SOTD- sheng of the day

[shah8]

Let's start with thermoses...
Monday was a not particularly inspiring (compared to first time I thermosed) thermos of '08 XZH Blessing.
Tuesday had my W2T order finally coming in and I thermosed Snake Waithe. It's a bit flat a touch like a black tea, presumably from the roasting process. The taste is unusual, I described it to myself as a kind of spice and pleasant foetid character. When I talked to Paul Murray about it, he said it could be like how cannabis smells. Well, I've never smoked, but going by my memories of the aromas in college, cannabis is a bit different, tho' not too far off.
Wednesday I thermosed Marion white tea. This is the shade dried version, and as a result, it's more flat and black-tea like, a bit fruitier (something like bananas in one of the pours). I was a bit bored with this one. I think it did need to be more properly baimudan-tippy.
Thursday, I thermosed the Coversation, which is the sun dried version, and I enjoyed that one a bit more. Has a bit of aftertaste, stronger bitterness and character, etc...
Friday, I thermosed the 2016 Censors. I really does feel like it's pretty aged, and maybe more like 2013 tea--it's a very dark white tea in thermos and has some similarities to liu bao. I enjoyed it a lot, with nice fruit subtlety, well defined texture. It's more astringent than the 2017 and is harder on the tummy.

Friday shu was some '07 Dayi An Xiang, which was mostly loose and fine stuff, so strong and deep early brews and weaker later brews. Otherwise as usual.

Saturday, I started off with the 2006 RongChanghao Bulang Shan Yesheng Gushu from Teapals. This was a pretty good tea that's fairly drinkable, but compared to what I have access to, it's an expensive tea for its qualities.

Aroma is generally barnyard, wood, and honey. Mabe a tobacco edge. One time, the base of the aroma was a very nice sugar cookie aspect. The taste is typically a pretty deep barnyard with aromatic soil fringes and a strong bitterness (for the first five or so brews). There are other subtle tones of choco and various sweet notes like fruit in the taste. The viscosity builds up from moderately thick to a thick soup, while astringency starts lower, rises, and declines rapidly. There isn't much aftertaste, only thing noted down was a bit of mouthcoat aftertaste in one brew. The qi is also on the mild side of thing. Don't think this is very gushu or whatever. It is, however a decently enjoyable tea. Just not for $130/400g or whatever ringit480 is.

The second tea of Saturday is vastly more interesting. It then '05 Dayi wujinhao yuancha https://www.donghetea.com/goods.php?id=217 . This is one of the really expensive Dayi teas that has been famous a long time for its distinctive pine smoked character. It is also limited to about 16800 cakes. I really enjoyed this 4g session and find it distinctly similar to the Big Green Trees--red and blue-black stamp in the sense of being high quality Nannuo factory teas. The BGTs are better. The red stamp is bigger taste with stronger almond sweetness, while the blue-black stamp is slightly bigger taste with a bit more intensive aftertastes and a more durable active phase. The aroma of the '05 is probably more classy than either older teas, though.

The aroma typically has retired smoke, wood, and a nannuo carrotiness. A few times it's just a more intense wood and retired smoke nature. The early brews are pretty much retired smoke, wood, and a strong sweet core of nannuo carrot. The first couple of brews has a pinto bean element that suggests this sample has had a bit of hard storage at some point. The sweet nannuo carrot fades as the session moves on and is replaced by a deep, dark bitterness that gradually rises in the late brews. Again, the taste is kind of small, like most Dayi teas. Another thing about the taste, is that during the active phase, the tea's taste changes some and giving some late nice character like more fruitiness or incense or whatever. Some later brews has a bitterness that tends to linger in the mouth a while. The viscosity is good, reasonably thick. The first five or so brews aren't very astringent, and then rises some before gradually falling as one gets deep into the session. The aftertaste game is quite good for Dayi. Consistently has a yiwu huigan to a touch of almond sweetness. Also often has a yun/mouthcoat and plenty of cooling that suggest a fine alcoholic spirit not that unlike a slightly peaty scotch. One time there was a nice medicinal sensate sweetness around tip of the tongue. Tends to maintain strong feeling at top of the throat with subtle feeling down and maybe subtle huigan up. The qi is moderate-strong level and is decently comfortable. Durability is good, I did something like fifteen brews and put it in the fridge.

On the list of Dayi teas that might justify spending way more money than its worth, this tea is totally on it. Yet, of course, it's cheaper than the '05 Menghai Peacock. How weird.

The first tea drunk today was the '09 XZH Yinfeng Pekoe. This is an all tips cake with buds from Yangta, Jinggu. I'm inclined to think this one is actually fully from Jinggu. The cake is very pretty as one can imagine, quite golden. I enjoyed the tea more than the '07 Xueshan Chuen Lu, especially in the sense that the robust brightness of buddy nature is more muted and mild with this tea, and so it's easier to enjoy.

The aroma is pretty light, tending towards hony, wood, herbal. One brew had a distinct sage character. The taste is fairly mild and transparent, mostly a toffee base early with honey, wood, herbal notes surrounding and as the tea moves on, the distinctness of any flavor note becomes muted. In a late brew, it got a nice ceylon hongcha sort of fruitiness. The viscosity is pretty good with astringency that grows from a very low level. Earlier brews manages a nice winey sort of mouthcoat and some subtle pungent huigans. Tends to have moderate-strong level of qi.

I sort of like this tea, and it's a value for what I paid for it, but I probably should have more aggressively bid for other teas like the 2006 XZH with the LBZ, Yiwu, Guangbienlaozhai blended tea which is richer, but probably less potent than this bud tea. I'm not really much of a fan of bud-dominated teas.

The last tea of the weekend was John Kokki's privately pressed Jingmai/Mangjing cake, Axis Mundi from 2019. I approached this tea as a Mangjing, and I expressedly had low expectations both because I'm not fond of Mangjing and that the price is too low for anything exciting. This tea did jump over the low bar. It is fairly Jingmai, with little of the vegetal-nuttiness of lowborn Mangjing. However, it doesn't really have much qi (plenty of caffeine) or aftertaste. The aroma is a bit of dry floral, honey, light vegetalness. The taste is roughly the same, a little nutty. Neither changes much during the session except maybe fade a bit. The viscosity is thick, and there is low astringency, so it's very easy and comfortable to drink. Not much aftertaste, but it does has a distinct if slight yiwu huigan to a stronger sense of honey sweetness. Again, not much qi. I wasn't taking that much care late in the session, and I easily provoked some more bitter brews, so it has some durability, but it's sort of boring.

alright, that's enough for now...

 

[Ivo4u2]

The shen of the day.... we are having a winter storm so it looks like the zhi and hun are having a blast

 

[shah8]

A bunch of teas this weekend!

Friday was the W2T The Great Divide shu. It was nice. It was more properly lao man'e like with more aromatic soil in aroma/taste. Didn't have the dulce de leche sweetness in taste. Qi might have been a bit more than the first time. I'd still think that Sunday Special is the better shu.

The first tea of the weekend was the 2019 W2T Gore of the Forest. I've mostly been assuming that this was something of a Mansa equivalent to the 2016 We Go High--opportunistic grabs of superior fall teas. How is it? I'd say that this is a relatively deep Mansa with a pretty good aftertaste game and a mouthfeel that was very pleasurable for me. A bit of a flaw in that it is a bit tart, especially as the soup cools. If it was a bit easier to drink, I'd say this tea is roughly equivalent to the 2014-2015 W2T Last Thoughts. If I really didn't have enough tea, and really wouldn't mind waiting for a bit of aging to do their magic, I'd consider this tea as a purchase.

The aroma is mostly barnyard and mineral, with butter, barnyard, and florals showing up here and there. Late infusions moves towards more a roasted grain aspect. The taste is generally at least a little tart through seven or so brews. The most consistently present flavor is mineral and a sort of high honey-ish barnyard, through deep into the session. Early brews deepen into a nice dark and weighty character sort of like tcm-bitter, with brown sugar, subtle pineapple, and wood around that mineral depth. Later infusions rise from that depth and becomes a lighter, mineral-high barnyardish taste. Viscosity is good with a very nice albumin texture that feels nice when one swallows it. Some brews have feeling going down throat. Not a whole lot of astringency present. Aftertaste game is pretty good--it gives a lot of floral mouth aroma, early brews has a nice complex and developing yiwu-huigan, and what astringency present delivers decent mouthcoats. The qi is moderate to strong, not too interesting. Durability is pretty good, but not fully brewed out--I was a lot of brews for the throatfeel towards the end, but it still had flavor when I stopped.

I was thinking of this tea compared to that TW yiwu mansa tall tree maocha from fall '19 I tried the weekend before last. That tea was more delicate and refined, while this one was more robust and energetic. The W2T is more to my taste. And as I've said before, this is roughly about as good as Last Thoughts, so I've been wondering what a spring version of Gore of the Forest would be like...

The second tea of the weekend was some 2009 XZH Fengshabao. I've sort of been on this forest tea bent, so that one had a hold on my mind a bit. This session makes me more thinking this is phognsaly laos tea rather than random yiwu forest tea. The leaves are almost as dark as the Yehgu, interesting enough.

Aroma and taste is basically plummy, vegetalness, and dried fruit. Wood and musk shows up later in the session. The viscosity is decent and astringency goes from light to moderate as the session goes on before lighteing up again. This astringency tends to promote a nice wine mouthcoat. The qi is on the moderate side of strong. Not a super dynamic session, but seemingly indefinite brewer. put in fridge for weekday drinking. Still not a huge fan of this tea, but it's pleasant enough.

The first tea today was the 2019 fall W2T Snakewaithe. This is a very simple tea, and has very little dynamacism. I think it's well suited for western brews or thermos. Gongfu brews, I'd think would be about brewing over a number of days, with a few brews. It definitely has a strong kick, but at least this time, contrary to the W2T blurb, I found this tea very durable. In a number of ways, this is much more like a traditional factory tea than your refined gushu tea. Solid taste, booming aroma, caffiene and bulky viscosity...probably will age like decent Xiaguan. Anyways, let's make this quick. This has a strong, sharply foetid barnyard character in aroma and taste, with some spice, and many brews has a subtle pineapple (I've sort of wondered if this had anything to do with Gore of the Forest-ish material) fruitiness underneath. I actually like and enjoy this foetidness because it's charming and sweet, and just quite different than how teas normally are. I do suggest people get a sample first before buying the whole thing. I also think this is really something one would want to store--clearly should be better in a decade or so. Now, back to the tea, the viscosity is pretty thick and not inclined towards much in the way of astringency without aggressive brewing. Not a whole lot of aftertaste, tho' thermos did have a bit. Qi is on the strong side of things. Brewed probably well over fifteen brews over the day.

The second tea of the day was a 3.2g mini-session of a Yibang maocha sourced by the same person who procured the fall yiwu. This yibang is a medium sized leaf specimen, like the YS '17 fall Mansong, and like that tea, it is fairly yiwu-ish, in this case, much like a good luoshuidong. This was a very nice and elegant tea, but not a particularly outstanding one--it doesn't compare well to small-leaf yibangs like W2T It's a Gift and others of that nature.

Aroma has some of that classical yiwu mushroom-floral-honey, but also a kind of fruity taffy candy character through most of the session. Emptied cups tend to retain floral aroma. More purely classical yiwu taste, with only a touch of that sweet fruity taffy note in taste, until later in the session when a more traditional Yibang bitter depth happens and then eases up. The viscosity is on the medium side, with a very smooth, soft and velvet texture. It can generate a little feeling at top of throat. The aftertaste game is a complex yiwu huigan early and a lingering mouthcoat later in the session. There are a couple of cups with yuns and others with mouth aromas. Moderate to strong qi early but it fades to a more mild qi late. I'd estimate that the durability isn't that great, around 12 or 13 or so brews, tho' one has to keep in mind the unusually small sample size.

 

[shah8]

Some quick notes.

Yesterday was the '07 XZH Manlin. Very mellow and subtle tea. Requires some skill in order pump up character while not getting anything unbalanced.

The second tea of the day was the '16 W2T Censors white tea. This tea doesn't seem to be as well made as the 2018 version, and it has notable stomach churning astringency. Early brews were rum and white-tea honey. Later long brews were more of a pumpkin seed and betel nut taste along with medicinal and wood, enough to lull me into thinking it was a liu bao white tea from Guangxi rather than the Guizhou tea it is. I think I really prefer this thermosed, since the early brews aren't that much to my liking.

The first tea today was the '06 Shenpin Chawang. I wanted to evaluate it in context of the Yehgu because I thought Yehgu reminded me of some aspect of Shenpin Chawang. I think I more or less confirmed that the two are very similar. Yehgu is much louder in taste, aroma, qi, and aftertaste. More of a distinct bitterness, and more floral in aroma. Anyways, aside from it being as quiet and as mellow as the Manlin yesterday, this was thoroughly enjoyed. Very subtle layering and complexity in the taste. Really nice yiwu huigan to fruit. Really nice qi. Late, less complext brews had pleasant choco layer in taste.

The second tea of the day was the 2001 Menghai Tea Factory no.9 recipe. This isn't much like the '01 103 no.4 recipe in any way other than the retired smoke. It's more like the '05 wujin or '99 BGT, but not really as good, not very complex. I also didn't really try hard to evaluate the tea, this time.

The aroma tends to be retired smoke and nannuo carroty. The taste tends to be vaguely between nannuo-carrot and plumminess in most of the earlier brews, and later brews has more of a merger with a wood character. Some brews had more of a retired smoke element to it. Like the '05 wujin, a deeper bitterness tends to show up deeper in the session, but that bitterness fades quickly in a few brews too. The mouthfeel is okay most of the way. It does reach a very nice apogee with good thickness and a very soft texture, but following brews quickly lowers in thickness, and various brews can have some notable drying astringency. The main aftertaste is a yiwu-huigan to almond sweetness. Qi is moderate to strong.

I think this was a pleasant tea, but I wasn't quite in the mood for this tea, particularly in the (more effortfull) four gram serving. It's a nice tea that isn't that special and probably costs way more than it's really worth. I can't find it on Donghe, though.

 

[MattCha]

Shah8,

By complete coincidence I had back to back sessions with both the 2006 YQH Shengpin Chawang then the 2012 YQH Yehgu yesterday and the day before. So I am compelled to chirp in here. I also could not help but compare but I found them way too different in almost every aspect. I think the only thing I thought was similar was a very subtle deep throat feeling and sweetness there. That quality, I believe, makes these both excellent.

Peace

 

[Doc4]

I'll be enjoying the remaining portion of this cake in the days to come ...

 

[shah8]

Okay, this weekend I mostly took it easy and did some white teas.

Thursday was some '09 Dayi Dragon Pillar shu. Better than it usually is, very short durability, tho.
Friday was the YS Yiwu Rooster ripe. Not as cola as my first time. Not a hugely interesting shu for me.

Saturday was the '19 W2T The Conversation Pt.2, while Sunday was the '19 W2T Marion. Same material, but sun and shade dried respectively. The Conversation was was much brighter and more aromatic than Marion. It had a combination of dry-ish florals with herbal accents with a white grape sense that has some white wine edges. There wasn't that much nuance or dynamacism. Marion was much more mellow and laid back with less aroma and a much more ambiguous character that has more nuances. While the Conversation is better in the thermos, Marion is a bit better for gongfu. Both had a little bit of qi. In terms of raw, overall quality, '18 W2T Old Arbor White is the better tea than these two, but the 2019 are much less generic Yunnan white teas than many other white teas. In general, I'm not hugely for Yunnan white teas, and Old Whitey is sufficient for my needs. Censors is a much more interesting white tea than either 2019. However, I did enjoy learning about the differences that sun and shade drying can engender.

Today, I also did a very small 3.3g session with the 2003 Dayi Big Red Dayi Ticket. This is essentially similar to the 2005 XZH spring LBZ. Just factory tea--also, it's very small compare to even other Dayi, let along big gushu productions from XZH or CYH.

The relatively light aroma tends to be woody with paper and/or pungent barnyard fringes. The taste early tends to have some nannuo carrotiness along with papery-wood, retired smoke, a bit of barnyard and hay. The carrot faded away to become a more simple wood-paper with a medicinal bitterness. The viscosity is on the thin side of moderate. Early brews were low in astringency, but that astringency gets stronger as the session goes on before beginning to fade later. There is a bit of occasional feeling in throat. The aftertaste game is quite nice, consisting of almond sweet yiwu huigans and a wineyness generated from the bitterness. At least one brew had a nice yun. Some cups had very complex sense of aftertastes. The qi was something like strong in the early going, but oddly seems to become less potent as the brews went on. I did about fourteen brews, I think, and I put the gaiwan in the fridge.

Definitely one of the teas really worth acquiring, but it's over $1k a cake.

 

[shah8]

Nothing too exciting this weekend...

I did some '09 XZH Diangu. Fairly hard to drink with lots of tartness and astringency, but very flavorful and complex. One thing I am consistently reminded of is how much less qi this sort of tea has with age compared to its youth, when most other teas are a bit more steady. Pretty decent qi, and much more subtle.

I also did some '06 Dayou 858 Museum. This has always had a bit of the good stuff sprinkled in, and today, I got a set of leaves with more of it than usual, so it was much nicer than usual. Lots of dry storage tartness early, though. More qi than usual, more honey and fruit to go with that milk and wood.

The only tea that I did any serious evaluation of which was the last four grams of Koreahao Kuzhushan '10. I was doing some comparison to the '07 XZH Shangpin.

Aroma has the base of Jinggu off darkness (little like burnt rubber), drifts from honey and florals around the darkness early to plumminess, grain, and a high sugar powderiness (without jinggu off darkness) before fading. The taste is much higher than the XZH, and of most other aged Kuzhushans. Also smaller and less rich. Jinggu off darkness is fairly high in register and barely counts as darkness over a base of honey. Early brews had some floralness, mid brews has a savory character vaguely like your Lancang nutty such you'd find from Bangwei or Mangjing, and late brews becomes watery with mostly just the high darkness left. The viscosity is generally moderately good, and starts off with low astringency, and gains astringency as I go deeper into the session. The aftertastes were nice, actually. Strong and consistent honey mouthcoats and yiwu huigans, so this tea does deliver a lot of sweetness. Mild qi. The durability is poor, it feels mostly done at seven brews, and I didn't really try and push it.

The XZH is much bigger and richer, so is the Chantai Old Chen's Teapot '04. Both are darker and deeper, with much more plumminess, and that dark richness covers the honey aftertastes that I know at least the XZH can have from the original sample. My current cake doesn't really show much honey aftertaste. Both also have much more quite pleasant aromatic woodiness than this Koreahao in aroma and taste. Essence of Tea's '18 Bamboo Spring is very much an equivalent tea to this Koreahao Kuzhushan. That's roughly about the quality grade.

 

[shah8]

Gonna work my way back to last weekend...

Anyways, yesterday was 2017 W2T Magic Mountain DNA. I had been thinking about it awhile because I consider it a Nannuo type tea, and the guy that runs the Dayou brand has been talking up Nannuo as being the original 'Banna source of Bingdao groves.

Anyways. The aroma tends to be pretty delicate, light, and usually herbal. The taste is very transparent, it's not watery, but you can't get a strong sense of taste through much of the session. At one point it does have a strong and deepish roasted grain taste that has a touch of bitter. The rest of the time, it's a savory herb-ish Menghai-mushroom-honey light taste. One of the real plusses for this tea is the strong mouthfeel--it's rather thick, and it is notably low in astringency for a young sheng. The aftertastes aren't that prominent, some sweet mouthcoats early, and yiwu huigans late in the session. The qi was actually stronger than I expected. During the first half of the session, by the end, I though the tea had run down in terms of qi, but when I restarted, I got a pretty strong qi, and I kept drinking this tea late at night for the very light taste, thick soup, and strong qi. Pretty decent, not a horrible value for the buck at $109/200g.

The second tea yesterday was the 2016 Origintea LCSX. This is definitely not as good as Space Cats or anything like that, and the yanyun is mild. However, it was a rich yancha in aroma and taste that is really well balanced. It was also rather more durable than I expected. I enjoyed it alot, and sort of thought hey, it's a better tea than MaMDNA, before I restarted that sheng. Certainly cannot match the qi.

The tea today was the XZH '09 Diang Huang, the pasha 250g tea I bought from Houde a long time ago. Excellent tea. Very rich herbal aroma, rich taste. It doesn't have as thick a soup as the W2T and it has much more astringency, but the mouthfeel is almost as good, from the aging of that astringency giving the soup some nice texture. It has much more aftertaste, and a bit less qi. I really wish I had bought more, since I don't think I can necessarily get this level of performance from tw stored cakes. However, it seems like most of the people who buy this off Facebook Auctions are very happy with this tea.

The second tea today was the XZH '09 Yinfeng Pekoe, the super tippy tea. I was much more cautious in brewing in that I didn't move off of flash brews until I was sure it was tiring, and I enjoyed this tea much more than I did the first time. Complex aroma and taste, and the early part of the session had lots of nice wineish aftertaste. the bright tartness and acidity was well controlled even if present. Mouthfeel was okay, a bit thinner than the Pasha, and a bit more of a texture. Qi is about moderate-strong, bit more towards the moderate side. Relatively durable, and quite dynamic. Early brews focus more on sweet flavors and a sort of butteryness. Late brew is more of a white tea-ish paper and hay with slight sweet notes.

The tea last weekend were W2T '16 OBSX...it's still a very not that appealing aroma/taste tea with a very strong fruity aftertaste. I also had another basic decent quality SX.

I did W2T 2018 Censors, which was nice, but the floral and fruitiness is a bit shoved back to the sides and late into the session, and a kind of butter-roasted pumpkinseed was front and center. It was really nice. The mouthfeel was more straight astringent, and didn't feel quite so much like beeswax in the mouth. Good aftertaste and qi. Really more of a long term aging tea, and on more of a puerh time scale than white teas, due to the strong astringency. I do think this is a unique white tea that is really worth buying.

last tea of last weekend was the 2008 Puzhen. Everything has really already been said about this tea. Only thing a bit different was that the aromatic performance wasn't that great, and that I didn't get the strong jolly-rancher watermelon flavor at the end of the session. I did get more of a caramel sweet flavor lingering through the main notes, interestingly. Big mouthfeel, big qi, last forever. One of the very best northern teas you can get without too much effort or expense.

 

[wbusby1]

Never been able to get myself accepted to the Tiawanese fbook auction groups despite many attempts and XZH's western-facing Instagram is currently asking 1,127USD/250g for '08 Puzhen

Today was '02 Tai Lian Expo. This tea varies more than most depending on what you break off. Today I was lucky. Strong smoke, much more than usual. Piney, meaty flavor with lots of mouth cooling and coating. BBQ ribs and chocolate/caramel. Good showing of bitterness and thickness. Cedar. Turns to a more leather&floral character before getting minerally and fading out. 16 steeps with great feels throughout. Last session I remember having considerably less qi, less depth, less smoke.

This one is from YS. I have a cake arriving any day from KTMall but the sheer variability I've seen out of this tea might make it hard to pass judgement quickly.

 

[shah8]

Some very quick notes on the last couple of weekends...

2019 YS Ba Wang shu. I found it pleasant but boring, and again, rather like a Dayi Dragon Pole, but the Dayi is probably better.

2013 Dayi Danqing. It's a lighter fermented shu that has a lot of subtle nuances without a bold shu depth. Also has a nice wood fringe. A bit of a nice soft mouthfeel. Some qi. Definitely a decent shu with some claim to being premium.

2016 W2T A&P Hongcha. Character is basically honeydew, cream soda, black tea malt, and a sort of dark bitter taste around that malt. Aroma tends to have a very nice honeydew emphasis. Some qi.

2016 Tea club Mengsong Hongcha, one of a pair, the other being a sheng 50g cake. Finishing off a gifted cake. I usually drink this western style, but wanted to know how it did gongfu. Truly excellent, and one of W2T's better puerh hongchas. Strong rosehip-tinged blueberries, with a bit of honey and florals. Thick and smooth soup. Strong qi. Extremely durable, and late brews were very berrylicious without much sour hongcha malt. Pronounced sweetness. If anyone has some that they're not drinking because they don't like black teas, I'll certainly take it off your hands.

2019 WTC WTCCCTV. I thought it was mostly pleasant as I finished off my sample. Has a nice pear sweetness, especially in aroma. Taste was kind of weird for me, early brews had what I felt was kind of a rice pudding nature. Later brews turned more honey, etc. Didn't get too much of the thickness of the soup this time. Some qi. I didn't push this too hard.

2008 XZH Blessings. Drank and enjoyed for the usual Bingdao-ish reasons. Definitely enjoyed the qi.

2018 W2T Lucky Puppy. I enjoyed this one. Pretty dynamic. Aroma starts off pretty menghai--mushroom, honey, slight fruitiness, became more floral for a few brews, and last bits of significant aroma were herbal. Taste can have a striking pineapple character, along with honey, mushroom, a bit of deep bitterness for a couple of brews, and some herbal notes. Late brews heads towards a flattish mushroom character in taste. Good viscosity, and notably smooth texture, with only mild drying astringency at points--a bit like MagicMountainDNA. Aftertaste is predominantly a strong mouthcoat. Some of it lingers a long time. There was some feeling in throat in a couple of brews and a very slight pungent huigan associated with it. Qi is pretty good, and can linger long after the swallow. Putting this in the fridge for weekday brewing.

2010 Essence of Tea Mansai. More or less a typical deepish Bulang experience, like what you'd get from Rongshanghao 2006 Bulang from Teapals, and probably like the two deep and bitter Bulangs from Teas We Like. Peak of the session is short, however, and only offers a bit of qi or aftertaste. Mouthfeel is pretty decent, however, reasonably thick.

 

[shah8]

I had a really awesome session with An Xiang shu last friday. Was quite nuanced and complex for a shu, also had aged 7572(some of them, at least) and Star of Menghai-type plumminess for a background.

Yesterday I did the 2010 Essence of Tea Bulang. There feels to be a bit of a processing issue, but it's the best of the Essence of Tea Bulangs I've had. The tea today is very close to how CYH LBZ '05/'07 are...a bit interstitial between Lao Man'e character and LBZ. Makes me wonder how well the 2010 EoT Banpen is doing. Anyways, the session was great.

Aroma usually had a bit of that classic Lao Man'e aromatic soil, some wood, can have a nice fruitiness in earlier brews and more tobacco late. The taste was generally pretty consistent aside from the first and late brews. It usually included a bitter-tcm depth, with a touch of the lao man'e asprin. There is also usually choco and fruitiness vaguely towards wine. A bit of wood. One brew had a nice coffee note. The viscosity moderate-good, with a relatively light astringency. Late brews have a very nice oily mouthfeel. A lot of cooling feel like a good lbz, rarely a decent feeling down throat. Aftertaste consistently features a strong yiwu huigan to caramel that is very nice. There is also a decent mouthcoat (that the bitterness generates) from time to time, and a bit of mouth aroma. The qi is moderate and is of high quality. Lasts well after the last sip. Durability is quite good. Must have done about 13-15 and isn't close to being done.

This was the only tea from EoT I got from 2010 that I'm fully happy with.

The tea today was the XZH '07 Yuanshilin. I didn't really take much notes as I just wanted to drink and it wasn't that impressive. Some nannuo carrot and wood in aroma and taste early. Then it moves to a more wood focused character. Viscosity is decent, fairly smooth mouthfeel. Almond sweetness yiwu huigan. Okay qi.

 

[shah8]

Not much time to write up these days...

Last weekend...

I had some XZH '08 Blessings, which was pretty good, as usual. Not too awesome, but nicely done as a casual brew.

I had some Essence of Tea Manmai (Bada Shan). Still pretty obviously the second or third best 2010 (after Bulang and maybe Banpen). High bitter-tcm, berry, a bit of barnyard and wood for taste. Had some complexity in the mouth, and pretty good qi.

I had the 2018 W2T Xigui hongcha. Basically tastes and smells like Ovaltine with a choco accent. Not very interesting.

I had the 2019 Auburn Black. I had this as being sort of like the Houde Hao Xian black tea, but this really isn't as good, gongfu-wise.

This weekend...

Yesterday was some 2002 Tai Lian. Has lost most or all of its floralness, and is more herbal these days. Lots of complexity in mouth. Lots of qi. I brewed this a pretty long way, the simple late brews were pretty enjoyable for me. I can't wait for most of my teas to hit 20 years old, even as I despair over how old I'll be, personally.

Today I had some '07 YQH Lingya. Its it's usual boring self, but it had a stronger bitterness and depth than it usually had, which gave the nuance flavors more of a contrast against it. A bit more satisfying than usually.

I took out the 2001 Si Rui no.16 liubao originally from TeaPals, first time in like four years. Very much enjoyed. It's fairly bitter, and that has to be managed. Taste is on the thinner side for lb, as it feels like it's a lb with little fementation, and only a time of strong warehousing to get any mellowness going. Fairly mineral, wood, a bit of that betel, a winey-ish plummy, and some almond sweetness in the taste. Complex and shimmering flavors in mouth. Viscosity is moderate, fairly smooth. This generates a lot of mouthcoat aftertaste, and something of a yun as well. Also gives out a lot of qi. Rather durable.

 

[shah8]

Hey, waited waaay too late to start this, but okay...

first I want to say that Friday before last, I did the YS '19 Lao Man'e shu and came away much more down on it. The strength of taste is still there and all of that, however, it's just not a particularly interesting shu, and one which will take anywheres between five and fifteen years for the bitterness to settle. And at the end, what you'll get is a better Star of Menghai. It's not nothing, but in the end, it's expensive for that prognosis.

Last Friday, I did the ole Dengshihai shu, which was excellent that morning.

I got a huge set of samples in Friday, so I did a couple of those as well as clear away old W2T coins I had gotten from previous purchases. A note about the coins, W2T sez 7g, but they are generally about 6.5g.

The first tea of the weekend was the '19 W2T Dangerfield. My impression is that this is a tea that has had a little bit of good stuff sprinkled in with shengtai material. I liked the tea and thought it had some promise for aging, and compared it mentally to Brother/Sister and YS '19 XY blend. Dangerfield coin was pressed with fairly broken material and clogged my pot once.

The aroma is usually floral, sort of sweet. Some brews have a soapish nature to the floralness. Menghai mushroom and fruit tones could also be present from time to time. The taste is consistently a base of menghai mushroom, some alkaline. Floralness and tobacco are notes that can show up. It's a pretty typical high note Menghai soup that you'd find among Mengsong teas. A bit of bitter here and there. The soup is pretty decent in viscosity with not much astringency in most brews. A brew or two did have strong astringency. Texture is nondescript. Not too much aftertaste, a bit of mouthcoat--and best were very early in session but shows up later in session, too. Qi is there, though obviously caffeine boosted, too. Say mild to moderate, decent quality. Durability isn't particularly great, but late brews do have a very nice milky mouthfeel.

The second tea of the weekend was this tuo: 801 08青沱250克-大益普洱茶行情专家 - https://www.donghetea.com/goods.php?id=1521 . It wasn't that much to write home about, particularly compare to the '05 Dayi grade a tuo I have. The flavor and mouthfeel were on the thin side, if pleasant.

Plummy, sweet-herbal barnyard, cologne florals, retired smoke in aroma. Mainly a sweet herbal, plummy base with wood/retired smoke rim and some barnyard giving a bit of depth for the taste. Mouthfeel is thinner and nondescript. Not much qi or aftertaste. Tea starts really dying after about four brews. Tons of better factory tea tuos out there.

The first tea today is Malaysian commission Liubao - https://teaswelike.com/product/malaysian-commission-liubao/ I thought it was a pretty good liubao. I don't think it's *that* shengy of a liubao, though--compared to the Si Rui I have, which is genuinely a lot closer to aged sheng than most liubao, this feels like it has had its pile days. Anyways, this is a very tasty liubao with great qi, but with the strong downside of being very low in dynamacism. I wonder if the leaf material came from a single garden or was super pure in some other way.

Wet leaf aroma has a very nice wood, chestnut and mineral note. Soup aroma has a tendency to fade very fast after the pour, but generally chestnut, betel, wood, and ginseng later in the session. Aside from the first, extra chestnutty brew, the taste is generally a sort of choco, ginseng, betel nut taste that is sweet and very agreeable. Can leave a bitter and lingering aftertaste in a few brews. Mouthfeel has a thinner viscosity but which is very stiff and substantial (in an aged tea way). Smooth. Not a lot of aftertaste, a bit of mouthcoat. Moderate qi of high quality. Relatively durable, but as said before, rather boring after awhile. Might be a tea you stretch over a week rather than one sitting.

Si Rui is better than this tea--worse in the sense of lower quality if great amount of qi, some degree of odd flavors, but better in the sense of much more depth and complexity, much more aftertaste, more dynamic.

Last tea of the weekend was the '19 W2T 2Late. Not going to get too deep with this...I hadn't drunk it before now because I had the original 2Late and that was a Mangjing, and I'm not a fan of Mangjing. This one is a bit reblended, though, and the strong nuttiness typical of Mangjing is muted. However, it doesn't have a huge amount of character--just a rather simple sweet honey nature. Viscosity is pretty good, though. Not much qi or aftertaste. Theasophie Mangjing and Kokko's Axis Mundi are better teas. The Theasophie is equal or more expensive, but the Axis Mundi was cheaper. 2Late was more expensive than Dangerfield, which I thought was interesting.

okay, see y'all next week, gotta get to bed!

 

[Ad Astra]

This thread continues to amaze me ... it's a trip to another world of appreciation.

My collection of shu has been aging, since the espresso machine got installed. And junky black tea is a quick fix.

Looking forward to the next real cup of tea.


AA

 

[shah8]

One thing I've learned from working from home is that home stored thermoses deliver different first and second pours than if they'd been in the car for a few minutes. First brew is a little thinner and more vague, and second brew even more rich. I've taken to inverting the thermos for a few minutes before serving myself.

The shu for Friday was the '06 Taipei Memorial shu, not very deep, and sort of thin early with papery woodiness, gets better and has good sweet aftertaste.

The first tea of the day is the 2018 Year of the Dog from White2Tea. Funny enough, there doesn't really seem to be much in the way of reviews for this tea. Broadly speaking, I quickly sorted this tea into my "Bingdao area" folder. I think it was pretty good, but the price is very stiff, and I think one is better off paying more for Lucky Puppy or The Box among white2tea stuff. It's not decisively better than We Go High, either.

This tea's aroma had a consistent sort of unusual wild musky element early on that smelled a bit like some insects like roaches or ants, but in a nice way. There was also a bit of honey, wood within a rich floralness. In later brew the odd element in the aroma changes towards a bit like raw wool, and there is sometimes fruit there. The consistent nature of the taste is to have some coffee notes and cream notes. Early session is a bit complex with floral notes and subtle fruit notes, and later session is a broad coffeishcream taste with maybe some wood. Throughout there is a bitter character, that at times bites the tongueroots with a bit of tartness. The viscosity is thick and is smooth when hot, but as it cools, it becomes more notably astringent, and some later brews are weirdly astringent when cool. This tea has a pronounced tendency to coat mouth in cooling like lotion has been applied inside the mouth. In the earlier sessions, the astringency tends to produce sensate sweetness. There are also some fruity or floral mouthcoats. One brew had a very aromatic floral yun aftertaste, and a midsession brew had a bit of yiwu huigan to caramel. It doesn't really produce much aftertaste after about six-eight brews, however, the taste does stay in the mouth a long time after the session. The qi is subtle and is at about moderate-strong level. It does last long after the last sip of the cup, though. Active phase is over quick but the tea does brew pretty indefinitely with a basic taste and some thickness. I probably did about fifteen brews.

I thought there were some pretty close similarities to the YS '16 Bingdao. This tea is bigger than the YS, but not as overtly complex. There is a common chicory/coffee and cream combo in taste with lurking fruitiness. Year of the Dog is different from other bingdaoish teas in that it doesn't have a lot of conversion to sweetness in terms of yiwu huigans to rock sugar or caramel or such.

Again, I like, but I wouldn't pay $195 for it, largely because I already have plenty of good mengku-ish teas. I definitely think people would benefit from a sample for a few nice sessions and a good time.

The second tea of the day is this: 2019 Spring Da Hei Shan 500 Yrs Old Gushu Green Puerh Loose 1 oz - https://teahabitat.com/collections/pu-erh-tea14/products/2019-spring-da-hei-shan-500-yrs-old-gushu-green-puerh-loose-1-oz . As probably can be expected from a dancong queen, but still sort of unexpected, this is essentially oolongpu. It's actually a very nice oolongpu, but I wouldn't pay anything like the sort of price Imen asks for it.

This tea starts off with a strong proteiny smell like some high mountain gaoshan, and transitions to a light floral aroma, before the aroma dies out as a factor in the tea by fourth or so brew. The taste is shengy umami at first, that is rather sweet before converting to a taste consistently dominated by magnolia floralness like some jasmine, magnolia type dancongs. The viscosity is moderately thick and generally pretty smooth. Unlike what the blurb claims, one does need to take care not to over brew the tea too much, because it will have some of that overbrewed green tea bite in terms of bitterness and astringency. Not too badly though. Not too much in the way of aftertaste, a bit of light mouthcoat. Mild to moderate qi. This is also a bit of an indefinite brewer, but it's a rather boring tea in consistency, but it's a very nicely floral boring tea.

This is certainly not something you'd store, even if it weren't loose maocha, and the price at about six dollars a gram is sort of a ripoff, given the sort of proper dancong you can buy at her shop for the same money, or the wuyi yancha you could buy for that sort of price. Now, if you had oodles of money and don't give a bleep, then it's a nice tea to have.

 

[shah8]

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but this tea 2006 Rong Chang Hao Bulang Shan Yesheng Gushu - https://teapals.com/products/2006-rong-chang-hao-bulang-shan-yesheng-gushu did really really in the huashan tea mountain blind tea rankings : 茶藝第七十一期:華山論茶二○○六年茗普大會第五回 - http://puerh-teapot.com/tea-forum/article/710-huasan-71.html . I just thought it might be something people might find interesting. However, for me, I have better deep, albeit younger, deep Bulangs.

Okay, the first tea today was the Macao Hualian Menghai Wild from '05. I didn't like this tea very much. It's drinkable, but it tastes weird--substantial wintergreen flavor (along with plumminess and wood), in a way that reminds me of all those samples of aged teas with nasty "camphor". There is moderate thickness with light astringency, but little aftertaste or qi. It's also has rather little dynamcism, so it's boring as well as triggering safety alarms.

The second tea of the day is much better, the White2Tea 2018 Chirping Bird. A very honey focused brew that I pigeon-holed as a Jingmai sort of tea (and quite a sight better than 2Late). While I prefer the more expensive White2Tea shengs to this, including Year of the Dog, at $158, Chirping Bird is likely to be among the best value among the expensive teas.

The aroma is varying proportions of honey, florals, and fruit with some nuances like leather or wood providing depth underneath. The taste in the earlier brews is mostly honey, a strong spreading/lingering bitterness, subtle fruit, subtle leather, and some darker vegetalness underneath. In the later brews, it simplifies to a more cream focused taste with a milder bitterness, a bit of honey, and more of a floral-wood note. Viscosity is reasonably thick with a bit of astringency, no notable texture. Aftertastes are a pretty tag time affair, with some aspects more pronounced in some cups than other aspects. In general there is the possibility of floral mouth aroma, possibility of yiwu huigan to caramel-ish flavors. The bitterness generally will contribute towards a nice mouthcoat, until later in the session when it's just a bitterness. Did have a yun or two. Qi is moderate to strongish, didn't really feel that strong in late session but that may well be me getting used to it, like with that Magic Mountain DNA session, and later it'll feel strong again. The durability is pretty good, but the active phase is pretty short, five or six brews.

Both Year of the Dog and Chirping Bird were brewed with 8.8g, which is higher strength than usual.

 

[shah8]

Three teas this weekend, two disappointing and one is great.

The first tea of the weekend was the 2019 XZH "Secret Forest". This wasn't really disappointing so much as not super duper interesting. While, say, it *could* be from some idyllic unknown grove in the far east, the character of the tea reminds me most of western Yiwu teas like Manxiu and Gaoshan. The '19 XZH Yellow Mark Grade A, the Mangzhi, is also a bit like this.

Through the active phase the aroma tends to have a bit of floral that can be nice, and peaks at a distinct magnolia character. There is also sugarcane syrup/brown sugar, and maybe a bit of creamy barnyard. In later brews, the aroma moves more towards a chicory character. The taste tends to be a deeper brown sugar and chicory-ish nature with some subtle fruitiness and nuttiness. Tends to have a sweet feel to it. There can be a tart bite, too. Viscosity starts off moderate and ramps up a bit to decent before gradually fading as the session goes on. The aftertaste is only really prominent in earlier brews, with a fruity mouthcoat being most consistent. There are occasional floral mouth aroma and yuns as well. There is some qi, but it's not too notable. I did not press this tea very much at all, as the active phase was short and it rapidly turned into a relatively boring tea.

The second tea of the weekend was the 2019 Tianmenshan loose, sourced by a Taiwanese maven. This was a real disappointment as in that it's pretty clearly tweaked and made with too potent material in the first place.

There is a deep umami character in aroma and taste that reminds me of that Gedeng halibut element, and also of the '09 XZH and '09 Auspicious GFZs that also had a sort of deep proteiny nature in aroma and taste. There is usually a floral fringe in aroma and taste as well. Some brown sugar. Basically, the tea is very flat, and I think there has been a lot of preoxidation with a heavy hand in the shaqing process. The viscosity is decent. There is usually a strong mouthcoat aftertaste. Only a little bit of qi, but it is of high quality like the better TMSs from XZH.

The last tea of the weekend was some GFZ maocha from 2007 sold by Sanhetang. Aged maocha usually aren't going to be a huge winner, and this does have its issue with being a bit thin in taste and aroma. However, it was also a pretty good reminder of why we go for that gushu stuff.

The aroma was usually sort of wood/root herbal and plummy. There can be barnyard or wine aspects. The taste is a very mellow, a bit thin, plumminess and wood, woody/root herbal. Very little complexity, which suggests a fairly pure maocha from a pretty specific area. Viscosity was enough early and built up to decent. There wasn't that much astringency early, but it became more prominent midsession. That astringency was very productive, though. Aftertaste was mainly a very complex mouthcoat that is consistently minty, but also had many sweet notes, and can also be a bit winey. Cooling feeling happens in mouth too. There were some yuns and some slight pungent huigans. The qi was moderate to strong and had some of that good naturedness from it being aged. I did not push this tea hard at all, just six brews, looks like. I stopped and saved when the tea felt like it was beginning to fade. I think I might have been just hot, too.

 

[shah8]

I had a nice session of 2009 XZH Blessings Shu (mengsong) on Friday...

Thermoswise, '08 Puzhen and '09 Yinzhen Pekoe are rather similar in taste. The Puzhen is fuller in taste, much better mouthfeel, more qi, more aftertaste. But then you'd expect that. They do have a red, plummy-rosehip-rooiboss main taste in common, though. Since XZH describes both as being from Yangta mountain in Jinggu, I am supposing that Puzhen has Yangta Jinggu for the bulk with some special stuff, either elite Yangta or elite Mengku in it, more of it in the '07, of course.

Today's main tea was the '17 XZH Lanyin ChaWangBing ( 商品详情 - https://weidian.com/item.html?itemID=2203049669&spider_token=01eb ). I thoroughly approve of this tea. This is classified to me as one of those Wangong wild honey teas, like Last Thoughts, CYH '15 Chawang, '14 XZH Hongyin, etc. It's slightly tweaked, and I think by accident from moving leaves from remote areas. One thing I want to emphasize for some people is that this tea is very little bitterness with low amounts of astringency--it's a very mellow tea that still manages to have substance.

The aroma and taste in the first couple of brews are more like a classical yiwu's profile of honey-floral-leather. More broadly the aroma usually has a wild honey depth with a sort of broad, almost powdery floralness over it-not very distinct floralness. The taste has the base sense of wild honey with hints of fruits, chicory, brown sugar. In later brews, the wild honey draws more of a root herb tone. The active phase is over pretty quickly, thinning to a more consistent, thinner flavor that is drunk fast. Aggressive brewing in the late session does bring more of a fuller taste. The mouthfeel is very nice, moderate to a bit good thickness and very smooth, a little soft. After the initial brews, the astringency does grow a little bit, but it is quite productive in terms of aftertaste. There is decent feeling at top of the throat, a bit of nice cooling. Aftertaste game is fairly full featured--a bit of yiwu huigan to sugar, some floral mouth aroma (which can be very fast and appear with the main flavor), and a nicely aggressive/lengthy floral yun at the top of throat. The aftertastes are gone after about seven or eight brews, tho'. The qi is mild in the beginning, rises up to about moderate-strong, and fades from there. Later brews after a rest didn't bring back the stronger qi. The durability is okay, active phase is about seven brews and flattens/thins out from there, but does keep going, at least through about 13-15 brews.

The second tea of the day was 4g session of '06 YQH Qixiang. Good-great aroma performance, strong, sweet, easy to enjoy. Small taste, and taste is strongly reminscent of younger gedengs, like the '10 fall YS Xikong I have or the '16 XZH Return of the King. Some of that halibut sense, some honey, some of that Pez candy fruitiness, some wood. Not as plummy as last time I tried it. Can get bright from the tippiness, but never quite gets tart. Decent mouthfeel, very strong mouthcoat and yuns. Some yiwu huigan. Moderate to strong qi. It was a relatively enjoyable session. I really like my personal dry storage at this point and feel that the storage permitted this originally lower quality material to have a more even comparison with something like the morning Lanyin.

 

[shah8]

Okay, did a bunch more teas for Sunday and today...

First tea yesterday was the 2013 XZH Trigemenial Qing (Manzhuan State Forest). This is the same sort of area that the 2014 XZH Hongyin Grade B is mostly from, but where the Grade B is richer, darker/choco, a bit more layered with flavors, the 2013 TQ is a much more standard Manzhuan tea, a bit like, say, the 2010 XZH Manlin (leaves from 2009). It's definitely a candidate for a wei zui yan style cake, very thick, deep, and firm flavor. While I was bored a bit by it's lack of dynamacism, it's a very worthwhile tea. One should note though, that Trigemenial Qing XZH's are now among their most expensive teas for the years they offer one. A few teas are better value (if you don't specifically love Manzhuan nature).

It's pretty quick to describe the session I think. Early brews are barnyard and plumminess in aroma, while later light aromas are more floral and mineral. There can be a bit of foetid character in the barnyard. The taste has the young Manzhuan cupcake nature in the very early and late part of the session. While the tea is going strong, the taste is a deep barnyard core with subtle plumminess and spice-wood. The cool end of cups tends to have a nice herbal woodiness. It has a rod of bitterness that has a bit of choco attached. The choco-bitter goes past how long the barnyard lasts in the session. The viscosity is moderate to good with a bit of astringency. The aftertastes generally includes a nice mouthcoat from the bitterness that can be nicely wine-like. There are some floral mouth aromas, and one cup had a nice shallow pungent huigan. Aftertaste game doesn't really last longer than maybe five or six brews or so. The qi is strong and enjoyable-think it lingers past the cup a bit. I'd say it's pretty durable, I must have taken it more than fifteen brews.

The second tea of Sunday was the 2012 XZH Fenghua, the companion tea to the Bohetang-y Chawangbing. I unfortunately didn't have super-duper high expectations of this tea, and should have done this tea as the first one today instead of the second one yesterday. It was a really nice sort of GFZ experience. Like with the Manzhuan, it has a strong, thick taste, and the aftertaste game quits sort of early. The main taste is more durable than the Trigemenial Qing, though. It did remind me of the 2007 XZH GFZ maocha, and the various darker tasting GFZ over the years. Thing is, it's also clear that the older GFZ from 2004-2009 has a lot more inherent potency as revealed by a patently more durable aftertaste game. I'd consider the 2012 XZH Chawangbing to be easily the better tea, but if you like stronger and darker flavors, you'd probably prefer the Fenghua (or, um, say the 2007 YQH Wushang Miopin, just sayin')

The aroma consistently is a barnyard plumminess. It often is also floral, and can be seriously lovely in a way that's hard to imagine as no flower is so dark like that. Some cups have a root-herbal, wild honey aspect. In later brews a umami similar to baked halibut shows up in the aroma. The taste has barnyard, plumminess, root herbal, some wood notes. It can also have a similarly lovely almost fleshy floral layer to it. When pressed, there is a bitterness that also has a choco edge to it. Moderately-thick to thick soup with a bit of astringency to it. Feeling can go down throat, and there can be an interesting feeling of cooling in the mouth. While it's going, there are a variety of interesting aftertastes. It can have a very fast floral mouth aroma that can feel like it's part of the main taste. There is a consistent mouthcoat while aftertastes are going on in the session, and it can be a bit explicitly minty. A couple of brews had good floral yun, and one brew had a very nice long, shallow pungent huigan. The qi is also strong and good, a bit better than the TQ. The durability of the aroma and taste are rather good, and feels like it'd go a long way.

I feel like with the caveat that this tea is a bit underpowered, especially in terms of aftertaste durability (might could use more productive astringency) compared to previous outstanding GFZ, I can't help but recommend this tea, even at its price point. It's a nicely blended GFZ area tea that stays together/present well, and there isn't a question that it will be an excellent deep aged tea with a decade or two of aging.

The first tea today was a disappointment. I knew it wasn't as good just from looking at the steep discount--it's basically two thirds the price of its illustrious predecessor, the 2014 XZH Hongyin. However, this is still nominally a thousand dollar tea, and only about a hundred bucks less than the 2012 Fenghua, MSRP-wise. The 2015 Hongyin felt more like a nice Mengku tea than an elite Mansa. It does have its nice points, but compared to teas I just had and compared to memories of what a Hongyin is like, it falls pretty short. I feel like it's quite safe to say that people are better off buying the 2017 XZH Lanyin in terms of money for the value.

Alright here we go... The aroma tends to be honey and savory florals, but this doesn't tend to be as strong as I'd like it to be, and can be pretty muddled. Later brews have a bit of mineral in the aroma. The taste, unusually to my expectations, is most consistently chicory. Early brews have a bit of wild honey, but the session moves more towards a thinner chicory dominated taste with some barnyard, cream, floralness. It also has a sharp fertilizer-green bitter-tartness. The mouthfeel generally is excellent, very thick with a runny-honey texture. Thing is, I'm coming into this expecting a Mansa profile, and this is really closer to some very nice Mengku's I've had. Back to the tea, the mouthcoat aftertaste is generally pretty dynamic and spreads in the mouth in an interesting way. An early brew had a nice yun. The qi is pretty strong, but it does seem to fade, and a later brew after a long rest didn't really bring it back. The durability, I'm not sure about, using my usual method, the taste and aroma fades while the mouthfeel keeps going strong with some qi, but I overbrewed a late brew, and it was sort of harsh, so there was obviously still substance to be had with more careful brewing.

So I went on and had a second tea today, the last of a tinned 2009 XZH Chen Diangu. Rather simple in taste and aroma (as one might imagine from all the broken bits), but it was a quite delightful mango-my aroma and taste, with a sharp bitterness. One brew was very pleasantly sweet. Viscosity was moderate, sort of soft-salty feeling, not much astringency. Not much aftertastes. Qi isn't that strong, but one felt the benefits of an older and more mature qi. I didn't get too much harsh feeling on my stomach with this session, so I enjoyed it fully as a fairly elite tea.