2018 Lucky Puppy

After how many years, I’m back :)

I found a sample of this in my humidor and decided to break it out! It was sweet, acidic, and thick. This tea really blew my mind, and after 5 years, I can’t believe I was sitting on something so remarkable.

This tea has improved so much over the past couple years! The leaves are long and stout and loosely compressed. You can easily pick up floral tones and a soft fruitiness from the leaves. Your gongfu session will begin with a soft and sweet Citrine liquor that will evolve into so many different things. In a short span of five steepings, I was able to pick up white pepper and kuwei to floral and apricot and on to bok choy and cream. This is a varying tea with a lot of layers. The clear constant is a thick mouthfeel with some nice viscosity. I noticed this puerh does best when pushed slightly, so you may want to add a few additional seconds on your steeping. I also found that the qi is quite varying; one moment I’d have high levels of energy, and the the next I was lulled to relaxation. This is a unique brew that I had a lot of fun tasting. I’m not sure if I’d seek a cake out, for I feel the price-point is a bit high. This is only due to my own personal preference; I’m sure others would jump at grabbing this cake!

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Today, I had my second session with Lucky Puppy. It is a long time since the first one, but as soon as I started drinking it, memories of the old one started cropping up. This tea is quite simply special, I can’t think of any other one that comes close to its complexity. My notes will only scratch the surface of the range of experiences you can get from it. But this tea really has everything. It is also very tasty, and a great tea all round, not just by virtue of its depth and elusive nature.

The aroma is still quite green and spring-like with notes of wet earth, dandelion, wheat, cocoa, bread crust and cinnamon among others. Towards the end of the session, marine and roast beef aromas come to the fore.

The taste profile of early infusions is grassy, tart, and metallic with a quinine like bitterness that persists and a lasting huigan. It is a very strong, complex, and evolving taste, yet it remains well-balanced. There are flavours such as artichoke, cactus, tangerine, asparagus, citrus zest, nutmeg, and wood. The aftertaste is vegetal, tart, and sweet with a subtly floral character. There are notes of green beans, dry grass, char, and honey.

Later parts of the session sees more of a juicy and spicy profile with a nice umami and an enhancement of the woody and nutty aspects. New notes like pine, sandalwood, cloves, bell pepper, and green apple emerge. Aftertaste displays new flavours as well, the ones I picked up on include bok choy and custard. In late steeps, the bitterness returns again, but in slightly different form. There is also an interesting white wine vinegar like acidity.

The body of the liquor ranged from medium to full and the texture is actually also more dynamic than in vast majority of teas one encounters. It is very numbing and tickling initially, with a sort of burning acidic sensation at the back of my mouth and in the throat. Somewhere around the middle of the session, it becomes airy and fleeting and it rolls off the tongue very easily. Progressively, I get more dryness on the side of the mouth. Later on, the mouthfeel becomes very soft, mouth-watering, and bubbly. In the very late infusions, it is then mostly creamy.

Drinking Lucky Puppy puts me into a peaceful state and elevates my mood, but the cha qi is not particularly strong for a tea of this price point. It is heady and also seems to have a bit less than average amount of caffeine.

This was a good tea. I think even inexperienced puerh drinkers would appreciete it, especially those who fancy greens or green oolongs. Worth a sample to at least have a high grade reference.

While it has been all too long since I’ve reviewed a tea, there shouldn’t be any excuses but hey… why not use this tea to just write a short story right?
So, fiance and I split up a few months ago and I decided to continue on with my dreams so I bought my first house and at that point I was literally left with dollars to my name living paycheck to paycheck like I had in the past. A great experience to be honest. Then my best friend past away two months after. Now my parents are moving and I’m helping them with that transition in life. There’s a ton going on between all of that, but guess what? Since I have a house, I have a tearoom!
So two weekends ago I had a crazy puerh party and someone brought a sample of this over. I gave them a sample of Naka to take home for sharing this too :)
So to start with the aroma of the dry leaf is somewhat like bubblegum. Very sweet and perfume like. The steeps of this gradually build up in bitterness while keeping the very nice sweetness which to me is a clear indication that the material in this cake is solid to drink now and age further down the line. Personally I would dry store this to keep the floral aspects alive and the sharp sweetness, but personal preference is always there. Compared to the boutique offerings in Taiwan that I’ve been going through, this is right up there and I find it similar to a smaller known production of XZH that I have. Very enjoyable with a price that reflects it as well. Wish I could see a full cake to really evaluate it because this year I may be able to buy 2 or 3 cakes total due to investments but overall this is one that is worth sampling with friends, buying for special sessions, or splitting. Lots of opinions of course, but hey I really enjoyed this one!

Another masterful blend from Two Dog. Flavorwise, perhaps the most complex I’ve tasted from W2T. It almost reminds me of a port or Choya plum wine with hints of camphor and tulip poplar honey. Thick and cooling like a Lincang, fruity and muscle relaxing like a Naka or Kunlu but not really reminiscent of either. This kind of reminds me of the Into the mystic only much much better. I imagine that dry aged 20 yrs this stuff will be pure heaven. The qi is just nice…real nice. It is a little pricey especially for a mystery tea but I’m pondering a cake of this or the not listed tea The Box, which is even more expensive but has the most bombastic qi I’ve ever experienced.

Since I am the first person to write about their experience with this tea here, I am going to use that as license to ramble… because that seems like fun to me, and I like the sound my keyboard makes when I type stuff… but out of courtesy for those who have no desire work through my muddled blathering, I will confirm now what you most likely already suspect… this is a REALLY nice tea.

As a side note, I don’t measure my tea, I eyeball it. I’m guessing I put 7 g or so in my 100 mL gaiwan. Started with 5 second (or less) steeps.

Here I sit… Notebook out, pen in hand… anticipating a new experience with a high tier tea.

wet leaf aroma: vegetal, artichoke

1st steep: very light flavor – delicate, but fills the mouth. Rich and thick, subtle notes of tobacco and artichoke. No drying or astringency. My whole body feels good, all of a sudden I’m in a good mood.

2nd steep: a bit more strength behind the flavors but very far from overpowering. I’m catching a slight note of sweet/sour – it is elusive though… cant quite put my finger on it.

3rd + 4th: feels so good in my mouth and body. I’m relaxed and focused. I feel warmth at my temples.

5th: this tea is so smooth. The flavors are subtle and delicious. I seem to have lost the touch of sweetness that I had on the second steep.

6. Hearty… like stew. I’m catching a glimpse of the sweet/tartness again – actually… reminds me of sweetarts candy

~went for a short walk to refill my kettle. I feel good. Healthy, vital, powerful (in a kind/loving way, not a BWAHAHAHA type of way)

7. mild astringency, but the sweetness is shining a bit brighter now. The tobacco and artichoke flavors are little more than a light fragrance at this point.

8. feeling some slight perspiration on my face. Mild astringency is still present – sweetness is still subtle, no longer tart.

9. Steeps are getting annoyingly long… I market myself as a super patient person… and for the most part that’s accurate, but certain things, like having to wait almost a minute for tea, it drives me nuts. Lots of sweetness now, like elote candy, but with out the chili powder.

10. This tea could have been named “happy soup” – thick, rich, pleasing, feels good in the body. The sweetness has mysteriously vanished – totally savory now. If you can’t tell… Im totally tea-lit right now.

11. Sweet again! keeping me guessing… perhaps I should start keeping track of when I reboil…

12. (not a fresh boil) – Savory. I can sort of see where the sweetness is hiding… like getting a bit of carrot in a big meaty bite of stew.

13. This tea is running out of life… (more accurately, I’m running out of patience for steeps… Instagram can only keep me occupied for so long) still delicious though. I reboiled before this steep and it is sweet again… sticky and sweet

14. Yeah, I went one more. it tastes so nice I didn’t want to quit… and figuring out what to drink after this is tough. this has been a bit of an adventure!

15. so… after transfering all of these notes from paper to computer, I figured… what the heck, this tea is really nice – lets give her another run. I put a fresh kettle to boil, and, after a quick rinse to warm everything back up (even the rinse water had a pleasant sweetness to it) I let it sit for a while while I had a small snack. Not much left in terms of flavor, but it has a pleasant aroma, and great mouth-feel. quite nice.

All and all…. a great experience!