pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

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Yang-chu said

2014 Shujian Xiaoyao Dan, Wuliang Gushu 8g. Shujian calls their Dragon Pearls Xiaoyao Dan. They’re v. tightly rolled, so it takes quite a bit of doing to get them to unfurl. I soaked on for 45 min in cold water, then a few hot infusions. Day two, just finally soaked through. The first passing this morning of 15s presented with purely floral and sweet notes, nothing that I could detect of the Wuliang flavours I favour. I’m still going at it. The next few have tasted surprisingly like a downy Moonlight White with less mint. Sweet and gentle. Very thin mouthfeel. Zero bitterness, mild tannins. Serious cha-qi. I’ll be good to keep some around to see how they transform. Right now, just a bit too dainty. Excellent for some frilly drunkenness right now, however.

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I drank Crimson Lotus Whispering Sunshine 2015 raw puerh for the second time. I’ll admit that the first time around, it missed the mark for me. It was too subtle for my liking, but i decided to give another try two weeks later.

The first time, as usual i couldn’t help myself and drank it the same day that it arrived. Well I guess it needed some time to air after shipping cause this second time around is lovely!

Very clean as young sheng should be, but with very little astringency. There is a certain bite to it which i love but it’s very light. It’s grapey and apricoty, sweet and a little citrusy with a nice vegetal feel.

It also gave me a pretty strong head buzz which lasted throughout the whole session. I lost count of how many steeps i did.

Now i’m a little puzzled about something…i read somewhere that it was smokey. I am not a fan of smoke in general and trust my taste buds, i will find smoke if there is some to find. I got absolutely none in this, which was fine by me. Just a super clear and clean liquor.

I really enjoyed it and i’m glad I have a whole cake.

2/3rds of the material we used was picked and processed when it was raining in Bai Ying Shan. It didn’t rain a lot, but if there was rain during the sun drying the leaves are brought indoors. Indoors is their kitchen / living area and the large mats the leaves are on are suspended from the ceiling. This is a smoky room. So a portion of the leaves are smoky. Everything is all blended together before pressing.

Perhaps your cake is more from the portion that wasn’t near smoke, or perhaps just the leaves you used today. If you look at the larger picture probably about half of all the Whispering Sunshine cakes we pressed will have some smokiness. Even that isn’t all that noticeable. :-)

Thank you Glen for this nice explanation….makes sense. Will pay close attention to next steepings :-)

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MzPriss said

I also had the Crimson Lotus Whispering Sunshine 2015 raw today. Like The Fairy, today was my second go with this. The first time, I didn’t get much of anything and I was sad as I am in love with the CL young shengs in general.

Extremely clean, green beany with a little bit of grape aftertaste and and little bit of stone fruit. This steeps for a long time. Also like The Fairy, I found zero smoke here.

I’m still going with it and I’m on steep 10 or so. I have a fairly intense head rush – and it’s all in the head for me with very little body feel.

I’ve learned a valuable lesson – to not be so impatient and lit it sit a while. I still love Hidden Song more – but this is very nice.

https://instagram.com/p/4NCrMtQx7c/?taken-by=atasteofmzpriss
https://instagram.com/p/4NHlF9wx3C/?taken-by=atasteofmzpriss

Lol, We are such teaplets :-) xox

MzPriss said

@TheTeaFairy – Yes. Yes we are.

mrmopar said

I always say let the tea ‘wake’ up after shipping. I try to think of it as a living thing. I sure would like to be refreshed after being in a shipping box a while.

MzPriss said

Me too mr mo!

mrmopar said

:)

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Got a first taste in of Pu-erh.sk’s 2015 spring offerings today.

Too soon to really pick out any favourites, I feel I need to have more sessions with these teas to delve in further, but it has given me a rough outline of how I like these teas.

Some may be contenders for caking up, some are probably sadly outside my budget even though I do like them. =/
I’ve already got a gaiwan and brick from CLT on ‘pre-order’ and probably want to tag stuff onto that order, I’m already in a TU group order with friends, and I’ve already spent a fair amount on tea this month (much of it which still has to come in), so even though I like every single one of these teas so far, there’s only so much room in my tea budget. =/

Either way, it has been a good tea day! 7 fresh shengs from .sk, a 2006 changtai a 2006 Shou from CLT and three non-pu teas. :) I can contently lie awake with wide open eyes in bed tonight!

mrmopar said

Reviews please! Always looking for stuff I haven’t found yet.

Any in particular you want to hear about?

I try to avoid basing reviews off a single tasting, too many variables to me!
I’ll make sure to post more as I get acquainted with the teas. :)

mrmopar said

Ant from SK would be great. I haven’t had the experience of any of their teas yet.

Cwyn said

I just ordered a couple things from them recently. The downside for me is the dollar is unfavorable against the euro.

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Javan said

I returned home today after helping my wife clean out her mother’s apartment, and while I was concentrating on wine while up in the Willamette Valley, I felt the need for some puerh this evening after unloading the truck. I picked Misty Peak Teas 2013 Raw Pu’er Mao Cha Loose leaf. The packaging describes it as a “tea for deep relaxation and heightened awareness.” I found it relaxing, subtle, fruity, and elegant. It is definitely not a powerhouse tea, but rather one which rewards the search for subtlety. Quite pleasant.

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DigniTea said

Just posted this on the Discussion Board.
New Reliable AliExpress Tea Store for Puerh
I’ve been working with this seller for over a year and he might be useful as you work to build your puerh collection.

mrmopar said

+1 on the seller spoken of.

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AllanK said

Today I drank an interesting tea from Streetshop88, the 1990s CNNP Zhong Cha Ancient Tree Big Leaf Puerh Tea Ripe. All in all this was a decent tea. It was not spectacular but I enjoyed it. I will begin by saying this was one of those rare teas that had an effect on me although I would not use the term tea drunk. If Cha Qi can be described as the effect a tea has on you this one is strong. I cannot confirm the teas age however, as the tea soup had not totally cleared of fermentation flavor. The initial steep was thick and sweet with a fair amount of fermentation flavor. A bitterness developed in the third steep. This did not last long and a fruity sweetness developed by the fifth steep. There were also fleeting sour notes here and there, not enough to pin down however. As to the claim that this is ancient tree material, it is possible but I personally doubt it. It was just too cheap for me to completely believe it ancient tree. This tea is big leaf tea as the description says. I think the leaves are called Huang Pian. They were huge. Some of the biggest leafed puerh I have ever seen. The big question in my mind is, is this truly 1990s tea? I cannot in the end answer this. There was no wet storage taste at all, no wet wood so this was presumably dry stored. It is just possible that it is a 1990s tea that was stored in such a dry climate it didn’t age enough to fully clear of fermentation flavor. Overall I liked this tea.

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Rich select said

Today I drank Spring 2015 Jingmai Midas Touch; Sheng by Crimson Lotus Tea
Wow. This is the best young sheng I’ve tasted to date, though I am still fairly new to pu. I’m extremely impressed. The first steeping was thick and viscous, which is something I find very appealing and often lacking in shengs. The flavor was both very easy going, like “Whispering Sunshine”, but it also had a touch more bitterness and was more bold and aggressive. I think those are good signs, especially for aging. The flavor has pollen in the background, and honey sweetness in the foreground. It is very tasty. The steeps were very thick for the first five or so. I got quite stimulated and a bit tea drunk for about an hour. The next five were a little more bitter, still fruity, and of course less thick. There was no harshness or acidity that I could detect. I really love this tea, it is of very high quality. It’s not cheap, but I think it stacks up very well against teas of this price range. My strategy for sheng buying these days is to spend more per tea on fewer teas that are of high caliber. This fits the bill! Thanks for producing an awesome tea, Crimson Lotus!

We just got in some boxes yesterday afternoon that had all the rest of the samples we left Jingmai with. The same guy that made that Midas Touch apparently makes a shou puerh as well. I don’t remember that from when we were there, but I have a cake of it in my puroomidor now; magically.

When we were with him in Jingmai sampling this leaf and others I got more tea drunk than I have been in a long time. He had JUST finished processing these leaves and they were potent! It’s a good thing Jingmai is on a large hill so I could roll back down to Menghai.

Rich select said

A shou from this guy must be very interesting indeed! Maybe next year you can find some to sell!

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Phi said

Om nom nom nom… and oldie but goodie. Bulang Gushu Shou. Sometimes I mess this one up and let it steep too long, and I forget why its my favorite druid latte ever. Today is not one of those days. Nom nom nom.

I started out the day with 2003 Changtai Southwest, then moved on to W2T’s new “If you are reading this it’s too late” since I am still trying to place that. I’m sure its something high elevation, but that is about as pin pointed as I can get. Then moved on to my calming crack… nom nom nom chocolate wood mouse.

Tealizzy said

Ooh, what do you think of “if you’re reading this…”? I just got a cake but haven’t had a chance to try it yet.

Phi said

It’s very characteristic of the higher mountain shengs I have had before. Idk enough about teas to place it. Its very light now, but full in body. If it is Bingdao, as one steepster reviewer suggested, then hopefully it will develop a sweeter honey note or something (from what I was reading). Right now its very green and lightly and airy and clean. Refreshing and very different from my other puerhs.

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Rich select said

Today I drank XiaoShu HuaZhu 2015 Sheng by pu-erh.sk

This is a delicious little number. It is quite light, but it lasted a long, long time. Early infusions were buttery and lemony, some bitterness balanced with a slight sweetness. Later infusions got more fruity. I went through probably 10 infusions that were all quite good. The last ones were perfumy. The color of the broth was deep gold-yellow, deeper than one typically sees in a young sheng. There was little acidity and my stomach felt good after. The stimulation factor was medium, no dazed drunkenness to report. This is a tasty tea if you are looking for a light and easy drinker with some bitterness, as opposed to a lot of upfront sweetness, and is reasonably priced.

One thing I really like about pu-erh.sk is that they offered a sample pack of all their 2015 teas so you could try them all. Seven teas of 10 grams each. I wish more vendors would offer packages like this – small samples of a bouquet of teas. I am much more likely to find things to purchase this way, and to buy more tea. I often hesitate to get too many individual samples, especially when they get expensive (say, over $10). Small samples (7 or 10 g) are good enough in my book, I’m usually ready to commit to a cake after one sitting. I know others may prefer a deeper dive, but I suspect most of us know whether we want to buy a tea after one session. I’m not sure the economics of this for the seller (though I am an actual economist!), but I suspect sellers would tend to sell more tea this way, even if they make little profit off a sample pack. I would love to hear views of buyers and sellers on this issue, though maybe it deserves its own thread.

Yang-chu said

Great description!

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