pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
This morning I started out with EoT 2006 Da Xue Shan. I found it unremarkable, so I stopped short. Played with time and temp but all I got was a monotone sheng taste with a little age on it.
I moved on to 2014 YS Yi Bi Village. I actually liked this one quite a bit and could see myself buying a cake for a daily drinker. It’s got a nice balance of sweet and bitter with that good vegetal young sheng taste. I enjoyed rolling around mouthfuls of this medium viscosity, silky brew. The tea left me calm with no negative body feels on a somewhat empty stomach. Huigan was long and sweet. I used 200F/93c water with a 1:20 ratio in yixing. I didn’t track the steeps exactly but something along the lines of 10/10,10,20,20,20,30,1min,2min,3min. At the three minute mark the mouthfeel is dissipating but the flavor is nice and sweet. The longer steeps resulted in light astringency on the end of the tongue that morphs into sweetness.
Was worried because I ran out of tea yesterday and still three weeks away from going home.
Went searching in china town here in Luanda Angola. and guess what found several sources of cheap Puerh tea cakes. That one is out in the air now
I’m waiting till sundown and I’ll try the Jin Jun Mei looks very like Kimichi slight pleasant smoky aroma to it.
Just bought a half kilo tin of Jin Jun Mei, seems like quality stuff, smalls absolutely great 10 bucks!
Also a Meng Hai you yu cake – don’t know if its ripe or raw! has number 357 on it. 12 bucks only
Anyone tried it??? advice please
Usually the best thing to do with unknown puerh is to dump them in the garbage can. It is inadvisable to purchase any more puerh before learning some basics about them.
This is only my second week – I’m exploring. This may be factory grade/mass market tea.
Not going to brew it this week. will leave it till I return to UK on leave.
Since you live in HK, it’s curious that you’re in Luanda, which I hear is as expensive as HK, a city like Dubai at least in terms of being a money-laundering and some such place. Is that your impression?
It is very expensive here, a 12" pizza is about 28 bucks, 35 if you want shrimps. Don’t know about money laundering – my money sure gets flushed from my pocket quickly enough though.
(my home is UK not HK btw)
In other shops a saw several other labeled Puerhs – none with English script on them hence I ask if I can post pics of them.
Only one said in English Anning Haiwan tea co.
Cwyn – don’t think it’s the weight
Dave – not mini cake.
here’s a pic https://ibb.co/mFyHR5 (hope that works)
357 is definitely the weight. I don’t have good Menghai wrapper recognition skills, so I’ll let other solve that mystery.
Nice to see new faces!
I’ve never seen that before. I think it would be work a try, contrary to more professional opinions. It’s a ripe cake. It says— Know Taste (zhi wei), which sounds like a prudent admonition.
I’ve def. never heard of that factory, but often these no names actually get their stuff made by better known factories or the factories themselves make up brands. I haven’t figured that out yet, but I don’t think they have either.
Mei Leaf’s Monocle Boss for the first time. Too soon to comment yet. Need some more time with it.
Its been a WHILE since I connected here. I took my last piece of the 1996 CNNP Green Mark Te Ji Ripe for the last ride. I over leafed quite a bit for a 100ml jian shui gaiwan, about 10-12gms. This tea is very thick and rich in the front with caramel and molasses shinning though the woody/earthy base, there’s a nice bitterness that is both woody and earthy and can get leathery when steeped strong or like this time over leafed. If this tea could only hold its ground for 2-3 steeps more I would be the owner of several cakes, it usually dies completely by 6-8th steep.
I agree with you on all counts. It’s great through 5 steeps, maybe 6 if not pushed too hard early on. I bought a cake four years ago when it was a little cheaper, but won’t be replacing it when it’s gone.
Same here, I glad I got to try it a few times, but I’m can’t justify the current tag for what it does.
So this morning was the first time time that the Zhongcha ’07 HK Returns Cake tasted like the ’07 brick, the morning after running it about four times yesterday. Mostly this cake has just pissed me off: a gentle bitterness with the fragrance of sweet dried grass and light muskmelon aftertaste with heavy astringency. Now this morning for some reason the medicinal notes and the spiced cookie taste is showing through. Incidently, a few weeks back after overnighting the brick, the taste was almost completely of camphor, tasting like some very herbal cough medicine.
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