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SOTD- sheng of the day

2014 TeaUrchin Lao Banzhang. An obscene value at $323/200g.

Well, what does it do good?
The dry leaf is very aromatic, and the soup is consistently aromatic very deep into the session.
It has decent thickness, though no interesting texture of note. Later infusions have drying astringency.
The flavor is fairly full bodied in the stereotypical Menghai manner--tobacco, mushroom, a bit of grains, a bit of honey, aromatic forest.
Extremely durable tea. Had at least 15 brews and probably had enough to last 25.

The issue is that it's not good in the way I count as truly excellent puerh--yesterday's Manzhuan is the better tea, despite the weaker taste and odd notes. There isn't much in the way of aftertastes in the throat at all, and only a little length, transformation, and light aftertaste in the mouth. There isn't a whole lot of complexity in the cup, nor does the session have any dynamic changes in character, so I got bored well before the tea was done. I also did not note much in the way of qi (although, I wasn't feeling well today, and that might have masked it) at all.

In general, the 2012 6FTM Hekai sold by TeaClassico is the better bet, besides being cheaper. Very close taste to this, and more potent besides.

I still have the 2013 version, so at some point, I'll make a comparison with that tea as well.
 
The $180 is for a cake, not a bag of maocha, and thank you for the compliments.

Today, I had the 2012 Che Ma Xuan Naka from TeaUrchin. It's overpriced, but not as unbelievably radically as the LBZ.

In comparison to the Puer.sk Naka which is about $30 more expensive per 400g...

This is a bit closer in tasting like the Wisteria '03 Mengsong in the sense that it has a kind of alkaline flour taste, sort of like soda bread or sourdough bread, when the pu-erh.sk Naka is closer to Menghai taste. The bitterness is a bit heavier and less refined the the pu-erh.sk. There is, however, a bit more uncoordinated richness in taste and aroma, but not as sweet or with any fruitiness (that was provided by Peter's tea). The early session aroma has some complexity to it. Doesn't really do anything in the throat, but it does coat the mouth to a slight extent. I don't think I felt much in the way of qi, but I do sort of think that I got some mellow out of it, so maybe slight qi. Okay durability, and the session is dynamic with somewhat different flavor notes around "toasted rice" or "alkaline flour" or whathaveyou as the session progresses.
 
2004 Xiaguan NanZhao Round cake (forgot where I got it. Maybe from a tea vendor in Taiwan?): it tastes like a '97 Yualien mixed with a 8653. It has depth, honey and sweetness. This session it tasted really like the '97 Yualien. It proves that it has some tea leaves from Ban Zhang mixed in. It is satisfying because it has been dried stored since day one. Personally at this point of development I prefer it to the wet-stored '97 and '98 Yualiens, although the latters being more complexed. I believe the complexity would come when it ages more in the future. I was kind of nicely surprised because I didn't expect the good performance due to a ho-hum session last time.
 
Decided to have '11 EoT Mannuo today, to compare with the recent TU LBZ and Naka.

Insanely sweet flavors, sweet tobacco, some dessert bakery (cupcake, but generally, I think when I say white dessert bakery, this maps on to what Asians describes as almond flavor), butterscotch, in the first couple of brews. It settles down to something a bit more normal (but still really nice, like florals). It's a bit soggy with hongcha, but that mostly made the tea soft tasting, and it still had plenty of qi, and puerh style huigans, shallow in the throat, or at the top of the throat. The taste is generally narrow and weaker than the TU stuff. The soup viscosity is thin, but quite stiff and sticky. Generally pretty smooth. Not bitter without very long brews. Does some mouthcoat aftertaste that lingers pleasantly with said sweet flavors. Late infusions has some actual sensate sweetness. I was much happier with this than the TU LBZ. $60 in time saves $250+ three years down.

What seems interesting to me is that many of these newer teas are much, MUCH better about having strong flavors and thick soups. The Nanzhao '08 Golden Bulang or the XZH '07 LongFeng have narrow, or weak flavors, compared to the TU LBZ or Naka, or EoT 2012 and after. However, what one doesn't get anymore is any sort of feeling deep in the throat or necessarily all that much qi, especially given the expense. I consider these prices bad for the new puerh, because if you're not dealing with the stuff puerh and yancha does best, then you're pretty much competing with high quality oolong! Why not get a jin or a half jin of a decent Oriental Beauty instead? A little more, and we can talk about decent yancha! Taste and thickness is just not enough for anyone to just claim for it to be worth so much money.
 
Since I got the package today after a pleasant bit of '12 Dayi HongYun shu this morning, I figured I would start with one of the two teas that I have not tried before in maocha form.

In short, yes, considering what the market for tea is like today, I'd consider this a good value at $190/400g.

What's bad about it, first? A couple of things--I disagree with the proprietor of EoT that it isn't overwhelmingly smoky. It is most definitely *very* smoky. I suppose the difference is that it's not one of those nasty sort of smoky and about as acceptable as decent lapsang souchong, but anyone who's sensitive to smoke, well, it's not a little. A bit more of a lesser issue is that it has a kind of blunt, and relatively lingering bitterness. A couple of cups had the two issues combine to make me think I was sucking on a chunk of charcoal!

Well, that sounds pretty bad! What made me think this is so great? It's a pretty Menghai tea, tasting much like stuff like Pasha, Hekai, maybe some Mengsong. As this area is pretty well explored, I start thinking that a tea from an out of the way area, strong bitterness, maybe some place near DaMenglong, near the Myanmar border? Ehhh, fancifully irrelevant. Anyways, I rapidly found my self comparing this tea to the 7542 208 and the XZH Pasha--lots of smoky and bitter on top with some sweet Menghai mushroom flavors on bottom. Though that was really mostly true of the first couple of brews. Much of the rest until very late is pretty dominated by smoke, and the natural taste is relatively thin and narrow. So the taste isn't quite that awesome, but you know what? It does have an awesome soup viscosity and syrupy texture. Little astringency in the mouth. For some reason, it provokes a bit of choke throat in the first couple of sips in each cup, and then eases. A bit odd. Anyways, really really nice to feel in the mouth and to swallow, in general. When I swallow, it does generate a feel as it goes down the throat, which is not a common characteristic. The pungent huigan is very light in the throat, and generally the tea does more aftertaste work with a decent mouthcoat (of menghai flavors, thankfully, and not smoke), flavor transitions/finish and some yun sitting in the throat. The qi is very present and relaxing. So as you can see, there are the elements present, that for my checklist, which indicates that this is a genuinely premium tea with stuff that you will normally have to pay lots of money for. It's not super-duper awesome--especially in terms of taste/aftertaste, but I've been drinking some very expensive teas that don't have what expensive teas are supposed to have and am pleased that today's tea clears the basic hurdles.

So I think it's worth the money, and were I rich, I'd consider buying some--more rapidly than say, the Du Quan maocha. The main issue here is that it's not a particularly potable tea right now. However, there's nothing to indicate that it won't become a very delectable tea with a nice smoke conversion to aromatic wood with time and humidity (That great tasting '05 Dayi Mengsong Peacock was something like this in smoke and bitter in 2010!). On that note, I'd strongly recommend against buying a single cake, unless you're evaluating it. Spend the $430 and buy the one kilo tong (much rather that this sort of tea is put in tight 1-2kg bricks than relatively loosely pressed xiaobings). This is pretty strongly something for long-term storage of at least seven and more like ten to fifteen years.
 
So trying this again with a sample from a pressed bing...I don't think it's all that different, except that it's a bit more sprightly with more subtle notes.

It's a pretty classical Mengla tea, though without real definition, closest match is perhaps some Gaoshanzhai teas? It takes a bit of time building up to speed with a few brews and this is indicated by growing floralness of the aroma. Afterwards, it sort of focuses on becoming a more simpler (losing the subtle complexity) and fuller honey element.

The soup viscosity is okay, but nothing amazing, and no interesting texture. There is a light bit of qi, and a light bit of aftertaste at the top of the throat. Some cooling does happen. I meander on for a few brews, somewheres past ten, takes a break.

The back end of the session was quite enjoyable. The bitterness produced a slightly fruity transformation in the mouth, and I had something to keep my interest in while I sipped this. I noticed a light qi again and drank a few more relaxed long brew cups.

So, is it worth $280 for a proper bing? Nah. It's better than the pu-erh.sk Naka, but that's almost a hundred bucks cheaper. A very little bit of special stuff happens, but not enough magic that would make me consider this when I can so easily get older teas that are definitely better. It should age well, though. Everything looks to be right and made proper.
 
2001 Fuhai Qingbing - Amazing how this cake smells like a bonfire in the gaiwan, but the soup carries barely any smoke at all?! This is one of those teas that I should have bought 200 cakes of 2 years ago and don't want to buy anymore now.
 
There wasn't that much difference from the maocha observed and reported earlier. The main thing is that touch of extra liveliness and a stronger, broader sweet flavor late in the session. This is a pretty standard Lancang tea, not too far away in sensibility from Jingmai, sweet floral character and all. The description on the website is pretty accurate, and yes, the main weakness is the slightly narrow taste and thinner soup viscosity. Bowing to the realities of how expensive decent new puerh tea has gotten, this is pretty much a fair pricing.
 
I will start here by saying that this is $545 for a 357g cake. This is overwhelmingly expensive, and sits on my mind as I taste it. Remember, I got three kilos of better tea in January of 2011 for roughly the exact same price. It's very hard to grade on a curve (the rest of the sample will be enjoyed under more psychologically soothing circumstances, I imagine).

So I'm pretty much going to grade against the Last Thoughts found at white2tea...

This has more obvious qi than the Last Thoughts--not a huge amount, but these eastern Mengla teas usually have a sneaky qi. This EoT production is a little more overt. Perhaps genuinely stronger as well. Of a relaxing sort, still.

The aromatic performance is most definitely better than the Last Thoughts. A more decisive mountain aroma (or say, hot rocks), with some Menghai, plenty of herbal, and a little floral character to round it out.

This has a pretty strong and consistent cooling effect in the mouth and throat. Feeling does go down the throat somewhat.

The taste is much friendlier, a little like the way Bingdao is über-friendly, with plenty of sweet tastes (and a bit of sage). As the session goes on, it slowly becomes a more complex-ish Yiwu character. There isn't much bitterness, but there are some tart notes.

The soup isn't that thick, but it's thick enough, but with not anything interesting about the texture. Aside from the tartness, this becomes astringent after the first few brews, but it's of the productive sort that some people may recognize from worthwhile banzhang. Stores flavor on the mouthwalls and gets your saliva going to lick it all down.

This compares poorly with Last Thoughts in terms of dramatic moments in the session. There are no pungent huigans...the best it gets is a bit of yun in the throat. There isn't a rod of bitterness that creates these lush floral notes in the mouth, etc, etc. Last Thoughts has a more sharply delineated complexity in the taste while the EoT is more mellow and subtly complex.

The durability is okay...I'm not sure I tested that well enough, did about fourteen brews or so. Think it's a bit more durable than Last Thoughts.

It's a good tea, but with $545 a cake in mind, I want Hollywood style fireworks and explosions and sexy dames and ****. Nirvana would do in a pinch, though. It's not that. Just a relatively mellow, sweet, but good tea. Not a good idea for any but the rich who won't miss the money to buy a cake, and I'm not sure I have to tell anyone that. It's a better effort than the 2011 EoT GFZ or the 2013 GFZ, I think.
 
A very good session of YQH Gushu Chawang '06. Better than some of the not-as-great sessions of YQH '04. Now that I pay so much attention to what I think are the facets of enjoying a puerh, it's quite hard for me to miss just how great the aroma is--with a yang quality that isn't partially created with converted smoke. Aftertastes are great. Yeah, fun-times are over about brew seven or eight, but this tea was nursed along very enjoyably for more than fifteen. Back end of the session was very nicely sweet flavored.

Main flaws is the thin soup viscosity. Minor flaws include a touch of tartness and some cottony astringency.

Way better than expensive teas made today, especially considering the advantages of eight years of age.
 
Was my birthday, so I treated myself to 8g XZH LBZ black wrapper.

Glorious.

Strong honey and walnuts based aroma. Strong honey and walnuts tastes with sharp green camphor early, some plums later, some forest late. No bitterness. No sourness. Enough thickness, no real texture though. Oddly flat taste--think of your typical flat puerh like plain crepes, where this one was more flapjacks with nuts and dried fruits. It's more of a statement of the broadness and firmness of the taste. There is no fermentation depth/taste, only dry stored aged LBZ which makes for a super-good non-bitter dancong with elements of yancha sort of experience. Lots of flavor transitions and aftertastes. Huigans still happen without bitter, but very gentle and aged now, and this time compared to last, returns some flavor. The qi is all older tea qi, and very strong to the point of me being really rather ****-faced in the first eight or so brews. Exciting part died down about brew eight to ten, and I brewed probably about another ten quite satisfactory times. This tea pretty much does blow almost everything away. The 70's Yellow Mark CP can hold its own, but more or less entirely because of the special aged taste and aroma. Maybe the '07/'09 XZH DianGu. Good LBZ is just...so...damned...awesome.
 
XZH '07 Dinjin Nu'ercha. Very, very purple as Hobbes might remark, with distaste. First brews were very malty. It washes out some, and does puerh like stuff like qi almost as strong as LBZ, strong pungent huigans and feel in the throat, etc. The taste was pretty interesting...a little like the Diangu and a little like the more standard dark Fengqing taste. An unusual fruit note that's a combo of melon and apricot with an edge of tofu or other alkaline solids. Strong Fengqing style bitterness. Notable strong mouthcoating that promoted very strong salivation. At around brew seven, has a number of brews with a *very* nicely floral and almost wood taste, sort of wood and jasmine. Soup viscosity is enough, an unusual texture, a little powdery feel. Fun part's over about brew nine or so, but extremely durable (very late brews are sweet) with consistently strong qi, much like with my experience of the '04 Guyunhai. Much better tea than that or the fellow good tasting hongchapu '04 Zhaizipo. Another of it's best feature I'm still sort of glad I bought this tea, because I guess I have plenty enough tea that's good by conventional measures, so odd ducks are welcome in the afterglow of LBZ drinking.
 
1996 Purple Dayi from Sunsing: It has developed nicely, although in a after-wet-storage way. The brews are strong and a hint of tertiary development gives away better future is coming. I don't think I really enjoy wet-storage puerhs that much but probably do when it had turned all flavors into the chinese medicinal herbs? Just waiting...

Hearing that Dayi has produced drink-it-now puerhs lately, hmm.... On the other side, I have enjoyed reading some of the informative material on tea heavenly facebook page. The link is on their website news section, or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tea-Heavenly/1473231769603737. I have found it light weight, some light heart stuff, and yet informative. On this side of the world, it doesn't seem there is enough and updated news about the puerh. Someone who is interested could check it out.
 
And some more good tea...XZH '06 brick. Sanhetang sez Bulang, but frankly, it's a lot more banzhang than the LBZ Black Wrapper, in the sense that the general floral Menghai character is much more present, has bitterness and astringency, etc. While this tea is not remotely in the league of the YQH Gushu Chawang, XZH LBZ, or the Dinjin Nuer (sometimes feeling like the Dayi An Xiang could compete if it wasn't so green...), it's still pretty good (and not green). Had moderate qi that was very relaxing compared to the intense grip of yesterday tea's qi. The best thing about it is the extreme durability. The show went on for a very long time, and didn't turn into merely nice tasting water until almost the twentieth brew. Not a high peak, but didn't decline quickly. I think that this tea could have used being stored with more humidity as the fermentation would have given helpful depth of taste in the sense not needed by the LBZ.

I've been thinking about the more seriously aged single estate teas as almost a kind of undead oolong. Not fresh sparkling bright like dew seen in the morning light suchlike gaoshan oolongs, but more a lustfully slow burn in the dark, like fresh lava oozing further out of its crust at night.
 
'07 XZH XiShangMeiShao. First few brews, strong taste and aroma, but disordered and not cohesive (blend not that successful?). Still pretty good. Thinner taste as you'd expect from JingGu but still substantial. Qi is great and fairly euphoric. Would totally not be surprised if someone told me Tony Chen sprinkled a little coke on each pile of maocha before steaming and pressing. Very strong body sensation. Viscosity is only okay, nothing special in texture. After brew three the initial taste collapses and the session slowly rebuilds more or less as a Bingdao-ish session, where little taste, takes a while, then bigger taste, then brews forever. The later taste and aroma is fairly hard to describe, mostly like rock taste yanyun and floral, with a little sweet flavor note and some sensate sweetness. The big appeal of the late brews comes from the floral aftertaste rising from the throat, "Bingdao" style. The qi is quiet, subtle, and body focused like the Mengdai Bingdao and others like it. Like yesterday's XZH brick in the sense that the soup is still lively very far deep into the session, generating complex mouth sensations and taste, just weaker as time goes on. Did brew more than 20 times, improved worthwhile durability than when it was four years old.

It is interesting to me how different all of the XZH '07 JingGu teas are. The Nuercha has sweet flavors and flowers, the Huangshanlin is spicy, herbal, and floral, Puzhen is much like Xigui, while the XSMS is pretty yang and floral.

Been running through these teas because they are seven/eight years old and are among the first serious gushu teas. 2003,04,05,06, 07...The Zhenchunyahao, in comparison, would pretty easily lose to all of the teas this week (well, maybe it can beat the brick, but...). They are all teas at about the first stage of maturity, so whatever change that has happened is about it, and I can't expect anything dramatic in terms of changing flavors or aromas. It does feel like to me that gushu teas at this level, dryly stored, is functionally more like high end yancha or dancong or dong ding in terms of aging prospects, though I also think they will still have a much thicker and more interesting taste than what I know of aged oolong taste. The XZH Youle is the only gushu tea I have that has much of the depth of traditional puerh, and there is the '05 CGHT Menghai Yiehsheng that also does depth.
 
Done with trying out the first stage stuff. I figured that I needed to try out the '01 Simplified Yun 7542. This tea had a lot of green camphor taste, a bit like the White Whale. I am finding that the White Whale is a very useful tea as a reference factory tea, so I thought about my session relative to that.

This does not have as strong a taste as the White Whale, but the taste it does have could be considered better, as it has sweet Menghai mushroom flavor, some honey, hint of aged plums, green camphor and is complex. The aroma is for sure better, and it has a trace of that old tea glossy smell to it.

This only has enough thickness to get by, so not winning on that score. No interesting texture either.

This has a very reasonable amount of qi, somewheres between the '05 Dayi Mengsong Peacock and the '06 XZH brick. Definitely better on that line.

Earlier brews has some pungent, if very shallow huigans, which is better. The tea also has the camphor cooling and feel down the throat like the WW.

Durability is about the same.

It's not bitter or astringent anymore, and all harshness is from sharp camphor sensation.

When thinking about other aged 7542s, this is a billion times better than the 02 7542 I have. This had only a very short and light traditional storage, and at this point, it's pretty much all retired, and the taste is much closer to the afore-mentioned '02 rather than, say, the '96 Purple Dayi. There's no real almond/vanilla/white dessert taste, but a hint of standard age plums, with occasional exuberant cherry-plum notes. There isn't much actual wood note in the tea, so doesn't have the kind of refined wood taste that the early '90's 7542 I've had, neither the nice thickness and texture. I think it's clearly better than the late '90s lan yin because it does everything else the same plus huigans and stronger taste/aroma. It has the best aroma of any 7542 I've tried and the worst soup viscosity.

Honestly though, the feeling is that this is among the best factory tea blends can get, but it's not really good enough to be in the conversation with the mid-decade premium teas. I'd pick it over the Dadugang '99 Yiwu and hem and haw in comparison to the '99 Changtai, but XZH and YQH is just plumb better. Of course, this tea wasn't especially expensive when it came out, compared to many teas.
 
2002 zhongcha 7542. Menghai mushroom taste, a touch of honey, not too much menghai florals. Doesn't have the 2001 7542's depth, green camphor, wood, qi. Is both bitter and astringent for much of the session, and tires out relatively quickly. Was okay since I was watching football and didn't have time to really get into anything good.

1998 XZH DaXueShan maocha. Today's report is much like the report I gave post 6756 (apr 23rd), only I'd say that the tea was a bit more subtle tasting. I'm a less enthusiastic though--the Teaclassico samples, especially the '98 red mark 8582 and the '90s TungChing are pretty close to this tea, so it makes me think that the maocha isn't as elevated as all that. Does not help to have had a solid week of drinking what seems to be top end teas either. This had a relatively large amount of fermentation, maybe a little less than the '98 red mark. It's more elegant in taste and aroma. Does not have the pleasant almond note that the 8582 can produce, though. Cleaner feeling, and more qi. Easily beats the TungChing in terms of taste. Dog biscuit, while not unpleasant, is distinctly odd. Tungching has more late session sweetness, which is also rather gripping. It's a bit more durable as well. Qi might be even, but I need to retry the Tungching tea at some point. It's weird to come back to a tea so soon, and find your experience levels to have gone up without you really being aware of it.
 
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