pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

TIL Shanghai is pretty humid, too. 94% humidity right now vs 92% here in HK!

Today I decided to start sipping tea from the White2Tea’s 2009 Yiwu Raw Puer which I received a couple of weeks ago and went straight to the humidor. Since I tasted it at work I reserve a more concrete judgement until I try it at home this weekend but meanwhile I enjoyed it very much.

Another ripe/raw blend today. Actually, I started this yesterday, but it was my second tea, so I didn’t have too many infusions. Mostly 2012 Aomen Hualian, my go-to ripe, a punchy affair recommended by Hobbes on his blog (taobao). A small amount of 2005 Yiwu Golden Unicorn Raw from Bana tea added in. The addition of the Yiwu adds some complexity and texture to the ripe, and perhaps some qi as well. The bodyfeel is pretty obvious, along with an enveloping calmness.

Work has been crazy sooo 2015 Yunnan Sourcing “Bai Ni Shui”. Young Sheng that starts fruity and rich and develops some pleasant bitterness and thickness. I recommend it if you haven’t tried it.

Today I went back to a Yunnan Sourcing order from a couple of weeks ago and drank the 2002 Nan Jian Te Zhi Ripe Tuo Cha. This was overall a good ripe puerh. There was a little bit of earth left in it. It had cleared most of the way but not completely. There was some minor notes of wet storage and spice in it. I detected wet wood for the first two steepings. It evolved into a nice sweet ripe after that. I didn’t find any notes of chocolate in their but it was very good. I think notes of chocolate are associated with the fermentation taste. This had very little of that. It is a good one to buy to age the rest of the way.

2x daily drinkers: 1x YS Da Qing 2015, 1x Dayi 0532.

I have 10 samples of various sheng from YS and W2T sitting in opened bags with coffee filters over them, airing out. Impatient to try them, but I’ve found that waiting a couple of weeks first seems to be worth it. Just realized that’s like a whole brick’s worth of just samples.

Today I drank a raw tea that I got with my Taobao Focus order a couple of weeks ago, an Xiaguan from MX Tea on Taobao, the 2005 Xiaguan 8673 Raw Puerh Tea Cake. This was one good tea. With a tea this age you expect a variety of negative flavors. You expect wet storage taste, this one had only a hint of it in the first steeping, and I’m not sure about that. You expect it to have a flavor of tobacco or leather. This had maybe a hint of that but not a noticeable amount. It had what I would describe as a muted sweetness throughout all twelve steeps I gave it. This was definitely a well stored tea. It had really picked up no negative flavors in storage. I have heard that MX Tea has wet stored tea but I couldn’t tell from this bing. As to qi it was present but not tremendously strong. As to the price I got this for somewhere around $20 plus shipping. Shipping was expensive for this order as I think Taobao Focus marks up the shipping. They claim not to but I am not convinced because their shipping is noticeably higher than someone like Yunnan Sourcing for the approximately same amount of weight. And Taobao Focus uses a cheaper form of EMS shipping than Yunnan Sourcing. Still, this tea was a bargain. I think an EBay seller would get at least $60 with the shipping. At least that is what I have seen similar aged Xiaguans go for on EBay. This was perhaps one of the best semi aged raw teas I have ever drank if not the very best. Taste wise it was better than Yangqinghao is in it’s first few steeps. It didn’t have the massive qi of a Yangqinghao tea however. This was really good.

2015 Autumn Nuo Wu Village fromYS. Very good representation of Menku terroir- pungent, sweet, bitter, creamy, notes of nectarines and honeysuckles. Surprisingly excellent for an Autumn tea on the cheaper end. I recommend it.

Today I drank something different, Jacked Raw Puerh by Liquid Proust Teas. This was different. It was also really good. The jackfruit only lasted a few steeps though. It was a very good flavor combination though. I usually only buy flavored ripe puerhs, you don’t see to many flavored raw puerhs but this was really good. The puerh itself was nice and sweet with very little bitterness, quite good.

Sipping the 2009 Yiwu raw pu’er from W2T. Very nice and sippable tea. Leaving the rest of the cake in the humidor to mature further.