SotD: 1980s CNNP, with thanks to the generous Mr. HC for the sample. Just the ticket: rich, warming, and yet still potent.
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
SOTD- sheng of the day
- Thread starter ouch
- Start date
Yesterday 2004 Chang Tai Yi Chang Hao Ji Feng Yuan from Houde. Not a very potent tea. It has a unique spicey flavor which Guang points out accurately in his description. Pleasant enough I think this one will require further investigation .
Also more of the 80's loose large leaf very nice stuff wish it was for sale. This is still going strong this mourning. this one will probably drag into a four day sesion at least.
Today 97 orange in orange this time I used virtually none of the bud laden surface in the pot and the tea was very different. Much more mellow still with the herby aroma but it did not transfer into the taste. Still good stuff but not great. I think that I should start breaking up sections of my recipe cakes and storing in jars before use to get a more even blend. I believe that is the way the recipe cakes are intended to be consumed anyway.
Also more of the 80's loose large leaf very nice stuff wish it was for sale. This is still going strong this mourning. this one will probably drag into a four day sesion at least.
Today 97 orange in orange this time I used virtually none of the bud laden surface in the pot and the tea was very different. Much more mellow still with the herby aroma but it did not transfer into the taste. Still good stuff but not great. I think that I should start breaking up sections of my recipe cakes and storing in jars before use to get a more even blend. I believe that is the way the recipe cakes are intended to be consumed anyway.
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Good tea day today...
1) '10 Yongxueshan. Mostly leaf with little dust. Delicious, a bit hard on the tummy. Fairly smooth for something of its origins.
2) 2003 Menghai pressed Bulang Boutique. Mostly like a bit more floral Banzhang, and lighter. Strong aroma, complex taste, and strong qi, which was good with the Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and Hiromi Uehara Jazz in the Garden album. Good texture and reasonable thickness. Late infusions are slightly Man'E-ish. Lasts many, many infusions. I'm not sure I like this more than I do Tai Lian, but I certainly like this more than I do 2003 Wistaria Tuo. This is the tea I've had throughout my Puerh journey. I chewed my first puerh leaf, dry, with one of those leaves, and latered brewed a western brew. I laugh at my naiveté in the beginning, and after I had first gotten this bing. I've wasted plenty of tea, I think...
1) '10 Yongxueshan. Mostly leaf with little dust. Delicious, a bit hard on the tummy. Fairly smooth for something of its origins.
2) 2003 Menghai pressed Bulang Boutique. Mostly like a bit more floral Banzhang, and lighter. Strong aroma, complex taste, and strong qi, which was good with the Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and Hiromi Uehara Jazz in the Garden album. Good texture and reasonable thickness. Late infusions are slightly Man'E-ish. Lasts many, many infusions. I'm not sure I like this more than I do Tai Lian, but I certainly like this more than I do 2003 Wistaria Tuo. This is the tea I've had throughout my Puerh journey. I chewed my first puerh leaf, dry, with one of those leaves, and latered brewed a western brew. I laugh at my naiveté in the beginning, and after I had first gotten this bing. I've wasted plenty of tea, I think...
Polished off a 2008 Xiaguan FT Nan Zhau Yu sample.
SOTD: 2009 CGHT YiWu ChaWang - I feel like I am *trying* to like this tea but it just isn't happening. I mean it isn't bad but I find it very non-descript. I had it yesterday also and tried to write something about it then but I felt like it had left no impression. I do not sense the fruitiness that Guang mentioned; I do think I would appreciate that. It is slow to get started and then has some decent bitterness but not much overt taste, complexity or mouthfeel. Oh well.
Over the weekend I had some other HouDe samples. The 90s Menghai brick is certainly rather good but the price is rather steep for what it is. That said, prices of aged teas have sky-rocketed lately so maybe this is now the fair market price for something like this. Although the tea had the smell of some fairly wet storage, it wasn't reflected in the taste which was rather like that of a very aged tea with no sharpness left. The tea did not have much bitterness. It had a distinctive flavor that I associate with fairly old, well-aged sheng; perhaps this is what Guang means by red date flavor. I also had the 2003 Yiwu brick which had a much sharper, younger taste. It had some camphor taste in it and was somewhat drying. It actually reminded me of a somewhat rougher 2000 Lan Yin Tie Beeng or the '98 brick from Taiwan I have.
I also had the XZH 2007 Jingmai sample again. I didn't notice any roughness this time. I didn't find it to be as floral and fruity as the description suggested but it was a decent enough tea nonetheless.
Over the weekend I had some other HouDe samples. The 90s Menghai brick is certainly rather good but the price is rather steep for what it is. That said, prices of aged teas have sky-rocketed lately so maybe this is now the fair market price for something like this. Although the tea had the smell of some fairly wet storage, it wasn't reflected in the taste which was rather like that of a very aged tea with no sharpness left. The tea did not have much bitterness. It had a distinctive flavor that I associate with fairly old, well-aged sheng; perhaps this is what Guang means by red date flavor. I also had the 2003 Yiwu brick which had a much sharper, younger taste. It had some camphor taste in it and was somewhat drying. It actually reminded me of a somewhat rougher 2000 Lan Yin Tie Beeng or the '98 brick from Taiwan I have.
I also had the XZH 2007 Jingmai sample again. I didn't notice any roughness this time. I didn't find it to be as floral and fruity as the description suggested but it was a decent enough tea nonetheless.
Yesterday
pu-erh.sk 2010 Gaoshan Yummmy. To bad they only offer samples of this stuff. 8 grams in 120 ml gaiwan nice comfortable qi. complex flavors that have a slight creaminess to them ranging from orchid to granny smith apple a gentle huigan. I would recomend pickking up a sample of this if you ever order there. I can see similarities to the yunnan sourcings autumn Gao shan zhi but they are not really in the same league.
Today.
EOT 2010 Manmai decent as always and
Pu-erh.sk 2011 Manzhuan I used the whole ten gram sample in the 12
This is another good one. Nice whole well cared for leaves with some large healthy looking buds. chocolate and citrus dance around fading in and out. Good mouthfeel a little active and very thick. A healthy ku kicks in around infusion five. The major draw back of this tea compared with the yibang and gao shan is the lack of a strong Qi even with using more leaf than the gao shan. But this tea has enough going for it to still be well worth the 60 some bucks for a whole bing.
I figure I should throw this out to as I seem to be going through all their 2011 cakes I tried pu-erh.sk Mansa a over the weekend. This tea was decent I thought it was better than the Mannuo and I would be happy to have a cake of this. but I didn;t think that it was on par with the Yibang or Manzhuan. Of course This could be My personal preference for a different flavor profile or also depending on my mood and brewing that day as I only have enough for one pot each.
pu-erh.sk 2010 Gaoshan Yummmy. To bad they only offer samples of this stuff. 8 grams in 120 ml gaiwan nice comfortable qi. complex flavors that have a slight creaminess to them ranging from orchid to granny smith apple a gentle huigan. I would recomend pickking up a sample of this if you ever order there. I can see similarities to the yunnan sourcings autumn Gao shan zhi but they are not really in the same league.
Today.
EOT 2010 Manmai decent as always and
Pu-erh.sk 2011 Manzhuan I used the whole ten gram sample in the 12
This is another good one. Nice whole well cared for leaves with some large healthy looking buds. chocolate and citrus dance around fading in and out. Good mouthfeel a little active and very thick. A healthy ku kicks in around infusion five. The major draw back of this tea compared with the yibang and gao shan is the lack of a strong Qi even with using more leaf than the gao shan. But this tea has enough going for it to still be well worth the 60 some bucks for a whole bing.
I figure I should throw this out to as I seem to be going through all their 2011 cakes I tried pu-erh.sk Mansa a over the weekend. This tea was decent I thought it was better than the Mannuo and I would be happy to have a cake of this. but I didn;t think that it was on par with the Yibang or Manzhuan. Of course This could be My personal preference for a different flavor profile or also depending on my mood and brewing that day as I only have enough for one pot each.
'06 SE Memorial...More broad in flavor than it usually is, but the session proved to be short-lived.
Just a note that
1) I'm trying out that sampletea site
2) Jing Tea Shop has new puerh in I don't know how long. Some Fu Hai brick from 2000, and the Xiaguan 2011 version of the 2006 Dayi JinSeXiang. The classic 2002 Kunming 7581 is offered as well.
Just a note that
1) I'm trying out that sampletea site
2) Jing Tea Shop has new puerh in I don't know how long. Some Fu Hai brick from 2000, and the Xiaguan 2011 version of the 2006 Dayi JinSeXiang. The classic 2002 Kunming 7581 is offered as well.
SE Memorial in the morning, mostly as usual, gives out quick.
An exceptional session with the Tai Lian. The early rounds were extremely sweet, as in sweetened, like the Puersom Yibang but sweeter, with honey, florals, purplish fruits, and gentle tobacco with sharp acidic ku holding it up. Medium thickness with good texture...only enough astringency to get velvety, and usually not drying. Wasn't all that dissimilar to drinking heated honeysuckle nectar. Easy mildly relaxing qi, accompanied by The Robert Glasper Trio, Double Booked. Good puerh and good, relatively spacious and complex, jazz goes together like chocolate and peanut butter. The session deepened with a little camphor and rubber as it went on. Drank about 15 brews of this, and could have gone further. This sort of tea is definitely of the lite sort personified by the YQH '04.
Seriously, if you're braving those steep shipping costs at YS, you really should be getting at least one of these with the rest of your order. This is obviously and blatantly underpriced for what it is. Very conservatively, it's $20 less than it should be. Conservatively, it's more like $60. If one compares either to good Xiaguan or good HeShihua of that era, never mind Yuanyexiang, it's obviously really, really cheap. In 2006, this was a 180RMB tea, very expensive for that time. In 2009, 320 RMB, a touch less than what Scott was selling it for in 2010. Just got orphaned from a marketing standpoint. There are some issues. First, this tea really, really, really, needs to be away from Kunming for awhile--when I first got my first bing, I was much more "meh" about yellow soup, only being impressed by the complex fragrance. In the same vein, getting the best out of this tea requires separating out the leaves and letting it wake up over two weeks or more. ChillMax, for example, I think happens when you have relatively more broken leaf, and it's been sitting in a tin for a month. Second, you need the bing, and not samples to evaluate. The center of the bing is Xiaguan tight, and is mostly smaller leaf fragments, but gives much more consistent brews. The outer half of the bing has more big leaf fragments (the big leaves are usually about 2 inches long), and just much more variable in brews. You can have a tobacco heavy tea, rubber heavy tea, or honey heavy tea. There might be cooling, might not. The amount and consistency of camphor varies. Sometimes you can miss, other times you can hit a home run, like today for me. I no longer think that there is any Bulang in this tea, because complexity is almost all through layered flavors and coating, and not from changes in the mouth. What I think it has is Bingdao area Mengku (that kind of sugary sweetness + tobacco?) with big, very yesheng thin leaves, Jingmai (stereotypical honey and floral flavors, but unusually low levels of dark tastes--maybe not aged enough, given that the small leaves are still pretty green), and wild-type Snowy Mountains Lincang delivering fruit and potency, in ultra-thick medium size leaves. Lots and lots of popping veins on the non-small leaves.
An exceptional session with the Tai Lian. The early rounds were extremely sweet, as in sweetened, like the Puersom Yibang but sweeter, with honey, florals, purplish fruits, and gentle tobacco with sharp acidic ku holding it up. Medium thickness with good texture...only enough astringency to get velvety, and usually not drying. Wasn't all that dissimilar to drinking heated honeysuckle nectar. Easy mildly relaxing qi, accompanied by The Robert Glasper Trio, Double Booked. Good puerh and good, relatively spacious and complex, jazz goes together like chocolate and peanut butter. The session deepened with a little camphor and rubber as it went on. Drank about 15 brews of this, and could have gone further. This sort of tea is definitely of the lite sort personified by the YQH '04.
Seriously, if you're braving those steep shipping costs at YS, you really should be getting at least one of these with the rest of your order. This is obviously and blatantly underpriced for what it is. Very conservatively, it's $20 less than it should be. Conservatively, it's more like $60. If one compares either to good Xiaguan or good HeShihua of that era, never mind Yuanyexiang, it's obviously really, really cheap. In 2006, this was a 180RMB tea, very expensive for that time. In 2009, 320 RMB, a touch less than what Scott was selling it for in 2010. Just got orphaned from a marketing standpoint. There are some issues. First, this tea really, really, really, needs to be away from Kunming for awhile--when I first got my first bing, I was much more "meh" about yellow soup, only being impressed by the complex fragrance. In the same vein, getting the best out of this tea requires separating out the leaves and letting it wake up over two weeks or more. ChillMax, for example, I think happens when you have relatively more broken leaf, and it's been sitting in a tin for a month. Second, you need the bing, and not samples to evaluate. The center of the bing is Xiaguan tight, and is mostly smaller leaf fragments, but gives much more consistent brews. The outer half of the bing has more big leaf fragments (the big leaves are usually about 2 inches long), and just much more variable in brews. You can have a tobacco heavy tea, rubber heavy tea, or honey heavy tea. There might be cooling, might not. The amount and consistency of camphor varies. Sometimes you can miss, other times you can hit a home run, like today for me. I no longer think that there is any Bulang in this tea, because complexity is almost all through layered flavors and coating, and not from changes in the mouth. What I think it has is Bingdao area Mengku (that kind of sugary sweetness + tobacco?) with big, very yesheng thin leaves, Jingmai (stereotypical honey and floral flavors, but unusually low levels of dark tastes--maybe not aged enough, given that the small leaves are still pretty green), and wild-type Snowy Mountains Lincang delivering fruit and potency, in ultra-thick medium size leaves. Lots and lots of popping veins on the non-small leaves.
No SOTD! Yesterday I had a sample of the 2011 Treasures from Five Mountains which was from Bana Tea. I quite enjoyed it - good aroma and taste (a greener, floral sheng) with good mouthfeel and pretty durable. I then tried a couple of samples from Sunsing - the 2011 Mahei and the 2011 Yiwu Luo Shui Dong. One was spring and one was autumn but I can't remember which was which and I see Sunsing offers a spring and autumn of each. In any case, I found both to be rather light and watery without any noticeable mouthfeel. They were underwhelming, especially for the price of around $90.
It's shaping up to be a good day, set in a good week. Called for the 2003-ish Xiaguan Te Ji tuo. I am not disappointed, though it does seem to lack the characteristic snarl that my younger Xiaguan tuos exhibit. Just as densely packed, of course.
It was not dated when it was given to me, but it has a date stamp of '03 on it. I'm guessing it's '03 material for an '04 release, but could be '02 material for an '03 release.
It was not dated when it was given to me, but it has a date stamp of '03 on it. I'm guessing it's '03 material for an '04 release, but could be '02 material for an '03 release.
SOTD: EoT 2010 Bangwai - Haven't had this in awhile and it seems to have aged a bit. This no longer has the aroma of a very green sheng and the soup is just slightly more orange now. The tea seemed a bit smoky this time as well. The mouthfeel was good but different from some of the better sheng I have had lately. The durability was good and I could feel the qi a bit.
2 shengs of the day...
An unusually enjoyable session with the 2006 SE Memorial. Always tin any puerh you're going to drink often!
Took out my 2005 Mengsong Peacock. I'd say it's like the 2004 Changtai Jifengyuan. Differences, well, it's very bitter in the first few brews. It's more compact and complex (much like the 2010 YS Yongxueshan is more compact and complex compared to the 2011 YS Mushucha's broad goodness). Much more qi. The woody taste has a more floral element to it, that makes it feel refined, in a different way than the usual camphor. Sorta like aged Nannuo, but floral and not herby. The vanilla-y transformation has sneaky fruit subtones. Not much wet-storage, but the texture is a touch more thin than expected (not to the point of giving offense). Some gushu cooling in the back of the mouth, and coating that perfumes the mouth a bit. Decent enough durability. This is basically the sort of tea Hobbes loves, but he generally seems to love aged Mengsong area teas. I will say that people should probably listen to the tiger when he sez that 2007 Boyou Mengsong is worth having. One of the things I have noticed is that 2005 Dayi Mengsong peacocks are extremely rare online. Right now, only a single Taobao outfit sells it, and I have yet to be able to google an alternative place online (other than buying the full set of 5 for $400+ dollars, more than the 2006 set that HouDe sells, at another Taobao place). I suspect this one has been quietly snapped up and waiting for a propitious time to be sold at high markups.
An unusually enjoyable session with the 2006 SE Memorial. Always tin any puerh you're going to drink often!
Took out my 2005 Mengsong Peacock. I'd say it's like the 2004 Changtai Jifengyuan. Differences, well, it's very bitter in the first few brews. It's more compact and complex (much like the 2010 YS Yongxueshan is more compact and complex compared to the 2011 YS Mushucha's broad goodness). Much more qi. The woody taste has a more floral element to it, that makes it feel refined, in a different way than the usual camphor. Sorta like aged Nannuo, but floral and not herby. The vanilla-y transformation has sneaky fruit subtones. Not much wet-storage, but the texture is a touch more thin than expected (not to the point of giving offense). Some gushu cooling in the back of the mouth, and coating that perfumes the mouth a bit. Decent enough durability. This is basically the sort of tea Hobbes loves, but he generally seems to love aged Mengsong area teas. I will say that people should probably listen to the tiger when he sez that 2007 Boyou Mengsong is worth having. One of the things I have noticed is that 2005 Dayi Mengsong peacocks are extremely rare online. Right now, only a single Taobao outfit sells it, and I have yet to be able to google an alternative place online (other than buying the full set of 5 for $400+ dollars, more than the 2006 set that HouDe sells, at another Taobao place). I suspect this one has been quietly snapped up and waiting for a propitious time to be sold at high markups.
- Thread starter
- #5,613
2005 XG Cang Er tuo.
Boy, is this getting good.
Boy, is this getting good.
I'm very glad to hear that. It was a punishing cup the last time I tried it!
SOTD: XZH 2011 DianGu TieBing (iron cake) - (http://www.sanhetang.com.tw/product.aspx?productid=1298)
This tea is fairly bitter but has a good underlying fruitiness which produces some nice huigan. In fact I would say that this is probably the most bitter young sheng I've had in some time. Like other young XZH sheng, the liquor is slightly orange. Also, it doesn't have that very green young sheng taste that is found in Nada's cakes and most YS cakes. This seems to be a "signature" of XZH sheng. I don't know if it comes from just slightly more oxidation or some other type of processing.
The qi from this tea was quite nice - energizing but not causing jitteriness. It was also quite durable.
This tea is fairly bitter but has a good underlying fruitiness which produces some nice huigan. In fact I would say that this is probably the most bitter young sheng I've had in some time. Like other young XZH sheng, the liquor is slightly orange. Also, it doesn't have that very green young sheng taste that is found in Nada's cakes and most YS cakes. This seems to be a "signature" of XZH sheng. I don't know if it comes from just slightly more oxidation or some other type of processing.
The qi from this tea was quite nice - energizing but not causing jitteriness. It was also quite durable.
SE Memorial today.
Finally found Bingdao on a map. Also found, by accident, where Mengsa actually is, I think. Bingdao is north of Mengkuzhen, in that little attic corner between two large mountains, the western being the Mengku area of Daxueshan. The area is actually not particularly close to other tea growing areas. The Bangma area of Snowy Mountains is almost as close to it as Benuo, and it's actually to the west of Lincang city when I thought it was in the east, somewheres around Bangdongxiang. Mengsazhen is definitly Snowy Mountains, though I think that's where the maocha gets collected, and not the actual tree areas. It's directly northeast of Gengma.
There was also a sad thread on the teabbs.zjol site about the ecological destruction around Lao Banzhang, with pictures of forests burning and stuff...
Finally found Bingdao on a map. Also found, by accident, where Mengsa actually is, I think. Bingdao is north of Mengkuzhen, in that little attic corner between two large mountains, the western being the Mengku area of Daxueshan. The area is actually not particularly close to other tea growing areas. The Bangma area of Snowy Mountains is almost as close to it as Benuo, and it's actually to the west of Lincang city when I thought it was in the east, somewheres around Bangdongxiang. Mengsazhen is definitly Snowy Mountains, though I think that's where the maocha gets collected, and not the actual tree areas. It's directly northeast of Gengma.
There was also a sad thread on the teabbs.zjol site about the ecological destruction around Lao Banzhang, with pictures of forests burning and stuff...
Shengs of the Previous Evening: Xing Hai 2005 Bulang Private Production & Chang Tai 2004-2005 Bulang
Both have changed in appearance, growing much darker since I bought them as nascent beengs. The XH is uniformly dark green, while the CT has a few lighter buds in the mix. I recall that I wrote the XH was almost too powerful to drink new, but I added that if I were younger, I would buy a lot of it. That was idiotic; I should have bought a lot of it then. I bought two, one to nibble and one to set back. The CT, purchased earlier as part of a larger group-buy parcel, is unremembered. Thats odd because it is memorable in the extreme.
After the wash and first infusion, the aroma of the CT is incredibly powerful, almost mentholated (camphor?) Timothy hay, vanilla, oranges, burnt sugar, with some cigar. The fragrance from the cup is delicious and fills the room. Wow. The aroma from the XH is pleasant and perhaps sweeter, but much more subdued.
Impossible not to compare these two purported Bulangs. The XH, which is excellent and still somewhat powerful and starting to age, is subdued and understated relative to the CT. They are aging differentlythe CT retains many aspects of youth while softening on the edges and adding sweet aftertaste. The XH is mellowing over all.
Chang Tai produced products on both the high and low ends, Corvette and Chevette, to serve a big market. Likely that was a mistake, because some customers, tasting only a low-end puer, judged all of Chang Tais products on that one experience. Regards to all, ~grasshopper
Both have changed in appearance, growing much darker since I bought them as nascent beengs. The XH is uniformly dark green, while the CT has a few lighter buds in the mix. I recall that I wrote the XH was almost too powerful to drink new, but I added that if I were younger, I would buy a lot of it. That was idiotic; I should have bought a lot of it then. I bought two, one to nibble and one to set back. The CT, purchased earlier as part of a larger group-buy parcel, is unremembered. Thats odd because it is memorable in the extreme.
After the wash and first infusion, the aroma of the CT is incredibly powerful, almost mentholated (camphor?) Timothy hay, vanilla, oranges, burnt sugar, with some cigar. The fragrance from the cup is delicious and fills the room. Wow. The aroma from the XH is pleasant and perhaps sweeter, but much more subdued.
Impossible not to compare these two purported Bulangs. The XH, which is excellent and still somewhat powerful and starting to age, is subdued and understated relative to the CT. They are aging differentlythe CT retains many aspects of youth while softening on the edges and adding sweet aftertaste. The XH is mellowing over all.
Chang Tai produced products on both the high and low ends, Corvette and Chevette, to serve a big market. Likely that was a mistake, because some customers, tasting only a low-end puer, judged all of Chang Tais products on that one experience. Regards to all, ~grasshopper
MMMMMMMMMMM 05 Yan Qing Hao Yi Wu mmmmmmmmmm . Lots more upfront flavor than normal I wish I had a tong of this.
There are still 06 gushu Cha wangs to be had for $100 wuyi06 at gmail dot com. I believe shipping is twelve bucks in the states.
oh my new blog http://cha-ninja.blogspot.com
There are still 06 gushu Cha wangs to be had for $100 wuyi06 at gmail dot com. I believe shipping is twelve bucks in the states.
oh my new blog http://cha-ninja.blogspot.com
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GN?, some of your vendor blog links have double https, at least on my browser. Also, if you google, you can find that Houde, once upon a time, offered *8* YQH '04 for $368. It's been my impression that the '04 and '05, when it feels like it, are superior teas to some of the classic Yiwus from '99 to '03.
Good tea day today...
The '05 Yieh Sheng had some of that good stuff in, and it was delightfully camphorey, and delivered a mild hit of qi late. Good thickness. Fourth brew left a tremendous dry cup scent.
The '09 XZH Jingmai. It is pink-orange soup now, declining to orange later in the session. Wow. There is little low tobacco and I don't really taste any malt, so hopefully not continuing to black tea. The aroma isn't strong, but it is wonderful. Basically like lavender, but not herby and otherwise completely floral, but that kind of cloth-like floral heavy smell with strong fruit tones underneath. Spent alot of time just smelling it. The main flaw in this tea is that it's not that thick, but the texture is soft, slightly cottony. Cooling on both the tongue and the top of the throat. Excellent qi. Active mouthfeel and ku (everpresent but pleasant bitterness). Only a little roughness/dryness present anymore. Early flavor is citrus and hazelnut skins, with a touch of floral, and with lots of mouthsmell and mouth coatings early on which stuck around for many minutes. Plenty of huigans mid-session. Strong combination of high and low tastes and is reasonably dynamic during the session, with many very strong moments. Not much honey taste, though. The Tailian and this do not taste very much alike, but they do behave pretty similar in terms of how the ku grips and how the liqueur acts in the mouth. The Tai lian gets much thicker and more textured, and it's cooling is much stronger. There is more tobacco and red stone fruits in the taste as well as sheer sweetness, and little nuts or citrus. The aroma has a similar heaviness, but is more complex and interesting rather than deliciously appealing. Less qi. The YS '10 Yibang, I also compared--flavor acts in a similar way, but not as much lower taste, not as much qi, not as much anything. The Puersom Yibang tasted more like normal Banna sheng, with only a little bit of that exotic sensibility of small-leaf puerh. I want to taste other Jingmai, well, other good ones.
Good tea day today...
The '05 Yieh Sheng had some of that good stuff in, and it was delightfully camphorey, and delivered a mild hit of qi late. Good thickness. Fourth brew left a tremendous dry cup scent.
The '09 XZH Jingmai. It is pink-orange soup now, declining to orange later in the session. Wow. There is little low tobacco and I don't really taste any malt, so hopefully not continuing to black tea. The aroma isn't strong, but it is wonderful. Basically like lavender, but not herby and otherwise completely floral, but that kind of cloth-like floral heavy smell with strong fruit tones underneath. Spent alot of time just smelling it. The main flaw in this tea is that it's not that thick, but the texture is soft, slightly cottony. Cooling on both the tongue and the top of the throat. Excellent qi. Active mouthfeel and ku (everpresent but pleasant bitterness). Only a little roughness/dryness present anymore. Early flavor is citrus and hazelnut skins, with a touch of floral, and with lots of mouthsmell and mouth coatings early on which stuck around for many minutes. Plenty of huigans mid-session. Strong combination of high and low tastes and is reasonably dynamic during the session, with many very strong moments. Not much honey taste, though. The Tailian and this do not taste very much alike, but they do behave pretty similar in terms of how the ku grips and how the liqueur acts in the mouth. The Tai lian gets much thicker and more textured, and it's cooling is much stronger. There is more tobacco and red stone fruits in the taste as well as sheer sweetness, and little nuts or citrus. The aroma has a similar heaviness, but is more complex and interesting rather than deliciously appealing. Less qi. The YS '10 Yibang, I also compared--flavor acts in a similar way, but not as much lower taste, not as much qi, not as much anything. The Puersom Yibang tasted more like normal Banna sheng, with only a little bit of that exotic sensibility of small-leaf puerh. I want to taste other Jingmai, well, other good ones.
