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2003 Xiaguan baoyan jincha. I had a pretty good session with it. A little of that old tea qi for something as young as this is, in the beginning of the session. A couple of lightly sour brews, and...

brewed the 7542 a second day yesterday...good.

Today, I did a 1g microbrew of the '02 Nannuo White Tips. It was okay...It eventually developed a nice anise and menghai taste with a little...

Two excellent older shengs of the day.

'02 Tai Lian, pretty much as it always is, a bit more citric and astringent than usual.

'01 Dayi 7542 Simplified. The actual flavor got out of its own...

'09 XZH Jingmai. Really good experience. Great aroma that is complex, durable, and dynamic as it cools. Has cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves along with the various floral and floral-fruitish elements. ...

'09 YS Gu Shu Lan Xiang 200g cake. Simply not aging well, and probably never had good prospects. Not bad tasting, but not truly interesting. Good body, as usual, and some yuns. Not too much...

'11 Nadacha Douyizhai. Hasn't changed that much, flavor-wise, and that disappointed me somewhat. I'm not really fond of Hekai. While the last brew had some floral/conifer qualities, this brew did...

'07 fall XZH JingGu Nuercha. More or less behaves like a Bingdao. Early brews had an outstanding and durable floral aroma that complex and hard to identify, more sweet and fleshy, but not quite...

'07 XZH 7542. Having had the Jin Dayi and the Longyin a few months ago makes it clear how I was to appreciate this tea. Even so, today's session was a lot more solid and coherent than this tea...

Nadacha Mannuo. With the exception of it's tendency to have water taste (maybe worsening), quite excellent. The body is improved, and the texture is very sticky and coating. There is almost no...

Fall '10 YS Xikong. Has an issue with hongcha pu behaviors, and am not sure whether it's not just the aging of small-leaf puerh. Not too much complexity or depth in top taste, and the session...

People generally tend to nibble from the cake.

You break up the cake if you know that tea particularly needs a wakening period. For example, my 2002 Tai Lian cake is not nearly as good brewing...

Last tea I'm sampling...The 2012 YiHe Liu Xiang, which is a Mengsong tea that is mostly spring 2012 leaves and some fall leaves as well. This is about $22/250g. So roughly about what the Taochaju...

Had this tea today: http://www.zhizhengtea.com/shop/You-Le-Shan-2007-Raw-Puer-Cake

This is actually affirmatively good. Buy the sample. Why? This tea tastes older than a 2007 should,...

2012 YiHe Manzhuan. Costs $80, so I went in with some expectations. This tea actually tastes like my preconceptions of what Manzhuan tea is like, soily-floral-grains. Not too distant from what the...

'12 YiHe Early Spring Nannuo. A touch less expensive than the Manzhuan I've tried yesterday. Has that namby pamby Nannuo bent, and is very much not like the Yakouzhai/Douyizhai Nannuo we all know...

Houde '07 roasted TGY. Weaker flavor, smooth, aroma still there, not sour, low bitterness, all of it converts, long, long, and pleasant aftertaste. Probably would have been a good candidate for...

'12 ChaLaoGuai Manzhuan. Tastes very much like a decent fresh Yiwu, less to distinguish it than Youle-Yiwu or Yibang-Yiwu. Low aroma, a little delicate, not that enduring, but interesting. ...

New set of samples just came in the mail, from Mark @CreamofBanna.com

First up is the Gu Yuan(based in Xiang Ming) '04 Manzhuan, made of leaves of mixed quality and aged in Banna before being in...

XZH '08 Mengsong Palace Puerh. Early on the brew has a more complex aroma and taste, if a little bitter. Good energy in the mouth as well. It becomes kinda boring, in the sense that it quickly...

yesterday was a good session with the '05 Dayi Mengsong Peacock. Best thing about it is the aroma and aftertastes.

'08 XZH XiShangJiaXi. Rather sour that was slow to lessen as the session went on. Definitely not as ripe as comparable Dayi shu. Enjoyed it very much though. Great flavor, really great...

2009 Tea Habitat Mo Li Xiang (fall). This was okay, more like a better Da Wu Ye, but with a sort of floral fur smell, and a very strong fleshy floral taste-flowers, but not quite jasmine, more like...

Two dancongs yesterday and today...

Jingteashop Da Wu Ye '12, 4g--wasn't very good. Low in bitterness, but also low in character and aroma, and did not last more than four material brews. Late...

Finished off the Taihe '05 the other day. It was okay, and mostly useful in convincing me that JingGu will develop hay tones--the '02 Yiwu Wild Tree (which I don't think is yiwu) also has it, as...

Yin Dayi '12 was a waste of time, for me. Wasn't bad, but it's pretty much flavoring on top and not very good depth in the basic tea flavor. On top of that, astringent and thin soup.

'12 Dayi Jin Dayi. Has a good body, not that interesting texture. Okay top taste, with some nice smoky wood tastes at the high end of the range. A nice, if short flavor transition-aftertaste (not...

Made a Junpana today, western brew. Four years old picking. Top flavor is flat as you would expect, but the bitterness is gone, the aftertastes are nice, it does nice things in the throat, and...

Sunsing Rougui, 9gm in 150ml kyusu, 20s, 10,15,...

Lots of caffeine. Not the strongest of aroma, and ok when nose is close. Flavor is of traditional Wuyi dark, a woodiness a bit like old JingGu,...

'10 S.M. Essence of Tea. I had an enjoyable session with it, even though it's pretty clearly limited. Good Mengku taste, floralness with some sweet grains. Okay aroma, okay for factory tea body. ...

2006 Daye QingBing. Still...tangy... as Hobbes would have it. I didn't get much qi this time round. There was a lot of mouth activity and cooling in the early rounds. Okay aroma, body. Not a bad...

No, I believe you sold me on the vague concept of considering CSH...

Two 4g sessions today...

2010 Fall YS Mangfei. Pleasant little session. Mostly empty like the Banpen yesterday, with a...

'10 Gu Ming Xiang Banpen. It's not bad, but it's not very good. Some thickness in the body, but no texture, so as to be thicker water. Not much going on in the aroma, and the taste is a bit empty....

Put short, it's a high from something other than caffeine. Broadly speaking, higher quality teas have it, and puerh and sencha are two classes that generally could provide it. Old tea in general...

Retried the Zhizheng Bulang '10. I didn't get choke throat this time. Paid more attention to the flavors. They are pretty good. Going back and thinking about my subconscious, I think the main...

Taochaju DaXueShan '07 yesterday and finishing today. Good stuff, has a wonderful pear note, like the Chen's Thousand Year of the same year.

GN?, I suppose this could be lsd, because it does...

Dang, I gave up on that shu too quickly, then.

Don't worry about the zhizheng stuff. I will try it again and think with Bulang in mind, tho' I will say that it has no hope of being as delicious...

As you can see, I'm a horrible blind taste tester...

A: Gu Ming Xiang Ban Pen 2010 (15g)
B: Mengku Essence of Tea 2010 (15g)
C: Tulin wuliang 2007 (15g)
D: Zhi Zheng Bulang Peak 2010 (15g)
E:...

I would have never guessed that it's LuoShuiDong!

As I was drinking it, I was thinking along comparisons to Feng 2008 XT and the '02 Tai Lian. If this is LuoShuiDong Yiwu, then it's better than...

Sample D: Not too much to say about it. It seems to be another Yiwu that's been wulong'd, and choke throat starts in about 6-7 brews. Not anything like as nasty as that HLH Fall '10 production,...

Tea C, from 2007 offered to me a Xiaguan/Baoyan-like experience. Pleasant, okay body, but a tea you drink to drink tea.