pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

2004 Xiaguan 8653—HK traditional storage. This tea has been aged beautifully! No off flavors, still some gushu-like aroma to the dry leaves and in the cup and very smooth with very little bitterness. Much better than I expected. The storage has been quite light. No visible mold; just darker and a slight storage aroma from the bing, but nothing at all in the cup. Brews up nice and orange like hongcha. Even a dianhong-like honey character to it. I’m very happy with this tea. From a vendor whose teas I’ve never tried, and now I’m kicking myself! Astringency and bitterness are present, but very mild. There’s a black tea-like citrus to this that I really like. This is the best traditional storage cake I’ve had yet, I think! It’s pleasant in a sweet fruit-like way, but without the fruit and just a hint of sweetness.

2005 Yi Wu Big Green Tree sheng. Not quite sure where I bought this one from.

Usually I do not touch any teas for a couple of weeks after their long journey but tomorrow I am making an exception. Early this morning we arrived from HK with my most recent haul (I am sad I know) including a 2001 traditionally stored raw pu’er cake and it felt so good on touch due to its lowish compression and leaves malleability that I have now chipped away some tea leaves for an early tomorrow morning session.

2015 Huron Te Ji from Whispering Pines Tea Company. Got it as a sample and this is my last bit of it. I don’t think it’s quite to my taste, but good tea nonetheless. I mostly pick up an earthy/mushroom flavor and the tea is smooth and not bitter. Brews up dark with a hint of red. (Sorry I am still new to pu’erh so I can’t describe it very well!)

chawangshop hekai gushu. Cant remember the year, sold out, the famous one. ive been enjoying its sweetness & subtle nice huigan for a while now. shows that sheng can be delicious out of the box. simple but so nice!

2016 Mannuo Gushu form pu-erh.sk, with a usual 7g/60mL. I don’t have much to say about this one; it definitely feels and tastes like really legit Gushu. The catch is that it was slightly uneasy on my stomach, which for some reason was a disqualifier today.

Winter Wings 2015 Spring BangDong from Bitterleaf yesterday. 6/75 oily thick, long lasting fruity huigan, strong qi. Good tea.
https://instagram.com/p/BNcvOOQjsH6/

I had an odd “dragon ball” shu puerh from LP. It had a very nice aroma from the brewed cup, but the taste was lakey and shoe leathery. The taste became more and more sour. I did not finish it. Sometimes I win sometimes I lose.

Today I am revisiting the 2016 Misty Peaks Raw Spring tea, the one with all the controversy because it was out too early to be spring tea. This is still a good tea in my storage here for about seven months.I have been storing it in a clay jar purchased from Puerh.sk. I can tell the tea is starting to change a little by taste. While it has not yet developed any aged flavors the apricots of a young sheng are a little weaker than the last time I drank it. There was a little bit of bitterness, not much, and a moderate amount of astringency. Overall this is still a very good tea. It is said to be gushu but about this claim I wonder. They produce an awful lot of it for it actually to be gushu. Regardless it is good tea.

Moved on to a ripe a got a few months back from King Tea on Aliexpress, the 2012 Chen Sheng Hao MeiDianDaShu 257g Menghai Organic Ripe Puer. This was somewhat pricy for a shou puerh at around $75 but Chen Sheng Hao knows how to make a good ripe. This one was very good. It had a fair amount of fermentation flavor initially and virtually no bitterness. The fermentation was neither unpleasant or fishy. There was a nice sweet note from the beginning. Not sure if I would use the description chocolate or fruity but it was very good and mildly sweet throughout all twelve steeps I gave it. This was a long lasting tea. It was still dark in the twelfth infusion. I am sure it would have gone 16 steeps at least if not more. I have gotten a lot of good puerh from King Tea and this is another winner of a ripe cake.

Today I decided to break out the Anhua Heicha from the w2t club from many months back. I thought that nine or ten months of airing out might help with the smoke. If I had taken a chunk of coal out of my fire pit and brewed it up, it could not have been any worse.

I don’t even know what else to say.