pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

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TwoDog2 said

Some mystery bag sample today. Sealed in mylar, minimum two years old. Found at the bottom of a box full of misfit samples. Absolutely no idea what this tea is, other than young(ish) raw Puer. Here goes nothing!

apt said

so?

Roughage said

Hey, come on, you have to tell us more now. It’s been 6 hours since you teased us … :)

My mystery box is so full right now. I have samples from everywhere. I should make an effort to try one per day.

TwoDog2 said

It ended up being really high quality tea. I am really embarrassed that I can’t remember who I got it from, but I have it narrowed down mentally to one of three sources. Really amazing stuff. How did it end up at the bottom of a box?

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AnnaEA select said

YS 2013 Ai Lao mountain raw pu-erh. This is dried peach leather around a campfire with a mouth filling bitter. Delicious.

mrmopar said

I have a 2012 version of this one. I think it will as good also.

Yang-chu said

Nice description.

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AllanK said

I have just finished a session with a cheap brick, but a tasty cheap brick. I bought it on Taobao. Saw it advertised on EBay as “Ban Zhang” ant thought it looked good. Using the translation program of Chrome I called it 2006 Ban Zhang Premium Gold Brick. It had a slightly different name on EBay where it was more expensive. You can get some good deals on Taobao but you pay a lot for shipping with a Taobao agent. While it most certainly is not Lao Ban Zhang I suppose it could be from one of the other places that share the part of the name “Ban Zhang”. As I understand it there are several villages with similar names in Yunnan.

It was better than I actually expected. It started out with a note I would describe as wet wood and quickly moved to sweet. Despite being a chceap brick I found it worth twelve steeps and am still feeling the effects of the caffeine. I am hoping that this doesn’t last too long.

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apt said

YS 2012 cha tou sheng yun brick today. i really like brewing this one when I just want to drink lots of tea. Simple pleasant profile + good longevity makes this a nice tea to drink while either working or (in my case) relaxing. Smooth + sweet (pure maple syrup?)

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Enjoying misty peaks 2013 raw MaoCha on this cold Thursday afternoon. First caffeinated tea of the day.

I’ve used this tea about twice before with different leaf amounts and water temps.

I can’t say I enjoy using 180 degree water like they suggest, makes for a rather mild cup of sheng in my opinion.

The smell of this MaoCha is very strong.
My girlfriend who doesn’t like sheng, or puerh for that manner, was turned off by how strong it smelt. I on the other had thought it smells wonderful.

Today I’m using my ~80 ml Glass Gaiwan & around 4.5 grams of leaf with boiling water.

Did a quick rinse with luke warm water and steeped for very short times. The infusions were mostly pale yellow to golden in color.

Taste is clean, flowery, honey notes, and hints of astringent properties. I don’t notice any dry notes nor is it too drying of the mouth. Certainly something I could drink more often.

Almost an instant chaqi was felt. From the third infusion on I felt like I was buzzing.
Very calm but stimulated if I chose to embrace that. I found it to be notably warming for a sheng.

Think i will sip and explore this tea some more. It has a nice amount of complexity along with the longevity to match.

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DigniTea said

Found this one at Cha Wang Shop a few months ago – 2008 Lin Ying Hao TF Youle Longpa Gushu Raw Brick.
Youle has easily become one of my favorite tea areas. This brick is made of spring tea leaves harvested from ancient trees on Youle mountain – the whole leaves have aged into a rich, dark brown, with some copper-tinted tips and put forth a gentle sweetness the level of which you don’t often find in a puerh. Typical Youle puerh characteristics found in this brick: deep honey golden color and very clean aromatic tea liquor; sweet, mellow and full in the mouth; smooth with a very nice aftertaste and a solid cooling sensation in the throat. A heavy fruitiness is clearly found in the scent that is most satisfying. The sweetness grips hold of the tongue and holds throughout the session. That fruitiness is the type that fills the front of your mouth immediately, and makes it instantly appealing while the undercurrent of other tea flavors gather underneath to make themselves known in the throat. Overall, this is a pleasant combination of savory and fruity. An interesting blend of characteristics that settles into a constantly enjoyable tea.

Sounds great!
Thanks for sharing

Yang-chu said

I placed a couple Youle on order. Looking forward to sampling.

DigniTea said

For my taste preferences, this is a nice tea.

AllanK said

You make that sound really good.

Yang-chu said

DigniTea is a fabulous and fastidious writer, let there be no doubt.

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Roughage said

I’ve been drinking a 2006 Haiwan Lao Tong Zhi sheng brick for the past few days. It’s not particularly special but is quite drinkable in an unchallenging manner. That brings me almost to the end of that brick. I’ve just enough left for another session with it next year or the year after or maybe ten years down the line. If I hide it well enough at the bottom of a box then it could make a great discovery when I am 90!

Hello Roughage,

10g of 50+ year old age tea can be pretty amazing :)

Rediscovering long and forgotten treasures of puerh or any age tea is a great way to add excitement to a tea enthusiast’s life. I remember during the first wave of the puerh boom from early 2000s to 2007 when puerh mania hit mainland China there were many Chinese digging around their old storage compartments looking for puerh and age tea treasures from their elders. Many teashops in China/HK/Taiwan at the time reported buying old teas from people for significant sums. A well accounted case in this instance of a 80 year old Liu Ann tea can be read from the link below (from the now defunct The Leaf magazine) for those who are interested

http://the-leaf.org/issue%202/?p=17

Best, VP

Roughage said

That article is really interesting. Thanks for the link.

I am now considering saving the last 10g or so of all my puerhs as/if I get down to that little. I could make a puerh capsule to save for my old age. Given my current circumstances, I am not buying tea right now, so working through the stash and saving a bit of each beeng for the far future seems like a great idea. :)

Hello Roughage,

From my experience those small quantities of tea can be quite delicate. I remember coming across a few sample packs that had been damaged and left opened for a number of years (maybe 4-5 years). Compared to the sealed sample packs, the teas from the open ones tasted hollow and drained of life. Too much exposure to the open environment appears that have drained it of its essence.

Best, VP

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Hi everybody … I’m back! In an unusual turn of events, work had me on the road for several months. I was packing my tea setup in my carry-on, but on the second flight the overhead bins were full and they made me check it. Thanks to the exceptional care of the baggage handlers none of the travel teaware made it intact, so I was without it for the remainder.

Now I’m back, awake the better part of a day and a half trying to catch up in the office, and brewing tea almost non-stop. I started with the excellent 2011 Menghai Dayi “100 year” tribute that mrmopar introduced me to, then my old daily standby 2008 Menghai Qizibing, then onto several excellent oolongs, the 2005 Mengku Gold Award (“the bottle rocket”), finishing with an outstanding assam.

I may have overdone it just a bit, but I really missed having great tea. The hotel tea bags just did not cut it. I’m not hallucinating (yet), but I’m definitely in orbit.

Tomorrow I’m going to break out the 100 year tribute cake again, along with some shengs to rotate through over the next couple of days. I’ll post write-ups when I catch my breath. Man, it’s good to be back :-D

boychik said

Welcome back !

Thank you boychik !
My dashboard says I have 2140 tasting notices I’ve missed from people I follow. That’s probably a lost cause :)

boychik said

The site was hiccuping a lot. It’s seems good now. You came at the right time ;)

mrmopar said

Long time brother! Glad you are back!

MzPriss said

Welcome back!

Roughage said

Welcome back, and boo to airport baggage handlers.

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Anyone ever cold brew Puer? I have had quite a few folks ask about it, and though it may be fun to hear your experiences.

Yang-chu said

I think a number of us use the spent leaves to cold brew. I even mix raw and ripe as well as liking to add dried loquat to sweeten it up. It’s my beverage of choice in hot weather. Yabao cold brewed is the beezknees.

Now I want to try :)

AllanK said

I may have to try this.

Sil select said

i like puerh cold brews and puerh lattes :)

MzPriss said

I use the leaves after I’ve steeped to cold brew sometimes

Cwyn said

Uh yea, it is called leaving the water in the pot overnight and discovering it the next day. Tastes just fine.

Lindsay said

Cwyn is my favourite. :)

Cwyn said

Too silly lol.

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DigniTea said

This week I’m working on a few sheng bricks purchased last fall from Cha Wang Shop. Today I have been enjoying a 2002 Ailoshan: 2002 FuChaJu Ailaoshan Xiao Zhuan.
This is a decent, fairly priced small brick ($15 for 90g brick) with nice age made from decent raw material. Composed of small spring leaves (mix of whole and pieces) which have become dark brown over almost thirteen years of aging. Produces a pure liquor with a deep golden yellow hue indicating the richness and intensity of the flavor. Rich scents come forth. First sips – straw-like and a little tart; pleasant mouth sensation but not terribly full. The following steepings produce a richer, sweeter tea liquor. The flavors of grain and mushrooms emerge during steepings four through seven. Overall, clean and rounded, smooth, thick mouthfeel without astringency, aftertaste is sweet.

JC said

I’ve been meaning to give ChaWangShop another shot. I was pleased with a few of their offerings, I need to stalk their page for a bit to find the things that call out to me though :P

DigniTea said

JC, I’ve been happy with them. It does take awhile to look through things though. I have purchased both expensive and inexpensive, older and younger tea offerings from them and I’m quite satisfied. Unfortunately, more and more of his older things are selling out.

Cwyn said

I like chawangshop too but am feeling a bit sheepish about them because I forgot about an order. Their system of sending an invoice a few days later is understandable but bad for old ladies like me with poor memories. I’m used to shopping and then forgetting about it until the package arrives. So I didn’t notice the PayPal invoice for like 3 weeks. Wasn’t even sure they still had the tea so I just deleted it. Sorta feel bad but it is not the ideal system for me.

JC said

Cwyn I agree with you, I was a bit weirded out by the system, but I would say give them a try. There’s a few cakes I want, the problem is that they are all from different stores! Shipping is ripping my pockets apart.

Dr Jim said

I just placed an order a couple days ago and am still waiting for an invoice. I sent an email because it seemed so weird to not have to pay on the site. I love their selection, and am really looking forward to the tea.

DigniTea said

Here’s what I know about ordering from ChaWangShop.com. Please note that I have placed 10-12 very successful orders over the past year or so. This is actually a tea shop with a storefront in China and he has had an online site for awhile now. This is a reliable seller. About 6-8 months ago he changed shipping method and calculation so that he could offer US (Canadian and maybe more) customers cheaper/faster shipping. For some reason (I do not know why) with this change when I submit my order he needs to adjust it and send me a Paypal invoice. I typically receive an automatic confirmation of my order and then I reply to that email asking that he adjust the price to reflect the fast and cheap e-packet rate to the US. He always replies to that e-mail the next day informing me of the adjusted price and notifying me that he has submitted a Paypal invoice for this amount. I then open my Paypal account and it is always there ready for me to click and approve. Done – never had a problem. Note e-packet has a 2000g limit. He allows 500g for packing material and I make sure that the items ordered weigh less than 1500g. Works every time and I am a very happy customer.

JC said

Thanks for posting this. My last order was a WHILE ago and I couldn’t remember if the shipping cost changed in the actual invoice. They need to fix that. I had a ‘teaser’ cart set and compared it to about the same amount of tea from YS and ChaWang’s reflected more than double the shipping price, which made em sad and empty my cart.

DigniTea said

JC – Yes, ideally he would change it. Here’s the way I look at it, I’m just happy that I have access to his inventory. Once I worked with him in an effort to understand things (he is very approachable by the way), I don’t even worry about it. One final comment, as I understand it he has a real tea shop so the online part of his business model may not be the primary activity – helpful for us but it may or may not be his primary focus.

Yang-chu said

The difference in shipping price reflects the speed with which the product is shipped. 2kilos will be $40 but you get it in about 10-14 days.

DigniTea said

Yes that’s right. Personally the smaller size better suits my needs and that weight level operates under the same 10-14 day delivery estimate.

Cwyn said

I havent had a problem with ordering from Chawangshop, everything has been fine, it is just a tendency to forget since you have to wait for an invoice instead of paying right away. The reasons for this method appear obvious to me, the website is not receiving direct payment. I’m sure they avoid government by doing this much as people do in the US.

Dr Jim said

The quoted shipping is a real turn-off. My first cart was going to cost over $40, so I deleted things till I got down to $24. The email about calculating shipping made me nervous, but it sounds like the news may be good.

jschergen said

I like the idea of ordering 2KG as a practice. Focus more on stuff you really want/good stuff than simply going for value/more mediocre teas.

The value shopper in me does wish they had some sort of slow/cheap ground shipping option.

Dr Jim said

They do offer SAL, which isn’t really cheap, but at least less costly. However, with the west coast dock strike, I didn’t dare try it. I’m still waiting for a TuochaTea order that was shipped Dec 3.

Yang-chu said

I placed an order in late Jan and received it yesterday.

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