pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

Some dat 2015 YS Band Dong. Really doing well, mellow mossy and nutty base with a bitter floral kick.

My YQH order from Emmett just got here. I am so excited!

Today I drank a ripe I bought recently from King Tea on Aliexpress, the 2005 Anning Haiwan LaoTongZhi 501 7598 Shou Cha. This was an excellent semi aged ripe. It had lost much but not all of it’s fermentation taste. It was noticeable for the first three steeps. I’d say this tea has developed a dates note to it and there were notes of chocolate. There was virtually no bitterness to it. It was quite good. And most unusually for a ripe this one seems to have some qi. I am feeling it now, quite energizing. I have found the John at King Tea on Aliexpress sells good tea overall.

2007 Yang Qing Hao “Qizhong Gushu” Yang Qing Hao
First time ive tried i remember it being stone fruit sweet. last night it was a little different. very enjoyable but not as complex as the first time ive tried. could be many factors. with later steeps astringency built up but it was pleasant

still, it was very good. qi is mild. i felt relaxed.
no chest burning, face melting, eyes popping or lungs moving. very pleasant overall

Today I went back to my Taobao order and drank a raw tea purchased from MX Tea on Taobao, the 2008 Menghai Dayi “7582” Batch 803. This was a strong and smoky sheng. This was what you call kick your ass strong. It had no notes of apricots although it did develop a sweet note after the smoke had faded. This was also in my opinion real. It was wrapped right and it glowed green under the black light. It would seem that MX Tea on Taobao sells real tea although I have not bought enough from them to make that as a general statement just my impression so far. There are a lot of sellers of fakes on Taobao so you have to be wary. This tea was sold for an excellent price. I think I paid around $25 with shipping. It was something like 80 or 90 RMB. So even with Taobao Focus’s expensive shipping it was a bargain.

Today I drank a ripe from my Yunnan Sourcing order the 2014 Yunnan Sourcing Red Horse Gongting ripe puerh tea. This was a nice, somewhat sweet ripe with a fair amount of fermentation flavor left. I didn’t really notice all the subtle notes on this one. I was too busy watching a movie so I’m not sure if I should say it’s chocolaty or not. It was a dark, rich, somewhat creamy shou. It was quite good overall and very inexpensive.

Today I continued my tea day with another ripe and this one was phenomenal. I drank the 1996 Tae Tea Dayi Old Tea Nubs. It was a gift from John and King Tea on Aliexpress and I have been unable to locate it on his page. It is one of a handful of ripes I have drank that have completely cleared. It had no traces of fermentation flavor left at all. It also had perfect storage from what I can tell. It had no adverse storage flavors of any kind. It was sweet and tasty with a fruity taste in later steeps. I hope he lists this on his web page because while he gave me quite a lot, 100g, I want to buy more. This was one of the best teas I have ever had. I stopped at ten steeps because my insomnia has been bad lately but I think this would easily have gone twenty steeps. This was one good puerh.

I’m drinking 2008 Mr Feng’s Selected Trees from EoT. One of the puerh TTB teas. Really complex and lots of cha qi.

Today I drank a tea from King Tea on Aliexpress the 2006 Shuangjiang Mengku Bing 145g Yunnan Organic Ripe Tea. This was a nice tea that had partially cleared. There was some fermentation taste, basically in the first two steeps. There was a sweet taste. There were some notes of chocolate. Overall it was quite good. Thinking about buying a tong of these mini cakes.

Today I had some of White2Tea’s LaoChaTou..grandpa style! The first time I had it I didn’t notice any odd smells coming from the tea, but this time it smells kind of fishy. Luckily the smell went away after a few minutes and didn’t come back when I added more water. It also didn’t translate into the taste so that is good too. A very nice tea to sip absentmindedly..not too complex and a little comforting