2006 "Pasha Mountain Gu Shu" Guangdong Aged Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake

Oof. I like this. I have been trying to be less precious with my samples, and so grabbed this on a whim and brewed it western style last night. First sip took me aback, so I gong fu’d it today to see what was up.

There is a numbing camphor belt that develops around the center of my mouth — tongue/cheeks/roof, all get to play in the halo. Nut skins, florals, dried fruit, spices, toast… it’s smooth and complex and the qi is so lovely (ie. not making me want to crawl out of my skin, a feeling I’ve been having more often than I’d like lately).

I do not need a cake, for reals and truly, but I’d spring for one of these if I did.

Edited to add: I’m drinking this western again tonight and having the same sensory experience that I’m just now remembering I had last night: “This tastes like makeup smells… in a good way.” I guess that’s baby powder and whatever eau du essences… just popping in to bookend: “I like this.”

[End sample, persued by bear.]

Very nice, full-bodied and fulfilling tea. Very balanced, with subtle storage (‘old house’) notes and dried fruity sweetness of a warming kind. Comforting.

I still have a couple of samples from derk to go through, this being one ticked off the list today. It’s a nice semi-aged tea that’s different from the ones I own in a similar age category. Instead of being herbaceuos or fruity, it is more on the nutty and bitter side.

In the aroma, I could smell some wet storage notes, but this didn’t translate into the taste. Instead, the profile was sweet, vegetal, bitter, and nutty (walnut skin, chestnut). The aftertaste was nicely warming with a touch of a camphor note to it.

I also quite liked the mouthfeel, something I often find to be a weak point of these kind of teas. It was soft and active with good viscosity, but felt light in the mouth at the same time. I also got a hint of a sedating sort of cha qi.

Aged tobacco, cream of wheat, and camphor are primary flavors. Secondary notes of hardwood, black walnut, raisin, date, and horehound. Floral and sweet mineral develops on the palate in aftertaste.

It took me awhile to get into this one. It needs some space and some attention to fully reveal itself. That said, it is pretty complex when you allow it to develop.

Rinsed once with boiling water.

First infusion was alright, generally minerally but a bit blunt with everything jumbled together (possibly because I went a bit long – 10s steep + my pot has a 10s pour time).

Afterwards, wet leaves smell like something comforting like clean tobacco / woodsmoke. Faintest whiff of light, clear honey or dried fruit.

Second infusion is nicer, clearer and more interesting notes. All three infusions not bitter or astringent, only the very slightest dry, pleasant saliva-stimulating mouthfeel.

It’s my first time brewing aged sheng pu-erh in my Yixing zisha pot and it’s been a much better experience than the young sheng I tried yesterday (2017 Autumn Da Qing Gu Shu). I guess the age mellows it out? With almost no bitterness or astringency, this is a very approachable first sheng pu-erh.

Increasing rating from 81 to 83. (25 Jun 2020)

Strong, heavy body with a very smooth texture and complex composition of bitter, astringent, woody, sweet, discreetly moist and a subtle acidity, all in all a very nice spicy flavour, which remindes me of the 2008 Bulang Ancient by EoT. In addition, there is an intensely relaxing Qi and surprisingly good leaves for a Factory Sheng. However, the storage was anything but “clean” and in spite of the age, the tea is still a little aggressive, which together gives some deduction regarding the rating.

Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2006-pasha-mountain-gu-shu

I bought the 357g sample of this tea a few months back, wanting to get some feel for Menghai-area material that’s not a big factory production, something priced as a daily drinker, and old enough to make orange soup. I consider this a success on all counts.

This is a stone-pressed cake that comes apart pretty easily. I don’t feel competent to judge tree age by looking at leaves, but this one is surely missing a 0 at the end of the price to be really “gu shu.” When I inspect the spent leaf, I don’t see the prominent lateral venation that is supposed to be characteristic of old-tree material.

I’ve had 6 or 8 sessions with it so far, some in porcelain gaiwans, some in clay pots. It makes decently thick orange soup for 8 or so steeps, obviously depending on details of steep time. I don’t ordinarily keep a steep count, or indeed make a point of precisely timing steeps, but I did a session with bookeeping to see how it would work out on this one. With a leaf ratio of 6.5g/90ml, I did a 5s rinse and a steeping schedule of 5, 5, 10, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, 150, 210, 300s. The light compression of stone pressing makes it reasonable to use very short steeps in the beginning. Really only the first 11 steeps were worthwhile, but this meets my standards for daily drinker teas. The soup gradually lightens to a pale orange starting around #10.

This tea has a good aged feel for something only 11 years old, yet the taste is of clean dry storage with no hint of shicang. The spent leaf is almost entirely brown with very little trace of green. There is good huigan for several steeps starting with the 6th, using a steep schedule like the one given above, with some green astringency in the last few steeps.

By comparison with Dayi products of similar vintage, I believe I detect a characteristic Menghai origin here, with less complexity owing to the fact that this is single-mountain material and not a blend. A Dayi cake of this age would still have lots of room to improve, with lots of strong astringent green pucker at the end, but I think this one is close to as good as it will ever be. As I write this I am drinking a 2007 Dayi 8542 shortly after a session with the Pasha, and the Dayi is clearly superior tea. I do not regret buying the Pasha though, because it is exactly what I was paying for: raw puer that’s more aged than matured, good for 10 steeps, and priced for daily drinking.

I recommend this tea if you want something for drinking, and not for raving about steep counts.

My first impression of this tea sample was “too wet”, but after letting it acclimate for a week or two it’s a very different tea. My sample is tightly compressed and appears to be from the “beenghole” so I gave it a wash and let it open up for about five minutes.

Brews a medium orange. It has a slight mulch-y note in the beginning, but that fades with subsequent infusions. It has a very prominent butterscotch sweetness as well as notes of wet rocks, chestnut, and lightly roasted coffee. The soup has a broth-y quality and slight spiciness that reminds me of a good bowl of pho. Like Scott says this tea has a good balance of age and complexity.

I like this one quite a bit and think it will improve with further dry storage. I’ve been wanting to grow my collection of aged/semi-aged sheng and I think a cake of this and the 2006 Changtai Tian Xia Tong An will be the next additions.