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SOTD- sheng of the day

I need help.

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Some of this is shou, but a good bit of it is not. Expect to see some of it in future SOTD threads.
 
what was labeled as 07 JinTuo. I presume this is the 2007 YQH mushroom. As with 2 years ago, I like this more than the Qizhong. This tea does have one outstanding trait, which is great thickness and texture. Broadly, I think this is a Mengku or Fengqing tea similar to Bingdao. YQH notes sez something something dingxing, and I think that outfit in the antique era operated in the out of the north. Anyways, this never does have a strong taste or aroma, but be advised it's possible to get strong bitterness with this tea. Said bitterness is not very productive, however. The taste is something like apricot, but more...masculine suave, the apricot declines into a sort of slightly leathery floral. It has a bit of a finish that builds till you finish the cup and it lasts in the mouth afterwards for a while. The qi warms the body and lifts the mood. Not that strong, and fades quickly as the session goes on. The only thing that really lasts is the mouthfeel, and this tea pretty much can go on indefinitely.

This isn't an all around allstar or as all around as the Ku Yun, but it definitly has a place in the cabinet for a certain sort of mood when you want something thick and chicken-stocky. 72Hours or 54-46That'sMyNumber beats this tea, having more of everything else, but still, $140/300g. I can't say that this would be a great ager. It's nine years old, almost, and has had all the change it's going to get without actual browning from humidity. So it's going to be mostly the same for another ten to fifteen years.
 
1999 Mitsang, maocha that was pressed more recently by YQH. This is very similar to the White Whale, in that it's fairly low and has that camphor intro. It's a bit sweeter (flatter maocha taste, though) than WW, in that the body of the flavor is something something root veggies rather than wood and root herbal. Can be a little sour earlier on. Slight bitterness and astringency. Adequate viscosity. Reasonably durable, I got bored before I remotely finished. Does get sweeter and slightly fruitier in late brews. No real aftertaste or qi.

This is basically a sheng when you want something mellow to drink. The pricing of this is almost the same as current pricing of WW. In general it's on the dot for teas of this sort of maturity and quality. For aging, this is inferior to the WW, for mellow drinking now, better. Many teas like this that cost around the same price per gram, and no real advantage in a group buy situation.
 
1999 Fuhai Yiwu. Disappointed, but probably should not have been, given Fuhai's tendency to put out easy drinking sheng. Between that and the warehousing, long since dried out, this tea is mellow to the point of shu. The basic flavor is woody root beer over the fermented soil taste. The mouthfeel is decent, being rather creamy. No qi that I could feel and very little aftertaste. Also has a tendency to leave a lingering bitterness in the back of the mouth. Gasninja mentioned on another blog that overdosing is needed, and I suppose that would make it better, but the bitterness would have to be carefully brewed around. Extremely durable tea, but too boring for me to take advantage of that. Be good in a home office environment on a long and cold winter work day, I bet.

It's not actually bad, but the Mitsang yesterday, or the WW, are definitely superior teas in my book, especially if you're not drinking now. So I tend to view this in the prejudiced eye of aged tea that isn't really worth the extra money for all that it's been laying around a while successfully.
 
2005 Finepuer fall Lao Banzhang is a little different from what I remembered with my last experience with it, primarily in that it was less fruity in taste. Anyways, there was a little humidity that made for a darkness of taste for the first few brews. The taste being primarily of a leather/bamboo with grapefruit tones. The first four or so brews has a sort of sharp bitterness, like a rubber gag dagger--there, but doesn't really *hurt*. After that, the flavor lightens a bit, and has some sweet grains showing up. And it's steady as she goes from there. The aroma is about the same as the taste, except it's fairly light. The viscosity is usually pretty decent. There some feeling down the throat at times, but the huigans are predominantly at the back of the mouth and top of the throat, and they tend to produce stone fruit notes back there. Some pleasant and lingering cooling. Moderate qi, nothing too fancy but easily there and easily enjoyed. The tea stops being interesting pretty quickly, but the basic flavor is durable. This is pretty good in its casual way. It's not awesome or precious, but it would give a nice, mellow (for me) session without much fuss and with direct enjoyment. Sort of like how I enjoy the An Xiang shu or Dayi Mengsong Peacock.
 
After a pretty decent session with the Beijing Tai Lian '02, I finish this round of samples off with 4.7g of the '05 YQH Yiwu Chawang. It's not really very good. It's tasty in its way, being very sweet and the first couple of brews had a nice strong apricot taste, but overall the taste lacks dimension and behaves similarly to badly made hongcha. There is a touch of qi, and I got a couple of huigans in the first couple of brews, but the viscosity is never good, and the aroma also dies down pretty quickly as the session moves on. If you deliberately overbrew it, you can get a bit more performance and complexity. Durability is pretty good, but I don't want to drink so many cups.

Ranking tea from best to worst
2005 Finepuer LBZ
2011 YQH Ku Yun
2007 YQH Jincha
1999 YQH Mitsang
1999 Fuhai Yiwu
2007 YQH Qizhong
2005 YQH Yiwu Chawang
 
new round of samples in...

The first is Smokey Lee, from puer.sk. This isn't really a very good tea. It's smoky, and has lots of retired smoke, and the taste/aroma isn't unpleasant. The major problem for me is that it's not a good tea in the affirmative sense. The tea has seen humidity, so pretty mature for the age, decent thickness, a slight aftertaste... There's just nothing really to grab anyone by the lapels. Does have a relatively loud taste, but it's all smoke, and that isn't all that interesting. Moreover, as the session goes on, the taste quickly declines into a light steady state taste that gets boring. This is good for waking you up, but it doesn't reward close concentration.
 
Two teas of the days last couple of days.

2000 "7532" from white2tea. Much like the '90s little yellow mark/grand mark sold by EoT for some time. Mature, fermentation-wise, with TCM, slight pine or cedar note, and some herbal sweetness. Not a strong flavor. Not much lasting taste. Very mellow, with a slight positive and mellowing qi. Decent viscosity and mouthfeel, there is still a lingering style bitterness that has to be brewed around. I enjoyed this tea. It's what a decent anonymous higher fermented sheng should be like. At $139, though, that's a touch on the expensive side for me. Flip side is that it's definitely far more preferable to the Smokey Lee at around $70. Ultimately, I think I would be able to find more preferable teas that isn't quite as mellow, like the '99 YQH Mitsang, which is slightly more expensive per gram.

The tea on T-day was the Chawangshop '04 Menghai brick. I enjoyed it, but I think it's a classic case of tuition tea. I strongly think (though I can be very wrong about origins) that this is that cheap Youle plantation dreck, but well stored under humid circumstances. It made for a tea with a strong and broad pleasant aroma and flavor that isn't really easy to describe. However, like the '05 YQH Yiwu Chawang, it has that improper open-flatness of taste, that while tasty, sorta, isn't really what puerh is about (tho' Xiaguan makes many teas of this sort of nature). It's tasty, but it's the sort of tasty that I think many will grow weary of. I will say that so long as you avoid the bitterness, which is lingering, this does have good viscosity with a stiffness to it. I see this as tuition because at $38, this is really rather expensive per gram for what this is. You can get a decent, mostly plantation Yiwu from Houde for $49 that's just a year younger. Or the '06 Taipei jincha. If you look, you should be able to find decent factory teas around that age that have been left at an old price.
 
1990s HK storage from white2tea. Starts off with a bark taste with a sweet finish, and second brew had an interesting campfire note with the bark taste. Aroma is like the taste, before fading very quickly by third or fourth brew. Bark taste sort of declines into something not very distinguishable, but sweet finish, and for a time, some aftertaste comes through. There isn't really any bitterness, and there is occasional bad astringency in the throat, a light scratchiness. The tea isn't very thick, but there is a nice stiffness and texture in it. No real qi. It has okay durability, not super-great like an old tea could be, maybe a bit above fifteen brews worth drinking. There's an occasional dynamicism--on at least one occasion, I found a fruit note. But not much, and late, close to zero.

I think this is okay, but I think I prefer the 2000 7532 as that still has a firmness that I find to be missing in the HK stored. Also has better feeling. HK's a little too wet-stored, even though it's all dried out. The taste is somewhat hollow as a result.

Think of puerh like a Cadbury Egg, or perhaps a chocolate bonbon with bourbon and a maraschino cherry in the middle. That's what it's supposed to be like. The '04 Menghai brick the other day is more like a solid chocolate truffle rather than a bonbon. Has virtue in its own way, but isn't really quite what puerh is supposed to be like. Or this HK stored, which is more like a marshmallow with a thin chocolate shell.
 
The tea yesterday was the 2012 EoT Bulang, the one stored in Malaysia. The best thing about the tea is the chocolate pudding type mouthfeel from viscosity and texture. This tea also tended to have a wine-like aftertaste (in the mouth) in many of the cups. The aroma was pretty good the first three brews and tails off. The primary taste has some dark chocolate in the initial brews, which declines to tobacco and barnyard, and then mostly barnyard as the session goes on. Some apricot notes similar to the YQH Ku Yun shows up on occasion. Pungent huigans in the throat only happens very occasionally. The active part of the session is over by about brew five, and mere drinking lasts another, maybe about seven brews. The qi is pretty light and seems to be mostly caffeine.

I've never really been a huge fan of the '12 even though I have always liked the refined taste. There's just not enough oomph for me, and I have ready comparison to '09 (from YS), '10, '11 EoT Bulang with more qi and aftertaste. It was interesting to me that my feeling was pretty much the same, despite time and Malay storage. I'm not convinced that Malay storage adds all that much value compared to my own home storage. I care about the aging you get mostly from time much more than humidity.

Today, I had the Sui Yue Zhi Wai Wangong sample from Royal Puer. This is a complete bust if you were interested in something premium. Doesn't have a strong aroma or flavor, and the flavor feels tweaked for max nonoffensiveness. Something of a syrup mouthfeel, and a very light qi. Doesn't even taste like what I feel Wangong tea should be like. I think this tea, and probably the other expensive tea from this blend are meant for the inexperienced but rich.
 
2015 White2tea Tuhao As ****. The dry leaf was very fragrant and promising, and this did turn out to be a rewarding session. At first, I wasn't that much into the tea, "oh Bosch is better" and "this doesn't really taste like LBZ". This tea started out sort of acting like a blend of the premium 2012 6FTM Hekai that Teaclassico sells and the Cha Ma Xuan Naka from 2012 that TeaUrchin sells. Some energetic feel in mouth and throat, some sweet leaf Hekai behavior along with that sort of alkaline rice aroma/taste that some Nakas have. Early brews had a plum finish and a delayed fruit aftertaste. It doesn't really taste like the fresher LBZ I've had nor does it perform like one--no pungent huigans, or that menghai florals in the cup aroma or in the mouth aroma. The top taste is also somewhat narrow and short. The hekai-ness declines as the session goes on, and this becomes more like a Nakaesque tea with broader-taste-bennies. There is some recognizable qi in the early rounds, but it definitely turns down to mild as the session goes on. Also, the tea consistently has enough viscosity. Where this tea positively surprised me was in its durability. The taste is active and dynamic throughout the session with worthwhile taste, and there were lots of long brews with sweet fruit/honey tastes. Given the quality durability that I've found, I got more convinced that for longer term storage, the Tuhao is probably a better bet than the Bosch and probably will age similarly to my Mengsong Peacock, but with no original smoke to convert.
 
Yesterday was the white2tea Pin. This one is pretty easy. It's in the style of the YS Mushucha, has a bit more darker notes like coffee or chicory hints than that tea. The 2012 Mushucha has more friendly sweet flavor, is a bit more oily and less astringent. This maybe because it's a bit older and more mature. The Pin does have a touch more high quality qi. Mild, but very nice for what's there.

Today was the 2006 Bingdao Peacock sold at Essence of Tea. It's alright, but I didn't like it that much. Did that thing where for a number of brews, it was fairly generic sheng tasting, and that genericness had a fairly cold, mineraly-metalic character to it. There is also usually a little conifer note. The aromatic performance is the same. The viscosity is pretty decent. Bitterness generally needs to be reached for, to get the sort of subtle dance of flavors some Bingdaos do, especially at the top of the throat. A brew or two had some small sweet fruit/almond notes, but it's not dynamic as far as top flavors go. Late infusions do not turn sweet rock sugar finish as the best examples do... There a bit of mild to moderate qi, but nothing really notable. I like my YS sourced Tai Lians much better as it has more complex aroma and taste (and isn't so cold, which definitely "when I'm in the mood territory), more aftertastes--the last time, sweet flavor stuck to the tip of my tongue and I salivated, washed and sucked it off as if it was a lollipop in my mouth. That's the sort of thing that makes me forgive the thinner soup and the fact that only some sessions have some qi. Of course, the '06 Peacock could be just as variable, and there's a better experience out there in that thar cake.
 
Yesterday was the '90s Lanyin sold at white2tea. I found it a little similar to the '90s HK stored, but not so wet and eroded away. The flavor is open from considerable eroding, though. In the early rounds, it has a nice aroma of wood and sweetness, and the taste is a stronger version of the hk stored, but with varying levels of wood, tcm, root herbs, and sweetness. Moderate viscosity with good mouthfeel, which aids in a very nice feeling down the throat. Tends to feel like the tummy and throat is being aired out. Qi is decent. The active phase dies very quickly after brew four and it turns more fully into what the HK stored is like. I pretty much drank for mouthfeel and refreshment afterwards. This is a pretty good tea, but I don't find it a very good value. The '98 DXS maocha that Houde sells is a slightly similar tea--with more bitterness, refinement, sweetness, qi, and zest. Lasts longer, and the equivalent cost is under $300 as opposed to over $600. The relative flatness of being stored maocha can compare well with heavy humid storage. The YuanYeXiang, whether that be the thin paper at BanaTea or the thick paper at Houde ($507, $525 respectively) are both better teas for less money. Not that the Yuanyexiang is that substitutable for the '90s Lanyin. Red Lantern sells the thick paper for under $400, but I know the Banatea and Houde teas are well-stored.

Today I had the Chen Yuan Hao Bingdao from 2014. To put it mildly, it wasn't that great, and materially worse than the 2012 version I've had. The EoT 2006, for all of its cold unfriendliness, is also easily the better tea. It starts out with a nice Ceylon hongcha-type aroma, has a dark note, like coffee or chicory in the taste. The tea stabilizes in the second brew with a fairly sweet vegetal taste, like leaves that are sweet or perhaps very green and sweet snap peas. I don't find it apple-like. There was moderate levels of qi, The thickness and viscosity was also nice. The bitterness generated some fairly long lasting and delicate aftertastes that made for time consuming sipping. After four brews, the vigorousness of the top taste dies down and stops being active. However, the aftertastes were pretty thin and intermittent through the rest of the session. This was primarily a bit of floral character, and not the intense rock sugar or fruit sweetness that exists at the finish of every sip of the 2012. The qi also dies down with a couple of surges back up after the fourth brew. At the end of the day, I don't see this as a good value. If you wanted good, sorta Bingdaoish tea, the 72Hours costs less than this tea does and is vastly better. And also the YS Mushucha/white2tea Pin does almost all of what this tea does for just $100. It's just been cut too much, and my sample didn't have enough of the good stuff.
 
Yesterday was the 2014 Chen Yuan Hao Yiwu Cha Huang. The sample is way too tippy for me, and there is some oxidation leading to a fairly tippy-dianhong experience. My usual way of brewing was not a good fit for the sample--where I usually consistently lengthen the time, I should have flash brewed it until the hongcha elements were gone, as per '07 XZH Dingji Nu'er. My first three brews were this combination of heavier Yiwu taste with barnyard and chocolate that has some dianhong nature. The first couple of brews had this really nice, rich aroma (dark yiwu and perfume) and taste. The tea rings the top of the throat like a bell and goes down the throat nicely. While the top taste is somewhat short, the fruity finish and aftertaste lingered. Viscosity was enough, and there was a bit of qi. The soup viscosity thins though, after my second brew, and the taste also thins as the hongcha leeches out. Astringency increases a little. After a few more brews, the tea stabilizes at a certain level of taste, viscosity, aftertaste, cooling, and qi, and gives a decent account of itself. It's pretty durable for such a tippy tea, and I sort of wish I had a second try to come at this from a different angle, but oh well. I definitely thought of how the TeaDezhang '14 GFZ reaches really high early before fading and souring, while this tea doesn't get so high, but endures much better.

Is it a good value? Nah. It costs more than $500 a cake! Not on the same planet as a number of high quality cakes available. However, I think it's an interesting cake in the sense that aging all of those tips might make for a different aged premium tea experience.

Today, I had 4g of the Sui Yue Zhi Wai Chawangshu sample. It's better than the Wangongzhai, but I abruptly stopped because my tongue and throat felt bad and I suspected a heavy pesticide load. The tea might not have caused it, since my throat can play such games with me, but it wasn't actually good enough or interesting enough to continue. Suffers from the same fundamental problems as the Wangongzhai version, but with more guts. The '05 YQH Yiwu Chawang has a similar issue, but it's much, much, much, nicer.
 
a correction to the last post, at current exchange rate, the ringgit having sadly declined, the Cha Huang is $425. Makes no difference in the price/value analysis.

Yesterday was a sample from the Poundcake, gourd version. It's pretty simple and constant. It has a strong shincha character in the aroma and taste--seaweedy vegetalness, a kind of chalky sweetness along with the more typical Mengla character. It had a good mouthfeel that was somewhat velvety rather than oily, but with decent viscosity. It wasn't a dynamic tea, so it basically did the same thing over a durably long session. Has a light qi, probably just caffeine. I felt that this was a good morning tea. It is not as high quality as the Pin, and I have not had the other $49 white2tea cake, the If You've Read This It's 2 Late.

Today, I did the 2015 Chen Yuan Hao Yiwu Chawang. This one isn't so dark, more of a traditional Yiwu, with honey, flowers, and leather. There is a proper amount of real leaves too, instead of so many buds. The first two or three brews was good with feeling down the throat. Then the tea became thinner and fruitier in taste with still decent viscosity, and kept that up. One of the issues is that the top taste is consistently short, so it is reliant on good aftertaste to keep me from drinking it fast. That in turn relied on my brewing with a firm hand to make it bitter. It's a decent enough premium tea, but it's overpriced at a bit above $250. You can get a Bosch (yiwu? 6ftm? nannuo? heh) for that sort of money.

And that concludes my latest bit of samples.

I'm slotting Chen Yuan Hao into the level of Baohongyinji as to how premium the brand is.
 
It's basically around Christmas, and I'm giving myself Christmas presents in terms of drinking my good stuff now. It's also about evaluating 2009 teas that should be beginning to reveal true character.

Today, I took out one of those XZH '09 gift set tins and selected the sheng. This is generically described as being of XiaoJingGu origins. James of Teadb fame described this tea as being similar to the XZH '10 LaoWuShan, and I was like, really?, after trying the LaoWuShan recently. Well, I finally took out a new cake, having finished the first 100g sometimes in 2014 or perhaps really in 2013. The cake leaves look darkened, and the dry leaves had a light floral scent--which intensified when placed in heated pot.

This tea actually is pretty similar to the LaoWuShan! But James described teas that really sound like they've been kept young, as there is little fruit or greeness on tap with this tea. The tea made itself known very quickly, though, with an intense and rising aroma that is fairly resinous, backed by a chicory/toffee darkness. The resin is not quite like sandalwood, more like an herb, so think particularly dark and close to wood patchouli or geranium sort of smell. Very remarkable and pleasant. The LaoWuShan does something like this, but it's more normal in strength, and more complex and not as boldly masculine. The taste is pretty austere though, being mostly of artisinal clay. Through the rest of the session, there is a little complexity in cups, having to do with sugars and fruit tones--so not tremendously dynamic. The qi is clearly stronger than the LaoWuShan and very pleasantly body. The aftertastes are a bit more potent in feel, I think, not sure. It seems to have stronger huigans in the throat in the first six or so brews. Much of the overall aftertaste is the lingering taste in the mouth. I did have a few later cups with a very pleasant peppery sensation/taste at the top of the throat after a sip. Viscosity is pretty good, and generally has a good texture as well...the nature changes, though. Early on it was sort of stiff and surface-tension-y, and later it was very soft and velvety. I drank this for about 20 brews, tho' the LaoWuShan probably had stronger flavor near the end.

This tea is generally stronger, more yang, and more austere than the LaoWuShan. How Tony Chen prices it is fascinating, since this isn't listed as being that expensive--580RMB/100g, and it's cheaper than the year younger 2650RMB LaoWushan, which is, in turn is cheaper than the Manlin Gusha 4800RMB. It seems that there is a lot of premium placed by Tony or his customers for sweet flavors (and perhaps Mengla origins). I also suspect that the minicakes are more meant to be introductions to the brand rather than seriously collectible in and of themselves.

I also thought it was interesting to the extent that keeping tea inside of tins with secure lids didn't seem to prevent aging much. I also wonder if each 100g cake are particularly consistent. The cake I drank up earlier also had a strong rising aroma, but generally during the pour, and very sweet sugar/almond.
 
'07 XZH Jinggu Nu'er. Pretty much like the last time, though I think of it as honey and wildflowers instead not honey and herbs. The peak at about fifth and sixth brew was literally like drinking wildflower infused honey (with a light goji/bar/cran/something anthrocyanin rich berry) that had been watered down to drinkable. Not a hugely complex tea, since after the first few brews, the base flavor is light wildflowers. However, got great viscosity, very good narcotic qi, and some good aftertastes, including Bingdao-like sweet transfomation, more to a sort of candied fruit sense than rock sugar, and lighter (and not happening in so many late brews). Really enjoyable simple drink. This made me compare with the '05 YQH Yiwu Chawang, which is also a simple and super-sweet tea. The sweetness of the YQH, I concluded, only hit part of the mouth, while the sweetness of this XZH is all-encompassing in the mouth.

I do think I see the point of Sanhetang doing as many Osanzhai teas as they do, since age for teas like that result in more substance than this dabaicha. Still, is this the sort of sweetness that will happen in 74Hours, given time?
 
First crack at '08 Xiaguan FT "Yun Mei". 7g/100ml in a little yixing pot exclusively for sheng. First Xiaguan raw, and it's smoky! Smelled a little bit like a sweaty sock in the first couple of steeps. Taste is a bit rough, maybe a little thin in the mouthfeel. Definitely has a "plantation" thing going on with it. Hoping this mellows a bit.
 
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'07 XZH 8582. Noticing camphor yet again, so this is something of a quirk of my storage. I have had teas have lots of camphor at certain times in previous years, and this has gone away. It is pretty strong this time around. In darker and more robust teas, like the gift set sheng or this tea, it's fairly complementary anyways. I was still irritated at having to taste through it to see how the tea itself is doing...

Anyways, it's a lot like the '11 YQH Bulang, but with a darker, firmer base and rod of bitterness. Very deep apricot tastes. The viscosity is good and the mouthfeel is distinct in a pleasant way. The qi is pretty good, too. Lots of feelings down throat and some decent huigans there, too This is supposed to be a Bulang-Yiwu blend, but I think this is mostly Bulang with a bit of darker Yiwu much like the '05 MingYuanHao. Soooo, I was humming along and thinking that this is sort of better than the JingGu Nuercha, when by the seventh brew, it crashes into sweetwater abruptly. Then I remember that this never did have particularly good durability...much like that ChenGuangHeTang Banzhang Chawang '05 that'd do the same thing, but into a light Lao Man'e bitter woodiness instead. I still think it's nicer than the cheapest YQH--much stronger and deeper flavor than any of them, and more potent in general while it lasts, but the lack of durability makes it a closer run thing.
 
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