322 Tasting Notes
I received this as a sample with my order maybe five years back. I’m sure I was saving it for something, and then ended up forgetting about it. So it goes. It was vacuum sealed, but as one might expect, aging does green teas no good. This was lifeless, even with boiling at 1:30 ratio. The caffeine is intact, and I can kind of grasp at what it might’ve been with the barely there sweetness and pea taste. Oh well.
3g, 70 mL gaiwan, boiling.
1. good fruity sweetness. a bit of inky taste?
2. some astringency and sourness integrated with fruits
3. sugary hong lingers.
4. light, but lingering taste is building/persisting in the top of mouth and nasal cavity
5. fade is fairly elegant and kind of carrot sweet. slight sharpness, maybe could go a little further if desired.
some warmth. extremely solid for the price, even if I rarely reach for hongcha
Purchased a sample from HouDe.
4.1g, 90 ml ZZZ
dry leaf: dark, sweet, dried fruit
wet leaf: strong smoke, incense, nutty
Some sediment on bottom of cup. started off well enough, but couldn’t seem to extract what I was looking for taste-wise. Strong smoke, some fruity in throat, bitterness, and astringency, and some depth, but didn’t extend further. I don’t know how to explain it, but usually this kind of taste for noted teas builds into something, like a crescendo? It never got there. Just approached it and then flat-lined. Good warming and caffeinating, but was expecting more from it. Longevity was not great.
The description says “No unwanted small[sic] like smokiness,” which was not my experience at all. This was quite smoky, and presented obviously like a factory tea.
Dang that’s such a let down! Seems like a fairly expensive tea too? That’s always the worst.
Yes, including shipping the sample was $1.29/g according to my notes. On the bright side Dayi prices are tumbling hard in mainland though, so maybe in a couple years! It’s so hard to judge non-counterfeits for anything pre-2010 over a picture though. The most obvious example is the 2015 Purple which I’ve resisted caking for years now but may finally spring eventually. That’s around $80 a cake now, and I remember it being $200+ several years ago
3.5g, 70 mL TWL gaiwan, boiling
Was a bit dry in my plastic sample box so I let it sit and steam for a few minutes in the gaiwan atop a sieve strainer atop the boiling kettle.
Decent texture, 7-8 steeps before stew taste. A bit of drying cherry, sweet, floral, some mint and cooling in finish. Some heat, rising feeling. Doesn’t go very deep, but very nice for the 15c/g I paid for it four years ago. Maybe I should’ve picked up more from TU before they closed shop. I only have this and a random autumn cake. This is much better than I gave it credit for back then, and I’m sorry I ever compared it to the “04 youle gushu,” a tea that is actually nearly undrinkable. Insert Shaq “I apologize” meme
The taste is not as full as it could be, but the perfumed florals are quite decent given it’s not some $/g boutique. The material is pretty enough and leaves are mostly intact, not choppy like a XG tuo or anything. Some mushroom taste in finish starting to develop. Will be nice to see how this continues to develop.
3.5g, 70 mL gaiwan
Good texture and active taste first few steeps, stopped at steep 5 or 6 after the leaf taste started to show. This tea remains quite green (unfocused, dispersed, and chaotic) in its feeling and is uncomfortable to drink even at a reduced gram amount, and this is my conclusion after several sessions of varying ratios. Had to take a couple snack breaks at work to avoid getting dizzy, was sweating/burning up throughout the day despite usually running cold, and then had to take tums before dinner to stop the burning/almost reflux feeling. Safe to say I will not be tempted by this again for a good while.
I heard good things from others who also purchased cakes from TJL, so I’m not sure what’s wrong with mine. This cake is one of the reasons why I will no longer try to save a few bucks instead of purchasing from tried and true vetted storage, and why I’m now wary of storage/source changes even when purchasing a tea from the same vendor. I assume from what I read online that this will probably course correct will some time, since puerh is pretty hardy. Will have to wait a few years and check back.
5g/90ml/Brita filtered tap.
dry: peach, fruit
after rinse, gaiwan lid was rich complex floral. Mostly flash steeps, but reasonably durable, probably 8+ steeps. floral, stone fruit, green tea notes throughout. Slight bitter dissolves quickly. Full in mouth, some heating, some vanilla in throat. A bit slowed time and sinking, but not overwhelming.
Did not really take detailed notes for this, but a better water would’ve done it a big service here based on old notes for the gaogan. Good experience, even if young sheng isn’t what I seek out most days.
4.5g, 90 ml. another session with more choppy/broken leaf bits from my cake.
1. pretty smoky, berry forward and some fruit. Fills mouth and extends into throat and is fairly satisfying strong brew
2. stronger more forward smoke, woody. TCM medicinal, slight sweetness
3. still very smoky. Trailing underlying bitterness mostly dissolves into goji berry taste
4. berry forward lingers.
5. sweet, turning into stewed leaf taste
Overall felt more rough on stomach today, though I’ve been fairly weak and really sensitive to caffeine in general lately so really taking it easy these days.
5.3g, 90 ml zzz
sample from a different source but I’m too lazy to make another page
wet leaf: smoke, sweet, moth ball
1. gently sweet upfront, lurking bitter, gasoline-like note, sour, burnt candy. a range of notes. Alerting, lingering sweetness in mouth and upper throat
2. medicinal, generic mid aged sheng taste. good amount of bitterness present alongside sour note
3. similar, slight mushroom, slight mint on finish
4. something floral and almost perfume like lingers in upper throat
5. forgot and oversteeped. woody medicinal
6. soft honeyed
did not take notes for the finishing steeps after, but this is way farther ahead than the Hou De stored version and so it seems promising. I found this quite lovely, if a rather big departure from classical Xiaguan.
