pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

Giving a shout out to mrmopar for one of his often-stated ways of enjoying puerh. I’m pulling an all-nighter trying to finish something up for a customer, but don’t have time to gong fu. So for the first time I tried combining multiple steeps in a big mug and taking it to my workbench. Worked great! Steeping Mandala’s Leaf Nei Fei sheng because it gives me lots of energy 8O

W2T Lao Cha Tuo for my Monday morning desk tea. This is very good shu; very clean, very little fermentation flavor, no off-tastes, just smooth, chocolaty, mellow.

Last porch tea of BarbaraSFL’s visit is the 2014 Last Thoughts from White2. Really fruity with a nice soft qi. Perfect way to end this visit – made for a lovely, lazy session on the porch.

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Today I drank a tasty young sheng from Essence of Tea, the 2015 Huang Shan Shu 15 Trees. This was a very tasty young sheng with very little bitterness. There were a variety of sweet notes to this tea the traditional apricots and stonefruits are applicable. I actually wanted to drink a shou today when I picked this out. I had not checked out the website to see that the word shu didn’t mean shou but was part of the name of the village where the tea was made. This is quite an expensive cake at 120 pounds, don’t know just what it costs in dollars. It’s probably too expensive for me to consider buying a cake but thanks to the people at Essence of Tea for contributing to the Puerh Tea TTB to allow me to try this. In the end I gave this twelve steeps and stopped there because I was at my caffeine limit. I’m sure this tea would have gone on for a few more steeps as it had not yet become watery in my opinion. One last thing, this tea seems to have a definite qi as I am feeling the effects of a relaxing qi now. I would not use the word tea drunk but it seems to be there.

2007 Longyuan Hao “Banna Prince, Gold Metal.” I’ve been fiddling with this one all summer to a rousing response of “meh”. Something this morning told me to give it a try. A portion has been “cooking” in a zisha chayeguan for a few months under warm (at least 75)and humid (at least 70) conditions. The brew is bronze. Leaves are small. There is a florality that wasn’t there before. It sits atop a brew with little viscosity but with a “solid” taste, consisting of spicy wood notes. This woodiness gets more pronounced in the later infusions. Very balanced, no sweetness or bitterness to speak of. Even when infused for over two minutes toward the end the brew maintains its balance. The huigan in the later infusions lasts for over 15 minutes, spiced wood.

Just managed to get my sheng brewing down to a T. (pun intended) so I’m currently really enjoying ‘if you’re reading this…’ from white2tea. So nice!

I knew a puehr addiction was right around the corner. Thanks steepster!

2012 Guafengzhai Old Arbor Orb as my first of the day…Then I broke into the White2Tea Back2Basics Sheng with the 2011 Aged RAW. The 2012 Guafengzhai Old Arbor Orb may be the best I have had so far!

5.5g in 120ml yixing 5sec infusions. Gifted by fellow Steepstarian. By about the fourth infusion, my heart was going pitter patter. The smoke seems to be at its height, whereas earlier infusions just that “solid goodness” was the prevailing impression, reminiscent of the ‘13 LaomanE Bulang Special. This one gets much more bitter, with a greater tingle and attack on the tongue, both in the liquor and huigan. Didn’t pick up any metalic. Sweet fades to bitter in this one, with smoke playing the most prominent role. Great for cloudy, cooler days.

Flavors: Smoke

Spent the afternoon sampling a tea from Hou De Fine Tea, the 2003 HK Henry Special Ordered 7542 Menghai. This is a nice example of a semi aged sheng. The color of the tea liquid has become somewhat brown but not the fully amber of an aged sheng. There are no wet storage tastes to it. There is a fair amount of bitterness and a fair amount of sweetness. Overall a very enjoyable tea.

2006 Longyu Brand Bulangshan Jin Cha 250g
Dry – Mushroom, faint tobacco (very faint hint of smoke), savory, soupy/broth like, bittersweet (still drying wood).

Wet – Tobacco with some smoke that dissipates in later infussions, that beefy mushroom scent, bitter and bittersweet drying wood, some bittersweet floral and a bitterswitch and rich dried fruit like tamarinds.

Liquor – Amber to a light caramel.

1st+2nd (10secs+6secs) – Brothy/soupy front with savory notes of mushrooms followed by a bittersweet and woody tobacco note. The liquor then becomes thick on the tongue and the sensation remains when it washes down maintaining that mushroom soup note. Once it goes down it becomes richer and sweeter with that tamarind hint and a refreshing camphor. The huigan is bittersweet and sweet that lingers.

3rd + 4th (6secs + 7secs) – Bitter to bittersweet woody tobacco notes combined with a floral bittersweet note (you can tell this used to be very pungent but time has mellowed it out), there some smoke to it, but it is mostly tobacco notes followed by the beefiness of the mushroom notes; brothy/soupy and filling. The middle is thick and warms my belly and when it starts washing down, it becomes sweeter again with refreshing camphor. Once it has left the mouth, some floral notes appear with a bittersweet huigan that lingers and becomes sweeter with time.

5th + 6th (8secs + 12secs) – Smoother up front, bitter and bittersweet notes, wood and tobacco followed by a more prominent floral bittersweet character that is somewhat medicinal too, almost chemical (believe it or not, a good way). The thickness is there, but not as noticeable, there’s a slight astringency and numbing sensation present. The brothy notes are faint, not so much beefy mushrooms, rather medicinal this time, but still pleasant. The huigan is nice and lingers. The broth is filling and warms my belly and yet refreshing in my mouth.
7th + 8th (20secs + 20secs) – Smoother and cleaner (a bit flat) up front and followed by a stronger floral bitterness than before, not thick, just lightly bodied that still satisfies. I’m still drinking this steep combination but I can see it is heading to the more floral+medicinal+woody and astringent side of things.

Sorry for the mega post