SOTD- sheng of the day

My second try at the '02 7542. It's pleasant enough, after having been tinned for a week the leaves have mellowed a bit and become sweeter flavored and more sweet. Still has a kind of sharp wood taste on top, and a degree of complexity in the finish and aftertaste, though less than the first try. No qi, and the aroma isn't that inviting. The real issue is that it's extremely nondurable for a tea of its age and heritage. It's close to flavorless outside of the bitter after about 7 brews, though a good texture keeps going, and a decent experience can still be had with agressively long brews. I do not think it will be a very good ager. It also has the character that I think JakubT really freaking hates, the sharpness in the top taste is slightly sour straw-plums. Does bite in the way wild blackberries will bite. I don't mind it much, but it's a ding.

Good pu day today. Had some of that unknown tea in that bangwei wrapper. 8 grams this time. Tastes/feels like a lincang that has had a short stretch of humidity, traditional or otherwise, and then dry stored from around '95-'98 or so. This is a really good tea for me, as that the only weakness is that the center flavor is not very focused or strong at all. Oh, and the aroma is weak after the first two brews. That said, it consistently had sweet flavors in the early going, a lot of mouth aroma, some yuns, huigans, and other aftertastes. It has a soup viscosity pretty similar to the Zhenchunyahao, with slight talcumy. The durability is monstrous, must have drunk at least 20 brews today, and put it in the fridge for later. The late brews are all light tasting but the soup body is pretty good, still. The light taste is basically the cherry-plum-wine that older lincangs have, and it's sensate sweet besides, so it's really pleasant to keep drinking. There isn't much of the certain kind of bile sourness that lincangs age into though. There is some qi, but it's slight and builds in after some cups. I am very glad to have most of a cake of this.

White Whale from white2tea today. With a bit of rest from travel, I've changed my mind about the baoyan comparison, and now I think it's probably some abandoned Fengqing Tea Factory production. The taste and general behavior does fit in with Fengqing characteristics. First, the most interesting thing about this tea was that it's about 15%-33% twigs and leaf midribs, while the rest were fairly high grade (size) tea leaves. There isn't really any coarse leaves like I thought from the first brew, that I could find. Soooo, puerh-kukicha or bonepu. Bonepu has a kind of a nice, perverse, ring to it, doesn't it? What are the resulting characteristics of the brew from four grams in a gaiwan? It has a thin layer of papery wood on top, some length to it that rewards holding on the tongue, much of that length is of the chicory taste that some lincangs (fengqings like that Wen-long one leaf stuff) can develop as they age. When the soup hits the back of the mouth, there is a pretty strong camphor (like camphor leaf) feel and taste which leaves a persistent taste, aroma, and feel in the throat. The soup body is very oily, like the Wisteria Taihe, and starts out thick and sticky, and thins as the session lengthens. The oil does a very good job coating the mouth. The bitterness is pretty firm, especially deeper in the session. Doesn't have great endurance, the fun part is over at about brew eight, though it can be brewed plenty more than that. There is a body feel, that might be caffeine or qi, not quite sure yet. It's not the most awesome tea in the world, and fifteen dollars is more a fair price for it than a screaming deal, but I think this tea is interesting to have because it's a coarse tea pretty limited to just having lots of stems rather than all sorts of crap.

Some sheng from a baggie, 5g. An isolated label found in the box that might go with this sez 1999 Menghai ChaChang Shuilanyin 7542.

This one threw me for a loop a bit, as it's not quite that classically 7542. The top taste is relatively thin body, there isn't the sort of fruitiness expected, and has a consistent light drying astringency. It does transform in the mouth, and definitely jumps fire hoops in the throat with various aftertastes. The qi is moderate and of very good quality. There are some aromas coming out of the throat and in the mouth, like the finish of a GFZ. This is kind of the Bingdao of 7542, almost. I certainly am suspicious that there is a blend of potent northern leaf in it, much like White Whale I had yesterday. Definitely has a lot of *that* sort of camphor for a Menghai cake. This particular sample was not bitter, and certainly not bitter in the way 7542s usually are. I compared this a lot with the White Whale, actually, and the White Whale definitely wins on thickness, aroma, depth of taste, sweetness, smoothness, and strength of camphor feeling in the throat, if that is a win. The 7542 wins on better quality qi, better mellowness, more natural complexity (purity?) in the taste and throat, and much better longevity. The 7542 wins overall on better qi, longer session, and more refined aftertastes. OTOH, this tea would lose pretty badly against the XZH '99 DXS maocha. Very likely not really worth the money vis á vis finding one of the good mid2k taiwanese productions.

The sample was also affected by the neglected sample baggie umami taste, which I ignored as best as I could.

Had two teas today, both really caffeinated so...

Tea number one is the Pu-erh.sk Naka from this year. My first pu-erh.sk fresh tea! The dry leaf was quite pretty and had a strong menghai/peppery dry aroma. The first brew has a moderate menghai aroma, and the taste is very sweet and slightly melon-like. There isn't much depth to the taste, though, except for a little transformation as it hits the throat along with a minty finish. Soup viscosity is decent and very smooth. My head starts buzzing from the caffeine already. The second brew dips a bit in quality, with weaker aroma and taste, but the bitterness is present and generating a show in the mouth and top of the throat with length of taste and a long, weak, huigan. After the cup was finished, the aroma was very present, sticking to the cup. The third brew perks up with a baked goods w/ dark grains aroma note. The bitterness is stronger and contributing to a great deal of shimmering complexity. Soup is still thin in taste but there is a lot of long, enjoyable elegance in that taste. Drying astringency shows up here. The tea slowly declines for the fourth (had a fuller taste though) and fifth brew. At the sixth brew, the fun part is pretty much over, and one has to chase the bitterness, as any character is close to it. Later brews brings some nice flavors, a little yun and mouth aromas, a couple of other surprises. In evaluation, this tea is sold for 107 euros/250g, I believe, which amounts to about $230/400g. This is about right for an entry level premium tea, especially from Naka environs (remember, Naka's gushu garden is tiny, so one should never really expect authenticity). I'd say that this tea does merit the label of premium. As to whether it is a good deal, one should probably compare with the Banacha Mengsong Secret Garden, which is cheaper per gram. Do I like it, personally? I like a good Jingmai much more. I think that I would also prefer the pu-erh.sk Mannuo as well. This Naka is very much like a more elegant Hekai, with more umph and character than Hekai. I also do not really think this sort of thing will age particularly well. It should age, but I feel that it will probably age into something much like the Wisteria Qingteng, which was not that appealing to me. Smoke and blending really helps give body to the Mengsong Peacock from '05. I have one more try for later.

I also tried, from Teaclassico, the big zhong character 7542 from 2003, which looks to have a shui lan yin on it. This was traditionally stored and dried out. The leaves reflected that storage with a lot of rusty look and musty smell. This is, however, a very clean and dried out tea, as the first brew smells right, tastes right, and is not grungy. There isn't much of a need to go blow by blow here. It has a deep taste with plenty of body, but the tastes are more "interesting" than very good. This seems to have been a very smoky cake when new, and the traditional storage just laid that the heck out. However, the converted taste and aroma is fairly present in a kind of TCM way, and there is little wood or pleasant resin aroma/taste. It is not bothersome to me, but it isn't an affirmatively good taste. The soup texture, however, is very nice and soft, and there isn't any wet storage astringency, until maybe very late. This tea also has a lot of sweetness for something something plantation from 2003. While there is limited transformation in the mouth and a degree of cooling at the top of the throat, this tea doesn't change too much from cup to cup other than slowly get weaker. Limited bitterness, but also pretty caffeinated. Don't know how much qi either tea has, today. This cake is $129, and IMO, you're paying for high quality and clean storage, mostly. I do not think this tea is especially ready to drink. Needs more rounding of flavors and even more sweetness. I would recommend that a tong be kept for drinking in the 2020s. For drinking now, I would definitely prefer something like the White Whale or the 2002 7572 from white2tea--more real woodiness and other affirmative nice tastes along with stronger aftertastes, only way they lose to today's tea is stronger, darker, top taste and sweetness. Compared to the dry stored 7542 from 2002, flaws are in the other direction, heh.

I'm also thinking that the actual shuilanyin series need a printed warning on the label that sez that it's much milder and more subtle than you'd expect. Reviews of shuilanyin by BBB, Marshaln, GN?, pretty much all went kinda whuh? And I did as well. The fancy stuff it does is pretty damned fancy, though.

Mildly thinking that the white whale, despite its nonconformity, might be underpriced instead of fairly priced. Will have to try again, after all of this new traditional stored stuff from the '90s. Think I only have one more trad storage tea from 2000. Tomorrow, however, is Yiwu day.

A 2002 tea from a tea vendor in HK: It has bold flavors as some mild wet stored puerhs have. It loses out on the sweet side nut gain some in the bitterness department, which I think it favors its further development. The taste is a bit this and a bit that and not quite there yet as drinkable. It has little huigan. The overall impression is that it is in the transition phase to become enjoyable. It definitely has the traditional HK stored features and I believe it would develop as so. It should be a nice tea in a few years once it completes the transformation.

Today was Last Thoughts, the white2tea elite Yiwu production. The short review is yes, it's worth scrimping and saving to buy a pair.

The long review:
The tea leaves are pretty, but they emit a more normal strength dry aroma compared to yesterday's Naka. In general, throughout the session, the brewed soup generates a relatively low but solid aroma. The initial brews had more depth and things to look for, though. Also, through to brew 15 or so, qi was a definite feature of this tea, moderate to strong, and it felt like young tea qi and not just caffeine. Good and relaxing. Next, the soup is always of decent thickness, and late brews are relatively thick. This tea is consistently and very properly astringent in the drying fashion. Hmmm, that's the simple parts done with...

This tea is typically extremely complex and dynamic as well though the session when it comes to taste and aftertaste. There is always a slight muscatel edge that waxes and wanes through the session, but this tea is never particularly fruity. As the lead in might hint, the complexity in the soup taste is very soft, subtle and rounded--a very little like the 2006 YQH GushuChawang. Bitterness is generally fairly present and early brews have a strong rod of proper and productive bitter. The early taste centers essentially around a chocolate-type dark taste along with wood resin taste. As the session goes deeper, the early brews vary the chocolate and resin by strength and how floral. Later, the chocolate analog fades, as more muscatel and Menghai taste rises. Mint tastes occur often, and the resin can become beautifully floral, almost fleshily so, more along the sedate (rather than fruity) side of things, close to magnolia. Eventually the resin fades, and it becomes a sweet Menghai taste, with plenty of mushrooms as the tea finishes, for my purposes. There is always some sweetness to the taste, but nothing like what the pu-erh.sk Naka did or what Hekai/LBZ could do.

Now, with respect to the aftertastes, they are really, really good, and last to about brew 13 on the back half of the session. I generally felt the tea go down the throat. Lots and lots of huigans, in pretty much the sense where you think of them in plural terms, as they generally had their own character, depending on the cup and how cool the tea is. It started off with a quality hongchapu style huigan, in the yun rises and coats the mouth sense. Lots of transformation in the mouth before that bitterness even get the pungent huigan started. There was perfume, there was even a sweet cereal grains flavor, like cream of wheat. These aftertastes were generally pretty long in a soft, pungent way, and the forced the sipping to be slow. A couple even had the physicality the XZH Youle could have when I first got that magnum. The taste also stayed in the mouth very long. After I finished the front half, I could still taste it an hour later. And honestly, I think it tired my tongue out, and I should have taken a break after brew eight instead of ten. I had thought that the tea was nearing done, but after the rest, it had yet more flavor and aftertaste and some real power to it starting with brew eleven.


This is clearly way better than the Naka. Fuller taste, more complex taste, better aftertaste, more durable, more qi, blah, blah blah. Only thing that the Naka does better is caffeine, aroma strength, and sweetness. Remember, for the same amount of tea, that Naka would set you back $230. To make this even easier...This tea is way better than the Mengdai 2010 Bingdao or the 6FTM 2012 Hekai, sold at $288 and $390 respectively, and honestly, both of those tea, long term, offer just one thing they are better at. Bingdao has better and more pleasant soup viscosity and the Hekai has lots more zippy energy/floral mouth aroma. Needless to say, it's better than TIM's great Yiwu from 2012. Currently the only competition are possibly the 2011 Sui Yue Zhi Wei elite Yiwus at Royal Tea. More competition is coming, though. Apparently Houde will have the 2013 XZH Wangongzhai-Bohetang blend for sale soon. Not saying that it would automatically better. That would be difficult. However, that's the only thing, if I had a job, that would have slowed me from using my credit cards and buying two cakes of this tea right now. I can deal with the resulting austerity. When it's seven years from now, for taste, or ten years for taste and older tea qi, I will have long forgotten the hardship and be grateful for easy access to superlative tea. This isn't the sort of tea that ever stops getting more expensive, and while white2tea isn't going to have resale value (unless the proprietor becomes famous by saving Chengdu from some awful fate with the assistance of a pair of loyal dogs rescued from an evil Yulin butcher, or something unlikely like that (or be the mob boss behind FeiTai brand tea)...), tea like this is beyond the consideration of money.

the 2013 XZH Wangongzhai-Bohetang blend for sale soon

Click to expand...

This is good news, but it's a bit weird to me to blend Bohetang with a less elevated area, even from the same range. Just like this White2tea Yiwu you're talking about, it sounds fantastic but i don't feel attracted by the idea of blending gushu. Well that's just my point of view.

Oh, I nearly forgot: have you tried the90′s Hong Kong Style Storage Aged Raw Puer? It sounds interesting!

90's 8582, Orange in Orange, from the proprietor of Teaclassico. This particular tea is not on the website.

I felt that this was an okay tea. It has a relatively thin taste compared to the 2003 large mouth 7542. However, it's mostly affirmatively nice tastes of more or less tcm, preserved plums, and coffee. The first few brews should be tossed in order to spare the bladder. It has some young catankerousness that hasn't been beaten out of it by storage. There was a decent pungent huigan or two, but not worth it. The tea does settle into a groove of a kind of thin-tasting aged 8582 profile that has a little bit of sweetness, coats the mouth, and some brews leave that nice camphor mouth aroma (camphor like old tea and not all sharp and phenol-ly, and a little like how GFZ does it). Most brews do coat the mouth, so flavors stay in it a while after you stop drinking. There is a very mild to mild qi, and all of this makes for what is a pleasant and very mellow session. I would not say that this tea is something magnificent or really worth storage space in comparison to the 2003 7542(which has a stronger flavor, thicker soup, sweeter, etc, etc, and the oddities can be further rounded by time), but it's probably nice for a no-fuss aged tea session, and it will last pretty much as long as you want to drink it, hence not wasting bladder space. Wouldn't know how I'd price it, since there is no price listed, and I probably would prefer to find mid2k gentle stuff like cheap yiwu, bangwei, good shu, etc for this sort of drinking. I also have very little experience with 8582 in general, mostly to do with the XZH '07 blend of Yiwu and Bulang (and now Dayi 801). Getting more of a feel for what Hong Kong storage is probably the most educational aspect of this series of tastings.

Some more thoughts on that yiwu yesterday, which of course hung over this tea today, unfairly...

It's closest to YQH modes of Yiwus, and I think of it as a blend of '04, '05 Yiwu Chawangs in terms of their beautiful aftertaste in throat and endurance, and the '06 Gushuchawang in terms of behavior otherwise. Just more of a darker and wilder taste.

I was looking for other examples of ultra-high priced yiwu (like HuiShingHao), and in reading some of the blurbs, it struck me that they tend to emphasis lack of bitterness and astringency. Now, I *did* pile on the TeaUrchin GFZ '12 for being bitter and astringent, but the bitterness wasn't very productive, and I wasn't exactly being carried away on cloud9 anyways, so super-critical me. I say that because I think that it's probably a mistake to desire tea with little bitterness or astringency. Not that it's a fault, necessarily, especially with strong and good flavors already, but that the bitterness which contributes to length of taste, finish, or effects in the throat is probably a big contributer to the flavors and sensations of tea, and more pleasure is had when the bitterness itself is eroded away, but not what it brought.

I had been thinking about whether if I am wrong. I remember being pretty enthusiastic about the 2006 YQH Gushuchawang and being slowly brought down to earth by its issues in terms of thin flavor and oftentimes lack of durability. I also remember how enthusiastic I was with EoT's Mannuo, which was pretty correct, I think, but which failed to account for the lobular leaf issue in terms of aging. People have individual tastes, but I'm vain enough to think that my tastes might mean something. After all, I don't do all *that* much more meaningful than investigate tea! So I fear giving bad advice, particularly over such expensive teas.

So how many Yiwu(-ish) teas in this sort of league could I compare this too (that I drank at 1.5 year or younger), and how much do they cost? The first one was 2010 XZH Risk One's Life to Pursue. This was the first of a series which Tony Chen apparently does some curious blending (or picking out single tree tea, who knows), different for each year. At the changing of prices in early spring of 2013, this was $660 a 400g cake. I think this is a good cake because of a very idiosyncratic flavor profile that's relatively full, and with few flaws, if not superlative otherwise. It's more of a good thing because it's different rather than that it's better than more standard beauties, like a Miss Inuit beauty contest winner. Another one, now recalling, was the EoT GFZ '11. It was similar in some ways, especially in have that bedrock of Menghai flavor, and it matches this one for qi, I think, at the time (certainly does so now). While more sensate sweet, this EoT is lighter in taste, and much less overtly complex. There isn't really a price for this tea available right now. Then there was the 2012 Yunhaizhidian cake sample I got from TIM. That one was a little louder in taste, a lot louder in aroma, at least for the first few brews. However, it doesn't have quite that bedrock Menghai mushroom base like the '11 EoT or Last Thoughts, and it collapses a bit after the first few brews. While it has lengthy taste and aftertaste, it doesn't have a comparably strong activity in the throat beyond feeling the tea go down. The Yunhaizhidian is pretty close though, in quality. No idea how much it costs. There is a stateside seller of Yunhaizhidian, but that place sells older and apparently not as premium tea. Also, the Yunhaizhidian website doesn't have a link or note for a spring version of this tea, though it does have one for a fall version. That tea could be fall, but I'll stick with what I'm told. The last comparable tea is the Baohongyinji ZhenrenYufeng. That tea also has a comparable in dark flavors of border Yiwu tea, gossipped to be from Yishanmo (if so, way different than the TeaUrchin of 2012). That one is pretty much paint-by-the-numbers premium tea like the Naka, I'd say. While it has a great mouthfeel, with soup body and superlative electric energy, it's missing the sort of depth of feeling/flavor in the throat and qi. Now, I can't find the price for this tea, but the probable comparable tea in the Wangonzhai of the same year is about $350. In comparison, the Bingdao that Origin and White2Tea brought to shop as samples is now about $660 a cake. The one from this year is about $800 if I read right.

Tongqinghao '90s cake from the proprietor of Teaclassico. Having looked this up on Taobao, it's either '92 or '96. Dry leaves was firmly compressed and looking pretty unpromising. Did deliver, in a couple of ways. Like the other Teaclassico teas, this was clean. The taste stayed the same for the most part, in my mind like dry dog biscuits, and in general, a kind of mixed grain biscuit with a bit of pleasant stale and funk to it for character. Taste was denser and deeper than the 8582 yesterday, though it declines a bit more aggressively late in the session (but still brews endlessly). Does not have the kind of truant plantation nastiness in the early session, just a bit of bitterness, so the first brews are sort of worth drinking, especially if you have multiday session in mind. The soup is generally smooth, with a bit of drying finish at times, and perhaps only incidental throat discomfort very early. It is also thick and soft, but not as soft as the big zhong 7542. It's not to complex in the mouth or throat taste or aftertaste wise, but one striking element is how it coats the tongue very firmly in a sweet, slightly fruity way, causing long term salivation. This happened later in the session. The taste will stay in the mouth a long time, and even pops up after tooth brushing, dinners, etc, five hours later. There is good qi a long way in, but it does eventually peter out in a way that the 8582 yesterday did not, but there was more of it. I think that's pretty much it. It's not a super fancy tea, but it is a very nice aged tea that browned, but not too browned--couldn't have been stored too hard, and it's almost ripe. This is reinforced by the fact that the mother was complaining to me that all the sheng puerh that she bought (and brewed western style) was too bitter (said often). I said, "That's why you gongfu it, but here, have a cup of '90s sheng puerh!" She drank it, and was like "This is like relaxing into a good scotch?!". "Yeah, that's the point of me storing all that tea in the corner of the sunroom." Oh.

This was a pretty simple one for today, didn't really like the two teas I had. The first, Teaclassico's '98 commissioned Red Mark 8582, is mostly because it's been stored too hard for my tastes, you know, like steak ordered well done, and you find that it's a rubber puck. It's clean, with a full body in terms of taste and viscosity, and a little softness to the texture. A bit more woody than the Orange in Orange 8582, and darker tasting, without strong plumminess, and a hint of that dog biscuit quality I found in yesterday's tea. Mostly just TCM. I don't find it complex, but then aged 8582 are usually not complex. There is little bitterness, though what there is stays through the session longer than the OinO. There is a lengthy lingering taste in the mouth, as advertised. However, there's even less qi than there was in the OinO. It's an okay tea, but I just didn't really get into this, and personally would never pay $200 for the tea. I certainly would for the Tongqinghao, but I suspect that tea is way more. I do think that there are a lot of people who would appreciate this tea because it's definitely well browned, cleanly so, and offers the usual flavors and a bit more. I just want something a little livelier.

Edited to add, the romanization was Tungchinhao ChiChang, I had been thinking Tongqinghao, but it could be Tongxinghao, which is different.


Feeling like I wanted something different, I opened a second gifted baggie of TeaUrchin LSD Yiwu maocha and did a quickie 4g session i the gaiwan. It's a little fuller in taste a year later, and the body is better, but the reasons I don't really like this tea is still the same. Pleasant enough caffeine, though.

Today, I had the Dingxinghao tuo from 2000. Shorthand for those of you that know, it's very much like the Dingxinghao cakes offered by EoT and Puerhshop, as well as the original Taobao vendors. Just a bit browner, but stronger in flavors. I enjoyed this one, but it does eventually start hurting the throat somewheres past ten, like thirteen or so. Thinner soup viscosity with a bit of texture in the early going and thins out fairly quickly. Dark chocolate tones along with a garish ketone fruit note, usually kept low enough in volume such that it's interesting and pleasant. Lively light acidity keeps things a bit fresh. There are some light aftertastes of the sort one finds in traditional stored tea. Some mild-moderate qi in the first seven or so brews, one of those teas where the qi dies out later rather than continue on. I would not pay a lot of money for this one, personally, myself, but I could see myself enjoying a tea like this for a quick, relaxing, and clumsy-minded session.

The last Teaclassico tea is the 1998 apple green tuocha. The website sez that it's been in dry HK storage. Can't be true, since this is relatively hard stored with frosting even inside chunks. This tea also had a fishy note that you can tell if you let it cool too much in the early going (which is probably washed out by most people who'd be drinking something like this, but still...). All that said, it's pretty dried out, and I definitely enjoyed it. Not really in a holds-my-attention way, but in that it's a good, homey, and robust tea. It has a very solid and loud taste with a profile of coffee, birch, sarsaparilla, traditional store TCM, a little. It has a obscure, dark fruitiness similar to what you'd find in dark chocolate or coffee (and not that ketone trés treble stuff in the DingXing). As you can guess, this is a very pleasant taste that pretty much stays the same, getting less complex (fish goes first, good, but fruitiness in a few brews, etc). The soup viscosity isn't especially good for a tea of its age and browning, but it's got enough, in that meh sense. The qi is pretty nice and mellowing. Not strong or anything, but it does set one at ease. It fades somewhat, quickly in the session, but comes back for an encore on the back end for a couple more brews. The aftertaste department is fairly weak with this tea. Doesn't have much of one until I'm on the minute or longer brews, and it's merely nice enough old tea camphor taste, tho' no cooling or any other mouthfeel. I was left wondering whether this is from the same tea shop commission that did the 2000 7542 that JakubT liked so much. The review sounds a bit the same.

Of the TeaClassico stuff I rank in best to worst:
Tungchinghao ChiChang--the tea with clearly the best original leaves, reflected in good mouthfeel, gripping sweetness, and steady qi deep into the session.

2003 Big Zhong 7542--this is provisional and subject to change. It obviously needs longer storage, but it has a dense taste, substantial mouthfeel in viscosity and texture, and plenty of sweetness. I seem to remember some good effort in the cooling mouthfeel department.

1998 8582 Red Mark--this wasn't dynamic enough a tea for me, but perfectly fine otherwise. Maybe too light on the qi, if that holds to be true of the tea in general. Aftertaste is there, but people who like lighter storage will probably be like me and go "meh".

2000 DingXing--not particularly refined but eminently drinkable, especially as a change of pace with other daily tea.

1999 Orange in Orange 8582--dinged heavily for the strong plantation early on. Does not have a dense taste or mouthfeel. Does have plenty of plumminess and is very durable. The qi is also durable, but very light.

I'd drink all of these teas, but the only one that makes me think I might want to drink often is the first one. Everything else would have to be much cheaper than they are for me not to buy alternatives. Right now, my attitude is that people make really good shu these days, at least for my tastes presently. Really good shu is a lot cheaper than well stored and browned older teas, *especially* when there is better material in that cake.

2003 7532 from a tea vendor in HK: The aroma is so soothing! This has aged very well. It tastes so balanced. It is mesmerizing that it arouses your imagination about its future development into a delicious tea. i enjoyed this tea even now for what it is. I also can't wait to see what it will become in a few years. Sometimes it is hard to describe what a good tea is. When you have gained so much experience, you just can tell when the great one presents itself in front of you. I want more of this tea!

Decided to give the 2003 Big Zhong 7542 tea from Teaclassico another try... I don't think it's as weird tasting as I first thought. And not smoky or derived from smoke. Soup viscosity is thinner than what I expected, but the softness is definitely there, and when the tea thickens late, the texture is good. However, this has a lot of drying astringency. Obviously said astringency has been providing that good texture, but there's more to go in terms of storage. The taste is less strong and dense than I remember, but still alright. The aroma is pretty good and more worthy of mentioning. Sensate sweetness is there as well as some cooling and a bit of an effect in the throat. Some qi, early qi wasn't especially high quality, while back end is okay. Only mild strength. There might be an issue with pesticides, got a bit of feeling that might indicate that.

Really shouldn't have tried to do two different tea. Not only did I feel entirely too wired that night, didn't fall asleep until past 5AM, but I don't think I really had a good handle on the second session.

Rankings, including all teas this time...

Tongqinghao

8582 Red Mark

Apple Green Tuo

2003 7542

Dingxing

Orange in Orange 8582

It's hard for me not to say that aged and browned tea worth savoring after is just well out of my reach or most anyone else's reach. I'm not *that* excited by the '96 Purple Dayi, and it's not ten times better than the '98 Apple Green tuo, but the difference between like and savor is huge in monetary terms.

Unknown bangwei. Wanted to see if I really liked it, and also experimenting with using nine grams instead of my usual seven. That didn't really make the tea stronger flavored, and it increased the astringent drying feel, bitterness, tartness. So in the end, this isn't really that good, its big pluses is that it has a lot of texture, even if the soup isn't that thick. Also, when you get late enough in the session, it will deliver a few cups with a very nice fruity sweetness. Otherwise, it's very much like any other decent but nondescript tea.

When I woke up, I decided I wanted something nice, so XZH Fall '07 Jinggu Nu'er Cha. I figured it was close enough to that seven year mark, what's three-four months between friends? Dry leaf was aromatic. The tea soup itself was more or less aromatic throughout the session, predominantly honey, with Jinggu style florals and faint herbs, with slight differences between cup to cup. The taste was generally pretty thin. Soup viscosity is pretty good and on the softer/jucier side of things. I think mode is the same program as Bingdao and Kunlu teas sort of as described by Linda Louie: http://www.banateacompany.com/pages/puerh_teas-Kunlu_Mountain_cake.html . We're talking a thin, very nice and elegant taste within what is an otherwise active tea. The wash wasn't bitter, but the next two brews was quite heavy with bitterness, and the flavor didn't seem to be too far from it. That bitterness receded and the flavor strengthened a bit, but it was extremely active in the mouth and top of the throat. There was a very strong flavored yun, almost as strong as the top taste, and in general, a lot of feeling in the throat and camphor/more florals coating the mouth. The tea also was highly astringent in the way of LBZ teas, where flavor is stored on the walls. The activity and astringency led to my tongue feeling rough and my throat a bit sore and abused. I think it's from all that activity, because sometimes, my throat protests at tea with strong effects there. Oolongpu nastiness is a bit nastier and I'm sort of sure I would have noted this before were that to be the case. I also worried about storage, but I put that aside as I don't have anything I know of going nasty. In any event, I didn't let that stop me, and I enjoyed a lot of brews, about twenty, mostly because the late infusions were extremely pleasantly sweet and friendly to people with sweet tooths. Tastes like honey and flowers, sweet like honey and flowers, what's not to like, eh? The qi was also strong and of generally high quality. Easily better than that thai brand '13 Bingdao, despite the discomfort. The Mengdai really only does better in terms of soup viscosity and textured softness and smooth drinking About equal in qi, maybe a bit better quality. Much inferior in terms of appealing flavor, sweetness, aftertastes.

Had to abort a shu session, so I went with pu-erh.sk Naka, four grams. I think I kind of got the sort of let down I had with the TU LBZ, with the second try of that tea. This tea is quite fine, but there isn't all that much there is to it. It's just a nice tea. It's mostly the same as before, but I didn't get as much shimmering, and I only got one huigan in the session. There is definitely a very nice melon-like note under the general menghai-style sweetness. Knowing teas like this, this tone probably won't exist for too long into the aging process. It's nicely sweet as before. Soup viscosity is a little thinner than the first time. No qi.

It really did not help to have had the XZH yesterday. That Jinggu Nu'er cha was not quite the top grade in '07, but it is just too much better than this Naka (I have a suspicion that the abrasively green EoT '10 Shi Rei may also be better--certainly better aroma-wise), and not only just the memory of my taste, but also the memory of only paying $76 for 450g.

One tea is nice. The other tea makes you feel. Of course, much of this sentiment is essentially no qi? no aftertaste? Not something to lust after. I can forgive thin taste. I can forgive astringency and bitterness and odd flavors and a touch of stomach discomfort. I can even forgive not the best durability. Just not no qi/aftertaste.

Had the YS 2013 Jingmai (Mangjing) today. I enjoyed it, and a bit more than I did the Naka two days ago. This has had the advantage of being crafted more to bring immediate enjoyment (more stuff happening on the tastebuds), and it has had the extra year. The Naka is a more refined tea with that really nice Menghai area floral edge, and it's quite likely to age better. That being said, it's almost certainly not gushu, rather being very well cared for shengtai.