Liquid Proust Teas

Brewing this up on a lazy Sunday (yet another overcast day in May) while skimming though the “Japanese Family-Style Recipes” cookbook I bought from the used bookstore yesterday. No idea how to brew. Entire 7 grams in pot, 190F, let’s go. 25 seconds.

ok beerandbeancurd, I completely understand your impressions!

Mostly this tastes like sinking my mouth into a heavily varnished wood slab table. An old one. Then I’m hit with a very strong floral quality as if a sakura tree crashed onto this thick wood slab table with its fresh, thick coating of varnish and then quick! – a mouth full of fresh bok choi juices, cucumber, mustard greens, oxalis, stale shiitake broth, burdock root, instant potato flakes, rice in burlap sacks. Weird how it goes from alkaline at the front of the mouth to sourgrass. Weird combination of floral, woody, vegetal, savory elements

Strange.

Kyoto Obubu tea.

Warmed leaves smell, at various points throughout the session, like flan, caramel, cocoa powder. Pours medium tan and graduates to reddish-brown.

Nose starts thin, like a faraway peanut and chocolate bar. Taste also starts thin with some green-noted cacao. Kind of stalls out in medium-black territory, the nose and body never quite catching up to the promise the warm leaves made. Ah, well.

Having a difficult heart day, with fatigue layered on top… this is showing up with strong arms and a fluffy midsection to snuggle into.

I really don’t see myself persuing Yiwu offerings much at all, barring a spectacular recommendation, but I’m not above a little ease now and then.

The second Yiwu I’ve had. They’re easy; I don’t find anything particularly enamoring about them, but I get why some folks might. Bread dough up front, sweet and yeasty. I did feel this gave me some good confirmation of what “Yiwu” implies, and that Taiwan storage is indeed quite neutral — this is very similar to the cheapish 2007 Yiwu cake LP dropped. Some camphor in this slightly older sample, which I don’t think I found in the cake. Makes me want to get that thing crocked and bubbling.

A very innocuous session. Wood and astringency come in at the same time during middle steeps, then it gets a bit fruity later on.

Not feeling too inspired to type up a decent note. Definitely no fault of the tea. It’s a tropical treat with some black tea suede-malt lean but also kind of like a dancong oolong. Feels most similar to an assamica Yunnan yellow tea rather than those from other regions of China. Really complex aromas and textures. It goes and goes… Content to escape in my mind to all the different tropical regions of the world.

Thank you beerandbeancurd. This is lovely.

Hong Kong storage be like AH HERD YOU LIKE BASEMENT SMAK SMAK SMAK SMAK SMAK.

I don’t mind basement, to be honest. I don’t crave it, but I do find it interesting, as it always seems to yield to something curious and a little unpredictable. Here it becomes camphor, deep huigan, some flowers overwintering in the fruit cellar, and dancing astringency. Some cha qi is present, though I’m a bit scattered tonight and not as focused on it as I’d like to be.

Just a little wood, curiously, and no alcohol notes from this barrel-aged beaut. It’s completely satisfying as is… though if I imagine wood resin and booze layered in, my brain does a dreamy drool.

Mixing the last of this with a bit of medium roast Anxi oolong, really just a solid drinker overall. Would buy again.

This oolong toes the line between “green” flavors and roasty sweeter notes. Very balanced, easy to coax flavor out of the leaves but also not upset if you happen to leave it for too long. I have done two gongfu sessions with good results across the board. Great everyday brew that offers a pleasing experience and makes you want to drink more. It’s not the most complex thing in the world but balance makes up for that, I love brewing this at work because I can throw it in a gaiwan and go!

Quite tasty, not going to dive in on a full review just yet but this is easily one of those 80+ point daily drinkers that won’t break the bank! Thanks LP.

Okay. I know it’s good that I’m not loving every sheng that comes near my mouth; I am on a journey to find things I love and notsomuch. The challenge then becomes, I guess, figuring out what to ascribe the duds to.

Certainly one starts with the tea itself… assuming the terroir/cultivar provenance is genuine. Then storage, I’d think, as long as it’s identifiable and able to be assessed separately… and then age, perhaps the most variable but also the easiest to reconcile.

I almost wrote this sheng off, which is why my mind started reeling on these questions. It took a couple steeps to get the musk of storage off, a couple more to get past some bitter-full-stop mouth punches, and finally: turned up some classic fruit.

Certainly this can be ascribed to the tea? I wouldn’t be opposed to drinking more Mansa and having my mind changed, but this is potentially another that I’m not keen on steeping through to find some mild pleasure.

Hm hm hm.

I keep having the thought that I’d like a big map to start visualizing all these terroirs and storage locales… wonder if anyone’s conjured that up on the internets yet.

Starts doughy; progresses to flat and unremarkable, except to note its black-like tannins. Meh.

Warmed leaf: squash and smoked paprika. That’s a new one.

Not much aroma coming off the first steep… zucchini. Bitter and a touch of smoke in the second. Let it steam for a bit. The next few steeps worth of bitterness eventually yield a sweet and juicy cup with little astringency.

I think I’d rather age this than drink past this bitterness every session, but the sweetness is nice and I see why Bulang is such a popular terroir.

I liked this quite a surprising bit; makes me want to hunt down some more Cang’ers. Not qi-bangy, but delicious. LuckyCatTeaShop already hit a lot of the flavor notes I’d mention. This is super juicy, with fruity sweetness and late astringency dominating; other notes that come up are menthol cooling, fresh sweet herbs, baked bread, watermelon at the bottom of the cup. Takes a minute to open up due to the density of the press, but that really makes those middle steeps, when it’s fully revealed and releasing, something special. I’ve been pretty biased toward seeking out more funked-up sheng flavors, but this was a sweet surprise. I chipped off two of these in a row to make sure I liked it that much… a-yup.

Funny little tea. No time for qi or that buzzy uncomfortable thing purple leaves sometimes do. Almost behaves more like a green — very little time needed to open up, flavor climaxes all at once, I’m left wondering where that came from and where it went and did it actually just taste like a grilled lemondrop cocktail?

Probably.

Dry leaves had some cocoa and sweet brown liquor notes. Gaiwan. First aroma from the cup and in the mouth was dark-baked bread. Wet leaf smells boozy — rye, tobacco, nutmeg, cocoa, barrel wood. Steeps a light pinkish tan. Menthol cooling from the second steep, that’s quite nice… some antique store vibes from the wet leaf.

This is redeeming LP’s barrel aged offerings somewhat… I was really starting to think I’d just hit the lottery with the PBM and everything else was trash. Good in/good out and all that.

Ah, some cha qi now. Wheeee.

Pronounced sour notes in the third; perhaps less obviously pleasant, but I feel open to the adventure. Reminds me of the Bancha Goishicha from What-Cha, which I haven’t even made notes on yet — it is ALL this sour taste, and I am trying to have faith that I will find something other than ass in there (also sent to derk for assessment… ass assessment). But I digress.

There’s a wild, woody herb smell to the leaves… my brain says “hyssop” and “hemlock,” though I don’t know those smells. More bitter than kitchen herbs. Something poisonous if cooked up by the right witch. Comes through in the mouth, along with the sour note and the vaporous cooling. Can hear my heartbeat against my headphones. Sour-funk buzz pairs well with murk swamps and elven ruins.

More antique store… or actually, maybe a younger-junk shop. These aren’t my favorite old wood notes, though I like them well enough — they’re less cherry and cedar closet and old temple than I’d prefer. It’s probably the poison.

Steeping tan to light brown now. Rye and bread are back. Flavor gets mushy around steeps 8-10, though still tasty with damn good feels. I like.

Tough-brewing buggers. They’re tight, so require some coaxing… too much coaxing and they get bitter. I got a handful of “good” steeps, but didn’t feel there was a lot of payoff. There are hints of my favorite notes — charcoal, florals, wood — which present themselves so much more fully and easily and beautifully in other teas. I know Dancong is finicky, though, so I’ll update if I have any more success with the rest of the coins.

I am chasing a 2004 imitation recipe from CNNP with this one-year-older, authentic chunk of 7542 Menghai today. I’m finding a lot of value in comparison-sipping in my little 60ml gaiwans as I educate myself on sheng.

This is worlds more interesting than the imitation. Extremely clean storage with no funk; camphor-cooling, effervescence, smoke, pine, some smoothing fruit sweetness as steeps progress. Strangely refreshing. More attic than basement… that’s the first time I’ve used that phrase, but I quite like it as quick refence for aged-woody vs damp-stony.

It looks like there was still some bitterness hanging around in this little guy a few years ago, based on Steepster notes, but I am getting juuust enough to underpin and support the rest of the profile beautifully — seems like most of the bitter has transformed to start pumping terpenes out. I feel pretty lucky to have gotten to experience this icon at the 20-year mark.

I have a precious 3g left for future indulgence. My lips are tingling.

Thank you so very much, derk.

I’ve been on a hong kick, but oolongs are really complex and delicious so a cultivar that is usually made into oolong as a hong is a real delight.

This isn’t quite as complex as the Shui Xian cake I’ve been drinking as of late but man is it still really good! Classic black tea notes, woody, a little sweet, and forgiving on brew times and ratio. Can’t beat it for the price. For the cost of one Starbucks coffee (not even a fancy one) I have 25g of great tea to brew around with.

I think shou is fine, but I am pretty well convinced after this last handful of dark-n-broodies from LP that I’m just not a huge fan. It’s probably time I content myself to think of it as a digestive/refresher/late-night chill buddy, which is fine.

Anyway, there is something vaguely floral in this one. The digested corpses of flowers past? Hehe. Who knows if I’d pick that up if I wasn’t comparison-sipping next to the LaoBanZhang loose (also from LP). Very smooth, no paper taste here.

Reddish coffee colored. Something a little reminiscent of walnuts. Bit of a papery note, which develops into some bitterness as steeps play out. Meh.