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Second session with the sample from the w2t monthly club. 5g in a 70 ml gaiwan, yielding about 40-50ml per brew. This is a solid example of a mid+ quality yiwu after its first step in the maturity cycle. Sweetness of youth with the profile of a bit of age. Top notes that hint at berries and citrus fruit with a hint of vanilla/baking spice. A solid mid-palate of wood/ sandalwood incense and wildflowers, and a base that falls just shy of tobacco. Smooth and complex.

The brew softly embraces the palate before a huge wave of aftertaste brings on lots of salivation, massive and persistent cooling, and never ending honey sweetness. Throat characteristics were okay, mouthfeel was on fleek. Qi is grounding and heady. Lasted about 11 brews before switching to long brews. This one is out of my price range unfortunately, but I think it is appropriately priced for the quality. Def yiwu. Def delicious.

Drank the 2011 version of this last night from YS tea club. It was quite full and yielded 8 hefty and flavorful brews with a moderate qi before needing long brews. Lots of woody/ bitter cacao flavors with a creamy sweetness. Good but not amazing mouth characteristics. Well balanced and powerful enough that I think it will improve over the next 10 years. I’d need to sample it a few more times before deciding whether or not I would purchase it. *after second sampling – I wouldn’t purchase this but its good.

4/12/16 100 ml gaiwan 8 grams – second time sampling. Classic Jing Mai not “Jing mai Mountain Old Arbor” – I’ll move the review soon.
very tippy blend, lots of small leaves. The aroma is heavy, pungently earthy with a woody top note.
wet leaves are woody with a slight medicinal note. The first brew is woody and med+ bodied with a nice creaminess and a smooth cacao bitterness. Earthy tones are present but nice and subtle.
The second brew has the slightest sour wood/plum flavor up front but pleasantly fades back into much the same as the first brew.
Third – No sour note, smooth at first and then builds on the palate getting more full bodied over time. Still has a bit of cacao bitterness to it which shifts to creaminess in the mouth. woodiness is shifting towards a hint of pine. still has some earthy tones but the whole thing is becoming more balanced and focused. Hint of minerality on the finish, with a light sweetness. faintest hint of leather/incense in the form of a drying spice like note.
4th&5th – lighter color. clearer woody notes, very creamy, losing its bitterness. Finish still has a lot of body and cooling.
6, 7,8th- Started long brewing, 8th brew was about 15 minutes and still had some substance but not enough to call for a nineth brew.
Overall a mostly clean, well priced shu with a med-full body, woody profile, and creaminess. Starts off with a decent bit of heft but dies down quicker than I had hoped.

Just had a sample, to some up my feelings about this tea quickly I’ll say this. I’m definitely buying at least 2 cakes.

For 19 usd there aren’t many readily available better deals than this. It has a medium thickness to the body, a long lasting sweet finish which develops dynamically, a solid bitterness and cooling sensation, and a nice flavor profile.

This tea starts off quite floral with a nice green olive note, hay, a hint of wood/nuts, and a fresh green spice that isn’t quite grassy. It has a huge minerality that builds over each brew. The first sip is initially quite thin but the mouthfeel and mouth characterstics build with each sip and each brew. light bitterness with a solid cooling and lingering sweetness.

My only qualm with this tea is it is extremely drying, it has a huge burst of minerality which is very drying – almost metallic/ astringent. This trait stayed with the tea throughout every brew, and became stronger as some of the lighter flavors faded.

Qi is pretty heady and stays for a good amount of time.

I’d take the bang dong anyday over this.

I brewed 4 grams of this tea in my Hungni teapot (also from stephane). Each brew yielded a consistent and full flavored liquor. This tea is packed with notes of white flower, tropical fruits (mangosteen), and cane sugar. There is a nice subtlety of unroasted almonds and a vegetal umami (glutamic acid) that reminds me of tomatoes. The tea goes down the throat smoothly and brings a pleasant salivary affect to the mouth. there is a slight cooling in the throat as well as a strong and long lasting hui gan.

This is a very high quality low land oolong at an amazing price point. It’s fresh and strong flavors more than one year after being produced are a testament to the producers skill and the base materials quality.

Full review to come eventually. Sample from YS.

This tea is like a dirt path leading up to a temple deep in the woods. It actually reminds me of Haruna Shrine in Gunma haha.

Rich and clean earthy flavors with hints of fragrant wood, faint incense, dark fruits, vanilla, and cocoa. Great throat characteristics and mouth feel with a smooth qi. I would love to get my hands on a cake.

Following up on my comparitive tasting from last week I wanted to drink this tea by itself. As W2T gave a pretty good sample size I decided I would brew it lightly tonight and then probably do a heavier brew and a boiling session. Tonights light sesh used about 2 grams in my 70 ml gaiwan. This tea is balanced and delicate. Early notes show signs of white flowers (white peony), honey, paper, and a clean grain/malt note. This develops into a medium bodied brew which has all of the above attributes with a nice finish of berries and a hint of dark fruit sweetness. There is an additional flavor of autumn leaves and a bookish-ness to it. Hints of baking spice fade in and out. The finish is clean and sweet and slowly goes in and out for a few minutes. The energy of this tea is very pure and uplifting. This is very clean tasting for an 11 year old tea. While it doesn’t draw mean in the way the 2008 shoumei did, this tea is a very clean and well stored aged white that requires a lot of attention but can be quite rewarding.

2/25 update
Been drinking this a lot this week as I’ve been very tired upon getting home from work and this has a good hit of caffiene/ uplifting qi. I tried brewing it heavier today, about 5g in my 70ml gaiwan. While the aroma was heavily amplified I found the character of the brew to be completely different. It was wood with a lot of foliage flavors and some vanilla and cinnamon here and there, but the berry like fruit notes turned into more of an oxidized fruit flavor in the vein of what you find in some Oriental Beauty oolongs. The body was much thicker as well, which I expected. The finish was less sweet but was longer and more pronounced with a hint of fruity acidity. No bitterness or astringency. I tried a few brews at a lower temp as well, these came out with a more pronounced acidity and a more forward fruitiness – really enjoyable.

I think my original 2g to 70ml produced a more nuanced and balanced brew, but the 5g/70ml was a full bodied brew that fits the winter season. The lower temp brews provided some interesting insight into how much this tea can change by adjusting a parameter or two.

Brewed the whole orb in my 100ml thick walled gaiwan. Hit the ball with a medium strength off the boil pour for a little over a minute, at which point it was almost completely open. Proceeded with slow and light pours for the next few brews. The liqour was a bit darker than I expected for a 3 year old tea. Nice florality on the wet leaves with a hint of pitted fruit (apricot/ peach?), woody, with some hay and spice. This brew was medium bodied and started silky smooth and then developed a solid and persistent ku wei which went on for about 12 brews. The flavors started on the lighter end of the spectrum and around brews 7-10 hit the darker and richer end, going from floral and fruity with a woody complexity and honey sweetness to a rich woodiness with some forest floor and incense intertwined with a nutty bitterness. Mouth characteristics were great, this is definitely a mouthfeel lovers tea, it’s not overly intense but persistent and long. Wonderful sweetness and cooling sensation in the back of the throat with a lingering flavor of wood. Qi is solid.

Overall this is a well balanced and flavorful tea with a surprising amount of life and a wonderful mouth feel that doesn’t give up. I want to say this is Mengku but it’s not really forward enough for me to guess that.

Brewed while listening to The Shape of Colour by intervals : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx8c3CuUxw0

Sample from YS that sat in my pumidor for about 2 months or so. Really impressed with this tea. Brews a thick and full bodied nutty brew with lots of floral notes, hints of orange juice/ citrus acidity here and there with a nice tobacco subtlety. Great smooth bitterness that doesn’t get too grassy/astringent. This tea goes round after round without giving in. Great characteristics in the mouth, long sweet aftertaste, lots of saliva building on the sides of the mouth, great cooling sensation. This tea is basically what I want in a young sheng – powerful, enduring, great mouthfeel/characteristics, interesting flavor profile.

brewing this side by side with the 2008 shoumei white from last months tea club so this isn’t exactly a review, just a comparison. The 2005 Zhenghe is uncompressed and comprised of what basically looks like a pile of leaves in early fall. the tea liqour is very clean and floral with hints of soft woods and honey, hints of pilsner malt here and there as well. Very much so bright and clean tasting. The 2008 in comparison is much more packed with dark fruits (red dates) darker honey notes and a dank/damp earthiness (damp leaves?). While they both have a nice cooling mouthfeel and a long lingering sweet finish, I’d have to give personal preference to the 2008, but I feel the 2005 is of higher quality.

I definitely need to brew this tea in a few different ways before giving it a real review! the 2008 can basically be brewed however but the 2005 is a bit more delicate.
Edit (2 hours later): OMG THE CAFFEINE.