pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
I’m finishing of Man Tang Hong, a sample from Scott at YS. It a ripe cake that is very sweet and satisfying. There’s a bit of “that taste” that hides between the gaps of pleasure, which makes me surmise that even still the cake could stand more aging. “That taste” isn’t exactly fishiness or rankness. There’s no rank to this, very full and soft, zero astringency, but very much associated with certain processing methods, especially many of the “thicker” productions. Otherwise, this is a positively delicious product.
I got a sample of this awhile back and thought it was one of the most unique shou’s I’ve had. I was very surprised. I’ll probably get a cake one of these days.
I haven’t tried that one, but I’m a fan of the Man Tang Hong’s from 2011. If this is anything like them then it’s probably a winner.
I also saw Scott posted another MTH in the past couple days!
Drank the 2014 Xiaguan Tibetan Flame Mushroom Tuocha tonight. This is a strong potent ripe tea. It was very bitter but still quite enjoyable. It was loosely compressed and I was able to break off pieces of tea with my fingers, that loosely compressed. There were some notes of bitter cacao behind the bitterness, bitterness behind bitterness. I hope it develops into some nice chocolate notes.
I just broke open a cake of 2003 Langhe “Green Mark” shou pu erh from YS.
Fantastic tea! Very loose compression, especially for a shou. Big broad leaves in this one, I used around 8g in a 200ml yixing with a rinse and 10s steeps initially. The color was a little lighter than expected, a deep reddish brown. The tea was sooooo smooth! It just flows in the mouth with little to no resistance. Flavors showed good complexity with notes of leather, dates, and spices. The hui gan of this tea kicks you right in the mouth! Lots of times I’ll have to breath in or out to notice the hui gan of a tea, but this one has an immediate numbing sensation on the roof of the mouth and tongue. Great cha qi too! An awakening, reassuring calmness is what I got from this tea and I quite enjoyed it. Based on reviews I bought a whole cake before sampling it first and I’m not disappointed in the least! This is one hell of a shou pu erh!
Nice. I’m in the process of stalking several Langhe cakes. Maybe you saw the translation I did on them maybe two weeks ago. There’s a few places that have their award winning brick from ‘05, some selling ’06 as well. http://universotea.com/content/langhe-tea-factory
Speaking of big leaves, I’ve got this cake from Cai-zhe that is a ripe Bulang Yang Shan. The biggest leaves EVER for a shu. Decent cake actually.
I would describe the cha qi of a tea as the energy or feeling you get from drinking the tea. Some teas can provide a feeling of relaxation, while some can be energizing, etc. Sometimes it is felt in the head, sometimes in the body. This experience varies greatly depending on the tea and the person drinking it. Some people do not experience any of these sensations at all while some are particularly sensitive to it. Although I am not at all fond of the term, some people describe it as being tea drunk. To me however, the cha qi of the tea is one of the aspects of Chinese tea, particularly pu erh, that I find most interesting.
To me “tea drunk” (chazui) is a certain effect, making it a particular type of cha qi.
This effect of inebriation and food is quite common in China. There was a crackdown just recently on chefs from all around the country sneaking bits of opium into their secret ingredients.
Also, anyone who’s had good Sichuan pepper (huajiao), a dish called shuizhu in particular, cannot help but notice the intoxicating effect of that spice. Sichuanese are huajiao fiends. It zings the mouth and spins the head. http://www.seriouseats.com/2011/02/sichuan-peppercorns-spice-roundup.html
I was thinking at chaqi as a positive aspect, and at chazui as a negative. I might be wrong, but for me chazui occurs when you drink just too much tea and you have enough. Like being drunk.
Yang-chu: That huajiao is so potent! :-D Never eat a spicy Sichuan dish right before going to a tea tasting. Also I got one of those peppers stuck against my gum between two teeth. So much pain! :-D
2006 Fall Lao Ban Zhang Raw
We have the great fortune to learn of sellers of very fine puerh through Steepster (and other tea blogs/sites). As a result, we are each able to enjoy some excellent teas. This 2006 LBZ found at Yunnan Sourcing is just such a tea. A very good tea with purity, power, hints of mushroom and nice sweetness. The cake is of moderate compression – quite easy to pick apart. The leaves are large and hearty, with some very nice tips. They produce a clear tea soup which turns rather orange. The scent as the brew cools is darkly sweet, with plenty of power. The liquor has a heavy, thick body that conveys a solid sweetness and finishes cleanly (no real bitterness in the finish). It is big in the mouth – swelling nicely and causing the mouth to water. After 4-5 swallows, the huigan [returning sweetness] finds its way to my throat along with a light mushroom aroma in the back of the nose. This cake is clearly made from leaves of high quality. I found it to be clean, well-balanced and very enjoyable as it offers good huigan and nice cha qi.
I had the 2013 Yiwu Pinweizhichun ripe from Puerhshop today. I largely agree with Rich’s description, it is a very nice tea. I would add that it had a lot of fermentation flavor in the early steeps but that it went away by about the fourth steep. I think this tea will age well. I think when it is five or six years old it will be a great tea. I have the 2010 version of this tea as well. I will have to break it out and try it again soon, see how it compares.
2002 Yong Pin Hao Red Yi Wu Zheng Shan by Yunnan Sourcing. DigniTea’s session five months ago yielded a honey yellow brew and mine is definitely now orange, I think the tea turned a corner maybe. Very thick orange syrup, could probably drizzle my pancakes with it. At the current rate of difficulty achieving the state of tea drunkenness, tea pancake syrup is a logical next step for me.
Happy to hear of the change. I bought this one and the 2006 Fall Lao Ban Zhang in the same YS-China order. When they arrived, I was too anxious to wait for them to mature in my humidity-monitored tea cabinet so I tried both. Yesterday I took out both cakes to retry after several months of proper storage. Found a similar change in the LBZ as you found in the YiWu. Also, I am using more leaf these days so I enjoy and value them both a bit more. Fan of the Yong Pin Hao products – decent value. Thanks for the “encouragement” as I now plan to go back to the Yiwu in the next day or two.
Glad to hear you liked the tea! I drank those after several months of not very much pu’erh and am curious to revisit Yiwu and some of these Yong Pin Hao teas.
Yay! Proper storage changes! You are giving me hope that mine will age as well as yours!
My cake will have the added difficulty of uneven storage from the start since the bottom of the cake is so clearly further along than the top. My brain tells me I should break up the cake maybe next summer to try and even it all out.
Sun tea. I’m not sure if its the 2006 Bulang of Tian Di Ren or the Tea Urchin Bulang or the Yabao of Phoenix or all of them mixed with with the ripe stuff that’s making this particularly good, but I’ll venture it’s that bit of cigarette from the Tian Di Ren that’s making this batch simply outstanding. I’ve been switching off with peppermint from our spice patch and longgan. This time it’s longgan. I’m really loving this one quite a bit. It’s 86 degrees today at 3:50pm.
The wife and I are drinking some 2005 Changtai Yun Pu Zhi Dian ‘Top of the Clouds’ tonight. It is aptly named, this tea is heavenly. :-)
Yesterday I busted out the Yangxin’s Reserve 04 Puerh Nuggets (Verdant) for all evening sipping. Those nuggets remind me of the dried out umeboshi plums I used to enjoy when I was a kid, but of course the tea tastes nothing like that, but is a very mild vanilla mouth with a sweet pastry like taste, gradually building up some aromatic wood taste too. There is more to it than that, it is the shu that was originally used to make my beloved Sichuan Caravan as well.
Today I went with Jalam’s Meng Zhr, a raw puerh. I can’t tell you what month it was from, I I don’t really have too much to say about it, since that was hours ago, but I did enjoy it, & it had a wonderful energizing quality, which was just what I needed.
Just thought I would post that there is a sale at www.yunnansourcing.com om Shuangjiang Mengku teas, 15% off, code mengku15.
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