pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
My name is Phi, and I am having an issue with old tea addiction… I started going through my couple precious aged samples… and they are so delicious with so many new flavors… and I am completely stoned tea drunk off 2001 7542 PO from the w2t club back in March. I realized how much of a problem I had when I doomcarted only two of those teas… and the total was almost $400…
I now need to hide my laptop.
Hi Phi.
My name is Twodog.
I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse, but i recently spent several thousand dollars on some sheng from the 1960’s.
Puer. Not even once.
Welcome Twodog!
Better I guess :P
Because I know my hard earned money (once I get it saved up) will be going towards the most excellent cause of fueling someone else’s tea addiction.
Worse because I need to finish school quickly now, before I reach your level of addiction. I already live like a druggie, and I am just lusting over $170 cakes. (Is only slightly overstating this, we live down the street from where one gets hookers, but are not hookers ourselves.)
I was lying to myself… “Oh, I’ll just sell it. It’s fine if I buy this.” … It still hasn’t made it on to my site.
I don’t recommend going down the path of my Puer drinking. If I see you from the street, i’ll wave.
Pfft you are obviously doing something right though :P you seem to still have roofs over your head. Unless that is just a premium instagram filter or the crack house you are buying from.
Rent is a huge expense, and as it has been pointed out lately, it is possible to live in a house of Pu bricks… So look at your recent investment as a downpayment on your new house. ;-)
The lies we addicts tell ourselves…
And meh… I’ll just sleep in my department’s lab… they have a kettle there and a bean bag and high speed internet. What more does a gal need? Hopefully they just think I am really dedicated :P
Hmm… and if I did that I’d have $850 more a month to spend on tea… which is $10,200 more a year… which is enough to buy tongs and tongs of aged tea.
Darn residency and stuff requiring I have an address/ lease.
TwoDog2 you got robbed. I’ve seen cakes from the 1960’s for like 95% off online.
I was eyeing some aliexpress cakes from 1254 A.D. – they only cost $9.99, which seems suspicious
I’m still trying to figure out how to get this cake hand made by Buddha and Confucios. Sadly it’s from Tao bao… so the vendor will only accept 50 kilos of rice, 2 t – Rex and a Phoenix as payment. Usps refuses to ship the Phoenix since it’s flamable…
Today I drank one of the best ripe teas I have ever drank, the 2005 Yunnan Xiaguan 8663 Ripe Puer Tea from Berylleb King Tea on EBay. This tea was an experience in a cup. It had totally cleared fermentation wise. While I didn’t start paying attention until the second steep and could have missed something in the first, there was no fermentation funk or flavor at all. It had totally cleared. There was a slight bitterness in the first few steeps and notes of bittersweet cocoa at first. These notes gradually transformed into fruity notes. This tea was absolutely delicious. I think that as an Xiaguan it may be a step below the best Dayi ripes as far as leaf quality etc, but it was damn good. This was one well stored tea. It is as close to perfection in a ripe tea as I have ever found. I only hope my more expensive Dayi ripe teas are eventually this good.
I’m open to opinions on the matter, but it is my impression that all companies have varying production grades. There are some companies that mkt exclusively to the high end and some companies that do the same generate a special brand to denote as much. Some of these exclusive brands seem to be geared toward the HK mkt. Some English brand just teamed with Dayi to mkt to the Commonwealth. It’s hard for me to believe that Dayi is all that much better than its counterparts, CNNP (Kunming Tea Factory) and Xiaguan. From what I read, it is just that they were the first out the gate in terms of a modern marketing approach including mass marketing. Here’s a link to a Life in teacup article that may help you enjoy your Xiaguan more than you already do…http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/2011/06/cnnp-colorful-stamp-sisters-and.html
Drunkards beware! This Burmese treasure is a bona fide sock-knocker. Selected from trees between 200-500 yo, it deceives by disarming through a very blah aroma and appearance. The cake is packed very loosely, enough to put Charmin to shame. Early spring material with a ratty leaf here and there, along with lots of bitsy material Boo!
Now that you’re thoroughly turned-off, let me tell you that I often, in fact usually, commit the faux pas of sampling the rinse water. Stunned as you are, imagine how I felt when I tasted something utterly belied by its non-existent fragrance. Smooth , smooth vanilla. Then from that very sampling, I started to notice a most redoubtable cha-qi. The kind that makes my eyes itch, head lighten, and makes me want to stretch my shoulders and back.
The first few infusions have tannins, but afterwards it’s all very smooth sailing, the smoothest I’ve ever tasted. Vanilla is the overriding theme, I think I smell a bit of banana in the gaiwan. The power qi effects fade as well. You might get 10 infusion from it by increasing your steep time.
Steep on, Steepstarian, steep on!
Flavors: Vanilla
Here’s an article on Guogan from Life in Teacup… http://gingkobay.blogspot.com/search/label/puerh
Today I had a very enjoyable session with Tea Urchin’s 2012 Spring Xi Kong sheng. The eye appeal of this cake is spectacular – great wrapper; nicely processed cake; beautiful whole leaf material (small leaf gushu). XiKong, Manzhuan and Yibang are all located in Mengla County and understandingly their teas share many of the same characteristics. The scent of this cake is a subtle floral (rather like wildflowers). Light gold, clear tea liquor with the delicate scent of sweet floral and a granary sweetness in the taste. Decent mouthfeel with a low level bitterness on the edge of the tongue. The qi begins to make its presence known during the third steep. The mouth feel becomes thicker and pleasantly astringent as the tea session progressed. This most definitely is not a “knock your socks off’ sheng in terms of bold power but rather a delicate, sophisticated sheng that seeks to impress one with its underplayed subtlety (subtle aroma, subtle sweetness, subtle bitterness). The quality of the material is evident from beginning to end. This tea is best enjoyed when you can give it your full attention and drink it slowly so that you can appreciate all aspects of its elegance.
2014 Shujian Tea Co Spring Bang Dong Dragon Pearl. I started on this one last night, following Crimson’s advice to pour the water slowly over this puppy to get it to open up, but it still opened v. slowly. Had five passes over it with v. hot water 195+ at 15s and then turned in for the night. Those infusions were basically flavoured water with no detectable bitterness, mild, gentle, a bit of minty aftertaste. I started in on it promptly this morning. It had totally opened. Gave it 10s at 195. Grassy, gentle, no bitterness, mild astringency, reminiscent of long-jing, a liquor about the same. The next three got 5s. Sweet, minty vegetal aftertaste that hangs on a bit, say 5m. The tip of the tongue gets zinged a bit, the effect being metallic without the taste. There’s floral essence that hits the back of the mouth. I served a cup to an English patient, who noted it gentility. It’s definitely a mandarin type tea. Seems like seven or eight infusions, it’s starting to hit its stride, with a more redolent huigan, lasting at least up to 10m, negligible grassiness and no sense of long-jing. Medium mouth-feel, small whole leaves. Excellent tea, evoking a sense of the Huntington Gardens in temperate weather.
After all that refinement, I had to double down on something more suiting my plebeian tastes. I reached for a Keyi Xing, wrapperless and fake. A 250g. raw brick, which to say for starters was not overly packed, nice and easy pickens. Boy does it ever taste like chloraaaaseptic. No frilliness here, just straight clinical. 5.5g in a 140ml pot. Quick infusions with a brassy liquor. Huigan lasts for a good ten. There’s some bitterness in there, which builds with each brewing. Astringency just adds a little macho to the Camacho, if you know what I mean. Seems as though in the earlier infusions theres a bit more floral in the huigan than I originally remember from back in March. I wonder if this will come to predominate (Does after aging come to be considered “post-dominate?”). Tastes like it is most probably Wuliang material.
Having a 2012 Bulang Mountain Sheng from Tribute Teas tonight.
Been drinking a few times on this lately. Hard to find the words for it. I started with about 8 grams to brew in the Gaiwan. I gave a rinse and let it sit about thirty minutes before getting to it.
The brew is a light golden color. It has the warm grassy aroma to it. The drink itself is a bit pungent , viscous with notes of grass, bitter and sweetness with some nuttiness in there as well .
The thing I like is this one seems to really make me relax a bit. I feel nice and calm after having a cup of this. It seems to linger a while in the mouth and the state of relaxation. The leaf quality is really nice as I think this is a loose stored maocha. I guess the Bulang stuff has fascinated me for a while and this is another in that category.
Flavors: Bitter, Grass, Nutty, Sweet
2009 Tulin Square Tea 200g. Considerably more gentle Wuliang material that I have been drinking lately. There’s a certain thinness to this one, which might be beefed-up with more in the pot, using the typical 5.5 150ml yixing. It’s good, sweet and mediciney, even some tart notes, by no means a delicate violet, just lacking a certain complexity and force of some others. Huigan and yun and very much up to standard, possibly more floral than most. Packed on the tight-medium side imprints on both sides. Anyone enjoying Wuliang material will find this a pleasure.
This morning’s brew: 2010 Top Yunnan LinCang Golden Buds Ripe Pu’er by Streetshop88. I’ve been enjoying shopping for treasures at Streetshop88. I went hunting for ripes recently, looking for cakes under $20. To me, that’s my risk appetite for a cake that I haven’t sampled. This one was $20. It’s quite good. Fairly smooth, medium body, dark, with bittersweet chocolate notes. I caught some fruit in a couple of early steeps. The cake looks nice, you can see the golden buds. A good quality cake and I’m glad to have it!
Afternoon sheng! The 2015 Crimson Lotus Baiying ‘Whispering Sunshine’.
This is an excellent “drink now” pu erh. Very aromatic, and heavy on the pollen flavor. No astringency and very little bitterness, just easy going to the max. It is a great example of this style. I’m not sure I would want to hold onto this for aging, as it is fairly light. But who knows, I think the jury is still out on how well these young easy drinkers will age. The leaf quality is excellent, and I got many many steeps. Later infusions were a bit lemony. All in all, a great tea.
Aged Bai Ying Shan is something I know very little about. The first cake we ever sold was from Bai Ying Shan. That was our 2008 Lincang Lancang (LCLC) Bai Ying Shan cake. The first sheng puerh I ever had as well. It’s the reason we went through the effort to source teas from Bai Ying Shan.
The factory that made that cake went out of business in 2008. Primarily because they had been screwing over the farmers and they had had enough. Also a road came to Bai Ying Shan around the same time and the farmers no longer had to sell to the LCLC owner. The farmer we work with in Bai Ying Shan sold to LCLC back in the day and the material in our Hidden Song and Whispering Sunshine cakes would have been in our 2008 cake as well we were told.
We have maybe 100g left of that original 2008 LCLC BYS cake and tried it again today. It’s really smooth and creamy. It has some interesting lemongrass notes in it now. Barnyard dry aroma of hay and alfalfa. It’s my hope that Whispering Sunshine and Hidden Song blossom into amazing teas with some aging. I don’t know how many will last that long though. Talked with Lamu and a friend about that this afternoon. How many cakes we’ve pressed this year will be untouched in 10 years? I imagine very few.
It seems from reading forums like this that the cakes that end up getting stored long term are the ones that people don’t like drinking. :-) I see threads online often where people have tried a new tea, didn’t like it and commented that they’ll toss it in the old pumidor and try it again in a few years. Does anyone buy a tea they love drinking and then have the patience to not drink it? :-D
It’s a great point about aging cakes. The only cakes I have that I wonder what they will be like in a couple years are the ones I keep putting off drinking because I currently enjoy other cakes more. I like to keep my tea in a good puerh environment, but only to keep it lively for now, as in the next year, not really so much for the future. But we’ll see how that goes as my income level rises. I am sure I will be procuring more puerh but I would really have no clue how to gauge what would be best for aging. I’ve heard some stuff about bitterness and green beans in terms of signs of a cake being possibly good or bad for aging, but I don’t remember which is which or if it is even true. But if a cake had a strong green bean taste to it I’m not sure if I would be able to save it anyway, whether it ages well or not, as green beans are awesome.
I’ve heard some say that an early green bean flavor / aroma isn’t a good sign, but I’m not entirely buying it. Both our Bai Ying Shan Hidden Song and Whispering Sunshine present notes of green bean. Whispering Sunshine is more of an edamame. Both are fantastic to drink now. Hidden Song is a blend of three varietals each of which we picked last year. So I have experience with what those will do after a year of aging and the bean-y-ness is gone after a year in our ‘Seattle’ storage.
So yeah, I’m with you. I’m totally down for a green bean-y puerh.
I think the material is probably the most important thing for aging. Stuff like Menghai’s ‘8582’ not made with the top leaf grade but decent quality and they tend to age well. I know I am going to sample mine but also let them age as well. Quality in means quality down the road. These guys picking the material for their own cakes, super bonus!
How much do the principles of wine come to play? Whites are rarely aged and reds with the most tannins of good material hold the most promise. Green beans sounds to me like a white. I’ve noticed perfume come through in those, however.
I’ve been wondering about this as well. Because these young, green shengs are so tasty, I’ve been wondering about storage potential as I’ve also heard that if it’s really tasty and beany early on it won’t hold up to aging. Honesty, I love these so much that I don’t know how old they will be able to get before they all go right down my neck. I got several cakes so maybe one will last long enough to see.
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