2006 Chang Tai Hao "Tian Xia Tong An" Certified Organic Raw Pu-erh Tea

Wow, this is the first aged raw sheng I’ve tried that came anywhere close to the taste of a shou—except this is far better than any shou! It has all the lovely aged earthy notes to it that I enjoy. Soil, leaves, tobacco, leather, and a vegetal sweetness all swirl together in balance while there is no gross compost/fishy smell like with many shous. The liquor is thick, dark red, and coats the mouth and throat. There’s a very very slight bitterness at the end of each sip, perhaps nodding to what this tea tasted like prior to being stored.

Starts off with mostly leather and a touch of bitterness. It slowly evolved into more pleasant tastes but I had to drop the temperature to get the bitterness to subside, as it was turning unpleasant as time increased. This has turned into a very nice sheng.

Very strong leather note with present bitterness and a medically woody note. The rather humid storage is clearly noticeable, but is not at all musty but the good type of humid storage. Surprisingly intense, mainly awakening Qi and a very long lasting tea. Leaves range from very beautiful to catastrophic, though.
Images and more at: https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2006-changtai-tian-xia-tong-an

i have brewed this in a gaiwan and one of my sheng clay tea pots. i have to say, the storage is really present with a gaiwan (i actually throw off the first three rinses) but my clay tea pots seem to mellow out the tea nicely and gives it much more character. this is well priced for an aged tea.

Brews a medium brown-orange. Flavors of wet wood, rocks, leather, and “old book smell.” Very thick and oily in the mouth with light bitterness. Later steeps are cleaner tasting with slight cocoa and red wine notes. Overall it’s ok. I’m not super wild about it, but I may buy a cake just because it’s hard to find a tea with so much aged character for so cheap. A good"daily drinker" aged cake.

I am finding myself somewhere in the middle with this tea. It didn’t have any terrible notes, but it also did not have a really positive note to my taste buds, at least not early on. I did put it through twelve steeps. It was noticeably better by the twelfth steep. It had developed something of a sweet note. There was also a background note that I took to be a storage note. It was not prominent but behind the main flavors of the tea. This was also a very thick tea, thicker that most others I have drank. I did not get any qi off of this tea. I think this is an average wet stored semi aged tea. In my understanding it was wet stored although I didn’t find prominent wet storage flavors. Then again I think what Yunnan Sourcing describes as wet stored is only partially wet stored. I don’t think they buy extremely wet stored teas. In the end I neither liked or disliked this tea. I can neither recommend it or not recommend it. It was ok but was not great. Maybe it will age into something better. I let this tea rest for about two months before trying it. Could wet stored flavors have dissipated in my dry storage conditions?

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.