pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

I just had a mix of Bulang gongting shou (from Crimson Lotus), and a 2014 Jingmai sheng (from bannacha)

What a curious, yet satisfying mix they made!

The first steep was pretty much gongting shou, but with a faintly cooling aftertaste, and the later steeps were pretty much the Jingmai as I know it but with a mellow earthy undertone.

It was fun to see the brew gradually shift from shou-heavy to sheng-heavy, because the gongting pu’er infused, and steeped out, at a much faster rate than the sheng.

Either way, an interesting change of pace, and it allowed me to drink more of the rather green Jingmai I was craving despite having had a lot of green-ish teas and relatively little food this evening.
It can be too harsh for me to drink more young shengs under such conditions at times.

I’ve been enjoying Master Han’s 2002 Shou from Verdant which was shared with me by Sarsonator. I’m sad there is no more of this. It’s sweet and silky with a nice wintergreen bit wafting through it.

Enjoying a sheng I picked up from Houde Asian – 2005 Ming-Yuan Hao “Yieh Sheng Chiao Mu”
Easy drinker! Smooth and sweet. Great flavor. Rather aromatic straight out of the wrapper. Easy to pick apart for brewing (mix of pieces and whole leaves). Yields a clear orange liquor with a penetrating taste with no smokiness. Offers a decent mouthfeel but slightly drying/astringent. Endearing notes of floral and fruity sweetness with a subtle amount of bitterness in the background. If I had to criticize something, it would be the modest longevity – 7 to 8 enjoyable cups before it becomes thin. Seems to be a decent tea for its current price of $49.50.

2009 Haiwan shou sample from Wilson of travellingteapot@blogspot. Very clean with better leaf quality for a compressed cake than I’ve ever seen, big fluffy leaves once the chunk opens. Long steeping 12+ with mushroomy/wine flavor.

Spent the day with the 2007 White 2 Tea’s 2007 Repave sheng. This really is a great selection “built” with fine material from the Hekai tea growing area. Fragrant dry leaves which produce a clear dark bronze tea soup moving toward orange. Thick syrupy mouthfeel with an appealing blend of tobacco, wood, citrus and molasses flavors. This is an interesting flavor profile and it is noticeably smooth and mellow but there is a bit of a punch. All in all this is a great full-bodied, complex sheng which holds up nicely for many enjoyable infusions. Today I steeped at 195 degrees but I think I’ll push the temperature to 205 degrees when I go back to these leaves tomorrow.

Spent the afternoon with a raw tea called 2005 Yunnan Menghai Dayi Tight Brick Raw Puer. It had definitely aged a good bit. The color was a dark orange and the tea soup looked more like a ripe tea than a young sheng. It was a strong tea. It started out smooth and oddly got more bitter in about the third steep. The only bad thing about this tea was it had a decided sour note to it. It was an interesting tea regardless. I am told the sour note is just the tea fermenting so I am hopeful it will improve. This tea from Berylleb is a good value but they have recently raised the price.

Today 2005 Ripe Bulang from W2T. A very pleasant Mellow and starch-y ripe. I chose this one to treat myself after the DC weather seemed to re-collapse into almost winter again lol.

Speaking of Bulang ripes, I just tried the 2013 Zen pu erh Bulang ripe from puershop. Blech! Dumped it after a few tries. Yuck.

Downing some New Amerykah 2 this afternoon. A lot has already been said about this tea. It’s solid but still quite young. My stomach is asking what did I do to deserve this acidic punishment? But that’s no knock on the tea, just its age. Poor TwoDog, he drinks like this a lot for our sake. Anyway, good tea at a reasonable price. Thick and hearty, it seems like it should hold up well after some age.

Drank Misty Peaks 2015 pressing and am still drinking up Wilson’s 2009 Haiwan ripe sample. Explored relative truth in tea on my blog. Dunno about you guys but am getting excited about spring teas! I plan to buy one really nice tea I hope.