5 Tasting Notes
This cake belongs to the Yi Chang Hao range of Changtai cakes.
This one was produced back in 2005 using material from the Bulang mountain in Menghai county, eastern Xishuangbanna. The additional name Lao Chen de Cha simply means Old Mr. Chen’s tea referring to Changtai’s chairman. Some research i did on this cake indicates it’s a blend of wild arbor and semi-wild arbor material.
The leafs are yellowish brown in color and appear to be of nice quality. The leafs are small to medium small sized and many are covered with nice down.
It yields a brown-yellow colored liquid which carries a thick and dense aroma. The basic character is dry and woody but there’s also some sweet juiciness which I associate with younger sheng pu’er. It leaves an aftertaste reminiscent of tobacco floating on the palate.
The qi is not very noticeable and in total i don’t find this is a particularly memorable tea. However, it is of decent quality and i can therefore still recommend it to friends of robust tasting teas.
Review with pictures can be found here: (in finnish)
http://www.jadepisara.fi/blogi/changtai-bulang-2005/
Preparation
The tea has a warm orange color in the bowl. The strong camphor reminds me of some of the older cakes from Changtai which i’ve reviewed recently. This for me is a good sign since I’ve rather enjoyed those cakes. However, i find that it’s taste is a bit thinner, drier and woodier than i was expecting. The balance is still very good overall. The Qi is clearly noticeable though it’s not particularly strong.
Overall I find this a solid cake with a true pu’er spirit. It manages to convey some of what i consider to be the most fascinating aspect of sheng pu’er – it is wild. Tasting this tea i can feel the mood of the wild mountain environment where the leaves that make up this cake have been harvested.
It’s balanced even up to the point that I find myself doubting this is a cake for long-term storage. Its time is now or in the near future which is not really a bad thing considering the agreeable price it’s selling at.
Full review with pictures (in finnish) can be found here:
http://www.jadepisara.fi/blogi/qian-jia-feng-2009/
Preparation
I’ve been recently tasting sheng pu’er from the Changtai factory mostly due to the positive mention by half-dipper. His review of this very tea can be found here:
http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/2009/11/2004-yichanghao-yiwu-zhengpin.html
Today it was the turn of 2004 Yi Chang Hao series cake Yi Wu Zhengpin. As the name suggests the cake has been produced from leaf material from the famous Yi Wu mountain.
The cake itself is tidy with clear separation of leafs. In general we don’t want the leafs to be pressed so tight that they fuse together making it impossible to separate leafs without breaking them. The tightness also has it’s influence on how the cake ages. Very firm cakes age slower but we don’t want the cake to be too loose either since that will expose the leafs too quickly and this can cause the taste to become thin.
Leaf material appears fairly diverse with a decent amount of furry buds and young leafs still covered by youthful hair as well as mature dark leafs and some leaf stalks.
The fragrance is very alluring. It manages to convey a similar balance between dark woodiness and lighter rhyme as do some good roasted Tie Guanyins. It seems to be leaning more to the woody, tobacco side of the spectrum but very deliciously so carrying a nice camphor rhyme.
The woodiness becomes stronger in the second infusion and is amplified by my carelessness in letting it infuse a bit too long. When i sip it i get a very clear image of a strong bittered lager. The soft and sweet rhyme has now moved to the aftertaste. I hope she will return before the end.
The liquid is thick and clear in the bowl. It forms waves the same way i’ve witnessed many high quality teas do when i shake the bowl softly. The qi is not among the strongest i’ve felt but definitely very noticeable. It makes me pay attention to the drifting clouds on the sky and the ancient chinese music i have on.
The tea seems to be most pleasant in infusions 5-8. The strongest woodiness has then subsided a bit and sweetness has returned. I continue to infuse it over 10 times and it continues to peform well. Investigating the infused leafs i find that they are elastic and mostly whole. It seems to me that elastic and strong leafs make high quality tea.
This is a very nice tea. I recommend it only with the reservation that if you can’t stand woody dryness in your tea, perhaps you should skip this one.
Preparation
The sample piece I had of this sheng cake looked rather tidy with the appearance that it consists mostly of whole leafs. Given this it was a surprise that my first two infusions (30 and 20 seconds respectively) poured onto my bowl with a lot of leaf debris. I don’t know where the small pieces came from but I decided at this point to flush the leafs well by just pouring hot water in to the gaiwan and pouringit out with a large gap between the lid and cup. This somewhat reduced the amount of leaf pieces i got into my bowl with later infusions. I don’t actually mind having some leaf pieces in my bowl but they tend to disrupt the balance of the tea if there’s too much of them.
This tea started up mild and smooth. I was expecting that it would open up as a sweet and juicy young sheng pu’er but this turned out to be quite far from what actually happened. The tea reaches it’s peak at perhaps fourth or fifth infusion. It is a rather dry tea. It reminds me of wet newspaper. I get an image to my mind of the space under my family’s summer cottage where the firewood is stored. This place is somewhat damp but not wet. The damp firewood and the ground has a kind of ….well, woody aroma that actually feels dry to the nose. The profile is rather unusual, not unpleasant or pleasant. While it did become milder and smoother as I continued observing it approaching tenth infusion, the characteristic dry profile stayed the same. The aftertaste is fresh and there is also some amount of ‘afterfeel’ on the tongue which I think is a positive thing.
Overall I’d say this tea is interesting and the quality is acceptable. I expect my teas to impress me and unfortunately this tea failed here. I can still recommend it to those who wish to explore the taste space of tea as this tea occupies one of the more quiet corners of that wonderful place.
Preparation
The camphor aroma slips to the air already when pouring the tea to the cup. This doesn’t come as a surprise as this is a fairly young sheng pu’er. I like my teas to have character and the camphor floating in the air is a good sign. After the first infusion of 30 seconds the tea starts to open up. It is woody with some tobacco. At the same time it has this character i would call juiciness. With this i mean that it has sweetness coupled with sourness, rather like in orange juice. The sweetness is pleasant and the sourness gives a nice edge to it. A lot goes in this tea. It still retains it’s youthfulness and so there are some rough edges, slight tingling in the back and tip of the tongue. I think there are two sides to this roughness. It’s not the most elegant tea, but on the other hand, the edges give the tea an interesting aftertaste and though i am not that experienced with pu’er, i get the feeling these rough edges could round out themselfs with a couple years more aging and make this into a better tea. The best thing about this tea is that it’s not too round and boring. It’s a good tea but does fall short of being excellent.
I infused using 5 grams of leafs in gaiwan using 100ml water each infusion. Still after 8 infusions the leafs carry a nice camphor aroma.
