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This just barely passed the bar for a Dayi ripe. This is one of my favorite recipes, but this particular year fell flat. It’s hard to find the right Dayi ripe flavor sometimes!

I applaud the use of high quality material for shu. This tea has a soft flavor profile, perhaps like one might expect from a yiwu pu erh. It was perfectly fine, but I found it lacking in character, depth, and complexity. A little too subtle for my tastes.

Though I am a Dayi Ripe lover, I hadn’t tried a V93 until today! I just ordered a tong of the 2010 version from King Tea Mall since it has been reviewed so well. Then I was going through my stash this weekend, and lo and behold, I found a 2008 tuo! It was probably acquired from Mandala or Yunnan Sourcing several years ago. So I was excited to try it. However, I was disappointed. I might just have a bad tuo, but it tastes very astringent and lacks good flavor, and maybe has a bad aftertaste as well. Has anyone had this happen, where a very well-reviewed tea tastes off? I assume this happens sometimes, particularly in large batch factory teas. I know it has happened to me in the past (even though I have good storage, I use a closet pumidor). I am still looking forward to trying the 2010 tuo, hopefully it will better represent this recipe.

Yum, killer Dayi ripe with lots of caffeine.

I have tried this Tea twice and it has not gone well. It is kind of flat and thin and has a cardboard taste even when heavily leafed. Wondering what others think who have tried it? Did I get a bad cake or is this just how it is?

If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought this was a Laoshan Black Tea. It tastes of chocolate and malt. I was surprised at how small the leaves are given that it is a wild grown tea. It is quite tasty.

A very nice Dayi raw. I’d even put this one up against some of the boutique pu erhs and I would venture to guess it would hold up well in comparison. The liquor is gold. It is fairly sweet, with some honey and Lucky Charms notes. A very easy drinker with just a touch of bitterness. King Tea sells this for $32 for a full size cake, I think this one is well worth the price and a good one to shove away for the future.