SOTD- sheng of the day

[shah8]

I essentially did more checks on what the overall quality of the Baifuzangcangs were this weekend.

The shu of Friday was the 2006 Taipei Memorial. Quite thoroughly enjoyable, and was a good demonstration of the merits of dry storage, for me. I saw it in the clarity of aged notes in the aroma and taste. The mouthfeel was really good, with good-very good viscosity and a sort of satin texture. The aftertastes and qi were typical of this shu.

The sheng of Saturday was the 2015 W2T 72 Hours--this is a pretty Bingdao-y tea. Overall, it turned out not to be as good as the 2012 BFZC Bingdao, but it was still a pretty good session.

Through much of the session, the aroma had a sort of creme brulee sweetness, less the egg and more burnt sugar, and a light savory floralness. There can be a bit of chicory depth. Late aroma is a very light savory floralness. The taste starts off being sensate sweet, a slightly bitter and tart chicory depth, and some florals. As the session moves on, it quickly looses most sweetness, much detail, tartness/bitterness, and becomes a pleasantly generic darkness with slight chicory tone and a bit of florals. Viscosity is at good, approaching oil texture, and with astringency at about moderate most of the time. Good aftertastes are gone buy about brew seven or eight. It's pretty good while its going with good mouth aroma and dynamic mouthcoat. Mouthcoat can linger a long time. Yiwu huigan is usually soft but capable of stronger fruity character in a cup or two. Early brews has a light bit of feeling going down throat, and one brew has a slight pungent huigan going back up. More or less strong qi with no noticed specific qualities. Durability is good, but it's not a very dynamic tea and got a little boring late this session.

The sheng of Sunday was the 2006 XZH Menghai Nu'ercha. This works better for me than the BFZC Pasha for largely the same reason I like the '07 Pasha better. It's less mellow in taste and aroma, and has more aftertaste. It is still smaller than the BFZC in terms of taste and mouthfeel, and perhaps qi. I noted specific deficiencies related to the '07 XZH Pasha and concluded that the '07 has more "gushuness".

Aroma and taste are rather similar, actually to the '07 XZH Pasha. Except that the '06 has a sweet floral/cherry aspect, and the '07 Pasha has a tobacco tart-bitter going on, and so main taste being more loud and potent. Anyways, aromatic wood, cherry, deep plummy-barnyard generally in aroma and taste. There can be a bit of almond sweetness if that's not a fast yiwu huigan. Anyways, good viscosity, more or less pudding texture, fairly soft. Astringency is on the light side of moderate. Light feeling down throat and light pungent huigan back up. Seems to have both a fast and slow yiwu huigan, as well as a strong and lingering mouthcoat. Moderate to strong qi with a good comfortable feeling for me. Durability seems pretty good, but I only did about fourteen brews before packing this in the fridge for the week.

 

[Sinnbad11]

Hey Sheng Pu'erh lovers,

I'm considering getting into Sheng cakes and I was wondering if any of you have a recommended resource (book or web) for me to learn more about this ancient tea and the process of brewing it. It would also benefit me quite a lot if you have some recommendations of where to purchase it as well.

Thanks!

 

[chattea]

Hey Sheng Pu'erh lovers,

I'm considering getting into Sheng cakes and I was wondering if any of you have a recommended resource (book or web) for me to learn more about this ancient tea and the process of brewing it. It would also benefit me quite a lot if you have some recommendations of where to purchase it as well.

Thanks!

I'd like to enthusiastically suggest this enlightening blog post by Mattcha: Lawrence Zhang: The Grandfather of Puerh in the West - https://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/lawrence-zhang-grandfather-of-puerh-in.html. It provides a wonderful compilation of recommended blogs for avid readers.

And, of course, within the realms of this thread, we are fortunate to have the venerable Shah8 sharing his august insights on tea. His detailed tea notes remain a valuable resource, and the beauty is, Shah8 actively contributes and engages here. Feel free to pose any questions directly to him about his tea notes!

 

[shah8]

Well, if you're looking for an intro book, https://www.amazon.com/Puer-Tea-Ancient-Caravans-Culture/dp/0295993235 will probably cover most of it.

For the rest, it's mostly blogs and forums. This one is pretty dense with n00b suitable info, but graze widely Umi Tea Sets Blog - https://www.umiteasets.com/blogs/umi-tea-sets-blog/tagged/tea

This was a pretty uneventful tea weekend, a lot of chaos where I am so tea was pretty inconvenient...

The shu of Friday was the W2T 2022 fu/shu blend, Shufu Shufu. This was pretty decent in terms of aroma and taste, but it didn't have much qi or aftertaste. Very purely a drinker. I'd say it's more of a fu taste with a bit of shu depth, even if the finish leaves seem pretty even.

The sheng on Saturday was the 2003 Ke'xing Yiwu. It performed very well. It's on the delicate side, with not a ton of size or richness in taste, nor is it particularly viscous. However, the complexity and nuance of the aroma and taste were pretty good, with wood, camphor, almond sweetness, birch root, etc involved. There was a bit of yiwu huigan, and a good mouthcoat. Qi was quite nice as well. Still pretty happy I got this tea.

The sheng for Sunday was the 2018 Teaside The Sky In Buckets. Pretty thoroughly enjoyed. Taste and aroma involving fruit, a little sugars, and your traditional thaipu dark herbal/nutty and bitterness. Taste can be a little sweet. It has a bit of mouthcoat, and a bit of qi. It's a drinker from my perspective, but a bit more than that for non-vets. However, I've always rather enjoyed it, just about finished off the sample. The price of $75/200g is okay value, but it's probably about the same hedons per gram as a W2T sheng priced at that point. One is probably better off paying $10 more for The Reserve for your thaipu needs.

 

[Sinnbad11]

I have a very basic introductory set of puer on the way to me from crimson lotus. I expect the shipping will take some time though.

Regardless, I purchased their level one set which features a young Sheng, a basic Shou, and a Sheng with a little bit of age to it. I'll probably start brewing western style to get an idea of how I enjoy it before dipping my toes into the realm of small pot gongfu style.

I am quite excited about this incredibly deep rabbit hole I have stumbled into. So far as I can tell I'm still falling and haven't hit the bottom yet.

 

[shah8]

Alright, a Thanksgiving vacation for me now... Only took notes for one tea, but enjoyed them all quite a bit actually. Winter doldrums haven't set in yet for my tea here in Georgia.

The shu of Friday was the 2012 XZH loose Pasha shu. This was better than my previous tries with this shu. Anyways, as kind of seems the character that XZH pursues for its shu in general, this was a mellow and nuanced tea without bold strokes. Aroma and taste had a nice camphor-wood note. Taste wasn't that deep, but had layered depth, good to investigate with the tastebuds(for a shu). Mouthfeel was good, had a decent mouthcoat, and qi was decent enough.

The sheng of Saturday was the tea I investigated closely, the 2023 W2T Brutal. Right off the bat, the reason why it's brutal is that this is the stuff that traditionally had gone into bricks, tuos, and jincha. There are some whole/wholish leaves, but also a lot of shake and bake debris, such that it has a vaguely factory-tea like performance. And newborn factory tea toughness for the body. If only Paul had pressed these into bricks and called them BrutalBrick. That has a kick to it, right? Like something you'd serve to your grandma to inherit the property and all that. Anyways... In turn for the lower quality of maocha condition, the maocha itself is some kind of Mengku of at least Lucky Puppy level, and as such, it's kind of a good deal, specifically in the sense of teas that you buy and forget over a decade or two. A cake is probably a waste of your time, this is probably something you should sample and evaluate on the basis of the kilo tong. I certainly don't really want to drink this tea as it is today, despite enjoying it.

The aroma for the first set of brews had generic green sheng, savory herbals, high chicory, and sugars. There can be a bit of fruit. Past these brews, aroma is down to a light savory herbal. In taste, the first couple of brews were green, mineral, savory herbal, before a robust lightly bitter chicory depth sets in with a bit of wood rim. As the session moves on the chicory and bitterness gradually rises and fades to a basic light mineral and savory herbal taste. Good-very good viscosity with a texture that bounces around from pudding, velvet and settles to oily. Astringency tends to be high-ish. Aftertastes are pretty good during the active phase (5-6 brews) with good mouth aroma, good yiwu huigan, and good mouthcoat. One brew had a powerful yun/very shallow pungent huigan. It's pretty caffeinated, with moderate qi. Durability is okay, but as with teas of this general nature, it gives up what it got pretty early, and has a long tail of simple tastes with good mouthfeel that is boring.

I did two teas on Sunday...

The first was the 2013 Baifuzangcang Zhangshou wild tea. Quite enjoyed, mildly disappointed that the aftertastes weren't very potent. However, its general mode of pleasant sourness, a sort of grape fruitiness, and a nice aromatic savory herbalness was refreshing and tasty to smell and drink. It had a good mouthfeel with a touch of rough feeling at the back of the mouth as this tea is wont to do. Subtle mouthcoat and very subtle yiwu huigan. I drank many late infusions because it stops being sour and becomes sweet and that was definitely pleasant. Usually this tea only has a couple of these nice sweet brews before becoming bland. The qi was moderate-strong and actively pleasant, not very odd as wild teas tend to be. Durability was great.

The second tea was this 2005 Jixing Bulang that KJ Wong gifted me after a purchase. I had been having a lot of successful thermoses, and decided I needed to check this tea out again. I had sort of dinged this when I got it for being a bit unsanitary and causing that off feeling in the throat that comes from myco or pesticide issues. Much like the humid mainland stored version of the Tailian, this tea has settled down a lot in that regard, but it isn't completely gone, still. Anyways, this was very enjoyable--the main issue is that the aftertastes aren't very strong or distinct. Much like the 2003 7532 taipai sold at TeasWeLike, this is something that smells good, tastes good, and has good mouthfeeling. Taste and aroma are of a northern Bulang or Mengsong mountain style with a big aromatic wood fringe to the aroma and taste. The taste also has this broad layer that is something between sweet root herbal and red wine to go with the wood rim. While it doesn't quite have the density of factory teas, it is strong and very tasty. Good viscosity with lightly pudding texture, and light-mod astringency. Slight yiwu huigan and slight mouthcoat. A bit of caffeine and qi. Durability is extreme--taste and aroma lasts very deep into the session, and I did close to thirty brews over two days. This is not an expensive tea, and you should be able to get this tea at your doorstop for at most $60. You'll probably have to let the tea rest and settle from whatever is wrong with it or its storage in Taiwan over half a year to a year.

Today's session was with the 2014 Fox thaipu from TeaSide. This tea is pretty erratic from session to session, but the early part of this session was reasonably high level gushu performance, despite lack of richness in taste. Aroma and taste are mostly a subtle broad nuttiness, a bit of dark lightly bitter herbal/woody rim, sugars with a touch of fruit in the earlier going while later brews are mostly nutty with a bit of dark herbal. Good viscosity, moderate-ish astringency. Early brews had feeling down throat, a decent yiwu huigan and mouthcoat. Qi was also good, and as a result, I drank the first five to seven brews slowly. I did about fifteen brews.

 

[shah8]

On Wednesday, I had two Gedeng area teas (or I at least think they are Gedeng teas)

The first one was the Fall 2010 YS Xikong. Again, this tea impressed me as a relatively higher end tea than YS is generally want to press. It's a bit limited by its fall nature, tho'.

Aroma is a bit dynamic. Fruit and butter->soft barnyard, dry florals, butter->dry florals, butter, light fruit-> floral, mineral, light fruity->consistent late brews with floral and mineral notes. The floralness in the aroma was relatively strong and nice, mostly being dry floral with a bend toward powder floral. I was positively reminded of the floralness in the 2011 XZH Pry Mountain. The taste went like: Fruit and butter->floral, fruit, butter, light bitter depth, subtle barnyard-> mineral, high barnyard, sensate sweetness, slight bitterness, slight fruitiness-> floral, sweetness, mineral. A late brew was firmly brewed to bitterness, and had a pleasant grapefruit style fruitiness and bitterness. Taste was generally mellow and flat, and reminded me a lot of the 2001 "mansong"dragonballs that I have a few of--not one of those northern Mengla tea with a substantial TCM bitter pole. I wonder if fall nature made it flat, thinking of the 2007 XZH Xishangmeishao. This tea had good viscosity with a bit of oil texture. Astringency starts off low, gets to moderate-high astringency and falls off late in the session. Feeling down throat is light and inconsistent and tends to be obvious at end of a cup. At least one brew with electric mouth in the front of the mouth. Has the full range of aftertastes, pungent huigan, yiwu huigan, mouthcoat, yun, mouth aroma. There is good quality moderate qi. Not so great durability. Fell off a lot after ten brews and needs very long brews for one or two more worthwhile brews.

The second tea of the day was the 2014 White2Tea Bosch. This is decent enough, but it hasn't held up that well over the years. One does need to be sure to brew to a satisfactory bitterness or it's too subtle to be that good.

The aroma and taste has a tendency to have a mixed chopped veggies note, like the sort in the freezer section of the grocery store with corn, peas, chopped string bean, chopped carrots. The aroma also generally has a light dry floral aspect with later brews having some caramel/sugars note in there as well. The taste has a tcm bitter pole, mineral, aromatic wood in the bulk of the session, and later brews have more of a generic brown sugar depth with a light rim of florals/wood. Decent-good viscosity, poofy-pillowy texture. Astringency is consistently light. A light feeling down throat early. Mouthcoat is the primary aftertaste. Did linger well after the conclusion of the session. Good qi. I didn't go a huge number of brews, got boring pretty quickly.

When the Black Friday sale started happening, I checked Teaside, and they had whole cakes of all their teas for once, and on sale, generally 15% off. However, two of the Western teas, 2018 MaeHongSon and 2018 500y Bitter were repriced to $70 (instead of $120) and it was 15% off that, such that MaeHongSon, pretty much a top tier gushu, was $59--way, way, lower than anywhere else with good gushu. I took a long look at that, and went HAM on that site and got me doubles of the 2006 080 and, MaeHongSon, as well as the Bitterleaf, The Sky In Buckets, and samples of other stuff. I encourage other people to check out TeaSide, and take advantage of their pricing. It's largely their *best* teas that are way underpriced. Things like Sky In Buckets are more on the level of fair pricing, maybe a bit low.

The first tea of Thanksgiving was the 2018 TeaSide MaeHongSon, and it was an excellent session. Main weakness, sort of, is that the taste is relatively thin and transparent in the way of high mountain, a few tall trees production, like the XZH '17 Single Trees, 2018 BYH Fengwangwo, and the like.

Aroma and taste are dynamic, so... Aroma has like of that chamomile like floralness than was present in past session, and I sort of missed it. Anyways, caramel and chamomile for the first set of brews->fruit, floral, caramel-> caramel-> mineral, herbal, fruit->floral and fruit. Taste was something like caramel->dark herbal bitter-tartness, dried fig-> caramel, dark herbal bitter-tartness, dried fig-> caramel, fruit-> mineral, herbal, sweetness->plummy mineral, herbal-> late stemmy brews of faint herbal, mineral. Viscosity is generally very good with a texture in between oily and pudding. Astringency starts off light, and grows to moderate, with a few brews with lower astringency late. There is consistent strong feeling down throat with slight pungent huigan(early in the session). Dynamic and strong yiwu huigan and long lingering mouthcoat. Mouthcoat can be sensate sweet. There is yun and mouth aroma happening as well. Qi is strong to very strong, relatively ennervating and sobering at once. Durability was good enough, but it wasn't great, unlike previous sessions with a long tail period of light prune late brews.



The second tea of Thanksgiving was the 2018 WuyiOrigin Wild Tongmuguan Jinjunmei. It was okay (well, merely so compared to memories). It lost most of its floralness and fruitiness in favor of a more sober and mellow wood, dark/wild honey, bit of plummy, hint of choco. The mouthfeel is good, and it delivers a lasting mouthcoat with some of that floralness. Qi and caffeine.

Today, I did the 2006 Hongtaichang 0803 from Teaside. Despite the beginning of the session being botched because the pot kept clogging until I finally found the miscreant leaf, this was an excellent session. This tea is pretty close to top shelf stuff as far as tea sold over the counter. (and again, at the Black Friday price of $157, this is a steal) I also think this is an interesting example of excellent humid storage, even as I am very curious as to what a dry storage version of this tea would be like.

Aroma is good--prune, wood, spice, stuff like that, rises high and reasonably strong. Taste starts off with lot of wood, spice, deep prune, dark herbal, a bit bitter and tart. This starts off relatively rich tasting for a thaipu. Later brews are thinner as a sort of subtle dark herbal, prune, mineral mélange. The viscosity is mostly decent to good, not so hot on texture but there is something there. Moderate astringency that grips and is productive as it dissolves. Strong feeling down throat, consistent pungent huigan back up through deep into the session. Consistent good yiwu huigan to fruit early and to sugars late in session. Maybe a bit of mouth aroma. Strong qi, soothing. Durability seems decent. Did about fifteen or sixteen brews, might be a couple more brews left.

 

[shah8]

The tea of Sunday was the 2007 XZH Jinggu Nu'ercha. This was a bit unexpectedly similar to how it was when I first got it, with not much aged chicory depth in the taste. In any event, the taste is pretty thin and very sweet--not unlike tossing a couple of sugar cubes in hot water, especially early in the session. It was still quite enjoyable due to its other qualities for me. I compared it a lot to the 2012 BFZC Bingdao. That tea was richer in aroma and taste, but not as big and broad in taste and mouthfeel. It was also not intensely sweet like this tea.

Aroma is generally wood, sugarcane/sugars, and light tobacco or chicory. In later brews, it defaults to various sugars. Late is a sort of mineral and wood. In taste, earlier brews are sensate sweet with sugarcane and wood along with a light chicory bitterness for balance. Late brews kind of has a sweet mushroom and minerals taste. Viscosity is good (a bit of an underperformance compared to usual) with runny honey texture. Astringency is generally light and productive. Has good cooling in mouth and throat. Good feeling down throat for much of the session with strong pungent huigans coming back up in the early part. Early brews have mouth aroma as well. Yiwu huigan and mouthcoat occur throughout deep into the session. Durability seems pretty good, with at least fifteen brews and probably a few more with pot in fridge for the week.



So I'm finishing off the holiday with the 2007 XZH Mengsong. As has been the case with some of the recent tries, this is substantially improved from how it used to be. The hongcha was in the first two or three brews before being mostly brewed out, and the next few brews had that kind of deep and rich note (choco, deep barnyard, deep plummy) that invite comparison to the high quality deep yanchas and banzhangs. Not a ton of nuance so I drank these with gusto. I compared with the Jixing '05, noting that the '05 had stronger aroma and taste and they continue deep into the session where this XZH is fading. The XZH is deeper for a bit, with a more refined and smooth taste and aroma. The XZH also had a much better quality qi at moderate level and a real aftertaste game (has some yiwu huigan, but obscured by strong taste mostly, good lingering mouthcoat. Early brews had feeling down throat and light pungent huigan up) in comparison. Jixing had better mouthfeel with high viscosity, but of course, the XZH doesn't have warning sign astringency in the throat. Durability of the XZH is okay, but at lower taste and aroma volume compared with Jixing.

 

[Sinnbad11]

I received my puer sampler from crimson lotus tea early this week, it includes a nice selection of samples designed to introduce new puer drinkers to the genre. It included Honeybomb, a young sheng puer formed from a blend of materials from Jingmai. 2014 Iron Forge Shou, a huang pian brick, and finally 2007 Changtai Menghai sheng, obviously the basic introduction to a fairly young, but still aged, sheng.

I (im)patiently allowed a few days rest post-shipping before deciding to brew the less special puers from the kit. I know more rest would be preferable to experience the best these teas have to offer, but once again, I am an impatient man. I also don't have enough puer lying around to drink (read none) to distract from these new arrivals.

I brewed up the Honeybomb Sheng first, it's a young blend designed to be mild and sweet with limited astringency. As my first foray into puer tea I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, I often have read comparisons between young sheng and green tea, and at first those comparisons seemed to be correct. The first few infusions of Honeybomb were mild, sweet, and grassy. The aroma of the cup was reminiscent of sun-warmed hay and a gentle summer breeze. The viscosity was a bit subdued, something akin to mineral oil. Around my third infusion however, things began to change. The sweet grassy character of the tea remained but slowly a building astringency began to accumulate. At first just the back of my teeth seemed dry after each sip, just enough to encourage another. With each infusion the astringency increased, the hay character slowly faded to a simple mineral flavor, but the sweetness persisted. I stopped on my 8th infusion, there was little left in the leaves beyond nondescript sweetness and a now fairly striking bitterness.

Ultimately, young sheng doesn't seem all too similar to green tea, or at least not this one, some similar aroma characteristics certainly, but the viscosity was more substantial and the astringency was very different to the green teas I tried. A much more intense cup, and one I certainly preferred.

 

[Sinnbad11]

Today I drank the 2014 Iron Forge Huang Pian Shou, my first foray into shou puer. I brewed up 7 grams of tea through my makeshift gaiwan, which is a tea cup with a soy sauce dish as a lid, with 100 mL infusions.

After a quick rinse Iron Forge seems to be much more tightly packed than Honeybomb, the rinse made no difference to the chunk of cake I had fit into the bottom of my gaiwan. While a second rinse could have been beneficial, I decided to start my first infusion. The first brief infusion of this tea gave up a liquor that was weaker than I hoped, but it was especially clear that the leaves in the cup had a lot of opening to do over the course of the session. It featured a pleasant minerality and a hint of petrichor, just the slightest top note of red berries. Though, the berry note would be drowned out quickly into the second infusion. The second infusion was much more intense, clearly the first infusion had done the leaves some good in allowing them to open further. The petrichor note from the first taste is overpowering every other aspect of the brew but the viscosity. Thick motor oil like texture coats my tongue and the roof of my mouth. It tastes like fall to me, a crisp day playing in the leaves while helping my parents rake the yard, the infusions continue this way and I'm lost in the memories. Suddenly in the 6th infusion the astringency picks up substantially, a crunchy leaf (from my memories not literal) stuck to my tongue sucking the moisture from it and cutting through the viscosity. The back of my teeth are dry and the soil like minerality has left the mossy petrichor behind. I push it further, it retains some sweetness but most all flavor is gone by my 8th infusion. The color is lighter despite the long steep times and the tea is done.

I hope the few of you that see this aren't bothered by my flowery descriptions, I have a hobby level history with tasting notes but I am unfamiliar with the tea terminology that best suits the flavors here.

In addition, take my little flavor blurbs with more than a grain of salt as I do not have the necessary history to assess these teas and determine their quality as examples of the varieties and have put my faith in Crimson Lotus's selection. As I build more familiarity with the styles I hope to give better insight.

 

[shah8]

The more commentators, the merrier, Sinnbad11! One quick note on Iron Forge--since it was huangpian shu, it will naturally be more thinner in taste and more astringent than shu that doesn't use waste yellow big leaves.

As for me, I mostly took it easy this weekend and didn't take notes.

The shu of Friday was the 2019 W2T Modern Witch. It was pretty impressive for W2T shu when it was first pressed and sold out quickly. Today, as the owner of W2T most expensive shus, its price point is pretty obvious. At this point, I have lots of better young shu than this one, and the only real justification to drink it is to avoid drinking my 2006 Taipei, which is similar, but better, of course. Anyways, Modern Witch is clearly a Menghai bulangish shu with a small bitter pole and strong shu-yiwu huigan to almond sweetness. There is a bit of mouthcoat as well, and the qi is pretty good. Typical Bulang shu depth, with a small wood rim in taste, but it is not that rich tasting, especially compared to more expensive teas, and somewhat so compare to comparable teas like Sunday Special.

The sheng of Saturday was the 2012 BFZC Pasha. This session was actually a bit closer to my original sample of the tea rather than my first try from the brick. The session also kind of had me feeling that BFZC is markedly below XZH at same timeperiod for anything other than wild tea. The 2007 XZH Mengsong is pretty easily more enjoyable, and the memory of the 2010 XZH Bama Nannuo is more refined and nuanced. Okay, the aroma is not a great performer, staying low and kind of closed. The taste is decent enough--depth didn't have the wild honey note, it was more of a birch wood and root herbal depth along with an apricot note (wash brew was intensely sweet apricot). Taste was a bit thinner than last time and it had more of a bitterness. Not particularly dynamic over the session. Mouthfeel wasn't as good as last time and this was a bit more astringent. Aftertaste game was a bit weak, with most of it happening early in the session. Still, a slight yiwu huigan and a decent mouthcoat was in much of the session. Qi was at moderate, maybe moderate-strong level, pretty soft and unobtrusive. As in that first sample try, long brews after a long rest have fairly solid taste and mouthfeel and were fairly enjoyable.

The sheng of Sunday was the 2010 Essence of Tea Manmai, kind of to compare with the Pasha in terms of overall quality. I kind of suspect that the 2011 EoT Douyishu would probably beat the BFZC Pasha, depends on the acual size of the taste and mouthfeel. Anyways, back to Manmai, the performance was pretty interesting--it's a lot harder to drink than the BFZC, partially due to Bada being a bit harsher a terroir, as well as being my wholly Atlanta stored tea, aside from a couple of months in China. Brighter acidity, a relatively strong bitterness and a generally more activist flavor profile rather than being all round and sweet. On the other hand, better aroma, more complex main taste, more or less matches it in mouthfeel, but astringency is a bit higher, about the same level qi, but much stronger yiwu huigan and mouthcoat. Taste profile is more or less bright raspberry, dark honey, herbally deep bitter TCM pole. Later brews are more easy going drinking and sweeter. These two teas are slightly complementary in that I can drink for what I'm in the mood for, but it does kind of underline that $215 is a good price for this 400g brick, but it's not outstanding in terms of value, at least according to what my own standards of what really great hedons per dollar means.

 

[Sinnbad11]

The more commentators, the merrier, Sinnbad11! One quick note on Iron Forge--since it was huangpian shu, it will naturally be more thinner in taste and more astringent than shu that doesn't use waste yellow big leaves.

Very cool, I have a lot to learn about this genre of tea. Out of the very few teas I've tried it seemed to have the thickest mouthfeel, I'm not saying I disagree with you, rather that now I'm extremely curious what a none huangpian shu could be like.

Also second note for me, is there notable difference between shou and shu?

Is it just preference?

 

[shah8]

Huangpian from better tea bushes make better tea. Regular tea from the same tea bushes will make an even better tea. Huanpian is stuff people throw away, or use because people want to maximize output, etc. Of course, huangpian from high quality teas are saved because people who can't afford the main product will go for this stuff.

Shou and Shu are diffferent transliteration of the same character for "fermented (really oxidized in a special way)" tea.

Alright, my tea weekend was very lackadasial...my thaipu order came in and I just did tea from that box, mostly...

The shu of Friday was the 2018 XZH Carefree. Pretty much the same high quality as it ever was as one of my favorite shu (It's my second favorite of the shu that cost less than $200/400g) from XZH, delivering a nuanced, strong taste with good aftertaste and qi...

There were two shengs of Saturday. The first was the 2016 Teaside Gypsy Crow. It was pretty decent, but not that exciting for me. First off, it's a touch too oxidized, having a bit of that 2016 Chasing Spring character. Durability is weird. The taste starts off on the strong side for Thaipu, but tails off quickly, but it comes back when you let the leaves rest for a few hours and brew hard later. The aftertastes are only in the first few brews. The reviews for this tea is spot on about this being a morning tea--pretty strong caffeine effect and alerting qi in general. It's a decent tea, but it's expensive enough that it doesn't compare well with a careful and experienced shopping of proper puerh at its price point. Worth a small sampling.

Aroma and taste during the active phase has differing emphasis of herbal, fruit, and a subtle caramel. The fruit in question is basically the taste of candied apple, or the skin of a Red Delicious with the most sugary flesh right underneath--so really more of a fleshy floral-spice rather than properly fruity. Late aroma tends to be more simply fruit or caramel or herbal. Late taste is a light mellow-dark herbal, unless a really hard brew brings back the "fruit" taste. There is a bit of bitterness and sourness in the taste. The mouthfeel isn't that substantiative, with decent-good viscosity and a texture gesturing towards pudding, but it still kinda feels watery for all that. Light-moderate astringency. Aftertastes are similar to higher quality black teas or older teen gushu, with a yiwu huigan that segues to mouthcoat. Mouthcoat lingers good. Qi is about moderate, at least in the early-mid session, with initial brews having high alerting feel. Durability wasn't pushed that much, but it's pretty decently durable. I probably did at least 14 brews.

The second tea of Saturday was the 2013 HTC MingDee. I got 50g, mainly for work thermoses, but doing a session today, with no notes taken. Anyways, this has the definite thaipu limitations on thickness of taste and aroma, but it was generally a pretty nice taste, kind of nutty with choco tones. I was expecting this to be more like the '06 0803 or other thaipu with more prune. Anyways, mouthfeel was decent enough, but not great. Can get bitter pretty easily. Has a bit of nice mouthcoat, and the qi is relatively good. Durable, too. It's an okay value, but not really something one chases after.

The first tea of Sunday was the 2015 Shui Sa Lian from Houde (who has restocked this tea). I had a good western brew during the week, so I was motivated to do another gongfu session. In short, this is a really excellent black tea that is only exceeded (especially in the sense of the more plummy dominated black teas) by the 2017 YQH Millennial black. The aroma and taste has a good floral-aromatic wood rim, and there is a bit of it in a small mouth aroma as well. The taste is dense with a lot of nuance. This has good viscosity with a very round (like licking jade) feeling in the mouth. It had a good yiwu huigan-mouthcoat in a bunch of earlier brews, and midsession brews has a sensate sweetness. The qi is moderate but of really high quality (more or less the main reason to drink this tea). I didn't really push the durability because I wanted to move onto the next tea, but did about thirteen and could easily do more.

The second tea of Sunday was the 2007 HTC MingDee. This, along with Gipsy Crow, was a free 15g sample. Had this tea before, wasn't that impressed, and it didn't change any minds today. This has a stronger taste than the 2013 MingDee, but not as strong tasting as the TeaSide pressings. The aroma and taste was a very mellow and comfortable dark herbal taste with a sense of sweetness. Late brews has a bit of prune show up. There is a decent mouthfeel. Not that much aftertaste, a bit of mouthcoat. Good moderate quality qi. Decent enough durability.

One thing I definitely realize is that I enjoy TeaSide's storage. It's humid without being particularly dirty, and brings mellowness without sacrificing too much character. Too bad they don't sell proper puerh. Thaipu is definitely relatively meh border tea--just that the best is worth people's time.

 

[shah8]

Alright, got a ton of samples coming in, so this will be the last weekend I'll be drinking my own sheng for a while. Did some thaipu for study, and Yehgu to enjoy...

Anyways...during the week, I tested thermos of thaipu most of the week. 2007 HTC did reasonably well, dark herby-prune core with a touch of the fancy stuff. 2016 Gypsie Crow was big and fruity but relatively round and lacking in nuance. 2018 Sky In Bucket and 2014 Fox did relatively similar to one another. Fox is bigger, a bit more oxidized, while Sky In Bucket is more potent. There isn't really a huge separation in quality between those two teas, so Fox is less of a bargain. My opinion of Sky in Buckets is increased a bit more. I really need to try more W2T $65-$100/cake sheng. I just haven't had tea such as that since 2016 teas, aside from Mirage. Sort of want to calibrate what that price range can deliver these days, but that would be work. Friday was some '07 XZH Mengsong. Quite good, so much better than it used to be.

The shu of Friday was the 2007 Dengshihai. It's about the usual. Again, lots less sour than it used to be, taste was thin enough to bug me a bit. Good woody aroma, good aftertastes, good qi.

The first tea of Saturday was the 2003 HTC Liubao from Teaside. I suppose it's liu bao, but it definitely tastes a lot like shu made with hongcha maocha. Depth, in terms that the tea has layers for one's tongue to prospect through, is missing, so it's a fairly boring tea. While it's pleasant enough, it costs as least as much as good shu I'd rather have, and probably plenty of good liubao.

Aromas generally has beets, caramel, aromatic soil in varying proportions. Earliest brew has a broad background of molasses. The taste generally follows the aroma. There are hints of choco, especially after soup cools a bit. Bitterness isn't that strong but it grips the tongue and lingers after the swallow. Good viscosity with a bit of oil texture. Little or no astringency. Does a bit of mouthcoat and manages a bit of qi. I didn't push this too deep into the session as that it was boring.

I've still got the 1991 liu bao to try, but gotta stop trying any more thaipu post fermentation stuff. Just have never liked the shu or this liu bao that much.

The sheng was the '06 HTC 0802. Yeah, the wrappers are different for a reason. The 0802 is a fairly normal tea as thaipu goes. However, at its price point, just a ton of better tea can be had, including various random Dayi tea from around that time, particularly '07. Thaipu advantage is better qi and aftertaste while rando Dayi advantage is stronger, deeper taste and better mouthfeel.

Aroma is generally very nice prune and wood/mineral, of moderate strength. Early brews are about the same taste as aroma, before gradually adding a bit of herbaceousness. Generally a bit bitter. The taste is pretty high and higher than expected for a tea of its age. Decent to good viscosity without much in the way of distinguishing texture. Light to moderate astringency. Good and lasting mouthcoat. Light to moderate strength in terms of qi.

The tea of Sunday was '12 YQH Yehgu. It's totally cheap to get, under $400 from Yangqinghao USA, which is way, waaaaaay below what it's worth. Still think it's a roughly BHT area tea, probably Douyishu. Simply excellent session, didn't take notes.

Aroma was great, with early brews being aromatic wood and fruit, resolving to an ever more fruit dominated character in later brews. Taste is potent. This tea is much less bitter than it used to be, and all that bitterness dissolved to a big dark TCM pole. What there is is bright with a bit of acidity in early brews, and generally is gripping and lingers in the mouth awhile, like a Lao Man'e. Early brew taste also featured a dark fruit that's a bit savory, kind of bbq sauce like, along with other nuances. Late brews have less strong dark taste, more prominent fruit-plum taste and a nice minerality. Tarragon/sweet herbals are a bit obscured within the taste. Mouthfeel is great, very good viscosity with a stiff proteiny character, something hints at what Greek yoghurt feels like in mouth. Moderate astringency. Fully range of aftertastes. Very occasional yun, good mouth aroma, particularly early, light yiwu huigan early to fruit, late session stronger yiwu huigan to something like caramel, strong mouthcoat, and good pungent huigan through the session along with that feeling down throat. I drank most cups fairly slowly. Didn't do too many brews, like about thirteen brews before putting it into the fridge with plenty left.

One of the best teas you can get, and is clearly something that should age into a treasure.

 

[wavenotation]

hi @shah8 - could you possibly help me figure out how to get a price list and order from BFCZ? i tried to make some headway on facebook earlier this year but to no avail. any guidance would be much appreciated - id really like to try these teas. im based in the US and experienced with FB auctions, etc. thank you

 

[Sinnbad11]

I've been drinking a lot of puer recently, it quickly has vaulted into the top position among my teas. Admittedly a lot of that is due to the complexity of the genre, I have always loved hobbies with significant depth. As a result of this I have purchased a lot of tea recentlly-ish. All of the tea I'm currently drinking was ordered on black friday-from white2tea-and has had adequate rest (I believe) to recover from the stress of shipping.

I will be reviewing these teas for a while and have 5 cakes that I have purchased and tried a number of times now. Today I will be giving my impression of 2023 941. A White2tea blend desired to be easy going, and easy to drink. I'm drinking some now to refresh my thoughts on it.

The first steeps open up with the gentle aroma of a wildflower honey, there is a strength to it. Something savory hidden among the sweet aroma. The bitterness is minimal to none in the first couple of steeps, but there is astringency that hints at a more substantial drying sensation to come. Around the third infusion the bitterness in this tea begins to make itself more known, drawing a lovely contrast between the first taste and the huigan. The huigan is fairly substantial, a noted sweetness in the back of the throat. The aroma has morphed from gentle floral honey to a more marked stone fruit aroma. As well as the savory note growing stronger and more reminiscent of genmaicha's toasted rice aroma. around the 7th infusion the stone fruit morphs back toward floral aromas, the bitterness is seemingly gone but the astringency remains. The savory note becomes more similar to stewed vegetables, mineral sweetness remains in the back of the throat. Here this tea stays through several more infusions. It happily pushes into the double digits.

I've been drinking all of my raw puer in a ratio of about 1g of tea to 15mL of brew vessel size. This was brewed in a small gaiwan style vessel, volume of about 80mL.

It's enjoyable, simple, and easy to drink. There is enough going on that it doesn't get boring, I don't expect that this cake will last very long, certainly not long enough to consider it again with any age.

 

[shah8]

wavenotation, I've only gotten these BFZC teas from KJ Wong, and have never interacted with with the brand owner. You could contact him via FB @ 舊屋茶堂 | Taipei - https://www.facebook.com/oldteahouse/ It wouldn't surprise me if he's willing to act as a go between, if it's not too much trouble.

okay, a tidal wave of YuanYuanTang teas headed this way!

First however, the shu of this vacation is the 2008 XZH XiangYeYun, the sister tea to XiShangJiaXi that I own and is probably my best shu. This tea is rather different but Sanhetang was cooking with seriously gushu materials for these 2008 that isn't really represented in most later XZH shu. Anyways, this is a fermented tea to roughly about the level of a Dayi 7572, but the leaves are red shifted away from the smaller grades that'd been in a 7572 towards the 8592 profile. Unlike 8592, there isn't that handful of lightly fermented or perhaps raw maocha to lend it the dark herbal core or the aromatic wood rim. Most or all of the depth is fermentation depth Also, as with Sanhetang's general practice with shu production, this has a soft and mellow taste without much that is really dramatic. Unlike the 2017 Cultural Revolution/7581 take, this isn't smoothed to boringness, but has a great numbers of nuance and layers, and has a very good aftertaste game. There were a lot of comparison to the 2014 Huangyin, in the sense that it has mellow subtle taste, good aftertastes and strong qi, tho' the Huangyin has a more low-ferment taste and more exotic aftertastes. This tea also went a long way in terms of durability, and I enjoyed it enough to chase that last meaningful brew. Well worth having. I also pondered why the 2010 Court Tea and 2011 Pornowrapper shu wasn't as captivating despite more of a real flavor...

Now, for all the tea from that brand. Long and short of it is that most of their teas are fairly oxidized on a leaf that isn't that great and doesn't leave a final product with much left to give. The very best teas are more appropriately processed, but the material is good, not great.

2014 YYT Millenium Old Tree Wangong was the first YYT I drank and gave me a positive first impression. This was one of the two teas I've tried in this writeup that wasn't over oxidized to my taste. Interestingly, this isn't one of the wild honey type most typically associated with the generic Wangong label, but more something similar to the general Bohetang sensibilities.

Brown sugar is regularly present in the aroma. Wood, herbal, spices are in the earliest brews, while later brews bend more toward plum or fruit notes in aroma. Taste is more consistent with wood, tcm bitter pole, brown sugar, mineral, and barnyard. Taste is generally detailed enough for me to enjoy slowly, it's also slightly smaller tasting than the other YYT in this post. Viscosity is good with a pudding texture. Astringency is light with a quick bump up to moderate early in the session. Has good cooling feeling. Has yiwu huigan and mouthcoat to fruit. Qi is moderate to strong of no particular character. Durability was pretty decent, probably about twelve or thirteen, with probably one or two more brews foregone.

This is worth having for many people out there. It's not great, but it's definitely good enough for people who don't have better tea.

2014 YYT Qiannian Yiwu is a pretty poor tea in my book. Admittedly, it's partially the impression left after having my impression raised because of my first YYT tea. I didn't even take much in the way of notes.

Aroma is generally weak, and when it has a presence, it's herbal and wood in character. Taste got pretty pancaked from too much oxidation and is pretty weak even if broad in mouth. It has a sweet grain, herbal, mineral nature. Good viscosity with a bit of pudding texture and light astringency. There might be a bit of yiwu huigan, at least very early. Aftertastes are otherwise very faint. Light qi. And I didn't push this tea session deep much at all.


2010 YYT Manla. First things first--this is not a Tianmenshan. This doesn't have the profile of Tianmenshan, and that area has a very specific history as a mid-late Qing tea boomtown with a brand shipping a lot of tea out there. Some of that material shipped to the cities might have been TMS, but this specific material is much more like Bohetang or Lengshuihe than TMS. Interesting, what this session is most like is the 2009 XZH Fengshabao, picked from trees "along the border", and Manla is like GFZ village in being right at the border.

Aroma and taste are pretty much the same and consistently wood, a weird vegetal, and cocoa. There can be hints of fruit in aroma, and sometimes there is a bit of sourness and a dark minerality in taste. Good viscosity with sort of a whole milk texture. Astringency is light. Predominant aftertaste is a weird, active, mouthcoat that is sort of minty that definitely recalls the high end BHTs. There is also a bit of woody mouth aroma at least once. Moderate to strong level of qi. This tires quickly, stabilizes at lower level, but never really had that much nuance or interesting thing going, so one of the teas I drunk the cups really fast.

I'd think this makes good work tea or in a thermos. Generally wouldn't be interested in getting this. Already got better, and there are better teas to buy for the price for most people.


2015 YYT Yibang Mansong is one of the teas not particularly oxidized. However, I used the 2010 YS Xikong as a standard for this tea, and largely, this tea is worse in quality.

Anways, the aroma only last five brews, with an occasional revival late. Went pretty much as: floral, honey, slight vegetal-> grains, vegetal, slightly fruity-> grain, green wood, fruit-> dark grain with slight choco tones-> fruit and floral. The taste is based on grains, with green wood early and more fruit late before increasing mineral. There is usually a bit of bitterness. Viscosity is good with a light pudding texture and moderate astringency. Mouthcoats are strong and a bit nice. There are occasional slow yiwu huigans. Qi is light to moderate of good quality. This tea lasted well, and I suspect durability is decent enough.

'10 YS Xikong has a much better and more elite floral aroma. The taste is also more appealing, but the Mansong does have a stronger core and presence. The viscosity and texture is a wash, but the Xikong has a bit of feeling down throat and some electric mouth. The quantity-quality of the qi is about the same, but Xikong is much better in terms of aftertaste.

2014 YYT Tongqinghe's aroma is focused on wood, birch wood, with something sweet, like burnt sugar. Later aromas has some fruit and minerals. Earlier taste is birchwood, thick tcm bitter pole with only a light bitterness at the tip, fruit. Mineral is more prominent in mid session and late session brews. There can be a light sourness Taste tends to tire easily without dramatically increasing brew times. Viscosity is good, with a bit of texture between oil and pudding. Astringency is generally at moderate level. Generally has light-moderate mouthcoat, while yiwu huigan is very light until brew times are lengthened in later brews. Qi is about at light to moderate. I didn't press this tea very far, probably eleven brews, but active phase is over pretty quick at about six brews, and in any event, the taste, while bold at its best, has little true depth or nuance, and nothing to slow down my drinking. I like it, but not really very much so, as it probably costs more than many better teas.

whew!

 

[shah8]

Alright, another mountain of I guess fairly quick reviews. Been trying to do two teas a day, and mostly doing the lesser promising ones, and leave the more anticipated teas for later weekends that I can enjoy at leisure.

One thing to note, I am generally underdosing these teas because I've gotten 5.7g or 6.7g for all but one teas covered in this review. That has meant that I'm using my red-clay high fire pot instead of my usual duanni because of its smaller size, and trying not to overfill the pot with water with my smaller samples of tea.

Another thing to note is that I've largely concluded that Yuanyuantang is not really up there in terms of levels of gushu. They tend to be smaller teas than XZH/YQH and if the tea is reasonably large, quite a bit less detailed than a XZH/YQH of sufficient teamaker effort, mainly because of blending and usually stronger oxidation than norm. More than that, they don't really measure up to what the likes of White2Tea or Essence of Tea can accomplish, i.e., in terms of quality, they are about at what Yunnan Sourcing does. The storage is not Kunming, at least. Anyways, I would not be very interested in buying them because it should be easy to buy better teas at all pricing points YYT does. Of course, there is one benefit in that YYT does a lot of micro-terrior teas, including stuff that doesn't come up in western or more prominently TW boutique teas, and that can be fun for some people...

In general, I'm speed running through these lesser teas, which has meant I'm not trying to suck ever last goodness from them and I stop when I'm bored. So detection of how durable anything is, is a guess.

The first tea of Monday was the 2012 XZH Golden Leaf Huangpian No.3 7.7g. I asked for a sample of XZH huanpian to compare with my memories of other huangpian and W2T Goldfu. In short this is indeed like other huangpian, with quality only being reflected in a greater intensity of taste. Goldfu is not as strong in taste, but for now has agreeable fruitiness as well as stronger qi and aftertaste.

Aroma and taste basically the same as other huangpian, but a more intense character that doesn't wander off into fruitiness or vegetalness or anything else that gives drinkers an easy like. Aroma has mineral, wood, hay. Taste has honey, hay, mineral. There can be subtle fruitiness in some brews. Mineral has the usual huangpian bite. Good viscosity, moderate astringency. Light mouthcoat, and a good quality light qi. As there was enough of this, this went into the duanni pot, and I brewed more of this tea than most others. Not dynamic but does deliver many reasonably satisfying huangpiany brews.

The second tea of Monday was 5.7g of the 2007 LBZ. I did not like it. It had an erratic aroma and taste with a propensity toward sourness that I didn't like, and it didn't have strong positives.

Aroma was all over the place, but not too unpleasant, and there was a stretch of light wood and turnover pastries that was nice. This did have wood and a tcm bitter pole in many of the brews as well as a sourness. A bunch of other flavors were there, notably a hidden sweetness that shows itself as malt or caramel. Viscosity was only ever at about decent with lgith astringency. Capable of good cooling feeling in the mouth, and early brews have good yiwu huigan and mouthcoat which rapidly decreases in strength as session goes on. Only about light, light moderate qi of no particular quality. I didn't push this tea hard.


The third tea of Monday was the 2011 Yangqinghao Jinya, 6.7g. It seems to be more of a daily drinkerish tea like a 2007 Lingya, but made of Yibang/Gedeng leaves? Not very floral or fruity, but I suspect this has aged past that? Anyways, an enjoyable tea that's not mindblowing.

Earlier aroma is aromatic wood, grain/sweet grains, and later aroma has this, but with a tough of fleshy florals. The taste is mainly wood/aromatic wood and broad grains with a hint of plummy and bitterness. A bit later there is an increase in dark taste with slight choco tone before fading to broad less detailed grains taste with a hint of wood/mineral rim. This has good viscosity with cream texture and light astringency. Capable of a bit of tonguetip numbing in the appropriate way. A light mouthcoat, but tends toward a pleasantly strong qi. I brewed this until I ran out of time. Not too many brews, but enough and with enough left in the tank that it should be decently durable.

The first tea of Tuesday was the 2009 YuanYuanTang Paxihe, about 5.7g. Paxi River is a fairly generic term that can mean the broader Yishanmo theme. From the reading I've done in prep for the session and the resulting session, this tea seems to be Cold Water Temple? Lengshuisi or Lengsuo? It has a very specific pez fruit candy profile which is interesting, but it's not very rich or has much depth in the taste.

Aroma is light and mostly mineral. Taste is a certain fruity note that is sort of like pez candy, and there can be slight nuances from honey and/or bitterness. The mouthfeel is decidedly average, as it takes a couple of brews before the viscosity is more than decent, and it's never impressive. Capable of moderate to strong cooling feeling and a moderate mouthcoat that lingers well in the mouth. Qi is at about moderate level. I didn't brew very deep as that the taste wasn't that compelling and it wasn't dynamic, really...

The second tea of Tuesday was 6.7g of 2008 XZH Dingjialaozhai. This session reflected the original reasons I didn't buy a cake off auctions. It's a fairly oxidized tea that isn't hugely interesting. However, it's a fundamentally more satisfying tea to me than the YuanYuanTang and other label teas I've been drinking. However, aside from mouthfeel, it would be hard for me to really say why. There is mouthfeel, but also, I guess the taste, while not being overtly complex, has a richness to it that other teas do not. It's also a bit more of a dynamic session than the other teas as well.

Good aromas starts as light fruit and hay before having light wood, plummy, barnyard, mineral, and fruit in subtly varying proportions. The taste is a bit dynamic, tho' plumminess is a core part of the profile: wood, fruit-> wood, light bitterness-> wood, caramel-> a run of lighter tasting mineral, sugars, plummy in late brews. Mouthfeel was a reason for me to keep brewing tea--good viscosity and a very nice whole milk texture that felt good in the swallow. Light astringency with occasional bumps up to moderate. light yiwu huigan and mouthcoat aftertastes. Light to moderate qi. Durability seems good as it would deliver a good light taste and good mouthfeel for a long way.

The first tea of Wednesday was the 2012 YuanYuanTang Bannaqing (5.7g), which is stated to be a blend of Tongqinghe and Laobanzhang. While the former is obvious, there is nothing distinctly LBZ found in the brew. Some Menghai broad sweet mushroom at most. I personally enjoyed this the most of the YuanYuanTangs I've tried to date. There are four more left, including at least one "higher end" tea. Broadly, I quite like Tongqinghe profile, or at least what Yuanyuantang thinks represents that microterroir. Yiwu Teamountain's 2014 TQH was nice, too, but a somewhat different profile.

First brew had herbal and caramel aroma, while late brew had mineral with a bit of birchwood. The brews during the active phase had herbal, mushroom, and a sweet birchwood (in that root beer sense) aroma. The taste generally follows the aroma with a thick, low bitterness TCM bitter pole. As the brews go on, the darkness fades to a mineral, thin mushroom and birchwood profile. The mouthfeel is the best of the YuanYuanTang to date--good-very good viscosity with some substance in the texture. Light astringency along with good cooling and a long mouthcoat during the active phase. Later brews has a hint of yiwu huigan. Qi goes up and down, but is generally at about moderate strength and good feeling. I probably didn't do as many brews as I'd have wanted to do, but active phase is indeed pretty short and good brews required long brews after a good rest, and I didn't have time for that.



The second tea of Wednesday was the 2023 Baifuxing/Baifuhang Tiangong, 6.7g. It's your standard Menkgu/Bangdong nice green tea, similar to something like the Millennial Tree maocha that XZH sells. Enjoyable as green tea, on the border of being substantial enough that aging may be okay. Nothing special.

Aroma is floral, vegetal, celery spice mostly in the early brews. They could also have slight fruit. Later brews have a more sugars and vegetal character for aroma. One brew was interestingly white sugar. The taste is generally vegetal, celery spice, and sugars. Later brews tends to be stronger, sweeter sugars. Good to a bit better than that viscosity with a touch of velvet-oily texture. Generally only a bit of light cooling and light mouthcoat. Light qi. I pushed this about twelve brews before getting tired of it.

The first tea of today was the 2007 Bingdao Tea Refinery Spring Shuangjiang Mengku Bingdao Ancient Tree. It was crap and I didn't brew more than four times. My memory of the 2011 I've had was more positive than this tea, and I wonder if it's because it hasn't aged into crap yet or perhaps this was one of the brands lesser Bingdao effort not from the same line. They perform about as you'd imagine sibling teas to perform, given storage, but differing levels of enjoyment.

Aroma could be considered nice, but it's not that rich. Anyways, coniferous wood, dried fruit, slight honey/sugars is in the aroma. The taste follows the aroma, but isn't rich or deep or nuanced. Mouthfeel is okay, with some pushing, you can get good viscosity with proteiny texture. Light astringency. Light cooling and aftertaste. Mostly caffeine for feeling, light qi. Durability not tested.

The last tea of this series is a 6.7g Essence of Tea 2010 Bulang Ancient Tree, pressed by another vendor. There is a better EoT Bulang they did themselves. 2010 EoT Mansai is also a better tea, and this tea is a touch like it. This one isn't too bad, but there isn't a ton of meat on the bones in terms of taste. It is also not really that durable. For example, the fact that the 2006 Tea Horse Road teas are about $25 more per cake, is probably an accurate reflection of their relative value.

Aroma generally has smoke (not really retired), spice, wood/camphor throughout, and is full/rising early and more singular late session. The taste is not rich, but is nice with smoke, leather wood, a bit of fruit and spice generally, with a bit of sweet mushroom base and bitterness in the early brews. Tends to have good-very good viscosity with pudding texture early and gets thinner over the course of the session. Astringency is usually light. There can be a decent yiwu huigan to sugars early, and more consistently a mouthcoat that bitterness can sometimes assist with. Qi is generally mild with a caffeine assist. Durability seems a bit weak, at least for the active phase. This tea gets much less interesting for me after about five brews.

whew, long, but not that bad, given how many teas covered.

 

[shah8]

Last set of vacation getting through all of the more marginal samples

The first tea of Saturday was the Essence of Tea 2010 Banpen. This has been stored in Seattle all of its life, so I found it an interesting experience to compare when I first drank this tea thirteen and a half years ago. Also to compare with the 2010 EoT materials I have today. The short and quick is that this Banpen is relatively well stored for a tea kept at a higher latitude. However, it has done relatively little aging and a degree of fading. Also, Banpen is just not a great Bulang tea--lots of better LBZ substitutes in Bulang and Mengsong. One thing it does do, tho', is smack the heck out of the 2010 Bulang Ancient Tree up for sale at EoT today. Much more satisfyingly substantial--Five Guys mushroomy vs a single Krystal mushroomy.

Aroma and taste are much like the notes above for the 2010 Bulang, however, there is little smoke and a lot more substantive mushroom supporting all of the more fancy aromatic stuff. Just a nice, well integrated leather, camphorwood, mushroom in the aroma, and the taste following the aroma. In later brews, the mushroom fades a bit and is replaced by plummy in aroma and taste. Not a lot of bitterness for a Bulang. Good viscosity, with a stiff velvet texture. Astringency is mostly light with a bump up here and there. Good yiwu huigan to sugars, mouthcoat. One brew had a mouth aroma. Qi ranges from light to moderate. Durability seems okay, but did not push too hard. I compared this tea with the 2010 Mansai, which is from an area at the very southern tip of Bulang before you hit Myanmar, and which area has often been used as a substitute for LBZ. Much louder aroma and taste. about equal aftertaste and qi. This Banpen wasn't really much better than the Mansai back in 2010, and the storage did it no favors in terms of keeping up over the years.

The second tea of the day was the 2013 YuanYuanTang Yibang Dingjiazhai. Pretty much a you know the drill, here. It wasn't too bad, tho'. Pretty much follows the Sanhetang from '08--herbal, fruit, caramel in aroma and flat taste, more or less. It had okay mouthfeel--decent-good viscosity with a bit of velvet stiffness. Light mouthcoat and light qi. I did not push this tea much or take much notes.

Wound up doing a third tea, the 2014 YuanYuanTang Yibang Huangshan. I also did not take too many notes, but it was somewhat on the more substantial end of YYT teas in terms of taste. Aroma had a run of fruit and grain, with wood and mineral showing up from time to time. Taste had a tcm bitter pole for a while with more durable fruit and prune. Mouthfeel was pretty watery tho', with light astringency. Only light yiwu huigan and mouthcoat. Qi starts off light, but it does kind of build to moderate-strong. Didn't push this too hard.



The first tea of New Year's Eve was drunk during a very disappointing Eagle's game, but it's one of the best YuanYuanTang samples I got, the 2013 YYT Sifang Cha from Six Yiwu Villages (doesn't really taste like it's only Yiwu stuff, some Yibang/Gedeng as well). It's still processed to be bigger and smooth than it truly is, but it's not as sour as other YYT have been as a result. It's a 6FTM blend, and the Yiwu is obviously TQH, so that rubs my belly good, there.

Wood, grains, fruit in the early aroma, and later aroma are more grain and birchwood. Sometimes there are sugars involved. The taste follows the aroma with an early session TCM bitter pole and a touch of sourness. The grains in the taste can be dark with an element of choco. Good viscosity with an oily texture, but not too substantial over the course of the session. Moderate strength astringency. Very slight feeling down throat early. There is yun, yiwu huigan, and mouthcoat. One brew managed a very slight pungent huigan. Qi at moderate, maybe, of pretty good quality. I kind of ran out of time to really push the tea, but the active phase is over quick, but it seems like the tea could go for a bit. I wouldn't recommend this tea to chase after because it's still kind of low on nuance from the processing, but it's tasty.

The second tea of New Year's Eve is an interesting one. It's a heicha--a 70's Ya'an Sichuan tea meant for the ole big pot and butter-salt. Lots of big twigs in this one! It's also sort of dirty and needs a good washing.

Early character in aroma and taste tends to have plum while later character tends to have that aged tea medicinal note. It otherwise has light hay, wood, and sugars. Can be pretty sweet in taste. Taste is not that dense--definitely not a gongfu tea. Decent to good viscosity with stiff cream texture. Astringency is light. Can have a bit of electric mouth. Aftertastes are pretty firmly in the earlier part of the session, with a bit of yiwu huigan and mouthcoat. Strong aged tea qi in the early going. Not really a durable tea, tho' the flavor and mouthfeel keeps going. There is an off note in the stronger brews that tweaks my suspicion a bit, but nothing serious.


The last tea of the vacation was the 2005 Mengyang Guoyan LaoBanzhang. This is something Hobbes has posted about repeatedly on HalfDipper blog. I don't really have differing notes on this tea, as Hobbes has accurately described it. I just don't like it too much, it's way too hollow, with relatively poor mouthfeel, and generally something more agreeably sweet than any substantial LBZ tea. I didn't really do too many brews, like seven or so, and I'll have plenty for the week brewing...

Aroma and taste are very sweet, sweet mushroom almost to butterscotch, fruity, with a slight hay. It's like a lot of the sweet "LBZ"s out there, really sweet but nothing underneath. The mouthfeel is watery, with light to moderate astringency. Has a degree of electric mouth, but I'm suspicious of it in a maybe cheap tea. There isn't much aftertaste beyond a bit of mouthcoat, and not that much qi.

 

[shah8]

Alright, first things first, I sort of want to emphasize for those of you that aren't me, that these notes are for myself, and what goes for me might not be for anyone else. That said, I did enjoy some of these YuanYuanTang, and I thought I'd better rank 'em.

Teas that if I had 'em, I wouldn't be sorry (but I wouldn't pay for them 'cause I'm sure I'd pay more than what they're worth outside auctions), and in no order 'cause I can't really decide:

2013 YYT Sifang Cha from Six Yiwu Villages
2012 YuanYuanTang Bannaqing
2014 YYT Tongqinghe
2015 YYT Yibang Mansong
2014 YYT Millenium Old Tree Wangong

Meh:
2013 YuanYuanTang Yibang Dingjiazhai
2009 YuanYuanTang Paxihe
2014 YuanYuanTang Yibang Huangshan
2010 YYT Manla
2012 Yibang Jincha (only now realized I never reviewed it. Not as low quality as traditional jincha, less aged than the year suggest, pretty similar to other Yibangs)

Actively disliked:
2007 LBZ
2014 YYT Qiannian Yiwu

The processing tends to render the tea flat and gulpable rather than sippable/savorable. The underdosage relative to my pots didn't help. I think they'd probably be more enjoyable with more leaf, particularly the Paxihe and Manla.

Alright, three of the four sheng this weekend is ChenYuanHao. Mostly, ChenYuanHao processes their teas more or less the same as YYT, but they use better leaf to start with.

The shu of Friday was the Diancha 2012 F8 from the Canadian tea outlet 05tea. This one is pretty easy to describe. Very similar to W2T 2021 The Bringer. The difference is that the F8's gojiberrry/dried fruit part of the taste is stronger, with less fermentation depth, choco, or TCM bitter pole than The Bringer. The mouthfeel isn't as substantial, but good oily texture. Later brews has a pleasantly strong and sensate sweet yiwu huigan to caramel. Strong qi. Fairly durable. Not remotely worth per gram what the vendor/Diancha is asking--~$4/g.

First sheng of the weekend was the 2014 CYH Yibang Zhengshan Mingqian. This one was pretty decent. It does seem like there is a difference in CYH 2016? and older and those from later productions.

Aroma has apples, woodsap, grains, and a bit of light herbals in varying proportions and can be fairly nice. Taste is more dynamic with apple, hay, herbal-> a bit of bitterness and barnyard depth is added in-> wood, bitterness, fruity, slightly floral-> wood, fruity, deep plummy-> wood, grains, fruity-> fruity, grain, slight bitterness, deep plummy. Good viscosity with light velvet texture. Generally light astringency with one quick burst up to moderate. Can have some cooling with a good mouthcoat, there is some yiwu huigan early, and one brew had a small yun. Durability seems okay, but not great.

The second sheng of the weekend was the XZH "2013" Love You. No 2013 Love You, but two 2014 on Sanhetang's price list, so I'm thinking this is one of those. TW storage did a number on this JingGu area tea leaving it without a lot of flavor without very firm hands in brewing. On the flip side, taste aside, this was a rather sound tea, and I enjoyed long late brews reasonably well.

This tea tends to have caramel, sugars, aromatic wood in the aroma. It can also have at least once herbals, fruit, or mineral along with the others. Generally a thin taste of mineral, aromatic wood. Early brews have some sugars with that, and later brews has a slight plummy depth as well as the usual mineral. Viscosity is at good-very good with a light oil texture. Very light to light astringency. Yiwu huigan and mouthcoat are present, mouthcoat can be dynamic. Strong qi that will plant a person into the couch. Durability seems to be okay, but I think I only did about ten brews, and later brews are kind of long in brewing time.

The first sheng today was the 2018 CYH Baichayuan. This has an exotic aroma and taste but it's a touch aggressively processed so it's more agreeable than substantive. Aroma and taste aren't close to what I'd consider a Baichayuan profile. Enjoyable enough, tho'.

This has a jackfruit and tamarind fruitiness in aroma and taste. There is also grain, brown sugar, and mineral early in the session for aroma. Aside from a tamarind depth, the taste follows the aroma. Doesn't really have bitterness. Decent to good viscosity with a cream texture. Astringency tends to be a bit on the higher side of moderate. Often has strong and lingering mouthcoat along with cooling feeling in mouth. Subtle yiwu huigan here and there. Qi is light of good quality. Meh on durability, fairly tired at ten brews.

Anyways, there's little genuine depth in the tea for which I seek nuance, so I drank a lot of these brews quickly.

The final tea of the weekend was the 2023 CYH Chawangbing. I was a bit surprised that this had a relative rich aroma and taste, if still a somewhat flat tea.

Not very dynamic at all--toffee, chicory depth, and mineral in aroma and taste. When the taste is being softer, toffee is more brown sugar and mineral is emphasized. There is a bit of bitterness. Good viscosity with cream/pudding texture. Generally light astringency with some later brews having moderate astringency. Good consistent yiwu huigan to caramel. good mouthcoat. Moderate qi. Reasonably durable. Did maybe twelve? And has plenty left when I put this in the fridge.

These CYH are more agreeable teas than good teas--not that dynamic and bitterness generally tame, if any. EoT's stuff from the last couple of years is less attractive in terms of top taste and aroma, but I'd have greater confidence in longer term drinking from stuff like Rocket Yiwu or their Baihuaqing, etc. And I'd want a high end Taiwanese boutique to at least do better than Essence of Tea.

The main issue with the idea of CYH is that while they are buy worthy, they are very expensive. A 2017 CYH Baichayuan is $900/400g cake. While the profile is both nice and sort of unique, that is in the price range of XZH straight from the source that are substantially better teas, say the 2015 Luyin and Lanyin that are about a hundred something more expensive. Or the 2019 XZH fall TMS Heart Sutra... Just a long way from justifiable for me. Versus say a Six Yiwu Villages YuanYuanTang that you could win at auction for NT4000 and bring home at something like $165/400g.