The main thermos of the week was this: The King's Seal Raw Pu-erh Tea - https://www.banateacompany.com/product334.html As I've had the gongfu, I'll discuss with the gongfu.
The shu of Friday was finishing off the YS '19 Bawang. I leafed it hard. It's an okay shu, but it was just not very interesting to me, and doesn't really generate a lot of feeling of comfort--yeah I know, BA-WaaAAAAAAaannggg! I did leaf this hard to finish off the sample. Doesn't really have much qi, and concentrated taste does punch hard. As can be inferred, there is not much complexity in taste or aroma, it's a by-the-numbers grade 2 shu that's professionally done. Most people would be better off finding a way to get a good Dayi Dragon Pole shu. It probably will settle down, and maybe get a touch more plummy with a few more years.
The first tea of the long weekend was the Yiwu Tea Mountain Yangjiazhai. I was expecting a better session than I got, so I put this sample off more towards the end in anticipation of a good session. It wasn't as luxuriantly floral as I expected, didn't have a strong and broad base, and has a serious problem with not the best bitterness. It wasn't awful or anything, but it wasn't what I really expected. Maybe that was why the sample was so cheap for the cost of the cake or something.
Aroma is pretty dynamic. It does have a bit of savory florals through much of the session where aroma was a factor. Many brews had a dark aspect in the aroma, like some barnyard, or wild honey-root herbal. Occasionally, wood or fruit is there. The taste isn't particularly mushroom, barnyard, or regular honey based like what the thermos suggested. Instead it's more of a wild honey core with a bitterness. Savory florals and barnyard are factors in the early going. Later on, brews on the weaker side gets a sort of sweet grains main taste and more stronger brews gets back a thin wild honey taste, both usually with an aggressive bitterness that reaches at the tongueroots and a bit of wood. Some brews have a bit of sensate sweetness. Some brews also reveal a fruity taste as soup cools, tho' that might be yiwu huigan. This tea does do a good job with mouthfeel, with the proviso that drying finish does rises for a time to pretty strong at a point. It's thick viscosity with an off and on velvet texture. The aftertaste game isn't strong, particularly as the bitterness doesn't really contribute much. There is usually a light mouthcoat and some light yiwu huigan, both to fruit. The thermos had some yiwu huigan to caramels that did not happen in the session... The qi is moderate to strong of no particular distinction.
The main issue is that the bitterness is pretty intrusive, and it doesn't really give a good aftertaste game as per its premium cost should suggest, so by later brews I was bored with it and hurting.
I felt like I wanted another tea Saturday, so I pulled out the XZH '10 Hungshan, identified as Manlin Manzhuan tea by Sanhetang. This was just very easily better than any YTM gushu. This session was a bit weird in the sense that it was very much like a broad-leaf version of northern small leaf teas that generates lots of powder aroma, like that '10 YS Xikong or the '16 XZH Return of the King.
Aroma is extremely durable, a factor in the brews at least past twelve brews, dominated by sweetness and powder floral. There are honey-grains, fruity, barnyard playing a role from time to time, depending on brew. Taste is your usual Manzhaun behavior but thinner tasting and more delicate with a good helping of powder florals. I had to manage a bitter-tart core so it doesn't become overwhelming, and it becomes a nice anchor for the whole taste experience, lending a sense of substance to the whole fairy food nature of this tea. Moderate-good viscosity with not much drying astringency, so can feel very smooth start to finish. Good cooling feel, some feeling at top of throat. Strong mouthcoat game, with occasional fruity yuns and yiwu huigan to caramel. The qi is moderate to strong, very calming, and quite noticeably durable. Where in most of these teas, the feeling of qi fades in late brews, the qi is still going the way that aroma is still going. This is just a very durable tea in important ways. I probably drank more than sixteen brews over two days.
To be fair about this tea's superiority to recent teas, it's a decade older than the other teas. Settled down to what it's good at.
Sunday's tea was the YTM '20 QCBZ Yiwu Gushu QCBZ - 2020 Spring Gushu (200g cake) | yiwumountaintea - https://www.yiwumountaintea.com/product-page/yiwu-gushu-7c8z-2020-spring-gushu-200g-cake . My general reaction is that there is some obvious similarities to the Bohetang huangpian, and of being blended with inferior and complementary yiwus, so I just envisioned it as Bohetang and the Step-Sisters. The primary difference from the BHT huangpian, besides the huangpian part, is that it's not very sweet nutmeat in general. I liked it, but as the stepsisters thing might hint, I was left with the small bht part trying to play all of the roles of the band, a little too soon. So this tea gets boring well earlier than it should, and never has the sort of aftertaste game it really should have. Also, while the qi starts off strong, it becomes weak and unremarkable late in the session, and rest doesn't revive it.
The aroma was softly green vegetal with sweet mushroom and floral aspects, fruit showing up here and there. The aroma does get vague very quickly--starts getting so around brew five and degenerating from after brew seven. Late brews brewed hard will get some indistinct honeyish aroma back. The taste is pretty consistently sweet mushroom. Early brews has some savory florals. Wild honey with bitter-tcm becomes a consistent partner of the mushroom most of the session, but not too deep tasting. In later brews, the bitter-tcm fades, and more fruit notes shows up and the taste is pretty consistent high wild honey, mushroom with something else like fruit. The mouthfeel is great and has something of the feeling of the BHT huangpian. It's thick with a seriously creamy feeling. There is some drying astringency that gets higher in a few brews. Viscosity does decline, especially without firm brewing. Can generate feeling at top of throat. While the aftertaste game isn't super-great (especially in the sense that it's not super-loud), it is pretty decent, especially early. There are good fruity mouthcoats, good yiwu huigans to both fruit and caramel, and some yuns. There are some shallow pungent huigans in a couple of brews, and one brew has a nice tonguecoat. Mouthcoats and the tonguecoat tends to be dynamic with complex flavors in sequence. The qi is strong early and fades to a light qi late. The mouthfeel goes on forever, only thinning some. However, most other positive qualities fail to stand out after maybe seven or eight brews. The nice qualities of this tea isn't really as durable as I'd like something this expensive to be.
So that's Yiwu Mountain Tea. I probably wouldn't pay for any more of their teas, tho' I'll have a couple more teas, including the '19 Tianmenshan that prompted my friend and I to take this outfit seriously later on. Their teas are usually about fifty bucks too expensive per cake. The overall best sample from them is the '12 Chawangshu, particularly in the long and late brews. I thought the '19 Yishanmo is pretty passably good for the money. I also think the '20 BHT huangpian is also good for the money, depending on how you tolerate huangpian. The '20 Laos is a bad deal, particularly for the novice.
It is just really hard for anyone to *get* high end gushu teas these days, and people who want good gushu needs to find older teas that refuse to appreciate in value before people start thinking that the latest overpriced Dayi is definitely overpriced.
So, we're on the topic of newer high end gushu? Never fear, I have a legit one here! Vesper Chan's 2020 The King's Seal LaoBanzhang. Of course, this tea is four dollars a gram, at least for the samples. The cakes (500g and 100g sampler for 600g total) were something like $2.2k in the nanosecond it took for both cakes that Linda Louie stock to be bought. Remember, this is LBZ, there's a LOT of this compared to most other places (and of course, tons of demand such that most people get crap). Realistically, all the legit good examples of gushu from good places are now probably around three dollars a gram, at least. That's why I'm favor of the general W2T ethos of being specific--allows for focus on quality rather than, say YS posting 2020 Baihuatang at $120/250g that's totally impossible.
The thermos was interesting, particularly with the Theasophie '16 kept in mind. The character was consistent over both pours of the thermos if I remember right. The main taste was mushroom and barnyard with a sweet pineapple nature lurking underneath and not green in the way of many fresh teas. I thought the taste was kind of small. Fairly Menghai aroma, on the deeper barnyard side, with some alkaline. I noted that this had a lot of astringency conversion to flavors, and it had yuns. Mouthcoats were dynamic. A minor bit of mouth aroma. Qi was strong. It was a bit aggressive to the stomach. At that time, I felt that this tea wasn't worthy of the high price tag, because I didn't feel blown away by this tea, like, say, the Yehgu.
I appreciated this tea more in a gongfu session. The tea didn't feel as small, and the aftertaste had more of a chance to sell me on the complexity of sensation. Strong and enveloping qi. Obvious caffeine boost. In trying to rank this tea by previous teas, this tea would indeed beat most teas (and shaming the very similar Theasophie). It wouldn't beat some of the best of the older XZH or YQH, and it wouldn't beat, say the '14 XZH Hongyin/a/b/iron, but come even with '14 Lanyin, and be better than the Luyin. Likewise with YQH Yehgu, 18 trees, Shengyun, 888, etc. But this would beat, for example the '19 XZH Hongyin Grade A that's $500/400g pretty easily. So, like while it's outrageously expensive at more than $2k/600g, it can justify the cost to some degree. I may well prefer the '07 CYH 200g for the same price, though, but tough thinking.
Aroma in early brews are barnyard, menghai mushroom, menghai honey, and some alkaline nature. This simplifies towards more savory nature and exclusively barnyard. A late brew after a rest yielded a nice fleshy floral aroma (but I was reminded to check for gardenia, so that might be suggestion, or might have missed earlier). The taste is consistently delivering a sense of sweetness through most of the session. Embedded in that underlying honey sensibility is deep barnyard, wood, tobacco, choco early. In later brews, it's more of a bitter-tcm, alkaline, and barnyard with the bitter-tcm fading more of an herbal taste (if not brewed firmly) as the brews go on. The viscosity starts off moderate, but then builds to a nice thickness with a juicy texture. There is not actually much drying astringency, so that aftertaste game from said astringency is very efficient. There is a degree of cooling and some feeling going down the throat a bit. The aftertaste game dominated by complex and dynamic yiwu huigan/mouthcoats to mostly fruits and some caramel. There are some fruity yuns and a pungent huigan early. The most impressive aftertastes are very early and weakens by the fourth brews so maybe not throw out that wash brew? The aftertaste does go on deep into the session, but as subtle complements to the main taste. Late aftertastes often includes some interesting floral mouth aroma, one of which is nicely spicy. The qi is strong and fairly enveloping of the body with an energizing feeling.
this pot's going to the fridge.
And that was my long weekend...
The shu of Friday was finishing off the YS '19 Bawang. I leafed it hard. It's an okay shu, but it was just not very interesting to me, and doesn't really generate a lot of feeling of comfort--yeah I know, BA-WaaAAAAAAaannggg! I did leaf this hard to finish off the sample. Doesn't really have much qi, and concentrated taste does punch hard. As can be inferred, there is not much complexity in taste or aroma, it's a by-the-numbers grade 2 shu that's professionally done. Most people would be better off finding a way to get a good Dayi Dragon Pole shu. It probably will settle down, and maybe get a touch more plummy with a few more years.
The first tea of the long weekend was the Yiwu Tea Mountain Yangjiazhai. I was expecting a better session than I got, so I put this sample off more towards the end in anticipation of a good session. It wasn't as luxuriantly floral as I expected, didn't have a strong and broad base, and has a serious problem with not the best bitterness. It wasn't awful or anything, but it wasn't what I really expected. Maybe that was why the sample was so cheap for the cost of the cake or something.
Aroma is pretty dynamic. It does have a bit of savory florals through much of the session where aroma was a factor. Many brews had a dark aspect in the aroma, like some barnyard, or wild honey-root herbal. Occasionally, wood or fruit is there. The taste isn't particularly mushroom, barnyard, or regular honey based like what the thermos suggested. Instead it's more of a wild honey core with a bitterness. Savory florals and barnyard are factors in the early going. Later on, brews on the weaker side gets a sort of sweet grains main taste and more stronger brews gets back a thin wild honey taste, both usually with an aggressive bitterness that reaches at the tongueroots and a bit of wood. Some brews have a bit of sensate sweetness. Some brews also reveal a fruity taste as soup cools, tho' that might be yiwu huigan. This tea does do a good job with mouthfeel, with the proviso that drying finish does rises for a time to pretty strong at a point. It's thick viscosity with an off and on velvet texture. The aftertaste game isn't strong, particularly as the bitterness doesn't really contribute much. There is usually a light mouthcoat and some light yiwu huigan, both to fruit. The thermos had some yiwu huigan to caramels that did not happen in the session... The qi is moderate to strong of no particular distinction.
The main issue is that the bitterness is pretty intrusive, and it doesn't really give a good aftertaste game as per its premium cost should suggest, so by later brews I was bored with it and hurting.
I felt like I wanted another tea Saturday, so I pulled out the XZH '10 Hungshan, identified as Manlin Manzhuan tea by Sanhetang. This was just very easily better than any YTM gushu. This session was a bit weird in the sense that it was very much like a broad-leaf version of northern small leaf teas that generates lots of powder aroma, like that '10 YS Xikong or the '16 XZH Return of the King.
Aroma is extremely durable, a factor in the brews at least past twelve brews, dominated by sweetness and powder floral. There are honey-grains, fruity, barnyard playing a role from time to time, depending on brew. Taste is your usual Manzhaun behavior but thinner tasting and more delicate with a good helping of powder florals. I had to manage a bitter-tart core so it doesn't become overwhelming, and it becomes a nice anchor for the whole taste experience, lending a sense of substance to the whole fairy food nature of this tea. Moderate-good viscosity with not much drying astringency, so can feel very smooth start to finish. Good cooling feel, some feeling at top of throat. Strong mouthcoat game, with occasional fruity yuns and yiwu huigan to caramel. The qi is moderate to strong, very calming, and quite noticeably durable. Where in most of these teas, the feeling of qi fades in late brews, the qi is still going the way that aroma is still going. This is just a very durable tea in important ways. I probably drank more than sixteen brews over two days.
To be fair about this tea's superiority to recent teas, it's a decade older than the other teas. Settled down to what it's good at.
Sunday's tea was the YTM '20 QCBZ Yiwu Gushu QCBZ - 2020 Spring Gushu (200g cake) | yiwumountaintea - https://www.yiwumountaintea.com/product-page/yiwu-gushu-7c8z-2020-spring-gushu-200g-cake . My general reaction is that there is some obvious similarities to the Bohetang huangpian, and of being blended with inferior and complementary yiwus, so I just envisioned it as Bohetang and the Step-Sisters. The primary difference from the BHT huangpian, besides the huangpian part, is that it's not very sweet nutmeat in general. I liked it, but as the stepsisters thing might hint, I was left with the small bht part trying to play all of the roles of the band, a little too soon. So this tea gets boring well earlier than it should, and never has the sort of aftertaste game it really should have. Also, while the qi starts off strong, it becomes weak and unremarkable late in the session, and rest doesn't revive it.
The aroma was softly green vegetal with sweet mushroom and floral aspects, fruit showing up here and there. The aroma does get vague very quickly--starts getting so around brew five and degenerating from after brew seven. Late brews brewed hard will get some indistinct honeyish aroma back. The taste is pretty consistently sweet mushroom. Early brews has some savory florals. Wild honey with bitter-tcm becomes a consistent partner of the mushroom most of the session, but not too deep tasting. In later brews, the bitter-tcm fades, and more fruit notes shows up and the taste is pretty consistent high wild honey, mushroom with something else like fruit. The mouthfeel is great and has something of the feeling of the BHT huangpian. It's thick with a seriously creamy feeling. There is some drying astringency that gets higher in a few brews. Viscosity does decline, especially without firm brewing. Can generate feeling at top of throat. While the aftertaste game isn't super-great (especially in the sense that it's not super-loud), it is pretty decent, especially early. There are good fruity mouthcoats, good yiwu huigans to both fruit and caramel, and some yuns. There are some shallow pungent huigans in a couple of brews, and one brew has a nice tonguecoat. Mouthcoats and the tonguecoat tends to be dynamic with complex flavors in sequence. The qi is strong early and fades to a light qi late. The mouthfeel goes on forever, only thinning some. However, most other positive qualities fail to stand out after maybe seven or eight brews. The nice qualities of this tea isn't really as durable as I'd like something this expensive to be.
So that's Yiwu Mountain Tea. I probably wouldn't pay for any more of their teas, tho' I'll have a couple more teas, including the '19 Tianmenshan that prompted my friend and I to take this outfit seriously later on. Their teas are usually about fifty bucks too expensive per cake. The overall best sample from them is the '12 Chawangshu, particularly in the long and late brews. I thought the '19 Yishanmo is pretty passably good for the money. I also think the '20 BHT huangpian is also good for the money, depending on how you tolerate huangpian. The '20 Laos is a bad deal, particularly for the novice.
It is just really hard for anyone to *get* high end gushu teas these days, and people who want good gushu needs to find older teas that refuse to appreciate in value before people start thinking that the latest overpriced Dayi is definitely overpriced.
So, we're on the topic of newer high end gushu? Never fear, I have a legit one here! Vesper Chan's 2020 The King's Seal LaoBanzhang. Of course, this tea is four dollars a gram, at least for the samples. The cakes (500g and 100g sampler for 600g total) were something like $2.2k in the nanosecond it took for both cakes that Linda Louie stock to be bought. Remember, this is LBZ, there's a LOT of this compared to most other places (and of course, tons of demand such that most people get crap). Realistically, all the legit good examples of gushu from good places are now probably around three dollars a gram, at least. That's why I'm favor of the general W2T ethos of being specific--allows for focus on quality rather than, say YS posting 2020 Baihuatang at $120/250g that's totally impossible.
The thermos was interesting, particularly with the Theasophie '16 kept in mind. The character was consistent over both pours of the thermos if I remember right. The main taste was mushroom and barnyard with a sweet pineapple nature lurking underneath and not green in the way of many fresh teas. I thought the taste was kind of small. Fairly Menghai aroma, on the deeper barnyard side, with some alkaline. I noted that this had a lot of astringency conversion to flavors, and it had yuns. Mouthcoats were dynamic. A minor bit of mouth aroma. Qi was strong. It was a bit aggressive to the stomach. At that time, I felt that this tea wasn't worthy of the high price tag, because I didn't feel blown away by this tea, like, say, the Yehgu.
I appreciated this tea more in a gongfu session. The tea didn't feel as small, and the aftertaste had more of a chance to sell me on the complexity of sensation. Strong and enveloping qi. Obvious caffeine boost. In trying to rank this tea by previous teas, this tea would indeed beat most teas (and shaming the very similar Theasophie). It wouldn't beat some of the best of the older XZH or YQH, and it wouldn't beat, say the '14 XZH Hongyin/a/b/iron, but come even with '14 Lanyin, and be better than the Luyin. Likewise with YQH Yehgu, 18 trees, Shengyun, 888, etc. But this would beat, for example the '19 XZH Hongyin Grade A that's $500/400g pretty easily. So, like while it's outrageously expensive at more than $2k/600g, it can justify the cost to some degree. I may well prefer the '07 CYH 200g for the same price, though, but tough thinking.
Aroma in early brews are barnyard, menghai mushroom, menghai honey, and some alkaline nature. This simplifies towards more savory nature and exclusively barnyard. A late brew after a rest yielded a nice fleshy floral aroma (but I was reminded to check for gardenia, so that might be suggestion, or might have missed earlier). The taste is consistently delivering a sense of sweetness through most of the session. Embedded in that underlying honey sensibility is deep barnyard, wood, tobacco, choco early. In later brews, it's more of a bitter-tcm, alkaline, and barnyard with the bitter-tcm fading more of an herbal taste (if not brewed firmly) as the brews go on. The viscosity starts off moderate, but then builds to a nice thickness with a juicy texture. There is not actually much drying astringency, so that aftertaste game from said astringency is very efficient. There is a degree of cooling and some feeling going down the throat a bit. The aftertaste game dominated by complex and dynamic yiwu huigan/mouthcoats to mostly fruits and some caramel. There are some fruity yuns and a pungent huigan early. The most impressive aftertastes are very early and weakens by the fourth brews so maybe not throw out that wash brew? The aftertaste does go on deep into the session, but as subtle complements to the main taste. Late aftertastes often includes some interesting floral mouth aroma, one of which is nicely spicy. The qi is strong and fairly enveloping of the body with an energizing feeling.
this pot's going to the fridge.
And that was my long weekend...
