SOTD- sheng of the day

staner said:

I smell....I smell....SPAM!!

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You are right! There is no such online tea store which provides online puerh tea learning courses. I am excited that this store offers something like that.

Here is the puerh tea discussion group where people talk about anything related to tea. Hobbes was so zealous about EoT a few years back, Shah8 talked about SampleTeas, and others other tea stores and their teas. We all spam each other and we enjoy it because we love drinking puerh and talking about it. Honestly, without all these spams, I would have never heard of EoT, SampleTeas and others. So you have come to the right place to enjoy being spammed and spamming others.

Dug out a few samples from a tea vendor when doing an order a few years back. They are '97 Hua Lian, '98 Hua Lian, '00 Hua Lian and '02 Tai Lian.

Tried out the '97 first which was complexed. The broth was thick. Very nice. It has a tad of wet storage more than I would like. Nonetheless it was a great tea.

And moved on to '02 Tai Lian. The latter was simple and watery a bit. It was masked heavily in a style that the smoky flavor covers up everything else. Peeling through it, there was not much substance underneath. The smoky flavor usually makes the tea that the aftertaste lasts long in the mouth (like BBQ, just the smoke and the tea flavors), and the sweetness stays with the smoke. It is a simple tea, but it works very well when you don't have to think.

All these sample teas were made in the same style and I guess that's why the vendor sent them all for me to see. However, the qualities of the raw materials are like day and night.

It's not spam. It just reads like spam.

A couple of days ago, I finished off the Mengdai Bingdao '10 in a porcelain gaiwan. The gaiwan does seem to preserve the delicate flavors better than the pot does. Didn't seem to be as thick, but still soft (some sips did kind of taste like special version of mineral water). Still had that subtle qi, but less, probably due to using just four grams. Had one reasonable huigan, but most of the aftertaste effects were of this like a shallow, delicate yun that kind of wisps its way out of the throat with some nice floral flavors. I enjoyed that session, but that sort of tea is something I'd really have to be in the mood for. Better than the other anon Bingdao I've had, but I think I'd prefer the Xigui maocha I've tried.

Yesterday was a pleasant, sweet, and shorter-lived session of '07 7262.

Today, I did two teas. I first did the Wenlong One Sprout Two Leaves from '09, with a heftier 8.3g/120ml. I was pretty fine with it. Starts out with that hongcha softness, milk-malt coffee taste. Evolves into some camphor tastes, and ratios of coffee and camphor changes. This was a long lived tea. Soup was thin. There was decent, if shallow cooling. There was also at times a very nice slightly fruity pepperment taste in the throat for aftertaste. The aroma wasn't interesting. Didn't sit will in my stomach, though, like some lincang teas.

The other tea was a blend of '04 Tai Lian Youle (which has lincang blended in) and '05 Manzhang (which Zhizheng tea sells) which added up to 4.4g, in my gaiwan. The smokiness of the Youle dominated early. The best part of the session was about the fruit/wine taste in the throat (presumably greatly contributed by the Manzhuang). Moderate and good qi, and the latter part of the session had some pleasant sensate sweetness. The top taste and aroma was never all that interesting. No huigans, just that kind of throat coating.

'00 Hua Lian: aroma is medium, taste is medium, and finish is medium too. Nothing big but nothing small either, just medium. A nice medium tea.

The comparison set of 3 Yiwus from TH: Still have no idea which one is drink-it-now. I can only guess. The '09 seems ageing well so it must not. The '11 is nothing special for now so it doesn't seem so. Only the '12 tastes too well, which fits the bill that it is good enough to drink it now. It is difficult, even doing comparison, let alone tasting one by itself alone.

2006 Second Memorial Southeast Puerh Fair. Very good. Sort of frustrating in the sense that it's better than much more expensive modern cakes. For example, while the TU LBZ has a broad, loud, and pure taste, the 2006 is livelier, more of a mountain spirit, and with much better layering and aftertastes. Lots of really good huigans. Better aroma, about the same soup viscosity. Just doesn't have the qi of the LBZ, more like because it doesn't really have much at all.

We get all this much talk about lincangs because you know what? Very few Banna teas sold after 2010 or so (that I've had) have the sort of energy, complexity, and most of all, aftertastes that was a bit more routine in earlier times. It's a little sad.

I blended the remains of 2000 Fuhai zhuancha, 2.5g with 2012 Xiaguan Jinseyunxiang, 4.1g. The tea was alright, if very smoky. Had a penetrating bitterness, especially since it was all fannings, really. There wasn't anything compelling to it, and I got bored of it in four brews.

Fortunately, a new set of samples arrived, from the proprietor of Teaclassico.com, and I dumped the old tea out and tried the sample of the unlabeled tea obviously from a bing. The dry tea is dark, loosely compressed, and is somewhat smoky. The first brew has some of the smoke, along with a very recognizable Yiwu note. Some of that carried into the taste. Mostly honey and sweet mushrooms in a reasonably thick soup, not very much Yiwu leather, and some floral element. Not much grain in smell or taste, so probably not from outlying areas of Yiwu. There was a bit of lingering sensation, but that was it for aftertastes. Maybe I felt some qi, maybe not, since I've already had a session before this. The second tea had an aroma freer of smoke, but not as loud or complex. The taste had more yellow fruit note to it, as well as camphor (might be converted smoke, but probably not--this is not very camphor cake-y). The aftertastes are more potent, with a stronger cooling feel and more of a taste coming out of the throat. The third brew was more floral in taste, but otherwise like the second brew. It also started tasting a bit green and sour in what beforehand was tea with very limited bitterness and astringency. Aftertastes goes down. Later brews up to brew seven was pretty much more of the same, with growing thin taste and body. Stopped there.

At first I'd have thought this was a more potent tea compared to the PuDi 2012 Manxiu, with less floral element, but the PuDi was a better performer over the long haul. Looking over the teaclassico teas, I'd guess that this is the 2013 Zhangjiawan Early Spring cake, if this is already being sold.

I've got another try with it, so at some point, I'll be taking a second, more careful look. I don't think the judgment will change too much. Good for a minisession before work, or grandpa brewing. Not that expensive, but it's a touch high on the quality/price ratio. Better than something like the cheap Big Yunnan Yiwu that was sold for something like $30, I think, but not something I'd take too seriously without another six years of age to cut the lower quality leaf abrasiveness and maybe add a note or two later in the session.

shah8 said:

...Teaclassico.com

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Thanks for posting about them Shah8. I hadn't heard about them before, so I went to look at their puerh section on their site. To my surprise, large sections of their text were clearly ripped off from text I wrote for essenceoftea.com (http://www.essenceoftea.com/tea/puerh-tea.html)

eg...

eot:
"For me, puerh tea is one of the most fascinating of all teas."
teaclassico:
"For us, Pu-erh tea is one of the most fascinating of all teas."

eot:
"In our range, we've tried to select examples of puerh tea from different periods and price points"
teaclassico:
"In our range, we've tried to select finest examples of puerh tea from different periods, growing areas and price points"

eot:
"They are hand-picked, entirely handprocessed, sun dried and stone pressed, before being slowly shade dried to optimise the aging potential of these teas."
teaclassico:
"They are hand-picked, skilfully processed, sun dried and stone pressed, before being slowly dried to optimise the aging potential of these teas."
(they even copied my misspelling of ageing!!!)

eot:
"These are all from ancient trees and we make a strong effort to ensure that they're grown without the use of agrochemicals."
teaclassico:
"These are all from ancient trees and we make a strong effort not only to ensure that they're processed right way but also grown without the use of pesticides and other agrochemicals."

eot:
"We hope you'll enjoy these special teas."
teaclassico:
"We hope you'll enjoy these special teas."


I've never criticised another vendor online before, but there's something clearly lacking in their approach to their business. Leaving aside their blatant plagiarism, I'd also question the veracity of their statements. I can't quite see how, for example, the Dayi 7542 that they're selling could possibly be from ancient trees, or free from agrochemicals. Surely if they'd really sent them for a lab test, they would have realised this.

(/me goes back to high school cafeterias, chanting Fight, Fight, Fight)

Alright, I did sample one today. The dry leaves were pretty bulky and fresh sheng in aroma. The first brew has a generic sheng aroma with a bit of spice to it. The soup wasn't that thick, but had little bitterness or astringency. The taste was relatively layered with notes of mushroom, tobacco, and fruit, and there was something of a coating aftertaste. Tobacco florals grew more prominent as the soup cooled. There was also a suspicious numbing of the tongue, but it didn't do anything more than that, and wasn't present in subsequent brews. The tobacco floral note grew stronger in the second brew, and there was a bit of bitterness and stronger texture in the soup. This tobacco floral note is something I associate in the area from Hekai to Pasha, and if I had to guess, either Nannuo or Pasha. The aroma was fairly generic, not that strong or high, but rather solid. The third brew and subsequent brews in the front half of the session has a fairly dominant tobacco floral note, with not too much of interest underneath it. Stronger and more distinct taste than some teas, but not as sophisticated or interesting. Unbalanced. Did not help that there wasn't really much of a finish or aftertaste. As the tea went on, green notes showed up, so I was thinking that this is relatively plantation-y. When I stopped the front end of the session, I really thought it could do with more punch and bitterness, Nannuo namby-pambyness being an issue? I also thought it could be more balanced. In general, I thought it could use more attention-grabbiness. The Yihe Nannuo from Creamofbanna was a better performer, even if I wasn't wild about that one either. It compares poorly to the EoT Douyizhai at its best.

When I restarted for the back end of the session after a few hours rest, the strong tobacco floral note wasn't as strong, and the tea base seemed stronger, too. So more complexity and things to seek out. This could be explained by the fact that I used a different electric kettle that brewed better water. I had to move the session elsewheres, and used the semi-broken Breville. The brews after the first were fairly long brews and the first of these was bitter, and I was glad for it. It wasn't all that productive, though. Anyways, there was a bit more going on in these brews, and a bit more of a longer finish. I did roughly twelve brews in all.

I'm not sure whether this would be a very successful ager, but it's hard to tell when the tea is so new. I don't feel that this has a lot of potency and bitterness, aside from a stronger top flavor, that could do anything, seven years down the road. It's not offensive, and isn't anywhere on the level, of, say, the Dayi Nannuo Peacock from '08. So it could be something you could drink now, but what I'd pay for it, given what the market *apparently* looks like, would have a firm ceiling of $55, judging by the Yihe Nannuo price. Then when you compare it to known decent to good teas like the YS '10 fall Pasha or '10 Yakouzhai (this has apparently recent gone up in price, and relative to other teas it had formerly been priced lower than--well justified, it's what a basic qi-less Nannuo should be), it's hard to see this being really worth more than about $30. Even if you specifically wanted a Nannuo, this tea has a lot of competition.

It wasn't meant to be a fight Shah8, they just rubbed me up the wrong way by preferring to steal the work I'd done, rather than take the time to write something at least a little original.

I've since received an admission and apology from Teaclassico, along with a promise that they'll change they text.

Apparently I was confused also - the statement that their teas are all free from pesticides refers to some different teas that aren't on the site yet.

Sample two has maocha with large leaves and two-leaf-bud complexes. This made it difficult to fit in my pot and I had to wet some of it before putting the rest in. The first brew had a generic aroma, but reasonably strong and sweet. The taste was very generic, shallow and sweet. There was a lot of cooling though, but no bitterness or astringency. The soup was mildly thick, no interesting texture. The second brew had a more elusive aroma, that was sharply fruity, sort of like pineapple. The taste is fruity, too, but again, rather shallow and short. There was a tiny bit of feel in the throat, but much less cooling this time. As it cooled, I found that there was mouth aroma giving some complexity, and a bit of herbs in the finish. The third brew's aroma went back to solid generic sheng. The soup has more of the sweet sensibility in flavors and maybe some sensate sweetness. Slight mouth aroma continued to give some complexity, and there was a bitterness that had a bit of productive aftertastes. The fourth brew was more or less the same, a bit less intense, but with a huigan, and the taste managed to stay in my mouth until the next brew. The fifth brew started to have a bit more character--more complex aroma, thicker soup, stronger bitterness and aftertastes. I start leaning towards maybe this is a Bingdao-ish Mengku (you all know the drill by now). With that and the next few brews I start enjoying the tea a bit more, but the taste is pretty light and delicate and aftertastes does much of the work. If there was any qi, it's a light one, focused on the body. The back end of the session didn't yield very many worthwhile brews, so I can't really consider this a very durable tea

Overall, it's a decent tea. If it's a Bingdao, then it's a lot worse than the two previous Bingdaos I've just tried. If it's a Yiwu, then I can't really recommend it at all. Simply not strong enough with any real character in any direction to bring much oomph. This is with acknowledgement that Yiwus tend to take a few years before building thickness in taste. It's better than the Mengku teas I've tried from Bannacha Najiao/Mengku Old Tree, so I'd sort of place this at around $40-$80/400g. I do think that the sample I had yesterday has a better chance of aging well, though I'm slightly suspicious that it's more floral than it's really supposed to be and might be subtly hongcha. As for drinking now, I got a slight stomach discomfort from today's sample, which would be typical if it is, indeed a nuke fresh lincang, so that's a minus, but the two samples so far kind of evens themselves out since they are clearly for different moods.

The last unknown sample is another batch of maocha with bud-two-leaves complexes, requiring the same slow fit into the pot as yesterday. The first brew quickly reveals a Northern sensibility and not Banna, with vegetal notes and some sneaky fruitiness. I quickly grow to like this tea because it has some genuine length, depth and some complexity. Along with that came energy, strong cooling feel, and aftertaste. The top flavor is a spicy vegetal (sort of like celery) woodiness. The second brew is a bit more boring, but still a well rounded tea, with stronger sense of aftertaste with a semi huigan and a bit of a yun. The third brew aroma recalled my memories of the Xigui I have had recently, with vegetal notes, a sort of patchouli wood, and some hidden fruit notes. There are no sweet white dessert aromas like tapioca like the previous tea, though. Little complexity is present in the top taste, and fun is generally had from the finish and cooling aftertaste. A couple of huigans happened. The fourth brew aroma is still fun, taste is woodier, but still boring. Fifth brew is largely the same, and I start drinking brews quickly at this point as there isn't anything to slow me down. It does continue to make flavored water, with something of a finish and aftertaste, but cannot hold attention much. The back end of the session was mostly the same. So in a sense, it's a little like the '07 XZH Kuzhushan where all the action is in the first few brews, and then flattens out for a ton of monotonous brews. This tea never did have recognizable qi, for me.

Anyways, closest this feels like is the Xigui I've had recently. I've enjoyed this unknown sample the most of the unmarked stuff, mostly because it's so much more well rounded than any of the other teas. I suppose I would seriously consider buying it as a pleasant tea, but if it's anything like what I think it is, I must wonder whether if it wouldn't be priced far higher than I'd particularly want to go for. I'd say $60-$80 would be something of a fair price, thinking about comparing my satisfaction with the Yihe Manzhuang as a similarly good tasting proper tea that mostly has everything it should, other than qi.

The last puerh sample was one labeled as Hekai, 7.9g. This is assumed to be the 2012 6FTM Hekai gushu cake offered at Teaclassico. A quick way to describe the tea is as a gushu version of the '11 Jin Dayi. If you liked the Jin Dayi and you wanted something with a bit more...oomph, this is your cake. The dry leaf is smoky and so is the first brew aroma, and smoke isn't a big deal afterwards. The early brews have a strong energy and cooling reminescent of the Baohongyinji Zhenrenyufeng, but a bit stronger. The top flavor is generally pretty loudly and broadly floral wood much like the Jin Dayi. There isn't really a lot of sweet sheng base taste that the Puersom Hekai among others have had, underneath that top taste. So it's a little unbalanced and lacking in depth. Later brews, especially on the back end is more balanced and layered. Most of the aftertaste is generated by an intense mouthcoat that leaves a relatively strong and lasting flavor in the mouth. There aren't really any yuns or huigans. There is occassionally some feeling in the throat. The thickness of the soup was never particularly thick, no thicker than the Jin Dayi, but brews a bit after the first few develops a nice gloopy texture. The aroma wasn't a particularly compelling part of most brews, especially after the first few brews. In general, after the first few brews, there isn't much there to stop me from gulping the tea down. It's just a good tasting hot water. The qi was never particularly strong.

I enjoyed this tea to some degree, and I think I will enjoy it more with some age. Some of that energy was a little harsh and mellowing will probably make it even more pleasant. I do not think that it is a good value at $390, though. The description of the tea on teaclassico is pretty on spot, though. Anyways, I'm left with asking whether if I'd want this tea more than an '01 Yuanyexiang from Bannatea, 04 YQH from OriginTea, or some other items I can think of that might cost that much money (most American orientated vendors do not sell anything much over $300). In general, when we're talking that much money, I'm thinking some pretty exclusive gushu direct from Sanhetang or one of that lot that regularly handles the good stuff. This is easily better than many $200 cakes, so somewhere above that.

Edited to add that I think the YQH '07 Qizhong is something of a similar quality cake, so I'd say about $270-$300 by a western facing reseller is about where I slot the value here...

'98 Hua Lian: a bit drier storage than the '97 version from the samples. It has developed nicely that it is pretty drinkable, somewhere in between losing it's youth and gaining secondary flavors. I found myself both longing for the strength and freshness of the youth and anticipating the wonderful secondary/tertiary flavors of a mature puerh at the same time... Is there such a thing that we could have the best of both worlds at the same time?

Today was the 2013 TeaUrchin Nahan. I was excited to try this stuff so as to better understand the nature of Xigui, and I got to it in a hurry. What I found out was that the chief virtue of the tea was the thickness and smoothness of the soup. It doesn't really have complexity in the aroma or taste other than the sort of vegetalness common to that area and JingGu. The taste is relatively broad though, moderately loud, and it's relatively pleasant. At times, white dessert flavor shows up in a layer. I got a decent huigan in the fourth brew, and both the fourth and fifth brew had some reasonable complexity. It settled back down though. Later brews did have some degree of aroma in the mouth. There was always a somewhat obnoxious tart-bitter that wasn't very productive, aside from the first brew. I got to thinking that if all tea from that area is like that, then no wonder JingGu teas got hot in the mid-2ks before Xigui. A good Xigui is worth putting up with it, but not anything else that isn't especially fun to drink or smell. This Nahan is more or less very durable. There is a *ton* of caffeine in this tea, so definitely some "qi", and perhaps an eventual real qi.

I enjoyed it. I would not favor the price of $99 from TeaUrchin, though. I can get the XZH '10 Osan, a similar tea with less obnoxiousness, more complexity, more qi, and more aftertastes for $105 from Houde. I'd only sacrifice thickness, loud flavor, and really long durability. Would I normally consider buying it at another price? Sort of, but not at the value it deserves to have. Some people may prefer this tea as a nice occasion tea as opposed to where I'd be thinking, as with many of these Northern teas, as a kind of green tea, and something to have casually. My feeling is that by the *broad standards of tea introduced in 2013*, it is not overpriced, so I'm being a crabby old cheap fart who already got his if I really complain.

'98 XZH DaXueShan maocha. This is awesome aged tasting tea for me. The first few brews had a bit of warehouse in it, with the second having the unique aroma of elephants, but it's not truly very humid. I'd say that it's drier than the '01 YuanYiehXiang Thin Papered, which mostly was warehoused for a shorter time than the Thick Papered version. The YYX is very dried out, while this maocha mostly just spent years in Taiwan natural humidity. It's not fully dried out yet, though, and issues like astringency in the throat similar to what you'd find in other younger warehoused tea does show up. Next, I think this is from the Mengku DXS area, as that this does not have any relationship with the Fengqing teas XZH likes. I can easily imagine this to be Bingdao area, especially something like an old version of the '10 fall Bangma YS cake.

The basic flavor is much like the '01 YYX after about seven brews when all the camphor and spice is wrung out and there isn't a bold taste anymore. Something something chinese traditional medicine. The behavior, however, is very much akin to the '98 Evening Fragrant Jade (with a bit less bitterness) in that the flavor shimmers as it slides down the tongue into my throat. Lots and lots of fine layers of flavor, and it's a bit less subtle. It also brought to mind the fantastic '80s Xiaguan Traditional cake that was dry stored in flavor and character. Of course, after it hits the throat, there is a lingering finish and an aged huigan/yun feel in the throat. This lasts a long time, by the way. Did I forget the qi? Not the strongest in the world, but moderate to strong, and high in quality while sitting on neck and shoulders. The aroma is pretty low, and not that strong, but solid and detailed. There's some things to sniff in there for the earlier brews. The thickness isn't super great, but the texture is pretty good and glycerin-like, aside from the roughness in the throat from time to time. The thickness and depth of the flavor thins out relatively quickly, and quicker than either then YYX or the Xiaguan, but the thin tasting late brews still manages sweetness, finish, and a bit of complexity. I did about 15 brews, and it probably can go further, but other bigtime tea is jogging to the on deck circle...

Anyways, lessons learned? Houde sez that this tea is a good example that maocha can indeed age well. I say no. I think that if this tea had been pressed and stored similarly, it would be less browned, but knee-knockingly good. What I think the real lessons are, are this:

All single estate gushu tea will become flat. The exceptions are the camphor cakes. The smoke conversion often adds aromatic textured detail to the top taste. The '99 Song Charactered is kind of flat. This tea is flat. The '97 Green from BTH is flat even though it's dry stored. So when you're buying a gushu tea with a mindset of aging in a pumidor or whatever for 10-15 years, it is simply not worth your time to buy tea that does not have:
1) Strong aftertaste. I know I know, a lot of people tend to think that a tea has a strong aftertaste when I'd think that's not so. It's part of the problem of just how many teas with real aftertastes being made today are priced out of the range of normal budgets. The TeaUrchin LBZ may have a pleasant taste, aroma, and it might convert to a very nice taste after browning--but it won't ever become *compelling*. Contrast that with the Hekai that Teaclassico sells. It doesn't really have a lot of huigans or yuns, but it does have a mutha of a mouthcoat. That tea, when old and flat and kept up by it's bit of smoke converted camphor, might still be compelling when browned. Teas with a real aftertaste seems to be the most expensive ones, now. Many aftertastes do fade out from some teas, but I do think for some, they will build back in. Other aftertastes will slump, lose pungency and flavor, but these turn into such a pleasantly calm sophistication...

2) Seek out teas with strong layering or with good finishes. Otherwise flat and boring '06 YQH Gushu Chawang and '07 Fall XZH Xishangmeishao can keep up at least a little bit of interest with layering, length, finish, while plying you with good qi.

3) Seek out teas with strong qi. This is the second most rare and expensive class, after teas with authoritative aftertastes. Also again, it takes some degree of experience to figure out what is a high quality qi. That Mengdai Bingdao, for example, does a good job with moderate to strong, reasonably high quality body qi. Qi is tricky to figure out. Some of it is just caffeine. Also qi found in young teas tend to age out. You still want to buy young teas with high quality qi, because they are the most likely to build back in old tea qi.

4) There are few single estate teas with a strong and bold flavor. You mostly find this sort of thing in blends like the '05 CGHT Menghai YiehSheng. They have the most flavor to give up while mellowing out into something you could savor in calm fifteen or hopefully twenty-five years later. Some of them, like the Yuanyexiang, do not really age into interesting tea, but they are still robust with at least plebian virtues.

5) Thickness is important too, but I think there is an issue where tea merchants are offering thick and smooth teas that don't otherwise have a whole lot of other virtues. If it's there in *combination* with another strong virtue--like being both thick *and* loud+broad (which is hard to do), then this is a good point for a specific tea.

6) Aroma. It's not the most important thing in the world, but a couple of notes. Good tea will almost always have a lasting aroma as it cools. If you are still enjoying natural feeling aroma from a lukewarm half-sipped cup, that's a suggestion that the tea has true potency. The other note is that detailed aroma is not something that can be faked. If you can have fun like a dog has fun trying to sniff out specific notes, then that's a safe indication of an aroma that you should value, and probably will stay in some form ten or more years down the road.

Cooling is not necessarily an elite virtue. That's just any old high mountain material, and even cheap teas have some cooling. What's more expensive is a sort of Ben-Gay hot-cold sensation, and the feeling and flavor occuring deep in the throat.

Energy is also not necessarily an elite virtue. However, it's hard to tell it from pesticide (if it's not totally obvious, at least for me), and it's hard to describe a really good one. It feels sort of like lightning going along your teeth and gums, and moving around in your mouth.

Think that's it for something so long...

That is a good write up.

I agree on the one dimensionality of single area cakes overtime, with a few exceptions. I think it makes more sense to blend gushu for the same reason you get a deeper sound from a choir than a single vocalist. (exceptions again, if you are Pavaortti/Laobanzhang) The people who are doing a lot of "single tree" cake making are wasting good quality leaf, imho. I had several super expensive single tree teas this spring and almost always preferred a blend.

6 is the last on my list of things that matter as well. I will take a thick, dense, energetic tea over something thin and fragrant any day

I agree. And it covers up a big area. The most important is how to identify a great young puerh? it probably takes years of tasting and comparing to get a base. The only tea, which fits in the description and is available I am aware of, is the store benchmark from www.teaheavenly.com. If you guys have a chance to try it out, I am interested in what you think of that tea. It seems it presents all what Shah8 was talking about...

Today, I had the '96 Zhenchunyahao sold by China Flair. Expensive tea, about $50 for a pot. Was it worth it? Welllll....Overall, I think it's a good tea, but it will almost inevitably be outpaced by the great '03-'07 teas. A few issues. First of all, MarshalN has talked about oolonged processing, and I've somewhat too come to that conclusion. It has some of that character, which is more offensive to me than hongcha. The second issue is that I'd bet this originally came from Best Tea House, and like everything stored there, dry storage means pretty desert like storage. So there is virtually no browning. I didn't think of it as a problem per se, but it's out of step with a tea a couple years older than a well browned but still dry stored maocha. The last issue is that the leaves don't seem to be that good. The basic flavor is much like 2001 Yiwu brick you can get at BTH, or an early Dayi Yiwu (not the BGT stuff) that I've had at a tea party and where we all quit drinking it early. Adding to the confusion was the fact that it's really rather potent in the throat, giving rise to some suspicion that it is or has Jiangchen maocha in it. Doesn't taste like Jiangchen, or like that 2002 Yiwu Old Tree that BTH sells, and which I suspect is mostly JingGu, though.

The early brews had a good aroma with light woodiness and lurking fruit (the second brew had a very odd, but pleasant soap like smell). The taste was thin, and so was the soup. The taste was a kind of dirt/light wood/bamboo. It was also generally slightly sour and tart. The good stuff happened after you swallow, with strong floral yuns and fruit splashes in the throat. Plenty of lasting feel and cooling. As the session goes a bit deeper, the aroma gets less complex, more astringency, up and down, and a bit of qi does show up, but mild. Thickness of the soup goes up slightly. Main enjoyment is the lingering taste and feel after the swallow. Restarted for the back session, the rested tea did better at providing an enjoyable (and warming) qi, though not strong. The brews consistently had a close to milk taste as the base flavor, with some sensate sweetness, and some other flavors like currants or camphor are there to be found. Thus the back end was really rather pleasantly calm in a no-fireworks way. Brewed probably somewheres above 15 times. The finished maocha had some pretty large and tough leaves.

So this isn't that good, and the Song Character Yichanghao '99 is still the gold standard of 20th century Yiwus in my book. I've been wondering whether if the nature of the milk taste in the long brew is what age does to really dry stored teas instead of soil, flint, wood, etc.

Edited to add that the '06 Sunsing Mahei has strong similarities to this tea, only differences being younger, less potent in aroma and throat. Better comparison than the '01 Yiwu Brick, etc. Made me reevaluate what I thought of, about that '06 tea, given how in both cases, I got suspicious about Jiangchen...

Some time ago, Peter of Pu-erh.sk fame was on the trail of some older tea, and he got a hookup to something that he thought of as special. As I was told, the newsletter said that it was a 2003 GFZ. I was intrigued, but also fairly suspicious, because I was pretty sure that Guafengzhai was not particularly reachable before 2004, when the first appreciable harvests that I knew of happened, and it didn't get consistently labeled as such before 2005 and more like 2006. 2003? How would any laowai get his pretty paws on something like that if it was any good? However, a sample was sent and I could evaluate for myself! The label, apparently is 2004, though, and not 2003.

So, how was the tea? Long story short, I tend to think that this is a Youle and not a GFZ, despite my known inability to really tell regions apart from one another. So take that for what it's worth. I think so mainly because it does taste and perform like other Youle (of real quality and not the terrible plantation stuff) of roughly the same age, especially the Tai Lian '04 (without the smoke) and the Zhizheng '07. It's missing complexity that I'd think be there if it's GFZ, particularly a specific herbal note that can range from absent to obnoxious in the 2007 CGHT GFZ.

There is a bit of humidity in the taste for the first few brew, and I think it's a touch on the wet side, but quite clean. The first brew had a very thin taste and soup viscosity. It also had what I'd consider to be a pesticide warning, of a buzz on the tongue-tip and a tweak of the epiglottis. This didn't repeat, though. The first couple of brews had a reasonable, mild, lingering aftertaste. There was a bit of body qi. The second brew had a stronger wood aroma, better soup thickness and texture, kind of plump. The yun was also nice. The top taste is very short though, though it does have a nice flourish of flavor transition. The tea got to being drunk quick as there wasn't a whole lot of detail to slow me down. Subsequent brews generally had a somewhat woody top taste, with a plummy or almost plummy tea taste underneath. Sometimes there was that nice plum rhyme coating the throat. There is usually a slight bitterness. After the sixth brew, it was pretty much done as anything remotely exciting. The back end of the session was pretty decent with some tea flavor and a consistent camphor finish (that you'd find from many tea's finishing brews). Not much qi, all told. This tea was supposed to be sold for more than $600, I believe. I'd say that it's worth more than something like the Everlasting Manzhuang or Yibang, but it doesn't have qualities that makes it appreciably better than other *good* teas of that era, and it can't compete with any of the best tea. Put simply, if I had that sort of money, I'd go on Taobao and get me a 2006 Spring CGHT GFZ. Then I'd *know* for sure it's so, as it was advertised from the first as GFZ and all. Or something else, whatever.