pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

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AllanK said

Today I’m drinking a wet stored tea from Grand Tea the Raw Puerh Cake Simao 1998. This was a smooth tea. The main note of this tea was wet wood. It was present in all sixteen steeps I gave the tea. It was, however, not overpowering as this note can sometimes be. I did not taste any other storage flavors which was good. In it’s own way this tea developed into a sweet note of sorts. Not the apricots of a young sheng mind you but I would call it sweet. This tea was very smooth. A nice smooth taste was there throughout all sixteen steeps. I was using a 50ml gaiwan or I wouldn’t have given it so many steeps.

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JC said

Today at work YS 2015 Da Hu Sai.

It is thick and viscous with savory and bitter to bittersweet front. The ‘savory’ to me has a slight veggie note to it, like steamed greens and later become a bit sweeter like sweet corn in butter. The bitter and bittersweet notes are floral and fruity (stone fruits?) which depending on the steep can be punchy but very pleasant.

It feels thick all through out the drink and it is really satisfying. I’m glad I brought a chunk of this with me today. It helps me filter out the annoying co-workers lol.

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TeaLife.HK said

Drinking one of the two maocha I picked up in Kunming. This was the maocha I felt was second best of the maocha I sampled there. Well, today it’s giving me sweet strawberries and cream in a 90s hongni pot (Taiwan order). Really quite pleasant. The dry leaves smell like fresh strawberries too. Definitely not regretting my decision to pick up a kilo of this stuff!

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AllanK said

Just drank an absolutely phenomenal raw puerh, the 2014 Yunnan Sourcing Autumn Bing Dao Raw Puerh Tea. This tea was incredible. It started out smooth with a note of dry grapes, but without the sweetness of grapes mind you. There was never any bitterness. It developed notes of apricots and stonefruits. It was just a phenomenal raw tea. It was not cheap at $71 and not incredibly expensive. For the quality of the tea I am not upset at having paid so much. This was the best raw I have drank in a long time. I don’t know if it is comparable to other Bing Dao teas as this is the first tea I have drank that I can confirm is from that region. It is not a region faked as much as LBZ but a lot of tea from other places claims to be Bing Dao tea. This one was incredible.

Wocket said

Glad to hear it’s good, I love me some BingDao. Or things that have been purported as BingDao, perhaps, in some cases.

AllanK said

With Yunnan Sourcing I trust it is real Bing Dao. With those I’ve seen on EBay I have my doubts. This one was also not cheap. Just about the price you’d expect an autumn Bing Dao to cost.

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mrmopar said

Having Crimson Lotus’s 2014 BuLang Shan Tribute tea.
Been a while since I have had some time to post. Summer work schedule has been a bit brutal lately and the heat. I think most know it is that time of year.
I remember this when I first got it. I bought it untasted and then grabbed another after it got here.
I got about 10 grams of this to brew tonight. I have been doing it for 3 days but I wanted a fresh from the cake portion to start with.
The wet leaf after the rinse has a bit of smoke in there with a sweet aroma. The tea on the first brew has some sweetness in the beginning and the BuLang comes in. This one come in on the middle of the tongue. A bit of the oily coating come in on the sip. There is some tingle on the tongue. It is coming across as bitter and punchy. Smacking the taste buds around. The color of the tea is coming through as a more golden color. I remember it being a bit lighter and greener in color when young. I don’t know if it is the pumidor aging or a combination of both. This is warming , salty and with a nice bitter punch to it. There are wisps of some smoke and sweetness but the BuLang is the potent factor here. It is a nice blend and seems to be punching above its ticket for me. I have brewed this all week and I am glad I had a break to post on it.

Flavors: Bitter, Salty, Smoke, Sweet

Nice to see you back Mr. Mo. Anything worth brewing for a week must be quite good.

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Three teas today, all from Chawangshop (Bargins be to thee):

First off 2015 Xiao Hu Sai: I was curious about this one, as the shop describes it as an age-r, while someone on teachat described it as more of a drink-now-r. Flavor-wise & roughness-wise, I could totally drink this now, it’s smooth, tasty, and has a nice dry bitterness that lingers around the top of the throat. My stomach wasn’t too happy about the tea though, so I stopped around five or so short infusions in and moved on to something to calm my stomach. Another day, I might have soldered on, as this wasn’t too rough on the stomach, but I wasn’t in the mood. This tea might be a barg if one wants to age, but I never got far enough to tell. I think I might try and experiment adding risky amounts of humidity to this tea; we’ll see.

Second was 1994 Yak Butter Brick, which I brewed sans any sort of additive, and not too much leaf. Oddly enough, while the brick itself smelled good, like I might not even need to rinse, the aroma after adding hot water was seriously funky, akin to the undrinkable hiecha log that w2t included in a previous teaclub. Fortunately, this left the tea after two rinses, and we’re good to go. The flavor started out kinda rancid nutty, but not unpleasant, and pretty smooth. The nuts left pretty quickly though. The star is the qi, which is pretty impressive given the low amount of leaf I used. Made my stomach feel good as desired, and was calming and a bit sleepy feeling.

And right now, 10ish hours later, I’m dipping into the 2016 Yibang. First good news is that this doesn’t hit the stomach too much, so I should be able to steep it out. Really tasty – tropical fruit with some added savoryness ala some sort of vegetable. Has an interesting mouthfeel, almost like weak peanut butter on the throat. Some pukery cheeks.

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AllanK said

Today I drank a sample sent to me by a good tea friend, the 2008 Haiwan Lao Ban Zhang raw tea. This was a very nice semi aged sheng. It had nno wet storage flavor to it despite being aged in Malaysia. It had developed little in the way of other storage flavors, just hints of leather and tobacco. It had in it’s own way a nice sweet note to it. Not the apricots of a young sheng mind you but I note I would call sweet. It was very smooth too. Definitely one of the best semi aged teas I have drank. I wish it was still for sale. As I understand it, it was not too overpriced for a Lao Ban Zhang tea. I have no way to actually know if this is a real Lao Ban Zhang tea but it certainly could be. It is good enough to be one. As I have little experience with LBZ I find it hard to judge on this note. The tea was good. That is a fact.

Wocket said

Technically, I believe it constitutes an opinion. :P

More seriously though, I wish I’d have gotten some… it sounds amazing!

curlygc said

I don’t know…. it is Allan. Might actually be fact.

Cwyn said

Yeah. Allan doesn’t have high praise for a sheng as often as he does for other teas, and given how bitter this cake is, I’m glad he liked it.

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AllanK said

Today I drank some shou, the 2015 Yunnan Sourcing “Year of the Goat” Ripe Puerh Tea. This was a good but heavily fermented shou. It had a lot of fermentation taste to it. I did not find that taste unpleasant or fishy though. It was not bitter to me. There was a nice sweet note to this tea. It developed into something nice and this is one I bought enough to age.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIfn9uCjgRu/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

Cwyn said

I bought a cake of this but haven’t tried it yet, as it arrived just when summer heat started up. But so many people have recommended it. And the price is good.

TeaLife.HK said

Mine has no fermentation flavor to it whatsoever, but it’s been aging in HK for almost a year.

BulangBest said

This is one of my daily go to teas. I don’t find the fermentation taste unpleasant and do agree it has a sweetness to it. Wish I had jumped in with a tong originally rather than adding 2 or 3 cakes to the last couple of orders.

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Wocket said

Having the 2012 HLH Ai Lao Shan mini cake from YS. Intrigued by notes from LP and the always affable MrMopar, I picked myself up a cake of this a while ago.

He wasn’t kidding about the smoke early on! I’ll post a note, Steepster willing in the fullness of time.

mrmopar said

Yep it ha the smoky edge to it for sure. Campfire!

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curlygc said

Trying out a sample of 2004 Song Pin Hao Yiwu Aged Puerh Cake from Yunnan Sourcing. I am only four steeps into my first session, so it’s too early to write a review, but so far I am enjoying it immensely. I don’t know if it’s the tea or the rain and distant thunder, but I am feeling a very quiet, calming qi. I’m actually considering a nap because I am feeling so incredibly slee

JC said

This sounds nice. The only tea I’ve had that had a calming relaxing sensation for me was the W2T 2005 Naka. That was some good tea.

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