pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
I’m drinking 2013 Bulang Beauty form Tea Urchin. I caved in to the hype lol.
The broth is amber to light golden color and it gives hints of honey and fruity sweetness under a layer of bitter/tart notes that resembles apricots very faintly. The texture is lighter than I would have expected but the initial steeps have some thickness to them and later dissipates by the 4th steep to become rather juicy/thin.
There are some hints of young Puerh in there but not as I expected from a 2013 cake, I guess the older leaf did balance it out. The huigan is not as advertised, but is there. I’d say is a pretty descent tea for the age. I wonder how it will hold for aging, I’d give it a 85/100, the price is a bit crazy in my opinion, but I’m glad I tried it.
A young Jingmai sheng from Bannacha.
I love this tea, and I’m so glad I picked up a bing of this one in an order that was all samples for the rest of it. The tea is sold out by now, but I’m relieved to know that I’m still sitting on about 80 grams of this mentholated goodness in my stash!
I know this one lasts through quite a few infusions, so this is probably going to be my last tea for today.
P.S. My room smells so good right now!
I am still looking for a menthol/camphor tasting puerh just because I haven’t encountered that taste before.
It’s mostly in the scent rather than the taste, but it’s definitely there in the taste as well.
I could send you some if you’re willing to cover shipping, but I’m in Europe, so it might turn out to be a rather costly affair for a sample baggy.
I can send you a sample. I have a CNNP Blue label tiepai that is quite tasty and camphory.
2008 Langhe Bamboo Wrapped Menghai Ripe Brick by Chawangshop
I purchased this tea with a recent order from Chawangshop. It was only $6.50 for a 250g brick, and I love Langhe teas, so I decided to give it a try. It is also wrapped in bamboo, so how could I resist? It is a pretty good tea, and a great bargain. It is a light ripe, burgundy color. Not heavily fermented like other Langhe ripes I’ve tried. But it is clean tasting and has that Langhe smoothness to it. If you like light ripes, this is a great one to try.
I’ve got a bunch of other samples from Chawangshop, so I’ll post more notes as I get to them. They’ve got a pretty interesting selection of teas.
2013 Chawangpu Lao Yu Xiao by Chawangshop
My second tea today from Chawangshop.
This tea is fairly strong, bitter, and astringent, but seems like it might age well. It is sturdy. Light and crisp, citrusy, but with medium body. I wouldn’t care to drink much of it now, it is quite young and harsh. But it definitely has character. I will put it away for a few years and try it again. And it is only $17 for 200g.
2012 Misty Peak teas Autumn Yiwu today. Never a disappointment =)
I just ordered some of the Spring. I went back to order the Autumn and I noticed the Spring one isn’t up anymore, so maybe I got the last one, the Autumn is still up, but when I click “Add to cart” it doesn’t put it in my cart, so I wonder if maybe that one is gone too :(
Having 2013 Yunnan Sourcing “San He Zhai” in the cup tonight.
This was kindly sent to me by a fellow Steepster that saw it in my wish list.
I got out 9 grams of this in the Gaiwan and gave a 5 second rinse. The wet leaf was a mix of asparagus and green beans with a little snow pea in there. It brewed up very light almost like a white tea with a very pale green to it. This is juicy, slightly bitter and a kind of caramel hit with a little smoke touch in there. it has a very nice aroma to it and is very easy to drink. After a failure with another tea earlier today this has been a welcome cup. It goes on the shopping list for sure. A very nice blend of teas.
Just in case you haven’t yet seen this offer from Nicholas at Misty Peak Teas:
http://steepster.com/discuss/7739-half-off-puer-today-only-top-rated-puer
all right, had a good vibe and picked up a couple autumn cakes early this morning. what the heck, it’s only money. glad it’s got the stamp of approval from some of the puer die hards.
My 3 or 4 exposures to good sheng have been really enjoyable, so I think I made the right move.
I’m drinking a sample of a 2008 Menghai 8592 shou that I was sent and am really enjoying it. It’s a comfortable tea, like an old woolly pully, with a bit of depth that makes the drinking really quite enjoyable. There’s no astringency, no fishiness, just a mellow, woody tea with a hint of cinnamon. Nice.
Sheng and shou yesterday. Nice shou sample from Yang-chu, thanks so much! Then drank a sample of 2008 0712 Lincang Lancang Bai Ying Shan raw from Crimson Lotus Teas. This one smells fantastic in the cup, very fruity/spicy. Still very astringent, but the later steeps had thickness. A number of buds in the cup along with chopped leaves, hard to tell leaf quality from a cake sample but didn’t see any whole leaves.
I really want to support Crimson Lotus but just not sure I want to pay $99 for chopped leaves and buds of a full beeng. Later this year this will have a 100 g cake from leaves of a farmer they stayed with in China, he had one big tea tree in his garden. Maybe I will try and buy that cake instead.
No, the sheng cake I am referring to here is shown in a November 2013 video. But, omg the new video with the cake developed from the farmer with only one huge old tea tree in his garden sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Glen and Lamu really had quite the adventure getting to his house! Would love to taste that new cake when it arrives.
I had Teaurchin’s Peacock yesterday. Sweet and tasty. Nice golden liquor. This is a greatly pleasing sheng, low astringency and nice mouth feel. I also had some Gu Yi Fang Peacock Tribute, which is a ripe cake from Lin-cang, possessing a nuttiness in the first infusion before settling into a nutty placid earthiness. Similar to Lang-he and Hai-lang Hao fermentation styles: no off-tastes, pleasing colour. Astringency only balances the smoothness. Mouth-feel has a cleansing effect.
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