pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
Speaking of Streetshop88, today I drank 2014 Top Yunnan Yellow Dragon Golden Needle Pu’erh Ripe
This tea is really yummy. I think we have Allan to thank for discovering it. Very smooth, great flavor, deep and rich. Some fermentation funk permeates all steepings, but I suspect it will fade and this tea will turn out top notch. I’m going to get a tong, the cakes are only 100g and
reasonably priced.
I think Alan deserves the honorary title of Pu Erh Shu-ru. He drinks a lot of shu and helps us all with his posts!
I enjoyed the purple leaf raw from JalamTeas today, I got it in the mail today and it went straight into the pot! It’s their May offering. Really delicious, thick, with a dried berry note. I will definitely be enjoying the rest!
I just brewed this up this morning and quite enjoyed it. It has a more coppery color than most young sheng, and has a flavor I’m coming to associate with purple sheng (which I like). Pretty smooth for being so young, with a touch of bitterness, and a certain thickness I enjoyed. Seems healthy (maybe its all that anthrocyanin!)
I got a package in from Chawangshop today, and drank the 2015 Hekai Gushu. Hard to believe this is 200g of gushu for $36 but there it is. This tea is fresh, packed with buds. I brewed 9 grams in 100 ml or so. First two steeps were sweet with the grape champagne profile. After that I got more bitter citrus coming through which coats the tongue very well and lasts a half hour or so in the mouth. I stopped at steep 8 because I was so full of tea I sloshed trying to walk. The tea is pleasantly relaxing, but not tea drunk or stoner. Not as thick as higher tier teas. I think the tea should be consumed fresh rather than stored. This is a great chance to taste gushu for a low price. Longer review on my blog.
This morning I drank 2012 yr Gold Award Yunnan GongTing Golden Buds Pu’er Puerh puer Tea Ripe Cake by Streetshop88
I decided to buy a sample of this tea from Streetshop88, in part because it is a ‘gold award’ winner. I wonder what gold award it won? Maybe it is smack talk. But Streetshop was kind enough to offer a sample for sale at my request. It wasn’t that great, but definitely pretty good. Maybe I’d give it a bronze award. Smooth, medium fermentation. Good flavor and nice broth.
I have about fifteen of their cakes I have yet to try. Some that I ordered whole cakes, a few samples. I keep hoping for another as good as their 100g Golden Needle cake. Have you ever tried the 2006 Lucky Dragon cake? It was pretty good. I don’t think I reviewed it on Steepster because I believe I bought it before I was on Steepster.
We had some puerh at the Northwest Tea Festival a few years back. It was at a tea sommelier lecture. We were told it was the highest quality puerh and was an award winner. I was intrigued. I asked if it was sheng or shou and they didn’t know. I asked what year it was from and they didn’t know. I asked where it was from and we were told Yunnan. Heh. :-) I asked what award it had won and they didn’t know. The tea was alright. Turned out it was shou. I’m sure it won a ‘major award’.
I have not tried the lucky dragon cake, Alan. Do you recommend it? How would you rate it?
I also wonder how their aged teas are. They have some different 1990s and early 2000s CNNP that I’m wondering about. I may try a sample of one, the cake prices are pretty good.
I will try to drink the Lucky Dragon again so I can give it a rating. I remember liking it and that it did not have too much fermentation flavor. I have tried a couple of their aged shous lately and wasn’t that impressed. They were decent but not impressive. I have their 1990s CNNP Shou cake that I have yet to try. Check out my reviews for a couple of their 2002 and 2003 shous.
I have not tried any of their early 2000s CNNP Sheng cakes but have wondered about them. I just bought a tong of the 100g Golden Needle cake to age.
That’s a funny story. Maybe it was a major award, but clearly the guy selling it wouldn’t know.
That seller definitely has some interesting offerings, some, about which I’m directly familiar, at a very good value. There’s one on there I’ve never seen that caught my interest, a “peafowl” something by a company that sounds rather fraudulent, “the Original Menghai Tea Co.” That’s funny. It’s very difficult to vibe any of the stuff the seller is providing based on the pics of the actual cakes. Everything appears so weird. What would be great is to set some of these companies side-by-side with the Dou-ji, Chen-sheng, and Yu-lins to see how they fare. I’ve had my eyes on a few Lan-can Ancient Tea stuff but it’s really hard to fathom that their stuff is really THAT much better. Happy hunting!
I think Streetshop is like a Taobao experience on EBay without the agent and language barriers. I bought a cake from them when trying to buy a “bad” tea on purpose and it actually wasn’t that bad. It’s fun and cheap, but after awhile mentally I add up what I could spend on there and instead buy myself something really nice someplace else.
I think that’s pretty well put, including the fake CNNPs but there are some items from solid makers that are actually quite fabulous. I remember you mentioning your experience of purposefully trying to get something bunk. I definitely hit the jackpot on that score, but it is surprising to see how much transformation occurs with a bit of time and the right conditions. Fascinating subject.
Next on today’s tea agenda: two shengs from Yunnan Sourcing. The first was the 2013 Autumn Bing Dao. I did not care for this too much. It wasn’t bad, just not very flavorful and was somewhat sharp and light.
Following that, which I tossed after a couple infusions, I found a winner. The 2013 Yunnan Sourcing Autumn Da Hu Sai. This is a very nice tea. It is not very acidic even though it is young. The flavor is pleasant, with a light pollen flavor underlying a standard solid sheng taste with medium body. It was a very hearty brew, yielding a number of flavorful infusions, all a light bronze color. I’d say it is an excellent buy given that it is currently $28 for a 400g cake. Samples are available.
I spent the afternoon with the 2006 Top Yunnan Aged Lucky Dragon Ripe Cake Chinese Black Tea. This is another long name from Streetshop88. I had suggested this tea to Rich the other day and he asked for an opinion. It had been so long since I had drank it that I really couldn’t give one. Now, having just finished eight steeps I can give an opinion. This is good tea with a lot of flavor. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor that went away by the fourth steep. The tea still needs some aging. There was a certain bittersweet character to the early steeps of this tea. Over the course of eight steeps it did completely lose the bitterness but not the flavor. This is a tea available for an excellent price. It is a 200g bing also, making it even cheaper. You don’t have to commit to a 357g cake with this one. I am glad I pulled this out of my cupboard to drink. It has also confirmed to me that at least some of my puerh has not deteriorated in the somewhat dry Long Island storage. Long Island has humid summers that mitigate storage of puerh in my opinion.
how to keep a puerh from deteriorating? i thought that it all just ages as long as it’s not sealed up..
OK, more tea from Streetshop88! 2012 yr Organic BanZhang LaoManE Golden Buds Aged Tree puer Puerh Tea Ripe Cake.
I bought a sample of this tea with low expectations: a ripe cake that purports to be both organic and from LaoManE? I had my doubts. But I thought I’d give it a shot, I’m the curious type and I couldn’t resist. As for being organic, who knows. Probably not, as we all suspect the organic label on Chinese tea is often not for real, and in fact, I don’t see the word organic on the picture of the label. But as for being from LaoManE, it very well may be. The tea is interesting, and quite bitter. The kind of bitterness you would expect from a LaoManE tea. And it is interesting to taste this level of bitterness in a ripe pu erh. I wonder whether the bitterness will age out, or if it should already have been aged out since the tea has been fermented into a ripe? Underneath the bitterness is a smoothness, if that makes sense, and a hint of that plum flavor and earthiness, though these other flavors are hard to detect because of all the bitterness. It is hurting my stomach like a young sheng. I may buy a cake of this just to see what happens to it. Maybe I’ll stick the rest of this sample into the Pu-erh Traveling Tea Box for this round to see how others like it. You can, of course, buy a reasonably priced sample from Streetshop88 like I did.
Also, looks like the tea company is ‘Yunnan Menghai Banzhang Tea Co.’ Anyone know of it?
Good eye. They’re very legit. Their website has a fine chronicle of products to help buyers weed out the fakes. http://www.ynbzc.cn/index.php?m=mod_product&a=prdlist
Who do they think they are fooling when they call these $30 teas Ban Zhang? Although if I am not mistaken there are other places in China also called “Ban Zhang”.
And Iron Goddess Tea comes from everywhere these days…
Tea has always been over-the-top. “Old Gym Sock” blend probably isn’t gonna sell.
The company’s ikon is Lao Man E, which is part of the numerous villages within the Bulang sphere, i.e., Hekai, Banpen, Lao Man E etc. There are a few Banzhang villages and one must distinguish between Lao Banzhang and some of the other Banzhangs. They’re not having anyone on. You’ve just got to know the differences between the villages. I recall reading something about there being another area also called Bulang. Perhaps some of it has to do with language, these regions are occupied by tribes with their own language, and often regions are eponymously named with the tribe involved. Between marketing and administrative jockeying there’s ample room for confusion but this is a legit company and the taste is exactly as described above.
Too funny. I just asked the seller how he knew the tea was organic. His reply:
All “aged tree” — Chinese “老树茶” (you can find it on the paper of package.)are all organic tea.
I guess he thinks Gushu is equivalent to organic.I would be surprised if I had not bought one or two of their products without knowing the name of the company.
I’m having Crimson Lotus’ 2012 Bulang Gushu shou. It’s mighty mighty tasty. While I expected it to be a little bit thicker, there is lots of texture here. Extremely clean and luscious with a little vanilla at the very front, getting spicer, more rounded and chocolatly as I steep through it. Very, very nice. I continue to be impressed with Crimson Lotus.
This morning I’m sipping a 2010 BuLang Aged Tree High Mountain Aroma Pu’er puerh Puer Ripe by Streetshop88. More Streetshop88! On my last order, I asked my wife to choose a tea based on how she felt about looking at it. Sort of an ESP kind of thing. This is the one she chose. I ordered a cake knowing nothing about it. It turned out to be a pretty good tea. It is very light in flavor, but quite smooth. The cake is really nice, it has a pretty wrapper which uses very thick high quality paper. I like that. The leaf quality is very good, big leaves. The soup is medium brown, no fermentation flavor. There is not much complexity, but it feels nice and my wife likes it. If you’re looking for a light safe non earthy ripe pu erh to try, I think this is a good one. Anyone know what company this is from the picture which you can see in my official tasting note?
A better picture is found in the Streetshop88 listing.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/331255305623?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
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