2004 Yangpinhao Yibang Raw

this tea comes off as mild in astringency/bitterness. its creamy/buttery i find; i often like teas like this, but sometimes i want the hard “sour-ish” taste. i went into this wanting the sour but got soft flavor.. which i dont mind at all.

the liquor is a nice deep amber color on the 2nd steep. some astringency appears, but not much, just enough to feel activity on the tongue. im feeling surprisingly lit up with qi already- right behind the eyes and in my face. it smells similar to what the inside of a ping-pong ball smells like. my nose is starting to run.

3rd steep and yea theres something medicinal about this one, chemical and milk combined, and probably some sort of dry dry hay or pale grass where it hasnt rained in almost a month in the dead of summer and the heat seems to radiate up from the ground. take that and add some dandelions for florals and you have 2004 Yangpinhao.

good enough but i dont expect to buy this one again.

-nycoma

this tea is so nice. received some in a swap with mr. wockety wock wock, and it is just plain good. i’ve spent some time scouring the internet for more, without success. finishing my last bits today, as a consolation for it being monday. warm, well-rounded flavour profile; without getting too detailed (i’m not good at that (yet?)), vaguely reminiscent of baked goods, lightly spiced old dark wood, that sort of thing. liquor is a very pretty reddish orange. the flavour stays with you a bit, and the aftertaste is very cozily pleasant.

Lazy sunday

Received a sample in my mail and after yesterday’s young bulang chugging I figured I try the polar opposite today. I don’t have much experience with aged teas so take it for what it’s worth. The dry leaf originally smelled on old books (assuming that what storage smell is, or maybe humid storage?) and beet root. After a week or so of airing out the storage smell subsided and red beet smell came through.

-Smell
After two rinses , the gaiwan smelled of par boiled beets not quite raw but not quite sweet/cooked and at the end a slight spice that tickled my nose. I cautiously sipped the first flash steeping bracing for dust or storage taste but to my surprise, no unpleasant tastes to be found. As hinted by the smell, it was a pleasant tea soup that almost tasted like a borsch soup which immediately reminded me of lively polish wedding receptions. Obvious not saying the taste is identical but as with puer reference points are the only way to attempt to explain sensations.

-Taste
I tasted no storage what so ever just a pleasant beet root that later steeps showed an almost spiciness maybe cinnamon if I had to name one specific spice but in the way a taiwanese hong yue tastes “spicy”. The mid notes were a light sweetiness like a muddled wine(tempranillo profile) combined with a hint of red currant. As the description notes it is a soft, sweeter end of the puer spectrum but I wouldn’t agree with the floral description at least from my one session. In retrospect I could see “floral” being in the tail end of flavor but super prominent or even noticeable and not a upfront jasmine floral maybe the very light and playful dryness of rose. The feeling I received from this tea was clam and collected just like the flavor which made me almost drowsy hence the lazy sunday name unfortunately it is not sunday and I have a lot to get done today so not so welcome at this exact moment but no way off putting

-Thoughts
I really enjoyed this tea it was my first aged tea I enjoyed and while not super complex(a common theme with aged tea) it was far from one note. If I had to name one bad thing it was maybe that it was too thin not enough body but I only had one session if I upped the steeping time maybe it would result in a different outcome.

Just noticed none of my tasting/scent notes are even listed as options…