SOTD- sheng of the day
- Thread starter ouch
- Start date
I tried the '06 Douji Bada again. I pretty much have to give it a thumbs down auto-fail. The flavor is actually pretty good, if delicate. However, there is just a lot wrong with it, and it generally left me not feeling well. I think it's any one of, or a combination therof, plantation/agrochems/poor storage. There is also a substantial bad green tea character--not too much, but you'll find it at the end of session as it gets harsher.
The aroma lasts for about four brews. Not too much thickness, and texture was a bit rough. Feels more aged in this session than in the first. No qi.
The aroma lasts for about four brews. Not too much thickness, and texture was a bit rough. Feels more aged in this session than in the first. No qi.
I would like to get better at honing in on what particular aspects of a tea make me feel unwell afterwards. Sometimes I encounter certain shengs that make me feel uncomfortable after a session, and I wish I could pinpoint why... is it chemicals? plantation tea? storage? all of the above? Does anybody have any insight on ways to indentify this kind of feeling?
Nothing worse than having a session with a tea and feeling sickly because of it.
SOTD: 2007 12 Gentleman Wei Zhong Wei, courtesy of Apache - I quite enjoyed this session. I could see why somebody would not like this tea, but for my personal tastes, i found it plenty interesting and it held my attention through until the end. Heavy kuwei in the beginning, drifted in to astringency late in the session. The soup was a little cloudy early on, and had some sourness in the aftertaste, but nothing too offputting. It did taste much younger than 2007, tasted like it was pressed this spring! My friend drinking it with me said, "This is really young", and I said, "2007", and they thought i was joking...
I wouldn't even with a quarter of that price. I think this tea is suffered from a curse of eternal youth. I think the original material is o.k. but some problems with the processing of the leaves.
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.3.0.74.4b06e2&id=328176535&
I don't think that many been sold, it been there for sometime.
Holy sweet mother mary, no.
I never checked the price
Had you asked me, i would have guessed it was in the $50 range. (so, Apache is right, a quarter of the price seems right... *edit: he said he wouldn't even pay a quarter of the price. I would, I kind of enjoyed it - not $175 enjoyed, but maybe $40-$50 enjoyed)Apache, that is funny "eternal youth syndrome" - it really does taste like it was pressed this spring. It is kind of intriguing that it is from 2007. You could take it on the road as a circus sideshow and charge two bits a gander:
BEHOLD! The tea that never ages!
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It was around $50 when I paid for it in 2009.
May be this cake should be named as "The Fountain of Youth" instead!
May be this cake should be named as "The Fountain of Youth" instead!
W h a o h !!!!! I purchased three of these from Nada back in 2009 for 28 GBP each I seem to remember . I drank one of them within the first 12 months ( posted a review on page 172 ) , and have not touched the other two so I can't comment on how they are ageing --- rather slowly I would imagine given the compression - as far as I can remember , to refer to them as iron cakes would be some what of an under statement !
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09 Menghai 7542 901 -
Fruit, grain and even a wulong note. Decent session.
Fruit, grain and even a wulong note. Decent session.
Just as a reference, the asking price of 2009 Douji Banzhang written on the same page by Hobbes was $54, now it is ¥1380 ($219).
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.10.118.edf653&id=15189285810
I would not say this is an outstanding Banzhang. It's a just about o.k. Banzhang!
I took a bit more of a look at that shop...
The '09 Douji Naka is more expensive than the same year Nannuo and Youle. That one, which was the last single source douji cake left on Dragon Teahouse, and lasted almost as long at YS. The one that doesn't exactly taste that "Naka". $120 vs $85. The Douji Bada from '06 that I trashed yesterday is a cool $60 more than same year Nannuo and Youle somewheres in the $260 range.
Nobody sane would buy that Douji Banzhang for $219, for the simple reason that it doesn't have Banzhang magic. At least the HLH Ban'E has a nice, long, finish and a bit of qi. There are an awful of very good 2012 tea that would be so much more worth it!
I had the SE Memorial today, which was really memorial, actually. Can't really know a tea until you drink a whole cake!
The '09 Douji Naka is more expensive than the same year Nannuo and Youle. That one, which was the last single source douji cake left on Dragon Teahouse, and lasted almost as long at YS. The one that doesn't exactly taste that "Naka". $120 vs $85. The Douji Bada from '06 that I trashed yesterday is a cool $60 more than same year Nannuo and Youle somewheres in the $260 range.
Nobody sane would buy that Douji Banzhang for $219, for the simple reason that it doesn't have Banzhang magic. At least the HLH Ban'E has a nice, long, finish and a bit of qi. There are an awful of very good 2012 tea that would be so much more worth it!
I had the SE Memorial today, which was really memorial, actually. Can't really know a tea until you drink a whole cake!
I think $50 (or 28 GBP) are both fair prices for that tea. I found it plenty interesting. $175 is rough.
The Douji prices for their older teas are fairly prohibitive. From what I have observed, they just raise prices across the board, for every year and every tea at set intervals. Not sure if my observation is correct or not.
SOTD: 10g of 2006 Taipei Expo Hongtie Hengjiu - Only my second session with this tea, but i am impressed. It has plenty of strength and fragrance for a tea that has crossed the half decade mark in age. Lots of flavor and kuwei, I guess it will continue to age well, if it has retained this much strength up until this point. It doesn't have a ton of development through the session, but there is some. The even keel nature of it is fine by me
The Douji prices for their older teas are fairly prohibitive. From what I have observed, they just raise prices across the board, for every year and every tea at set intervals. Not sure if my observation is correct or not.
SOTD: 10g of 2006 Taipei Expo Hongtie Hengjiu - Only my second session with this tea, but i am impressed. It has plenty of strength and fragrance for a tea that has crossed the half decade mark in age. Lots of flavor and kuwei, I guess it will continue to age well, if it has retained this much strength up until this point. It doesn't have a ton of development through the session, but there is some. The even keel nature of it is fine by me
2012 Hai Lang Hao Yuan Sheng Xiang -
Floral and buttery with a hint of grain....almost brothy. Reminds me of the12 CWP Yiwu Zheng Shan.
Floral and buttery with a hint of grain....almost brothy. Reminds me of the12 CWP Yiwu Zheng Shan.
2004(5?) Tai Lian Youle. Underneath all of that smoke, and there is *so* *much* *smoke* (you'll get the cancer causing chems of a plateful of ribs!), is a relatively high end Youle that's generally not easy to get. If you find it for a decent amount of money, think less than, oh, $150, you should consider buying it. There is a great deal of qi, and cooling, and good thickness, and, and--it essentially ticks all the boxes, you just have to drink a smoke. Breaking the chunk up and airing it out in an open plastic bag for two weeks + didn't help much. So, truly excellent tea happens whenever the smokes gives out into camphor. Before then, with the rest of my sample, I'm just going to think of it as a cheap bit of qi.
Edit to add: Research sez the 2003 brick for sale in places is made with Jiangchen maocha and not Yiwu.
Edit to add: Research sez the 2003 brick for sale in places is made with Jiangchen maocha and not Yiwu.
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SotD: 2012 Chawangpu Yiwu Xiaobing. I've been drinking "house blend" (a.k.a. miscellaneous leftovers) all week, and they have been unsatisfying. They die quickly, and the poor quality of water in my lab doesn't help the situation. Today is Saturday, and I (rather glumly) find myself in the office, working on a paper for a Monday-morning deadline. The Chawangpu is, by contrast to my house blend, sweet and enjoyable. Perhaps it merely has enough of one particular variety of leaf to make itself heard, whereas my house blend is all over the place. The Chawangpu isn't a Grand Tea, but it is a pleasant tea, and a very welcome accompaniment to an otherwise solitary week-end experience.
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
2012 LBZ Fall Maocha (later picking) - I only had enough for one session, and that turns out to be a blessing in disguise. The soup is very cloudy, with some sickly looking red/orange leaves. The flavors are all damped down, as if their is a layer of dust over every flavor. I think both of these characteristics are due to too much rainy weather, but I am not certain. I feel bad for any cakes that use this material, get marked as LBZ and get sold to someone for hundreds of dollars. Hopefully somebody has the sense to just not use this stuff.
2011 Taochaju BanNa Guyun : It's cold and fall is rapidly approaching, so i decided to go with some heavy kuwei. I brewed about 8g of chaff that had fallen off of the cake, and i think it was 7g Laoman'e and 1 g Mengsong. The only thing showing up was the man'e, which was fine with me.
I had Nadacha Manmai today, with a focus on comparing with the Douji '06. I think that Douji *has* aged. It's more fruity than the Manmai. However, the Manmai has a much bigger Menghai softness and sweetness (like it imported a bit of Hekai) where the Douji is all elbows and pungentness. The Manmai bothered my stomach only a touch, and there was no ill feeling afterwards. The Manmai delivered little qi.
