pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
2014 Menghai 7262 ripe. Still not particularly enamored with this tea. Good thing I’ve been able to trade a decent amount of it away ;)
Some kind of funky woodiness in the early steeps, though there is some nice, sweet shou flavor as well. Just when the funkiness starts to go away, the flavor starts to drop off. This tea would probably do better in a few years or something. Maybe I’ll make it a point not to buy young factory shou at this point in my tea journey.
So I’ve heard/guessed. I was curious to try a Menghai ripe as I had heard a lot about them, but clearly didn’t do quite enough research. Live and learn! Have about 100g of it left that I’ll just tuck away.
Agree with mrmopar. The Menghai Dayi ripes you mention “hearing about” are those with age on them. Everyone has their own guidelines but I will not drink a factory production without a minimum of 6 years of age; therefore, I would not touch a 2014 Dayi production before 2020. However, most of the Dayi teas I drink have 10 yrs or more on them. Many of us buy young to hold for some time and put a little more into a factory production with careful aging to enjoy much sooner.
Followup question, DigniTea (and/or others) – Does that standard of your apply only to factory shou, or do you have the same criteria for factory sheng as well?
If I was to make a guideline for when factory sheng becomes drinkable, it would be wait ten years and cross your fingers. If you’re lucky, something younger might be drinkable, and sometimes something older can still be vile. And by drinkable, I don’t mean “fully aged”, I mean doesn’t rough up the mouth/stomach too much. Really you just have to sample and see; people have different tolerances for the things that can make younger sheng unpalatable.
2013 Autumn Da Hu Sai from YS today. The flavor and aroma is grape, along with some tobacco. The mouthfeel after the liquor goes down is quite pleasant, and there appears to be a touch of qi. Relatively thin, and the standard stomach upsetting quality of a young sheng is there as well. In retrospect it’s probably quite bitter, but it never occurred to me while drinking; perhaps due to a developed bitter tolerance. Not bad at all, but other YS shengs have been more interesting.
2009 gong ting Seven Son shou.
Beautiful looking cake, very neat and golden reddish brown.
Amazing aroma, very dark liquor and a slightly bitter note like coffee can be. I’m not sure the taste is as promising as the aroma – five steeps in and I wish it had a luscious chocolate body like the aroma gives the impression of.
pretty strong qi, liquor just gets darker and darker
Not bad per se, there is something I like about it but I cant quite put my finger on what, theres a pleasant taste running through the sips
needs more tasting for me to decide, sometimes with shou as im still a newb they grow on me and I appreciate the differences between them.
Dunno if anyone has any more info on this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BDiO5Wgq1tt/?taken-by=russell_alderton
I notice from the wrapper it claims to be gushu. This is probably a false claim unless you paid a lot for it. Gushu is unfortunately almost never turned into shou.
I got it with a discount, but originally it was £50/$70
https://www.abbeytea.co.uk/tea-shop/pu-erh-tea/2009-gong-ting-(seven-son)-pu-erh-tea-cake-(ripe)
description said trees 60-100 years old so the claim isnt too far fetched, right?
Mandala’s Rama Lama Bulang 2014 for me this morning. A break from the exploration of builder’s teas. It was very faintly fishy at first sniff after first brew, but that did not translate into the taste. Earthy with a trace of mineral and it has an underlying sweetness that is very “more-ish.” Can’t remember who recommended it to me, but I am drinking from a sample and would definitely consider buying more of this for daily drinking.
Today I’m drinking the 2013 Menghai “Golden Needle White Lotus” Ripe from Yunnan Sourcing. This is a good tea overall but has a lot of fermentation flavor left. It was admittedly somewhat unpleasant in the first steep or two and present for the first four or five steeps. It was bittersweet in the start, slowly changing from bitter to sweet. This was one I had hoped would be cleared enough for me to make it a daily drinker but I think it needs two more years to clear a bit. Still overall it was quite good. I think it is Menghai Tea factories highest grade of ripe tea that they make regularly.
A 2007 Jinggu Large Leaf Ripe Puerh brick I ordered from puerhshop.com. After my post yesterday, I decided to make a small test order, and it arrived today (I was kind of surprised, but I guess I shouldn’t be since their warehouse is an hour from my house).
So far, this seems perfectly acceptable for a tea I paid $6.50 for a 250g brick of. Mostly just woodiness with some sweetness and a bit of body to it. Flavor is not particularly strong nor does the tea last a long time. I might have contributed to the quickness with which it died because I was honestly a bit scared it’d be nasty so I rinsed the hell out of it. I’ll mess with it some more with different parameters before I post a review. I went a little light on the leaf, and I could do a better job managing steep times. Not at all displeased with this tea for the price I paid.
Having a 2012 Essence of Tea ‘Baotang’ tonight.
I bought this after tasting a sample of it a while back. Mengsong material is usually pretty decent.
I grabbed 11 grams out to start with and gave it a rinse and a little sit time.
Wet leaf you can pick some hints of floral but subdued and there is some smoke in there as well. The tea brews a nice aged golden color in the cup.
It starts out fairly thick and seems to rattle around in the mouth a bit. It is a pretty strong brew with the mintyness and camphor and bitterness rolling around in there. It is not as strong as a Bulang area tea but it is quite strong. Letting the cup cool a bit the bitterness can really come to the front. I see this one doing quite a few quick steeps as I am already 8 in and the leaf keeps giving. The aged profile of this will make you think it is a few years older than it actually is.
Flavors: Bitter, Camphor, Floral, Mint, Smoked
I must be insane in the membrane for doing this..but I started a 10g sheng session at 10pm. The tea in question? 2014 YunnanSourcing Dehong Ye Sheng! Truth be told I’m trying out my new 145ml Ruyao teapot. Maybe it’s the pot, maybe it’s the tea, but it’s a lot better than when I first tried it in the summer! Not as sour, a bit smoother, and slightly less bitter. It’s got teeth clenching energy! WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
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