SOTD- sheng of the day
- Thread starter ouch
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This is a great questions and one that I have often wondered about myself.
Hobbes or one of the other members may have greater insight but I will give you my opinion.
First, in a green tea, I think that age is a huge factor. I do not seem to have any stomach problems with a green pu-erh that has 8-10 years age on it. However, many younger green pu-erh will give me a bit of a sour stomach after a session.
Second, and this is only my personal opinion but the difference between plantation and old arbor trees makes a big difference for me. For a 2011 tea harvested from Old Arbor trees, I find very little astringency compared to a plantation tea of the same vintage. One contributing factor for plantation tea and a bit of a sour stomach may be the use of pesticides. I have nothing to definitively link this factor other than my personal experience and comparisons. Pesticides are seldom used on Old Arbor tea trees just as commercial fertilizers are seldom used (an exception may be a large factory that is working an area where old arbor trees are found on a large scale). For more information, feel free to drop me a line either here on via my website.
I think this is less and less true in more recent years. This year in particular we found that a lot (perhaps the majority) of the 2012 maocha we drank in Yunnan showed some signs of pesticide/fertilizer use. These did seem to be genuinely old tree tea and, in some cases, very good quality but the agrochemicals ruined them for us. We had some tested and the lab results matched our suspicions.
I think as the price of old tree tea soars, the local farmers want to take better 'care' of their ancient trees in the same way they've been taught to take 'care' of their plantations. With the thought that perhaps with some fertiliser there might be a few extra kg to their harvest, the idea of using some chemicals seems all the more attractive. Many of them don't view it as a negative thing, or that there's anything wrong with it, after all the fertiliser salesman who came to the village last spring said that it was completely harmless.
Of course this is a broad generalisation. Not everyone thinks this way. Unfortunately, there does seem to be an increasing amount of areas affected by the use of agrochemicals though.
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Hailang - 2006 "Jin Hailang" from YS .... light, tip-of-tongue tingly ... takes a good steeping (about 20-30s)
Will be in London soon...wish i could have some tea with Hobbes... but anyone else in London?
Postcard teas is worth a visit.
100% agree with this, and think it is a warranted generalization.
Interest in money over quality (and that general mode of business practice) comes up fairly often in my day to day. As long as "old arbor" is expensive and sought after, the use of pesticides/fertilizers will grow in tandem.
SOTD: '95 Che Shun Hao from Marshaln's taobao recommendation. Quite drinkable for the price tag of 168 rmb. Tons of random crap in the cake, hair, bits of plastic binding, seeds, a rock; but for a '95 cake at that price you can not be too uppity. Nice aged taste. The cake is a bit inconsistent, sessions have varied a lot, but are generally pretty enjoyable. Nice cake with age that need not be treated as precious.
I write as one who has a forest of "organic" moso bamboo. I wouldn't be in too great a hurry to condemn agrochemicals, even on tea. Which chemicals are used and in what quantities are factors that need to be considered. I would also be careful of the snobbish and very urban assumption that the farmers are greedy and desperate or that they are ignorant people who cave in to pressure from Big Agro. Many of these farmers could be very experienced, knowledgeable and conscientious - who nonetheless have to plant their feet in either mud or dust every day.
My reasons for being organic are my own. I am boundlessly grateful for the synthetic products and chemicals which enrich every portion of my life, every minute of my life. I am also boundlessly skeptical of sales pitches, whether by Big Agro or Big Enviro. I didn't need to spend money on chemicals to get the delicious shoots I'm presently harvesting, nor do I think an ancient species like moso needs to be given masses of nitrogen to do its phenomenal spring growth thing (zero to 100 foot in seven weeks). Just remember that the icky, earnest guy with the ponytail who is wanting to sell you some hugely overpriced natural "improvers" to help with your organic accreditation (slight fee!) is just as much in business as the guy in the suit.
My own hope is that we ditch the fetishism, remove the dividing line between "natural" and "synthetic" - and just start being nicer to soils, plants and animals while continuing to eat, drink and make that all-important money.
My reasons for being organic are my own. I am boundlessly grateful for the synthetic products and chemicals which enrich every portion of my life, every minute of my life. I am also boundlessly skeptical of sales pitches, whether by Big Agro or Big Enviro. I didn't need to spend money on chemicals to get the delicious shoots I'm presently harvesting, nor do I think an ancient species like moso needs to be given masses of nitrogen to do its phenomenal spring growth thing (zero to 100 foot in seven weeks). Just remember that the icky, earnest guy with the ponytail who is wanting to sell you some hugely overpriced natural "improvers" to help with your organic accreditation (slight fee!) is just as much in business as the guy in the suit.
My own hope is that we ditch the fetishism, remove the dividing line between "natural" and "synthetic" - and just start being nicer to soils, plants and animals while continuing to eat, drink and make that all-important money.
Sotd: 2000 Banna stored cnnp green mark from norbu tea. This is a good little tea. I really am impressed with the storage. Most of the time if the tea is not from HK or Taiwan the tea is either to wet to dry or too funky. This tea was storred very well. It has no detectable mustiness. The tea itself is not amazing but there are no huge faults. It is very sweet and already goods light aged taste. Slight hints of hong cha pop up from time to time. It seems to be more similar to loose aged sheng. This could be due to the light compression of the cake. If this cake was a little bit cheaper I could see myself getting a cake or two as it could serve a similar function to the 90s small yellow cnnp 7532 aka every day aged sheng.
Yesterday's SOTD was the 2007 XZH Huang Shan Lin (荒山林
- While this tea is light in flavor it still has an interesting taste and mouthfeel. It also has a fairly strong qi but one which I find to be fairly calming relative to some other high qi puerh. While I don't know that this will be a good tea to age much more, it is certainly very good for drinking now. Oh, it was very durable as well.
- While this tea is light in flavor it still has an interesting taste and mouthfeel. It also has a fairly strong qi but one which I find to be fairly calming relative to some other high qi puerh. While I don't know that this will be a good tea to age much more, it is certainly very good for drinking now. Oh, it was very durable as well.
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2012 Chawangpu Jingmai Da Zhai - that's a pretty good thing! Of course it's young and all, also slightly limited in taste spectrum, but there is a very good gushu sweetness, it's thick and given the gushu origins, rich in taste. Qi is one of the best things about this one. A fun tea overall.
" 92 Yi wu spring buds" 80s 7532 six grams in a 75 ml 80s pear shaped Zini pot. Excellent Mouthfeel and cha qi. I used a different water than normal (fiji) . It cuts dims some of the higher notes of the tea but really improves the aftertaste and mouthfeel. The taste of this 7532 evolves nicely over the session. I think that I would prefer a similar aged 7542 but this tea might have stronger cha qi.
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SOTD: 2008 Taochaju Laoman'e - Yesterday after biking around in the rain/snow, my throat was a bit rough. I chose this as a remedy. This cake is fresh out of storage, much darker than the previous cakes which had been in Beijing for half a year or more. The soup is a dark red brown. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was well before 2008. Deep, rich, bitter, coating the throat.
Last few days sessions beginning with today:
'10 Nadacha bangwei. On the plus side of an average performance. The qi is a bit less than usual, and more body focused. The thickness was better than normal. The taste is humble and filling. Generally moistening.
'06 XZH Youle. Not as good as it could be. Flavor is quieter than it usually is. A little thin. A good session rather than mindblowing.
'02 Tai Lian International. Aired this one out and got an excellent session, was better than the Youle the next day--especially in thick and good texture in soup. Didn't have to be very loud to match Youle.
'06 Taipei Jincha. Used an internal chunk that's very chopped and dusty. Soup was still clear, and it was really nicely thick and moist. Flavor wasn't great, and qi about the same. Late session very pleasantly sweet.
'10 Nadacha bangwei. On the plus side of an average performance. The qi is a bit less than usual, and more body focused. The thickness was better than normal. The taste is humble and filling. Generally moistening.
'06 XZH Youle. Not as good as it could be. Flavor is quieter than it usually is. A little thin. A good session rather than mindblowing.
'02 Tai Lian International. Aired this one out and got an excellent session, was better than the Youle the next day--especially in thick and good texture in soup. Didn't have to be very loud to match Youle.
'06 Taipei Jincha. Used an internal chunk that's very chopped and dusty. Soup was still clear, and it was really nicely thick and moist. Flavor wasn't great, and qi about the same. Late session very pleasantly sweet.
I need to keep better control over my home brew. I ended up dumping what was in the jar after this last session. It was a mix of some mid-aged wet storage stuff and some really young sheng. The combination tasted waxy and harsh. I only made it a few steeps before giving up.
SOTD: Revisited this 2010(? forget, maybe younger) Naka that I got off Taobao for $3 for the sake of writing a blog post. It's pretty dirty, the soup clairty refuses to improve until the session is almost over and all the junk has been washed away. Fruity in the gaiwan, and a little kuwei around, but not much else. Not sure what I expected for $3? Probably lincang/lancang material? No idea really. Funny cake - at least it looks kind of attractive!
Celebrated Obama's win with some 2006 YQH Gushu Chawang. Lots of qi, as expected, but not quite so much as usual and not so hard. Lots of sensation in the back of the mouth and throat, plenty of huigans. Some choke throat (felt like an extra, and very small, adams apple), which is partly allergies, I think, but the tea was pretty active there though. Soup was thin, but the texture had lots of sticky robustness and silk smoothness. The aroma was quite nice and full. The taste was fuller than usual (lots of tobacco in top taste), which made observing all the subtle thing that goes on in earlier brews harder to taste. Small bitterness with a little tartness wrapped around it. After the usual collapse, that extra fullness helped maintain a good performance, and there were a few more brews with a strong cherry aspect in aroma, taste, and aftertaste. There were lots of pleasantly mild and menghai sweet plain brews afterwards. Wasn't great in terms of opportunity costs when I bought these, but they were definitely worth the money, especially as something that seems like it will be very good in another ten years. YQH really likes very tight compression of their cakes, pretty iron.
Red Lantern Tea has raised prices for their notable tea. For example, the ChenShengHao '08 LBZ is now almost $700. YYX is $268. 2005 Dayi 7542 is $150. Essentially anything that was good and attached to name recognition got price rises.
Red Lantern Tea has raised prices for their notable tea. For example, the ChenShengHao '08 LBZ is now almost $700. YYX is $268. 2005 Dayi 7542 is $150. Essentially anything that was good and attached to name recognition got price rises.
