2010 Chen Sheng Yi Hao

The flavor was mostly tobacco, in a fairly nice way, sweet and almost fruity. A few of the middle steeps got unpleasantly cigarette-ish, but then it recovered and got sweeter and richer again.

Intense tobacco still isn’t really my favorite flavor, but I liked this one anyway because the energy was really nice – I felt energized and floaty, some head pressure, shivery, buzzed. Tingly/almost numb at the edges of the tongue and moving into the cheeks. Comfortably awake and happy.

I got a sample of this from a TU order a while back. It is a bit of a mean one. The dry leaves have an innocent enough sweet/floral aroma, but after a rinse, the scent is more savory with a touch of smoke.

My session with this one did not go so well. I don’t think I brewed it the best way I could’ve, as it was a bitter and slightly astringent bomb that wreaked havoc on my gut. Flavor was bitter with some honey and slight fruitiness – light smoke in the first few infusions. The mouth feel from this was quite tingly. I’m going to have to give this another try with a full stomach and more respect. It is definitely one that needs some more age, and I can’t imagine drinking it fresh.

I very rarely have any problems with tea making me feel unwell, but this one just kicked me in the gut and then bludgeoned me over the head while I was bent over. Qi was intense in the head and upper torso – had to take a couple breaks along the way. Perhaps one to drink more slowly.

The Trails of LBZ, Case 4 of 6
(Liquid Proust search for his favorite laser beam zensheng)

I was told this one is a blend and not pure LBZ, but that’s fine :)

First brew was ‘eh’, but I was drinking this for kick/effect. A little smokey in taste which I didn’t expect, but it seems that the tea lost that taste as it opened up. A little more of the storage taste came out with some more depth.

At about the eighth steep I knew this was going to be a more milder tea than the others that I had tried. Some feels to it, little in the head and more around the upper body. Quite enjoyable, but nothing compared to the first LBZ I drank during my trials which about rendered me unable to walk and thinking didn’t occur for awhile.

Most noticeable in regards to taste of aged and storage though.

7 grams of this gave it up early with a heavy Bulang brew. Leaf quality is excellent for a factory cake, many buds. Supposedly this tea cake contains 10% Laobanzhang. In my observation, I would say the 90% Spring Bulang is carrying the cake flavor-wise, and the LBZ is chop, appears to be either autumn or summer or just leftover chop used as filler. I get the full flavor of the bitter Bulang with apricot tones. The leaf has a sourish smell, and the soup is cloudy which tells me the beeng is busy fermenting.

The leaf quality and flavor bring to mind white2tea’s Amerykah cakes, and other higher quality Bulang I’ve tried. Gave out around 8 steeps for me, after that I could push it and get the bitter but not much depth left.

A point of ponder for me is the current price tag. It is $129 for 400 g at Tea Urchin which puts it on par with white2tea price-wise, aside from any reassurance people might get from the testing white2tea does on their cakes. One can expect the price of this cake to go up yearly. However, I don’t think the LBZ in the cake, which is what will drive the price tag, is enough here to justify the price. For me the question is whether I want to pay $129 for Bulang. Even though this would age well, I’m more inclined to purchase a decent 7542 factory recipe with 10 years age on it at this price point, and look for an all-Bulang cake at a far lower price. I’d feel more comfortable with this cake at around $80-90 which won’t happen because of the LBZ. The truth though is this is really a Bulang cake in the end in terms of how it goes with flavor now and later on.

Overall this cake needs 15 years which is too long and a deciding factor for me. However, I’d look around if I’m in the market for a young Bulang to age, I think I can do better on the price.

Thank you to the good tea friend who gave me this sample. I would say that this is good tea, but that would be an understatement. I think that this may be the tastiest sheng puerh I have ever drank. I drank it without any sugar, which is unusual for me. I’d say it got less bitter as I resteeped it but that would suggest it had any noticeable bitterness at all. There was no noticeable bitterness to this tea from the first steep. It was sweet from the beginning with notes of apricots and stonefruits along with I think a little bit of smoke. This tea also seemed to have a potent qi, it had quite an effect on me, I was almost teadrunk. I have to obtain a cake of this when I have the budget for an order from Teaurchin.

I steeped this eleven times in a 120ml gaiwan with 6.1g leaf and boiling water. I steeped it for 10 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, 2 min, 2.5 min and 3 min. I still have the leaves to this and may resteep it a couple more times tomorrow.

Brews a golden brown. Definitely a strong flavor, citrus and smoke in perfect proportion. Very high quality leaves. Some good bitterness, a little huigan, but I keep tasting a pronounced sourness which to me is a flaw. It is a pretty good tea, but I personally didn’t like it as much as the other reviewers.

This is a tea to savor and enjoy! Sampling before I make the final decision to purchase a full cake (punch line first – no question about the purchase now). The dry leaf is beautiful – light compression means lots of intact full leaves. Color is what I would describe as “mousy” brown.
While the aroma is enticing (sweet with a fruity overtone), of course sipping the tea soup provides the greatest pleasure – sweet, soft and creamy in the mouth with a pleasant swallow. There is a very gentle kuwei [pleasant bitterness] which I thoroughly enjoyed. Roughly 12 steeps and the tea continued to give – smooth until the very end. Cannot wait to get a whole cake to savor and enjoy over the years to come.

Seeing how the puerh of the day post has been going I decided to break this one out. It will actually be my second tasting of this cake. It seems loosely compressed so I was able to break out 10 grams very easily. I am using the Gaiwan to keep it pure in essence. I did a very short rinse, actually pouring the water out once it covered the leaves. I let it set about 20 mins or so to open up. it has a nice green pea aroma to it when I opened the lid up. I did 3 short 5 second steeps and put it all in one cup. this is not a subtle sheng but a tongue tingling honey sweet shot of mouth-feeling tea that will excite your tongue. It trails off with a slight enjoyable bitterness and this is one you can feel after you drink it. This is a very lively tea that I probably shouldn’t drink this late at night. This really a fine tea. Camphor ,citrus and some slight pine on the taste buds.