pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

You guys enjoy any smoked Puehr?

Today I drank a ripe purchased from a Private Collector. It was pretty good. It was called Yunnan Yiwu Gushu 2007 Ripe. While for what I paid I’m sure it was neither Yiwu or Gushu it was pretty good. It had initial notes of bittersweet chocolate and camphor along with a fair amount of fermentation flavor. The amount of fermentation taste was about in line for what a dry stored 2007 ripe should taste like. This was a tasty ripe at a good price. I paid $60 shipped for two raw cakes and one ripe cake. Going to try one of the raw cakes soon. Back to this cake. A sweet note developed after these other notes were history I think I would say mushrooms but it could have been something different. In any case despite this surely being neither Yiwu nor Gushu it was a pretty good ripe tea, especially for the price paid.

I drank another tea from that private collector, the 2007 Yiwu Zhengshan Arbor Jia Ji Super Grade raw puerh. This was a nice semi aged tea for the price. Started off with a taste of leather and tobacco. This was not too strong and lasted about four steeps. After this it gradually became a sweet note. Not sure what to call that note. While I seriously doubt that this is Yiwu Arbor material this was a good tea for the price. I thought it might come out badly because the leaves smelled musty but it was fairly good. I have one more tea to try from this seller but it seems his three teas for $60 was a fair deal.

Another Day with the Da Xue Shan Raw from YS. I love Da Xue Shan, I always find it smooth with floral and honey notes. There’s some gentle bitterness to assure me it is a Sheng but it is an easy drinker for sure, I’m only regretting it because they heat index today is 110-115. I’m praying for a few days of rain so it goes down, going to the gym is like going to a sauna.

Today I drank the June offering from Global Tea Hut, the 2004 Ordinary Treasure. This was an excellent semi aged sheng and probably the smoothest such tea I have drank. There was what you would call a sweet note from the beginning, I’m thinking along the lines of mushrooms rather than the apricots of a young sheng though. There was no wet storage taste and no tobacco or leather that developed with age. The only downside to this tea was the tea liquid was a little thin, presumably from age. Overall it was really good tea. I would almost certainly buy it if it was available.

i had CL bulang tribute tea today after a short sleep. I woke up tired and wanted something strong. I brewed western style in my small red tea pot, which i forgot the basket in, so I noticed the brew getting more bitter as time went. i’ll need to get more of this stuff or similar, soon.

Mengsong balls from the w2t teaclub today. With the emphasis on the ‘s’ in balls, cause I’m steeping both together today. After a few recent sessions with 8g samples from Bana tea and looking at the expanded leaves thinking, “that’s all??” I decided 8g was not going to be satisfying enough today. Of course 16g is probably way over doing it, but I don’t necessarily plan on steeping it out today. Went with a 150mL ruyao teapot.

Don’t really care to say much about the tea in case others haven’t dug in and want to be surprised, but I will say that this is a very pleasant session – steeping it out is tempting.

White2tea New Amerykah 2 again today. I’m not sure whether it’s a lack of jet lag, or from being rested, or whatever else, but this is a lot less bitter today than it was 2 weeks ago. Goes down decently far into the throat, and pools near the top for a few infusions.

For comparisons sake, I brewed this in a similar style to yesterday’s tea, same 150mL teapot and 15g. I refrained from steeping out yesterday’s tea due to stomach upset, but today’s tea is letting me steep it out, which is a key difference; It’s also interesting/pleasant enough that I feel like bothering.

June’s w2t club Mengsong cake. Delightful little tea, cooling and a bit of throat action. Nothing too complex but a nice light drinker.

Today I drank what was really an excellent ripe from Streetshop88 on Ebay, the 2011 Yunnan Bulang Aged Tree Golden Buds Puerh Tea Ripe. This tea started out with a moderate amount of fermentation floavor that was neither unpleasant or fishy. It had cleared enough so the unpleasant notes of fermentation were gone. I was just enjoying this tea and not really paying attention to the specifics but I think you could say it had some notes of chocolate in there. I would say it developed a bit of a fruity taste in later steeps. I developed a nice sweet taste and there was really no bitterness. And I also have to say that they have changed the way they wrap cakes. They no longer put tape directly on to the tea cakes. So none of my cakes had damaged wrappers this time. They have been one of my favorite EBay sellers for a while now generally selling me good tea although they rarely sell any well known brands preferring to list teas from unknown factories. The don’t actually even identify the factory that produces a tea. One thing about them I don’t like is they really don’t tell you where a tea came from. But in any case they generally sell good teas. This tea was listed as a Bulang tea. I have no way to confirm this but I consider it likely to be true. It’s not like Bulang is a more expensive region like LBZ that for this price would be a fake.