818 Tasting Notes

Goodbye jinggu golden strand. You had your moments of heavenly creaminess, but they were too few to warrant another order. ;P

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drank ShuiXian by ChaCeremony
818 tasting notes

Marcus of ChaCeremony also sent me this to try! Thanks, Marcus!

I did a side-by-side comparison using one other well-known tea vendor’s Shui Xian. I used about 3g of leaf for each, and steeped them 60s/60s/90s.

The ChaCeremony leaf was darker in color, the other vendor’s was more grey. The size of leaf was similar. The color of the rinse water was shockingly different, with ChaCeremony’s tea coming in a lot darker. The color of the liquor was still dramatically different in the first infusion, but became more similar in the second infusion.

The ChaCeremony tea has a nice roasty bite to it, it’s smooth and sweet, and it has a nice complexity. Some teas with good complexity make it feel like multiple flavors are bopping around in your mouth…this tea does that! By comparison, the other vendor’s tea fell flat. Looking at the leaf afterwards, it appears that the other vendor’s tea is not as roasted as the ChaCeremony tea. I guess I know what I prefer! :)

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Marcus of ChaCeremony sent me this to try! Thanks, Marcus!

I’m still exploring yancha, and haven’t had many, so I decided to use the steeping parameters from Nannuoshan since I remember liking that DHP a lot.

I did two side-by-side comparisons, using two other well-known tea vendors’ DHP. I used about 3g of leaf for each, and steeped them 60s/60s/90s. I noticed a difference in the leaf right away. The ChaCeremony leaf was very dark in color, with long unbroken leaves. The other two DHP were lighter in color, one was actually grayish, and one of them had smaller, more broken leaves including a random stem.

After the rinse, the leaves from ChaCeremony smelled roasty and fruity. The other two DHPs smelled like burnt toast!

The color of the liquor was orange for all, but the ChaCeremony liquor was more rich in color.

ChaCeremony’s tea tastes more roasty than the other two DHPs, sweet, and fruity. Yum! The other DHPs did not have any distinct fruit notes. I love the complexity of the ChaCeremony tea. It’s really delicious, smooth, and satisfying. On the wishlist it goes!!

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Thanks for this wonderful sample, boychik!

This is one of very few aged raw puerhs I’ve had a chance to try. The liquor is a beautiful amber color. The flavor is smooth, with a hint of smoke. The grilled vegetable kind of smoke that I like! There are vegetal notes and fruity notes, like dried apricot, and it also reminds me of wine somehow. It is more complex than that, and I’m sorry I can’t do this tea justice by identifying all the notes, but I noticed multiple flavors dancing around in my mouth. Yum!

It just kept going, so I decided to keep the leaf for a second session. On the second day, it was super nice, fruity, and sweet!

This tea also packs quite the punch of energy, so I definitely recommend a good snack before and during your session to calm the stomach.

Overall, this is a great value for the price…I’m going to have to consider picking up a cake of this one!

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From the Sheng and Shou TTB.

Went looking for this sample to see if it had that lapsang-like smoke I detected in the 2003 Xiaguan ripe I received in this month’s White2Tea club.

The leaf smells like pine smoke/tobacco, similar to a Lapsang crossed with the smoke I usually associate with sheng, but not as strong. Definitely had young sheng bitterness in the early steeps, and that lingered throughout. The later steeps were a little buttery and then finally sweet…it took awhile to get sweet. I definitely had an energy boost from this tea! Pretty good, but not remarkable. I like the ripe one better. ;)

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I chose this tea as my free sample in my last order. It has a clean taste with notes of spice and wood. Interesting, but not really a flavor profile I’d crave.

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I finally got around to this tea tonight. Love the packaging and how it wraps up neatly with the paper pushed into the inside of the tuo. It looks really compressed but actually breaks apart quite easily. I used almost 8g in my Jian Shui pot from Crimson Lotus Tea. I LOVE my pot, btw.

It brews up a pretty nice reddish brown…more red than other shou I’ve had. I noticed smoke right off the bat in the aroma, and then in the taste. It’s lapsang-like smoke. Interesting! I’ve never had a shou that was smoky!

The smoke is not as dominant as it is in lapsang, but it’s fairly prominent, overshadowing any potential mustiness from being an older shou. Or maybe this doesn’t have mustiness and that 2000 CNNP I had was the exception. Who knows! It has a clean taste, with some sweetness too. There’s a refreshing aftertaste along with the smoke, like minty jerky. Ha!
I like it! It’s so unique! I wonder why this is only being made available to monthly club subscribers. Guess I’ll have to savor the rest of this tuo!

JC

Cool notes. I honestly just had mine, I let it air for a about a week before biting into to it. I got smoke from the wet leaves when I smelled them, but only a hint of smoke in the first two steeps. Did you let yours air a while?

I know you also have the 2000 CNNP Lincang that does have smoke to it, but you also bought it from the US site, which has a different storage, I might send you some of mine some day so you can let me know if you think there is any difference between the two.

Tealizzy

I think mine aired out for about a week and a half before I tried it. The smoke was light, but I think I detected it throughout my session. :)

I don’t have the 2000 CNNP anymore, as I put the rest of my sample in the TTB. I guess I need to update my cupboard. That would have been fun to do a side-by-side comparison though!

boychik

JC, i bought it from US, ze cake ;) would you like to compare ?

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I had this at breakfast and this tea never disappoints! I love it! I’m also realizing that I have way too few teas like this in my cupboard. This one is a smoky chocolate black tea, and I usually have a few others like it, like keemun, but my cupboard has been overtaken by potato black teas! This must be remedied! I must have both! Okay, so the question is, where to place my order? ;)

Marzipan

Funny, I never get smoke from this one.

Tealizzy

It’s not super strong, more like a keemun smoke.

boychik

JWT. Hopefully he will add soon from his recent sourcing

boychik

I loved that last hongcha fr W2T. I don’t think it will be cheap

Tealizzy

boychik – I was thinking JWT! I love the classic Chinese…probably a good idea to wait and see what he adds. I liked the w2t hongcha too, but it’s more on the potato side of black tea!

JC

I have a few Keemun teas. I’ll def will be sending some tea your way.

Tealizzy

That sounds great, JC!

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I got this in the mail today and couldn’t wait to try it! The cake was definitely darker in color than the usual Sheng, and it was pretty loosely compressed. Most of Jalam’s raw puerhs are loosely compressed and I appreciate that…makes it easier to break apart.

This tea brews up to a nice yellow color. I brewed 7g in my little Jian Shui pot, and I think maybe it could have used more leaf. In the early steeps, it had a nice thickness to it. The texture was also buttery. Taste-wise, it was more savory in the beginning and then changed to a delicious sweetness later. I also detected a dried berry note. I really enjoyed it and will definitely enjoy the rest of this cake!

mrmopar

I like the loose compression much more myself.

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From the Sheng and Shou TTB.

I’ve been wanting to try this for awhile, so jumped on the last little bit in the box. I enjoyed a few infusions last night and then returned to it this morning because the leaf was still not fully opened. It was smooth, sweet, and I think I got some date flavor at the beginning. Definitely a good one and I wish I had more to play with.

MzPriss

I like this one. Sarsy LOVES it – one of her faves.

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Bio

Another profile facelift! My tastes have changed a lot from when I first discovered loose leaf tea.

I can trace my tea journey back to October 2012, when I discovered DavidsTea. Before that, I had the occasional cup and enjoyed high tea at An Afternoon to Remember, which has since closed.

I went through a period of wanting to try all the teas, and was really into flavored teas, especially dessert blacks, but my tastes have substantially changed over time.

I still enjoy the occasional flavored black or rooibos, but I’m more into unflavored black teas right now and recently, puerh. Chinese black teas are amazing…with their notes of chocolate or sweet potato, who needs a flavored tea? I had a much steeper learning curve when it came to puerh. I used to dump out cups of puerh for tasting like leather. Now, I am really enjoying them. I think it took finding good quality puerh and steeping them gong fu style to really enjoy them.

I also, on occasion, enjoy a good oolong, white, or green tea.

Favorite tea companies right now include: Mandala, Teavivre, Butiki, Golden Moon, Lupicia, and DavidsTea (for teaware mostly).

Just a note: I don’t rate my teas numerically because my iPad doesn’t like the scroll bar. Maybe someday that will change…hint hint, steepster! ;)

P.S. My profile picture is of one of my 2 cats, Holly, who is a little princess but very photogenic, and she loves boxes, including those that bring me tea! :)

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San Francisco Bay Area

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