pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

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Wocket said

Hado the 2015 Mint Condition from Bitterleaf. It was a lovely tea that I realized a few infusions in that I wasn’t in the mood for at all, and I should have been having something aged, or possibly shou. Can’t win them all, although I add suspect anyone with some of this stashed away in storage will be winning big in coming years.

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JC said

2010 Dian Yi Hao Naka Raw Puerh Brick 200g Follow-up two years later

This is coming along MUCH nicer than before. I’d don’t thing it is great, but is a lot more pleasant. The perfume-sour note has dissipated, and a light petrol-like/tobacco note appeared (positive) that gives it a bit more body.

It has some more camphor and most of the fruit and floral/perfume notes are muted, which again its a very positive thing because those were gag inducing for me. Now there’s more honey-ed/caramel notes with nice woody base. I have about 120-150 grams left of this so hopefully this will continue to improve as it has, this is one of those I’m glad I forgot about in storage.

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Tuhao as Fuck ball today. Gave this a generous rise and let it sit covered for a couple of hours, then gave it a second rise (which I drank) and let it sit for ~10min, and this still opened slowly. Super pleasant for a young tea taste-wise, but has enough edge on the stomach that makes me think ugh, why am I drinking young puer again? I was hoping this would be fancy-pants enough to avoid that young puer stomach roughness, but no. Ah well. I did get some nice sneaky “gushu-like” effects, but this still seemed obviously inferior to previous fancy cakes from the W2T teaclub, both the Mengsong gushu and the Bespectacled Diaphragm.

In a effort to steep this out while being kind to my stomach, I added some neutral shou to the pot, which tasted fine and agreed with my stomach, but got me super buzzed so I had to stop prematurely.

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Rasseru said

Banglong village 2009 from jkteashop.

Continuing my obsession with everything Mengsong I have been giving this one the competition style stress test & its holding up pretty well so far. It was also pretty squished flat so a few strong brews to open it up helped.

Nice qi & a little magic huigan that places it in the yes category for me.

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2011 Hunan Heicha “Zhu Xiang Ji”, from Chawangshop today. I had a rather generous sample of this, so I decided to try 17g/150mL, as I’ve done with some other teas. I brewed up a tight chunk, so I kept waiting for this to open up and give me a dark brew, but it never did, staying quite light throughout. I almost wondered if I was actually drinking liu’an for a second, but the wet leaves are pitch black. Anyways, I found this quite pleasant, with a bit of mental feels.

Rasseru said

I had another session with this a couple of weeks ago and its tasted much stronger than I remember (and reviewed it first) being. I was quite surprised, tasted like a different tea. 17g/150ml should be pretty strong i was 7/8g in my 100ml gaiwan

Yeah, so much for expectations :)

JC said

I’ve had this happen to me with some Heichas I expect something DARK and dank. But then I get something mid ranged with refreshing camphor.

Rasseru said

I do remember it not being shou-dark, different. Dry-dank…? Almost a bit fired-but-not.

Dry-dank sounds accurare, despite being oxymoronic.

JC said

Dry-dank sounds like what I get when I drink a cake that was VERY wet stored for half of its life then it was extremely dry, you get that hay like together with that ‘yup, this was wet at some point’ note.

Rasseru said

Yes, also it tasted a bit salty/sharp rather than wet & murky iirc, which added to the dry feeling

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Weasser said

Crimson Lotus’ Old Warrior. I figured this would be a good tea, but I didnt think it would be as good as it is. I may have to get a couple more of these. It’s not like any other Shou I’ve ever had. Time for another steeping.

mrmopar said

Glenn picks some good shous out for sure.

Rob said

This is my favourite ripe. I’ve got 4 now!

mrmopar said

@Rob , you teahoarder…

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Rasseru said

2016 lazers, i’m getting a smoky medicinal vibe, defo has a bit of ‘that’ vibe going on.

Another interesting thing is that I had some this morning, and at 10pm had another go and it tastes a lot older than it did this morning

Hmm; I think I know what you are referring to, but I wouldn’t have thought ‘smokey’. I think I’m with you on medicinal though.

Rasseru said

The smell I got from the gaiwan after a day of sitting there was smokey Maybe tobacco affecting my judgement but 100% over ‘there’ I was surprised.

Actually been surprised a lot recently hahaha

Interesting. The next time I try this I’ll have to look for some smoke. I definetly don’t remember any.

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Rui A. said

1994 Shu Cha Nan Tian from Die Kunst des Tees. The first steeping was a deep red brown like a vintage Port wine with my wife finishing it before I got a chance. :-O The liquor of the second steeping is of a completely transparent 80% Dark Chocolate.

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Rasseru said

2012 CNNP Hunan Hei Zhuan. This is old faithful for me, soft plum with subtle tang when pushed.

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?! said

2015 Lao Shu Bai Cha [YS]

I’ve kept a 5g sample in a little open bag for a month to see how it would evolve compared to the rest of the cake, brewed it up last night and found that it has developed a much more solid base – not bad, especially not for this tea. Most the high notes were still present but there was a lot more going on in the lower-mids, less fruit but some hitherto unnoticed smoke and meaty notes and it was significantly more dynamic from steep to steep than what I got straight from the cake. Qi wise this worked a bit like a downer and muscle relaxant for both of us, I almost fell asleep after 5 or so cups.
I’ll repeat this experiment and do the same with some other shengs, but next time I’ll run comparative tastings instead of relying on notes and/or memory.

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