pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

having Yunnan sourcing’s “Autumn Mu Shu Cha”. Read a couple of taste notes before trying this one. It seems to be a little “finicky” to brew as others seem to have experienced. I used a little more leaf than usual to brew with. It brews a light yellow with a mineral floral aroma. It has some astringency with a punchy flowery type of hit. It has a little thickness to as you drink it. I think in terms of some other ones this is not a bruiser tea but a little note that lets you know it’s a sheng.

Question: When using a gaiwan to brew, one that is about 3.5 oz, how much pu-erh to use?

Having Yunnan Sourcing’s 100 gram “Mang Fei” aged maocha tea. This one is tightly compressed and I used the needle and flat pick to separate it out. The leaf pried off are smaller than most sheng leaves. The dry aroma is almost an oak woody scent. I did 8 grams in the yixing with a 5 second rinse. The wet leaf had an almost metallic scent to it. The first infusion of about 10 seconds yielded a dark amber color. It has a very light scent to it with a good hard hit in the flavor department. It is an upfront slightly bitter and astringent note with hints of pine and the familiar tingle of the camphor from the tea. It has a nice thick sense in the mouth. It is not an overly complex tea but it leaves a nice mouthwatering sweetness to it. The flavor notes carry on for a while after drinking a few sips of this. Nice and upfront and no beating around the bush with this one. Punchy ,upfront and drinkable to be as young as it is.

Today is a 1996 CNNP 8582. I began with 4.2 grams of leaf and arrive at a beautiful orange-red liquor. At first glance, this liquor seems to display wonderful solidity. The wet leaves produce a pleasant aged-like aroma. Again, I often find it difficult to relate familiar scents/tastes with characters found in tea. I will say that there is some spiciness in the immediate aroma…perhaps accompanied with buttery-like, woody notes. The buttery -like note within the aroma is definitely new to me. Upon a sip, I find the liquor isn’t as thick as the first glance suggested. However, I still consider this a very nice tea. There are some spicy notes accompanied by an aged woody character… within seconds a cool mintiness joins dance. This tea has, what I sense as, a strong qi and very pleasant hui gan. Excellent tea which seems to display excellent storage conditions. Easily an 85/100 in my books.

Having Mandala’s 2004 Big Leaf Yiwu Gushu. Broke out 10 grams of this to try tonight. I did 2 rinses as this is an aged sheng and brewed with the Gaiwan. It brews a mix of oolong and tie guan yin mix for the color. This gives a light floral mossy taste. If you have had the aroma of a green moss this flavor profile kind of follows this. It has light ‘earthy’ notes that turn to a sweetness in the mouth. to be a sheng this one has no astringency or bite to at at all. It is earthy, mossy and sweet without being cloyingly sweet. It is lightly floral in scent but the flavor hits harder than the scent. Soft and sweet a nice way to wind down for the day.

Today, I’m having 2005 Yong Pin Hao Yiwu ‘stone pressed’ from Yunnan Sourcing. I find it is one of the better examples of its thicker texture and apparent sweetness with a notable vegetal/greener base that is pleasant and with only minor astringency at later steeps.

Starting the day with a 2008 Dayi 7542-809. As with most factory teas, the leaf appearance is poor. The wet leaves have a somewhat fruity aroma and the subsequent liquor is of a golden amber colour. The tea itself is well balanced. There is a pleasant sweetness accompanied by a charming ku. Very nice. The mouthfeel can be a little boring. There is, however, a sweet hui gan. Even though the batch number is pretty high, I sort of enjoyed the tea. Its nice. I think a 78/100 is fair.

Note : As with most factory productions, one needs to pay close attention to steeping as its very easy to end up with se in your tea.

Having Mandala’s “Guoyan Mountain arbor” sheng. Brewed this one in the Gaiwan. Started out with 11 grams and a 5 second rinse. Did 3 short steeps of 5 seconds each poured into my 10 oz. mug. This has a nice floral scent after being rinsed. This one is nice with hints of apple and citrus. it brew very clean in the cup. It has an aftertaste wth a slight camphor touch to it. overall a pretty nice sheng.

One of those harsh days so I pampered myself today. 2003 MengHai “BuLang Jing Pin” Chi Tse Beeng, it has a nice aged taste to it that is clean and light woody/tobacco notes without any smoke traits. The liquor is bronzed-gold/bright-bronze that wears some life to it. It has a nice medium bodied texture as you drink and appears thicker once it has gone down and the gently fruity/floral huigan takes over. I love the very nice mouth-feel and gentle cha qi. To me is is a calming Puerh that doesn’t get dull/boring as you continue to drink.

2005 Six Famous Tea Mountains YouLe Sheng
This one is a keeper!!! A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to stumble upon this cake held by a trusted seller I’ve been dealing with lately. I have always been intrigued by this Six Famous Mountains series, so I did not hesitate to purchase it. The original rice paper wrapper was a little worn after years of storage and it had a few rips in it. It was too tempting – I usually put my puer cakes directly into a special cabinet for aging but it this case I dumped out the loose leaves and scraped more so that I could fill the gaiwan and enjoy a few cups.
That was three days ago and I am now on the tenth steep. This little gem has not yet lost steam. It was a bit smoky in the first three brews (this surprised me a bit). Once I got through to steep #4, it was delightfully smooth, bright and sweet. I have been beside myself looking forward each day to a session with this tea. The cake is now in the cabinet where I plan to let it age for another year before I pull it out to pick off several chunks. I can’t wait!