Chawangshop

So last weekend I was house sitting for my parents as they were out of town and I just threw some random samples into my backpack… I pick out this one that says 97 Chawangshop red mark and I’m thinking ‘eh this will be decent I suppose’ thinking that Chawangshop doesn’t have serious bangers… well, I was wrong and it’s good to be wrong!

Tea brewed out really dark. Taste much like a Bulang with that spunk to it. Nice texture, a little speckle on the tongue/throat; you know, like the viscosity of the liquid was taking its time trickle throw/on both. Taste was very aged and dry aged at that… dry aged is MUCH easier to taste tea progression and low notes unlike humid storage; just try a 10 year XG that was humid stored vs a 10 year dry XG stored cake. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some humid stored stuff, but what a treat it is to have a dry stored cake that you can kind of taste the years pass through your taste buds.

No idea who gave me a sample, no idea if more is to be had… awesome session. Very satisfied.

I got a sample of this one in the Chawang Group buy I participated in earlier this year. I found this to be a pretty powerful tea. Flavors I noted were floral and slightly piney; this tea absolutely possesses a good amount of astringency and bitterness (more bitter than astringent though). This can be mitigated by brewing with a very light hand (or likely by using cooler water, though I did all my sessions at a boil).

The tea’s texture was quite thick in my mouth and as it went down my throat. I perceived a slight bit of energy, at points during the session, but only when I was really focused on it. This one seems like it would take well to aging. From what I’ve heard, Chawang selects more for teas which will be good with age rather than ones which are good young. While this one is tasty at this age, I think it would benefit from aging for sure.

Not much I can say that the reviews from Rich and Liquid Proust before me haven’t already said. I echo their sentiments exactly. Good tea…actually a steal of a tea. Don’t buy it all before I get around to placing another order :)

This tea has girth… like an enlarging depth of flavor that takes up your mouth through a shrinking via bitter notes.

From the first steep I knew this was quality. This is some good stuff and I expected to see something more than $50 for a cake and that was true after I looked it up. Still, $45/200g is less than what the average silly 200g pressing is going for when it comes to something that has serious potential such as this cake.

It has some nice plucks to it, but dang this tea is solid and I look forward to having someone remind me to revisit a year down the road.

Mainly tannic vegetables with a hint of ‘stuff’

This is a very good tea for the price Chawangshop gets for it, I believe for $5 a 100g bing. Yunnan Sourcing has the same tea which I also bought before I saw it at Chawangshop. While I would not call this tea phenomenal, it was very good, a nice solid ripe. It had a fair amount of fermentation flavor left, that flavor was a little unpleasant at first but not fishy. There were some notes of dark bittersweet chocolate in there. After a few steeps the bittersweet notes left and a sweet note was there. Not sure as to how to describe this note. This tea is definitely worth buying at Chawangshop’s price if you put in an order.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 220ml Yixing Teapot with 15.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 minutes. It waspretty much finished at twelve steepings. If I had used more leaf I am sure it would have gone a little further.

This is a fairly tasty ripe brick from Chawangshop. It had a fair amount of fermentation flavor. Neither unpleasant nor fishy tasting. There was no bitterness, just a sweet note from the start.

I steeped this ten times in a 160ml Silver Teapot with 12.2g leaf and 190 degree water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec,7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

First weet and eathy with slight bitterness, later the eathy tones subsite and the tea gets more sweet.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2005-bulang-shan-old-tree-chawangpu

Fresh and strong, pleasant fruity bitterness and good Qi.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-bada-old-tree-chawangpu

Very sweet as brown sugar with a herbal note.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2014-laos-ban-komaen-blue

Strong, bitter-sweet and floral. Very refreshing bitterness.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-hekai-gushu-chawangpu

This brews out a bit darker than everything else I’ve tried from the chawang 2016 lineup thus far.

Pretty deep taste to it that comes with a little dryness on the back. Thea leaf when wet has a great aroma that is strong and the liquid comes out with a small amount of viscosity that would be above normal, however I think the mouth is confused by the dryness to think so. The huigan does come through quite nice on this tea as well with the slightest hint of lingering smoke.

Considering where this tea is at now, I really think it has great potential to be humid stored for 3 plus years before it gains some ‘legs’ and I really think that it’ll improve as the slight smoke goes away but the boldness of this tea sticks. For the price, it’s a good throw in the back of some area type of buy.

Heavy, sweet and smooth.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2015-mengsong-old-tree-chawangpu

This is a fairly nice tea. Got it with the Chawangshop group buy. Got them a while ago but am really just getting to them now. This one started with a bit of a sour note but I didn’t notice it in the second infusion. It was slightly bitter and slightly sweet. A nice raw to drink now because it did not have an abiding bitterness that some sheng has. In the end I am not sure if it was sweet enough to say apricots and stonefruits but a nice sweet note was there.

I steeped this ten times in a 75ml teapot with 6.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 minute.

I don’t get to drink outside as much as I like because I am just swamped with stuff to do and yes I took it on all by myself!

80+ new puerh drinkers have packages going out to them. Teaching my gf how to break and weigh gifts; meaning exacts don’t matter :P
Pubertea… the pubertea side buy.
So excited to read through everyone’s sessions.

Anyways, this tea. This tea right here. Right here, this tea.

Light. Crisp. Everlasting?

Really enjoyable, but I think the pictures do justice for explaining the experience.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BVQVeuPACTx/

I feel so zapped every night that it’s hard to sit down and just write a review; however it has been replaced with opening up IG/Reddit/Steepster and talking to others about tea : )

Still plowing through Chawangshop’s 2016 pu erh lineup from the recent group buy. Today’s tea was the Bada, and it was very good. Possibly the best of the bunch I’ve tried so far. It’s got some good huigan, a slight bite of bitterness, a bit of fruit, and energizing qi. So after I tried this, I looked it up on the website, and despite it being one of my favorites so far, it is only $20 for a 200g cake. That’s a steal!

I liked this one a lot. The leaves are very nice, and the aroma is fruity and sweet. The brews are a bit on the light and crisp side, with deep yellow-gold broth, though the tea is viscous. One thing I really like about this tea is the huigan, or menthol cooling effect. It is one of my favorite qualities in a pu erh, and this one has a lot of it, though it is a bit subtle. Some bitterness emerges in later steeps, as one would hope and expect, though not too much. Another great tea from Chawangshop!

4g/50ml glazed shiboradashi 205F short steeps

Sampling it almost a year later. it is so enjoyable. thick bittersweet with minimal astringency and quick huigan. good even with pushing. the qi is quite noticable too. hope they offer it for sale this year as well. i go thru my 100g rather quickly…

https://instagram.com/p/BUulFRDj427/

Another solid 2016 production from Chawangshop. I have been impressed with the 2016 teas I have tried so far. This one is thick, with a mix of savory and sweet, with a subtle but noticeable huigan. The tea brews a pale yellow-gold. Buttery in early steeps, just slightly bitter in later ones.

Another solid 2016 production from Chawangshop. I have been impressed with the 2016 teas I have tried so far. This one is thick, with a mix of savory and sweet, with a subtle but noticeable huigan. The tea brews a pale yellow-gold. Buttery in early steeps, just slightly bitter in later ones.

This is a solid menghai raw pu erh from chawangshop. Typical menghai flavor profile, done very well, though none too complex. Strong in character, and powerful qi. It’s a nice tea, but expensive at $90 for a 400g cake.

This is a nice quality young sheng from Chawangshop. I would put this into the category of light and crisp, with some bitterness throughout. Aroma is sweet and floral. The brews start off buttery, then turn bitter. A little grapey here and there. Overall a fine tea.

1st steep: Really nice texture; viscous on the front of the tongue and smooth going down. Not much nose, and light straw flavor. The texture is the main thing, though it seems to open up in the finish. As it cools, a light straw/apricot flavor becomes more apparent in both the taste and the finish. 3rd (20s): aroma of toast. There is now a strong component of wood to the taste, though still some apricot underneath. Later steeps became increasingly tannic. I loved the first two steeps, but the later steeps were somewhat disappointing. Still, a good tea overall.