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SOTD- sheng of the day

05 Changtai Mansa and Mangzhi -

Just enough between the two for a full session. Turns out they go quite well together.
 
Dipped into my private reserve of 2009 Summit Tea Company Purple Bud. This is extremely smooth and has none of the medicinal taste that I have found in other purple bud teas I have tried. Way to start the day!
 
blend of YQH '05 and XZH '07 Yiwu 3:4. It was good. The sourness that I got from the first YQH brew popped up, and the funky behavior of the flavor that I got from the first YQH brew also showed. That tended to dominate what the XZH brought to the table. Overall, only a little better than the taipei jincha, especially earlier on... Also not very durable.
 
06 Long Yuan Hao - Spring Buds Ye Sheng Gu Cha brick

Seems more like plantation tea. Fairly pleasant to drink flavor wise, but quite drying on the tongue and throat. Probably needs some humid storage to be good...or something.
 
bad session with YS Bang ma, which was too watery earlier, then a session with XZH Youle, which was weaker than usual, some later brews had nice camphor.
 
Menghai bulang 2003. Was subtle as usual, but stronger flavored than that last youle try. Used broken bits and fannings from the bottom of the tin, and got fairly strong camphor in the latter half of the session. Qi was okay, but next to the youle's typical Dr. Jerkyl potion ways...
 
Dipped into my private reserve of 2009 Summit Tea Company Purple Bud. This is extremely smooth and has none of the medicinal taste that I have found in other purple bud teas I have tried. Way to start the day!

How does it compare to a typical young sheng?
 
Had '10 Mansai yesterday. Decided to think that it has improved enough to consider it the best of the '10s for my needs. I loved the bitter, as usual. The tea is giving me actual huigans now, instead of just throat taste/sense. It is also lasting much longer, with changes in flavor themes. Early in the session is much the usual set of flavors. Then a kind of leathery camphor flavor shows up for a bunch of brews, and lastly a different kind of gently sweet taste finishes it off.

Dug out the '06 XZH Nannuo maocha. Very fragmented material on account that it was bottom of the bag. Is fairly bitter early on, strong juniper taste, a hint of nice yun. Decently complex, and not too oolongly. This sort of thing easily beats the Nadacha '10 Nannuo, but is more of a tie with the '11. XZH has more bitter oomph, more complexity in flavor. Nadacha has sweetness and dense taste, thicker and silkier liquid, and much more durable. Both have the same qualities as far as qi is concerned. Where the Guafengzhai is already complex, the test of value for the '11 Nadacha Nannuo is definitely whether aging promotes more complexity in the flavor, with enough oomph to be more than frills.
 
Today I had the 2005 Douji Red Yiwu from YS. This is the more recently listed 2005 Red; the one Scott describes as more flavorful. It did have some noticeable age to it. The brewed soup was light brown. It was clearly not stored only in Kunming. The tea was almost the same from steep to steep - a solid "tea" flavor if that makes sense. It had only mild bitterness. It didn't offer much in the way of complexity. The qi was light and uplifting but short-lived. This would be an ok everyday tea. However I will not buy more than just this sample.

Next, also from YS, I had the 2006 Douji Yiwu Wild Arbor King. This tea was rather different from the prior. It shoes little sign of aging and was slightly smokey. It had a bit of sweetness to it as well. It may have had slightly more complexity but I can't say it was any more than "just ok".

A few days ago I had the 2004 Yunnan Treasure that was recently listed at Bana Tea. This tea showed almost no sign of age so it appears to have been fairly dry stored. The tea was very floral. It could become bitter if over brewed, like any young sheng. The qi was rather powerful. I quite enjoyed this tea and ordered a cake. The current 15% off sale helped.
 
Today I had the 2005 Douji Red Yiwu from YS. This is the more recently listed 2005 Red; the one Scott describes as more flavorful. It did have some noticeable age to it. The brewed soup was light brown. It was clearly not stored only in Kunming. The tea was almost the same from steep to steep - a solid "tea" flavor if that makes sense. It had only mild bitterness. It didn't offer much in the way of complexity. The qi was light and uplifting but short-lived. This would be an ok everyday tea. However I will not buy more than just this sample.

I tried that one two days ago and agree. Its nice but I'm not sure its worth its price for me.

2009 Menghai 7542 901 - Nice enough but nothing special. I'm loosing my taste for chopped leaf puerh.
 
SOTD: My first time trying the 2006 LongPa Mountain (龍帕山) from Wistaria (about $80 for the cake). In appearance, the cake has noticeable age to it. This is also reflected in the taste. The cake clearly tastes aged but has no wet storage flavor to it at all. Perhaps this would be Taiwan dry-storage? In tasting the tea I felt a bit like I was channeling shah8 since I tasted cherry under some light wood! I enjoyed the taste of this tea. It also had a dryness to it but not offensibly so. The infusions were fairly consistent but the cherry flavor faded a bit after the first 4 or so infusions. I have to say though that I really didn't feel any qi. The durability was ok but not outstanding. I feel like perhaps I could have used more leaf than the 5.5 gms in the 125 ml Dayi gaiwan (at work). I think I'll try that next time.

I believe LongPa is in the You Le area. I found something from YS that states LongPa is a village on YouLe Mountain. I don't claim to know anything about the geography.
 
SOTD: XZH 2009 Jin Xuan (Golden Brick) - half Yiwu, half LBZ - from a sample. This is my second time trying this tea. The first time it struck me as rather lacking in flavor (or anything else for that matter). This time around it fared better but I won't be buying a brick ($145 now). The dry leaf doesn't look like it has much age but for some reason the soup is slightly brown, not the yellow of a green sheng. The tea had more flavor this time but it was not like a typical young sheng; it was more mellow and was not that bitter at all. The flavor was on the lighter side and hard for me to describe. I couldn't pull out all the flavors noted in the description. I did feel that the tea was rather drying to the inside of my mouth. I did not feel any qi really which was a disappointment since I thought that was the point of LBZ. Oh well...it is probably just as well that this $145/brick tea didn't wow me.
 
Betcha anything that the brick made with leaves harvested earlier than '08. Probably not the best of the best either--I think the LongFeng '07 uses old leaves from Youle, like the ones in my cake, and Bulang, and that one has to be substantially spiced up to par with fresh Hekai tips. There just isn't the oomph in that sucker that you would expect. Using the leftovers to make shu is a much better idea.

SotD was Mansai '10. Was what it normally is, which was interesting. Last time was with celadon gaiwan, using more loose leaves. This time it was in the tokoname pot with a single chunk. I suspect that for all that it's easier to enjoy than Nada's Bulang, it also really needs time as well.

Yesterday was Secret Fragrance sheng. Not too rough, was extra fruity, developement into floral taste in the latter brew didn't happen. Still was very enjoyable.
 
2006 Douji "Organic Old Tree" Raw Pu-erh tea of Yi Wu mountain

Wood and loads of camphor. A little bit of aged taste but no sign of any storage flavors. Not the holy grail...but solid stuff.
 
I finished off my sample of that HLH Yiwu. It wasn't very good, even before the crash. Good thing I didn't care by then...

I found an ice pick. keeeeewwl. Skipped the puerh-knife and used that on the tuocha tight center of the Tai Lian. Managed a few chunks instead of powder. More or less satisfying as usual, with the note that the huigans were enthusiastic and complex-flavored in the throat.

I'm good now...
 
8g of 2001 7542 dust and fannings. Not too much wet hay, especially earlier on. More wood. Definitely has had some traditional storage because the flavors are distinctly more rounded compared to other 7542. Not much at all, though, the fannings were still bitter, and some brews were pretty rough. Given my smidgen more experience with slightly aged tea, the I think that the flavors are pretty dense and a bit lacking in complexity in all that lumbering around. Strong aroma, which is pleasantly woody. All in all, a pretty big contrast to the Tai Lian, which is a bit lighter, bitter to the front of the tongue instead of the back, less basic woody flavors, and aroma is more interesting and ethereal instead of overtly pleasant. This 7542 isn't all that much better than the Tai Lian in overall quality/promise of quality.
 
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