What's new

SOTD- sheng of the day

2004 Dayi 7542 from tea house in Hong Kon og: It smells and tastes nicely. I am surprised how mellow it has become. I barely notice any astringency. It offers a hint of everything which reminds me of some really nice teas from the '80s. It is like a bud which has all the structure and fragrance of a fully blossomed flower but in a constrained frame. With time, it will blossom and release all its beauty and fragrance. I can't wait! I guess it is in the phase 2 of development as it describes in the "Age and Life Cycle" in TH.
 
For Memorial Day, I cracked the eroded side of my '07 XZH Yiwu ChaHuang for 7.5g. I kept in mind that my partner in XZH fandom thinks this tea is too green. It does turn out to be about as abrasively green as the Dayi 801 8582 and Feng Shi Rei found at Essence of Tea, and very acid in the first few brews as well. Not astringent. I didn't really mind the green *that* much because the tea was *much* richer than other green puerhs. Great aroma, much richer taste--broad, loud, layered into the depths than the Shi Rei, for example. The soup isn't that thick, and there is a bit of texture to it. The aftertastes behaves much like other teas I know to be GFZ, and feeling definitely goes down the throat. Qi is moderate or so, and of good quality. Not totally awesome, but good enough. Fairly durable to a point. Brew twelve had about the same strength of taste as most gushu brew seven or so. However, it fully tires out into sweetwater at around 17-19 brews. This is much more of a camphor cake than I am used to thinking this cake of--there was a long stretch of camphor wood brews with hints of plum in the dark taste much like the '05 Dayi Mengsong Peacock. The last time I tried it, it was four grams in a gaiwan, and I got enough chocolate to think this had a Wuyi character, but in duanni pot, there was little chocolate, but lots of camphor-wood-sweet grain-tobacco-hint of plum. It's not very temple-wood like the better camphor teas, because of foodie richness. At this point, I have to consider this one of my better prospects for long term age, when acid dies down to brightness, and citric green goes away altogether. Much louder than most of my gushu, and more complex than the other teas with some noise to it like the '06 Youle. I really wish I had a second of this tea, but this was not a very loud or high performing tea roughly three of the four years I've had it.
 
This morning I had a 1999 Feng Qing tuo that was very good daily drinking tea. Strong flavor. Lasted around 15 steeps (8 grams in a 100ml gaiwan) and had a lot of depth in flavor. It was dry stored and plenty smooth. The price tag is not awesome. I think over $50 or so for 100g. Still, far better than i had anticipated.
 

Mike H

Instagram Famous
2007 Menghai 8582 Raw Pu-erh

$ImageUploadedByTapatalk1401481267.663450.jpg

Need a tray for the office.
 
Finished off the 2004 GFZ from pu-erh.sk, 6g in a gaiwan. I tried extra hard on detecting GFZ traits, defined more or less as:

1) A wispy huigan that's pretty late and not pungent-throat swelling, but then fills the mouth.

2) A kind of vaporous smoke charactered mouth aroma in the finish-aftertaste. This tends to be aromatic wood and tobacco and really nice.

3) A sort of body focused qi that can be a little sneaky, but usually moderate and of high quality. Not too different from high end Mengku qi.

I did not end up finding strong enough expression of these characteristics such that I'd be comfortable in at least saying that it is good like GFZ. This still is sort of mostly tasting like a mildly humid Youle. There are some nice hints of complexity, and a very nice mint taste can show up on occasion. I'd be happy to own this tea if I did own it, since it is rewarding drinking. However, the price doesn't seem that justifiable. Using the 2004 Changtai Everlasting series as a baseline of decent but meh, this is about as far above them as the '04 Nanjian Zhaizipo overall, and in personal taste, I'd probably go for the Zhaizipo for the distinctly pleasant flavor, qi, and skip this tea's depth and taste-sophistication. If you had to put GFZ up against the YQH '04, it would be crushed. It wouldn't do well against the Wisteria '03 Yiwu, and I'd bet that drier stored Changtai '04 Yiwu (going by tea party memories) can give it a run for the money as well.
 
blended remaining 5g of Yongpinhao '05 with 3g of Dayi 801 8582. Didn't taste or smell all that good, but had a very nice stiff texture that was pleasant to swallow. A bit of qi, some good aftertastes. I had more fun with this tea than yesterday's tea.
 
Funny. I have just had the 1999 Xiaguan Jia-Ji tuo and have the similar impression as you did with the 1999 Feng Qing tuo.

1999 Xiaguan Jia-ji tuo from Houde: It tastes thick and sweet. There is some astringency but it is nicely integrated. It is kind of straight forward. There is not much complexity. However, the flavor is strong and it is satisfying as long as you don't look for much more. I think a bit more complexity would come when this ages further. It is better than the 2002 Nan Jian Phoenix Tuo I tried a few weeks ago, but not much more
 
'10 EoT Mansai. When this tea wants to be good, it is pretty good. Seems to have a deepening flavor along the lines of southern Bulang, with plenty more chocolate notes. Tasty bitterness, good aftertastes. The smooth soup is a little thin, and there isn't really much qi, if any. Top taste is not very soggy with hongcha, though there is an element of hongcha in the taste.
 
2009 Dong Fang Bu Bai from YS. It's a Bulang from Man Mu village. My past experience with it has been very irregular, so I approached this session more or less because I just wanted a Bulang, goddammit! I was surprised with a session that features a rather spectacular accomplishment with aftertaste, and, no it hasn't done this before. This was a tea, when going well, had a sharp bitterness, then a standard pungent huigan. Today, it had huigans, lingering yuns, some mouth aroma, and coating aftertastes. The actual top taste was a bit wild and not tamed with pleasant flavors, but it did have standard Bulang tobacco, a touch of toffee, a consistent chicory note usually found in some first stage aged lincang. Aroma was nice the first few times, and then settled down to a low consistent smell. In the middle of the session, there was a string of brews that had little taste but the essence of yan yun, like a yancha without any flavor but the minerals. That was rather cool, actually. The brew lasted about 15 or so, and the back end was pretty abortive. Not much, or any qi. The soup texture was reasonably thick and smooth, leaves a bit a dryness in the mouth that stores flavor.
 
Thinking maybe the weather was at fault...I try the sister tea YS '09 Gushu Lan Xiang (from Xin Gui (which is not proper in name or romanization, has a new name, Man Nan (not the South character, but that Gui character)). This is close to the Man Nuo at the bottom of the Bulang range, close to Myanmar and west of DaMenglong.

This doesn't have an orchid scent, probably didn't have one since it was a pup of a tea. It does have a very distinct aroma and taste, which is fairly deep. I last tried this May of last year, and didn't like it that much. This year, the flavor is very good, deep dark taste that behaves like dark chocolate while not quite the flavor of dark chocolate. In a way, like a Lao Man'E without the aspirin character of the bitterness. Generally, it is strongly reminiscent of the Essence of Tea '08 Malaysian Stored Bulang when I had it last year. Hints of this, that, in a taste relatively narrow in the mouth. Has a slight yun wisping up from the throat. Light qi, but easily tellable due to positive feeling from the high quality. Lingering mouth aromas after the sip. Where the Dong Fang Bu Bai is unsubtle and wild, this is subtle and elegant. This is also much more durable than the sister tea, and like the EoT '08 Bulang, late infusions have a good deal of sweetness. I enjoyed it and hope that both of these teas will be consistently so pleasant from now on.
 
Drank a sheng and a shu today. The sheng was a 2002 Menghai Cha Chang 7542, more or less dry stored.

First few brews has some problematic bitterness, which goes away while normal bitter stays. The tea generally has a citric bite that stay most of the way.

For something that was dry stored, the soup is pretty dark orange. The taste is heavier on the bulang side of thing. Early brews has a sort of soft butter-honey taste with a hint of fruit, and it's little soggy with some hongcha character. Then bulang style crisp puerh tobacco starts building in. It's alright, but it's kind of wild. The early aroma is reasonably complex, but the later ones die down to a flat tobacco. The body is not that thick but it does have substance and somewhat juicy texture. Session is relatively dynamic, but it's a short-lived tea, and didn't really last longer than seven brews or so. The best thing about the tea was the finish and the combo puerh-honchapu aftertaste. This tea doesn't go down the throat, and there are no deep pungent huigans. However, there is some transformation before the swallow, and a very nicely complex and lengthy aftertaste that serves to slow down my drinking. I would not be very interested in buying more of this tea, given the choice. I like it, but it has only one point of real grace, and it compares very poorly to the 2001 simplified yun I have, or the various '90s 7542s I have had (least dark 7542 pre-2003 and not woody or fruity). It also compares poorly to the same year Tai Lian (which I noticed today has fakes on Taobao--I least I think the cakes shown aren't what it's supposed to be like).
 
2002 White Whale from white2tea.com. This is more or less like a relatively humid stored FT Xiaguan baoyan mini-discus. Has less of that coarse, smoky wood note that's all jerky with tart/citric character, though it has some of that. There is some aged white dessert sweetness, and some hints of fruit. The soup viscosity is decent and more or less smooth, though there is a hint of astringency--nothing that sticks, this time. The aroma is relatively strong, and consistently so, compared to the 7542 yesterday. There are a couple of huigans and a yun or two. More consistently is finish, coating and mouth aroma. I don't find any qi. While this isn't a bad tea, it's clearly is a humble and coarse tea, and probably originally meant for poorer folks--but just never got off the ground, I guess. I would venture that 100g bricks are not popular with richer people, and this *is* better tea (and always was) than poorer people could easily pay for--it's easily better than something like Lincang Tea Factory tuos you can find around that age. Definitely appropriate in today's environment as a working tea, or pleasant morning caffeine for professors the world over. Russians and Hobbes would like this sort of thing... I like the 2003 baoyan 'shroom I have a bit more even though it has a less strong taste and aroma, for its finish, aftertaste and qi. This is the first try, though, could get better.
 
2011 Dayi jia ji tuo. Bitter, a little astringent. Very yang, masculine flavor. It's a nice taste in a cologne sort of way. Not too much depth to it. Or aftertaste/qi. Does have decent thickness. Not too durable This is something you buy a bit of and forget it in a drawer for ten or so years, and it will never be all that awesome.
 
An unknown tea from a very loosely compressed and dark bing that had an undamaged wrapper with a big Bangwei Gushu print down the middle. I don't really quite know what to make of this tea. It kind of has an aged taste, sort of woody earthy with other notes, but the taste and aroma is pretty tired. Decent mouthfeel, but a bit of astringency. Can have plenty of mouth aroma, and sometimes yun. Can strongly cool the top of the throat. Seems like it can endure quite a ways. This tea, I think, I will need to up to ten grams to be sure about anything. No qi.
 
I had a bit from an anonymous cake (about a quarter-half cake), baggie said 2013 Year, "bad handwriting" mountain, 130RMB/kg. Now, we all know that 130RMB/kg in 2013 ain't gunna be good. In fact it turned out to be potable and not poisonous or nothing. Just an extraordinarily narrow flavor that sticks very close to its strong bitterness. Would be good if I was busy enough to need mere caffeine or something.

I decided I wanted another chance at a good session so I got out one of those lettered sample packets...N, hmmm? Opened it up, and it turned out to be quite drinkable! Thick soup, sweet, a bit of floral quality, and some short aftertastes. I then thought about recent samplings and came up with either Douji or YS, and it turns out to be YS 2013 Jingmai (which is really Mangjing and should be known as such). There isn't any strong Jingmai character to this tea (but some of that sour nut molasses character), but it does have a notable jasmine character that really shows up when you overbrew. Very caffeinated tea. I wouldn't get this tea for aging, but I think it makes for a nice, aggressive morning tea in a way that's more pleasant than the early tea today.
 
I opened another one of those YS sample baggies, the M, which goes for YS Nanpozhai '13. I had the 2011 in the summer of 2012, and I guess I repeat myself here. Dry leaf has a very strong aroma. The brewed tea generally has a pretty light taste, hint of fruit, hint of vegetalness, which recalls to mind the general philosophy of the Essence of Tea Mr Feng XT 2008. A couple of brews in, there is a start of several brews with a distinct flavor at the top of the throat, a sort of yun, but it's kind of light. The aroma is generally pretty lightly floral, and not anything as strong as the 2011 I tried a couple of years ago. There isn't any qi. The soup is relatively thin. The back end of the session had a bit stronger flavor for a couple of brews, and also a very good length of taste that invites me to hold the soup in the mouth as long as possible before swallowing. This is okay tea, but I like the Mangjing yesterday more. This is too light and too wispy for me. I liked it when I overbrewed, so I will dump the rest of the sample and try to have more leaf per gram of water next time.
 
YS '13 Fengchun, which was sample Lambda. It wasn't all that interesting, except the fact that it had a strongly yang taste, much like that 2011 Dayi JiaJi, but less aromatic and perfume-y. I suppose one could say that it's a husky grain taste. Perfectly fine daily tea type, but I'd suspect this to be a poor age-r, since it doesn't have a whole lot of potency other than green potency. No good core bitterness, no aftertaste, complexity, qi, or anything like that. Just the relatively solid taste which will probably mostly just fade. I didn't really push this, session-wise so I don't know exactly how durable it is.
 
YS 2011 Sanhezhai, deserves what good press it has gotten before. It's not great, but it's more of a proper puerh than the Fengchun, with weight on the tongue and in the mouth. The taste is pretty hollow and sweet, though. Does have a very slight qi and is durable. The back end of the session featured some pretty good lasting mouth aromas. Not a thick soup. Anyways, at the cost of what, $33? If you're okay with storing lincang, this is a decent tea to tong for later. 2012 is all spring, though and four more dollars each, and probably more worth it.
 
90's Yibang from Yangpinhao, originally sold at Origin Tea. It's pretty easy to see why Tony doesn't even have this in his gallery (*sniff* goodbye Origintea, you were great...). The tea has the texture and thickness of a mid-90s aged tea, but it has no taste depth, tasting vaguely of burnt wood and slight honey. The bitterness that was there is of a weirdly unpleasant combination tannins/bitter. There was a bit of qi in the early going, but of bad quality. Aroma the same as the taste. It also definitely has pesticide/inorganic effects. In the dry leaf I think I spotted some crab legs.
 
Top Bottom