pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
It was cool & damp today, & a Shou Puerh felt right, without a doubt. I went with Mandala’s Four Leaves, which was perfect: nourishing, earthy, rich.
2005 Bulang Ripe White2Dog—Punchy Bulang personality all the way. Dunno what the constituents are He-hai, Ban-pen, Ban-zhang… a bit of it all, would it make a difference? Sure. Could I tell? Dunno. This one gets a super big thumbs up, a gift from JC. No off-tastes, some slight astringency, the Bulang personality comes through even after the processing. Nice.
1998 Yiwu dry stored, also from white2tea. This is my second day on these leaves. When I first brewed up a sample of this, it went 3 days 40+ steeps and wore me out. Though I wasn’t planning to buy this cake initially, after that mammoth session on a sample, I decided this was a good value and bought a cake. Guess what, I haven’t even got to the cake yet, this was the last of the 25 g sample I brewed up yesterday. Insane…:)
40+ ?! How much leaf and in what kind of vessel? That’s stamina.
I have had sessions go for about 30 steeps, but also some sessions closer to 20. Just depends on the chunk of tea.
This is a tea I will be drinking over the next month, since I can barely stomach the idea of drinking anymore fresh raw tea. It’ll be a month of aged tea for me.
My tasting note for the first time I tried it says I used 5 g in 60 ml. On day 2 I started at steep 15. I eventually transferred the leaves to another pot because of the dry storage, when these leaves fully hydrate they puff up a lot. Day 3 was still going strong. I stopped my note at some point but kept the leaves, they were still going past 40 when I quit.
My next steep of the sample I used about 5 grams in this pot http://www.origintea.net/teaware/early-80s-yixing-dark-zisha-julunzhu-70ml. I reserve this teapot for highly aged sheng. Went two days, leaves still good, transferred to a larger Yixing pot from Mandala that they aren’t selling anymore. I think I have it on my blog somewhere, looks like a witch cauldron on 3 feet.
Mailed 10 grams out on a swap, then the remaining 5 g I started yesterday in Hagi ware shiboridashi, also can be seen on my blog, but I’m filling it only to the level of the leaves. Well past 20 steeps today, nowhere near letting up. And then what happens?? I get my order from white2tea today with that sample of the 1998 white wrapper ripe tuo I’ve been wanting to try! Oh boy, and here I am telling my house mate I have to wait to Monday because I started a 3 day session just yesterday! Can’t toss the leaves this soon!
Thanks for the order and the fab samples, Mr. Tea Pimp. I’ll be back for more soon enough, and maybe one of those new tea ware pieces if they aren’t sold out which half of them are ;/
Hope you recover soon from the raw, those young gals are rough trade for us old folks.
This is madness. Now I am going to try and see how long I can push those leaves! Have I been giving up on them too early?
Speaking of pots and such, I am trying to push Liu Heping to get me more pots and still haven’t gotten any. I have been promised some from his next firing, but it seems like he is swamped. Ditto for tea pets.
I really will be on a long hiatus from young sheng. At least a two weeks break to recuperate!
My sheng of the day is Big Green Tea Yiwu 2001, courtesy of pu-erh.sk. Lovely Yiwu warmth and sweetness, nicely aged camphor aroma and taste, pretty strong relaxing QI, nice long sweet finish. Very clean, pure and elegant. What’s not to like?
This tea was excellent. Peter at pu-erh.sk does great work.
The Qi on this tea was really great, you hit the nail on the head.
Hey twodog glad you like it to. You will probably remember my next sheng of the day :)
My sheng of the day is 2013 Tao Cha Ju Lao Ban Zhang, courtesy of white2tea. Decided to push this amazing raw sheng as much as I could with a massive 12 gram chunk in my 130ml yixing. My god, so much energy. Rich, robust, potent, bitter, the strongest QI I have experienced. Almost overwhelming…damn I only got 100 grams left of the cake :(
By the way twodog I have added this tea to the Steepster database…any chance you have a stock photo of the tea to add? It is no longer on your website and I cannot seem to find one.
Indeed. This is tenet 3 in action (for you, and me). Every year I think, “Laobanzhang is so expensive.” Until the next year…
I did stash away a bit for myself. Takes restraint not to drink it all.
it’s like that Lil’ Wayne/Drake song… the one that goes “7 grams in the blunt”. But in this case it’s 12 grams in the Yixing.
Also – it doesn’t matter whether you spring for the LaoBanZhang or the weed – you’re going to get high either way
2011 Dashu Bulang White2Tea— Nothing short of very tasty. I see that it is no longer on the site but the 2013 is there. It’s a serious price performer. I found it to be sweeter than bitter, but with hints of smoke and a bitterness that builds. This was another sample from JC. Highly drinkable in oppressive heat, refreshing, what a Bulang should be.
I’m sure you all know about this by now, but here is the Facebook announcement from Scott at Yunnan Sourcing: “3 day sale starts now! 12% off all Menghai, Nan Jian, Shuangjiang Mengku, and Xiaguan brand pu-erh teas! Enter code: BIG12 on either of our websites: http://yunnansourcing.com or http://yunnansourcing.us”
Yep, I ordered. Silly me.
Drinking a 2014 EoT Long Lang Xu. Pretty nice tea. The tea has a pure taste with a pleasant ku to it. Nice smooth finish. Another fine product EoT has offered.
Glad you enjoyed it Sammerz. I’m pretty happy with how this tea has turned out. I’ve been drinking quite a bit of it lately.
Thanks for the feedback. Hope you enjoy the others!
My puerh of the day: EOT 2004 Private Order. When I initially bought this a year ago I personally felt it lacked in taste and flavour. A year of storage has done wonders for this cake…a lovely rich, robust salty/savoury/malty character has developed making this very tasty indeed. QI is still outstanding, relaxing and comforting. Pleasant vibrancy on the tongue with an interesting “cooling affect” when you take a deep breath in. I think this puerh is in for the long haul…will revisit this again in another year to see if it will develop even further. Still stunned as to how much this puerh has changed in a year. Many thanks to EOT.
I tried this one recently! I agree with you on the notes. The Qi was a bit more active for me, but not in a bad way, just made me extra ‘aware?’ of myself. :P
I enjoyed that tea as well. Unfortunately I only have a few grams left lol. Have you guys tried EoTs 2014 Du Quan? Its really nice. Got a free sample of it with my last order.
Glad you are both enjoying this one…it has been one of my biggest puerh surprises of the year. Sammerz314 I have not bought any of EOT’s 2014 samples so far. I recently placed an order with them, but that was basically all shu samples. I cannot wait to try out their 1980’s Zi Tian (Purple Sky) 8592 when I get my order…I have big expectations :)
I’m not sure if it was the case with this one, but sometimes teas need a couple of weeks to acclimatise after a long journey. I’m not sure why, and it seems to affect some teas more than others, but often they can be a bit flat or dull just after arriving. A couple of weeks usually helps them get over the jet lag and bring them back to life.
With this tea though… it could just be ageing well! I’m glad you’ve all been enjoying it!
I agree on letting the tea acclimatise after shipping. it has been in a plastic wrapper, usually and subjected to some temperature extremes and usually dry conditions. I just about always let them rest in the pumidor for at least 2 weeks. Sometimes more depending on how long between the acceptance of the package to the carrier and actual arrival time.
I’m drinking a 2013 Jingmai Shan sheng and it’s kicking my butt for real. On the one hand, it has some lovely flavors and aromas, but the bitterness is serious. LOL. I feel this one will mature nicely, but it’s definitely not ready quite yet! :)
Do you mean who told me? No one.
The flavors were so lovely that my impression was that the tea would be amazing without the bitterness. I was thinking it would reduce with age.
I could be completely full of crap. Wouldn’t be the first time!
The cake was made by DC Tea. I purchased it from O5Tea in Canada
There are notes and a pic on my profile, if you’re interested. :)
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