pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

2015 Ye Zhu Tang, YS-
I’m enjoying this. It is strong, sweet and bitter, but also highly subtle. There seems to be a pungent tropical fruit quality lurking behind a mineral-t mouth feel and grainary base. Definitely not bad for a $50 cake, I’d recommend it if you’re building a collection.

Today I enjoyed a session with White2Tea’s 2015 Poundcake. This is quite good. There is very little bitterness. There are a variety of sweet notes. I would describe them as apricots and stonefruits. This is just an all around solid raw puerh. I think it is back in stock again too if anyone is interested. At $49 it is not super expensive and not super cheap for 200g. But you usually have to pay for quality. If I didn’t have so much puerh I would stock up on this one.

2015 Huang Shan Gu Shu.

Scott Wilson is God.

2015 Yunnan Sourcing “Tian Tang Cao” Ripe Pu-erh tea and Jiaogula by Yunnan Sourcing

I received my box of ripe pu erh goodies today from the recent YS sale. One thing I purchased was this mini cake. It was well sealed in its own little envelope, so I immediately tried it even though it did not get a chance to rest and air out. This ripe pu erh is made with jiangulan, an herb I had never heard of. I think it’s kind of like ginseng, at least that’s how it tastes (Yang-chu, help me out here!). This is a really good tea for what it is. The ripe tea is of solid quality, and the herb makes it minty fresh, like ginseng. It’s quite unusual, and worth a try if you are adventurous. And it has a great little wrapper…

I was going to go with a familiar ripe b/c something warm and comforting seemed in order after two days in a row at the dentist. But then I changed my mind and went with some 2014 Chawangpu Jingmai Gu Shu Huang Pian, and I’m glad. It’s wonderfully light and sweet, with a pleasantly light kuwei (I learned that term from Grill :-). It’s floral but not obnoxiously so. My sense is that this is a lovely tea for a summer day. Too bad it’s November, lol.

Drinking a shou sample sent by JC this past summer. Thick and creamy, just perfect for fall weather.

2008 Xinghai “Bu Lang Da Shu” Ripe Pu-erh by Yunnan Sourcing
I bought some Xinghai tea factory teas with my latest YS order. I had never tried this brand before. Anyone know its reputation? This tea is pretty good. Nice big leaves, thick dark broth. Bold flavor, a little bit of burnt coffee and a slight perfume. Reminds me of the ripe tuos from W2T and pu-erh.sk. Seems like a good middle of the road tea. I’ll review the others shortly to see how they compare to this one, and if there is any distinctive flavors that come through.

Just finished a session with the 2003 Xinghai “Wild Elephant Valley” Aged Ripe Puerh Tea Cake. This was a nice aged shou. There was pretty much zero fermentation flavor to it, maybe a barely perceptible amount. There was some bitterness early on. There were a variety of sweet notes in there including one I had a hard time pinning down. I think my impression is that dates is the note. Overall this was an excellent tea. This is good because I bought it without sampling first. At $62 it is neither cheap or super expensive. With the flavor it’s got I think it’s a good value. I stopped at eight steeps because of the caffeine but I’m sure it would have gone twelve, maybe fifteen steeps.

You know how sometimes you get a sample of a cake and you like it enough to buy the cake, and the cake comes and you have the tea again, and it’s not as you remembered it? Yeah, I hate that. Anyhoo, this 2010 Hai Lang Hao “As You Like” Ripe Pu-erh tea cake of Menghai is exactly as awesome as I remembered it. It’s red wine awesome. The Merlot of Shu. The other day I was thinking I have too much shu, and now I think a person can really never have too much shu. This may also be me trying to talk myself into getting that Noble Mark cake b/c Mandala is having a 20% off sale. …must….resist….must….stop….spending….

Started my morning with the Golden Needle Ripe Puerh Tea of Yong De from Yunnan Sourcing. This was quite the bittersweet tea. It was noticeably bitter in the first two infusions. There were a number of sweet notes in there too along with notes of bittersweet dark chocolate. It developed a fruity note in later steeps. At $4 for 50g you can’t go wrong with this tea. I bought 250g and I think I paid $15. Quite the deal for a quality loose ripe. I found it was not quite as good as the loose ripes I’ve had from Mandala but still really good.