pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
2015 Tea Urchin He Kai Gushu Spring Raw
Sometime during the summer I was fortunate to receive 3 samples of Bulang gushu maocha from Tea Urchin’s 2015 spring harvest. I’ve let them sit and develop a bit and now ready to taste. This HeKai sample is a rich and potent young sheng. The dry leaves are whole and project a fresh, sweet aroma. After (2) 5 second rinses, the tea liquor from the first steeping is a clear yellow-gold. The taste is fresh and clean with a honey sweetness and fruitiness dominating the early cups. A pleasant taste-sensation follows in the later infusions as the tea becomes simultaneously bitter and sweet. Good body feel with a lingering sweet vegetal taste in the mouth and throat. Happy to have tried this very appealing tea! Looks like you can try this solid example of He Kai leaf in TU’s “Bulang Maocha Tasting Set” or you can buy a 50 g packet of just the HeKai.
2013 Xi Zi Hao Chawang. Extended notes on my review posted here. This is my absolute favorite young sheng. Extremely thick body, I feel like I could practically chew this tea. Fruity and complex, Qi is immediate and extremely relaxing. Whatever problems you may be having before you drink this are washed by the time you finish the first cup.
I tried the 2007 Naka Bamboo from Chawangshop today. I didn’t love it. I know some of you do. I have 200g in a solid chunk if anyone would like to trade for it (pm me).
So I’m drinking Poundcake again, and I have noticed something very interesting. I had a last bit of a sample left so I decided to use it rather than get into a full cake. The sample chunk was super compressed and I didn’t feel like bleeding tonight, so I put down the pick and brewed the whole thing, all 8.5 grams of it. I don’t normally brew that much when I drink sheng, I generally use about half that amount. Anyway, it’s like drinking a punch in the face. I don’t know if this is because I’ve grown accustomed to more mellow shengs (I’ve really been digging Bosch a lot lately), or because this just happens when you use a ton of leaf. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting thing to note.
Today I drank what is probably the oldest ripe I have tried, the 1996 CNNP “Green Mark Te Ji” Ripe Puerh Tea from Yunnan Sourcing. I looked up their description of this on the website. IT says cacao, spice and fruit. I find this to be a good description of the complex notes in this tea. I also found some earthy notes still there. While since I trust the source I believe its age is accurate I was surprised to find any earthy notes at all. They didn’t persist long. I’d say only for the first two or three steeps and then they weren’t strong. This tea also has something else rare for a ripe tea. It does have a noticeable qi to it. After twelve steeps I am feeling the effects of this tea. I did not get any wet storage taste to this tea. I’d say that the Yunnan Sourcing description that it was dry stored is accurate. As I am not a fan of wet storage taste this is good. Overall this tea was very good. I only bought a 25g sample of this tea with my last China site order but am thinking about buying a bing. The price is neither cheap nor overpriced at $116. Seems like a reasonable price for such an aged tea.
2010 Hai Lang Hao “As You Like” Ripe for a cold October morning. This is a clean, mellow, and enjoyable shou. $32 for 400 grams is a bargain. If I were 100% sure of the quality of my storage, I’d get one.
Well, 400g is a lot of tea, and I already have a lot of tea. If I got paid for worrying about my tea it’d be like a part-time job (and I could buy more tea!). Matter of fact, I’m going to Lowes today to look for a hygrometer. Anyway, I don’t want to buy this lovely tea and then ruin it by having it dry out or [insert some horrible storage disaster story here]. In between worrying about teapushers running out of tea I want, I worry about ruining the tea I have. I admit that I have issues.
Lol. Well, I’m doing the crock thing now. Just bought a hygrometer today, and with my high tech “wet paper towel in shallow bowl” technique, the RH in my pu cabinet is steady at 61%, so I’m good there. I’d do the mini-fridge thing, but I don’t have room for one. I think the next purchase is a couple of Ohio Stoneware crocks from Ace Hardware. So yeah, I suppose I kind of have a pumidor now. The only problem I foresee is that I’m going to run out of room and the wife is losing patience with me evicting various kitchen items from the cabinets. All of the infrequently used small appliances have already been relegated to the laundry room! “HONEY, ALL THIS TUPPERWARE HAS GOT TO GO!” did not go over well in my house…
curlygc — The pumidor does not have to be a fridge. A large cooler with a good seal, like you’d take on a boat, also works. The advantage here is it can be slid under a table or tucked in a corner out of the way.
Funny, I was looking at those coolers too. Same problem with having a place to put it though, because we live in a shoebox. Seriously, I have a rowing machine in my dining room. Every room in my apartment has at least a dual purpose, like “guestroom/office” and “dining room/gym,” etc. I already told the wife we’re going to need to move because there isn’t enough room in this place for my tea.
I’m using plastic storage bins that fit on a shelf in a closet. They are 20 years old so I’m pretty sure they won’t out-gas. I bought a cheap temp/humidity gauge at Amazon and they are holding steady at about 68F and 60%.
http://themandarinstea.blogspot.com/2007/10/storage.html another storage option for long term.
In another month the pumidor will in there. I will help with the setup and how to disguise it as well. I am practiced in this..
I’m assuming that the bins in Grill’s photo are uncovered so that we can see the tea. I keep mine covered unless it is very humid in the room.
I decided to post here even though the tea I drank is not technically puerh but Liubao. It is a Liubao cake produced more like a raw puerh tea than anything else. It was the 2009 “Three Cranes” 3008 Gu Shu Liubao Cake from Chawangshop. This tea did not have any fermentation flavor to it at all. It is produced differently from most Liubaos. It had a dark colored soup like that of a ripe puerh or an aged sheng. It had a strong note of spice that was dominant. It persisted through the first six steeps. Once it was gone it left a very different flavor behind, hard to describe. Not bitter at all. There was also a sour note to this tea, but instead of being a negative, I actually enjoyed that note. This tea was so different I barely know where to start. It was good. It is supposed to age like a puerh in my understanding.
I enjoyed some 2008 Menghai “7632” today. It was very smooth and very sweet. Nice relaxing qi and it steeped for quite a long time. It was a nice way to spend the early afternoon on the porch. My thanks to the PuRu for sharing this with me.
Today I drank what may be the best young sheng I have ever drank, the 2015 Autumn Misty Peaks tea. I steeped the hell out of this tea. I steeped it sixteen times in a small 60ml gaiwan. During those steeps there was a little bitterness, not much mostly a slight bitter aftertaste. There were a lot of sweet notes including apricots and stonefruits and green grapes. Yes I definitely picked up a note of green grapes in there. It seems to have a mild qi. I am feeling some effect from this tea but not a major effect. Someone else might find themselves tea drunk off of this. There was a lot of controversy over this tea lately on Steepster. Regardless of any question as to exactly when this was produced it is among the best sheng you can buy. I don’t think if I bought a $400 sheng off of Yunnan Sourcing that I would get something that tastes better than this.
I must have missed all the controversy, but I like this tea as well. I’m getting some bitterness right now in the 6th steep, and it has an underlying sweetness and complex flavors I’m enjoying. My brew is from the loose Autumn 2015 tea which I just received.
I’m still waiting for my sample from them. I’ll certainly buy a cake if I’m as happy with it as you are (fingers crossed that I am)
Did a repeat session the other day with my sample of TanLong Tea’s 2014 Hu’s Valley Raw, but using gentler (shorter) steep times. Posted a tasting note yesterday. I liked it a lot better this time. I picked more nuances in the primarily spicy/tart/citrus flavor profile. It may be worth buying a bing or two.
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