pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

Ineresting afternoon session with a 1990’s Ding Xing Hao sheng (The Chinese Tea Shop). Good complexity. Solid character and flavor profile – sweetness and bitterness work nicely together to achieve a firm base upon which the subtleties of the additional flavors – hay, camphor, old book leather and stonefruit – reveal themselves throughout the tea session. Most noticeable is the strong Qi in this one – an “energy” that makes me feel very alive and rather happy. Lingering aftertaste. Decent endurance and steep longevity (10-12 infusions) so I’ll likely go back to this little teapot full of happiness sometime over the next two days. Not the most flavorful sheng I have enjoyed but an interesting find indeed.

Yunnan Sourcing just announced a 4 day sale, %10 off all Yunnan Sourcing brand puerh, code YS10.

I started off the day with a 2010 private label shu from the puershop. Yuck. It was very fishy. Good thing I only got a sample. Into the garbage.

For afternoon tea, I tried the rolled pu erh from Misty Peak, courtesy of an unnamed generous sample swapping benefactor. Can I say these are big balls without offending anyone? It was very good, easy to drink. Early steeps were strong but not that flavorful, later steeps were a bit fruity which I like. Definitely ready to drink now, who knows how their teas will do with age. Good quality leaves were used for sure.

Laohuangpian by Wymm Tea. Nice grape flavor, pretty leaves. Got about 8 steeps out of it. I don’t drink young tea more than once a week or so, and this is my greenery for the week. The packaging gave me much to write about on marketing trends to women consumers, fun stuff. http://deathbytea.blogspot.com

2014s Apple Scruffs by W2T. Stupid snowy day in DC today. So I’m treating myself with this one. This is an autumn offering that behaves a lot like a spring, it has lots of fruits and somehow has some (not all) of the crispness and complexity that you’d expect from a good spring material.

The liquor can be from a deep gold to an orange amber and can very aromatic just as its leaves. Mesquite Honey, tropical fruits, floral bitterness and a good thick body. The sweet balances very well with the bitter floral notes and linger in the tongue and if the mood seems to strike it, in the throat as well. I know the cakes are sold out right now, but if you can pick up a sample, well worth it.

I suppose since most of the tea I’m drinking is puerh, I should probably start hanging out with the other puerh drinkers.

Today I’m drinking White 2 Tea 2001 Changtai Hao Red. I started it towards the end of my workday yesterday, and I’m going to keep enjoying it today until it gives up on me.

I had this one other time, maybe a month ago, and I like it so much better now than I did then. I don’t know why. It wasn’t that I disliked it, but I didn’t think it was really good. This time, I feel like it’s really good.

Just saw that Yunnan Sourcing is running a sale. 10% off their brand pu-erh.

I started this morning with a tea sample from Tea Urchin that I received a while back when they were selling a special ‘pu erh flight’. The one I broke out today was the 2006 ShunShi Yiwu. The description says that the tea was aged quite a bit as maocha, so it is aged more than you’d expect for a 2006 tea. It brews up a very dark amber color, thick and mushroomy. I typically don’t like mushroom broth unless it is with a steak, but I’ve tried tea like this a few times now and it is growing on me. Like a fungus. It was quite a stimulating tea, and steep after steep was a nice cup. Mostly mushroom, but a little fruit came in here and there. It is an interesting aged tea to try.

This afternoon, I was searching through my bag of ripe teas at work, and there were two unlabeled baggies. So my afternoon pu was an unnamed ripe. It was very good, thick, dark and chocolatey. I wonder what it is?? I must have a cake of it stashed away somewher

Having a 2004 Yiwu sheng from Tribute Tea tonight.
Bought this a while back as my tastes are gravitating to the older stuff sometimes lately.
I opened the pack and got the aroma of soft hay like we used to stack in the barns in Summer.
The leaf was in good shape. Long twisty and wiry looking. i put it in the easy steeper to start out with. I gave a very quick rinse and the musty aroma of a tea of this age appeared.
I did two very quick steeps under 5 seconds each to start out. The brew gave a nice amber gold glow that spoke of it’s age. The sips gave a touch of mustiness of the old book many of these had that left quickly. The sweetness of this one came out very quick in the sips. The notes hinted at white peaches and stone fruits. I plan to steep this a while and sit back and relax a while with this one. No off notes of excess humidity or off storage. Just the hints at first that tell the story of this teas age. Nice, sweet with the fruit notes that make you keep sipping away. not an aggressive one but the nice subtle notes keep you going on this one.

Flavors: Hay, Peach, Smoke, Sweet

7 Years Aged Ripe Pu-erh Tea of Mengku
Received a very generous sample of this shou in a recent YS order. 2007 raw material used to form this brick. Easier to pick apart than many I’ve had. Clear dark burgundy tea soup which gives off a mushroom sweet aroma. Very smooth from the first sip with a flavor profile mixing creamy mushroom and brown sugar. No off-putting fermentation smells or tastes to distract from the rich tea flavors. Decent longevity which provided me with eight enjoyable infusions. Currently $27 which seems like a decent price for a brick of this age and quality. Seems to be a solid shou for everyday drinking.