Ripe/Cooked Puerh of the Night
- Thread starter joyfulwoogie
- Start date
I normally just lurk on boards, but I decided to join this one.
Thanks for the welcome, ouch.
Are you on tea chat, too?
I've surfed there a couple of times but I haven't joined. I may join at some point.
On Wednesday I went back and drank the only Yunnan Gold I currently have. It's a Rishi product:
http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/golden-yunnan-organic-fair-trade-black-tea.html
The brew was lighter and less bitter. Overall its a very pleasant brew with great warmth. The leaves are rather broken and it does brew quickly. Also the price of this tea is about twice the cost of the Dianhong Candy.
Getting back to the Dianhong Candy tea, if you like Assams and breakfast blends you would enjoy it. I enjoyed it, just be careful not to over seep it.
Today a random shu cake brought back by a friend from Hong Kong, verdict: rubbish.
Tomorrow I may need to break out the last of some heavenly loose shu gifted to me by a member of Teachat. It came with a great story involving linen bags, small quantities and old masters.
The more excited I get about all the fresh stuff in little boxes on the way from China, Japan and India the more I'm drinking stuff which tastes like it was found by Time Team in a peat bog.
Tomorrow I may need to break out the last of some heavenly loose shu gifted to me by a member of Teachat. It came with a great story involving linen bags, small quantities and old masters.
The more excited I get about all the fresh stuff in little boxes on the way from China, Japan and India the more I'm drinking stuff which tastes like it was found by Time Team in a peat bog.
This is from Steve's group buy #3.
Seems nice. I don't think it had the legs of the 2000 Langhe but it was pleasant while it lasted. Iron cakes still frustrate me to no end.
Seems nice. I don't think it had the legs of the 2000 Langhe but it was pleasant while it lasted. Iron cakes still frustrate me to no end.
2000 Zhong Cha - Simao Gu
First session with this one. It lasted a long time for me. I'm really not sure what I think of this one. I was funky (not in a bad way) early and really seemed to develop. I really need to drink this again soon and then save the last session for a while. I'm able to watch my tastes develop by going back through my tasting notes.
First session with this one. It lasted a long time for me. I'm really not sure what I think of this one. I was funky (not in a bad way) early and really seemed to develop. I really need to drink this again soon and then save the last session for a while. I'm able to watch my tastes develop by going back through my tasting notes.
I was in the mood for a shu and decided to dip into the stock of the 1997 Xiaguan Aged Ripe Pu-erh Tea Brick It was quite nice and I enjoyed the richness or the tea a lot.
Some 2008 12 Gentlemen 'Chun Ya Shen Yun' from Nada.
Very pleasant and warming shu with none of the nasty tastes I come to expect, and to an extent ignore, in shu. I've got a decent sized sample and a cake of the stuff, due to Nada sending me a sample instead of a cake in the order. This has worked out nicely as I'll pick away at the sample, which turned out to be free, for a few months and give the cake a year or three to mellow a little. Not quite the Menhai 05 golden needle, I think, I got a few years back from Hou De but pretty damn good tea for studying into the night.
Pu'erh consumption will likely be on the decline as I've just got my packages of freshness from O-Cha, Jing Tea Shop and Lochan Tea this week.
Last exam is on friday. I'm pretty sure Laphroaig will be on the cards come friday evening, and a fair amount of tea the following morning.
Very pleasant and warming shu with none of the nasty tastes I come to expect, and to an extent ignore, in shu. I've got a decent sized sample and a cake of the stuff, due to Nada sending me a sample instead of a cake in the order. This has worked out nicely as I'll pick away at the sample, which turned out to be free, for a few months and give the cake a year or three to mellow a little. Not quite the Menhai 05 golden needle, I think, I got a few years back from Hou De but pretty damn good tea for studying into the night.
Pu'erh consumption will likely be on the decline as I've just got my packages of freshness from O-Cha, Jing Tea Shop and Lochan Tea this week.
Sure you're not drinking Laphroaig?
Last exam is on friday. I'm pretty sure Laphroaig will be on the cards come friday evening, and a fair amount of tea the following morning.
Made some three year old Keemun in my gaiwan earlier and noticed a nasty sourness I've yet to experience from this tea. Turns out my kettle desperately needs cleaning! I was just about to break out some 1980's liu an from Nada too! Alas, this will have to wait until tomorrow. I'm very interested in tasting this liu an, as my only experience is with my 04 basket from the same factory as this sample. Obviously 5 years is far too early to drink liu an, but it tasted like an aged oolong that was very bitter so I'm very interested in seeing how this stuff ages. I shall report my horribly uneducated findings tomorrow.
break off a small piece of that aged bamboo leaf used to wrapped it and brew it together with the liu an.
I reserved some '99 Liu An from Steve's upcoming buy. My only other experience was a generous sample provided by Proinsias some months ago. Weird, but intriguing.
I'm a fan of oddball stuff.
one of the best ripe pu I've tasted, unfortunately only a small chunk left 
Weird, but intriguing is correct! I was really looking forward to this liu an as it's the oldest I've seen available in the west. The original vendor told Nada that this particular basket was from the 70's, but Nada more realistically placed it's age of production in the 80's for reasons that later will become obvious. I finally got around to it tonight as I brewed 5g of the liu an with a small square of the aged bamboo leaf that it was wrapped in. I basically brewed this as I do pu'er, and gave it a flash rinse, then 7s, 12s, 15s, 25s, 45s, 1:15, 2m, etc.
First, a little background information from my research on liu an, because it is an odd-ball tea much like liu bao and little is understood of it in the west. Liu an starts out life as the green tea liu an gua pian which is the base material. You may have tried this tea before, it's also known as Melon Seeds, or Melon Slice. Then after the initial roast (which is the same as in the production of the green tea bearing the same name) there is a second roast before the tea rests outside overnight to "quench". So this tea is NOT fermented or oxidized before packaging, it's a post-fermented tea very similar to sheng pu'er. Liu bao, however, is a different story altogether. Anyway there is a large production gap of liu an. From the 1950's to the early 1980's there was no production of liu an which makes the original vendors claims laughable. I applaud Nada for his honesty and integrity. My source for almost all of this information comes from the wonderfully fantastic Wikicha.
As for the tea itself, the color is extraordinary. Really gorgeous deep deep red that almost looks black in my cha hai. Reminds me of old shu pu but darker red. The smell of the wet black leaves with the bamboo is rather odd, like the flavor. It smells nothing like how it tastes, and the bamboo adds a weird medicinal smell to the whole thing.
As far as taste goes, I really don't know how best to describe it. Liu an much like aged oolong was originally a medicinal drink. I'm not sure of the medicinal purpose of aged liu an, but let's hope it's not similar to the infamous original purpose of aged oolong (think ex-lax!
At least that's what I've gathered over the past couple years- not from personal experiences, mind you.) Being a medicinal drink, it tastes a little... well, medicinal! It's not a bad thing, by any means, but it does lend it a unique flavor. The first few infusions have a lot going on as it simultaneously blends medicinal qualities, astringency (roughly 20 years stored between Hong Kong and Taiwan and there's astringency!) earthy undertones, some ku, and a rousing sweetness. It's all a bit much at first I'm afraid, but it sorts itself out and really hits it's stride about three infusions in. It becomes a little one-dimensional later, as it rides out a plain earthy sweetness that I'd rather continue had it been an old pu'er, but this in particular wasn't exactly doing it for me. So for the flavor, if you've never had liu an before, then you've never had anything like it. There are things about it that remind me of other aged tea characteristics, for instance that odd bitterness and astringency I've found in some older oolongs, and that earthiness that I find in older pu'ers, but overall it's an entirely different beast. This may be another acquired taste, and I'm afraid it will be one of those teas I just randomly crave. Overall though I'm drinking it more for the cha qi than the flavor.The cha qi is so strong it had my head swimming after my second little 20ml cup! It's potent stuff. If I ever want to get tea drunk I'll bust this stuff out again. As for my 04 basket, I honestly hope it ages into something similar to this. I'm a little worried as I can't provide traditional storage for it though, and if this particular tea has had it for at least a decade in Hong Kong and still contains some astringency and bitterness, then I'll be lucky to drink my own basket before I die and enjoy it!
one of the best ripe pu I've tasted, unfortunately only a small chunk left
Is this based on the 8592 recipe?
Thanks for the great review and background info.
The Liu An article is by the inimitable BearsBearsBears (Jason Fasi) with Wikicha itself being the brainchild of Brandon at TeaChat.
I was lucky enough that Proinsias shared a bit of his 14-yr-old Liu An(also apparently spelled: "Lu An") with me in which I also found very notable chaqi. It also seemed to become more earthy tasting as I progressed through infusions toward a total of 11.
Puerhshop used to have a 2005 that Bears reviews and which I actually rather liked the second time I tried it despite the very roasted coffee bean/burnt chocolate taste. Of course at that age it is too young to be drunk anyway, I guess.
A couple years ago, TeaSpring offered a 1991 that had a completely different profile: something like a cross between an Assam and a Yan Cha, with the tastes of dates, figs, prunes, but without their extremes of either acidity of sweetness.
I had another from Imperial Tea that was just called "aged Liu An" (no date) that was like cocoa halva with pleasant leaf mold and mint tastes. I had another (presumably younger) one from Imperial Tea that had a profile more like Chinese black tea or maybe even Postum with some other stranger tastes popping up their heads.
In short, I guess what I am driving at is that there is a lot of variety in this exotic stuff and we should probably all be paying more attention to it.
Does anyone know if it is properly classified as hei cha?
yup it is... a menghai privately ordered tea...
