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SOTD- sheng of the day

The 90's Bazhong red label, a second half of sample from origin tea. I like the storage of this tea for wet storage. You can taste the damp, musty basement, but it is not overwhelming. If it could calm down a few more years it would be more towards my personal tastes. Fans of HK storage might think it could have been even more wet. The leaves are very robust and healthy, not yielding to a pinch and falling apart only after intense rolling. Some ginseng sort of flavors in the back end of the tea
 
XZH Huangshanlin '07 on account of Labor Day. Overdosed it, going for 7.5g when customary is 6g.

Great aroma, not too strong, but very appealing.
decent body, good texture
light taste, a bit of complexity and aromatic qualities in the mouth. Strong promotion of salivation. Good
Excellent aftertastes, including a few good and deep huigans.
Kneebuckling qi, especially in later brews. Early brews had that settled down quality of aging young qi.
excellent endurance

big flaw is that it's astringent in the throat. The astringency is productive and contributes to the long aftertaste in the throat, but it's not comfortable. It could be oolonged or dry storage, but I think it's just the sheer potency in the throat.

I see that the Essence of Tea's 2008 Bulang cakes are sold out.

GN?, Yangqinghao might take your wish for that Yiwu '99 pressed maocha via the facebook site. Recent price listing of $112/250g tuo. You know it can't be that awesome, but it's probably pretty reasonable, and it certainly has a good chance of being moistly stored, as maocha and as pressed tuo.
 
Well very new to tea in general and tonight was my first time with pu erh. Tonights was a sample size bag of 1990's Rare Wild Arbor that I got through tealux so I don't know if its considered good by you alls standards but if this is what pu erh is all about I am hooked!
 
SOTD: 2006 XZH Lao Ban Zhan Yi-Yan Series - "Yan" (black label) - sample from HouDe. I used 6.6 gms in a 120 ml yixing which I didn't completely fill the first few steepings. I haven't had this tea in awhile but it seemed perfect for a fall-like morning. The first few steepings were pretty sweet. There was some depth to the flavor and the tea seemed rather thick. That said, it wasn't an overly complex tea. It reminded me just a bit of the PuZhen. I think this is an autumn tea - I'm sure shah8 will be able to confirm if it is. This tea had decent endurance and just seemed to fade as the steepings went on, with no changes in taste/complexity. I felt some qi but nothing particularly noteworthy. It is a decent enough tea for sure but I just don't get the current LBZ demand/pricing.

I followed this up with a bit of EoT 2011 Nannuo. This was another sweet tea, although it didn't show the age that the XZH did. Also EoT cakes tend to be on the greener side while XZH are on the darker side, even when new. I found little bitterness in this tea. I enjoyed drinking it but am concerned as to how it might age. Could it just fade away? I recall this having a bit more backbone. Today I just used a few gms in a small gaiwan so maybe that's part of the issue.
 
The 2006 LBZ are either late spring or summer. I tend to think late spring. I think it's complex but the complexity is very delicate. I usually find banzhang sweetening up at the end of the session rather than the beginning, unless you're talking about sweet flavors rather than sensate sweetness. At high dosages, yeah, this tea is pretty thick and textual, lower doses tend to make it thin. At high grams/water, there is more solid taste and less complexity, though, which is one reason I don't really do that. The mouthfeel, qi, and endurance is why I like this tea a lot. As far as reduced qi, yes, I'm finding that all my teas (the Youle of the same age) that approach that age loses a lot of young tea qi, and older, more mellow qi starts coming in (well, if it's any good). The Huangshanlin is still holding on to some of that power, though, but early brews of my last session with that tea also had less powerful qi than usual. The main thing I wish this tea to have (and the 2006 brick does have) is fruit returns in the huigan. I think the black label LBZ is better than the brick, because it's a more broad tea, while the brick is narrow even if potent. What do you think, EdoB?

Yes, I described the Puzhen as tasting a lot like LBZ in making a review on the Houde site. I think, however, that the Puzhen is probably mostly similar to how actual gushu Bingdao is.

My perception about Nada's tea is that he follows a more Mainland approach than Taiwan approach (if he requests the cooking to be done as it has been). It's long since time I tried the Mannuo with a heavy hand. My perception of the Nannuo is that it needed more time. YS Yakou, I've found to be an excellent tea for something mainstream, and aging reasonably well, if rather florally and not maintaining weight.

Since I'm on the Nada bent:
Second try of Daxueshan was dissappointing
Second try of Qishengu was better than the first, and more plummy.
Second try of pesticide tea not as nice as the first try, trying to wash it might have taken some of the better mouth action away as well as the pesticides
Second try of the Wuliang wild sheng was definitely enjoyed and still recommended. A little fruitier, with a hint of honey. Less qi, though

Today I had a most excellent session with the 2nd SE Memorial sheng. Mid 2k made-for-Taiwan tea. Seek it out. Buy it. So often cheap for the quality.

White2tea has a new Bulang for sale with an awesome and unique wrapper.

Despite what it means in terms of price/value ratio, a 2007 Dayi Secret Fragrance sheng was bid up to about $150 on jft4u.com. Suggests a pretty solid floor there. Maybe dayi boom still going on.
 
Friday the thirteenth claimed my 80's handmade Lao zhuni pot . So I'm drowning my sorrows in a pot of 1996 old tree teacake from Sunsing. There is still a healthy ku present letting you know this tea is still growing. The qi isn't very strong but I think it is one of the better 90s teas at Sunsing.

Edob I've had sessions with the yin with very strong qi. I also had the 2011 eot Nannuo a couple days ago and found it to have mellowed allot in the past couple months.
 
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shah8 - I agree that the 2006 black label LBZ is better than the brick but the brick is still a good tea, and rather different. I should have tried the 2006 white label today or some of the 2005 LBZ partial cake that I got from HouDe as a sample order (ordered several samples and got one chunk). I agree that there is some delicate complexity. Next time I will try shorter brews - I've been trying longer brews in general lately.

SOTD: 1997 Menghai Shui Lan Yin 7542 - sample from HouDe. (I realized that I also have a sample from Nic Tang.) I used 6.6 gms in a smaller pot than yesterday - maybe 105 ml or so. I think I made the first few steepings too strong. This tea had good storage - clearly aged but reasonably dry storage I think. Not surprisingly, it was like a more aged version of the 2001 Shui Lan Yin, at least from my memory since I haven't had the 2001 in awhile. It had a light camphor taste and a somewhat drying effect on the mouth. However it seemed rather thin. I continue to appreciate the early SanHeTang productions as I try more teas. They really are good quality that is hard to find elsewhere. I have shah8 to thank for that.
 
XZH '06 brick yesterday. Not too much flavor deeper into the session. Early part had strong banzhang grape notes. A bit better than decent body and excellent texture. Good aroma on early brews. Really good qi. Really good complexity, for my tongue, what a dog's nose out the moving car window is like. Huigans did not provide fruit returns.
 
Yesterday, a decisive overdose of Mannuo. Excellent session, and one where the overdosing does work very nicely. Not too bada or banzhangy until later in the session, but had a very (what I understand to be) Naka taste and aroma along with some counterbalancing Mangjing tobacco with nutty notes (thankfully without chickpeas, even though I love chickpeas). The body was reasonably thick and textured, leaving some flavor storing astringency. This had much less fruit and sensate sweetness than I am used to, though later sessions had some. Not too much in the way of huigans despite the nice bitterness, but this does go down the throat with pleasant authority and cooling anyways. Pound for English pound, probably the best tea Nada procured from the tea plantations for his shop. The qi was more or less as usual and focusing on the head, but the quality of experience is nothing like as nice as the XZH '06 brick.

Today I had Fall '07 XZH Xishangmeishao. The top taste isn't anything special, and relies in an inordinate degree to the length of taste to have any complexity at all. Body is only enough to not call it thin, despite a very heavy hand shown (experimenting which tea does well with more and which tea doesn't). Aroma was nice. I swear, if the qi in this tea wasn't so positive as to make me think it laced with cocaine, I'd be thinking this was a poor choice compared to my options for other tea. This tea really is inordinately good and consistent at brightening my day whenever I drink it.

Both teas were very durable.
 
Yesterday I had EoT Manmai. Much like the quality experience that YS Yakou does, with a bit more booty and some qi. Strong aroma, but no oolong'd hitch in the throat in the late session. Doesn't measure up against the tea I had been drinking recently, but good.

Today I had EoT Nannuo. Still on the good side of Hekai insipid sweet flavors, and still not to far from the bad side. Mannuo has better complexity, better dynamicism, better qi, better texture, and I like the way the fruitiness settles on the tongue. Nannuo has a higher quality bitterness, better energy in the mouth (tip of tongue not numbed), and it has a stronger fruitiness late. Not sure it compares favorably with Bana Tea's Denong Nannuo brick from '12 either, as that is more nicely and densely floral with less sweet mushrooms.

I paid some attention to how "green" the tea was, since EdoB talks about that quality so much. I mostly got to just thinking that has to be aged in terms of 7 years instead of two or three, along with other, more general transformations. Mansai is the least green. Manmai is the most, I think. Green-ness didn't bother me much with either the Nannuo or Mannuo.
 
Mangjing from Bannacha. Much, much, better than the first time. Not so much chickpea or tobacco. A little bit of the Jingmai fun and with some cooling, but overall, not a compelling tea.
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
This thread started a long time ago. Five years, to be exact. It's had a remarkable life. :thumbup1:

I think I'll have some 7542 to celebrate later.
 

Alacrity59

Wanting for wisdom
This thread started a long time ago. Five years, to be exact. It's had a remarkable life. :thumbup1:

I think I'll have some 7542 to celebrate later.

Congrats . . . you have been stickied. Which is to say there has been amazing information in this thread which we have all benefited from for years.
 
It may interest some of you that Hawaiian Kava Center has some actual Hawaiian varietals in. Mapulehu and Nene. http://hawaiiankava.com/products.html

They aren't the classic top stuff Black Hiwa or Purple Mo'i or a couple of the rarer nice ones, but it's gotten absurdly difficult to get specific strains of quality hawaiian style kava these days. There are blends, of course, from places like paradise kava, but different strains do different effects, thus it's more important to get purity than it is for puerh.
 
WOW I had no idea tea was this intense among enthusiasts.... Granted I drink tea a lot of tea actually but have never ventured away from Twinnings......I feel how would you say inadequate now.
 
At the risk of getting lots of negative feedback about creating yet another place to read about pu-erh, I did it anyway because of a different audience, a little more international audience. So, if you are interested in checking it out you can go here and ask to join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/180496278742062/273053359486353/?notif_t=group_activity. I look forward to hearing from you.

Dayi implementing new 16 digit code marking for 7542 and 7572 cakes which could be traced online.
http://www.dayitea.com/news/item-6882.html
 
Tried mr Feng's selected tree's cake today. It was extremely clean a touch of smoke but that did not take away from the clean feel. It seems to be very much in line with what Nada seems to looks for in a tea. While I enjoyed it I don't think I would ever go after this tea I guess it was too clean for me I need a little ODB in my Puerh tea.
 
This thread has body

Been drinking some Spring maocha from areas I was unfamiliar with. Most of them have calmed to the point that their character has become clearer. Fun to compare with earlier notes. Lots of variations in smaller Bulang area villages. Fun to pore/pour over
 
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