SOTD- sheng of the day

[ninepaths]

I'm not entirely sure what the issue is. It could be humidity, but it could be some other aspect of storage, and since these xzh teas don't come from one storage place, it's difficult to pin down the issue.

Do you think it could just be humidity dampening out the top notes?

I recently obtained a white wrapper from a group but to accompany my black wrapper. While I've only had one session with it as yet, it was a great one. That being said, I've never tried the tea before so don't have a frame of reference to compare.

Yiwu, I believe. Thousand-year-old tree leaves, we'll see. I'll look for the camphor!

Hi AA, welcome to the rabbit hole.
Rule #1 of puerh: the wrapper is a lie.
It's possible the leaves are from Yiwu. The odds of the team coming from a thousand year old tree are next to none though. Of course, that's not to say the tea will or won't be good - try it and let us know your thoughts!

 

[Ad Astra]

@ninepaths, many thanks! For all my reading, I didn't know Rule #1. Yet the harder a thing is to learn, the more interesting and rewarding it will be.

A shu will be next, of course. I have some, but not in a bing.


AA

 

[shah8]

Yesterday's tea was a half-grammage session of the Hongyin, to sort of verify what I thought of it.

There isn't really a change in perspective. The major difference is that the head-focused qi is much less, while body qi is about the same. I was also a more aggressive brewer this round, and while I didn't really get more bitterness, I did get more deep throat huigans.

This tea is effectively a wider blend (which may be a problem for the sort of people who didn't like a muddy '04 YQH Dingji) with manzhuang (walong) and wangong (bohetang area), so it's more of a tea like, say, a bulang-jinggu blend than quite *yiwu*. I was prepared for a manzhuang experience and got it in the sense of that solid sweet taste and that particular manzhuang soup texture that's sort of syrupy. So no more Yibang-y or otherwise lobular feel this time. My notes haven't been destroyed, this time, so let's take a look...

The aroma is generally very deep, complex and dynamic. It tended to have a fir tree-floral character, nuanced fruit notes, caramel tones, and some fleshy floral notes. It noticeably changed a lot as the soup cools. There was about eight brews with a real aromatic presence. At the end of that run, there was a nice new leather character. Past the eighth brew, the aroma was generally too light and subtle to say very much, though some brews definitely had some stronger caramel type aromas. The taste is notably different from other elite Yiwu teas in that it has such a strong core/bottom. While the XZH 2012 Yiwu Chawangbing (the wangong) had only a hint of the deeper herbal-grain taste found in some GFZ, and was a collection of beautiful and subtle floral notes and evaporative cooling feeling, the XZH '14 Hongyin is firmly based in a very sweet sort-of-manzhuan sweetness. It's not quite cake like white2tea Poundcake, '10 XZH Manlin, or EoT '16 Manlin, but it's close. Fir-florals (say, something close to the more conifer-incense Bingdao mode, like the XZH '08 Blessings), many subtle fruit tones, and caramel tones. One brew also had a nice dark tone similar to chocolate/chicory. Not much in the way of feminine or fleshy florals in the the top taste. As the brew goes on into the very late brews, the top taste is intensely sweet in flavor and sensation, before eventually turning into subtle mineral water, like Theasophie Yanyun. There was a little bit of sourness in the early brews, mostly just a bit of pleasant heavy sourness that give weight. Viscosity was very good to excellent from the start, and is thicker than the '12 XZH, and about the same as the '13 XZH, but with a different, syrupy, and smoother character (The '13 was more of a high surface tension mucilaginous feeling, with a certain astringency that produced fruit). This did not have the evaporative feeling that the '12 XZH generates, but more of a lasting, gripping cooling feeling on the tongue, especially in later brews. As with my first session, extremely powerful feelings down the throat, with an occasion *ping* when it hits the tummy. As I mentioned, more of a tendency for flavor to come back up the throat with a little bit of floral character. The strong aftertaste character is the strong mouthcoat, particularly on the tongue. Some floral mouth aroma, so my mouth tended to have a lot of different floral notes of all kinds going on after the swallow. The qi was generally in the strong to very strong level, and not quite headspinning/bodyplanting like my first session. I think this is maybe because I only used half the amount, even though that usually doesn't change qi levels. The qi also lasts for a long while, wellbeing going on after the cup has been drunk. Durability is incredible. *Active brews* lasted until about brew fifteen, and you can easily take this past twenty. Not very many young teas can do that, and in my memory, only the EoT 2011 Mannuo could do it, when it was fresh, though, and not at three years old.

The leaves seem to look okay, very dark, with a few oxidized patches. Considering today's market, this is totally worth the $1200, and I think I got off lucky. This price is basically the Sanhetang Feb 2015 price. Sanhetang generally wants $1550, and what's more, the wangong leaves in this cake has likely dramatically increased in price. In 2014 spring, it was about RMB3000-4500 per kilo. Good Bohetang area Wangong today is about RMB12500 per kilo. In general, so far, I like the XZH modern Yiwus (after 2010) very much, more than, say the YQH 888, though I could change my mind, as the 888 sounds a touch tempermental.

Today I had the '06 YQH Qixiang. Not very exciting. A bit of early acidity in the first three brews, mostly stuck to woodiness, light mushroom, and earth in aroma and taste (not too dense/solid in taste). There was a consistent deep underlying sweetness though. Viscosity was rather good, with a smooth texture. Little to no aftertaste this round, and qi was also very mellow. I remember when this tea used to smack me around (focused on the head), and now it's all old and quieter, but of pretty good quality. Haven't got to the backend of this session so I have a few more good cups.

I also had the EoT '10 Bangwei, to verify my original opinion. Second, more proper session, was a bit better. The real issue is that early brews has an unpleasantly strong citric-astringency-bitterness that attacks the tongue-roots. It does eventually go away. Consistently aromatic, and taste is generally of a gentle nuttiness, with light vegetal character, and strong (even if it's not outright) fruit notes. Very occasional aromatic wood. Viscosity is good, and with a milky texture typical of the broader Mengku (some Jinggu) sensibility. So especially after the citric goes away, it was nice for the mouthfeel. Not too much excitement in terms of aftertaste, but a decent mild-moderate performance in terms of mellowing qi. So this session is a good example why I thought the bangwei was the one I should get two of. Broke up a bit of one bing today and tinned it for potentially more regular drinking, tho' I don't know how I'll have time to do so.

 

[shah8]

Ninepath, frankly, I don't really understand what's going on. Guangdong dry stored tea, like the 2009 XZH GFZ, has their aromas and high note still there. And who knows how long that was in GD compared to TW. And I consider Yang's tea to be fine, with a normal erosion of high notes and aroma in the presence of high heat and humidity. Does have a storage character. That does tend to dissipate some in new homes, though.

 

[cherrybomb7]

2007 Yexiangwang Naka

Hmm this one is pretty good, but maybe not worth the price tag and definitely not everyone's thing. I was drawn in for the two sources of the tea, naka and bulang.
It tastes like factory tea. It is smoky, meaty, barbecuey. It dries out your mouth and their is sourness at its edges. It is thick and jammy, but middle steeps can be so sour/astringent that this doesn't matter. It has pretty generic tasting notes, sweet, honey, wildflowers, leather, kinda that black tea vibe. None of these exactly excel. Its qi is there if you let it be, and sometimes if I am busy and steeping this in the back and/or if my head isn't in the right place you probably won't feel it too much. If you do its sortve lackadaisical. I like it. One highlight actually is that its pretty oily. So for texture and qi, this tea is above the mark. What will it do in 5 years?

 

[Ad Astra]

Sipping my first cup of sheng from China, the Yiwu mentioned above.

"I know that I do not know," so cannot meaningfully review. Will say there are notes I've never tasted or smelled. Perhaps even camphor, though with my luck, some unscrupulous person sprayed it.

You smell it. It has mouth feel and tounge feel, separately.

There was no clear description of rinsing the leaves, so I poured boiling water over, and used two cups and my strainer, then infused. First infusion was 20 seconds, a little too long. Used to other teas!

Interesting. Reminds me of other first times ...


AA

 

[cherrybomb7]

Essence of Tea Wuliang H

This tea is great, and it steeped amazingly in my finnicky young puerh yixing. Its really sweet. Smells like brown sugar. First steep is citrus, no sour, brown sugar, florals on a delayed huigan. Its kinda juicy, calming qi and a medium viscousness, not super thick. It performs above its price, it would make sense at 80 to 100 dollars, I think. Later, it is slightly funky, a little stoney, revealing its north of Xishuangbanna origins.
Its not super strong, and plays an interesting counterpart to something like Heart of The City. Florals and stoniness are similarities, although both play differently between the two. Heart of The City is strong and bursts of tropicality. It is nice to own both, Wuliang H being the comfortable relax drink and HotC being a slap to the face (a punch might be the first New Amerykah or Essence of Tea Bulangs).

 

[shah8]

During the week, I've been putting a couple of grams in a thermos and drinking at work, thereby cooking the tea for a couple of hours. Anyways, I did that for the 2002 International version Tai Lian, and it reminded me of the fact that it's probably the best northern tea available at YS. Very strong and very sweet fruit/floral finishes.

Yesterday, I had the '07 XZH LongFeng. Early brews were sour, mostly had a wood and honey taste, with some fruit notes late. Very thick, with a sort of cooling (not really, but... the bohetangy stuff is what comes closest, and I refuse to call it minty) that hits various parts of the mouth and gives a multidimensional aspect to the way the soup feels in the mouth. Goes down the throat well, has good qi, and I kept it going a while.

Today, I finished off the Theasophie 2016 Shanpin. This is a tea very close to the genre that the 2016 white2tea Last Thoughts and CYH 2015 Yiwu Chawang fits in. I *think* Last Thoughts is somewhat better in that it has more depth and more qi. Shanpin is about equal to the CYH. As with the Yidu, I found it enjoyably meh. This is a good tea that will reward some attention, but there isn't anything noteworthy in it, going by my jaded senses. I also think it's a bit expensive for the price.

 

[shah8]

Starting off the first of five blind samples today.

The leaves are loose, and they don't seem to be pried out of a cake. Generally dark green, narrow twists, and no dry leaf aroma. Aroma tends to have two stages. It will have a rising aroma when soup is fresh from the pour and is hot, and will typically have a low fruit-sweet floral aroma when it cools a bit. In the earliest brews the rising aroma was sweet nutmeat, which transitions to alkaline character, like what you see in Naka and some other teas, and lastly as sort of intense orchid/dry floral note sort of close to how incense mode of Bingdao is floral. There are intermediate alkaline-nutmeat and alkaline florals. Soup aroma stops being significant after the seventh brew. The wet leaves consistently had a mince pie aroma. The taste shifts around a lot in the earlier brews. I found seaweed in the first couple of brews, some honey notes, and as the tea sessioned moved on, more caramel and sort of brown sugar notes are found with a degree of heavy orchid floral top note. The taste in cups was fairly complex, and the session dynamic until about the seventh brew. Then it becomes a rather consistent brown sugar and florals top taste with a bit of bitterness. Viscosity is good enough, with a notable soft and tender feel, a little like the '09 XZH GFZ or some Bingdao area teas, but it's thinner than those. Very little astringency, and much of what there is, is productive. There is a bit of cooling and a couple of times it goes down the throat. The aftertastes are dominated by a pretty good mouthcoat that mainly grips the front of the tongue, and also feels "sourced" from a yun at the top of the throat. Does manage pungent huigans out of the throat at around the 4-6 brew stage. The qi is decent enough, and generally body focused, but not too apparent. Active phase isn't very durable, around seven brews, tho' I think it does indefinitely brew teas with good viscosity and a bit of taste/bitterness. The wet leaves are pretty brown for sheng, tends to be small and on long stalks. Some leaves are obviously plucked by itself, while others are tip and two leaves.

I was originally talking to the source about Mansong, so had this in the back of the mind. It does feel like this is either a yibang or a wangong, and given the nature of the late brews, I'd lean towards wangong. I also considered Naka or Bingdao. I find that there are lots of points of similarities between this and the Bitterleaf teas fall Bohetang, but this is much nicer. I was also thinking that it's nicer than the likes of the Theasophie Yidu, for example, because the taste is bigger and more complex, dynamic, and interesting. However, the Yidu is far more durably engaging. I liked the tea alot when it was good, though it could have been better in terms of qi.

 

[shah8]

Two more blind samples today

The first is a pretty simple description: The dry leaves were pretty green and the wet leaves was a little too close to neon. Dry leaves had a sheng aroma with a touch of floral, while soup aroma isn't very much, and when it is, relatively sheng honey. The taste is pretty sheng-y, with a strong vegetal-honey tone to it, and with echoes of tobacco and floralness. I was inclined to think it was a lincang tea as a result. The viscosity is generally decent to good, but while it enters smoothly, it tends to have a slightly unpleasant scratchy astringency in the throat. In terms of aftertastes, early brews has a slight fruit finish, and the fourth brew had a pretty decent and lasting yun at the top of the throat. No apparent qi. I stopped drinking at about nine brews out of boredom.

I got an answer as to what the tea yesterday and the first tea today was. Yesterday was the Crimson Lotus 2008 Jingmai, and the description just above is for the Hojo tea Ma-an shan. The Crimson Lotus tea isn't a terrible value at $130/200g, but that is relatively expensive for what you get. I suppose it's pretty good for a 2008 tea, but white2tea has a number of clearly better, but much younger teas at around that price. Not surprised to find out it's Jingmai, though, but it has some of the more real jingmai reasons to love, with plenty of orchid, and not much of that savory nut character of so much stuff sold as Jingmai. From the description of Crimson Lotus, the idea it was pretty blended with the area's tea seems obvious--it was more complex than focused. I didn't get the sourness or tartness that others have found, but I did find the classic constant bitterness that one finds in some aging Jingmai. The Ma-an shan from Hojo is basically too exensive for what you get at $98/200g, with lots of cheaper and better options among the likes of EoT, W2T, the like for northern sensibility.

The second tea today is very obviously a Yiwu to me, with some age to it. The dry leaves when heated, gave off a basement minerality. Soup aroma is pretty consistently plummy first half, and moves to a more leather (with a bit of honey) sensibility late. The taste follows the aroma, but it's not quite...a strong taste, not super mouth-filling and obvious. Soup is pretty transparent yellow with orange-pink tones for something I think to have age, though. The viscosity is good, and the texture is smooth, plump, and a little soft. The aftertaste tends to be a sweet and tangy sensibility that clings to the mouth and throat, and leaves a lingering flavor that's sort of fruity. Feeling does go down the throat a bit in some cups. Qi is good and relaxing. Very much a classic plummy, honey, leather sort of Yiwu tea in my imagination, but there isn't any surprises, and it's a lit

 

[shah8]

I probably meant to say that It's a little boring at the end there. The third blind sample turns out to be the CYH Mansong reviewed elsewheres. While I have had conversation to the effect that Mansong is a mid-large leaf Yibang, and that many Yibangs are fairly Yiwu-like this experience was a little empathetic. Tho' it should be noted that it tasted like a ten years old plummy Yiwu, sorta, and not like what fresh Yiwu is like. Without the funk and aged feel, and that clear soup was probably a pretty obvious tell, but I thought it was just a weird thing. In no way, shape, or form is it really deserving of $1k for a pound of this tea. It does have a pure taste with clear themes, with good qi, good thickness/texture and a bit of good aftertaste. However, the YQH Tianshan Yizhen is a much better purely itself tea than this Mansong. If this Mansong is representative, say in the way that the CYH Bingdao could be described as representative, then I'm pretty inclined to think that top end Wangong teas are superior to Mansong. Interesting enough, tho' this is talked up a bit in the catalog, the Theasophie Yidu isn't very much like this Mansong, being more of a floral Yibang.

The first tea today was a pretty simple one. Northern tea with a strong floral element and has spice and a savory sort of bitter flavor. It gets pretty boring very quickly, and I guessed it to be some sort of Jingmai. It's actually a Lincang sold by a Swedish shop with the proprietor talkin of a man-lai shan: Man Lai Shan Gu Shu 2010 - In the Mood for Tea . It's not a horrible deal, but it's only good treated as a green tea, really.

The last sample is something much darker than the others, and I was told ahead of time that this was originally from Kingston of Orchid Tea House. The leaves are both very large and very dark. I ended up feeling bad about treating the tea this way, because it's superficially boring. It's obviously an aged maocha of the sort that has been sold before--Houde/pu-erh.sk with their '90s Yiwu, EoT selling that 70s maocha, etc, etc...a classic way to get aged tea cheap(er). Anyways, the early black-eye-peas note reveals that this thing has been warehoused long ago. Relatively dark and shu-like, but with a lot more depth, and it has a lot of small notes. In comparison with most other maocha, the leaves are very large and whole, so the tea obviously has some 8582 character to it, like a degree of real camphor (both taste and cooling), some TCM. I also entertained the unlikely notion that it could be a liu bao. Sometimes that almost fruity betel nut character doesn't always come through. The tea is very smooth, round, and soft in that aged way. It's not too thick, but it's certainly enough. Some degree of licorice-like sweetness, various mouthcoats are the aftertastes it contributes. The qi is of high quality in that aged tea way. Early brews are pretty warming. And later brews enhance my enjoyment of jazz, as good puerh tends to do. After about fourteen brews, I put it in the fridge for later.

 

[Ad Astra]

Enjoying the read, with the appreciation of a child listening to Shakespeare.

Spent some time yesterday sipping a shou puerh and reading Heiss' Story of Tea.

The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide: Mary Lou Heiss, Robert J. Heiss: 9781580087452: Amazon.com: Books


AA

 

[cherrybomb7]

2011 Manhai from Essence.

So this is nice/decent youle material? essence says menghai, babelcarp says youle, either way if its youle its close to both.
I have had some of this tinned at my home for 2 or 3 years and it spent its life in London at Essence before that, before they headed to humid Malaysia. It brews up a darker orange but the processing has kinda kept it like that for a while-it was oxidized too much. its smoky, chocolately, malty smooth a slight sour and devoid of lawn/petroleum/bitterness and maybe a hit of drying. But it is smooth and viscous, it tastes like banana and caramel. there is just a lack of depth, it dissipates quickly and maybe leaves a residual on the back of the turn but it kinda prepares you for some flowery hugain or a liquor you can hold in your mouth and swish around, but then you quickly realize that what made you want to do that is gone. It is nice to see the progress. I dream of the wuliang B, and lovers of strong tea will find a worthy contender in the kunlu. I think Essence is doing better than when their tea flew off shelves.

 

[cherrybomb7]

2006 Special Edition Laoman'e from Xizihao

I was really excited about this and spent a lot of money on it. Great aged menghai material is almost nonexistent and I feel like it will just get rarer, so I felt like seizing this and I love menghai to bulang to laoman'e, knowing Tea Urchin's (lao man'e in specific) super sweet, super bitter, super tropical, watermelon, qi filled stuff.
This is, well, very good. Maybe not the pull out all the stops I was hoping for but disregard that overarching statement for these specifics. The lid smells nice and then the wet leaves are wild, super intense, pungent and sweet. The dry leaves were minty.
The qi builds and I have never really had something like this where the best steeps are 9-15, or I guess that its getting more and more intense past the 7 or 8 steep. By steep 9 I feel like I am pumped full of Novocain. It feels really heavy by this point, and by steep 12 I am losing my motor skills (its also late) and am euphoric. It starts out pretty classically, the rinse causes eye drooping, body awareness. Steep 2 your senses are heightened and you see all the movements of your limbs, noticing the wholeness and the individuality of each movement more complete and together than usual. Steep 4 its moving in your entire body, the swallow leading it to your toes and your fingertips and well this is the nicest part of the tea. I have never really had a tea whose best steeps start at 9. It has some darker, aged flavors like wood, honey and flowers and the aftertaste is huge, long lasting and complex. Its in your nose, on the afterbreath, minty and fruity and saccharine. The texture throughout is like melted honey, although its not super active nor super fun to experience its texture, which was surprising.
I wrote this while drinking and maybe I should edit but maybe scratch the very good. The other thing about this tea and I is the fact that I will own it for a very long time. This might be a drink once a year tea. It took me over a month to just try it and I can do what needs to be done in terms of savoring it. It is really impressive and I could imagine its texture improving and improving.

 

[ninepaths]

Wow, sounds great Cherrybomb. I was interested to see what this was like. However it was too dear to buy blind, given that I bought 3 XZH cakes in January already.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, I decided to chip away at some of my more value for money samples. The amount of bags I have has gotten out of hand, and I either need to start drinking samples daily, or give them away.

So with a blatant disregard for my stomach, I hit three teas tonight (so far, the night is still young).

First up: 2002 Lincang 'Diamond Cutter' Qiaomu brick from Bitterleaf Teas.
This is easily the oldest Lincang tea I've had, and was thoroughly educational. It is well aged and stored, and brewed a deep orange colour. I would never have picked it as a Lincang tea, because I've never had an aged Lincang. I had somehow expected it to be... greener, brighter, or lighter somehow. But no, it's an aged sheng alright. The base material is nothing special (and for the price, I wouldn't expect it to be).

Next up, 2009 'Nostalgia' Autumn Jingmai from Yunnan Sourcing.
Really enjoyed the flavour here, better than expected. The Jingmai honey aspect was clear, and the tea had a bright complexity to it as well. Not too much body effect yet, but it did warm up my chest and stomach. Easily the pick of the bunch in terms of flavour from today's selections.

Third, 2016 Mansa 'Alter Ego' huangpian brick from Bitterleaf Teas.
I think my tastebuds were getting fatigued at this point (I don't drink sheng like I used to), but this immediately hit me with qi. The flavour was muted, but eventually I started to pick up on more savoury flavours, and perhaps a hint of white grapes.

 

[shah8]

Some notes, hmmm

Finished off the last 2.7g of Chenyuanhao Mansong. It's not very good for the money.

Thermosed the Hojotea Ma-an. It does have a fairly full flavor, but I think there are similar flavor profile and overall better perfomance per price with EoT Manlin, for example.

Thermosed Dayi An Xiang sheng. Very potent, with a fairly dynamic shimmering in mouth, and lots of sweet nutmeat. Pretty obviously has some banzhang at this point.

XZH Youle was really good. Primary weakness is that the top taste isn't super-attractive. It's sort of deep herb-vegetal (almost Nannuo carrot, but without beta-carotene flavor) with an almost fishy umami. Brewed this four days totally about 35 or so brews. There are not very many teas of its age better. Heard great things about that Chenyuanhao Songpinhao remake, though. And you all see the glowing review about the Lao Man'e above. Also thermosed some fragments and dust, potent.

EoT 2011 Guafengzhai. As experience with mansa teas have piled up, this tea almost feels more like a wangong than a GFZ. Bad point is that there seems to be some sort of awkward greeness. Good is that it has strong qi, and consistently delivers feeling in the throat and a good, flavorful yun at the top of the throat. It's superficially similar to the bad Sui Yue Zhe Wei GFZ/WGZ teas sold by Royalpuer, in that there is a thick and soft soup with a strong fruit note. However, the EoT is more layered, dynamic and full with flower and honey as well. Longevity is okay, but not that great. While not as good as superpremium, notably more powerful than very expensive Mengla teas today.

2003 Bulang Jingpin. Not a very complex taste, and a touch hollow. Good mouthfeel and great qi. I was doing a lot of comparing with the '98 Big Green Tree Red Stamp...That tea had more layers, an aromatic wood layer and a vanilla-ish layer, and the viscosity was a bit better. Bulang Jingpin had way more qi in a more seamless wood-barnyard-honey soup. Good longevity.

2016 Theasophie Chenyun. Compared to the first time I drank this, with four grams, this was much darker in taste (and aroma), with musk, barnyard, choco-character, with occasional spice, floral notes. Not too dissimilar to the 2006 YQH Chawangshu. Viscosity was good. Aftertaste was mostly sweet Yiwu-style huigans in the mouth, generally somewhat fruity-sweet and not caramel and the like. Moderate qi. The flavor is relatively full in the mouth, and the taste goes a long way in a session, got at least 12 decent brews. Compare to the GFZ that was drunk the day before, this is weaker base material, but much better processing. Compared to the Theasophie Shanpin, this tea is less complex and dynamic, but stronger with solid taste. Less qi as well, I think.

I also had some maocha Paul (of White2tea) sent me. It had turn dark and choco, but much less dynamic and complex, with little of the light aftertaste that are usually generated by the bitterness in this tea, which is still pleasantly heavy.

Some other stuff:

Old whitey has some good points and I continue to be satisfied with the value of this tea.

white2tea Cream has a pleasant, if boring shu taste, decent mouthfeel, but has lots of qi.

2006 Taipei shu is more complex in taste, has litte of the typical shu depth and sweetness, and is unusually capable in terms of finish and aftertaste. Not as much qi as Cream.

 

[cherrybomb7]

2016 Sister/Brother

The differences are pretty noticeable here, easy to spot with one comparison session or a back to back. Brother is more bitter, larger flavor, not as smooth and affects the body more. It tastes like amazing melon, and has a bit of flowers on the aftertaste. It has that sheng oil/fresh lawn trimming flavor, the sister lacks this. The texture is quite big and its heavy. I think these are good values and I really like nannou, nice fruit/bitter/floral vibes.

Sister is closer to an oolong, also less longevity. It just misses the marks slightly in most ways. Cleaner, more boring flavor. Less texture, but smoother. The aftertaste is a little longer though and you dont get as much fresh sheng burn. I should blend these half and half. That might be better than separate. Also, its funny how stereotypical gender roles play out, higher fired being related to manliness, softness feminine and so on.

 

[shah8]

Some more notes.

EoT '11 Mannuo did very well thermosed. The main weak point is that the flavor isn't necessarily full.

W2T tea of the month B_D_ not so great, thermosed. It was primarily good, thick mouthfeel and qi, with little real flavor. Had some almost present elegant florals in some sips, though.

Saturday, I did the Theasophie Guoyun. The main flavor was higher than the Chenyun with only hints of depth, like a touch of coffee. It had a pretty good mostly Yiwu aroma, with some unusual emphasis on grains. The taste reflect that aroma, mostly, and it did have some fruit tones. I found the tea a bit uncomfortably tart/sour, early-mid session, and so it was less less easy to enjoy than the Chenyun was at those stages. The viscosity was good, and it was smooth. The aftertastes are predominantly mouth aroma, mouthcoat, and a bit of yun, and this tea does have a decent aftertaste game going. Qi seems to be moderate. Durability is very good, and late infusions are much more comfortable, and also quite sweet. Without the late stage, I would have been pretty meh, even with the good aftertastes.

Today, inspired by someone else, I decided to do a four gram brew of the '09 XZH Diangu. I suppose previous descriptions suffice. It is the best northern tea I am aware of. Main weaknesses vis a vis 'Banna teas is that it's not as full as something like the CYH Yesheng or XZH Youle and the like. Astringency can cause a bit of very light discomfort in mouth and throat (makes mouthfeel very interesting in that coarse powder sense, though). It is more complex in taste and more dynamic than teas from the south, though. Qi is great.

 

[shah8]

Workday thermos

Crimson Lotus '08 Jingmai didn't do very well. Sort of tasted like the fake Tai Lian... Not bad, but not so great.

Theasophie Huangpian brick (this got mixed into my sample of Muyun shu...). Not a good thermos on account of thin flavor.

Essence of Tea 2011 Yakouzhai. Strong flavor and decent to good viscosity. Not as active in mouth and throat as the same year Mannuo.

XZH '07 Kuzhushan. Top flavor is thin, with a little incense and off-jinggu. Some depth to aroma. Okay to decent viscosity. Strong qi. Has excellent aftertastes. Exhibit A for my personal experience in understanding why it's important for young teas to have proper and productive bitterness. At three years of age, this tea had a strong, deep bitterness that provoked very large and pungent huigans. This pungent huigans have long since aged into a mouthcoat that sinks into the mouth and throat with flavor, and sits there a while. Strongly recommend that people get at least one example of XZH Jinggu from '07 or '08. They are thin tasting, and the taiwan stored are even more so, but they also tends to have top shelf aftertaste games.

YQH '16 Yiwu. Very green and shengy, with maybe a bite from nitro fertilizer. It does have a tendency towards yiwu choco tones much like the CYH '15 Yiwu Chawang. There is some aftertaste, and some pushing down throat. A little qi, and decent to good viscosity. This is a $200 yiwu for what I think is a 400g cake, so it couldn't ever be awesome, but if a proper session is what the thermos promises, I see this as something people can tong for a decade down the road without completely breaking the bank.

 

[shah8]

Okay, did a regular session and a micro session of a couple of teas.

The first tea is the 2003 Hong Kong Henry commissioned 7542. This was the first time since I bought a sample from Houde back in 2010. I remember enjoying at least a couple of three or so sessions, and I thought that the aromatic quality was interesting--sort of wood, charcoal, paper, kind of richness. Fast forward to today, and the first couple brews were, wood, a bit of soil...popcorn? Or caramelized popcorn? I was a bit befuddled, thought "interesting", and kept on... After the first couple of brews, including the wash, the popcorn character dies down in aroma and taste, but but the overall distinctive aromatic character in aroma and taste doesn't really become what I expected, given my memory. However, in the long brews in the back end of the session, I got a couple of brews with the classic thick aromatic quality I expected and enjoyed previously before it died down past what I wanted to drink. While the aroma was doing weird things, the early brews had some acidity that I've experienced with other contemporary 7542 and with this tea seven years ago. However that also died down quickly. So... Anyways, the broad nature of the tea's taste is two-toned is that it has a strong savory/yang aromatic note and a broad body of low, sweet dark taste. Hobbes described it as molasses, and I'm inclined to go with light choco. The viscosity is generally just okay in that there's enough viscosity, and it's got some aged softness in the texture. There is some tendency towards a very light unpleasant astringency in the throat. There isn't much in the way of aftertaste asides from a bit of camphor cooling. This does have mild to moderate qi, a bit of relaxing.

I enjoyed it for what it was, but I don't prefer this type of tea, which I think of as two toned masculine floral with underlying sweet character, like what goes one here, or with the 2011 Dragon Mark, and to a lesser extent the 2011 Jin Dayi (it has a lot of refined "orchid" in the sense of grandma's antique furniture, so it's a bit more compelling than hearty yang floral), because the long sweetness tends to be too simple with nothing or not much going on in the depth. I also find the lack of interesting aftertaste to be problematic as well. Also, IMO, this is more of a tea to be drunk now rather than be stored for the long haul. It's pretty easy to drink after the first few brews.

The other tea was a 2010 wangong tea that was originally pressed by a Korean tea merchant. It was just 2g of dust, though, so can't take the conclusions to heart. The aroma was weird to me in the sense that it smelled like house blends of various younger puerh that had been randomly mixed (at least my own house blend). Sort of stewed tea with light fruit and choco tones. I just shrugged and moved on. The aroma is generally pretty powerful, and it lasted most of the way through the session, which generally indicates a high quality maocha. The taste is generally on the darker side, vegetal, wild honey. There's generally a degree of light floral character wafting through the taste. Sometimes some fruitiness shows up, but I don't find it very fruity as a whole. The viscosity is good, and the texture is very good in that it's smooth-velvety, so the tea feels substantial in the mouth. This tea often delivers a strong yiwu-style huigan that delivers a lot of sweetness into the mouth, but it doesn't really do much in the throat, beyond pushing down it a bit. There is a ghost of that evaporative cooling in the mouth that I really like from certain teas that come from wangong. The qi is medium-strong and is of high quality.

There is no way I can safely judge this tea based on dust, but for the placecard now, I think the quality is a stretch for the price, but not a huge one. In the spent dust, I did find leaf fragments that have had some bruising and oxidation, but it doesn't look excessive, and I'm not sure I was other than positively affected by their presence (like delivering more complexity).