Dry – Sweet, thick, creamy, red dried fruits, faint bitterness.
Wet – Thick, fruity, bittersweet, rich, burn-sugar sweet.
Liquor – Red-ish brown to a coffee-brown.
Initial Steeps 1-5 Are thick, creamy, bitter to bittersweet notes with apparent richness and full body. The liquor is thick and becomes smooth going down while turning sweeter, but retaining some of that rich bitter-sweetness. Hints of dried dark and red fruits in the sweetness that stays behind.
Mid Steeps 5-7 Still thick, though not as thick as the first few, it holds its ground pretty well with the similar notes of a Bitter to bittersweet front that has rich and tart notes, coating the tongue with a thick layer before transitioning into a sweeter and smoother note. The sweetness lingers in the tongue and throat if you allow time between steeps. Some minor astringency shows up at the end.
Final steeps 8-11 The first steep here still has some body to it, but this declines with each steep, thi is the collapsing portion of this tea (which is REALLY damn good for a shou). The steeps begin to get ‘cleaner’ with less body and even barely retaining any bitterness, just holds on to enought to not make it just sweet, this steeps are still pleasant and satisfying, but in a more juicy way than filling.
Final Notes
A very satisfying every day shou. I would recommend drinking this one next to W2Ts 2005 Bulang Maocha. Its not fair to do a 1:1 comparison due to age and possibly storage factors, but you can get an idea of how loose leaf/maocha vs compressed Puerh behaves in terms of taste. Both great shous to have in your collection.
Flavors: Dark Bittersweet, Sweet, Thick
Preparation
Comments
I’m thinking about biting in for some of that 2012 GuShu, heard nothing but good things and your comment only reenforces it.
W2t 2005 Bulang Mao Cha is sold out long time ago :(. It was very good. I love this shou and 2012 Gushu too
This one has been my daily drinker all this week. We emptied out another box and were left with a ton of the fannings/dust again. I’ve been brewing them up and enjoying them just like I would from the cake. The last box I emptied into a sample for mrmopar. :-D
I enjoy both CL Bulangs – 2008 Imperial and the 2012 GuShu.
I’m thinking about biting in for some of that 2012 GuShu, heard nothing but good things and your comment only reenforces it.
Be on it for sure!
W2t 2005 Bulang Mao Cha is sold out long time ago :(. It was very good. I love this shou and 2012 Gushu too
This one has been my daily drinker all this week. We emptied out another box and were left with a ton of the fannings/dust again. I’ve been brewing them up and enjoying them just like I would from the cake. The last box I emptied into a sample for mrmopar. :-D
This one was really nice for sure, Thanks for the opportunity to try it!