pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

2008 Pa Sha Sheng from Maison du Trois thé Paris. Medium-deep sweetness & definitely a nicely done tea. I was falling asleep on the eurostar & shoved a load of this into a cup & was drinking 1 minute boiled water half-cups & the taste hit me like a steam train but wasnt bad, just mouth puckering.

Slight tobacco taste, which isnt my preference but it wasnt off-putting, just noticed ‘that’ thing, somewhere inbetween wiyu roundness (i got milk) & deep sweet-fruit-bitter (a good one) not light-bitter. Some floral huigan & other sweet goodness. I will have to have a gongfu session with correct parameters to give proper reviews over the next few days.

Cha Qi was good – i wasnt uncomfortable even with this major over-the-top brewing style, but remained awake & focused on my reading without the stimulation a coffee would bring. Good stuff i think.

Today I drank two excellent puerhs, a raw from Crimson Lotus Tea, the 2016 Beneath an Emerald Sea. And I drank a ripe from White2Tea, the 2016 Trap Bird. Both were very good. The sheng had a lot of bitterness once it opened up but this evolved into a nice sweet note that I would say was a bit like sugarcane but without the intense sweetness. It did not taste like apricots to me.

The ripe was very good too and very inexpensive. It was what I would call very good but not spectacular. It falls into the category of a very good daily drinker. For the price I paid I didn’t expect spectacular anyway. The fermentation on it was done right and while there was an earthy taste it was not unpleasant or fishy. There was a nice sweet note to all twelve steeps I gave the tea. Both these teas are worth giving a try.

Drank the 2008 Dayi 0532 this morning. Very nice tea. Bittersweet in the start. Quickly turning to sweetness. A fair amount of fermentation flavor but not unpleasant or fishy.An excellent ripe from Menghai Tea Factory.

2016 daily drinker w2t. Finishing off my 25g sample.

I really like this tea, its smooth & the bitter is balanced with a sweetness that does make it easy to drink. Its similar to the Hekai Gushu which I have been drinking a lot of, although not quite as nice. The Daily Drinkers bitterness is not top-grade-bitter as I have tasted in other shengs, & the huigan isnt as special.

Back to the trusty 2013 Da Si from Yunnan Sourcing while my wife is finishing off the sample of Qilan Trees from W2T (which excellent strong aroma is tempting me to order some more)

Today I drank one I have had broken up and stored in a Yixing container for about three years give or take a few months. I drank the 2010 Tong Qing Hao ripe puerh by www.purepuer.com. This really is a fantastic tea. It had a sweet note from the beginning. What little bitterness there was crept in around the third steep after the tea opened up. It only lasted two steeps. The fermentation flavor of this tea was neither unpleasant or fishy but sweet in nature. There were overall sweet notes to this tea. If I had to characterize the sweet notes with one word I would say dates. I am glad I bought three or four of these when they were $65, now they have gone up to $100 I believe. Larry at purepuer doesn’t have that large of a selection but I have found everything of his I have tried to be between excellent and phenomenal.

Beginning the year with the 2004 Hai Lang Hao Big Snow Mountain. It’s thick and sweet and really quite a good start to the year.

I received a sample of 2003 Changtai “Ji Nian / Memorial” Sheng from Crimson Lotus and tried it this morning. I’ve been drinking it all day. I have no idea how many steepings in I am, but it’s got to be close to twelve, and it’s still going strong. I was going to switch to a different tea, but there’s no need. This will last me into the night. After tasting it I bought three 100 g tuos. I don’t know how much he has left of this tea, but I sure hope it’s a lot. Really good.

2015 Dayi Legend of Taetae today. The last Dayi tea I had was pretty excellent, excepting the fact that even after ~10yrs of humid storage, it still made me nauseous. So I went into this tea with a mixture of fear, but also high hopes due to this getting some positive reviews, and the fact that it has aged material.

Turns out, this was really easy drinking for youngish factory sheng. The taste wasn’t fancy, but it was well done with no off-flavors to my buds. Got a bit of teadrunk off of this too.

Working my way through my recent Crimson Lotus purchase. Today it was 2012 Bulang Gushu “Ancient Tree” Shou. I’ve now tried four of their puerhs now, and I’m getting more and more impressed with their teas. This one was amazingly smooth and full of flavor. I could easily make this a daily drinker.