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Thanks to Obritten for the sample!

2015 Biyunhao 500 Year Yibi Gushu
7.7g, 212f, 80mL shuiping, Poland Spring water
Dry leaves smell of fruit and has a fair amount of stems mixed in.

20s rinse: accidentally let it go for too long since dry leaves were too long to fit neatly into pot

Wet leaf smells sweet, vegetal, and herbal

12s: light LME-like crushed pill bitterness (inherent or from my shaky brewing…who knows?) initially that resolves into a sweetness with a minty edge that settles in the upper throat. Slight candied floral undertones.

12s: lighter bitterness, more fruity and rounded, with crisp sugared edges. Warming in lower back, slight frissons. Starting to sweat a little. Pleasant crisp sweet exhale, although slightly astringent.

12s: still the crushed pill bitterness initially, though far less than before. Slight sweetness on exhale, but like before, still astringent. Continued warming, though lighter.

20s: strong and crisp sugar, less bitterness and astringency. Probably burned off most of the florals, but they’re more noticeable here than before. Exhale is sort of medicinal, with an herbal edge. Calming. Aftertaste has not been too present for this tea, but once the drying feeling fades, there’s a feeling of sweetness.

26s: kind of like crisp water. Not sure how many more steeps this will last.

30s: same sort of slightly bitter water

5 min.: very bitter. Borderline LME lol. Will thermos the rest

overall: seems to have faded rather quickly? can’t remember much else about it other than what my notes on it mentioned above

2004 CNNP (?) 8582
Yee-on Tea
7.4g, 100mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, boiling
This came as a free sample with my order from Yee-on. Like everyone else, I also received a sample with a fair amount of white frost lol. I would’ve waited for it to rest, and rehydrated
or whatever, but I didn’t want any chance of having anything spread to my other samples so I let it sit a few days with the bag open to air out and brewed today, so we’ll see if
that’s affected anything.

Dry leaf smelled strongly of basement storage when I got it but the dryness/low RH here seems to have taken it out. Not much dry leaf aroma left
2x 15s rinse, with 1 min. wait in btwn
Wet leaf has a woody camphorous (maybe?) aroma. Slight spice and pepper in a cooling way
10s: lightly woody and grainy (in a way reminiscent of glutinous rice) with slight sweet undertones. Something about it feels sticky, though texture is not thickened too much
(though given my water source, good texture is rather rare and most teas turn out pretty thin)
12s: similar but sweeter. Very easy drinking
20s: smelled the wet leaves. Yee-on notes dates in the aroma and I’m inclined to agree, though again this is something I wouldn’t have necessarily picked up on myself.
It’s somewhat subtle, mixed in with the woodier base, but definitely present. Taste is basically same as before, sort of muted, but comforting.
2x 30s, 35s, 45s, 1 min., 1 min. 30s, 2 min., 3 min., 4 min., 5
min., 10 min.: woody medicinal and dates. Dates is no longer subtle like before. I’d probably have eventually picked up on it, or so I tell myself. Still the grainy glutinous rice taste as well. Very comforting. HK storage seems to have tamped it into something that’s not changing much from steep to steep (woodiness fades into background more and more as date-tinged sweetness comes forth), but is very easy drinking. Moved to thermos after lightening.
Overall: Not sure on qi. Maybe slight calming? Probably not something that will knock your socks off with excitement, but comforting in that old friend, hug in a mug sort of way. I enjoyed this sample, but am unlikely to purchase a cake. It’s not super expensive necessarily (but also just above what I’d consider daily drinker level cheap, especially as I’ve started to leaf heavier), and someone has to pay the HK rent prices, alas, but there’s shou below this price point that brings me a similar level of joy or utility or whatever

Free coin that came with a recent order. Not sure what year actually, since the sticker on the coin ripped when I was opening it so I couldn’t read the year on the label. initially tossed the coin into a mug and was intending to grandpa. It was bitter and astringent to the point of being undrinkable, which is sort of my fault given the high ratio (6.7g coin into mug when I usually add like 3g of leaves) and adding boiling water. I shifted it to a thermos and added water to dilute it, so it became drinkable. At any rate, wasn’t really a fan. Tastes more like a black tea (hong cha/红茶), with the malty, floral, honeyed notes in that style. Dry sugared finish. Still astringent, though not as bitter as before. Pretty sure I’ve tried Turtle Dove in the past, and it wasn’t memorable, but this time I actively disliked it.

edit 2: Thermos’d as well today, but it was lightly nutty and smoky with a hint of sweetness. Really easy drinking, enjoyed it a lot. I’m not sure what to think. I did switch to a Zojirushi thermos instead of my old Polar bottle one (back when they made them, but mine doesn’t really retain heat at all I’ve realized) so better retained heat could’ve helped?

edit: have been thermosing this one and need to add that it sort of tastes like furniture… this was a lot better steeped out. make of that note what you will. probably wouldn’t repurchase lol

2017 樟香春韵 is the Chinese name for this one, or 2017 Camphor scent/flavor Spring Yun (Yun as a concept sort of eludes me, so I won’t try to translate it)

Bought from LP. Broke it up and stored in mylar a couple days ago to force myself to bring shou into the daily rotation, as a way of being nicer to my stomach and wallet. Started charting my tea consumption lately along w/ costs, and it’s a little scary how fast cost adds up (without this, cost is easier to ignore post-checkout).

20s rinse with boiling, 8g, mug after rinse. Apparently it’s a common thing in Asia to do longer rinses (20s-30s, twice) with shou, especially trad stored (though this isn’t), and I guess this did make a difference. Upfront is a woody medicinal and bitter taste, which I guess is camphor or whatever, but I really still have no idea what camphor is. Later steeps sweeten out a bit, and there’s a nice clean finish.

It could also be the 3-4 years it has had to air out a bit, but it definitely tastes less like dirt than some other shou. I didn’t take notes, and I was thinking earlier in the day something like “boy this is not too memorable, not sure I could distinguish this from a sea of shou” but then again, at 19c/g, it’s a little unreasonable to demand stand out and memorability. it’s alright, quite drinkable, which I can’t really say of every shou I’ve tried. Once my ‘03 phoenix tuo from Yee-on has rested a bit, we’ll see how that compares, since at 16c/g for that, it’s similar in price. Wish I’d grabbed an ‘06 phoenix tuo which was half the price/g, since I can’t imagine the ‘03 phoenix can be twice as good considering they’re both ripes with the same recipe. anyway, lack of foresight… awaiting Yee on black friday sale, and we’ll see what happens then.

Purchased from LiquidProustTeas.

3.1g in a mug, 212f, grandpa steeps. Similar to most aged oolongs, longevity is not fantastic vs. aged sheng and so it doesn’t steep out for too long, but what it does offer is positively lovely. In a perfect world, I could afford to drink this for a lifetime (and Wistaria would stock it for a lifetime lol).

Unlike the other aged oolongs I’ve had in the past few week, dry leaf isn’t chocolately or as dark, but rather a dried fruity and notably sweeter

Not quite as bitter as the others either, though the woody medicinal is still present. This one had warmer caramel tones, and brighter sugary notes than the others in both aftertaste and taste, and then moves into the plumminess of aged oolongs.

Not much of a warming effect, but a strong uplifting effect, and slight focusing effect. Based on price, 1.81x better than the 1990 Wuyi Shuixian from Wistaria? To me, absolutely.

2013 Xiaguan Love Forever, Paper Tong, TW stored
Liquid Proust Teas
7.3g, 80mL shuiping, 212f Poland spring water

Curious to see what the hype is all about…

Dry leaf smells pretty dried fruity, but has been stored with my other samples, so that could be it too

10s rinse

Wet leaf is a dark smoky herbal medicinal with a touch of fruit, so essentially all the good aged sheng hallmarks. Something about is reminiscent of gasoline but not quite there

8s: bitter citrus tinged medicinal in the vein of the TCM stomach pain medicine my parents would make me drink as a kid. Aftertaste has a slight mint hint on the edges of sweetness.

12s: similar, but with a deeper medicinal bitterness. Leaves mouth and teeth a little dry, with a crisp sugary aftertaste, but is very fleeting.

18s: Bitterness in the TCM medicine aspect is very strong. Not much aftertaste, still drying.

22s: similar vein but a touch of fruitiness to complement what was there. Not much in the way of aftertaste… given that I leafed on heavier side and am left w abt 60-65mL per steep after accounting for leaf displacement, I can’t say I’m super impressed with this so far. I did probably set my expectations too high given how much hype is around LFPT though. As of this steeping, I would not purchase a cake (the lame cheesy wrapper is so tempting though I gotta say… all my other cake wrappers are on the boring side), though I’m curious to see how this will change over time and if the bitterness and drying will fade any. Granted, the maocha is from 2003, so it’s already aged quite a bit. Am feeling some jitters from caffeine, but also some calming effect. Not much in the way of warming or other effects that I might’ve been expecting from the qi, so pretty light in this one

30s: in between steeps I read through Shah8 and Oolong Owl’s notes. I smelled the leaves and I agree that there is a plummy aspect, though light. This aspect is something I’ve smelled before in aged sheng leaves but I’ve never noted it because it’s fairly subtle to me (probably would’ve just noted a slight woody fruity and left it there) and I wouldn’t have been able to distinctly point it out without reading other’s notes on it. It’s one of those things that you can’t unsee I suppose. I guess I am still sort of dense when it comes to this type of thing because the only time I’ve noted plums is when I was bowled over with the association from aged oolongs.
Taste is still medicinal, though less bitter and more of a forward fruity aspect. Something slightly crisp sugar and floral in the brief aftertaste.

40s: lightened, though with crisper aftertaste

1 min. 30s: still steeps a nice color but not much taste to it except a fruity bitterness

4 min.: something about this smell reminds me of tart apple skin. Still a light taste like before. Will do one more steep and thermos remainder

10 min.: quite bitter again. into the thermos this goes

Overall: Good texture overall, though this is something that is usually hard to evaluate for me due to usually using tap and getting thinner brews. I’m glad I never blind bought a cake, since the number of times I’ve felt tempted to is far greater than I care to admit. The bitter medicinal draws up more or less not too pleasant of connotations for me, and it was definitely the most drying tea I’ve had in quite a while, which was none too pleasant. Perhaps I would’ve been more generous if I hadn’t come in with such high expectations but that’s the downside of reading too many favorable reviews beforehand

1990 shuixian wuyi from Wistaria Tea House
called 1990 水仙 武易 or something like that in the Wistaria catalogue last I checked.

Bought this from LiquidProustTeas

3.2g in a mug, grandpa, Poland spring water, boiling.

Rainy day here felt suitable for an aged oolong. Medicinal profile a la one of the TCM stomach medicines I’d have to take when I was a kid, though nothing too bitter, tiny bit of mint edge in very fleeting aftertaste earlier, with woody and dark caramel notes sometimes in both taste and smell. Later steeps get a touch of that date/dried candied plumminess that aged oolongs get. Slightly warming, but nothing to the extent of the 1995 Anxi TGY that Wistaria sells.

Though I’d happily drink teas like this forever, there’s a reason why this is cheaper than the ‘95 Anxi TGY from Wistaria, or the Trust #2 LP used to sell. Less complex, less rounded, less powerful. At 52c/g for an aged oolong w 31 years on it, I can’t really complain (is this 3.8x less enjoyable than the ‘95 Anxi TGY? well, no, not when you put it that way), but I’d say there’s aged sheng in this price level and cheaper that I’d probably take over this. I’ll enjoy the rest of my sample, but I probably won’t purchase more.

2020 Essence of Tea Xu Jia Liang Zi
6.8g, 100 mL gaiwan, 212f, Brita filtered tap
dry leaf is dried sweet fruit
8s rinse
Wet leaf is a sweet and smoky honey, in the vein of a green oolong smell

6s: a light honeyed pea-like floral sweetness, with a dried minty edge in slight aftertaste, much like LP’s Bubble gum yesheng I had last week. Aftertaste transitions into a light honeyed taste as it fades

12s: a smoke light edge in the taste, with more prominent crisp crushed mint note that lingers on the tongue. Slight tingling in lower legs and warming in lower back. Leaves tongue sort of dry and teeth feeling oddly dry in that uncomfortable way when you bite into something too hot or too cold.

16s: that same sort of sharp smoky, but not quite bitter taste. Honeyed and rounded, again with the minty edge. Sort of a soapy floral in aftertaste, again reminiscent of LP’s bubble gum sheng.

Not sure if it’s the water, my storage, or brewing temp. or what, but I was expecting more from the reviews on EoT page. I’m not a huge fan so far, especially given sample $/g. Sample cost (96c/g) aside, I guess I haven’t drank as much young sheng as many Westerners into puer, but I’m curious what this will age into. Yeah yeah, me and everyone else. That said, I’m certainly not willing to gamble this kind of money on a cake that I don’t particularly like and would have to probably age 50 years in this climate (knock on wood) to see any changes, and I’m hardly sure we’ll even be around by then. I really need to hop into the heated storage game sooner or later… Anyway, as of current, I’m not sure if I’d agree with refined in the tea’s description, rather than boring. I do consider softer, gentler profiles “refined” in some instances, but this one just strikes me as boring.

30s: Ah, bitterness. Mint edge in aftertaste, which then fades into a lighter floral rounded taste. I would stop here, but I’m determined to get my money’s worth out of this session, whatever that means.

1 min: bitter and astringent. Minty edge in aftertaste. I changed my mind and will just accept this one as tuition and toss into thermos…

Overall: slight warming. I’ll pass on this one. Even taking cost aside, I couldn’t see myself drinking through even a 200g cake of this (which at 71c/g is quite hard to argue for when you can buy very nice mid-aged boutique productions instead…). Had dinner beforehand as usual, and can’t seem to escape the later stomach pains after drinking young puer, even though it’s not like they feel particularly punchy to me. What happened to being young and invincible??! Doubtful.

Lots of off-topic rambling today. Anyway, in sum, tastes like an upgraded version of LP’s bubble gum yesheng. Wouldn’t buy more of either, though if you’ve tried one or the other, they’re very similar in my mind.

Edit 10/2: this was actually quite interesting from the thermos. There’s a very creamy aspect in the way of milk oolongs almost, but very fruity/floral otherwise. I never know if these unexpected things are normal or if it’s because it’s starting to go bad from being in the thermos for over 24 hours lol. I drank two mugs pretty quickly since I had to run off to something else, and started sweating suddenly on my forehead, so that aspect is retained in thermos. A short headache and then I felt like I was burning up for a few minutes. Probably won’t do that again. Still wouldn’t purchase a cake, but it’s been quite a while since thermos has yielded anything unexpected.

2011 XG Huang Jin Yun 下关黄金韵 (simplified) or 下關黃金韻 (traditional)
From LiquidProustTeas, ordered as part of golden Xiaguan sampler
212f, Brita filtered tap, 6.6g, 100 mL gaiwan
Dry leaf has a light mushroomy smell
10s rinse
wet leaf has something of a burnt wood, campfire-y smell. Dark, but not nearly as forward or as crisp as a lapsang souchong might be.
7s: herbaceous and cooling, leaving a slight minty edge on the tongue. Lightly woody and mushroomy
11s: definitely brisk as LP’s description said. A bitter note appears that fades into the same herbaceous, cooling, and mushroomy profile overall
15s: less bitter, more rounded. More cooling with the mint edge sort of way, but less herbaceous and mushroomy.
25s: bitter woody mushroom. The minty edge is much lightened and takes on an almost sweet aspect
31s: losing steam. A bit drying.
1 min: woody water with an edge. Tossing into thermos.
Overall: Glad I finally got around to trying this one. Need to get better at sample organization, as I have unintentionally built up a sample backlog that probably rivals my actual tea collection, which is a little sad for me. slight caffeine buzz. Would recommend to leaf heavier on this one. A very affordable aged tea (pressed from 2003 maocha) if you like this profile, and probably hard to beat for the price + age + HK storage (from what I can tell anyway, and I believe LP sourced from Cloud’s Teahouse iirc). Not a personal favorite, but I can’t say I particularly dislike it either.

I bought a sample from when LP put up some during his birthday sale but couldn’t find the listing so used the original listing in the description.

2019 Bubble gum
LPT
5.7g, 100mL gaiwan, Poland spring bottled water, 212f
5s rinse
First time trying a yesheng. Dry leaf has nothing particular in the smell, just the classic dried fruitiness of shengs.
Wet leaf has a light fruity smokiness
5s: a light floral, somewhat pea like. A mellow honeyed sweetness.
10s: tiny hint of bitterness and astringency creeps in, but otherwise similar to before. Somewhat lighter. The aftertaste is subtle and doesn’t bowl you over, but I do understand why LP called it “bubble gum” now. Fruity high notes in a bubble gum sort of way.
2 days later… (story time: skip past parentheses if no interest. campus security likes to do this thing every once in a while where they trigger the fire alarms in every building and go through people’s rooms for contraband. I usually stuff my kettle in a drawer, but just so happened to have to run to host a TA session beforehand and had my kettle taken. long story short, I had to borrow a friend’s kettle two days later once the caffeine withdrawal effects started getting really bad to finish up this session. Not sure if that’s affected anything here, since I’ve long since had a bad habit of taking multiple days to finish up notes when busy, but thought I’d make a note here. My new kettle won’t be around for a few days, so I’ll have to stick with cold brews in the meantime.)
14s: a sort of almost soapy floral in that green oolong sort of way. A wisp of bitter that disappears quickly.
18s: soapy green oolong all the way.
30s: similar to before. Maybe it’s bc I’ve been drinking too much aged puer lately, but this tastes to me more like a soapy floral tea that you might get with some dimsum rather than a young sheng. Light sweet aftertaste, with a hint of mint, reinforcing my green oolong associations. So far, 2nd steeping was nice, but these ones were underwhelming. This tea feels too delicate, when I suppose my tastes have shifted towards stronger aged woody, medicinal profiles.
1 min: kinda flat. Nothing exciting.
5 min: astringent, a little sharp. Like if you slightly oversteeped jasmine tea w boiling water
Calling it quits here. Will toss the rest into cold brew, since if a 5 min brew couldn’t coax anything, I wouldn’t bet much on subsequent steepings.

This was the first yesheng I’ve tried, so if this is representative of good yesheng, I will probably avoid yesheng in the future.

edit: stomach pains. Continued the session right after eating lunch, but this is another reason why I’ve had to limit young sheng consumption lol. my stomach is pretty weak and can’t seem to handle younger stuff lately, even when this brewed seemed pretty delicate to me.