SOTD- sheng of the day

mt3580 said:

Black Friday/Cyber Monday @ white2tea.com emptied my meager accrued tea budget fund...

I am very happy with Paul's new releases, I look forward to seeing how his "chocobrick" pressings pan out, If they are any good, I want to get some for my lighter tea drinking friends as gifts to see if it isn't a way to get more people going deeper without having to be afraid of committing right away to a whole gongfu setup.

I ended up going with ordering:
2016 Sister Brother set of 2 100g bricks
2016 ChocoBrick Ripe Puer 100g brick
2016 Brown Sugar 200g brick
2015 Channel Orange 100g brick

Well done Paul, you got me to order stuff I wouldn't usually order just because your stuff looks clever... Nice work on this round of advertising.

Click to expand...

Haha I feel similarly and your order looks alot like what I would have...but I have done way too much recently so I withheld. The sister brother is definitely on a must buy list. And I would have never really wanted ripe with orange but now im really considering it. Hope those Chocobricks are good and are helping people get into tea.

I received the Heart of the City and is one of two cakes I bought from this years harvest (other is the more expensive wuliang from EoT). Its crazy how spot on Shah got this though so I will keep it brief as I will mostly concur with Shah.

I have not had much Lincang but really loved Pin. I am really really happy with my buy and this has instantly propelled itself up to being one of my favorites (I am excited to see it next summer). I think its similar to the pin, but maybe I am tasting a lot of Lincang trademarks. An astringent, floral aftertaste and a sugary finish. There is a lot of richness and the tea has no holes,a crew of flavors is built around a sweet core. Apricots and stone are the main flavors. The base is musky/intoxicating like an overwhelmingly sweet honey can be. Lots of lime in the background and the lime and stone combo reminds me of a rosé. It also lasts at least 15 steeps. The qi is noticeable with head buzzing and lots of caffeine. Maybe even a little more exciting than my beloved menghai. Does menghai and lincang blend well?

Theasophie has finally gone live.
So far I'm ordering both 2016 sampler sets, and some 7542 samples.
Shah, any other recommendations from them? You're the only person I've seen who's tried their stuff.

Ninepaths, the basic thing with Theasophie is the character of the processing. Very little muddiness, crisp in what's there, and promoting a sort of gentle/subtle run of the tale the tea has to sing. The value proposition is at least okay for the basic tea area set, like from Manzhuan or Bulang. For example the Manzhuan is slightly cheaper than the comparable tea from Yunnan Sourcing. At $144/400g, it's an okay deal for the 2014 Bulang, given my experience--relatively simple tea, but fairly sweet grains/mushroom with some floral character. Etc, etc. I thoroughly enjoyed the 2015 Yiwu for what it was, but it isn't currently available. Like the other Theasophie productions, there's no loud sense of premium with the tea, just the feeling of a well made tea, that if it's gushu, it's understatedly so. Personally, I suspect I'd like the more lush tendencies of white2tea productions more. However, I'm somewhat likely to try the special sample set that has all the fancy and very expensive Mengla tea productions. Anyways, I think that people who prefer a more "tidy", "clear narrative" experience with their tea will like Theasophie productions even more than me.

Cherrybomb7, menghai area teas are often blended with Jinggu teas, like http://www.banateacompany.com/pages/puerh_teas-Jinggu-Bulang.html , and the more mushroom-conifer forest Bingdao mode has been used to fake lbz once upon a time, so it's possible that Mengku teas bulked up some nice bulangs, on the low down.

Two teas today. A 4g session of w2t 2015 Last Thoughts in the morning, and EoT Yibang gushu in the afternoon. I wasted a bit of both teas as they had good longevity. The 2015 Last Thought has gotten muted, like the 2014 try last year--these guys go to sleep pretty fast! It was sort of normal Yiwu, early on, only with florals like what I think of hot sand aroma. It got more Mansa as the brews lengthened, and there were a lot of subtle notes in the depths. Qi was mild to moderate. Aftertaste seems to be more of a lasting taste in the mouth. Occassional feeling down the throat. Good enough viscosity for a premium Yiwu. Unlike what I said wrt to the 2016 Last Thoughts, this tea also had notable astringency (and something to keep in mind about that WMD Mansa from Bitterleaf where James talked about astringency), and it wasn't smoother than the 2016 like I had thought.

The Yibang seems to have settled down some since my first try. Early brews were pretty sweet and pretty Yiwu-ish with some sweet florals, and then starts deepening with choco-vegetal-barnyard tone into the standard "wild honey" flavor. The bitterness was a bit tamer and very pleasurable. Viscosity was about the same as the Last Thoughts, but smoother. Has a relatively long finish and aftertaste. Less complex than the Last Thoughts (wild honey with bitterness and florals/fruit undertone), but very very enjoyable. I also enjoyed the qi a bit more. No promises how this small leaf tea will age, though.

I had something of a bust with the 2006 858 Museum Yiwu last Sunday, too much overoxidized leaf in that set.

Okay a number of teas...

Thursday, I had the 1998 XZH Daxueshan maocha, which was very enjoyable, with a sweet fermenting-garbage-but-nice/soil note, and a bitterness that led to a fruity-winey afternote on the tongue...

This morning I had my second try of the W2T Untitled02. It was much less wild-tree medicinal than my first try, and also less marshmellowy in texture. So instead of the 2006 YQH 600y Tree, this was more like the YQH Tianshan Yizhen, with more of an uninterruptedly bulang character in aroma and taste. This does have sweeter notes of bulang grains and a hint of deeper choco/barnyard compared to the YQH. Still very thick. Qi didn't seem remarkable. Not a whole lot in the way of aftertastes much in the same way as the Tianshan. Early on, I was tempted to place this in the shopping cart, eventually, but went nah. Got similar and better tea.

In the middle, I did a western brew of Hot Brandy. It is, indeed, pretty good. Main weakness is that the top taste is a little weaker than a pure white would be. Has a pretty good aroma, and a very strong sweetness boosted by the black tea. Also seems to have some kick to this. This sort of thing with age will be quite interesting--will the components continue to coexist well down the road?

Then I had what was labeled a 2016 Bingdao, which turned out to be the 50g lincang cake that was the tea of the month in w2t's program. With a small 4g in a gaiwan session, I found that it was more savory than I expected early on, vegetal nuttiness much like the 2013 XZH Daxueshan. Did the classic Bingdao lack of aroma as well. After some brews, the bitterness kicks in, and generates a tidy aftertaste that moves from the mouth to the top of the throat. The aftertaste tends to be sweetly floral in an unusual way. The viscosity is good, but nothing too impressive, has a soft, if not quite oily texture. The qi is pretty good, actually, and fairly lasting, but that might have just been me drinking too much potent tea all day. This tea is closest to my memory 72 Hours (and YS mushucha and Pin), and isn't as much like the Chenyuanhao Bingdaos, though it has some similar features. The Chenyuanhao teas tend to be about a distinct turn to sweetness, much like a Yiwu huigan, and isn't that focused on bitter-to-sweet. If you took the teaclub price as retail, then this would be $120/200g cake. Which again, would be on the very low side for Bingdao. It is, though, considerably better than the YS, though the YS has a bolder, stronger taste, with more top sweetness.

Shah: what are your thoughts on Tealife and Adventure in a Cup? I know you didnt like that one Tealife cake much, but if you check it know he has a lot of good looking cakes that have previously been unavailable to the west and he claims they are from "famous shops" which I take as meaning they must be a good baseline for Hong Kong storage style factory tea. Adventure in a Cup has rarer factory stuff. I guess my question is are these cakes worth it? Is it better to splurge more for YQH? Get the few aged cakes from curated vendors like White2tea and Essence?

Thanks.

I don't really have much to say. Tealife deals in teas I'm not hugely interested in. For the most part, I'd rather spend the equivalent cash/grams on good shu than on generic hk stored tea. I *do* like light traditional storage, I don't like to spend as much money as people want. I'm mildly curious about some teas sold at Adventure In A Cup, but I don't really know much one way or another. Most importantly, I have no understanding of your tea drinking needs, so cannot give you great advice.

Today I did mostly random teas. Didn't do anything seriously except for Menghai Dayi Dan Qing shu, which is okay, but has the usual issues with lightly fermented shu. Seems to have a touch of qi, good texture/thickness, hollow taste and aroma. 2006 Taipei shu sold at Houde is actually sort of similar and is better.

A couple of anon shengs...

I also did a quickie of '16 white2tea Brother. Nothing too much to say right now.

Some quick notes.

2007 Menghai jincha from w2t. Very tightly compressed and very dangerous to dissemble. There was a warning about this on the product page, and it's necessary. The tea is a generic Menghai taste with a little viscosity, and a decent texture to go with it. Later infusions are nicer, with a good Menghai honey character. Not sure if recommendable, given the difficulty of getting out my sample--it's not good enough for that sort of pain. It's certainly something you can just throw in the closet and forget about for a decade. Or two.

Mid 2k warehoused bricks that are apparently cousins of White Whale. Thoroughly enjoyed. Basically like a rich shu with great mouthfeel, and last longer than a shu. Late infusions has camphor.

Again, I *do* actually like well done traditional storage. A lot of it is too expensive for the value, but... What I *don't* like is long term humid storage, like what I find in Taiwan storage of Wistaria and YQH tea. To me, this tends to permanently damage the tea's potency and clarity without really moving the tea all that much forward in terms of fermenting and creating a rounded expression. Well done warehoused tea that moved to genuine dry storage tends to maintain potency while creating that fermented taste and feel as it ages. The taste is decisive and of itself, rather than be a drier stored taste disturbed by some of the smells of the storage facility that gets so baked in, and without losing expressions along the axis of tea character, like stronger feeling in throat. I'm more than willing to put up with a bit extra astringency for dry stored US tea, or the early sourness of dry stored Malaysian tea.

Lately, Jay seems to be buying Kunming-stored teas and hydrating them in Hong Kong. I don't think his entire stock is heavy storage. From what I can surmise, he can get dry stored tea for reasonable prices with a decade in already, and turn it out after only a couple of years.

Some teas of recent times...

EoT Yibang Small Tree: It's not too bad. Brewed with a light hand, minimized that acrid burn of leaf that has had too much nitro-fertilizer applied (or so I think). It was pleasant, if a little lacking in complexity.

I also retried the B_D_. I also brewed this with a lighter hand than the first time, and minimized the bitterness. I found it to be a relatively boring (if good) tea. The best thing about it is the the milk-milkshake texture, and some sweet notes are vaguely fruit smoothy-like. There was a lot of the feeling that one got from drinking a jinxuan oolong. Aftertaste was a bit muted, given that it was less bitter, usually. Little aroma, generally a generic taste. Decent-good qi. I read the white2tea infosheet on B_D_ after, and realized that I missed the key instruction to wait a few months, which is what I will do with the rest of the sample.

2004 Gedeng from Theasophie. The aroma and taste was *much* higher than my two previous tastings. Where it was pretty molasses before, this last session was dominated by a hot buttered fruit aroma and taste. With a touch of floral character. Sometimes that lobular leaf strawberry note. There wasn't really much thickness or texture in the soup, little aftertaste or qi. Very low on dynamcism (which was true of earlier sessions as well), so I got bored with the tea, which was less remarkable than the session on the same day of the 2007 Star of Menghai shu, which was intensly cola-fruit, and had a touch of qi (and durability, unusual for that tea).

2015 Theasophie Yiwu. Very pleasantly sweet deeper wild honey Yiwu taste and aroma. As with the Gedeng, it wasn't complex and it didn't develop very much, but it is a lot cleaner and more coherent, from the effects of very crisp processing. Nothing disturbed my enjoyment of the tea. Just faded until I stopped enjoying the specific flavor.

For Christmas Eve, I had the 2007 XZH Dinjin Nuer. This is a sibling/cousin of the Diangu line of Fengqing transitional tree gushu. Overall, I think I like this tea more than I like any Yiwu I've had. Not that this can really be compared with Yiwu teas or that I wouldn't understand if someone else didn't like this very much. This has a very specific and very unique fruit or very fleshy floral taste. Very vaguely like the fruitiness you find in Fengqing hongcha with maybe a touch of melon. This isn't very hongcha at all, now, as that the malt seems to be gone, for me. I sort of think this is interesting, because the vast majority of puerh tea doesn't have a flavor that centers itself on a fruit note (that isn't your standard aged plums or the like). In earlier brews, I also find it to have a clear and pleasant bitterness that stabs and evaporates. Along with that fruit, I also find spice notes sort of like nutmeg or cloves and floral clay, so the taste tends to be complex in the early going. It's much tidier and narrower than the Diangu, though. The aroma is also typically fruity and layered with all sorts of other things. The viscosity, however, is absurd. Extremely dense and heavy soup with an oil texture. Most of the active brews poured out of the pot like it was clean motor oil, and definitely felt like it in the mouth. The texture enters the mouth smoothly, however, this tea does tend to be strongly drying and cottony in terms of astringency. Not uncomfortable aside from a light rough touch on the throat. This also has a very strong aftertaste game. Consistently generated lots of feelings down the throat, pungent shallow huigans with flavor, and a very intense, long lasting mouthcoat. The qi is very stong, and tends to last well after the sip. Late brews are good at delivering qi as well. Durability is excellent. Broadly speaking, active brews was something like ten to twelve brews before shallowing up in taste. However, the dense soup is there past twenty brews, and the light taste is also dynamic for late puerh brews. For instance, the brew I'm drinking now, somewhere past twenty, generates some nice blooming florals after sipping. As with the 2009 Diangu, this tea doesn't seem to have aged very much at all. Losing a bit of noisy richness like that malt, which made the taste clearer. It also seems to have gotten a touch of almond sweetness on the edge of later brews. In terms of a pseudo-objective point system, such as how I try to evaluate teas, this is pretty much nonpareil. For the age of the tea, it has a great aftertaste game, it has top of the line thickness, top of the line qi, it has a decisive and unique taste you can point to, good aroma, indefinite brewing.

I got out the 2007 XZH Diangu for the first time ever, since buying the cake in 2010. The cake was loosely pressed, like the 2010 EoT cakes, and the leaves are falling off from the edges now. Oddly smells a bit like yogurt. Even more pleasantly, when in the heated pot, the dry leaves smell like mango lassa. What was more remarkable, however, was the appearance of the soup. I knew that it looked good, and I had a white spare gaiwan so I could enjoy the appearance. Crystal clear, with a slight translucence that gives it the appearance of some soft jewel, and the color is essentially rose-gold, sort of. Strong pink tones on orange early on, and pink on a more bronze, apple cider shade deeper in the session. The taste is much fuller than the 2007 Dinjin I had yesterday or the 2009 Diangu I had last Christmas. This tea has a lower register, with what Tony Chen calls camphor. In my book it's basically artisinal clay with some offbeat notes. It's much less fruity and floral than the other teas as well. It also has a stronger bitterness. The viscosity is good, and it tends to have a milk-milkshake texture, especially later on in the session. The aroma was sort of lighter than I expected, with delicate floral character. However, the lid of the pot and the just-emptied gaiwan (used as a pitcher) tended to have strong and interesting smells. Through the session, much like the 2009, the character of each cup changed on the balance of the component flavors, between low register flavors, vague tropical fruit, or fleshy florals like gardenia. Some were fruity, other cups had more of a clay-dry seaweed note, and others were pretty floral. The tea did tend to go down the throat with force, and had multiple feels in the mouth. On the other hand, the aftertaste game was much weaker compared to yesterday, comprising mostly of a bit of mouth florals and lasting mouthcoat. The qi was on the strong level, but it was rather high in quality. Not only was it relaxing, it was also quite active in changing the way my body felt and how energy flowed within. Durability is good to excellent. It's also something of an indefinite brewer, but not as strongly so as the dinjin nuercha, taste and thickness being much weaker very late.

I think that the main reason that this is somewhat different from the dinjin nuer or the 2009 Diangu is that this is a fall tea, I believe, and it has bigger leaves. Thus, there is more of an 8582 behavior going on with the "camphor". This tea is definitely more like the 2011 Iron cake Diangu than my other Fengqing, and I find that interesting.

Last Sunday I did a session with the 2007 XZH Puzhen. There are two big things about this tea. First, it's basically insanely delicious, if thin and porcelain-like in delicacy. It tastes like a combination of sugar cookies and gardenia blossoms. With vanilla, almonds, string beans, jasmine, and wood resins around the edges. The other big thing is that the aftertaste game is very strong, in the first four to six brews with a lot of pungent huigans that return with flavor. Viscosity is good, a bit of a puffy texture, but nothing too remarkable. Durability was a bit unusually good this brew, lasting past that usual spot where the tea tends to make the throat a bit uncomfortable, with a number of long brews that give a sweet taste. This durability was deceptive, because before I stopped the first half, I thought it was getting watery but still had flavor? When I restarted the tea for the back end, I realized that it was a specific mineral water flavor that dominated some later brews, and gradually faded into the very deep brews. Qi was great.

Today I had the XZH Xicongtianxiang sheng from 2009. I found my recent experience with the B_D_ from white2tea tea club to be fairly comparable, especially in terms of that sort of milk-like texture, and strong qi of a specific character. The gift set sheng's texture was a bit more velvety and thicker, while the qi was also stronger than the B_D_. This tea used to be a lot more overtly sweet in aroma and taste, where now it's basically a sort of heavy dry floral, a bit of tobacco, a not-sweet-honey sense, a nuttiness typical of Mengku (and also found in that B_D_), and a subtle sweetness is found in the length of the taste, which gets stronger deeper into the session. Later brews also tends to have this sandalwood character in the mouth, and only occassionally perceivable in aroma. Speaking of the aroma, it tends to broadly anticipate what the taste is. Not as strong as it used to be, of course. There was a pretty strong bitterness that provoked a deep feeling in the throat and a return back up, but not with too much flavor. It was an okay aftertaste game. Durability is pretty indefinite...

Both teas tended to have beautifully deep orange soup, and fairness/aroma cups are a must with both, but especially for the Puzhen.

shah8 said:

Some quick notes.

[snip]

Mid 2k warehoused bricks that are apparently cousins of White Whale. Thoroughly enjoyed. Basically like a rich shu with great mouthfeel, and last longer than a shu. Late infusions has camphor.

Click to expand...

Sorry - which tea is this?

This was a pair of unlabeled bricks that were from the same warehouse that the White Whale came from. I'm now convinced they are shu.

Yiwu yesterday and today...

Yesterday was the XZH '07 Yiwu Chahuang. Frankly, the description from last year mostly still applies:http://badgerandblade.com/vb/showthread.php/59712-SOTD-sheng-of-the-day?p=7906040#post7906040 . I'd say that the tea brewed more consistently and less wierdly in this session. After a year of drinking YQH yiwu samples, the basic root herb flavor of ginseng, birch root, or sarsaparilla strikes me as being highly unusual for a Yiwu. This tea also has a stronger woodsy-floral (and hey, a bit of what I'd think of as retired smoke, again) aroma than any normal gushu Yiwu would have. In terms of taste and aroma this is just way more like the '98 Menghai Tea Factory Yieh Sheng Qiaomu or the '99 Fuhai Six Leaves than any CYH , YQH, or for that matter, any other XZH Yiwu I've had. Just a lot more *gushu* than those '90s teas. The aftertaste seems to be about the same as last year (the intensity of sweet Yiwu style huigans were markedly lower, though), and the qi is steady through the session and strong this time around. I did find it to be a bit of a downer qi, which didn't mix well with the holiday blues. The most interesting thing about this tea is the very strong mineral character. I've noted this before, but this tea can be very much like a wuyi yancha with the mineral bite rounded off. Between the depth of the taste, low/no fruitiness, and the minerals, I could almost pretend it was a tieluohan! I brewed this more than twenty times, and could have kept going with long brews and long rests between. When trying rank this XZH among YQH like 888 or the good CYH, I found this somewhat hard to do on account of how different this tea is.

Today, I finished off the '06 Wushang Miaopin. Bad news and good news. The bad news was that the great aftertastes I found in my first try were nearly absent this time around. The good news is that all this sitting around for several months has dissipated Yang's storage, and the tea is cleaner and nicer, especially late in the session. The aroma and the taste tended to be aged Yiwu plums, honey, some light herbs. A distinct oil-based spice note, like nutmeg, consistently appears in the finish. The aroma doesn't last very deep into the session, but the taste is pretty consistent, and is fairly full and rich. Fuller and more mouthfilling than the XZH yesterday, but not a deep and penetrating. Doesn't hit the throat as hard either. This is also less plummy than the early CYH or stuff like the 888/'05 long name, mostly being a plum accented Yiwu honey taste. The viscosity is good, and texture is mostly round, but not as round/soft as the '05 long name. There was something of a notable drying astringency, but it wasn't bad and it was at least a little productive with a bit of floral aftertaste in the mouth. The qi is good, not as strong, but more uplifting compared to yesterday's tea. Durability is good, but you can get bored, I enjoyed it so I went a long way with the same, fading flavors. I had a pretty good time with this tea, tho' this session did make me think less of Wushang Miaopin than I had before, after my first try.

EoT has a small 12% sale going. Might make the expense of Secret Forest loose maocha more tempting as that nice high end white tea... Would still be pretty expensive, though.

There seems to be a slow moving hype train for a new Yiwu border tea called Tianmenshan. The usual pics of super tall tea trees with large diameter trunks and forested hills and mountains.

Last day of the holidays, I take out the '07 XZH Jinggu Nuercha. Has a bigger issue with choke throat than the Puzhen, which only happens at a certain spot in the session at around brew 13 or so. This one is early and more consistent. Not enough to put me off, but enough for me to ding it on my personal quality metrics. Issue does disappear very deep into the session for the long brews. Otherwise this tea is very enjoyable. This tea has a relatively full taste compared to Puzhen, Xishangmeishao, or Huangshanlin. It also has a big aroma that tends to feminine-perfumey with white sugar character and is very nice. The taste tends to be sweet, floral, light vegetal note, tends to have a weighty but light bitter-tart, which is usually productive. The viscosity isn't quite as thick as I remember from last time (or maybe it's the Dinjin Nuer that made me recalibrate), but it very much does have a hot, runny, honey sort of texture. So oftentimes, there is a strong sense of drinking honey. The aftertaste game is generally present but relatively subtle--a bit of huigan in the throat, some transition to floral mouth aroma, a sweet mouthcoat. The qi is consistently very good. Durability is also excellent. All in all, these northern teas haven't changed that much in the last couple of years, but in a slight increase in aged almond/caramel sweetness in later brews, and improved durability. I thought about how much I enjoyed this compared to how much I enjoyed the Wushang Miaopin yesterday, and I felt like the YQH was very mellow and easy to drink, with only a bit of drying astringency to disturb. This Jinggu was more disturbing in the mouth, more aggressive, but also more interesting and rewarding. Late infusions are better than the Yiwu yesterday, as those are both mellow and more interesting.

Drinking my teas over the holiday season this year has reinforced the fact that XZH's early work with northern tea is basically overwhelming. YQH's '06 Longya Fengjian is actually pretty good with a bold, low register woody taste, good viscosity, and strong qi, but it's not very dynamic at all, and all the complexity found would be from the layers in the depths of this tea. In contrast, XZH did so many more teas, they all were higher in taste register, which might be good or bad, but they usually had a much more dynamic aroma and taste, and vastly better aftertaste game. There's only a couple of other superpremium teas I've had that could be described as anywhere close to XZH, which would be Vesper Chan's '07 Thousand Year Tree (which is a bit thinner in taste, viscosity than xzh) and the '12 CYH Bingdao, (which is generally less dynamic).

I also did some '08 Xishangjiaxi shu, which wasn't that great, mostly that lightly fermented caused hollow tea taste. Needs a bunch more years to be consistently richer than this.

[MENTION=29921]shah8[/MENTION], I certainly do enjoy your reviews. Thank you for continuing to post them.

Today was a winter weather day off for me, so I did the 2004 YQH Zhencang Chawang. This session wasn't as good as the session last year. Moreover, I have a much better understanding of the YQH brand, and am more able to pinpoint issues. The main being that it has a weaker top taste that's been injured by some over-oxidation, as some ceylon tea aromas in a couple of brews hint. The taste tends towards a certain sort of light wood and herbs. The taste also tends towards a sweet sensation, much like the 2005 YQH Yiwu Chawang. There is a precise sourness that behaves much like bitterness in how it lends weight to the soup and promotes aftertastes. The aroma is light, but of some merit for about five brews or so, mostly wood, with some floral, some spice, and occasional ceylon fruit-floral. The viscosity is okay, but the texture is a bit like the '05 YQH long name, with an almost pudding like feel. The qi is almost as strong, and of high quality. Seems to fade somewhat, late in the session (but I've put that in the fridge for now, will see what tomorrow brings). The most uniquely good thing about this tea are the aftertastes. It has a lot of productive astringency that give a hint of that vanilla that was so strong last year. Some dynamic cooling spice stuff. A few huigans coming up from the throat. It was reasonably durable, but the taste does get pretty light. This year the XZH '07 Yiwu Chahuang was the better Yiwu. I guess I would still definitely prefer this over the Shenpin Chawang or Teji, or, I guess, the '05 long name, but it's not better than the '04 Dingji or a number of the other best YQH Yiwus.

Yesterday, after an enjoyable, if necessarily short (for the reason that it's made of fannings) session with the XZH '09 gift set shu, I finished up with the '04 YQH, and got a few good brews with stronger taste. I conclude that had this tea had a better and less injured top taste, it probably would be situation in the tier just under the very best of YQH Yiwus. It certainly has among the best aftertaste game of any YQH Yiwu, and the top taste is more dynamic over a session than almost all of them. YQH really doesn't really seem to do teas that change much over a session! '04 dingji really is the only other YQH I've tried (maybe that lao Man'e Tiancang as well?) that has much complexity over a session. Maybe Qizhong? They are heavily blended with more than two parts, though.

Today I had the XZH '09 Jingmai. Thinking I'd compare with '07 Dingjin Nuer. It has a broader taste than the Nuer, with big pieces, like fruit, honey, and dry floral floating through there, but otherwise, the '07 kills this tea. This tea is still really, really, good, and one thing I have really started to notice is that it does much much better at maintaining a complex taste than most any other lobular tea I can think of. Good aroma, deep into session, too. Good oil/velvet texture, but not as thick as the dinjin. Good qi, that was really pleasantly warming on this cold day. The durability was also good, and it had a stronger than expected element of aged 'banna almond sweetness, like what the Zhencang Chawang or the XZH Youle has done. Generally a very sweet tea from aroma, to top taste to aftertaste, which tends to be floral aroma in the mouth, some mouthcoat, and a few stronger feeling rather than stronger tasting huigans in the throat.

Finished off samples.

Bad session with 2g of YS '16 Bingdao. Tastes like a good chinese green, with little good puerh-ness. Not enough special stuff in this set of leaves?

Found a old renmant of '10 XZH Osanzhai. Thin taste, thin soup. Tends to be sweet, and from top to lasting sense in the mouth after the sip/swallow. Nothing too special. Very weird the sort of drop off there is from the '09 Xicontianxiang 100g tea to '10 Jinggu...

I have seen the heaviest positive press on the XZH brand over the course of these posts, how is it possible to procure samples/cakes/anything from this brand? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I am a XZH fanboy, though...

As for buying...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/926...roup_comment_follow&notif_id=1483932428713168

Houde Asian Arts still has a couple of XZH sample and a last couple of cakes.

shah another question: what would be the one cake you buy out of Emmetts new XZH group buy http://steepster.com/discuss/14963-xizihao-and-chenyuanhao-teas-available-from-taiwan?