pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
On my second steep of What-Cha’s Yunnan 2008 Xinghai Dian Shui Liu Xiang ripe this morning. Smooth as suede.
I hadn’t heard of what-cha till on steepster and now am wanting to make an order more and more each day! Have you had other teas from them? Any recommendations?
Today I am back to my Yangqinghao order drinking the 1999 Cangmi. This was a big brick but I split it with two other people. Overall I liked this brick. It started out with notes that I would describe as tobacco and leather. These lasted about two steeps. They were replaced by another still somewhat unpleasant aged note. This lasted a few more steeps and was replaced by a fairly sweet taste that was very smooth. By sweet I do not mean the apricots of young sheng. It was more subtle but I would describe it as a sweet note. Overall I like this tea but I think I’m glad I don’t have a kg of it. It’s good but I don’t think that good. Who knows what I will think when I revisit this tea.
Today I drank the 2006 Wild Peacock from EOT. This was a strong tea. It was initially smoky with notes of tobacco and hay. This lasted I would say six steeps or so. It did develop into something smoother but still strong mind you. For some reason I did not get much qi off of this even though I have heard it has some. This might be one to age well. I have heard that strong somewhat bitter teas will age better.
2009 lao ban zhang YS. wow this is nice tea! only put a little to try tonight but its so yummy I had to write this now. Totally different to a perfumed oolong but similar in its complexity. Lovely stuff. its got a bit of everything in it, in just the right proportions.
I was thinking is this biasing me because I know its an expensive one? no, it really is a nice sheng whatever the cost. I want cakes of stuff like this – thick and oolong-y. totally up my street.
Anything like this but cheap as chips please let me know
ughhhhhhhh so good. such a smooth sheng. Shame so expensive! maybe a group buy sometime, although I think the rui gong was just as smooth? not sure. very nice all of them.
I left one steep by accident and it was still nice
Looked that one up. That’s cheap for LBZ. Someone other than Yunnan Sourcing selling LBZ for that price and I start to think it’s fake. Awazon has one for $245 and I wonder about that one.
Sample-athon for me today. Shou big leaf samples of 2006 Fuhai 7576 and 2005 Bo Wen Yue Chen Yue Xiang were delicious and similar. 2006 Langhe Peacock Tribute Gong Ting I did not care for at all. The highlight was 2005 Hai Lang Hao You Le Zheng Shan which was divine! See my tasting notes for full details. It was a wonderful day of pu erh for me!
Greetings kind puerh folks. I am looking for inexpensive (price per gram) but tasty Yunnan sourcing .us sheng suggestions. I would like to add some samples on to my next order in the hopes of scoping out future cake purchases. Thanks!
2013 Qing Mei Shan and Chen Yun Yuan Cha are good to me.
This may be worth looking into as well. 2012 Chen Xiang. I may have to order this myself after reading about it.
What’s the typical diameter of a 400g cake? Wonder if one would fit in my pu tub without me breaking it up.
I did order the Chen Xiang. With the material being 5 years older before pressing it should be pretty good.
I think I’m just getting samples of the first two you mentioned, but let us know how the Chen Xiang is!
After drinking a lot of sheng the past few days I wanted some ripe. So I decided I would evaluate a tea I bought a sample of, a 100g sample for $2.10. The 2013 Ripe Puerh Loose Tea from Awazon tea. This is something they normally sell in wholesale quantities. I’m not sure if I think it was good enough for me to want 4 kg of though. I did enjoy it. It was bittersweet in the start with a lot of fermentation flavor to it. That flavor was slightly unpleasant but tolerable. This was a factor for four or five steeps. The bitterness went away too. There were some notes of chocolate in there. I would definitely not buy the 4 kg amount for myself but am not at all unhappy with buying the sample quantity. It was in my opinion not quite as good as the loose ripe sold by Yunnan Sourcing but it was not bad. I enjoyed it enough to steep it twelve times. If it hadn’t gotten better I would have stopped at half that. I am finding I like the vendor Awazon. So far the tea they have sold me has been of good quality. I don’t know if they have anything that they sell that you would call spectacular but I have only scratched the surface of their offerings.
Afternoon sampling 2004 YangQing Hao Teji with tea friends. this tea just blew my mind. its complex and strong qi. Hard to identify notes. i found some leather, tobacco, very smooth and enjoyable. I had a great time.
That one is a true standout! More about the body feel than the actual taste. One of my absolute favorites..
Started to feel it just drinking the rinse. Maybe I’m just impressionable…. but it continued.
Usually it starts in my eye area. This time it hit me right on a head, like a brick lol. In the same time it gave me tons of energy.
For some reason, the famed 2013 Menghai Golden Needle White Lotus had escaped my notice until Liquid Proust very generously sent me a sample, which he aptly labeled “Be prepared to fall in love with Golden Needle White Lotus.” Which I have. This one of, if not the most wonderful ripe I have ever had. It’s everything I love in a shu – soft, sweet, warming, energizing, fragrant, wonderfully smooth mouth feel, and not at all funky/bitter/fishy/weird/etc. I’m really disappointed the YS USA store doesn’t have this one; I’m going to be searching around interwebs looking for a cake I can get shipped reasonably. If anyone has any suggestions, please share!
2014 is here.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/2014-TAE-TEA-DaYi-Golden-Needle-White-Lotus-Beeng-Cake-357g-YunNan-MengHai-Pu-er-Ripe/1220054_32286637333.html
2013 here.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/On-sale-Puer-ripe-tea-2013-TAE-TEA-301-Golden-Needle-White-Lotus-shou-tea-357g/1220054_1896012412.html
Buy early as the prices change quick after a year or two.
I checked Berylleb on ebay they are normally my Dayi go to seller. They have the 2012 but it is about $80.00 US now. John at King Tea does a good job for what I have gotten from him. The shipping is a bit slow though.
Any idea why the 2014 is labeled Golden Needle White Lotus, but the 2013 cake says “ZhenBaiLian” (is that the same thing?)
I love this tea! I’ve still got a 1/4 cake of the 2007 version squirreled away for special occasions. I wish I could have tried the 2005.
When will these chaps ever get their act together!
2012 @ Berylleb King Tea – US $89.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-Yunnan-Menghai-Dayi-Golden-Needle-White-Lotus-High-Grade-Ripe-Puer-Tea-/321847182418?
2012 @ Dragon Tea House – US $62.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Menghai-Dayi-Golden-Needle-White-Lotus-Pu-erh-2012-357g-Ripe-/231683217957?
2012 @ Red Lantern Tea – US $54.99
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-Menghai-Dayi-Golden-Needle-White-Lotus-357g-/200847316447?
2012 @ Health Tea House – US $43.43 (after $2 discount currently running)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-Gold-Needle-White-Lotus-Batch-201-TAETEA-Puerh-Tea-Dayi-Shu-Ripe-Puer-357g-/141819775650?
Berylleb King Tea, Dragon Tea House, and Red Lantern Tea are vendors I have heard of favorably in the past; Health Tea House is a complete unknown – but hey it appears to be the same tea at half the price at Berylleb (who I believe are known to markup their prices).
Dragon Tea House has a reputation for selling fakes, Red Lantern Tea cannot in my opinion be trusted, and you never know with Health Tea House what you are going to get. With Berylleb you know you are getting the real deal.
I ordered a cake of Menghai Springtime water from Health Tea House today. If they are going to fake one it would probably be a sheng.
It was a good price if it is real.
I don’t do Dragon after the ‘7542’ from 1999 I got from them as well as a few others.
Health Tea House doesn’t show the back of the cake. This is not a good sign although they might just be clueless that that is how people determine if a cake is fake by a photo.
I’ll also add that you can get the 2007 Golden Needle White Lotus on taobao for ~$70 before fees.
I was able to get a look at that in a different browser. However, you have to be logged in to see the price. To be honest I don’t know how to create a Taobao account given the language barrier.
Why not just get it from the YS.com site? They have e-packet shipping now. http://yunnansourcing.com/en/menghaiteafactory/3598-2013-menghai-golden-needle-white-lotus-premium-ripe-pu-erh-tea.html
I’d be willing to pay more if my alternative was a vendor I didn’t know or trust. But I trust King Tea. For a savings of almost $18, no offense to Scott b/c I do love YS and purchase quite a lot from there, but I’ll pass on this one.
Well, to clarify, I trust King Tea because mrmopar does (and I totally trust him). This will be my first order from them. :-)
I have put in several orders with King Tea and like them. Not to say I never had a problem. Got moldy puerh from them once but they gave me a refund pretty quickly.
DigniTea did a lot of work with John at King Tea before he was ever introduced to me. She helped him in the growing pains stage and we have gotten to reap the benefits. I did a few orders myself before I dropped him on here as well.
Thanks everyone for chiming in :). Now to remind myself that I don’t need any more tea.
I try to remind myself I don’t need any more tea but the words always come out you can’t have too much puerh. It lasts forever.
Puerh does not last forever, it will start to slowly degrade after about 50 years. Still it will last for say a normal human lifetime, so that is not a concern unless you are intending to pass it on to future generations.
What I am more concerned about is that based on my current rate of consumption, I know that I will only be able to consume a few dozen beengs in my lifetime, so I do not see the point in hoarding more than that.
Wnet back to my Yangqinghao order today. Brewed the 2005 Cangliu/Tsang Liu today. This tea was smooth from the start. There was virtually no bitterness. I found the distinct note of peppermint in the first infusion although not in the subsequent infusions. It was perhaps the smmothest semi aged sheng I have drank. There were no unpleasant aged tastes or wet storage taste. It seems all the Yangqinghao teas are well stored. I have tried three recently and haven’t picked up any storage notes from any of them, certainly not wet storage anyway. This tea did have some qi to it. not as much as the other two Yangqinghao teas I have drank recently but nice, very energizing. They don’t seem to have a relaxing qi. They have all had me energized. This was an incredible tea however I do think it was a little overpriced. Still I would probably buy it again at that price.
I’m also drinking the Tsang Liu today. I agree that it doesn’t have any negatives, but I’m not finding anything to get excited about either. I haven’t given it the best storage, but that just improved, so I’ll hope I like it better next time.
Not as fancy as yours. An old cooler for my main stash and some plastic storage bins for smoky and shou, but I’ve been pretty steady at 60% humidity for a few weeks. The Tsang Liu story is different: I bought 1/4 cake and it’s been in a baggie for 2 months, but I just got some paper to wrap it in so it can breathe better.
I have to take some teas out of my pumidor if I am going tog get the Yangqinghao teas in there.
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