274 Tasting Notes
5.2g, 90 mL duanni, boiling Brita tap
dry: beet smell
wet: sweeter, almost shou like, but not sure if it’s because the pot has seen a lot of cheap shou (my latest obsession) lately.
1st: concentrated and smooth. Slight dark bitter upfront. Beet and concrete like taste in middle and then slightly sweet on finish. Slight relaxation and warmth
2nd: similar, lighter honeyed finish
3rd and 4th: lightened, somewhat woody beet
all in all ok enough. Already over a month, but maybe more rest and or a lot more time will lighten up the beet heavy taste. While it’s not disgusting or anything, for the price I would’ve preferred to own more cheap shou or just pony up for the bao lan instead.
6.3g, 90mL ZZZ, boiling Brita tap
Almost finished with my sample. just like the last two times, very irked by the effort it takes to break and brew a chunk, but a very pleasant session today. cherry, woody, light medicinal, and baked goods, with all the latter almost seeming like a nice yancha without the roasty hint. Tapered off gently, with a light mushroom and minty finish. A bit warming in core + nicely caffeinating. From this session, if it wasn’t an iron cake, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy. But since it is an iron cake, I will probably never own it… lol
5.7g, 90 mL ZZZ, Brita tap, boiling
dry leaf: fruit, slightly fishy? strange
wet leaf: powder-y incense, sweet, fruit, light smoke
1. some pill-like bitterness upfront dissolving into a candied sweetness, floral, strong mouthcoat.
2. weaker taste. Aftertaste is honeyed. slight medicinal bitter
3. woody sweet
4-6. light, light generic aged sheng taste, bit of light mint and mushroom
7. mugged but similar
Feeling was nice. Much more gentle downward pull than yesterday’s LLL liubao, though still noticeable. Overall relaxing, slightly slowed thinking and somewhat caffeinating+mood boosting. For the price, my three sessions have all had somewhat poor longevity so a little disappointing compared to what others have said about it…
picked this up recently since I wanted to buy a smaller gaiwan for stale greens (lol) and the 4gc liu bao. not shabby, disregarding price! haha. Who are we kidding. Still hard to divorce price from consideration for me. Should’ve just bought more of the 90s bao lan. :P
4.9g, 90mL duanni, 212f
quick rinse. overall strong beets in taste across steeps. Initial steep had a cooling, sweet, slightly floral finish but the rest had more of a unsweetened home-made soy milk finish. When pushed, there’s a slight bitterness present. With older liu bao, it’s hard without a lot of heat and I only own teaware amenable for one person brewing. So after 4 good steeps and 2 relatively pale steeps, I moved it to the stove top to gently simmer for 10 min., and that was ok. Slight warmth. Feeling is mostly relaxing, but was very sleepy today and this did not help.
6/90/212. Rinsed quickly twice. Lasted about 4 steeps before it was dead. Taste reminded me of golden nuggets lao cha tou from BLT in the creamy sweet kind of way. That was 11c/g i think. This is okay enough for the 12c/g for the brick, but I wouldn’t buy more. I would be shocked if it’s actually big tree material and not just random huangpian or HP adjacent material. Have to get through the brick, so maybe will up the ratio next time.
5.5g, 90 mL, ZZZ pot, water mix
wet leaf: sweet smoke, maybe burnt baked goods…
Spout clogged since the sample was mostly broken bits, so rinse was prob a bit too long, but didn’t sample even though it was tempting bc there was definitely some sort of cobwebs lol
1st: rich bitter, burnt chocolate kind of taste. Really threw me for a loop bc it called to mind some of the worst aged oolongs I sampled from LP’s aged oolong selection that mostly tasted burnt. feeling is nice, peaceful and slowed thoughts, in a lighter way than TWL’s 04 nannuo sample, but strong in that vein
2nd: similar. Not really a fan of the taste, where it’s not quite beet, but kind of dark grainy. A bit of acrid-ness and then some sugar finish
3-5: woody, root sweetness
Didn’t continue, since brew was significantly lightened. I guess it must be good tea, but I had mixed feelings about this session. Was really thrown off by the similarity in taste to a weird aged oolong i remember from some point in the past. Sample was $1.5/g i think, and there were a few cakes for sale at $450 for 357g, which I think is technically cheaper than market rate, but I had no desire to blind buy at that price. At any rate, even before my order was even shipped someone purchased all of them anyway.
Trying to run through samples, but lately most days I am either in a rush or just want to drink shou or 90s liu bao… anyway
5.5g, 90 mL ZZZ, 212f
wet leaf: clean apricot and honey
I had three steeps one day and then had to cap unexpectedly since friends came over for lunch plans way earlier than anticipated, and so finished this up the following day. So maybe not a fully fair assessment. Tea has not lost youthful notes yet and retains some bright peachy and green tea + young berry taste early on. Sometimes sth emerges that approaches bitter, but not quite bitter, and then sour sometimes too. In one steep, a hawthorn aftertaste that seems to pop up with my water for Yiwu teas of a certain age. Ended after steep 6, since mid-end is just kind of basic bitter mushroom minty sheng taste, maybe some pine, but not interesting or lasting enough taste wise to continue.
Was comparing cups today. This was darker and more full in the ruyao cup (my preference) from Jade leaf than the DXJD cup F, and in the latter seemed thinner and somewhat more astringent.
Based on this and the 2015 LSGC, I’ve had to rethink my ideas around when teas start to lose the youthful notes. Much is storage dependent, I’m sure, but I’d assumed going in that something ~12 years would not be so young tasting. This seems to be just barely starting to get some mid aged notes, but LSGC is definitely not as far along. Really need to get the motivation to put together that hotbox soon…
Didn’t realize I’ve already tried this before from when they gave me a sample with my order. No wonder the taste seemed so familiar. The remaining sample I own has been w me for a few years from when LP offered his big WS sampling some years ago
5.4g, 90 mL ZZZ, 212f filtered tap
wet leaf: BBQ, wood chip, smoky, barnyard
1. woody, very smoky, sweet on edges and finish like apple skin. Bit of the Wistaria storage note as well that I don’t know how to describe, I’ve seen “briny” online, but recognizably WS storage)
2. similar, apple taste is stronger
3. pushed a bit. a leafy mushroom taste, something floral in throat
tea overall is gentle, not much depth here for feeling (kind of similar to less popular WS shengs, like the light bit of a mood boost from caffeine maybe?), but for 0.36/g sample can’t complain. Would I cake though, probably not. 200g (iirc) cake price was roughly $100 USD back in 2022, maybe more now + whatever their expensive shipping is.
4. minty mushroom leaf taste. slight sweetness
5. kill steep. something bitter in finish, but does not really resolve or transform
Obviously certain Wistaria cakes get far more press than the lesser known ones like this one, but until the finish this is not bad. I have no idea how the ending bitterness will age, but as-is I’m happy to drink through the rest of my sample which i can’t say is true for every tea I sample
5g, 90 mL TWL ZZZ, 212f
Wet leaf: smoke, barnyard, sour woody
1st: bitter, woody, cooling minty semi sweet finish. Warmth
2nd: similar. Mushroom-y floral lingering in mouth and nasal
3rd: spicy woody
4th: caramel-ish, bitter, some upper throat presence
5th: dry mushroom
6th: something nutty
7th: dead leaf taste .
overall narrow band of taste this time. Was a bit more interesting last time, but i think my sample may have been a bit dry. Will be interesting to hold onto and see how it progresses
5.7g, 90mL ZZZ teapot, boiling
wet leaf: sweet, smoke, incense, wood
1. bitter, resolving w/ some tartness and mushroom, cherry, and woody. Lingers in mouth and top of throat and edge of nasal (hard to describe)
2. bitter woody. something almost salty, maybe smoke? texture is ok. Soft floral in background and some astringency on tongue. Throat cooling
3. brassy, and cherry taste
No notes after since I was distracted. Less sweet than previous in the gaiwan, possibly since heat retention in the pot is way better in addition to pushing it w/ longer steeps. Hoping to cake this at some point, though the price is just at the point where I hesitate every time…
