pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

Recently Crimson Lotus Tea offered the opportunity to purchase this aged 2008 Jingmai maocha in a custom made Jianshui tea jar and I could not resist. This is a very nice tea! The leaves are whole, long and beautiful to look at. The tea liquor is a deep gold color which when exposed to the air begins to shift toward a copper color. The aroma is full of a thick sweetness and this same sweetness is found in the first sips. Active mouthfeel which continues into the throat where the sweetness lingers. I also found a decidedly citric component in the tea which led me to think of it as having an appealing sweet charm while a tiny bit tart at the same time. Overall the tea has a solid, potent character and is indeed a treat. This is one to be enjoyed now and in the near future.

I just finished the last of my Special Dark shu from Mandala. It is a sad day indeed. It is my go-to tea and I shall miss it. Does anyone have any recommendations for a chocolaty pu’er to replace it?

I’ve been sampling the teas from Liquid Proust’s MX-King tea group buy. Today was the  2004 Wu Yi Yechang Tai Hing Ming Chen Hongchang, followed by the 2006 Gulf Veterans Mingzing. I didn’t like the Wuyi: it tasted all dried out. The Mingzing is pretty good as an everyday drinker.

I’ve been having a somewhat intermittent session with W2T’s 2001 Private Order 7542. It’seems very much a changeling, with a bit of Forrest Gump’s box of chocolates thrown in for good measure. Kind of like my weekend.

I had 5 Sheng yesterday. Why not? Some of them were revisit after 6months or even a year
2015 Bosch White2tea

https://instagram.com/p/BG3PxTwhwhr/

2015 Little Walk White2tea

https://instagram.com/p/BG4OEBeBwoJ/

2005 Mengku Wild Arbor Zhang Shan Da Ye Yunnan Sourcing

https://instagram.com/p/BG4q0BmBwsr/

2015 Midas Touch Crimson Lotus Tea

https://instagram.com/p/BG44b8Ghwin/

2008 Wistaria Blue Mark

https://instagram.com/p/BG5vVi5hwgc/

1998 Emperor Puerh by Red Blossom Tea shared by tea friends. Really like its spiciness and earthiness.

https://instagram.com/p/BG6zRDGhwqm/

Drank the 2012 Earth Puerh by Conundrum Tea. They sent me some free samples last week. This was a loose ripe and it was really quite good. Not too much fermentation flavor to it and what was there was neither fishy nor unpleasant. It was sweet with little if any bitterness. I even think I found a dates note in it towards the last of my twelve steeps. It was really good. They are not cheap. They sell 50g for I think $23. So it is somewhat expensive. But I might end up buying some anyway. I even seemed to find some qi in it.

TODAY I DECIDED TO DRINK ALL OF THE REST OF MY XIAGUAN TUO!!!!11 THE LAST SESSION WAS 9.5 GRAMS ALMOST ALL DUST11!!~ IT WAS REALLY STRONG TEA!!!! I DON’T THINK i’LL BE SLEEPING TONITE!!!111111111

Some of the Haiwan 2006 “Gulf Veteran” or “Old Tree Remote Mountain” or whatever it is, for which @LiquidProust so kindly did the logistics. Seems very promising, in a no-humid-taste sort of way.

This afternoon was spent drinking the 200 Old Warrior by Crimson Lotus Tea. This was an excellent tea. The one thing that surprised me was it hadn’t completely cleared. There was still some noticeable fermentation taste to it. That being said this taste was not at all unpleasant or fishy. The tea was slightly bittersweet at the start. The bitterness steeped out by the third steep. What was left was a very tasty mildly sweet ripe puerh tea. I think that in another year or two of storage this will have completely cleared. I think generally it takes twenty years of dry storage for a ripe to clear completely and by that reckoning this one has a couple years to go.