pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

2007 Naka from Chawangshop. Tea stoned, lol.

My wife is watching a BBC drama and harshing my mellow.

Today I drank the 2014 Tao Cha Ju Gua Feng Zhai by Tea Yuan from the Puerh Tea TTB. This was a nice young sheng. It was somewhat bitter with a potent aftertaste. It was somewhat sweet but not really apricoty in nature. It had a more subdued sweetness to it. It was mildly astringent. It was nice to get to try something from Tea Yuan a company I am not familiar with but will have to look up.

Having mailed off the Puerh TTB I am now getting a chance to start on the Puerhshop order I received last week. Today I drank a tea from a small tea factory that Puerhshop says is known for premium tea. I drank the 2015 Baohexiang Zizai Premium Ripe Puerh Tea Brick 125g. This is made by the Menghai Baohexiang Tea Co Ltd and was a fairly nice ripe overall. It had a lot of fermentation flavor to it. It was thick with it in the early steeps but sweet in nature. In the middle steeps a bitterness crept in there. This dissipated and it was again a sweet brick. There were notes of cocoa in there and some fruity notes in later steeps. I wonder if anyone has heard of this tea company. I have no way to confirm Puerhshop’s claim that this company produces premium tea. It was quite good in later steeps which balanced out the extreme amount of fermentation taste initially.

Last few days have been…

2011 Sui Yue Zhi Wei Chawangshu
2011 Sui Yue Zhi Wei Wangong
2006 Yan Qing Hao Chi Tsiang
2004 Yan Qing Hao Tejipin

The Sui Yue Zhi Wei sheng were acquired from royal puer. Nice looking teas, both were incredible viscous. Overall the I found the cheaper (wangong) to be a better tea. It was all vanilla and and plums early and settled into wood and leather as it steeped out. Nice qi and durable. My issue were no aftertaste, huigan or throat taste. Also no bitterness or astringency which is odd in a 4 year old tea. There may be a possible processing issue with these teas and I’d be wary to buy more than a sample.

The YQH teas on the other hand are just supurb. I’ve done a review on the Chi Tsiang aka gushu chawang. Great tea especially for the price. I liked it enough to grab 5 of those cakes and might buy more.

The tejipin is the next notch up on the price scale but also delivers an even better experience. First the taste is heavy wood and leather, some plum and a touch floral that I’m sure will eventually age out completely. Very much eastern mengla county and the claims of gfz might actually be true here. Viscosity is good but not quite to the level of modern teas. The tea in the mouth is velvet, amazingly smooth. Coats the entire mouth and throat leaving a strong after taste that lingers for days. Hands down the best huigans of any tea I’ve ever had. Breathing out fills the mouth with sweet floral awesomeness. I described it to someone else as little gnomes in your throat spraying an aeresol can. As seems to be the norm with yqh teas this one also had qi. Very very strong, up there with the black wrapper lbz and another yqh tea called the dingjipin. First session was a total head high. Felt like the tea soaked into my mouth travelled through my skull and pushed it’s way out through my forehead in the form of sweat. Second time was almost the complete opposite. Full body feeling, heavy limbs, couch lock and it made me so warm I took off my shirt. Great session and I’m glad to have more of it to drink over the years as it will only get better with time

I had originally planned to drink a tea from 2004 today, but I opened it to find mold on it. Until I get a response from Puerhshop I decided not to break the cake. Instead I drank the 2015 Dayi Hongyu Ripe Cake from Puerhshop. This is a very cheap cake at around $16. Despite being so cheap it is a Dayi and is I think a quality ripe. I checked the security seal and it glowed green in response to the black light. This tea was thick with fermentation flavor in the early steeps. I was noticing it even in the fifth steep. It was sweet initially. After a couple of infusions I noticed a bitterness. This didn’t last. There were notes of what people describe as chocolate. I put it like that because it never quite tastes like chocolate to me but I know what people mean by the note. This was in the end a tasty shou. I am now waiting on an email from Puerhshop to see what they want to do about the moldy CNNP. I don’t know if it is too late to get a response today. It will be annoying if I have to wait until Monday.

Still drinking 2015 Tuhao after two weeks of steeping, five cups the first day, two a day after that. Just nuts. Also re-steeping 1960’s leaves from a session with TwoDog in July that I’d dried out to save. They are still going too.

Anyone know why Tea Urchin’s site has been down for days now?

Tonight’s tea is a 2008 Feng Qing Feng Shan Yi Hao. It’s really got a heady floral scent to it, and a honeyed sweetness that thickly coats the tongue. I don’t think I could stand this level of sweetness in every cup I drink, but it is working for me tonight. Also, my careful curation of it by storing it in a cardboard box on top of a bookcase in my office seems to agree with it, because it is developing nicely.

Drank a ripe from Puerhshop today, the 2009 Dayi Round Ripe Puerh Tea 357g. This tea was earthy, very earthy. I noticed fermentation taste even in the eighth steep. I think it’s a reasonably high quality ripe from Dayi but that is just my overall impression. At least there was no mold on this tea.

2007 Kunming Tea Factory aka CNNP 2008 Beijing Olympics Commemorative. This is day two. I came back to it after letting it sit overnight. I’m in one of those existential reveries. I’ve been drinking this one about once every three weeks. It arrived with an old vibe. The wrapper is hella tattered. Was that crowning achievement of global corru… er cooperation so long ago? I placed a goodly amt in a tin about five mths ago. It’s from this I grab.
As I said, there’s an old vibe. The first two or three infusions come with what my wife called a roasted taste, which it’s not, more like the old library book effect. (Once there were public institutions called libraries where old books were stored and loaned.) Just beneath the pages of this taste is a perfume that becomes more pronounced with each infusion. It’s a heavier perfume like lilies of the valley, something that would make you sick if it were in a bottle or a flower but with the leaves is perfectly muted like the bad-assed sound of Miles.
Today it’s much sweeter. Some fifteen minutes later and the huigan can still be faintly heard. The broth is still medium thick and longer infusions don’t impart any loud bitter notes. Thinking the only thing I remember about Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud was the music.

Anybody want to speculate on what tomorrow’s “Huge announcement” will be over at http://mistypeakteas.com/ ?

The email said something about unveiling a “new shape”.