s not as problematic given that the mouthfeel is not as one-dimensional as I thought. The liquor is very soft and slick, with a bubbly texture to it that makes it an engaging drink despite the light body. 

Another point of note is that, yes, the profile is not very complex, but it’s actually quite pleasant. Vegetal and fruity notes dominate early on, while woody ones take the center of the stage in the second half. Clearly, the bitterness forms the foundation though, and medicinal notes are just about peeking through. Notable flavours include dried dates and orange. The finish is somewhat biting, and the aftertaste throat-cooling with a decent huigan as well. 

Finally, let me speak to the aromas a little. In the gaiwan I can detect mushrooms, forest, cream and grilled red peppers. The empty cup scent is pretty interesting too with notes of spiced rum and raisins. 

In conclusion, I must adjust my initial impression of the tea. Given the friendly price, this is actually a pretty good semi-aged offering from YQH, especially if it can continue to improve in the years to come.

I have been coming back to and drinking this particular white tea a lot over the last year, more than I would have expected when tasting it initially. It has a distinct character that stuck with me and which I craved on multiple occasions. I seem to enjoy its aroma more as well. It is somewhat more sweet and reminiscent of crème brûlée, coffee, and black raspberries on top of the notes I mentioned previously. The plum aroma is also fairly prominent.

The overall experience is smoother and less astringent than what I can remember from a year ago, but the taste profile is similar. It just has a bit more sweetness and woody notes. The texture is also more creamy and there is an expansive, crisp aftertaste with a lingering sugarcane flavour.

On a more general note, I am starting to realize that I really like teas from the Meng Song area. Of course, people talk a lot about Naka, and albeit expensive, Naka is great. However, it seems to me that in the surrounding areas, one can find a lot of nicely balanced and pungent tea for a fraction of the price.

This is a one of the most woody ripe pu’er teas I’ve encountered. Especially in the aroma there is a strong note of wood chippings, complemented by grape juice and red currant.

The taste is a little fishy / marine at first but also very clean. It gets more mineral and bitter as the session progresses, displaying flavours of mead, cranberry, wood, shellfish, and betel nut. The liquor is medium bodied with a soy milk like texture and a decent astringency that is also present after swallowing as a constrictive and a little abrasive feeling in the throat and back of the mouth especially. The aftertaste is cooling, sweet and mildly sour. It lasts for a while, but lacks pungency.

I really don’t seem to care for the profile of Ya Bao, all the instantiations I’ve tried were ok at best. This one is more woody than the others, but my conclusion is similar.

Dry leaves smell of animal fur, paint, old wood and meat; while the wet ones have an aroma strongly reminiscent of wood chippings and hardware stores. The taste is woody and vegetal with prominent notes of hay and dill. The aftertaste is very short and the mouthfeel is fairly boring and watery. All in all, not my jam.

A very nice Shai Hong from Thailand here. It has a well-defined profile of the sweet woody and mineral kind and a medium to full body. One can also steep it for a long time before the extraction speed falls below an acceptable threshold.

Before the rinse I get aromas of leather and dry earth. On the other hand, wet leaves smell more sweet and spicy with notes of molasses, rose hips and incense. The liquor texture is somewhat colloidal but still pretty smooth. It does carry some decent astringency that persists into the very sweet, rustic and floral aftertaste. The primary body feeling from this tea is definitely a warming sensation that spreads throughout. It’s a very nice winter tea and it’s also good for working since it isn’t very mind numbing.

I wonder about the reasons for a tea being left as mao cha for 13 years, but at least we get to see an example of uncompressed transformation here. One thing is for sure, there are a lot of stems so the visual aspect could be one of the reasons why it didn’t get sold earlier, together with the fact that Wu Liang is quite remote and isn’t exactly renowned among tea buyers.

Overall, the tea is not bad, but not anything special either. It satisfies the itch when you want a comforting and clean stored semi-aged sheng with a very woody profile and a smooth texture. However, I feel like one can probably get a better price for comparable teas in this category as well.

The mouthfeel, for one, is pretty decent. It has a buttery character and commendable thickness. The taste is woody and tangy with medium sweetness and sourness as well as a floral bitterness in the finish. Specfic flavours include ones like bread, coriander seeds, fenugreek leaves, lavender and ash. The aftertaste is spicy, cooling and herbaceous with a protracted sour bite and a faint mushroom flavour. The hui gan is fairly weak to be honest.

Trying a new tea from Jun Chiyabari is always exciting. This one is clearly trying to go head to head against 2nd flush Darjeelings. There is no doubt imo that it can successfully compete in that category. However, it also seems to remind me a little bit of Ye Sheng black teas from Yunnan in its wet leaf aroma and of some Taiwan black teas in its aftertaste. The one thing that sets it apart is the mouthfeel, which is quite unique. The liquor is voluminous, active and very smooth, it is biting without astringency and it induces a nice warming sensation throughout the mouth.

I find that Royale Ruby benefits from longer infusion times initially, otherwise one may find that it takes a while to get going. In any case, when it does, it displays a beautiful sweet, woody and bitter character with pronounced muscatel notes. The aftertaste is cooling, sweet and floral, but without much of honey-like flavours – there are more of lighter and higher florals here.

After my third session with this tea, I can say that its cha qi is phenomenal. At first, we tend to enter into a dreamy realm, followed by a relaxed atmosphere and superb mind clarity.

The profile hasn’t changed much in the last year, I find it a bit sweeter though. There is also a more pronounced apricot flavour.

Song pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQtW4BRLQro