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SOTD- sheng of the day

Had the 2005 Naka, finishing off the sample. A bit more gram/ml. It's about the same, except that the menghai floral is stronger and more distinct. It was also smoother, and there was no tartness. I can believe that this is a Naka, or Naka-like gushu on the basis of its similarity to other quality aged lobular leaf stuff from Yibang and Jingmai. Has the same flaw in that there isn't really much depth. I found myself thinking that this would be an excellent blend with one of those extra-sweet Hekai gushu that doesn't have that much character.

Today I finished off the 54-46 Was My Number. I liked it about as much. Differences was that it was less vegetal-tomato-ey than the first time in aroma. Also found more of a fleshy floral aroma, particularly in the first brew. There was a bit more fruit hints in the taste. I think I savored the subtle huigans in the throat and back of the mouth more. The viscosity was less, and the tea did not turn rock sugar late. Definitely enjoyed it, even though it's definitely not nonpareil class or close to it. Very good tea.
 
2011 Gold Dayi from Taobao: It smells very nice on both the tea cake and the soup. It is a loud tea on the aroma and, comparatively, somehow is quiet on the palate (like reading a book that you have to pay attention to it). It is clean, straight forward, and easy to understand and drink. It is a good tea. It could easily convince other tea drinkers who are used to drink green tea/Oolong/black tea. I can see why this tea is popular because it appeals to all types of tea drinkers. I think it will become even more expensive in the future because more people will seek it out.
 
A few days ago, did the last full grammage session of the 2010 EoT Bangwei cake I bought back in the summer of 2010. I enjoyed it, as this particular pile of leaves didn't have too much wrong with it. The top taste is showing some similarity in the sort of awkward nut-floral-wood character as the unknown Bangwei I had been drinking, except of course, much more dry stored. Thinner soup than the unknown Bangwei. However, it did a very good job in terms of lasting aftertastes in the back of the mouth. Late infusions were pleasant sweet flavors. Has a bit of qi, doesn't seem like it is a strong as it was when I first got it, but it could just mean I'm more used to qi.

Had some 2002 7542, and I am enjoying this a lot now. So long as I'm serious about not overbrewing early, I get some really nicely complex and deep tastes, especially for something that's dry stored. After the good stuff early on, it become more just a pleasant tea. Doesn't really seem to last all that long. pre-2004 tea respect, restored. I also am now inclined to really just be a dry stored sort of person. Atlanta storage really seems to take the edge off harsh dry China storage, for some reason--takes about six months.

Finished off the ChenYuanHao that's originally from OriginTea. The taste is so thin, I really can't be sure of what I'm drinking. So it could be 2007. But at this point, it doesn't matter, as I don't find it to be a very good tea. Might be worth it to pile in twice the normal grammage, it's smooth and not inclined to bitter. If the Malay 2001 CYH is preferable, that's pretty low on the supposed genuine gushu pole...
 
2013 Xizihao Chawang, which is specifically labeled as Bohetang.

Short form: Yes, if you have the money, you should buy it. It's a lot of money, though.

In the early going, this tea was slightly disappointing. It had a flavor profile similar to white2tea Last Thoughts, but was not particularly bitter or dynamic, behaving mostly like the EoT Guafengzhai. Again, the taste is a kind of near muscatel fruitiness embedded into a fairly yang floral character, more aggressively male than the EoT GFZ, and like that of Last Thoughts. The aroma was pretty good and had some nuance, but not too attention getting. By the third brew, the fruitiness is declining, with a kind of mellow chocolate and other deeper nuances taking its place. Fourth brew, it was gone, and the tea's top flavor was pretty much enjoyed much like the EoT through to brew seven. In these first seven brews, the qi was fairly strong and much of the aftertaste activity stayed in the back of the mouth, with limited taste and feel in the throat. Soup viscosity went from good enough, to having a kind of mucilaginous feel.

Beyond the seventh brew, the tea begins to have an aggressive astringency that coats the mouth and throat, and really gets going in brew ten. There was a lot of fun to be had, and lots of different flavors revealed after the soup went down the gullet. This was, in fact, quite similar to how good banzhang should be (without the bitterness that makes those huge pungent huigans). Through to about brew sixteen, there was a peak of enjoyment. This tea took a long time to get going. For those that have to keep it short (I normally do 3,5,7,10,15...), it might be a wise idea to lengthen the brews from the start to reach this very nice astringency. After the peak, the soup was really relatively tired, and died quickly--got about 20 brews in all, the back session didn't get very much, so about only three or four more brews.

The Sanhetang is easily better than the EoT GFZ on the basis of that later performance. EoT is more minerally, more conventionally green tasting (mind you, it's a year younger than the XZH). Against Last Thoughts, there is more of a philosophical issue in that the LT is more bitter, throat huigan-y and perhaps more storable. Very similar flavor profile, but the LT is also a bit narrower in taste and less durable. Much less qi. At this point, I would be very cautious about young teas that aren't bitter. You'd really have to expect it to be very full tasting to be sure of something acceptable down the road. However the XZH is plenty astringent, at least later in the session. I did notice that qi slacked to subtle or off as I went later into the session.

I have one more try to be sure, but I think this is pretty close to nonpareil. Maybe a bit more aroma with that extra bitter that produces. Little chance it doesn't hold value as a tea to drink, nor high opportunity costs. If I had the money or the credit, I would buy two for a thousand and never look back, largely the same as LT, tho' had I *really* had the money, I'd have check the XZH first, and then went XZH. Much better value than the $350/400g 54-46 even though it costs $150 more, because it's a clearer valuation--top of the line, explicit Yiwu.
 
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Some recent teas...

One day I woke up and I wanted good tea, so I took out the XZH '07 Xishangmeishao. This is not always a demonstrative tea, but that day was a very good session--profoundly orchid, and rather yang at that, not too much in the way of yielding sweetness, other than some subnotes like the sort of wine fruitiness you see from aged Bangwei and the like. Of course, not fullbodied, but so active and complex as to make that immaterial. There was still tartness, but light and pleasantly active, like a rolling a steel ball bearing around my tongue. The texture was velvety and substantial. Aftertastes were ridiculous in taste and activity. Qi was not as euphoric as usual, but very strong, and mostly focused on the head, and does not weaken as the session went on. Extremely durable. Finished cup was usually highly aromatic, which is not usual for my usual wood-fired cup. Had a blast, and this session was more enjoyable than the excellent Yiwus I've had recently, like the '14 XZH, and better than the average sessions of of the best Yiwu I personally owned. This session was pretty much a reminder of just how off the charts '05-'09 XZH can be.

Next day , '07 An Xiang sheng. Pretty low taste volume. Bitterness is lower than usual. Texture was pleasantly buttery. While the taste was not strong as I'd like (paranoid about staleness?), it was a pleasant mix of floral and stone fruit. The aftertastes are very good for a factory tea, and is definitely reminiscent as a whole, to having some sort of banzhang character, so I tend to believe as I've heard somewhere that this is a 7532 blend with banzhang spicing things up.

Next day, I thought about the previous low volume, and recalling that the 2002 7542 I have is pretty loud, like the Jianyun 7542, and decided to compare. That definitely turned out to be true. However, this particular 7542 is really awkward, and is more interesting than good, compared to the overt pleasant character of the An Xiang. The back end of the session was very good, as it settled down and had an excellent menghai floral mouth aroma for a few brews. This tea with another decade, much like the Jianyun, should be quite nice, if not as good as the Jianyun.

I also took out 4 grams of the Longlanxiang from EoT, to investigate orchid character. This tea only had a little bit, with a little nut character and a lot of sweetness you'd find in many teas around JingGu. It's not hugely exciting, but this is really very much a good green puerh for drinking now.

Today I had some '06 2nd Memorial. Like the An Xiang, a relatively muted taste. The thickness and smoothness of the soup was excellent, though. There was a little qi, from the age. Nothing too exciting, but quite pleasant enough.

This has been one of those stretches where it's ingrained further into me that I really don't care as much about aged mellowness as I do the base quality of the tea. I'll happily drink teas with a bit of humid to them--the An Xiang and 2nd Memorial could have used some, but mellow nonaggression is simply not a priority. I came into the puerh world a gushu lover, if spoiled by not ever dealing with 6FTM or Mengyang Guoyang or any of the other time and stomach and space wasters, and I guess I'll never be much other than a gushu lover.
 
I have a cake of that 2006 2nd Memorial and I agree about the muted taste in some sessions. It's a pretty incosnsistent tea. I bought 3 more of it to age, quite a good deal at the price I'm getting it at (168RMB).
 
After some 8582, I was thinking about MarshalN's post about giving up on tea, and I decided to drink four grams of my riskiest premium tea, the '09 XZH Jingmai.

And woah, not much flavor or aroma (what there is of it was kind of strawberry-milkshake and honey, weirdly enough). However, the qi was quite strong, if not particularly characteristic. The mouthfeel was excellent, a little silky, a little oily and rather reminiscent of the Wistaria Taihe. The feeling in the throat was pretty good, and it does have huigans and mouthcoats in terms of aftertaste. But no real top taste! It does keep getting stronger, though, until about the ninth brew or so. There was no bitterness or astringency, so with all of that, it was mostly like drinking a really special hot water. Pleasant enough, and lasted about fifteen brews in all. It took a lot longer for this tea to get like the YS Xikong, presumably because of it being spring tea rather than fall, and that it's not hongcha. I do suspect that this is a low rather than a true character of the tea, though, since the last session a few months ago wasn't like this. Even if it perks back up, it definitely makes me go, NO LOBULAR LEAF TEA, buddy. At least not necessarily for aging.
 
Sheng to celebrate the sunshine, spring is in the air.


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2004 Xiaguan iron cake. Has tinkered taste and aromas like many Xiaguans do. This one has a rather yang antique furniture/old guy cologne/granny's house floral-retired smoke taste on top. This is on a more or less aged Mengku honey base, which is a thick and loud taste (compared to, say, '02 Tai Lian). It's rather similar to the '11 Jin Dayi, except that the Jin Dayi has a darker and 'banna base taste. The soup is relatively thick--starts out thick early in the session, thins out some, and thickens again, before thinning at the end of the session. There is little in the way of aftertaste in the throat, but it does do some stuff in the mouth--there are sometimes sneaky plummy tastes, and it can be rather cooling. There is also some mouthcoating. Not sure how much qi it has, yet, but don't think very much. The tea can still be rather bitter and tart, though--it clearly still needs a long time (this seems to have been fairly dry stored with a touch of humidity), like ten years before it's more ready than it always was when it was processed for immediate drinking. On Taobao, this is sold at around $60. For me, this is too processed for me to really want something like this, and there are still lots of really good $60 teas I'm likely to enjoy more. I think many other people will like this. While not preferable to something like the White Whale or the '02 7542, it's probably an overall more luxurious drink than the anon Bangwei I've been drinking, however pleasantly bad it is...
 
2004 white wrapper Nannuo, which has been stored most of its life in Banna. The tea never had a strong aroma and kinda has a weakish taste (the back end of the session, after some hours of rest did deliver a couple of cups of more solid taste). I'm not sure that the storage, despite the humidity, was all that good. The essence is pretty similar to Nannuo of that age, like what you'd have from Wisteria, except with a lighter taste--leather, tobacco, wood, slight hints of honey and fruit, some ground veggie like carrot. This tea also tends to deliver drying astringency that releases flavors, and it also does do some work in the back of the mouth and throat--some cooling, a yun sort of thing. All in all, some, but not that much aftertaste work. No qi felt. Nothing particularly wrong with it, so it's a useful chunk for normal daily drinking. It's something that I've thought for awhile, but I think that Nannuo takes an unusually long time to really age pleasantly. Banzhangs typically get reasonably pleasant to drink in what, six or seven years? That is, if you even started with much in the way of kucha.
 
An unknown tea labeled as 2006 YH (gunna be LOTS of unknown teas being posted here).

This was a fairly tippy tea that also looks to be lobular leaf. The taste and aroma switches to and forth between fruity and floral, but they are not particularly strong or thick. The soup viscosity is never thick, and after the first couple of cups, declines. There is an occasional bitterness, but primarily, the tea is drying. Does do some floral mouthcoating, a bit of cooling, and once, it did something in the throat. No qi. When I checked the finished leaves, they seem to be a bit rust colored, though I'm not sure I tasted much in the way of hongcha softness and I didn't find any malt. I liked yesterday's Nannuo better, but I still have a couple more chances to like the tea. Dry leaf actually is fairly pretty.
 
A 2008 Yiwu tea from unknown maker.

This one was good enough that I wish I knew who made it. It's not awesome, though, just good enough that one wishes to see what prices are like. Why? Well, the main issue with the tea is that the top taste isn't very thick, though it's definitely deep, particularly very early in the session. Aromatic or spicy wood, chocolate, florals, plumminess, all that classic yummy Yiwu stuff. Quickly, though, one merely quaffs the tea as the top taste loses detail a bit later in the session. The soup thickness also never becomes particularly good, and becomes thin as well, later in the session. Aroma follows the top taste tendencies. Occasionally, drying astringency shows up, but it may also be productive. Now, what's good about it is that the finish is usually good, even with a low flavor soup, and there is a number of cups with a very nice yun, sitting in the throat, with cooling and flavor. Also, I felt nice and relaxed while drinking this, so I think there is a bit of qi going on here as well.

This is a little similar to the MingYuanHao '05 that I still have one full cake of. Nicer taste with more refined wood and more chocolate, but less thick taste, less thick texture. Did not show any of the bad plantation habits that the MYH can have. I surmise more qi than the MYH as well. Much less durable.

The tea yesterday turned out to be the 2006 Yunhai LaoBanzhang (and guessed to be actually Xinbanzhang). I guess it's a companion to the 2006 Yunhai Nannuo cake offered at white2tea. I am definitely going to have a closer taste of this when I finally get back to it. It really did sort of feel like a Yibang or Jingmai. The revelation made me think of the Puersom 2012 LBZ, which had a narrowness of taste I find similar, although--much less fruity.
 
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an unknown, bad top taste, bitterness creates length. Another sip. dump.

Decided on something labeled something something '90s something Xing Hao.

Turned out to be the Tongqinghao that Teaclassico also sells. At least I think so, because the taste and character is much like that tea. It would be a misspelling on the part of that chickenscratch writer, though.

I drank a few cups, and I've pretty much decided to swear off all wet stored stuff. Pleasant, mellow, with a sweet mouth huigan, but not for me. Not offensive at all, but compared to teas that were merely stored in a humid place, just not engaging with my lust centers.

Drank some sort of aged looseleaf shu later on. Has plastic baggie umami. Has a little qi. But it's loose, and it's shu (and it's not that good tippy stuff), and so it's boring.
 
mid 90's 7542

This has been wetstored, and has plastic baggie umami.

The first three or four brews were pretty fantastic though. Unlike the 80's Xiaguan iron cake, which was soily early, this was spicy, woody, TCM in moderate aroma and taste. A little tanginess to the taste. Good viscosity and reasonably smooth. The qi was strong and feels great and relaxing. There was a very long and lasting plummy finish cum huigan at the top of the throat that took whole minutes before I deigned to sip again.

Then it dropped out, started dying and becoming more astringent, and I limped along for another six or seven brews.

The back end of the session had a really good flavor to it, and still a bit of viscosity. Not much in the aroma, no qi, and just a little mouth aroma for aftertaste. At a low enough price, I'd definitely recommend this. I understand that this sample was a lot worse a year ago, though, and so never made any Western facing shelf. Perhaps it aired out nicely (while adding plastic funk). Maybe I am merely displeased at the original quality of the Tongqinghao, and not too much the warehousing, though like the Trad char., too much is very much a bad thing in my book. This is mostly depth and not outright soily or funky, with a natural tasting woodiness and all that, so storage like that, I guess I'm okay with.
 
The first tea was an '01 7542, wet stored. Shicang dry aroma that tends toward plum, minerals, and wood at its best. This is short-lived. The taste is generally pretty thin and only has one or two decent brews of substantial flavor. There is often a accompanying bitter-astringent-tart taste. Some persistent light warehouse funk. There is some qi, but not that much. Pretty easy to understand why this particular tea was rejected.

The second tea was a bunch of maocha in a bag with a bit of paper saying...laocha, so I used the kyusu pot in case it was a black tea. No malt aroma, shengpu. It has a fairly green aroma that's sort of like Zhenyuan teas, or maybe that TeaUrchin Nahan '13. Let's add in an odd chestnuttish umami note to that aroma. The first couple of brew aroma were very strong, and moderates as the session goes on. Doesn't change much. The taste was mostly like the aroma, and I mostly tried to enjoy it as I did the EoT Pesticide tea or the Nahan. I idly consider Xigui? Nah, not fruity enough. What was very interesting was just how brown and yellow the soup was, in my blue celadon cups that I typically use for shu. Even more, just how *cloudy* it was, with lots of burnt black flecks floating around. In my first brew, there was also a lot of tip fur at the bottom of my cup! However, in my first brew, I took a couple of sips and got the brush-back fastball. Nuh uh, this is gushu. Top of the line, practically, for qi, and it also had an outstanding oily and substantial texture in the soup. Like raw oysters sliding back, and also leaves the mouth slick for a bit. Aftertastes tend to be about a good, sweet finish and then a reaction in the throat, most of the time feeling, with occasional yun or a slight pungent huigan feel as well. Towards the end of the session, there is a peppery feel generated in the throat I find pleasant. There are hints of interesting sweet flavors mostly aligned with caramel that show up in the back, adding variety to a top taste that only slowly fades into a sort of green honey taste.

The tea likely is this one: http://www.twodogteablog.com/2013/09/22/never-say-never-manzhuan-2001-raw-puer/

I had thought this tea much younger than it was, and had wondered why it wasn't bitter, if it was so green. I also didn't really want to waste any brews of something like this, so I restarted the back session at 2AM, figuring that I've got most of the caffeine out of the way. Very high qi that moves some, green honey taste, and the same great texture. Whew!

This makes me also feel good about the prospects for gushu tea. This is much higher end than premium cake of the era circa '98-'02.
 
'01 Simplified yun 7542 QB. This one looked wetstored, tasted generally of flint and strong plumminess. Concluded it was a fake (missing a certain menghai character that should be there) and went on to an excellent oolong.
 
2002 Fuhai 7536. A little wet.

Has flavors and aromas of wood, TCM, plums. Minor finish. Minor qi.

This is a pleasant tea, but I'm beginning to think that Fuhai shengs is rather like Changtai shengs. Relatively mild and short flavors that doesn't have the oomph to make anything like a memorable session, and normally crafted with that in mind. This tea definitely can have a purpose in your pumidor, but it's basically for times when you want something very mellow, or want to treat it as disposable as shu, but not tasting like shu.
 
This sample had dark larger leaves with lots of gold fur on it. There were also lots of huangpan in there, that looked rusty. It wasn't labeled, so I took a shot in the dark and looked online, and figured that it was like the '90s blue mark at white2tea...this influenced my perceptions. At any rate, the tea was definitely lincang, and behaved substantially like a more mature (and bigger leaf) Tai Lian, with no bitterness. It was very mellow though, without much thickness of flavor. Probably even nicer if shown a firm hand in leaf amounts or brewing times. This had a good amount of qi, more than what the Tai Lian often can manage, as well, so all in all, it was very pleasant if not *that* exciting. The Tai Lian is the better tea, overall, even if more bitter, etc.

This turned out to definitely not be the 90's blue mark, but perhaps '05 DXS? Or simply an anon good tea we'll never know the name of...
 
A couple of more mystery teas today...

One is merely chickenscratch, a wet stored tea labeled 2000...mebbe 7542? This one wasn't too bad. It had a good, aromatic woody aroma, plummy in the finish, good thickness of the soup. The top taste is minerally-woody-weedy with a slight off-taste resembling chlorine. It doesn't really change much or have much in the way of interest, typical of some wet-stored sheng. There is some of that bad astringency that wet storage can bring, so this would need a bunch more years of dry storage to really make a nice everydayish sort of aged sheng.

The second tea had leaves that looked like rusty shu, and I prepped and brewed like it was shu. However, from the leaves, all of it turned out to be fairly large, and rather flexible, like aged sheng. It might be very lightly fermented shu. Like yesterday's tea, was in a totally unlabeled packet, and I was assuming it was leftovers from store shelves--so my preconception moved from 2001 Orangem Mark shu, to 1992 Xiaguan (because of the strong root herb and chai element), and finally to the 1997 7582. Of course, it might totally not be the 1997 7582! This was generally a kind of hollow tea with a strong spicy (like chai--ginger, tumeric, ginseng?), woody, camphor taste around a thin "tea" center. The soup was moderately thick and with a notable texture. As the session develops the "tea" element gets a smidge stronger and make the resulting drink more balanced. Sometimes, there is an inappropriate bitter-tart. There is also some cooling and a touch of sweet finish to go with it. Gets slightly sweeter as the session develops. The qi in the initial brews are sort of strong, but didn't last, so I thought probably false. However, the more natural sort of qi eventually started to build and create a comfortable vibe. This is a fairly durable tea. I definitely enjoyed it more than I do cheap late '90s 8582s, but this is still not something I'd really want to have and pay lots of money for.
 
Yesterday, I had a tea from a packet labeled 8892. The leaves were dark, leaving me not sure whether this was shu or not. It turned out to be sheng. This was very wet-stored and pretty dried out. The soup was black coffee, and the taste was dark and deep with old book aromatics. The soup body was moderately thick and soft in feel, but the early part of the session left the throat feeling uncomfortable. As the session went on, there was a moderate sweet flavored finish with the usual vanillins. The qi becomes more settled and evident as the session goes on as well. Can be some brews with substantial coating of the mouth.

It's alright, but I'm really not a fan of wet-storage as I am finding out. I moved on to stuff in a bag called laochapu. The bag is from the Wuzhou company that makes liubao, so I'm figuring that it's a bunch of huangpan liubao leaves or something. Very flaky. I found it fairly pleasantly herbal, and made plans to blend it with other herbs to make comforting tea. Definitely made my tummy feel better...

Today I had tea from a bag with "Yiwu, not mold" written on the cover. The dry tea was very dark, but smelled more distinctively as sheng. It's not a hugely interesting tea, on account of its storage, I think. The flavor stays the same--wood, offsmoke, longan, with a strong plummy finish. As the session went on, these flavors become stronger, with more productive bitterness that creates feeling and huigan in the throat. Also some astringency becomes pronounced. At brew five or so, it begins to drop dead, and I stopped at brew six.

Later I had a loose shu labeled 2006 Chen Xiang. It was decent. Not a particularly exciting shu, has the taste of paper (the chen, I guess) on top. Also is rather caffeinated. The soup is thin, but stiff at first. The texture soften though as the session goes on. That turns out to be because there are some sheng tips in the blend. These tips also promoted a very strong mouth huigan of typical sweetness, but with milk and sweet floral elements, which was quite nice. Artificial, kind of, but nice. The top taste becomes too boring for me to continue for the aftertaste.
 
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