pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

Today I drank the 2011 Long Yuan Hao Menghai Gold Cake Ripe Organic Puerh Tea Iron Cake. This tea was good in the end but not so good in the beginning. It simply put had an unpleasant flavor note in the first few steeps. This dissipated nicely and what was left was good. It evolved into a tasty sweet ripe puerh. There was also a fair amount of bitterness and fermentation flavor in the early steeps as well. Shanghai Story is one of my favorite stores for teawares so a while back I thought I would begin trying their tea as well. This is the first of several of their teas I have tried. In the end it was quite good. I steeped it eight times and would have given it more but I was at my caffeine limit so I stopped. This would not be a good tea for someone who steeps their tea western style as those first couple of steeps were not so great. However if you are among those of us who steep gongfu style this tea got pretty good in the end.

Today, courtesy of a very kind Steepster friend, was our first experience with this highly-recommended Menghai shou.

Gongfu: 10g / 3 oz. / 212 / 5-sec rinse / 20-min rest / three 5-sec steeps combined into sharing pitcher.

This ripe pu-erh is robust, dark, rich, and velvety smooth w/o any astringency or bitterness. There were no off-putting flavors or aromas of any kind. It’s invigorating enough for breakfast. I didn’t notice any cha qi. Additional infusions with ~10 sec steeps had the same enjoyable flavor profile but were not as rich. A consistent richness may be possible for a larger number of infusions, if greater attention is given to the color of the liquor.

Initial impression: I agree with DigniTea & mrmopar that it’s an excellent affordable everyday shou. This is also an excellent choice for pu-erh beginners like us who enjoy full-bodied black tea.

I look forward to also trying DigniTea’s longer brewing times that “yields a syrupy cup”.

04? Bao Dao sheng I received as an extra from the white2tea moving sale. Tea was ok. Mostly dry stored I’d guess. Some chocolate vanilla mint flavors in the first few steeps, seem to get that a lot on these mid aged sheng. They don’t last long and it’s replaced by under ripe peaches or apricots, touch sour but not entirely unpleasant. No real after taste and the body is light. Did get some astringency in the throat a light heady buzz which could be caffeine. Overall not a terrible tea but nothing really memorable. If I were to actually buy this it would have to be pretty cheap. Sort of reminds me of the 04 PO MengHai brick from Chawangshop taste wise but that had more durability and better depth of flavor

I’m back drinking the 2008 Feng Qing “Feng Shan Yi Hao” today. I began the pot yesterday and am continuing with it today. It is a much better experience than the Big Snow Mountain was last week.

I finished off the 2008 Feng Shan Yi Hao earlier and have ventured back to the 2004 Big Snow Mountain. For no readily apparent reason my experience is significantly improved over that of the other day. It has returned to its former glory.

Today I drank the 2002 CNNP (Zhong Cha)7572 Green Label Taipai Ripe by White2Tea. This was in the end a delicious tea. It started out with the strong taste of wet storage or wet wood. This dissipated over some four steeps. After this taste was gone what was left was really tasty. It was sweet and it has been described as having notes of chocolate. Judging the whole gongfu session this was really good tea.

Having a 2014 Ma Hei mini tuo from I think the Tea Horse Family production.
I received this from a friend and I am still waiting on some more info on it.
I let this one open up overnight after rinsing it twice.
Impressions, I worked the tuo open and saw some decent leaf in there.
Brewing it, light yellow color. Brew itself, it starts a little soft like a Yiwu and then it kicks like a Lao Man E. Not bitter but the bit of mouth numbing effect to it.
Cooled it gives a touch more bitter but not enough to turn anyone off for such a young sheng.

White2tea 2000 7532. Heavy storage funk on this tea, would definitely air it out if I had a full cake. Brews up very dark aided by the fact that I used little over 9 grams in a 100 ml yixing. Early tastes were wet wood, like swamp logs, mmmmmmm Dat humid storage. Probably not for everyone but if you like those sorts of tastes this should be right up your alley. Body is medium to thick and very full flavored. It’s been over 15 mins since I’ve had a cup and I can still taste it. Also this grips the throat like a vice something that surprised me since I haven’t had an older tea with that effect yet. Qi was very pleasant, feel great right now, alert and relaxed. I can see why people love old tea qi. Really liked this one, more than the HK 90s but not as much as the blue mark which was spectacular. Unfortunately full cakes are sold out. I’m hoping that Paul has some more stashed away deep in his pu dungeon…. Thanks for reading!

Having the ‘If You Are Reading This It’s Too Late’ from White2Tea.
I got this out a few hours ago and did a rinse and let it sit to open up.
Brewing was about 9 grams in the easy Gaiwan. I got some nice chunks with good leaf from this cake.
I did 3 quick brews into my big cup. This one is soft but really nice. The flavor notes are across the spectrum. Early notes in the sip are buttery, some bitterness and the sweet comes early without searching for it. The aftertaste will linger a while on this one. The brew was a light golden that didn’t indicate this level of notes. Most younger teas don’t exhibit the broad spectrum of this one. The later aftertaste is reminiscent of some LBZ I have had. wish I had a tong of this…….

Flavors: Bitter, Butter, Sweet

Unknown sample of humid stored sheng that I must have tried before and then left part of the sample in a small crock bowl to air out for a month, well maybe two. Had a hard time getting any tea out of that chunk even when it opened up. I guess I killed it.

Note to self: stop squirreling samples all over the house that aren’t labeled.
Note to self #2: stop squirreling samples, period.