pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
Today I drank a ripe tea I bought on Taobao, the 2014 Long Run Tea “826” Cooked Tea. This one was one where I had tried one of their other teas before so it was not a totally blind purchase. they were running a sale buy two get one free, so I got three and paid about 108 RMB each for them plus shipping. Shipping was around $8 or $9 each cake. You pay high shipping with any Taobao agent. There is a US company selling the same brand of tea, called Spring Tea Group. I think they get about $40 for the same tea. The tea itself was quite good. It was bittersweet at the start with a lot a fermentation flavor. It was not in my opinion fishy tasting. It did develop something of a note of chocolate in there. This is the second tea I have tried from my Taobao purchase and so far I am two for two. The 2kg brick I bought turned out to be good too. This one I think will age nicely.
Today I drank a sheng from Tea Urchin that Mr Mopar sent me in a swap. Thanks for the sample. This was an excellent tea. It was a punchy and bitter tea. But it was bitter in a good way if you understand my meaning. There was a sweetness behind the bitterness too. And I am beginning to feel some qi from it. Not as potent qi as a Yangqinghao tea but there. This is one that is going on my list of teas to buy. I might eventually get around to an order from Tea Urchin but probably not today.
Today I drank a sheng by Tea Urchin that Mr Mopar sent me in a swap. Thanks for the sample. It was the 2011 Four Peaks Lao Man E cake and it was good. This was a strong a bitter tea at first this bitterness faded after about four steeps. There was a second bitter flavor behind this one that lasted longer. There were some sweet notes in there too but not the apricots of a young sheng. It was good.
Got into the sample of 2000 Yiwu brick from YS. It sure is compressed. And humid.
i liked that tea. i didnt find it off putting, it was clean taste to me. not overly complex
Goes a lot of steeps, speaking as someone who doesn’t normally do umpteen-badonkity infusions.
Has anyone here ever tried this old melon from CWS? http://www.chawangshop.com/index.php/pu-erh-tea/aged-puerh/late-1990s-jin-gua-gong-cha-500g.html
@mrmopar is it at all Xiaguan-like? Or something a little more refined/less bumptuous?
Today I drank a ripe I bought on Taobao. I have transliterated the name as well as possible, the 2005 Chen Yue Chen Octagonal Cooked Puerh. This was a risk as I knew nothing about it or the seller. It turned out to be reasonably good. It was bittersweet at the start with a fair amount of fermentation flavor. This lasted four or five steeps and a nice flavor developed, a sweet flavor but I don’t think I would use the word chocolaty. It turned out pretty decent. Taobao is always something of a risk.
2014 golden needle white lotus – used about 8.5g/100ml and it was a bit too much, tasted too coarse when the time i had it before with less I loved the stuff…
2013 yong de blue, this time with less leaf and it is a really nice smooth shou. nice coating mouth and good smooth earthy flavour, a nice counter to the coarser session earlier
Breaking into the 2016 Fade huangpian brick from the white2tea club. I don’t know if I taste echoes of Bosch because 2dog said it’s in there, or because my palate is “evolving.” Either way, I love it. Interesting note: huangpian in a tiny yixing pot can be problematic in that after a few steeps, the pour becomes verrrrrrrrrrrry slow!
I have never purchased a tong of anything, but I might do with this one.
Today I drank a small sample included with my Misty Peaks order, the 1998 Misty Peaks Raw tea. I have two main things to say about this tea. It was one of the best raw teas I have had. It was sweet with little in the way of bitterness. It also did not have the color associated with a nearly twenty year old tea. It had changed somewhat in color but not what you would expect. It was still a really good tea. I’m just not convinced that Nicholas was correct about the age of it. Maybe the farmer was wrong about the age and passed along this inaccuracy.
I have a few that are purported to be from the late 90s that have transformed little as well. One of the cakes started to really transform once in my possession. That one seemed quite old. One of the tuo, however, just seems young, though it’s hard to tell as the wrapper itself is definitely on the newer side.
production year and the age of the tea are 2 different fields but interrelated. theoretically the more the better in general from my experience.
It tasted quite good, however other aged teas I’ve drank shared certain characteristics of flavor. This tasted younger for lack of a better term. It’s hard to rate the age by taste though. It may simply not have picked up any unpleasant aged flavors in it’s storage. You expect a little of that in an aged tea even if you don’t actually want it.
agree. it’s had to rate the age by taste. just share my little experience. aroma & taste of pu-erh tea will transform by time. At the beginning it is fresh, slowly turn to fruity. hint of Plum with surprise when it’s long enough. Some of my aged tea presents "zhang"’s aroma too. it’s fun to witness the transformation though.
2015 autumn de geng old arbor sheng. for some reason i found this really bitter even though flash steeping. Not sure if there is something up with my tastebuds but the last week or so I have been tasting things a lot more bitter and coarser than I remember. Odd
Login or sign up to leave a comment.