pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
Went back to try my Streetshop88 2011 Drunk Overlord cake yesterday. This was after I accidentally oversteeped some of that excellent 2015 Darjeeling sample. The Drunk cake just has a little bit of that tea mall taste, and is very green but seems to be doing okay in my pumidor. Okay, yeah it is kinda crap tea. Unfortunately all this green tea hit my stomach hard due to the high doses of Ibuprofen I have been taking for my hip. Hip is doing all right but alas it is back to shou and black tea for a few days.
Today I drank an excellent ripe tea from Berylleb King Tea, the 2008 Yunnan Bang Dong Ancient Tree High Grade Ripe Puerh. This tea had a fair amount of fermentation flavor left but it cleared by the fifth steep. It was sweet in nature with no unpleasant flavors to it. I would even venture to say it had begun to develop a dates flavor that good ripe puerh often develops. This tea is an excellent value. If you don’t get it during one of Berylleb’s frequent sales you only pay $30 a bing. I think a sample size is available of course. I enjoyed this tea a lot and would have steeped it more than the eight steeps I gave it but that I had had enough caffeine.
2003 Xiaguan 100g shou pu erh tuo from the May 2015 white2tea tea club order. I love it! It has an ancient tome character to it with a robust aged shou fragrance that is part musty, part spicy, part sweet. Dark cherry liquor, black if you steep it strong. Thick flavor that matches its scent with notes of tobacco, molasses, and dates. A mild chi that is soothing. This has been my favorite tea from the white2tea club, but alas they are not offering this one for sale. They said it was a one time tea club only tea. Figures. I’d love to have more, but oh well. I’ll do my best to make this 100g last, but I’ll be surprised if it makes it to summer. An excellent find!
Light brown with red and green print. “Crane mark” they said. I could send you a picture…
I received this one yesterday on the mail, but I’m going to let it air a few days first. It was funny to receive it, because I had just done a three different XiaGuan Ripes side-by-side tasting. I would not be able to handle the fourth lol.
I didn’t get smoke notes from any of them really, granted the youngest one is a 2007 and ripe hides that better. I have to admit that I love how the Chinese Medicinal/tobacco notes transfer to the Shou/Ripe side. I was trying a 90’s FuLuShouXi, 2005 Xiao Fa Tuo and 2007 Xiao Fa Tuo.
Some of the 2000 CNNP Lincang cakes have smoke to them, if you are interested in ripes with smoke.
Just tried mine, I did get smoke in the background for sure. I found the flavor quite light and mild, a little too light and simple for my taste. But very smooth.
Cwyn, I’d say it started to lose strength after 5, done after 8 but I generally steep my shou pu erh a little longer for a richer cup. If I had to rate its staying power on a 0-10 for shou, I’d give it a 5.5 so about average. My steep times went something like 15, 10, 15, 20, 30, 60, 5 min, 10 min. I used around 10g in a 200ml yixing.
I’m really looking forward to trying this one. I retried the two ‘Xiao Fa’s no smoke in them, 2005(the wetter stored one) Was richer, more aromatic like medicinal and more obvious camphor with a dark rich broth. The 2007 (dry stored) Has rich notes but not to the level of the 2005, it does have an added complexity, I guess notes/trails of its younger notes, it has a burgundy broth that is very smooth and clean.
Tried this one today…definitely got smoke. So interesting! Will be posting a tasting note shortly.
I think that smoke is Xia Guan’s m.o., so I’m rather surprised by the reviews. Frankly, I’m rather overwhelmed by them. They have so many offerings and such sexy packaging. I did pick up the collector’s Nan-zhao such and such 500g. cake from 2008 or there abouts. The box is so totally mac, octagonal with big characters and lined with blue-white batik cloth. Yao-zaaa.
Yang-chu – Ya, their packaging is cool! I think I have a sample of one of their raws somewhere…I’ll have to check it out!
I tried my Xiaguan tuo from W2T tea club, it had some smoke from the leaves when wet, but barely any smoke from the actual liquor. I did get rich notes with an almost ‘pencil shavings’ wood note to it(strangely enough in a pleasant way). I’d recommend airing this one for a few days in a humid place that has good air flow.
Raw Xiaguan usually holds smoke a bit better, specially when dry stored, but that’s just me. :P I’m not too fond of smoke notes, though I’ve found some pleasant examples.
Today I am working with another semi-aged Changtai YiChangHao – the 2005 Yi Bang. The first cup or two offer a woody flavor with a fruity-sweetness and a bit of spiciness thrown in. Later steeps reveal a bit of mushroom flavoring to increase the complexity. This Yi Bang is smooth and round with a noticeable aged character in its profile and a relaxing qi, not too strong, but definitely there. This is not a “powerhouse” tea but good for those of us who rather enjoy the subtleties of the profile rather than being hit over the head with it.
Today I drank the 2014 Yunnan Sourcing Ai Lao Mountain Wild Arbor Puerh Tea Cake. This is a tasty young sheng. There was just a hint of bitterness in the first two steeps then notes of apricots and stonefruits throughout. It will be interesting to see how this one ages. I gave the tea eight steeps but I am sure it would have gone twelve or more.
You guys forgive me as I am a bit backlogged here lately.
I chose the 2014 Crimson Lotus “Whispering Sunshine”to get up tonight.
Breaking this one out tonight. Got this about 4 days ago and finally getting to it.
I got 8 grams out and warmed the gaiwan for this one. After a quick rinse I let this sit a couple of hours. The aroma after the rinse was a nice vegetal type.
I went back after resting a few hours to brew. The leaf is very green in this almost like a TGY leaf in color , very vibrant green. I hit it with some hot water and a nice honey aroma is coming off this one. The brew is a very pale yellow. Almost the color of a white tea. It has the lovely pine sap and a little tobacco with some bitter and a nice sweet at the end.
This is nice and active with a vibrant mouth feel to it. It will rattle around the teeth a bit. The really nice aspect to this one with the mouth feel is the fantastic sweetness it brings. I gave my better half some to try and she liked it as well. (I am trying to butter her up for my inbound stuff.) I have noticed a touch of the bitter mixing with the sweet at the end.
I’m interested in the new offerings from Crimson Lotus, but alas, they offer no samples. I’m hesitant to spend money on cakes that I can’t try.
We’re planning on offering samples of our new teas, but haven’t had the time to get the labeling done yet.
I spent a couple of days over the weekend with the Crimson Lotus Planet Jingmai. Wow grapey! That makes much happiness for me and it went a nice long time. Really love the taste of this. Not a ton of texture but I enjoyed it very much. Nice laid back energy that was good for getting stuff done around the house. I love the portability too. It did take a while to break up, but I found some notes, somewhere on this thread I think, about how to brew it and it worked like a charm. Nice little sheng ball.
Today I drank my first tea purchased from Mr Mopar in his sale, the 2007 Menghai Dayi “7592” Ripe puerh. This was a delicious tea with a moderate amount of fermentation flavor in the early steeps. The taste began to ebb around the fourth steep and I would say it was gone by the sixth steep. This was a nice thick creamy puerh with a naturally sweet flavor. Kudos for Mr Mopar’s storage too. I wish I had a Pumidor for shou but alas I have no place to put a second pumidor. This was a highly enjoyable tea that Mr Mopar obtained from Yunnan Sourcing.
Today I drank another long named tea from Streetshop88, the 2003yr Aged Yunnan Menghai Wild Arbor Big Leaf Ripe Cooked Puerh Brick Tea. This tea came to me wrapped in heavy shrink wrap. It had almost certainly been stored that way as Streetshop88 does not ship teas this way generally. The tea had no off flavors and was very strong. It also had virtually zero fermentation flavor. I didn’t find any. I also found the tea to be a little flat. I am hoping a humid Long Island summer will bring this tea back to life. It really wasn’t bad tea, it just wasn’t great tea. If I had a pumidor for shou I would rehydrate it there but my pumidor is for sheng and I have no place in my apartment for a second mini fridge pumidor, ah well.
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