pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

7959 Replies
MzPriss said

Soooooo I just started up my shengidor. It is very rudimentary at this point. The fan is in but I still need hygrometers and moisture-providers (using little bowls of distilled water right now). But all of my sheng cakes except the smoky ones are in there and I have room for more :). Shoumidor is in progress as well but is much smaller.

Here’s a pic mr mo:

https://instagram.com/p/zXt5TGQx4I/?modal=true

SarsyPie said

Hahahaa!!! Now one of us is legit. :p

mrmopar said

I love it!! I know a couple of others that will be next….Oh and by the way, you will run out of space. Just a matter of time..

MzPriss said

Oh your day is coming. I’m soaking floral foam right now. A happy surprise is that while I was setting it up, I found that I have THREE 2012 Wild Monk cakes (not in the shengidor because – smoky) but I thought I only had one left. I am so very happy :D

SarsyPie said

OMG so jelly of your pumidor and your 2012 wild monk! I only have one cake left. :(

MzPriss said

Oh I’m all too aware of that mr mo. I already have my eye on several more.

mrmopar said

Are you getting some aroma off the cakes yet? Once they get some moisture they will really have a good aroma. Especially the sheng.

Ubacat said

Wow! You’ve got quite a bit of pu-erh! Is that just a fridge with bowls of water added?

MzPriss said

@ mr mo – not yet but I left the house right after I set it up.
@Ubacat – that is just my non smoky sheng and you can’t see my baby 100 gram cakes or any of my shou (bless my heart). And yes for right now I have those little bowls of water – I am soaking some floral foam that I will use until I can buy the humidity machine

Ubacat said

I still need to buy a clay pot and get some florist foam myself but I don’t have that many cakes. That’s great that you’re getting it set up with your shengidor!

TwoDog2 said

Sick shengidor. Did you copyright that word?

MzPriss said

Well I think I’m the first one to use it that I’ve seen :)

Working on the shoumidor now.

Roughage said

I now have a shengidor on my wish list. That looks great and at least I have a ready supply of oasis foam available to me, what with being married to a florist and all that. I knew there had to be an upside to marrying a florist somewhere along the way! :)

MzPriss said

@Roughage – I have to say that it was easier than I expected, so it should be a snap for a berserker expert – because I am bit challenged myself.

Roughage said

Sadly, MzPriss, as a berserker expert (I should say ‘the berserker expert’ but modesty forbids. Oh … wait … I just did. Oh well … :) ) my expertise lies in deconstruction rather than construction. If it can be taken apart with an axe then I am fine, but putting it back together again is always a problem! :)

MzPriss said

That made me snort laugh!

Cwyn said

MzPriss, this looks awesome! And all the room you have in there for more tea!

Floral foam, what a great idea. This is tea history we’re doing, people. I can see the articles in 30 years “Superior Sheng sold for $25,000 stored in the west with Floral Foam.” Love it!

MzPriss said

Laughs. Well I thought about how floral foam can hold water for a while and stay damp. I looked at the cigar humidity-making gizmo (which I do intend to purchase eventually) and read that the cartridge is made of floral foam so that decided me floral foam should be ok. We shall see :)

mrmopar said

The foam is good you just need something to control when the moisture is dispersed into the air. BTW are you getting the aroma yet MzP?

MzPriss said

Yes! I am. When I open the door, I just want to crawl in there and live. Smells amazing.

mrmopar said

Ha! Told you!!

Sammerz314 said

Loving the term “shengador”!!!

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TwoDog2 said

Today I had a 10 year old Puer from slightly humid storage and a 2003 Puer with a smokey past that had all but faded. I prefer the latter, this first one still had some funk in the background, but would probably be better after a year or two in a dry climate to calm down. This is the first day I haven’t been punished by baijiu (Chinese hard alcohol) in days, so it was like a new beginning. The real Chinese New Year starts with Puer, not booze.

MzPriss said

It punished you for no reason while you were innocently minding your own business? Bless your heart and Happy New Year

mrmopar said

Yeah that stuff jumps up, holds you down and starts going down your throat. No stopping it. An unstoppable force.. Oh and the baijiu as well!

Yang-chu said

白酒,唉呀!

TwoDog2 said

That’s right. I was keeping my hands to myself and sitting upright, when suddenly the baijiu attacked me!

mrmopar said

That’s my excuse as well. I plead the 5th , nothing I could control. :)

Yang-chu said

Just the thought of Er-guo tou makes me cringe. A buddy rather recently relayed an ordeal he had with Maotai. It seems that it is faked along with everything else in China. He noted the “real” Maotai was “really bad.”
I’ve got lots of stories about baijiu, like the time I was in a restaurant and a father was having his child of maybe five sip it from a cup, or my Beijing friend remarking that she didn’t like beer because it was bitter but Er-guo tou was sweet.

TwoDog2 said

Indeed. Er Guo Tou’s best quality is probably its ability to strip axel grease, rather than its flavor. And Maotai fakes are pretty much everywhere. The real Maotai is not so bad, in my opinion, but I still prefer whisky or something else.

I luckily don’t have to drink much baijiu anymore, except in certain social situations where not drinking would be rude. In Yunnan, they mostly drink 自烤酒, which can be better or worse, depending on who is heading up the still and what they steep it with afterwards.

Either way, I am just glad that Spring Festival is over. And so is my liver.

Yang-chu said

Sangthip the Thai “whiskey” is my preferred liquor, if I have to drink that stuff, otherwise, I pretty much don’t like liquor. Thai beer is horrible; Thai whiskey is sweet. jajajajaja.
I’ve never had any of the homestyle liquor in China, though I drank it in Thailand and Indonesia, which they call arak. I saw a video on some village/city in Menghai, I think, where a crew of guys were sitting about getting smashed on some kinda homegrown poison.
For some reason, mentioning this reminds me of the ginseng liquor that I’d drink in Beijing, with hot water. That stuff did wonders for some knee
pain I was having. Definitely the most tolerable Chinese liquor EVER.
Happy New Year to you and your liver.

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DigniTea said

1999 Gedeng Mountain sheng brick. Have you tried a Gedeng puerh? This is my first experience with a sheng using raw material from Gedeng Mountain and I must say that I quite enjoyed it. I enjoy learning about and trying teas from areas about which I know very little. Gedeng and XiGui are two areas I am working on at the moment. Gedeng Mountain is one of the original six famous tea mountains. It is located in Mengla County in Xishuangbanna in close proximity to Youle, Jinuo, Yibang and Mangzhi. Due to over harvesting, there is now limited production and decent Gedeng material is rather limited.
There is nice age on this brick and the leaves appear to be aging nicely. There is a wonderful ‘dry’ aroma and the leaves look quite healthy. Pungent aroma from the wet leaf with fruity overtones. The tea liquor is a shimmering orange-gold. The sip offers a rather complex mix of flavors which quickly transforms into a sweet palate. The tea is thick and heavy. You can feel a little bitterness going in, covering the mouth, and after swallowing, the huigan comes quickly. The cha qi is not obvious at first, but after three or four infusions it hit me hard.

Overall impressions: Sweet and smooth with decent Qi which left me very relaxed and moving toward a tired state. After the session I decided that this material is somewhat similar to a good Manzhuan tea. Very drinkable and enjoyable!

TwoDog2 said

Quality Gedeng is excellent, but like you mentioned, very difficult to find! It is not too far off from Manzhuan in terms of profile. They are geographically fairly close, and share the general vibe you mentioned of Youle, Yibang, & Mangzhi. Sounds like a nice tea!

JC said

This sounds good! I’ve been doing some catching up with samples from people here at steepster. But then I want to get back into exploring specific regions and traits again. It was interesting, just because I feel like if you drew a map based on the traits of the tea it would really cool and you’ll see where things overlap :D

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MzPriss said

I’m enjoying some 2012 Lu Zhi Ming’s “backpacking blend”, using leaves from old Bulang Shan trees from O5 Tea. It comes in a little hexagonal coin shape. It’s a nice baby shou – quite clean. Very smooth with a mineral bit up front. Moderate relaxing qi. Very nice for a cold weeknight evening.

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I’m thinking on getting the 2008 song of chi tse ripe puerh from dragon tea house! Should I get the 50-100-357 gram??

SarsyPie said

Definitely the 357. Can’t go wrong. It’s one of my faves.

mrmopar said

I think I would get it from Yunnan Sourcing in my opinion. I just looked at Dragons price on the Menghai “Year Of The Dragon” cake and the pricing is $20.00 lower now than when I bought it. There has been some “doubt” on some of their stuff lately.

So mr M i do understand, it’s quite pricy, although on YS i would pay alot more for shipping, when i buy more hardwear which i am, so maybe i’ll search a site that charges no shipping and has their stuff, such as a cha he and a bamboo tray for picking apart puerh, a cha hai, and nice 75 ml cups…somif you have a link! I’d appreciate

Oh and M what would the name be on YS

jschergen said

I think M is implying that DTH has been scrutinized recently for a few teas that were later proven to be not exactly what they were sold as. It’s worth worrying about, considering the massive amounts of fake Dayi in circulation.

AllanK said

It looks like Berylleb King Tea has sold out of this cake, must have been quite recent, unless they simply plan to relist it after the New Year holiday? They seem to have a lot less puerh lately. The same cake from Yunnan Sourcing is not much more expensive than Dragon Tea House.
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/menghaiteafactory/2979-2008-menghai-qi-zi-zhi-ge-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake-357-grams.html

AllanK said

Right now, I think for another day Yunnan Sourcing has 8% off everything but white and green tea. I believe the code is cny8.

jschergen said

Ah. I missed that sale. Where was it announced?

boychik said

on instagram. Both sites till 2/28. everything except white/green

jschergen said

Thanks.. Totally missed that somehow.

boychik said

;-)

mrmopar said

Like Allan said, Berylleb doesn’t have it in stock anymore. And the black light is just about a must have since there are so many fakes out there now. That is why I caution everyone about who they buy puerh from. Especially Dayi products.

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Bur should. Get te YS 2012 yong de certified organic ripe puerh then,?!because like teaDB james implied, it’s an extremely easy drinker, and as far as I know, we kindof share the same tates, even though I’m 14 years old ;-P

AllanK said

The advantage to the 2008 Song of Che Tse over the 2012 Yong De Organic is that the 2008 will be noticeably more aged. It has nearly zero fermentation flavor. Just because DTH has been accused of selling fakes doesn’t mean all DTH teas are fake. I have gotten some definitely real tea from them and a couple of questionable teas from them. If you decide to buy from DTH get yourself a black light to check the security seal. The 2008 Song of Chi Tse will glow green if I remember correctly.

Although, YS is soo cheap and I’m ordering hardwear *1 xiaguan tuo too, so meh

Cwyn said

Never too young to become a tea drunk. Seriously though, at your age buying puerh, you can expect to age out your entire collection, how awesome is that?

True ;P so should i get my cake from ys or w2tea, maybe w2tea ;)):;€ o gosh here i go XD

mrmopar said

I wish I had started at an early age. I could have been sitting on some 40 year old tea by now.

mrmopar said

Berylleb just re-stocked the Song of ChiTse.

jschergen said

Both those vendors are fine places to start. There’s not really a whole lot of perfect decisions to be made in this whole process!

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Ubacat said

Menghai Shou Seventh Grade – Wymm Tea

I am enjoying this tea this morning. I haven’t been a really big shu fan. It started out drinking shu but once I had sheng I wanted sheng much more than shu.

I did two 10 sec rinses on this first. I would describe this tea as very smooth. It doesn’t have the rough bitter taste in some of the earlier steeps of other shu I’ve had. It’s woody and a bit mushroomy with sweet honey notes. I found as each steep went on (I did quite a few steeps), it remains pretty consistent, but a bit less woody and sweeter in the later steeps.

Wymm lists this tea as low caffeine and boy is that ever right! I’ve had so many steeps this morning and hardly feel any caffeine at all. That’s a major plus in my books since I’m sensitive to caffeine. It has given me a good energy feeling though – very calm but alert. I’ve found that type of energy more with the sheng instead of a shu.

I’ve really enjoyed this tea and because of it’s low caffeine & mellow honey flavour it might just be one shu I will reach for a little more often than other shu’s .

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mrmopar said

Having a 2004 Sheng Cha and Sun dried Wild buds from Yunnan Sourcing.
I bought this on a whim after reading the description of it. Even better it was over 10 years old so the age was excellent for the price. I plunked down and got 100 grams on my latest order. Big chunks came in the bag. You could pull the tea off in layers from these chunks.
I got 10 grams out to use and quickly rinsed it.
First brew, the color is very light akin to a white tea more than a puerh. The aroma has just a whisper of a grassy note. Bracing myself as the description says not every one will like this. Very vegetal and a pine sap taste to it. Anyone ever cutting wood has had those pine chips hit you this is almost what the taste is.
Taking a sip and letting stay in the mouth before swallowing it exudes a vibrancy that is not belied by its color. I believe it amps up some more with some thickness and saltiness added to it. I believe over steeped this would become very strong and bitter. I believe it could turn out strong and turpentine akin to a Lao Mane tea.
The cake chunks were very interesting looking almost like a tea flower cake if you have ever seen one.
Interesting some sheng notes and I would say mainly puerh drinkers would find this to their liking.

Flavors: Bitter, Grass, Pine, Vegetal

Cwyn said

Yunnan Sourcing has the first 2015 spring buds out now on the main site.

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Yang-chu said

2006 Tian Hong Jing Mai~ Tian Hong is a company that had piqued my interest, so I was keen to see if they lived up to their prices. This selection is at the lower end of their price range.
It proved to be one of the more introverted teas I’ve ever sampled. The first four infusions were not exactly bad but not exactly great either, rather forgettable. Then the next three rounds gave way to a rather bitter and astringent brew, again nothing particularly Jingmai about it, till I began to notice a considerably powerful huigan full-on floral and lasting easily 15 minutes to the better side of a half-hour. The next two rounds revealed a sweet and welcoming brew before it or maybe I was cashed.
It didn’t have that Banzhang bitter, which with the good stuff is not astringent and kinda soapy. This was just bitter and astringent like bad tea, or certainly with what I usually equate with bad tea.
In the coming weeks I’ll be paying more attention, especially since the bulk of the dental saga is behind me.

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AllanK said

Drank the 2006 Xinghai Golden Peacock Ripe Cake today. This was a nice semi aged shu puerh. Despite being a 2006 tea there was a little bit of fermentation flavor left but not much. It was quite good. I only put it through six steeps because I am as usual, watching my caffeine intake. Bought this from Yunnan Sourcing in my last order.

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