pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
Going hard today, I opened with W2T’s Rocket Yiwu and followed it up with ChawangShop’s 1998 CNNP “You Le Qiao Mu”.
The winner? Definitely me.
Drank most of what was left of my sample of the 2015 Poundcake from W2T earlier. It was good – very sweet – but I didn’t like it as much as a lot of other people seemed to. I think I prefer the Little Walk cake actually, which is nice as it’s more affordable. I’m not sure how much I like my shengs to be purely sweet – some bitterness is good.
Currently drinking the first sheng I ever bought, a 2007 (or 2008?) Xiaguan Feitei toucha I bought from What-cha. It’s quite good, and I look forward to looking back at my first review to see what I made of it before I had developed at least a bit of a palate for raw puerh. Drinking it with the lady-friend right now, so not taking notes or anything, but I might do another session of it later tonight and pay more attention.
2016 immortal monkey shou from YS tea club. literally looks like an orangutan pressed into a cake.
Check out those hairs!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHtDyS8Bi_8/
it also smells a bit like an animal as well lol. A bit funky fresh but drinkable and straight shooting shou taste
some detail because instamagrams ruined the compression:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHtEUKSBLYD/?taken-by=russell_alderton
I have a feeling I will like it but then again I have liked past Yunnan Sourcing ripe productions and don’t expect this to be different.
Yeah im drinking the 2015 Hui Run right now, and it has a nice complexity in its flavour.
I burst out laughing reading that description. I’ll probably buy some during the next everything sale
Today I drank a loose ripe puerh blend from a local tea store called Silk Road Puer from The Pleasures of Tea. It is a blend with peppermint, cloves, and licorice root. It was neither spectacular or really bad. It was somewhere in the middle towards the good end of the spectrum. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor and little bitterness along with a sweet note. Of the additions the cloves tasted strongest, followed by the peppermint. I really didn’t notice the licorice. When I bought I I didn’t look closely to even realize it was a blend. I noticed the aroma of the tea which is quite nice. I don’t think I would buy this again but am not upset having bought 2 ounces of it.
Today was my turn to sip a Shijuan sheng. In this case 2016 Zhang Ye Cang Xiang. A very nice tea despite its young age.
Tomorrow is the turn of 2016 Bosch. Am I looking forward to this one or what? ;-)))
MrMopar where do you find space to store it all? I have the serious problem that I may have to get rid of some puerh before I can buy much more. I am out of space.
I have secret spaces hidden around everywhere. No more pumidors so I really have to choose now.
2016 version was slightly bitter in the beginning but that is probably because I oversteeped the earlier steeps. Great viscosity and it lasted many steeps including its excellent aroma. Too early for further conclusions as this tea only reached UK few days ago after a long trip from China.
Bitterleaf’s 24K Da Xue Shan huangpian. Never before have I typed a sentence fragment that seemed more encoded than that.
First huangpian experience, and so far. so good! Not for the days I have hours and want tremendous nuance, but oddly enough, not every day is like that!
Fairly sweet with a bit of bitterness, floral notes early turning vegetal in later (or oversteeped) rounds.
Better texture than I might have expected. Not much body feels.
Edit – also, more towards thirst-quenching than thirst-producing, if that makes sense.
Glad you liked it!
One thing about this tea that we don’t mention anywhere is that it is from an unsorted picking that included a lot of huang pian and was just never sorted. Basically there’s some “actual tea” in there too, if that makes any sense. It’s certainly not as strong or enduring as a full on DXS tea (especially old tree), but it’s also far lower in price. On the other side it has a lot more depth than typical huang pian. It kind of straddles the two, I feel.
Fascinating – not having had it before, I just figured some leaves looked less “yellow” was part for the course!
While I didn’t mention it here, I also 3njoyed your Dragon’s Blood. Looking forward to getting to know more of your teas.
Any idea when/if your LBZ will be for sale? I likely can’t afford a cake, given LBZ prices, but I don’t want to pay shipping twice, so it could come to head where I’ve finalized my selection but am still indefinitely waiting….
Yeah, this tea cheats a bit by having some non-huang pian in there ;)
The Ban Zhang will be available soonish. We’re just waiting on some outer labels for it, but we’ll try to have it out within the next month or so.
As for price, we promise to not make it outrageously high (I suppose that’s relative!), but of course it won’t be a “budget” cake either. We’re fortunate that his tea has been held by family since the same year it was pressed (2006, pre-LBZ explosion), so I think it’s an opportunity to make it attainable for people who might not get the chance to try it otherwise. We’ll try not to keep you waiting too long!
A red chard sour! I was trying to place that smell conjured when I closed my eyes, as the gai of the wan was uncovered piping. 2006 Tulin Yinhao Tuo Cha. Total destruction for the stomach. Goes down like a thinner version of chloraseptic and lingers, and lingers, and lingers. Gets you thinking about the next round. Should you do it?
Today it was the turn of White2Tea 2016 teadontlie sheng sample. I understeeped it a bit to avoid the astringency described in its website. Lovely mild taste and ‘oily’ according to my colleague’s words. It is still too early for final conclusions as these teas only landed in UK a couple few days ago.
I’m having some Jing Gu “Zi Cha” Purple Pu-erh from YS which is my first purple Pu I believe. It retains the same lovable qualities of a Sheng (smooth, sweet, floral) but with a deeper colour. I would also say it was forgiving, I had one steep for over five minutes and it was still not astringent. Nothing special but worth the price, also the oversteep got me a little tea drunk!
That sounds nice. Something I often do with cheaper teas is see how they perform when pushed. Some will fight back by getting too bitter or astringent or whatever, some will be basically unaffected, but others will give you some nice bonus effects, that you normally might have to pay for. Which is to say, sometimes an “oversteeped” cheaper tea is more appealing than it’s more expensive counterpart. Sometimes.
I can see the use of that. Plus in my case it made me a little tea drunk so I know that for next time. Long steep it for a boost.
Drinking some of my 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Wu Liang Ye Sheng cake. I love how easy it is to drink this – one of the reasons I bought a whole cake. Refreshing citrus flavors abound – I haven’t had another sheng with such noticeable lemony notes before. I notice them more when I use like 8.5g for 100mL, rather than my normal 7g.
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