2011 Canton Tea Co Special Puerh

Thank you Roughage for this generous Sample!

Oh I do love Pu-erh! I admit that have so much to learn! So much fun!

How Roughage could break off a hefty amount of this Pu-erh cake to share with me…well…I am speechless (but not wordless).

The dry Pu-erh looked very dark brown with some green and gold woven in.
The instructions: Use a small pot with 3-4 grams at 203F (95C) for 20sec. Multiple infusions 6 times. (This sounded like a good morning tasting!)

I didn’t want to do 4grams so I chose 2grams (about 2tsp) and used my PIAO infuser with 5oz water.I rinsed the Pu-erh first. Each infusion was 20 seconds. The liquor was always a medium gold color.
The leaves changed color after infusion to medium green.(now that did surprise me)

I have to comment on the scent of the wet leaves. Usually this isn’t a remarkable enough event to comment on. The scent of these leaves was something special.
There is a scent that is woven in the life of my family that can be explained in a story…
A number of weeks ago, my daughter received news that the Godmother of all her children (and a beloved friend) only had a few months to live. Before telling the kids, she went to her Icon corner where she prays every morning, lit a vigil candle for her friend and prayed using a censor with incense (which she reserves for Feast Days). Up the stairs bounded Micah the 7 year old fully awake running into the middle of the room and announcing with a loud voice…
“What’s wrong?! Something smells Holy in here!” (In the middle of sorrow we had a laugh)
Ah, the power of incense. How a smell or scent can bring us to a place of full attention, or memory or quiet place.

I smelled incense in the wet leaves. It was a floral, charcoal scent that was familiar. Not the artificial too strong chemical stuff that I hated in the 60’s. Not that. The natural, faint…good kind that is natural. Very faint behind the vegital of the leaves. I never smelled this in leaves before.

1. The first scent of the tea liquor was spicy, salty, briny and vegital.
I took a sip and the tea sparkled with pepper. There was an energy that spread in my mouth tasting a little mineral with a vegital base and floral undertone that I could not understand. I was distracted by the juicy, peppery popping on my tongue, which was like this youthful tea playing a game with me. “Guess what I’m going to do next”?

2. I’m awake! I thought this was going to be an earthy Pu-erh. No, it isn’t. Then, maybe like a Sheng? No,it isn’t like that either. What is this?!
I think I know what it is at the moment.(This is my guess)
A Pu-erh that’s young and on a journey.

I used to go into the wine cave with the winemaker and tap a barrel tasting a young wine which showed the promise of what would come with aging. It might taste good now, but you could tell that with a little aging…oh, this was going to age into a fine wine.

This young Pu-erh is doing the same thing. Hinting at the future. Teasing and tempting with those hints.

2. When I tasted this time there was more fruit and more energy from the tea. Very potent.
I went back to the wet leaves and smelled them again but still could not tell what the underlying floral fruit was. I had to be content to wait with the sweet, salty light flavor thick and juicy in my mouth.

3. While the leaves were still steaming in the pot, I was able to find the fruit that had been so elusive. Nectarine. Not the sweet peachy fruit but more like the skin. I had been thinking of apricot pit but that was too bitter.
This tea was a bit vegital, spicy, juicy, vibrant and energetic. Youthful and naughty. Playful with a punch of mineral but no tannin and a touch of nectarine and briny salt.

All you Non-Pu-erh drinkers would like this. It’s a good example of why you should jump in the water and begin to get your feet wet.

This has been one huge Pu-erh learning experience for me! Loved every sip!

(I read other notes and I decided not to over pack with leaves and am
glad I didn’t. With a young pu-erh, I wanted to avoid the rough edges and get to the heart which I think you can do with a moderate amount of leaves)

Thank you so much Roughage!!!!

I believe this is the one I am drinking! LOL – A sample from Canton! If it is – it’s quite nice – very sweet – will write more once I find out for sure :)

I bought this a bit back when Canton had it on special and finally cracked the beeng yesterday. I’m not sure what I was expecting from it really, although I could not help but compare it to the 2010 Xing Hai that Canton sells for half the price. So, my thoughts?

The beeng smells lovely. I get that people will get a tobacco smell from it. For me, although there is something of pipe tobacco in it, the aroma of the beeng itself is redolent of the stableyard, just like the Xing Hai. It’s a lovely grassy horsey smell that reminds me of good times.

When I picked it apart, I got large leaves with bits of stalk. I mean some of those leaves were huge. Great stuff.

Yesterday I made it in my gaiwan: 3g of tea in a 140ml gaiwan, temp at 95 degrees as recommended on the website. With steeping times starting at 10 seconds and rapidly escalating, I found it to be on the insipid side (or delicate, if you wish to be kind). The flowery taste was there, but I got little in the way of aftertaste or depth of flavour. Shame that.

Today I opted for my dedicated sheng pot (170ml duan ni). I jammed 8g of leaf into the pot, and I mean jammed. Some of the leaves were too large to actually fit comfortably into the pot. I was going for destruction testing this time around, as far as I was concerned. I reckon I did the right thing too. The first steep was 20 seconds. It came out slightly flowery and a bit peaty. Not really fantastic, but pleasant. The second steep was also 20 seconds because I figured the first steep was a wake-up call and I was right. The taste came in a lot stronger. The peatiness and smokiness were emphasised but without killing the floral flavours. It was sweet and only just the right side of bitter. There was an aftertaste that really came into its own on the exhale, at which point my tastebuds started jumping around. Yes, that was about right for me. It reminded me of nothing so much as some of my favourite malt whiskies (without the alcohol, of course!). From that point on it was good all the way through to the sixth steeping, with some mushroom and mineral flavours developing along the way. I had to stop at that point else I shall not get to sleep tonight. Let’s see what it is like in the morning.

It seems to me that this tea likes it rough at the moment. It is robust enough to cope with some harsh treatment, and, for my taste, it needs a bit to bring out the best in it. I look forward to seeing how this tea ages, and will have to get a beeng or two more so that I can ensure a supply for some time to come.

The chance to try this tea is something very special. Unfortunately, despite how special it was, I am not honestly sure which of Canton Tea Co’ Pu’erhs this tea is. “Canton Beeng Cha” is all that the label says, and from my limited knowledge of Chinese, I know that a “Beeng” or bing is a round cake of pu’erh. “Cha” is merely “tea.” That being said, I can be sure that this is a pu’erh!

I begin this session of tea by bringing some water to a boil, after which I rise my gaiwan, small pot, and teacup to preheat them. It is pretty amazing how much of a difference preheating ones teaware can make on the taste of the tea that follows. Next, I measure out about one teaspoon of this tea into my gaiwan. I typically use more than this for gong fu brewing (quick and multiple infusions), which is what the directions on the label seem to imply, but for now we will merely follow along. I perform a quick rinse of the leaves with hot water to “open” them.

The dry leaves have a very vegetal aroma, suggesting a raw pu’erh. Yet there is an underlying smokiness and clear, fresh smell to them as well. The first 20 second infusion is performed. The wet leaves smell more malty now, yet still slightly vegetal. Much to my surprise, the tea brews a very pale green. This is very interesting, and not at all what I was expecting. This first infusion carries a very thin flavor. It is clear and fresh, with a smooth, vegetal aftertaste. As per the instructions, I go ahead and resteep the leaves, figuring that it will be different in the second infusion.

Mmm, this tea really kicks it in gear with the second infusion. The vegetal pu’erh flavor floods the taste buds. It is incredibly smooth and just slides over the tongue. I am truly impressed. I put it through several more steepings, and this tea just keeps on impressing. Normally, I prefer cooked pu’erhs to raw pu’erhs, but with a tea like this, I can hardly afford to be biased. I would give this tea an 87/100 on my personal enjoyment scale.

Pu-erh? What pu-erh? I don’t taste any pu-erh. In short, here’s what a drinker is getting into: It tastes like a Mao Jian green tea that’s been blended with lemongrass. If you like both of those things (which I do), you will most certainly love this. Is any bit of it reminiscent of a raw pu-erh? Not yet. Far too young to have that flavor profile yet. That said it is a perfect introduction for the uninitiated.

Full Review: http://lazyliteratus.teatra.de/2011/11/21/very-well-give-him-tea-cake/

Some nice sweetness in this tea, though it is very, very young and has some definite rough edges. I would imagine, however, that this could age quite nicely.