SOTD- sheng of the day

Store Benchmark from TeaHeavenly: Taste this tea again today and it gives me a very good perspective on what a great tea tastes like when it is young. It is balanced, with some kind of distinctive flower fragrance. It is young and it tastes very bitter, which turns into bittersweet aftertaste for a long period of time in the mouth. The first impression is bitter and unpleasant, but then it turns into lingering bittersweet aftertaste. It gives out very positive "qi", which is powerful like a great ginseng. The distinctive flower fragrance resembles that from the Banzhang area. The depth of the tea is deep and long. The brewing lasts 15 times or so, with sweet and robust broth in the last few times. Usually most of the teas would lose its flavor quick but not this one. The more I taste this tea the better I understand and learn what a great tea would be. What is unusual about this tea is that it warms the drinker up instead of giving headache and negative body reaction like most other young teas do. It is still young and it would take a few years before developing and giving a very pleasant broth.

Sample H 8g: The dry leaves are brown, loosely compressed, and full of gold tips. A slight floral dry aroma exists. With the first brew, a classical Bulang aroma pops up, from a thick and slightly astringent soup. The taste, however, was thin with an odd bitterness. I thought that this is one of those teas with with flavor obscured by thick texture. I also considered the impact of so many tips. There was some aftertaste, but it was mostly your typical Menghai area floral mouthcoat. This has a lot of caffeine and some qi mixed in. The second brew created a magnificently layered aroma where one can find Menghai Bulang standard base, chocolate tones, coffee tones, the odd floral element that invited me to take my time and enjoy sniffing. The taste is stronger, despite the fact that the soup was still thick. It was pretty bitter, though, with some medicinal element (Lao Man'E?). There was, as expected, a resulting strong feeling in the throat, but it was mostly a yun with little flavor. While bitter, the taste is complex, dark, and very enjoyable--one later sip was beautifully floral. Nothing like as deep as the '05 Chen Guanghe Tang Menghai Yieh Sheng, though. The taste is still broader than the Sample E (which was, belatedly, the '08 Nanzhou 801 Bulang Golden, or I'd say Gold Essence?), though. The feel in the body is still wired. I was a little disappointed that the aroma dies down in the third brew a bit, but it was still good. Viscosity is lower but texture is more defined. The taste is composed of soil, flowers, and a touch of honey. The aftertaste is mostly a long finish, similar to the '08 HLH Ban'E. Fourth brew had a nice, mellow aroma that I took time for, and when I tasted the soup, I came up with more soil, and unusually, the way some big beetles can smell nice. I was intrigued, and enjoyed it among many notes in the increased depth. Viscosity bounces back, but astringency is up as well. Fifth brew has both the aroma and taste dying down. Incidentally, the bitterness is almost gone and astringency is lower. I enjoyed a bit of that "feels like drinking sugared beverage" feeling in the swallows. Sixth and seventh brew are getting flat. Not tasteless, but it seems that the exciting part is about done, and good taste definitely was tied to the bitterness. So there was just a basic sheng taste/honey with other notes here and there. The seventh brew had a bit of a nice mouthcoat aftertaste. Brewed the ninth brew long to get more taste, and managed to get bitterness and more real flavor, but I still drank the cup fast. When I restarted for the back end, my focus was on figuring how how much real qi this had. The rest did not reinvigorate the taste, so I didn't have much of a chance to be distracted. This had a slow build and sneaky qi, and it can warm up the body. Qi isn't that strong though, but strong enough to be mostly relaxing--too hot to like getting body warmed up. Soup body remained determinedly thick. The finished leaves were pretty stemmy and buddy. The actual leaves that were there were generally quite tough, though easy to rip once torn.

First, yesterday's Sample G should be known as a mid-90's Zhongcha qingbing, so no certainties about anything else with the tea.

Now, this tea is also relatively unknown. It is a 2005 Banzhang. Very much on the Lao Man'E side of thing, though, but maybe there's some banzhang in it. It's a lot better than the HLH Ban'E, but then, I had that tea when it was two years old, and this is nine. It still had a much broader taste and complexity, maybe a bit less durable when it comes to taste. Definitely more qi. This also pushes me to think that the 70's YM CP is definitely composed in part with good tree bulang. I like the quality of the Lao Man'E in this tea better than the '05 CGHT Banzhang King, but that tea had more actual LBZ sensibility in it. Like both of the afor-mentioned teas, it starts off like gangbusters, and dies down fairly quickly. There were some comments as to this is how Lao Man'E is, and one of the reasons it is inferior to LBZ is that LBZ lasts a lot longer, or more or less indefinite. This is certainly not very fruity like many banzhang area teas. I also think that all the buds probably didn't help at this stage of the aging process, as they contributed to an emptier tea at times. I looked at some taobao cakes from 2005, and the closest looking cake is also a Nanzhou, which was really highly priced at generally a thousand to 13 hundred dollars. Lastly, I am reminded of GN? and his experience with the Douji '06 LBZ because he mentioned he felt like it had some Lao Man'E.

One more tea to go.

Sample I 8g: I was looking forward to this tea from the start, because the leaves were never really pressed, just softly packed together, and it had a wonderful almost piney wood-moss-soil dry aroma. The aroma from the first brew doesn't pull any punches about the age--there is that "candied" aspect to it, but more of a focus on soil and chocolate. This is all very clearly screams liu bao. Good liu bao. Soup viscosity is thinner than I'd expected, but the texture is still very good. The first brew taste has an almost cologne-aromatic wood and some soil. The taste is uncomplicated and good, with a hint of sour, but consistent sweetness. There is some cooling and a bit of aftertaste. The qi starts out strong. In the second brew, the aroma is stronger, but it doesn't have as much of that "candied" element to the aroma. The taste gets stronger, of course, but the cologne aromatic is gone, and wood/chocolate dominates, a bit like cheaper leaf puerh aged in stronger humidity. The texture almost feels like pudding (vanilla, chocolate, dairy products) with no drying finish. Not too much in the way of distinct aftertaste, but some presence is there. Qi is still present, strong, and soft. In the third brew, the "candied" aspect shows back up again, and I take time to separate out wood, different chocolate tones, and some swirling fruit notes down there, somewheres. The texture is still great, but the taste has less wood and soil taste, while retaining chocolate notes and sweet flavors. When the soup got cold, a hint of fishiness from some distant wet storage period showed up. And later some wood notes made a belated entrance. Astringency is up a bit. Cooling as well, and the aftertaste began to really kick in. This is that long sweet finish/taste that stays in the mouth, and nothing from the throat sort of huigan. A little after mid-day, I was pretty tea drunk after three cups. In the fourth brew, the taste simplifies, with somewhat aromatic wood, but the huigan intensifies in flavors and sensation along with strong cooling. Viscosity is down, but Qi has me downer. The fifth brew has chocolate tones in the taste and more aroma, making me feel like it's going up and down by cups. Huigan is massive, and I go all grumpy about needing more separate words. We obviously use huigan for the throat pungency and this sort of long finish from what I read. There's also throat yun, pungent mouth aroma, and mouth coat. Deeper in the cup, woodiness shows back up among the chocolate. A little astringency in the throat shows up. I stop for about ten minutes to enjoy the huigan and qi. Sixth brew has decreasing aroma and taste, but huigan, qi, and viscosity still going. Same with the seventh, and I keep brewing. Eventually I stopped. The back end of the session continued with similar satisfaction, light flavors, some sensate sweetness, plenty of qi, a lighter but still lengthy huigan, and in some late brew, like the XZH '07 Huangshanlin in earlier times, really nice strawberry tones show up, which I enjoyed. Thoroughly enjoyed this tea. Turns out to be a 70's Liu Bao.

Ranking of teas.

G 70's Conscientious Prescription wins, but it turned out to be closer than I thought it'd be. Overwhelming start to session and while it turns normal, it's very durable with reasonable taste and slight sweetness in the long run. Made me a stronger believer in gushu, believe it or not. Taste very much like Lao Man'E or something similar tree Bulang.
I 70's Liu Bao was pretty close because of how strong and good the aftertaste and qi was. A bit more of pedestrian taste, but still very relaxing. I've had 70's liu bao before at a tea gathering, but personal attention and relaxation at home was a better evaluatory environment.
H Aged Lao Man'E. Respectable too. That's pretty hard to beat. Gets flat quick, though
D Very good durability, and light taste stays lively with nice floral aftertaste. Qi is great.
E It's really sour in the beginning, and I had more of a problem with it than the similar sourness in the early 90's 7542, because it definitely had good flavors/behaviors early in the session that was being obstructed. Had I the ability to buy a tong, I would take some time to work out how to brew this, because it is about as durable as D, with stronger flavor, better texture, and almost as good qi in the deep session.
C I liked how similar it was to a tea I owned, and it was relatively feisty.
F This was a relatively narrow tea with a specific quality of goodness, like tea B. Nice, but nothing truly special in it, other than being properly processed.
B I think this is pretty good evidence along with all the other Bingdao I've tried, that Bingdao just isn't truly better than the best of other northern tea. This is very pleasant, with some qi, But pleasant and agreeable is all that it really is, and it turns the mood saccharine if you're not specifically looking for this.
A Hongcha wreck of a tea. Helps understand tea history. Does have a few decent qualities before it all goes downhill.

Thanks to my sponsor, I really learned some stuff, like what oldsters mean by camphor in old tea. Nothing like what the word means to me registers the "candied" quality that I wound up being intrigued by. Not a lot of things can smell like that!

Tried a couple of thrown in bricks:

pixingwangfu (2006?). Empty taste, something like cheap bulang. Has qi, but not very pleasant, and I didn't really like it, so after some brews, I ditched it, and put the brick away for future, more desperate times.

Zhongcha 7581 sheng, probably from 2000. This isn't great either, but it's clearly potable, with a pleasant ceylon fruitiness to it. Very sharp youth still there. Some mouth aroma, some qi. Taste is not strong, and body is just enough. This is something I'm more likely to drink. It's certainly better than that Fuhai brick that JingTeaShop sold, though that one is a bit more solid in taste (including the smoke). I probably won't try to drink this anytime soon, either, but I may do so after a long enough time...

Errata: Sample E is definitely not the lipstick red I've had before, but an entirely different CNNP zhongcha production.

EoT Yuan Wei again. Settled down some, though still flat. Important thing is that it doesn't taste so much like a Hunan hongcha. Richer flavor profile than the pu-erh.sk Naka, has more qi, I suspect, less sensate sweetness, bitterness and aftertaste, probably a bit more durable in session. This second try had a lot more drying astringency than my first one. The Naka is more refined, while this is more hearty. I think I like this, but I doubt this is a strong aging candidate because their isn't the sort of heaviness and bitterness one would like to have with that purpose in mind.

I also did some further brews of the 70's puerh, which had been stashed in the fridge for several days. Only got one or two worthwhile brews from it. After that it started hurting the throat.

Two days ago, tried some ChenYuanHao Yiwu again. A bit settled down, but sour and hongchapu. Late infusions has some of that nice finish. Potable, not good.

Yesterday, tried 8g of 8582 801. Early brews were pretty tasty, but this session died down very quickly and I didn't do a very long session.

Today, I did some (8g) '98 Orange in Orange 8582 from Teaclassico. Front end of the session, I was pretty mad at it, because it essentially behaves like a fermented tea with young abrasive character. A not very good material that has been well and humidly stored. If it had been on sale at TeaClassico for lots of money, I'd been like--you can easily do better with good shu! The back end of the session was much improved, and I got at least five good brews out of the long infusions. I remember my first session having this issue with the shorter brews being not very good at all, only to improve late. So I guess one really has to finangle some sort of new brewing tactic for this particular tea.

Finished off most of Sample C with 7g. I like this tea very much--this is a northern tea with more depth and strength than northern tea usually has, with a nice apple-y fruit suggestion to boot in what is an interesting and complex soup. It has a strong bitterness that is quite productive in feeling in mouth, throat, and various aftertastes. Excellent aroma. The qi isn't that strong, but it's there. It's a better all around tea than any Bingdao I've had. Whatever it gives up in qi, friendliness in taste, and viscosity, it's still ahead in being a more genuinely interesting and engaging tea.

http://www.skip4tea.com/唐&#3...a-No-Yu-Fook-Li-Yuan-Cha/q?pid=818&doit=order is very much asking after, though I'm pretty sure that the price is old and it's expensive like all the other decent options.

And again, Bingdao is a scam. Not because it can't be good, but because it's just not better than other excellent northern teas in the way that LBZ and GFZ are better than other Banna teas. However, it just occupies all the attention. Deng made this tea largely because people have been consistently satisfied with how Fengqing tea of this nature ages. The '93 Shui Lan Yin is supposedly a rewrap of some older Fengqing teas, and the '97 etc Shui Lan Yin might have some Fengqing cut in, given how my experience with the '99 went.

2001 Xiaguan 8653 from a tea vendor in Taiwan: The tea is tasty in a way that it's more mellow compared to the young ones. The aroma is very nice and it is in the broth too. The aftertaste is nice and moderately long. The impact in the mouth is good enough that overall it is a nice tea. I found Xiaguan 8653 is usually fragrant and I guess it's because of the characteristics of the tea leaves from that area. I also found Xiaguan is straight forward while Dayi is more elusive in terms of identifying the elements in the tea, i.e. in Xiaguan they could be easier to identify while Dayi you have to look hard and sometimes you have to look really hard when they are young.

EoT Du Quan. Bounced back more readily than Yuan Wei and is more lively. It also has a properly heavy bitterness. Has very light edge of sourness. Is a very floral tea, enough to be suspicious, but no ill-effects during the session. Some sheng honey in the depth. Not strong on qi (but I had not been feeling well today, so), and any aftertaste is more in the mouth than in the throat. Durable tea, but doesn't hold my interest that well. Think it will be better one year down the road. Finished leaves are large, and they are unusually thick and resistant to rubbing.

The whatever Bangwei today. Very good at giving me basic good taste, like the 8582 801 etc...

Since EoT is about to put up some of their new teas--I see two teas are up, waiting on that Yuan Wei...I want to reiterate that the teas I've been sampling were damaged, and should only be taken as a rather general preview as to what they are genuinely like. Also, in part, I write these reports as a handy tea diary, and thus, they serve my personal purpose in learning more about appreciating tea. I go back all the time, and shake my head at how wrong I was on some random comment back in 2010 or 2011. As far as other people are concerned, my advocacy (at least in what I deeply care about) is directed at getting people to the point where they understand why a tea is worth spending a great deal of money on, and supporting vendors who make the time and effort to press high end tea, transparently to their customers. I challenge people, I'm sharp, I'm acerbic, going all Anton Ego, swimming towards the sentiments of that final soliloquy where it starts off "In many ways, the work of a critic is easy..." Just because my but never left this chair, and I've never slept in smothering heat or ate food that disagreed with me, doesn't mean that I don't seek to escape where I am into a cup of tea. It also does not mean I do not appreciate those that did take the risks and discomfort to make good tea according to their vision. Or to sniff it out of a pile of dreck...

Today, though, I had good tea.


I finished off most of sample F, which was the 2008 Nanzhou Golden Bulang. I was able to more easily enjoy this tea, and tracked the bz sensibility much better. Still isn't that strongly LBZ and most of the effects and aftertastes stay in the mouth. The taste feels broader than it was the first time. Sharply bitter in the beginning, at least in part to all the broken leaf. This is roughly in the same ballpark as all the other pretty good bulangs from that time.

Taochaju Lao Man'E '08--Nanzhou is a little tighter with more density and complexity. Much less aged sweet flavors, though. More qi, and a bit stronger feel in the mouth.

The two '09 bulangs I got from YS--Nanzhou doesn't have the throat action of these guys, but it does have a more balanced, well blended taste. About even qi, depending on brews.

'05 Dayi Peacock--Nanzhou is fuller tasting, but the aroma isn't as nice, and loses considerably on the aftertaste department. Similar behavior and roughly same ballpark quality-wise.

This is not quite as good the Deng Shi-Hai Fengqing from '07, but it is pretty good. They are about the same price, which would suggest that the Fengqing is the more urgent buy given the greater rarity of quality Northern tea. I do think you can bargain this down from the suggested retail of around $200 one sees on Taobao.

Second try of EoT Long Lan Xu (damaged maocha). Not much to say different from my first review except that that this tea never got astringent. I'm pretty satisfied with this tea, and if the stuff sold in the bings are more or less the same, the price is about fair. It's definitely better than the 2013 YS Jingmai overall, and could be considered $20 better. The primary issue is that it is, indeed thinner in taste and texture than ideal, and it's also of the sort of tea that empties out somewhat with age in the way of many Simao tea. Nevertheless, it's pretty tasty.

2006 Yiwu from a tea vendor in Hong Kong: It has developed a bit of the secondary flavors and has toned down its aggressive greenness a lot. It is barely drinkable but that little secondary aroma and flavor are tantalizing... Even this little bit flashes are so calming and soothing, the effect for that Yiwu tea is famous. It reminds me of the 2002 7532 I tasted a while ago in that I need more of this tea!

2006 XZH Mahei maocha. Oolonged, and has a bit of sour fermentation in early brews (might be from sitting too long in cheap plastic baggies), definitely revealed in that improper astringency. Otherwise, this was a very enjoyable tea that was brewed 12-15 times.

Yesterday was the sample H that was some kind of banzhang from '05 or something. Using just seven grams, it tasted a bit less like a Lao Man'e, and while it was enjoyable, the '08 Nanzhou is the better, more banzhang-y tea. A bit of sophistication, some Menghai floral mouth aroma, qi, etc.

Had the '90s CNNP Qing Bing that was Sample G? I was prepared for the sourness, and it didn't last that long. Was rewarded by durable session with plentiful aftertaste, a solid soup viscosity, and really good qi. About as good as the Zhenchunyahao is... Different sort of tea, though, more Mengku-like.

2000 DingXing tuo. It was only okay. I used 8g this time, didn't get that unusual fruitish tone, but all it really had to offer was fermented tea taste. I had a much better time yesterday with '12 Dayi Hong Yun shu.

I think '11 Dayi jia ji tuo. Nothing awesome, but it was quite pleasant, and less bitter than my first time. The soup was notably thick and comfortable to drink.

White Whale today. My best session yet, and I think I got lots more leaf and less stems in my pot. Strong flavor, very thick and smooth soup (as per the fine grade of leaves), good aftertastes. Only thing I could have asked for was some qi. Pretty sure this is a Fengqing. Which made me think of the 2009 Wenlong tea that's also from Fengqing, but which is pretty hongcha, and I was thinking whether a comparison would help refine my hongchapu radar...

Yesterday I did the Tai Lian, with White Whale in mind. It was a better than usual session with higher than usual qi.

1) I think the Tai Lian is the better tea, because it has a stronger aftertaste, with more of it in the throat. It also has more qi. These things tend to be expensive to buy. I also am, having drunk a number of "BingDao"s since the last time I've drunk this tea, getting to be pretty sure that a part of the blend is indeed "Bingdao". On a personal level, I like the taste and aroma a lot, the early brews are fairly thin aromatic wood with some patchouli tones, while it eventually transforms to sweeter flavors as the session goes on.

2) The White Whale also has its quality in the sense that it has a very dense taste while also having a thick soup, say like the '05 CGHT Menghai Yieh Sheng. This is also a bit of a rare quality. The taste isn't that elegant, being of chicory and chocolate tones you get from some northern teas, but it is tasty enough (stronger, deeper than Tai Lian), and you get some aftertastes, camphor, etc. It's not a surprise that the price went up.


Today, I tried out Sample D again, the GuYunHai '04. I'm not as impressed with it as I was the first time around. It *is* pretty hongcha. There are some aftertastes, and the soup is reliably thick and textured throughout the session. The thing is that the qi is of very good quality, and especially so deep in the a *very* lengthy session. Still think it's mostly Jingmai, but as a general tea, it compares poorly with the '04 Nanjian ZhaiZiPo, which is less (and more nicely so) hongcha, with only durability and a bit more qi as an advantage.

As an all around tea, the '07 Fengqing made by Dengshihai (Sample C), is clearly the best of the post 2k teas in that sample round, in all around terms. If you want to go upscale from the White Whale, it's a good prospect! Sorta similar behavior, but the '07 is slightly fruitier, more floral aroma, and just all around more elegant and classy.

I should be having a number of new teas to try, soon enough...not that I'm really bored. Did a 3g mug of ChenYuanHao '07 shu, which I thought would work out since it's relatively subtle and might be tastier brewed really long. Needs another gram, though.

2012 TeaUrchin Manzhuan maocha.

I checked and saw that the cake was $180. Which raised psychic eyebrows because I didn't remember it originally being that much. So why is it so expensive now?

Well, I suppose because of a couple of things. This has a good thickness and sticky texture, that sometimes go down like sugarcane juice. More importantly, this has a lot of bitterness, some of which converts to aftertaste in the throat, making for some lasting light huigans. There is a nice cooling effect in some brews as well.

There was some dust among the big leaves, so it's pretty bitter the first four or so quick brews. It's also fairly citric. The early brews are very slightly sour. There isn't really a strong flavor. The most constant flavor is a kind of aromatic soil taste that I've tasted before in products like the Sanhetang '10 Manzhuan, but there isn't that cupcake taste that the XZH has, or much of a Yiwu area sensibility. There are some nuances, in the aroma early session, and in the taste, but much of the complexity comes from some transformation in the mouth or huigan. There is caffeine, but that doesn't do much after maybe three brews. This isn't *that* durable a tea, got about 13 brews, including the back end, but late brews, while having some pleasant sweetness, was also astringent instead of smoothing out to easy late session Menghai honey.

I'd bet the maocha aged a bit more funky than the cake, but there is no way I'd think it's a great bargain for $180. It's not totally unreasonable--it should develop into a good aged tea, what with what it can do in the throat. However, I can get a much better tasting and older XZH Manzhuan for $55 less. And hey, it might have the throatfeel in the cake, which I didn't really get in 2011 sample. Beats the snot out of the YS Manzhuan ('09, '10) though. It's also a more serious tea than the 2012 TU Yishanmo or LSD, despite these teas tasting better.