pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

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Don’t tell anyone, but I got my Mandarin’s Tea Room Order in today. #IOwn1/10ofALifetimesWorthofTea #LivingTo100.

There was an issue with the stocking of the two ripe cakes I ordered, and Tim generously offered to replace them with two 2004 7542s, valued at twice the price (not listed on his site). Hard to beat that kind of service.

I decided to break into the 7542 half an hour after they hit my mailbox; perhaps after a week or so of resting the tea will be even better. The storage on this tea seems pretty impeccable, 8 years of traditional storage followed by 4 years of storage in NY. The tea has little in the way of roughness in the mouth or on the stomach, and the storage flavor is not unpleasant. I drank the “rinse” with little qualms, and was glad I did, as it had some qi, perhaps the best of all of the infusions.

This tea reminds me a lot of the cheapo 2004 Denong raw brick from CWS, but more classy all around; perhaps due to having higher quality leaves, or perhaps due to the storage being better aired out.

Cwyn said

Lol on the hashtags.

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Rich select said

Dipping into the 2008 Lancang Zi Ya Purple Leaves Ripe by Chawangshop. I got this cake number of months ago, tossing it into an order just to give it a shot. This is a cheap $10 ripe, made with purple leaves (at least in part). I’ve never tried a purple leaf ripe. I can’t say I noticed much that was unique about it. But it is a very good tea, killer for the price. A little bitter and acidic, but deep and rich, a little chocolate creaminess, and a whisper of smoke. The flavors mingle well. It tastes nicely aged at this point.

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Dr Jim said

Sipping down my 2013 Tea Urchin Bao Tang. It’s really good and I’m sorry to see it go. I’ll probably keep steeping until it’s just hot water.

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Rui A. said

My latest addition: Tae Tea 2016 Year of the Monkey commemorative 800gms raw pu’er cake.

https://instagram.com/p/BFrY9n_myylopU6LF9Xgj3YMRTT675oUHPN2lc0/

Fancy. You going to try digging into it now, or is it just for storage? I’ve heard Dayi puts aged material into some of it’s raws, so this might be somewhat drinkable now, if you’re into such things.

Rui A. said

First I thought to store it but since I am a Fire Monkey I am just going to let it re-humidify for a couple of weeks before trying it. The aroma coming through the wrapper 3 days after receiving it is just divine.

mrmopar said

I just got my 357 grammer from YS in today

AllanK said

Where did you get this? Seems I saw it somewhere?

AllanK said

I see that King Tea on Aliexpress has it for $300 plus shipping.

Rui A. said

I got from China’s Tea in Aliexpress. I have used the ultra violet light and it does show the logos correctly.

Rui A. said

Mrmopar I am also waiting for YS to come out with their own 2016 teas which according to Scott an excellent picture appropriate to the Year of the Monkey.

mrmopar said

I have a couple I get from him every year as well. I think we will see them soon. I like his Mang Fei, Bu Lang and Qing Mei Shan productions pretty well.

AllanK said

Do you have a link for China’s tea version?

Rui A. said
Rui A. said

Thank you mrmopar. I’ll look for those when they come out. I need to check what I bought last year.

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AllanK said

Tonight I had a quick session with a tea I got from Shanghai Story on EBay, the 2011 Menghai Dayi 7562 Ripe Puerh Tea Brick. This tea was a high quality ripe. It was bittersweet in the start with a fair amount of fermentation flavor. This bitterness slowly evolved into a moderately sweet taste. This was a very good brick. I only drank eight steepings from a 50ml gaiwan to not have too much caffeine but it was good.

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Cwyn said

I wanted to finish my Verdant 2011 tuo session today, as it is day 3 on the leaves. The weather is really warm and the leaves just wouldn’t last one more day. But I woke up with swollen legs and feet and the tuo is just too warming a tea. So, I had to toss the leaves at steep 8. They would have gone several steeps more for sure. Then I got out my 2015 Hekai because it is just so good at removing the achy swelling in just a few cups.

Really looking forward to fresh puerh! Nobody has released any new tea yet. I guess the late harvest is the reason. At this time last year I already had Chawangshop cakes. Misty Peaks tea looked brown again to me this year, winter tea maybe so I am not counting that.

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AllanK said

Today I drank a tea from Berylleb King Tea, the 2007 Yunnan Nonpareil Lao Cha Tou Old Tea Nubs Ripe Puerh Tea. This was a tasty and long lasting tea. I steeped it fourteen times and it showed no signs of giving up at fourteen. If I didn’t want to switch to something else I would keep drinking. This tea had very little bitterness and very little fermentation taste to it. It had not completely cleared but it was close. It had a nice semi sweet taste to it from the beginning. While I didn’t notice notes of chocolate in this one I would say it developed a bit of a fruity taste in later steeps. This was a really solid tea. It was not quite as good as the 2003 Lao Cha Tou Nuggets also from Berylleb King Tea but close.

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Wocket said

First post in this thread – hello! Be warned, I’m a bombastic fellow.

Today’s sheng is the 2003 Xiaguan Grade A Blue Mark Raw from Finepuer, with a hat tip to DigniTea without whose tasting note they likely sell out before I get any.

It’s surprisingly mellow for Xiaguan – early steeps have a hint of smoke, but the overall effect is cooling in the mouth. Flavor is delicious, but subdued – perhaps 5g to 85 mL was timid?

Longevity is fine – not a depressingly early quitter, but I’m not going to have to push this guest out the door forcibly at the end of the night in order to rest.

The heating effect to the body is quite prominent. Undoubtedly, had the curtains been open, the neighbors would have wondered what I was doing in pajama pants and no shirt drinking tea in the mid-afternoon.

Enjoying my day off thoroughly, that’s what.

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AllanK said

Today I drank a ripe I bought from Streetshop88, the 2005 Year Supreme Organic Yunnan Aged Natural Tuo Head Ripe Puerh Tea. This was a relatively nice puerh but was nothing spectacular. It didn’t have too much fermentation flavor but what it had was somewhat unpleasant. A sweet note did develop after the fermentation was history. Good enough to try to drink it up but probably not good enough to buy more of.

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Wocket said

Today I had 2005 Yiwu Zhengshan “Ancient Tree” Round Tea cake (quotes mine) from Puerhshop.

Longer details in the tasting note, but the short version is it’s like a giant hyperactive puppy – at first it’s quite rough and hard to deal with, but once it settles down, it’s quite a pleasure.

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