392 Tasting Notes
derk sent me some liu baos originally from White Antlers, and so I thank you both for the pay-forward and pick-me-up kick in the pants to plug back in here. I started with this one from Hei Shi village as one of the two youngest samples, and I’ll work my way older over the next couple days…
I dutifully took my little set of notes, then found derk’s notes, and had that magical feeling that someone had been right here before me. I love that.
I did not realize before I sessioned that this is unprocessed material — so to liu bao what maocha is to puerh. What a revelation and a treat to experience these flavors that transform into that classic betel-medicine profile. Though if this is 10 years old… I suppose it’s some kind of aged, hehe. I don’t know enough to understand what steps stand between this and Liu Bao writ large.
Dry leaf was old books and old fruit leather; steaming gave up baby powder, muscatel, juicy peach?, strawberry. I’ve been tending toward longer steeps lately, and a 30 second wake-up made my first pour the most beautiful. Heady fennel, vanilla, and allllmost cocoa — but not quite — I settled on malt. Gorgeous and ethereal.
Wet leaf quickly went deep to tobacco and medicinal (herbs, iodine… funny how we all recognize so simply what is such a complex olfactory hit), though the lid kept on with baby powder and vanilla. Second steep brought me to the meadow — wildflowers (derk said heather, and that is JUST the thing I was wracking my brain for — yasss!) and the gauzy bitterness of breezy grasses. The third steep brought more grass, but I found the malt again along her backbone. Guh. This wasn’t long-lived, but it didn’t need to be.
The 2013 from Buyi village is loaded into my pot now. I’m excited.
Flavors: Baby Powder, Buffalo Grass, Fennel, Fruity, Herbs, Iodine, Juicy, Leather, Malt, Meadow, Medicinal, Muscatel, Strawberry, Tobacco, Vanilla, Wildflowers
Yoinked this sample out for an easy grandpa while gaming tonight. The syrupy sweetness is underpinned by a thick handful of autumn leaf, grabbed from the bottom of a month-old pile. It’s mature and roasty and duffy in a way that not every shou mei achieves. An enjoyable and easygoing cuppa, for sure.
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Honey, Sweet
Ohhh, what game? I’m about to turn our tiny middle bedroom into a game room.
Oy, I love a board game! Last night I was just on the PC with some WoW..
My son and son-in-law both love board games! We used to play a lot – Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Munchkin, etc. Ashman and I occasionally play Rack-O and Scrabble together, and when we can get one more player, Potion Explosion. What are some of you guys favorite board games?
I liked Ticket to Ride, but played so many…
I wish I had a regular group to play with! The last game I really enjoyed was Forbidden Island — the idea of working as a team and competing against the environment was refreshing.
Hm. Another reason to move to the CA? :) (joking)
Oooooo, we have a couple of Ticket to Ride games as well as Forbidden Island! Those are good. We played Cartographer at my daughter’s house. That was pretty fun, too.
Tea and board games… not the worst reasons I’ve heard for moving, Martin!
Codenames is fun, and my brother brought a new game Hues and Cues about guessing the right color from 400 on the board.
The first puerh in a minute to inspire a note. There’s a smokiness that is, just for an instant, a whiff of old cigarette… and in the time it takes to think, “That actually… doesn’t seem appealing, does it?”… it’s gone. Replaced by fresh tobacco and lovely huigan. Full mouthfeel, yes saliva. Many steeps, handle it!
I probably bought this for the promise of smoke and an elevated experience, which is properly what I got. I couldn’t really justify $300 for any cake, but I do understand the appeal and, reluctant though I am to admit it, the price point.
Flavors: Smoke, Sweet, Tobacco
Never before would I have imagined where acetone and cocoa could overlap, but here we are. Strange but compelling.
I’ve been wrestling a bit with tea sessioning. I’m not sure if it’s the lack of moisture in the air up here, or if it’s me still trying to ground, but I’ve been chugging puerh like a champ and coming up with, “Yep… that’s puerh, all right.”
Been drinking some samples from Puerh Junky that I had been reserving as too-precious… guess I’ll get past that block by driving full-speed at it. I’m enjoying everything I’m brewing up, but very rarely being floored.
Is okay. Drink on.
I wonder if the oxygen in the water or the water source itself has anything to do with it? May you find the perfect parameters for some awesome sessions soon!
I’ve had this in my cart twice in the past year. Here I sit still liuanless.
Sitdowns are rare in the house of derk anymore. Work stress has melted my brain. May you find flooredness again!
Not for long you don’t.
I have two similarly hand-labeled envelopes of what I assume are both this same tea, likely hookup samples. Solid little black Darjeeling, withlinalool that made me realize I’ve developed a taste for linalool… and made me absolutely crave that potato-chip Darjeeling from What-Cha that I finished months ago. Sigh.
derrrrrk. Thank you for this.
The mountain air is getting chilly and the leaves are dropping in fits… I love having seasons again. I opened up my drawer of magical powdered things in anticipation of some kind of cozy-thick latte thing… ended up with a lukewarm cup of summer in front of the fire.
I maybe leaned a little light on my powder-to-water ratio here, so the faint reminiscence of Theraflu is totally on me. I always think of gooseberry as a kind of nondescript flavor, so rightly expected the passionfruit to be the leading layer…. but hot damn, if the scent of summer in the backyard - drying grass and sweaty bodies and sun-hot gooseberries - weren’t exactly what my brain found when it went digging.
I’ll save the rest of this for next summer, I think. Dreamy.
Flavors: Gooseberry, Hot Hay, Passion Fruit, Summer, Sweat
