pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
2009 Douji Hong DaDou Raw
The Douji DaDou produced in 2009 is a blend of very fine Menghai and Lincang leaf. The characteristics of the two areas blend wonderfully to produce a fantastic cup! The cake is composed of beautiful whole leaves throughout (i.e., not just on top) which are quite large. The tea liquor is a nice orange-yellow color – even after two rinses it was a tiny bit cloudy during the first 2-3 infusions. The scent is pleasant – fresh, fruity, sweet. The sip is quite smooth and mellow with a definite sweetness and there is a little boldness and strength to balance the sip. Nice chaqi settles in after 10-12 swallows. Definitely an appealing complexity in this one — a good quality offering and I am a fan for sure!
The Douji brand is considered a premium puerh – particularly their single-mountain cakes. Unfortunately these cakes have become extremely pricey in recent years. I have learned from a few individuals more knowledgeable about puerh than I that the best value in Douji products may now be their blends which also use high quality tea leaves. Of course these too have risen in price recently. However, if you keep searching you just might stumble upon a cake here or there in a tea seller’s inventory with a little age on it and an “older” price which makes it a bargain compared to the more recent Doujis. I’ve stumbled upon a few lately and I am very happy to have added them to my puerh collection.
Mopar — Sorry I missed your comment. As you know, Douji is a recent rising star in the high quality Pu-erh tea arena. (1) They use the best of arbor materials harvested in early Spring and processed strictly by traditional methods. (2) They intentionally limit the size of their annual production. In order to maintain such stringent standards (point 1) they guarantee that the company will produce no more than 100 tons of tea a year – in contrast, the XiaGuan Factory produces roughly 7000 tons of puerh each year. These are the factors making Douji puerh difficult to find.
There are no surprises – I shop in the same places as you and most of the collectors we know. I started looking for Douji cakes a year ago and I’ve been vigilant in the search. I’ve picked up the last Doujis at YS; several from PuerhShop (he still has a few); I’ve found a single item or two on ebay or Aliexpress from odd unknown sellers (and I still do a Douji search when I visit ebay or aliexpress). From what I gather, authorized resellers are now limited to China Cha Dao (Jerry Ma) – those items I have stumbled upon are leftover inventory from before the change. I have also purchased from China Cha Dao – good seller with fairly quick shipping from China.
2006 Bulang, Tiandiren Teavivre
I mentioned a couple weeks back that I had this after someone mentioned having it. I noted that it tasted horrible. I was flash steeping at 195 and it tasted like cigarette water. Yeah, I’m from Iowa and I went through my tobacco chewing days like everyone else. The worst “chew,” as it’s called, imho, is the sawdust stuff that comes in a hockey-puck called Copenhagen. This all to say that brewed at that temp, this Bulang conjured memories of Iowa and I was only too eager for the right time to try again at my normal raw tea temp of 175. Big, big, big difference. Positive. Much sweeter, a hint of sour. The cigarette, not necessarily tobacco but yes, taste lingers in the background, not unpleasantly. I’ve only had one infusion so far.
Enjoying a blend of a 1998 Yiwu and a 2005 Yiwu from Misty Peak Teas. I received, and enjoyed very much, these samples a few months back. Unfortunately, there was only 2-3 grams of each leftover – not enough for a steeping given the size of my gaiwan. I decided to blend the two. The tea is pleasant… thick in the mouth, nice aged notes and a very long finish. There are subtle notes of almonds. Excellent blend.
2006 Bulang, raw, Tea Urchin— gets better with each cup, with building sweetness and complexity: smoke, cedar, sour, astringency. A shade not clear broth during the first few infusions, clears up while color darkens a bit. I think this is my fav among the TU stuff I’ve sampled. —I see it’s a Six Famous Mt brand tea not TU.
I’ve been drinking some of our 2014 Spring Bai Ying Shan ‘Mengku’ sheng puerh today. It’s quite nice, but during lunch I found it paired perfectly with kung pao chicken. :-D I just wanted to share that.
Interestingly enough, I was drinking your 2008 Bulang Imperial Grade shou that I splurged on this week and I found it went perfectly with my cinnamon flax cereal this morning. Talk about a great way to start the day!
I ate cereal for lunch after reading your comment today. :-D The power of suggestion.
once i saw a picture of kendrick lamar eating cereal and later that day I ate a lot of cereal
“CARTOONS AND CEREAL/I AIN’T FELT THIS GOOD SINCE”
power of suggestion indeed, i’m listening to kendrick and craving cereal for the first time in years
Having a 2010 “Hai Lang Hao” Bulang Wild arbor shou tonight.
I convinced the “Chairman” to pick this one for us tonight after she played with the catnip mouse that I enticed her with.
i did the 8 gram sample with a 5 second ’wash" and brewed it in the Gaiwan after giving it a 30 min rest.
The brew with the first infusion was a nice burgundy after a 5 second steep. It gives a nice brew. No of scents and nice to see in the cup. I gives a nice woody , sweet and a touch drying brew. It is very nice and a very smooth brew to be as young as this one is. Very nice and I am grateful for the one who allowed me to try it. Nice and Nice.
Flavors: Drying, Sweet, Wood
I have that tea, thought it was good. I have enough of that to last quite a while. They only sold the whole brick.
Yunnan Sourcing now sells a 2013 version of this tea. I eventually plan to buy it, also a 2kg brick.
I’ll have to break out a Hai Lang Hao sheng and see if it has more astringency or not. I have a couple of their shengs in my pumidor one of which I opened to give a tea friend a sample and have not yet tried myself.
On another note, I was able to get onto this page. A glitch kept taking me to another page.
yeah, i’m talking about the shu astringency relative others, say CNNP, xin yi hao, even Lang He.
A few weeks ago I got samples of both of the CNNP 2005 1938 Anniversary teas. I reviewed the Shu a week or so ago, and today I finally got a chance to try the Sheng. I really enjoyed it as well, & would love to have a cake of each for my collection.
Had the 2010 Yunnan Sourcing “Bang Dong Village” sheng puerh today. It was quite good with little bitterness and notes of apricots and stonefruits. Isn’t an apricot a stonefruit anyway? This was one of the best shengs I have ever had taste wise. It was sweet even before I added sugar to it. It was worth the price. I don’t think I will run out and buy another but I would certainly think about picking another one up at some point. Mostly the teas I choose to stock up on are shou puerh.
Today I tried the 2013 Yiwu Pinweizhichun Ripe by PuerhShop.
There are some ripe teas that I find have a very special texture. I think of it as kind of velvety. This is one of those teas. It’s flavor is not terribly deep, but the quality of the broth is really nice. It is a semi-fermented ripe, meaning the fermentation process was stopped about midway through. It is a high quality tea for sure. There is some bitterness, but it is integrated well, with a smooth base underneath. Not the most potent of flavors, but I liked it nonetheless.
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