pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
2011 Xiaguan Red Star courtesy very generous Steepstarian. This one is throaty all the way. I started in on it yestiddy. It takes about five infusions or so to get beyond the grown-up taste of tobacco and bitter. Already has some organgish tinge to it.
The yun with this is v. good. Very complex tastes of crayolas, oak, dish soap, laundry powder, some bitterness. It really roaches the mouth, especially as I’ve gotten deeper into it today. First run of a minute today had me feeling flowers and that tidal rise of heat that comes with those that possess power qi. Next round, a minute and a half maybe (this might be more than the 10th infusion, I do a pretty horrible job of tracking) feels and tastes like I’ve tumble-dried my mouth with a ghaddam Downy drier sheet. I hate those things.
I remember as I drank it yesterday that beside having a power phlegm-cutting penchant that my sense of what I was drinking would go back and forth between grown-up tea and something kinda Jennifer Anniston. I don’t watch movies but I suppose she’s supposed to be the “fresh girl next door type,” not too intimidating.
The aroma is equally complex with all that Downy and dishwater, with a hint of musk. You ever had a really good oaky white wine where the taste hangs on and you’ve determined that you’d really found the right wine for the occasion? Me neither and the only occasions life affords me are these cyber rants fueled by tea inebriation. As you get into it, some of the trademark Xiaguan smoke comes through. I’m breathing deeper, and feeling a bit zonkers. My head is kinda pounding. I had enough of this for today. I’m too much of a light-weight. Red Star has kicked my arse.
Got a sample of this with a recent order, it is the oldest pu erh I think I’ve tried. I found it very similar to the 1997 CNNP I got from Streetshop88 that may well have been a fake. The tea was cola colored, with notes of medicine, mushroom, and a bit of earthiness. It had a long huigan. The soup was medium bodied and the leaves were not terribly long lived. In fact, I like the 1997 fake a little better.
I am finding it educational to taste teas of this age. This one was pretty good, and I was surprised how much it tasted like the other tea I mentioned. Though the 1997 was probably fake, it seems to me it was probably similarly aged. This 1990 was very likely not fake given the reliability of the seller. I have yet to try a real quality aged pu erh from gushu material, I wonder how that would taste.
I started the day with the 2014 Manzhuan from White2Tea and really enjoyed it. It was light, floral and fruity, and lasted about ten steeps before becoming too weak and watery. Just the ticket for relaxing into a Sunday full of paper writing. I’m presenting on Tuesday and the whole thing is not coming together at all. So much to say and only 45 minutes to say it in!
So, it’s evening and I moved on to an unlabelled tin of something I had picked apart some time back. I’m fairly sure it’s the Tibetan Flame brick, because that’s the only one I can see not labelling. It’s smoky with an edge of tobacco, but by crikey does it kick like a mule. Blimey, I can feel it in my every extremity and my eyes are now wide and staring. Just the ticket for an evening’s frantic Powerpointing and writing.
I suspect you may be right. Let us hope that my presentation benefits from the tea drunk too. I’m still buzzing and I drank that tea an hour ago.
Um, yes, that would have been me. I am also known to exclaim ‘jolly good’ and ‘marvellous’ non-ironically/non-sarcastically. :)
Absolutely, MzPriss, it’s a good tea and worth having in the cupboard for when the mood takes.
:( No more sample. I know the feeling.
The presentation went quite well. I overran to 55 minutes despite having rehearsed it to 40 minutes (Note to self: stick to the script and do not ad lib). Nevertheless, people remained interested and the discussion lasted an hour with many good points raised. A reasonable success, I think.
Xizihao taichi black wrapper lbz. Picked this up from houde a couple months ago. 5 and half ish grams in a 80ml shibo. Tea is oily and fairly thick. Flavors of apricots and peach and such stood out the most with some background flavor of chocolate early that came from storage and age.
Now the real highlight of this tea is how it made me feel. By the time I drank the second cup I was already feeling extremely tea drunk. I could feel this tea almost coursing it’s way through my veins. I read someone describing that strong chaqi to them felt like a plucked bass string. Seemed kind of an odd description but that might be the best way say I felt.
Strong warming sensation in the stomach chest and throat. Broke into a massive sweat, even all the way down in my ankles which I’ve never experience before even with this tea. Called it quits after 5 or so cups so. Drinking anymore would have been overkill imo. Looking forward to finishing this later tonight.
Probably my all time favorite puerh. The last bit I’m saving to share as I feel the experience will be even greater with company. This is currently sold out pretty much anyway. Sad it’s gone now but there plenty more great teas to be discovered and had in the future.
“Mystery raw” from the White2Tea sale. Reviewed under “Random Steepings.” It’s like a sauna in this house! Or it’s just me.
I got a late start to tea today. But I drank a couple of good puerhs. I started with the 2015 Yunnan Menghai Dayi Year of the Sheep raw from Berylleb King Tea. This was a strong and potent sheng. It had a mild bitterness at first and a bit of smoke to it. There was also some astringency to it. While it did eventually develop some sweetness this was no apricoty sheng. It had a strong aftertaste that had me tasting it long after I was done drinking it. It is I think a tea crafted for aging and is of course quite young at this point. I don’t have room for it in mu pumidor but might remove something in order to fit it in. I gave this tea ten steeps in a 120ml gaiwan and am sure it would have gone at least fifteen had I wanted to continue.
After I finished this sheng I moved on the the 2012 Huron Gold Needle by Whispering Pines. This is a shou that does not disappoint. It has a nice note to it of cocoa and even berries in the later steeps. I also noticed that it seems to have less fermentation flavor than it did the last time I drank it. Perhaps a sign that NY area storage works at least for shou.
Having Yunnan Sourcing s 2014 Ku Zhu Shan tonight.
Got this one out after forgetting to post a note about it a while back. Worthy of a re-do.
I got 10 grams out to start this one out with. I am brewing this up in a new Gawain I got at a good price from a friend, bounteaful from Instagram.
I brewed it up after a wash and a period for the tea to open up. The first brews were a bit thin so I let it rest a bit longer. I went went some longer steeps from it and it was a full on brew from there.
It actually brews darker than some of my older teas, a gold with that I’m turning the corner on the aging process.
This tea became very thick. Notes of veggies, some mintiness and a good hit of nit you biterness. It has a note of butter and tobacco as others have notated. This is not the subtle one that you drop on your new tea people to drink but the experienced ones will enjoy this I think. The huigan is really nice as you can taste it for a while after drinking it.
The aromas of mineral rocks and some wet hay in there as well.
Nice invigorating tea.
On a side note. A new friend has joined our site and looking for some people to follow and followers as well.
stock man. From Spain and hoping to share our experiences and notes on here.
Flavors: Bitter, Butter, Hay, Mineral, Mint, Tobacco, Wood
Some 2013 Jing Mai sheng. Not from a company, but a private production… floral and sweet with strong huigan, enduring, and with 2 years under it’s belt, not too edgy.
Login or sign up to leave a comment.