pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
I received my order of samples from Crimson Lotus Tea today, and decided to serve one after dinner to my guests. I chose the 2008 Bulang Shan Imperial Grade shou, brewed it in my 190 ml yixing teapot, and served it in small porcelain cups. My note reads: “This is an interesting tea of depth and complexity with bright, well balanced flavors and a deep sweetness. Good earthy flavor, hints of tobacco, and perhaps even a whisper of cherry and forest in the flavors, this is quite a good tasting tea. Just a hint of astringency in the long lasting flavors. Quite enjoyable (from a sample).”
The samples I received also included the 2011 CPTR “Paka” shou pu-erh, the 2006 Yunnan Puer Special Tea Factory Kunlu Mountain Tribute Tea (shou), the 2007 Qiao Jun “Huang Zhi” shou, and the 2009 Xinghai Bulang Qiaomu sheng/raw Pu-erh. I will be reporting on these over the next month or so. I definitely enjoyed the first sample this evening. More info available at: http://crimsonlotustea.com/
For the past couple of days, I’ve been drinking the White2tea 2007 Repave that Paul sent me. I finished it last night but have been having problems posting to Steepster. I have enjoyed this one. It has the right mix of smokiness and astringency for my tastes. Very nice.
I just had this one, It reminded me of a gentler XiaGuan or a Blend of XiaGuan and Yiwu. Very nice one.
Glad you enjoyed it. I think I wrote mellow in my original description. It’s not in your face like the Tibetan Flame but still has enough going on to be enjoyable.
Yes, to me it had similar notes, but they build up in your mouth, XiaGuan just kicks the door open.
That’s a great way of describing it. I love the idea of the Xiaguan kicking the doors open instead of knocking politely, being invited in and slowly getting to the point of its visit. So, the Xiaguan is the Feds come to bust a gangster and the Repave is your rich maiden aunt turning up on family business that will be to your advantage but going through all the social pleasantries before getting to the point.
2007 Boyou Man Lu Da Shan Mengsong Mountain Raw by Yunnan Sourcing
This is a nice little gem from the Boyou factory. The cake has a nice feel to it – a pretty wrapper and all. It is very tightly compressed. First infusions are sweet and flowery, with notes of Lucky Charms. Later infusions taste a bit deeper and darker, with some age showing through. But it still tastes young overall, probably because of the compression. A little huigan, sourness, and just a touch of astringency and smoke here and there. Overall a nice drink.
I once saw someone describe a coffee as having notes of Froot Loops. I really want to try that coffee.
I haven’t, I know McNulty’s in NYC has sold coffee from Yunnan though. If you order it already roasted from YS it will be stale by the time it gets to your home (coffee goes stale 2wks after roasting) so the only appeal really is to home roasters, not to mention that their roasting seems badly done (uneven, lots of scorching). I should try sending links to home roasters and seeing if one of them will bite.
Giving our puerh posts a bippity boppity bump with 2001 Menghai Red Mark Aged Raw. Wet storage well integrated, aged cigar tobacco smell and taste. Still a little bitter and quite astringent, this tea would have been undrinkable when new, but still some aging left to go, very much still “cooking” away…
I’ve got two new pu-erh samples to try from Teavivre. One is ripe and one is raw. So, tomorrow I will do I taste test comparison.
Fengqing Ancient Tree Raw Pu-erh Cake
Menghai Palace Ripened Pu-erh Cake
Enjoying White2Teas 1998 aged Yiwu sheng. Very beautiful leaves that produce an amber soup with a very nice aroma. I personally don’t find it very thick in the mouth (perhaps I underleafed at 6 grams/100 mL) but do enjoy the woody/fruity notes. Personally, I find this tea (appearance and profile) is more consistent with more recent material than 1998 material. Despite this, I do enjoy this tea. Nice mouthfeel.
To me this tea is a good value because I can steep 4 grams in a small pot over 3 days and not need a shou to balance it out.
I thought I had ordered a sample of this one but I was wrong, I just happened to think about it while putting my order lol. Next time I guess.
Well I immediately busted into a 250g brick from a company called Dian Xiu 滇秀。 It’s a ripe brick from 2007, no hint of off flavours and what seem to be back notes of peach, just a hint. I also tried a sample of a sticky-rice cake from a company called Cheng Shan 诚善, not too shabby. The smell is awesome and again no off tastes that need to be aired out. I’m in the process of developing a “peacock” selection and their ripe cake resembles the TeaUrchin label, resembles I said. Anyway, this cake smells ridiculously tasty. I’m expecting it to have more of a Lang He type taste, sans must and earth and more sweet and succulent. The Dian Xiu is definitely succulent.
Interestingly (am I rambling), both companies seem to be in the liquor business as well. Dian Xiu has a Notoginseng and Astragalus distillation that I’m definitely going to be on the lookout for my next time to Yunnan probably in late Nov. I’ll meet you there. ;-)
Check out the photos at brilliantspa.com. Pick the Holy Journey package, it is a puerh tea vacation on Jingmai Mountain.
This morning’s selection is a 2007 Menghai Golden Needle White Lotus. Often touted as one of the best shou pu erh’s out there, I paid $75 for this one around a year ago. Initially I was disappointed that this one is good, but it didn’t knock my socks off… but as time goes on it has grown on me. What strikes me about this shou is it’s purity. It doesn’t have crazy complexity, just a smooth pure taste. I struggle to describe the taste in words, but the one word that keeps coming to mind is purity. There is an essence of white light infused in this tea and a sneaky calming cha qi. It really is a great tea. I bust it out every month or so and am grateful to enjoy this tea this morning.
Today I opened my sample of 2007 White2Tea Repave. I’ve been enjoying this one for a bit now. I have to admit is not my favorite, but it isn’t a quality thing, just preference. It reminds me of a gentler XiaGuan or a XiaGuan and Yiwu blend. If you’d like the combination of the two I would definitely consider sampling this one. I’ve had cakes in the $60-80 range that taste just like this. I think is around $32 for a 200gm cake so for $60 you’d get around 400gm.
That’s what I got when I first tried it. I basically said ‘Hmmmm… I’ve met you before… I think’ lol. Then again that happens to me in real life all the time :P
When I attended TwoDog’s tea tasting, this tea was served as the #2 of three teas he brought for us to taste. He said it is middle-of-the road as far as leaf quality goes, and thus middle-budget. The final tea was meant to compare leaf quality and try a better leaf, and that was the 2014 Manzhuan. The comparison works, the Repave I thought “this is pretty good tea,” but every time I drink the Manzhuan I am tea drunk saying things like “this tea is da sh*t.” Hobbes wrote an on-point review of the Manzhuan featuring a scene from Pulp Fiction. The lads at teadb.org posted a video tasting of the Repave recently so we can see how they brewed it.
That sounds cool. But at the also proves my point, Xiaguan never uses great quality leaf, at least in my opinion; but it has its market. I had the Manzhuan yesterday, that was really good. It is still a bit young for me, but even then I can still enjoy the tea very much. I had it for two days(same leaves), they were pretty too.
Yes, Xiaguan is a tea for people who like strength. I think Xiaguan kind of drew attention after it was discovered that long-aged cakes before 2000 turned out incredibly good. Their tea initially went to Tibet and took forever to get there, so the compression kept it in good shape. Since folks there add yak butter, sugar and salt it works well as a high calorie beverage in the mountain winters. This history is my focal point for the “Crane.” Speaking of which, the Crane showed up last week on Yunnan Sourcing with a new raw cake, for those interested.
Do! It is pretty nice. I have yet to try the little Yellow mark, but I’m resting my mouth after the hong kong storage lol.
Cleaned the Gaiwan and threw in a few leaves. Very nice looking leaves for one. Do you guys get a nice subtle fruity aroma from the wet leaves? Almost like a Mengku aroma? Where is this tea from? LOL
Welcome Mrmopar! Hows the pumidor doing? Rotate those cakes lately? I really need to address my storage issues… have been way too lazy lately lol.
Yeah rotated them Friday. Took 90 mins to do it right. Mow you all have me on White2tea’s site wondering how to get it n the house!
Yeah, it has some light fruity-floral notes, that’s why I said it had a XiaGuan-Yiwu blend vive to me. :)
It also made me hungry.
“Rotate the cakes lately?” That cracked me up good. The tea drinker’s equivalent to “how’s it hanging.” Hahaha!!
Oh about the Repave, I get a little smoke some sweet and an almost caramel finish. The liquor is a golden color exhibiting it’s age. A tongue tingle and a pretty good brew.
For me, rotating is more like rearranging in order to stuff more tea in! I should really make sure I rotate now, gonna laugh each time I do it now thanks to Sammerz. Glad you like the Repave, I knew there was a good tea in there someplace but TwoDog hits every steep on the boil, as he would for buying a tea. That made the Repave more bitter and hot and all the more difficult to taste subtle notes I know are there. I forgot if I made any notes on this. I have an unopened sample I should crack into sometime, when I want tea but not turn into the babbling idiot that the Manzhuan turns me into.
Drinking the 1990s HK stored Raw, tastes a bit less storage now that I have aired it a few weeks. But I still mainly taste storage and camphor. I have more of it to drink, it is nicely uncomplicated and that is why I reached for it tonight.
The “Rotating” is trying to fit the new stuff in. I just pulled the majority of my Haiwan cakes to the non humidified storage and moved all my White2tea and Yunnan Sourcing ones to the premium upscale high class humidified apartment,
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