I had the 06 black wrapper yesterday. This session is from my new cake from Taiwan. I don’t have too much to say on it. This is good tea. It’s not as potent in the mouth and throat as drier stored versions I’ve had previously and is considerably more mellow overall. The Qi seems to be less energizing and more body focused. I’ve been wanting to try the 05 LBZ to compare for awhile now but haven’t been able to justify the price. I threw the rest of the BW leaves into a thermos for work this morning.
SOTD- sheng of the day
- Thread starter ouch
- Start date
It's very nice to see others comment on their teas in this thread, too!
The information about YTM sales is interesting!
I've only had the Hongyin Iron once, it seemed fine to me in terms of durability. However, note that small-leaf teas are pretty prone to having a short period of strong and complex brews and then requiring much longer brews after six or seven or so brews. I know that the 2012 and 2013 top XZH Gedengs did get simple around there as well. The '14 Hongyin Grade A is a blend of Yibang and Walong, the motive at least in part to fill this gap--though it does do the same thing, get simple after a bit. Maybe only the 2011 XZH Classic Yibang is a pure yibang, the other XZH are blended with Walong.
May as well talk about my thermos.
Douyizhai was nice, a touch thin, reminding that it isn't quite top stuff, but again, still pleasant.
YTM Tianmenshan '20 was fairly boring, with only a hint of nice qi. Want to note that the YTM TMS '20 is very similar to the TW individual sourced TMS that I reviewed 05/18/2020. Got to wondering about sourcing...
YTM '17 Mansong Young Trees was okay--it was actually a bit better than the TMS, some depth of character, a bit more engaging aftertaste. Not particularly great, and thermos emphasized that there is a touch of a pesticide issue.
YTM '12 Yibang brick was also okay. It was fully clean, and there was a touch of nice qi.
I mentioned the Dingxing cake when talking about cheaper ways to get what the '12 Yibang offered. you can get it from the canadian vendor 1990's Ding Xing Hao Pu-erh Tea Cake (Raw/Sheng) - https://thechineseteashop.com/collections/pu-erh-teas/products/1990s-ding-xing-hao-pu-erh-tea-cake-raw-sheng
It's a heck of alot more dirtier and will need washes, but more depth, more qi, more roundness and all of that. Can still be bitter when pressed. Probably can find on TB for cheaper, of course.
The information about YTM sales is interesting!
I've only had the Hongyin Iron once, it seemed fine to me in terms of durability. However, note that small-leaf teas are pretty prone to having a short period of strong and complex brews and then requiring much longer brews after six or seven or so brews. I know that the 2012 and 2013 top XZH Gedengs did get simple around there as well. The '14 Hongyin Grade A is a blend of Yibang and Walong, the motive at least in part to fill this gap--though it does do the same thing, get simple after a bit. Maybe only the 2011 XZH Classic Yibang is a pure yibang, the other XZH are blended with Walong.
May as well talk about my thermos.
Douyizhai was nice, a touch thin, reminding that it isn't quite top stuff, but again, still pleasant.
YTM Tianmenshan '20 was fairly boring, with only a hint of nice qi. Want to note that the YTM TMS '20 is very similar to the TW individual sourced TMS that I reviewed 05/18/2020. Got to wondering about sourcing...
YTM '17 Mansong Young Trees was okay--it was actually a bit better than the TMS, some depth of character, a bit more engaging aftertaste. Not particularly great, and thermos emphasized that there is a touch of a pesticide issue.
YTM '12 Yibang brick was also okay. It was fully clean, and there was a touch of nice qi.
I mentioned the Dingxing cake when talking about cheaper ways to get what the '12 Yibang offered. you can get it from the canadian vendor 1990's Ding Xing Hao Pu-erh Tea Cake (Raw/Sheng) - https://thechineseteashop.com/collections/pu-erh-teas/products/1990s-ding-xing-hao-pu-erh-tea-cake-raw-sheng
It's a heck of alot more dirtier and will need washes, but more depth, more qi, more roundness and all of that. Can still be bitter when pressed. Probably can find on TB for cheaper, of course.
I had a couple of shus of the week.
1) One was one of a pair of bricks Paul Murray gave me, but in comparing with the nuo xiang, I realized that the pair may be of different makes--been blending tea by accident, maybe. Making sure I just got material from one of the brick, I wound up with a fully fermented barky shu that's rather common.
2) This was more dengshihai shu, almost done with the cake, and definitely feeling the effect of being out on a shelf for years, but I don't mind.
I also had the 2009 Dayi Dragon Pole on Saturday. Indeed pretty similar to YS '19 Bawang, but the age has meant that it has actually softened the bold flavor, even compared to a couple of years ago, and has a lot of almond sweetness today. Caffeine has also moved towards being qi as well. Very pleasant experience with a tea I'm not always that happy with.
Sheng of the weekend were pretty simple...
Yesterday was the TeaUrchin sourced(not pressed by them) 2011 fall Bangwei. These 2011 fall teas were all overoxidized, and the bangwei was no exception. Thin taste, not great durability.
Aroma and taste had a nice licorice aspect in the early going. Generally, aroma is camphor, herb, honey. Taste is a camphor and herb, with a bit of honey sometimes. Flat taste relieved with a bit of bitterness. Late brews have a bit of fruitiness. Nature of the aroma and taste rather similar to some old style factory tea with lots of camphor, something like the 2003 Kumning Lanyin that one can find in some places. Viscosity is good early and thins as the session goes on. Early brews have a bit of lightly active mouthcoat and a bit of yun. Afterwards, only a touch of mouthcoat. Light qi.
Today was the 2020 W2T Biscuits. The quick take is that this is some sort of lincang where the maocha might have been too ugly for cakes and really goes into tuos or bricks. Description sez honey, but my take is that the character of the tea is very sweet mushroom in aroma and taste. There is also bitter chicory, fruitiness, and occasional floralness or toffee. Broadly, the aroma and taste simplifies into just mushroom and chicory with maybe a sugars sweetness. The viscosity is moderate with a milky texture. A bit of drying astringency. Does a good job with feeling down throat, some cooling. Early brews has complex mouthcoat/yun, and a brew or two has something that could be said to be pungent huigans. The qi is subtle and verging on the moderate level of strength--it's relatively sneaky. Durability wasn't that tested as it got sort of boring, active phase is short--put it in the fridge. This tea is pretty good, but it's not the equivalent of the standard $130 level W2T quality hierarchy. So I figure this is meant to be very disposable tea that still gives a relatively high end experience for a bit, hence the 12-13g bricks and a 120g stack.
1) One was one of a pair of bricks Paul Murray gave me, but in comparing with the nuo xiang, I realized that the pair may be of different makes--been blending tea by accident, maybe. Making sure I just got material from one of the brick, I wound up with a fully fermented barky shu that's rather common.
2) This was more dengshihai shu, almost done with the cake, and definitely feeling the effect of being out on a shelf for years, but I don't mind.
I also had the 2009 Dayi Dragon Pole on Saturday. Indeed pretty similar to YS '19 Bawang, but the age has meant that it has actually softened the bold flavor, even compared to a couple of years ago, and has a lot of almond sweetness today. Caffeine has also moved towards being qi as well. Very pleasant experience with a tea I'm not always that happy with.
Sheng of the weekend were pretty simple...
Yesterday was the TeaUrchin sourced(not pressed by them) 2011 fall Bangwei. These 2011 fall teas were all overoxidized, and the bangwei was no exception. Thin taste, not great durability.
Aroma and taste had a nice licorice aspect in the early going. Generally, aroma is camphor, herb, honey. Taste is a camphor and herb, with a bit of honey sometimes. Flat taste relieved with a bit of bitterness. Late brews have a bit of fruitiness. Nature of the aroma and taste rather similar to some old style factory tea with lots of camphor, something like the 2003 Kumning Lanyin that one can find in some places. Viscosity is good early and thins as the session goes on. Early brews have a bit of lightly active mouthcoat and a bit of yun. Afterwards, only a touch of mouthcoat. Light qi.
Today was the 2020 W2T Biscuits. The quick take is that this is some sort of lincang where the maocha might have been too ugly for cakes and really goes into tuos or bricks. Description sez honey, but my take is that the character of the tea is very sweet mushroom in aroma and taste. There is also bitter chicory, fruitiness, and occasional floralness or toffee. Broadly, the aroma and taste simplifies into just mushroom and chicory with maybe a sugars sweetness. The viscosity is moderate with a milky texture. A bit of drying astringency. Does a good job with feeling down throat, some cooling. Early brews has complex mouthcoat/yun, and a brew or two has something that could be said to be pungent huigans. The qi is subtle and verging on the moderate level of strength--it's relatively sneaky. Durability wasn't that tested as it got sort of boring, active phase is short--put it in the fridge. This tea is pretty good, but it's not the equivalent of the standard $130 level W2T quality hierarchy. So I figure this is meant to be very disposable tea that still gives a relatively high end experience for a bit, hence the 12-13g bricks and a 120g stack.
2019 Is a Gift from W2T. Not a super focused session for me. Enjoyed the clean profile, had some energy, curious how it will age.
2013 BYH Mahei. Still not totally sold on this yet but had a better session than the first time. Has some good bitterness to benefit aging. I’m either not totally clear on the quality of the leaf and/or I’m not familiar with the profile from this area.
2013 BYH Mahei. Still not totally sold on this yet but had a better session than the first time. Has some good bitterness to benefit aging. I’m either not totally clear on the quality of the leaf and/or I’m not familiar with the profile from this area.
Yesterday was the Rustic Zhongsha from TeasWeLike. The first infusions has a fruity punch with a zippy Qi. This was the first time that I got smoked out from this puerh usually the smoke is just perfect. This time The smoke progressed a bit throughout the session until I mugged stepped it. Then it just overwhelmed the great sweet flavour which was starting to wane. Must of had a more charred pieces in the sample I took from the cake. Occasionally Smokey puerh will do this. Overall, I love a bit of smoke.
Today was 2006 YQH Shenpin Chawang. It was also faintly Smokey, mainly viscous and woody fruity Yiwu. More viscous and smoke than usual from the sample today. Qi knocks me down in a calm way. The faint smoke is something I usually don’t get from this cake.
Looks like I got smoked out this weekend so far.... hahaha
Peace
Today was 2006 YQH Shenpin Chawang. It was also faintly Smokey, mainly viscous and woody fruity Yiwu. More viscous and smoke than usual from the sample today. Qi knocks me down in a calm way. The faint smoke is something I usually don’t get from this cake.
Looks like I got smoked out this weekend so far.... hahaha
Peace
XZH '06 3-year anniversary (autumn LBZ) via LiquidProust:
Heavier Tiawanese storage, brews out aged and quite mild. Active in the throat but not in a very exciting way, some jaw numbing and light head and belly feelings early on. Starts more earthy/clay with a few faint rougher storage notes (acrylic paint, salmon) progresses more towards stone fruit/prunes and wood. Has an alkaline/mineral quality kinda like swiss chard or baking soda. No bitterness and a light to medium astringency. Not much qi, lightly warming and calming. Lots of thick, long stems. Good endurance, light thickness.
Elegant, gentle and comforting but disappointing at $2.75/g.
Heavier Tiawanese storage, brews out aged and quite mild. Active in the throat but not in a very exciting way, some jaw numbing and light head and belly feelings early on. Starts more earthy/clay with a few faint rougher storage notes (acrylic paint, salmon) progresses more towards stone fruit/prunes and wood. Has an alkaline/mineral quality kinda like swiss chard or baking soda. No bitterness and a light to medium astringency. Not much qi, lightly warming and calming. Lots of thick, long stems. Good endurance, light thickness.
Elegant, gentle and comforting but disappointing at $2.75/g.
Gushu Naka sheng dragon ball from Pu-erh.sk.
Clean like Peter's teas tend to be in general. Quite strong, this autumn more like a spring tea. Has a profile that is focused on the higher notes. Very good high notes. But I missed deeper notes to balance it. A tea with a lot of strength but I found the Spring Naka from the same vendor to be more enjoyable and preferable. Also, the dragon ball gives less control over dosage than a cake.
Clean like Peter's teas tend to be in general. Quite strong, this autumn more like a spring tea. Has a profile that is focused on the higher notes. Very good high notes. But I missed deeper notes to balance it. A tea with a lot of strength but I found the Spring Naka from the same vendor to be more enjoyable and preferable. Also, the dragon ball gives less control over dosage than a cake.
Three year anniversary LBZ from XZH also should be fall tea, as well.
I thermosed Old Whitey and Marion white teas from W2T over the week. Old Whitey was really good that time so I wanted to do another white, and did Marion--which had the same fruity banana aroma and taste. Thing that has always been weird about it for me is that the W2T 2018 Old Arbor white tea is more well roundedly superior to Old Whitey than Marion is. Marion is actually a bit less rich in taste, about the same qi, and maybe inferior in aftertaste. What Marion has going for it is a distinct flavor beyond the broad stroke of yunnan white tea. Looking hard at that top 2020 W2T white tea recently posted.
Saturday I did the YTM 2018 Gaoshan. It started out pretty promising and around what is justifiable for the price tag, but then got tired and weakened pretty quickly. It's more of a phase change than weakened because when brewed more firmly it presents a certain character that goes on, but it's low in volume and nature.
Aroma zigzags between floral and herbal nature with more of a focus on herbals--through about six brews. The taste is generally herbal in nature typical of Gaoshan yiwus, and there is often a honey nature as well. Late brews have a mild honey-herbal taste. A bit bitter early, and the tea does have a tendency for a gripping sourness or tartness--not too harshly. Generally has about good viscosity, tho' it feels a bit thinner after it cools in mouth. It doesn't really have a distinct texture until the late, pushed brews, with a nice velvet stiffness to it. Drying astringency builds to moderate before fading. Aftertastes were mostly done by the fourth brew--best feature was a yun that also had a bit of feeling go down throat. Light yiwu huigan, and a bit of nondescript mouthcoat. Moderate qi of no real character. Durability is pretty poor in my consideration. It's not truly lacking in durability, but the active phase (when the price tag is reasonably justified compared to other teas of its age) is over quickly, and needs pushing to continue afterwards.
Broadly speaking, nobody should be all that serious about "gaogan" "dashu" or whatever $nameYiwu that comes up in new releases. Again, the realish stuff is too expensive for most of us to buy, and there are few opportunities to reliably buy them anyways.
Note that Linda Louie of Bana Tea has restocked the cakes of the King's Seal LBZ. 730 total grams of reasonably legit LBZ if you can afford it at more than $2400. It's priced more or less around what genuine LBZ of good quality should cost. Those cakes are likely not going to hang around for all that long, though.
The tea today was the 2008 XZH Blessings. It was a blessing and wildly better for me than yesterday's tea. Not a big thing on taste, but the feeling? Whew, the feeling in the throat and a the kind of quality qi it has is quite healing.
I thermosed Old Whitey and Marion white teas from W2T over the week. Old Whitey was really good that time so I wanted to do another white, and did Marion--which had the same fruity banana aroma and taste. Thing that has always been weird about it for me is that the W2T 2018 Old Arbor white tea is more well roundedly superior to Old Whitey than Marion is. Marion is actually a bit less rich in taste, about the same qi, and maybe inferior in aftertaste. What Marion has going for it is a distinct flavor beyond the broad stroke of yunnan white tea. Looking hard at that top 2020 W2T white tea recently posted.
Saturday I did the YTM 2018 Gaoshan. It started out pretty promising and around what is justifiable for the price tag, but then got tired and weakened pretty quickly. It's more of a phase change than weakened because when brewed more firmly it presents a certain character that goes on, but it's low in volume and nature.
Aroma zigzags between floral and herbal nature with more of a focus on herbals--through about six brews. The taste is generally herbal in nature typical of Gaoshan yiwus, and there is often a honey nature as well. Late brews have a mild honey-herbal taste. A bit bitter early, and the tea does have a tendency for a gripping sourness or tartness--not too harshly. Generally has about good viscosity, tho' it feels a bit thinner after it cools in mouth. It doesn't really have a distinct texture until the late, pushed brews, with a nice velvet stiffness to it. Drying astringency builds to moderate before fading. Aftertastes were mostly done by the fourth brew--best feature was a yun that also had a bit of feeling go down throat. Light yiwu huigan, and a bit of nondescript mouthcoat. Moderate qi of no real character. Durability is pretty poor in my consideration. It's not truly lacking in durability, but the active phase (when the price tag is reasonably justified compared to other teas of its age) is over quickly, and needs pushing to continue afterwards.
Broadly speaking, nobody should be all that serious about "gaogan" "dashu" or whatever $nameYiwu that comes up in new releases. Again, the realish stuff is too expensive for most of us to buy, and there are few opportunities to reliably buy them anyways.
Note that Linda Louie of Bana Tea has restocked the cakes of the King's Seal LBZ. 730 total grams of reasonably legit LBZ if you can afford it at more than $2400. It's priced more or less around what genuine LBZ of good quality should cost. Those cakes are likely not going to hang around for all that long, though.
The tea today was the 2008 XZH Blessings. It was a blessing and wildly better for me than yesterday's tea. Not a big thing on taste, but the feeling? Whew, the feeling in the throat and a the kind of quality qi it has is quite healing.
King's Seal LBZ 2020. Drinking this you don’t feel like you’re wasting your money. On the other hand I wouldn’t buy a cake. Reminds me a bit of a somewhat stronger and a bit higher quality version of 2019 Is a Gift.
Endless steeps, dry leaves smell great, but needs about 20 years of aging.
A bit too young and powerful to really get into. Qi was good but not great.
Endless steeps, dry leaves smell great, but needs about 20 years of aging.
A bit too young and powerful to really get into. Qi was good but not great.Funny enough I also had that tea yesterday. Took awhile to get going but I found it very solid for many infusions. Does seem to be the best quality modern LBZ I’ve had. Followed the session up with the black wrapper. That tea, in my book, was the clear winner but it obviously has a serious advantage being 14 years old. Recently bought two more cakes so I could enjoy it more frequently. Needless to say but the energy off those two teas was pretty intense.
Fascinating reports on the King's Seal! Has anyone tried the LiquidProust LBZ from that Malay tea brand? Speaking of the black wrapper, Houde actually sold out of the cakes at $595 a cake already, I was impressed. Man, not a lot of people took advantage of the TW FB auctions where they could get it for much less, once upon a time.
I did thermoses of W2T The Conversation Pt 2 and 2018 Old Arbor. While these are much more well rounded than Marion 2.22, the margin of superiority to Old Whitey is just not very much, especially considering that they are about twice the cost per gram.
By and large, it seems like it is much harder to differentiate a white tea product through quality innovations than it is for puerh. Puerh hongcha also seems to pull everything into a gravity of certain features. Astro Red does actually achieve some separation between it and pretty good hongcha, but it's quite expensive. Even when it comes to straight puerh, the longer you age it, especially around the 20 year mark and older, the more the character of old tea exerts a gravity towards a sameness, given the leaf grades used. When a sheng is young, there are tons of fine gradations in quality, and when it's old, everything is falling into a few major quality buckets, as determined by storage as by the original quality level. I do think, for example, that the black wrapper will always be at a level better than the King's Seal--I've had it when it and the '05 was four and five years old, and the aftertaste game was always quite a bit better. And this is something that I feel is reinforced by my enjoyment of the '06 XZH Youle--when it comes to aging, at the end of the day, how good the tea does aftertaste in the throat, and feeling in the throat essentially determines whether a premium tea is worth aging.
I did W2T Modern Witch for shu on Friday--it was quite good. There is still some wodui in it. It's more fruity than it used to be. It has a strong yiwu huigan to sweet nutmeat that coats firmly too. Some good feeling in throat as well. Aroma is subtle and light. Good qi.
Sheng of Saturday was the 2010 fall YS Xikong. Not a bad chance that it's the best tea YS has ever pressed under its brand. Main weakness is that the taste isn't very full--makes me agree with Tony Chen on the value of blending Walong into his Yibang teas. Aroma is fruity and woody-originally-floral, with a touch of subtle honey. Taste is largely the same, and has a fairly strong, if proper bitterness that has a bit of flavor to it. Not much ceyon hongcha character this brew. The mouthfeel is pretty good, in that while viscosity is moderate, the soup is very stiff, so feels fairly pudding regardless. Not much astringency. Varied bit of mild-moderate aftertastes, a bit of feeling in the throat. Moderate qi, not very durable, soup very done at about 12 brews or so.
This tea crushes the '13 YS Donguolin or the '17 YS Mansong or '17 YTM Mansong. Well, the YS Mansong qua Yibang and not necessarily qua Yiwu.
I was poking around Victoria's forum, and Yeeontea's shop and saw that they had bricks called the Jiangchen bricks which were also labeled as 7582, so I thought maybe this is the brick that I have that's a 7581 but sheng, so I took that out with the idea that it's Jiangchen. In sum, it's ok, particularly in the sense that it had a good mouthfeel, some feeling in throat and some qi. But it's not really that tasty, with a very present metallic tartness. I could definitely say that it could be jiangchen tea, though.
Today the sheng was the 2006 Dayou 858 museum tea. Definitely a blend of mostly Jiangchen and Classical Yiwu, and not enough of the good Yiwu to be really interesting. It was nice enough. Not much aroma at all, taste is pretty high and transparent, but honey and sweet, a substantial mouthfeel, a bit oil, a bit stiff. Not much aftertaste or qi, and I really didn't push this much. I just didn't want to think too hard on the tea.
I wound up wanting more tea, something different, and I took out the XZH '12 Dragon Brick shu. It's basically as it was before, a second grade shu like Dayi Dragon Pole, or YS Bawang. The taste and aroma is less concentrated than either of those teas, but the taste is broader. There is a bit of nuance that is interesting to explore. Aroma is pretty wispy in nature. Not too much aftertaste, and a bit of qi. My 2009 Dayi Dragon Pole is clearly better, but this was very nice and enjoyable, nontheless.
I did thermoses of W2T The Conversation Pt 2 and 2018 Old Arbor. While these are much more well rounded than Marion 2.22, the margin of superiority to Old Whitey is just not very much, especially considering that they are about twice the cost per gram.
By and large, it seems like it is much harder to differentiate a white tea product through quality innovations than it is for puerh. Puerh hongcha also seems to pull everything into a gravity of certain features. Astro Red does actually achieve some separation between it and pretty good hongcha, but it's quite expensive. Even when it comes to straight puerh, the longer you age it, especially around the 20 year mark and older, the more the character of old tea exerts a gravity towards a sameness, given the leaf grades used. When a sheng is young, there are tons of fine gradations in quality, and when it's old, everything is falling into a few major quality buckets, as determined by storage as by the original quality level. I do think, for example, that the black wrapper will always be at a level better than the King's Seal--I've had it when it and the '05 was four and five years old, and the aftertaste game was always quite a bit better. And this is something that I feel is reinforced by my enjoyment of the '06 XZH Youle--when it comes to aging, at the end of the day, how good the tea does aftertaste in the throat, and feeling in the throat essentially determines whether a premium tea is worth aging.
I did W2T Modern Witch for shu on Friday--it was quite good. There is still some wodui in it. It's more fruity than it used to be. It has a strong yiwu huigan to sweet nutmeat that coats firmly too. Some good feeling in throat as well. Aroma is subtle and light. Good qi.
Sheng of Saturday was the 2010 fall YS Xikong. Not a bad chance that it's the best tea YS has ever pressed under its brand. Main weakness is that the taste isn't very full--makes me agree with Tony Chen on the value of blending Walong into his Yibang teas. Aroma is fruity and woody-originally-floral, with a touch of subtle honey. Taste is largely the same, and has a fairly strong, if proper bitterness that has a bit of flavor to it. Not much ceyon hongcha character this brew. The mouthfeel is pretty good, in that while viscosity is moderate, the soup is very stiff, so feels fairly pudding regardless. Not much astringency. Varied bit of mild-moderate aftertastes, a bit of feeling in the throat. Moderate qi, not very durable, soup very done at about 12 brews or so.
This tea crushes the '13 YS Donguolin or the '17 YS Mansong or '17 YTM Mansong. Well, the YS Mansong qua Yibang and not necessarily qua Yiwu.
I was poking around Victoria's forum, and Yeeontea's shop and saw that they had bricks called the Jiangchen bricks which were also labeled as 7582, so I thought maybe this is the brick that I have that's a 7581 but sheng, so I took that out with the idea that it's Jiangchen. In sum, it's ok, particularly in the sense that it had a good mouthfeel, some feeling in throat and some qi. But it's not really that tasty, with a very present metallic tartness. I could definitely say that it could be jiangchen tea, though.
Today the sheng was the 2006 Dayou 858 museum tea. Definitely a blend of mostly Jiangchen and Classical Yiwu, and not enough of the good Yiwu to be really interesting. It was nice enough. Not much aroma at all, taste is pretty high and transparent, but honey and sweet, a substantial mouthfeel, a bit oil, a bit stiff. Not much aftertaste or qi, and I really didn't push this much. I just didn't want to think too hard on the tea.
I wound up wanting more tea, something different, and I took out the XZH '12 Dragon Brick shu. It's basically as it was before, a second grade shu like Dayi Dragon Pole, or YS Bawang. The taste and aroma is less concentrated than either of those teas, but the taste is broader. There is a bit of nuance that is interesting to explore. Aroma is pretty wispy in nature. Not too much aftertaste, and a bit of qi. My 2009 Dayi Dragon Pole is clearly better, but this was very nice and enjoyable, nontheless.
Shu of Friday was the 2006 Taipei Memorial shu. It was better than usual, and at $57.5/357g at Houde, is probably the best value shu available. It's a lighter tasting 7572-ish shu with a strong yiwu huigan to almond sweetness and good qi. It turned out to be the best session of the weekend.
The first tea for Saturday was the 2003 Zhongcha taipai 7532 stored in Malaysia and was once at TeasWeLike. I thought alot about my session because it had excellent taste and aroma but left me quite non-plussed meh, and I had to sift my perceptions about why I didn't really push this tea. Broadly speaking, there was a certain lack of liveliness in the taste, the tea also wasn't that dynamic in a positive way, and taste started declining in character quickly. Lastly, this tea pretty much only had aged caffeine qi, so it didn't have the sort of deep-seated comfort that I get from other nice teas.
okay. the tea. The aroma is really good, the very early brews had wood, retired smoke, nannuo carrot, and a kind of broad sweetness that's sort of generic underneath. The aroma simplifies to wood, and then becomes more of a vague combination of nannuo-carrot and plumminess the rest of the session. The taste starts off with a woodiness earliest, along with herbals, but it also had what seems to be a bourbon whisky taste and feeling-which was really nice. The woodiness and herbals goes away quick and most of the session has a plummy-carroty taste with a off-on bourbon taste. There was a tartness that I didn't approve of, but accepted as a price for good dry storage, it was fading by the time I stopped. The viscosity was at about good, with a velvet mouthfeel, and isn't astringent except in occasional cups. The aftertaste was bourbon mouthcoat, and there was some slight yiwu huigans. The qi was mild moderate of low quality. I did not push this tea much, maybe nine brews on account of it getting boring and flat.
I wound up wanting to do a second tea, so I did most of the rest of the Yiwu Tea Mountain Yiwu shu brick sample. My opinion of this tea largely remains the same. It has a good, engaging and sticky mouthfeel, but there wasn't much character in the taste or aroma. Neither was there much qi or aftertaste. It was pleasant enough and did its job.
Today I started off with W2T Snakewaithe. It's largely the same as it was before. I do not think it's much of a gongfu sort of tea as again, it has little dynamacism or true complexity in the taste/aroma. I had a problem with the tea being uber cloudy with a ton of sediment in early brews.
Aroma and taste is essentially a foetid herbalness with spice notes. Earliest brews had some choco, and many later brews has a subtle fruit note underneath. It had good viscosity, somewhat smooth. Qi is pretty decent. Not much aftertaste, particularly after the earliest brews with mouthcoat and a yun.
The second tea was the Essence of Tea Bamboo Spring. This tea is thinning in taste as it loses its vegetal notes. However, it had a very nice roselle fruity nature with honey and herbs in the aroma and taste. It had good viscosity with a plump feeling and a bit of astringency. Fruity yiwu huigan early, notable long honey taste in length so maybe a fast yiwu huigan, slight mouthcoat, and occasional floral mouth aroma for aftertaste. A bit of qi. Made a note of it not to let it age too quickly, doesn't seem likely to be a super interesting tea old.
The first tea for Saturday was the 2003 Zhongcha taipai 7532 stored in Malaysia and was once at TeasWeLike. I thought alot about my session because it had excellent taste and aroma but left me quite non-plussed meh, and I had to sift my perceptions about why I didn't really push this tea. Broadly speaking, there was a certain lack of liveliness in the taste, the tea also wasn't that dynamic in a positive way, and taste started declining in character quickly. Lastly, this tea pretty much only had aged caffeine qi, so it didn't have the sort of deep-seated comfort that I get from other nice teas.
okay. the tea. The aroma is really good, the very early brews had wood, retired smoke, nannuo carrot, and a kind of broad sweetness that's sort of generic underneath. The aroma simplifies to wood, and then becomes more of a vague combination of nannuo-carrot and plumminess the rest of the session. The taste starts off with a woodiness earliest, along with herbals, but it also had what seems to be a bourbon whisky taste and feeling-which was really nice. The woodiness and herbals goes away quick and most of the session has a plummy-carroty taste with a off-on bourbon taste. There was a tartness that I didn't approve of, but accepted as a price for good dry storage, it was fading by the time I stopped. The viscosity was at about good, with a velvet mouthfeel, and isn't astringent except in occasional cups. The aftertaste was bourbon mouthcoat, and there was some slight yiwu huigans. The qi was mild moderate of low quality. I did not push this tea much, maybe nine brews on account of it getting boring and flat.
I wound up wanting to do a second tea, so I did most of the rest of the Yiwu Tea Mountain Yiwu shu brick sample. My opinion of this tea largely remains the same. It has a good, engaging and sticky mouthfeel, but there wasn't much character in the taste or aroma. Neither was there much qi or aftertaste. It was pleasant enough and did its job.
Today I started off with W2T Snakewaithe. It's largely the same as it was before. I do not think it's much of a gongfu sort of tea as again, it has little dynamacism or true complexity in the taste/aroma. I had a problem with the tea being uber cloudy with a ton of sediment in early brews.
Aroma and taste is essentially a foetid herbalness with spice notes. Earliest brews had some choco, and many later brews has a subtle fruit note underneath. It had good viscosity, somewhat smooth. Qi is pretty decent. Not much aftertaste, particularly after the earliest brews with mouthcoat and a yun.
The second tea was the Essence of Tea Bamboo Spring. This tea is thinning in taste as it loses its vegetal notes. However, it had a very nice roselle fruity nature with honey and herbs in the aroma and taste. It had good viscosity with a plump feeling and a bit of astringency. Fruity yiwu huigan early, notable long honey taste in length so maybe a fast yiwu huigan, slight mouthcoat, and occasional floral mouth aroma for aftertaste. A bit of qi. Made a note of it not to let it age too quickly, doesn't seem likely to be a super interesting tea old.
okay, gunna keep this quick!
Friday, some 2004 6FTM N.1 Recipe shu. Good as usual, less fruity nuance than usual, though.
First tea Sat was the '07 XZH Yuanshilan. I picked it in part because I'm not a huge fan of it, and in part because the reason is that it's overoxidized, and I had an argument with someone on Facebook about how XZH "overoxidizes" most of their teas. There is a difference between processing for a house taste and out right overoxidizing. Also, most cases of overoxidized material are stuff where the maker is advertizing some sort of exclusive area sheng, but doesn't actually have the goods, so oxidizes the tea more in the hope that the customer confuses palatability with quality (beyond what palatability is supposed to be there).
Anyways, the Yuanshilan turned out pretty good. It had a good mouthfeel with thick soup and relatively low astringency outside of a couple of brews. Aroma and taste are a pleasant tobacco-wood and honey character. Early brews had some good feeling in throat and a bit of huigan there. Some decent mouthcoats. Moderate to strong qi.
Taste quickly becomes thinner and more watery, as a consequence of oxidation, but I was aggressive in late longer brews, and had some fairly nice ones. Durability was about fifteen brews. I also sort of noted that there are some similarities with this and the 2010 Chenshenhao LBZ, especially in the way that the taste hollows out quickly, made me wonder if there was oxidation there, maybe, didn't really taste oxidized, though.
The second tea of Sat was the 2009 Diangu Chen. It was great, and while it's clearly oxidized to a degree here as well, the taste has substance and depth.
Aroma was salty-alkaline, a little fish umami, a bit of mangomy. Taste is mostly mangomy and a bit of fruitiness. A touch of wood. Can have sensate sweetness. Decisive texture in the mouth, a bit of astringency. Noted that a stable bubble formed at the spot of my pot before sinking back into the pot. Aftertastes aren't too exciting, good qi.
Sunday was the late brews of the Yuanshilin first, and then I finally drank a 4g sample. Can't tell what it is, '99 gao(high) something something. Great factory tea, high grade leaf, like a 7532 or 0622. Strongly nannuo carroty to the point of rutabaga, with some wood and the same sort of alcoholic spirit sweetness that the 2003 7532 I drank last weekend had. Strong, good bitterness. Very good viscosity and pump and smooth in the mouth. Bitterness generates aftertastes in mouth. Qi is more on the milder side of moderate, but is of better quality. The 7532 had stronger qi, but it wasn't as nice as this tea's qi.
Friday, some 2004 6FTM N.1 Recipe shu. Good as usual, less fruity nuance than usual, though.
First tea Sat was the '07 XZH Yuanshilan. I picked it in part because I'm not a huge fan of it, and in part because the reason is that it's overoxidized, and I had an argument with someone on Facebook about how XZH "overoxidizes" most of their teas. There is a difference between processing for a house taste and out right overoxidizing. Also, most cases of overoxidized material are stuff where the maker is advertizing some sort of exclusive area sheng, but doesn't actually have the goods, so oxidizes the tea more in the hope that the customer confuses palatability with quality (beyond what palatability is supposed to be there).
Anyways, the Yuanshilan turned out pretty good. It had a good mouthfeel with thick soup and relatively low astringency outside of a couple of brews. Aroma and taste are a pleasant tobacco-wood and honey character. Early brews had some good feeling in throat and a bit of huigan there. Some decent mouthcoats. Moderate to strong qi.
Taste quickly becomes thinner and more watery, as a consequence of oxidation, but I was aggressive in late longer brews, and had some fairly nice ones. Durability was about fifteen brews. I also sort of noted that there are some similarities with this and the 2010 Chenshenhao LBZ, especially in the way that the taste hollows out quickly, made me wonder if there was oxidation there, maybe, didn't really taste oxidized, though.
The second tea of Sat was the 2009 Diangu Chen. It was great, and while it's clearly oxidized to a degree here as well, the taste has substance and depth.
Aroma was salty-alkaline, a little fish umami, a bit of mangomy. Taste is mostly mangomy and a bit of fruitiness. A touch of wood. Can have sensate sweetness. Decisive texture in the mouth, a bit of astringency. Noted that a stable bubble formed at the spot of my pot before sinking back into the pot. Aftertastes aren't too exciting, good qi.
Sunday was the late brews of the Yuanshilin first, and then I finally drank a 4g sample. Can't tell what it is, '99 gao(high) something something. Great factory tea, high grade leaf, like a 7532 or 0622. Strongly nannuo carroty to the point of rutabaga, with some wood and the same sort of alcoholic spirit sweetness that the 2003 7532 I drank last weekend had. Strong, good bitterness. Very good viscosity and pump and smooth in the mouth. Bitterness generates aftertastes in mouth. Qi is more on the milder side of moderate, but is of better quality. The 7532 had stronger qi, but it wasn't as nice as this tea's qi.
Nothing much going on this weekend.
Friday was the 2013 Dayi Danqing shu. A light fermented shu sold as high end or whatever. This session was nicer than it usually is. One of the issues with lightly fermented shu is that they stay awkward for a very long time, more like 7-10 years, including the 2-3 years it takes to dissipate wodui and settle. Anyways, this tea is something like the Star of Menghai but: thinner tasting, of course, but also much more well defined components compared to the general bleed-through muddiness of shu--you can distinguish wood, choco, plummy, etc, more decisively. The mouthfeel is more distinctive and the qi is better.
Saturday was the 2016 W2T We Go High. Fruity, green lincang vegetal, sort of woody in taste. Okay aroma. Mouthfeel is very good, good viscosity and a velvet mouthfeel. Mouthcoat aftertastes, and pretty decent qi. Not too different from usual, but it does feel at times that there is a strong similarity to the Lucky Puppy line of tea.
I finished off last weekend's pot of Diangu, and that was great.
Today, I did the 2005 Peacock of Menghai. Broadly speaking, this is too smoky, a bit too astringent, and not complex enough in taste to be very good for me. It is pleasant enough, but nah.
wood and smoke in most of the aroma, relatively crude and not refined smoke. There is often mushroom and barnyard, plummy in later brews as well for aroma. The taste has a consistent them and base of sensate sweet mushroom, around which is smoke, wood, and occasionally dark roast sense, choco, plummy through the session. There is often a strong tartness. Viscosity is generally pretty good, but no character for mouthfeel, and can have material astringency. Some of that astringency converts to a sweet mouthcoat, but the best aftertastes are a nice yun midsession. Moderate level qi of no particular distinction, bit more potent than pure aged caffeine qi. Did not press this tea hard and put it in the fridge after about ten brews.
Friday was the 2013 Dayi Danqing shu. A light fermented shu sold as high end or whatever. This session was nicer than it usually is. One of the issues with lightly fermented shu is that they stay awkward for a very long time, more like 7-10 years, including the 2-3 years it takes to dissipate wodui and settle. Anyways, this tea is something like the Star of Menghai but: thinner tasting, of course, but also much more well defined components compared to the general bleed-through muddiness of shu--you can distinguish wood, choco, plummy, etc, more decisively. The mouthfeel is more distinctive and the qi is better.
Saturday was the 2016 W2T We Go High. Fruity, green lincang vegetal, sort of woody in taste. Okay aroma. Mouthfeel is very good, good viscosity and a velvet mouthfeel. Mouthcoat aftertastes, and pretty decent qi. Not too different from usual, but it does feel at times that there is a strong similarity to the Lucky Puppy line of tea.
I finished off last weekend's pot of Diangu, and that was great.
Today, I did the 2005 Peacock of Menghai. Broadly speaking, this is too smoky, a bit too astringent, and not complex enough in taste to be very good for me. It is pleasant enough, but nah.
wood and smoke in most of the aroma, relatively crude and not refined smoke. There is often mushroom and barnyard, plummy in later brews as well for aroma. The taste has a consistent them and base of sensate sweet mushroom, around which is smoke, wood, and occasionally dark roast sense, choco, plummy through the session. There is often a strong tartness. Viscosity is generally pretty good, but no character for mouthfeel, and can have material astringency. Some of that astringency converts to a sweet mouthcoat, but the best aftertastes are a nice yun midsession. Moderate level qi of no particular distinction, bit more potent than pure aged caffeine qi. Did not press this tea hard and put it in the fridge after about ten brews.
Nothing much going on this weekend either.
W2T Horsegirl Clique made for a great western brew on Thursday. This one is a touch finicky in the sense that there is a sweet spot for nice complexity.
Some of the 2002 Green Mark (7572) shu originally from W2T. Pleasant but not spectacular or anything. Does have a niced aged tea mouthfeel to it.
Saturday was W2T 2019 Both Steals Boats. This was mostly a daily drinker for me, somewhat on the nice side of things. The tea's aroma and taste starts off with a nutty and chicory note that made me recall the 2020 W2T Biscuits, but much less rich and sweet. The aroma and taste then veers off to a more tobacco, chicory, wood, and green sheng bite taste. A late brew has a very nice strawberry jam accent in the aroma. Mouthfeel is at about good with somewhat notable astringency. Late brew can have a more milky texture that's nice. Only a bit of mouthcoat for aftertaste. Mild-moderate qi. This didn't really last long, and had two phases, one nutty, one tobacco, presumably due to the differing strengths of the blended material. Anyways, I stopped at around ten-twelve brews.
I did a second tea, the 2019 YS Lao Man'e shu, finishing this off. I'm pretty meh on this shu. I don't find it to be very complex or intriguing or much anything but a pleasant drink with broad strokes in terms of character, flavor. Essentially, it's roughly the same sort of tea as a Star of Menghai--broad deep and potent fermentation taste, with a bitter bite. One thing that was new is that early brews had a distinct subtle yiwu huigan flavor of fruit butter, like apple, pear or plum butter, and this was pretty nice and interesting. Good viscosity. After that yiwu huigan was done, this didn't have much aftertaste. Doesn't feel to have much qi for me this time around.
First tea on Sunday was the '02 Tai Lian. Early brews are nice honey and old puerh herbalness in aroma and taste, and devolves to a sweet dark herbal taste late in the session. Just enough viscosity with a nice soft feel in the mouth. Old astringency that is slickening up nicely. Cooling at top of throat early with a nice yun there. Some mouthcoat the rest of the way. Moderate qi of good quality.
I did a few more of the '05 Menghai Peacock over the week. I'll say this, it stays strong, but I do not really like the smoky strength of the taste.
I also finished up that '99 whatever from two weekends ago--four brews of excellent factory tea. Wish stuff like this is affordable.
W2T Horsegirl Clique made for a great western brew on Thursday. This one is a touch finicky in the sense that there is a sweet spot for nice complexity.
Some of the 2002 Green Mark (7572) shu originally from W2T. Pleasant but not spectacular or anything. Does have a niced aged tea mouthfeel to it.
Saturday was W2T 2019 Both Steals Boats. This was mostly a daily drinker for me, somewhat on the nice side of things. The tea's aroma and taste starts off with a nutty and chicory note that made me recall the 2020 W2T Biscuits, but much less rich and sweet. The aroma and taste then veers off to a more tobacco, chicory, wood, and green sheng bite taste. A late brew has a very nice strawberry jam accent in the aroma. Mouthfeel is at about good with somewhat notable astringency. Late brew can have a more milky texture that's nice. Only a bit of mouthcoat for aftertaste. Mild-moderate qi. This didn't really last long, and had two phases, one nutty, one tobacco, presumably due to the differing strengths of the blended material. Anyways, I stopped at around ten-twelve brews.
I did a second tea, the 2019 YS Lao Man'e shu, finishing this off. I'm pretty meh on this shu. I don't find it to be very complex or intriguing or much anything but a pleasant drink with broad strokes in terms of character, flavor. Essentially, it's roughly the same sort of tea as a Star of Menghai--broad deep and potent fermentation taste, with a bitter bite. One thing that was new is that early brews had a distinct subtle yiwu huigan flavor of fruit butter, like apple, pear or plum butter, and this was pretty nice and interesting. Good viscosity. After that yiwu huigan was done, this didn't have much aftertaste. Doesn't feel to have much qi for me this time around.
First tea on Sunday was the '02 Tai Lian. Early brews are nice honey and old puerh herbalness in aroma and taste, and devolves to a sweet dark herbal taste late in the session. Just enough viscosity with a nice soft feel in the mouth. Old astringency that is slickening up nicely. Cooling at top of throat early with a nice yun there. Some mouthcoat the rest of the way. Moderate qi of good quality.
I did a few more of the '05 Menghai Peacock over the week. I'll say this, it stays strong, but I do not really like the smoky strength of the taste.
I also finished up that '99 whatever from two weekends ago--four brews of excellent factory tea. Wish stuff like this is affordable.
Again, nothing much going on.
A thermos of 2010 Essence of Tea Mansai was fairly impressive, but it usually is more reliably impressive in a thermos than gongfu. The notable thing is how good and thick the mouthfeel was, made me think of the 2016 Theasophie LBZ in a good way, and the 2006 XZH Taiji in a bad way. Wowzers caffeine, too--aged caffeine qi ought to be pretty powerful in time. Mansai is right at the border with Myanmar and is part of an area that's often marketed as little LBZ. Mansai's flavor profile is much more like banzhangs than bulangs like Mannuo.
Shu of Friday was 2017 W2T Sunday Special. A touch more complex in taste with a bit of leftover wodui popping up in greater strength than in recent brews. Not mindblowing, but well worth drinking. There was good mouthfeel, enough thickness of taste, a bit of nice mouthcoat, and a bit of qi.
Yesterday's tea was the 2019 YS Jiu Tai Po. This is a pretty decent tea, especially in the early going. However, the experience loses distinction very quickly after only about four brews. There was a number of enjoyable brews after that, but no refined experience.
Chicory, vegetal, and fruity is typical in aroma in early going. Aroma fades quickly in the session. Taste tends to have light chicory, vegetalness that's fairly spicy/aromatic, like marjoram, parsley, etc, and in later brews something of a beer/yeast taste as described by one review at YS for this tea. There tends to be caramel-type notes, and the soup is sweet, usually, but these might be a fast yiwu huigan. Tea can be a bit bitter. Early mouthfeel is very good, very thick and oily with a bit of drying astringency in the very beginning and declining. It becomes thinner and more generic feeling after about four brews. Aftertastes are decent in the first few brews as well with obvious yiwu huigans and fruity yuns before fading. Qi is at moderate.
The first few brews would make the cost of this tea worthwhile for some people, but it gets meh too quickly.
Today I busted out my 2009 XZH Xicontianxiang sheng, broadly the same sort of tea as the '07 Jinggu Nu'ercha, '08 Blessings. I had a really good time because the mouthfeel was really excellent, thick and like runny honey
Aroma is tobacco, sweet and dry florals, honey, a bit of wood. Taste is tobacco and honey early, with hints of sweet floralness, and later brews is more of a artisinal clay taste rather than tobacco and the sweetness is more rock sugar. Early brews are a touch tart. Mouthfeel is as described, lasts a long way before becoming more generic feeling. Main aftertaste is a cooling, sweet mouthcoat, but capable yun, and maybe a very shallow pungent huigan or two. Qi is very easing and unobtrusive, so gotta be about moderate of pretty good quality. I brewed this about fifteen brews, I think.
I think I'm pretty done with any new sheng. Anything I'd want, I can't really afford, and I really want primarily to drink ten years and older tea now. I wish I bought more than just the one tea and the spare back in 2010-11 for many teas I bought then.
A thermos of 2010 Essence of Tea Mansai was fairly impressive, but it usually is more reliably impressive in a thermos than gongfu. The notable thing is how good and thick the mouthfeel was, made me think of the 2016 Theasophie LBZ in a good way, and the 2006 XZH Taiji in a bad way. Wowzers caffeine, too--aged caffeine qi ought to be pretty powerful in time. Mansai is right at the border with Myanmar and is part of an area that's often marketed as little LBZ. Mansai's flavor profile is much more like banzhangs than bulangs like Mannuo.
Shu of Friday was 2017 W2T Sunday Special. A touch more complex in taste with a bit of leftover wodui popping up in greater strength than in recent brews. Not mindblowing, but well worth drinking. There was good mouthfeel, enough thickness of taste, a bit of nice mouthcoat, and a bit of qi.
Yesterday's tea was the 2019 YS Jiu Tai Po. This is a pretty decent tea, especially in the early going. However, the experience loses distinction very quickly after only about four brews. There was a number of enjoyable brews after that, but no refined experience.
Chicory, vegetal, and fruity is typical in aroma in early going. Aroma fades quickly in the session. Taste tends to have light chicory, vegetalness that's fairly spicy/aromatic, like marjoram, parsley, etc, and in later brews something of a beer/yeast taste as described by one review at YS for this tea. There tends to be caramel-type notes, and the soup is sweet, usually, but these might be a fast yiwu huigan. Tea can be a bit bitter. Early mouthfeel is very good, very thick and oily with a bit of drying astringency in the very beginning and declining. It becomes thinner and more generic feeling after about four brews. Aftertastes are decent in the first few brews as well with obvious yiwu huigans and fruity yuns before fading. Qi is at moderate.
The first few brews would make the cost of this tea worthwhile for some people, but it gets meh too quickly.
Today I busted out my 2009 XZH Xicontianxiang sheng, broadly the same sort of tea as the '07 Jinggu Nu'ercha, '08 Blessings. I had a really good time because the mouthfeel was really excellent, thick and like runny honey
Aroma is tobacco, sweet and dry florals, honey, a bit of wood. Taste is tobacco and honey early, with hints of sweet floralness, and later brews is more of a artisinal clay taste rather than tobacco and the sweetness is more rock sugar. Early brews are a touch tart. Mouthfeel is as described, lasts a long way before becoming more generic feeling. Main aftertaste is a cooling, sweet mouthcoat, but capable yun, and maybe a very shallow pungent huigan or two. Qi is very easing and unobtrusive, so gotta be about moderate of pretty good quality. I brewed this about fifteen brews, I think.
I think I'm pretty done with any new sheng. Anything I'd want, I can't really afford, and I really want primarily to drink ten years and older tea now. I wish I bought more than just the one tea and the spare back in 2010-11 for many teas I bought then.
@shah8 - As someone newer to puerh who enjoys reading your posts (thanks for the wealth of knowledge), what would you recommend I do when it comes to acquiring sheng? If indeed the best is too costly to acquire (unless you monitor auctions, have an extensive collection already, or know people), where do you feel the sweet spot is in 2020 moving into 2021?
I live in the US and consider myself willing to spend a lot on the hobby but not $500+ regularly on truly elite productions. Is it just a matter of acquiring the good stuff responsibly and enjoy slowly (very) and sample modest productions from accessible vendors as more of the “daily drinker” territory?
I live in the US and consider myself willing to spend a lot on the hobby but not $500+ regularly on truly elite productions. Is it just a matter of acquiring the good stuff responsibly and enjoy slowly (very) and sample modest productions from accessible vendors as more of the “daily drinker” territory?
Sweet spots were always a personal matter. When the more obvious choices are gone, it becomes more of a weighing game, using personal metrics, much like with what goes on with buying yancha.
Acquiring "good stuff" isn't a matter of "responsibility", but of opportunity. You have windows or opportunity to buy good stuff, and to the extent that it's about money, it's usually about teas that costs way more than people really want to pay for, and doesn't sell quickly.
"daily drinker" is a pretty wide band concept. I have grown disinclined to drink much "daily drinker" teas. Most of them are just too young to be that pleasurable for me. For "daily drinking", I prefer hongcha, particularly Assams and Yunnan hongchapu, western style. Moderately expensive shu ($30-$40/200g) is also more fun for me than cheaper sheng at the same price level. Assams I want to drink are also about $30-$40/200g, but I also drink green and black teas blended with herbs and spices from Lochan Teas that are very cheap.
Got my White2Tea order in and had been drinking shu when I got back from work this week, so I knocking some reviews out before the weekend.
Saturday Mass. It is very much like '19 ZTMDKZ. The shu part is relatively dark and transparent in taste (which accommodates the citrus), sort of like that purity and transparency of the YS '19 Lao Man'e shu. The tea is dominated by citrus zestiness, doens't have much of that medicinal/herbal aged citrus peel aspect. The mouthfeel is top-end thick and is smooth. This tea has a reasonably strong yiwu-huigan to condensed milk-ish sweetness. The qi is also pretty strong. This tea is thicker than ZTMDKZ, but doesn't quite feature that nice fusion of citrus to the shu mouthcoat that ZTMDKZ does. Durability is decent enough. If you already have ZTMDKZ, then this will be a touch redundant. I did not notice much wodui in this tea.
The Stranger. I was surprised that I liked this tea as much as I did. There isn't a lot of wodui in the aroma and taste, and there was a lot to savor and examine in the tea's character, and so it has the nuance to be enjoyed (a bit) as one would sheng.
Aroma tends to fade very fast after the pour. Aroma early tended to be upside-down pineapple cake fruitiness and wet forest floor. There is a little wodui in the initial brew aromas. Mid session tends to have more of a choco aroma with forest floor, and late session bring back a more fruity (mostly pineapple) sense in the aroma. The taste is relatively nuanced in the cup and dynamic in the session with dynamic interplay of soft, high choco, forest floor, wodui, and fruitiness. A touch of nice bitterness is present The session tended to promote a sense I was drinking a shu version of a fruit-forward Bingdao. Moderate to good thickness in the mouth with generic texture, but tends to leave slick feeling in the mouth. Early brews tended to have some electric mouth energy with some cooling, and a touch of throatfeeling. Aftertaste game is pretty good, with early yuns, a bit of floral mouth aroma, but through most of the session with complex mouthcoats. There were also a number of good yiwu huigans to fruitiness. The qi was pretty strong, and probably could use some settling down and aging. I'd say durability was pretty good for a shu. I expect this tea to age like a nice lincang shu would--it does have some pretty green leaves in the finished leaves , so I'm thinking it's likely that there will at least be some transformation to include a fringe of woodiness after ten years of aging or so. So, long term, it will be like the Dengshihai or the nice 7581s of yesteryear. As expensive as it is, I sort of feel that The Stranger is a pretty decent value.
The Nameless One. Off the bat, one thing is very obvious year--abnormally gorgeous cologny-aroma in the early going, which gradually decays to allow choco or fruitiness more of a presence. Wodui is much more present in aroma and taste for Nameless One, compared to Saturday Mass or The Stranger, so in terms of settling down but not aging, Nameless One needs that time more than the other nice shus. The taste has a consistent choco core. The early and late brews has a nice sensate sweetness to it. The early taste also included toffee. Toffee fades as the session progress to mostly just choco, and then choco fades a bit to allow more of a fruit, floral, wood, wodui melange to appear. Viscosity is top end thick, with a sticky and granular texture to it. That granularity does tend to create some throat astringency from time to time. The aftertaste game is subtle (with some interesting lingering tastes, like bitter choco) early and mid session, but in the late session, a very nice butterscotch with fruit tone mouthcoat happens. The qi feels moderate earlier, but all of a sudden feels strong late, giving me the sense that the qi is a bit sneaky. Qi is never as strong as with The Stranger, but I suspect the quality of the qi is better. Durability is pretty decent, did about thirteen brews. I'd say that this isn't as good a value as The Stranger is, but is still materially better than The Stranger, even though it's more of a straightforward shu than The Stranger's psuedo-shengitude.
A quick note on '20 W2T Zero Sum. Did a thermos. Appears to be a blend with the Censors' Guizhou baicha at the core, and with some Fujian and Yunnan Baipu blended in. So for me, this feels like an upgraded Censors, mostly, with a more well rounded white tea as a result.
Editing to add that there doesn't really seem to be a real *menghai* shu among the big new teas, tho' Saturday Mass might be one. That'd mean that Modern Witch '20, should it be the same as the '19, is still relevant in terms of being that dark, rich, and bitter menghai-y shu. Reviews of Loyal Soldier don't give me the impression that it'd be much like Modern Witch or The Great Divide.
Acquiring "good stuff" isn't a matter of "responsibility", but of opportunity. You have windows or opportunity to buy good stuff, and to the extent that it's about money, it's usually about teas that costs way more than people really want to pay for, and doesn't sell quickly.
"daily drinker" is a pretty wide band concept. I have grown disinclined to drink much "daily drinker" teas. Most of them are just too young to be that pleasurable for me. For "daily drinking", I prefer hongcha, particularly Assams and Yunnan hongchapu, western style. Moderately expensive shu ($30-$40/200g) is also more fun for me than cheaper sheng at the same price level. Assams I want to drink are also about $30-$40/200g, but I also drink green and black teas blended with herbs and spices from Lochan Teas that are very cheap.
Got my White2Tea order in and had been drinking shu when I got back from work this week, so I knocking some reviews out before the weekend.
Saturday Mass. It is very much like '19 ZTMDKZ. The shu part is relatively dark and transparent in taste (which accommodates the citrus), sort of like that purity and transparency of the YS '19 Lao Man'e shu. The tea is dominated by citrus zestiness, doens't have much of that medicinal/herbal aged citrus peel aspect. The mouthfeel is top-end thick and is smooth. This tea has a reasonably strong yiwu-huigan to condensed milk-ish sweetness. The qi is also pretty strong. This tea is thicker than ZTMDKZ, but doesn't quite feature that nice fusion of citrus to the shu mouthcoat that ZTMDKZ does. Durability is decent enough. If you already have ZTMDKZ, then this will be a touch redundant. I did not notice much wodui in this tea.
The Stranger. I was surprised that I liked this tea as much as I did. There isn't a lot of wodui in the aroma and taste, and there was a lot to savor and examine in the tea's character, and so it has the nuance to be enjoyed (a bit) as one would sheng.
Aroma tends to fade very fast after the pour. Aroma early tended to be upside-down pineapple cake fruitiness and wet forest floor. There is a little wodui in the initial brew aromas. Mid session tends to have more of a choco aroma with forest floor, and late session bring back a more fruity (mostly pineapple) sense in the aroma. The taste is relatively nuanced in the cup and dynamic in the session with dynamic interplay of soft, high choco, forest floor, wodui, and fruitiness. A touch of nice bitterness is present The session tended to promote a sense I was drinking a shu version of a fruit-forward Bingdao. Moderate to good thickness in the mouth with generic texture, but tends to leave slick feeling in the mouth. Early brews tended to have some electric mouth energy with some cooling, and a touch of throatfeeling. Aftertaste game is pretty good, with early yuns, a bit of floral mouth aroma, but through most of the session with complex mouthcoats. There were also a number of good yiwu huigans to fruitiness. The qi was pretty strong, and probably could use some settling down and aging. I'd say durability was pretty good for a shu. I expect this tea to age like a nice lincang shu would--it does have some pretty green leaves in the finished leaves , so I'm thinking it's likely that there will at least be some transformation to include a fringe of woodiness after ten years of aging or so. So, long term, it will be like the Dengshihai or the nice 7581s of yesteryear. As expensive as it is, I sort of feel that The Stranger is a pretty decent value.
The Nameless One. Off the bat, one thing is very obvious year--abnormally gorgeous cologny-aroma in the early going, which gradually decays to allow choco or fruitiness more of a presence. Wodui is much more present in aroma and taste for Nameless One, compared to Saturday Mass or The Stranger, so in terms of settling down but not aging, Nameless One needs that time more than the other nice shus. The taste has a consistent choco core. The early and late brews has a nice sensate sweetness to it. The early taste also included toffee. Toffee fades as the session progress to mostly just choco, and then choco fades a bit to allow more of a fruit, floral, wood, wodui melange to appear. Viscosity is top end thick, with a sticky and granular texture to it. That granularity does tend to create some throat astringency from time to time. The aftertaste game is subtle (with some interesting lingering tastes, like bitter choco) early and mid session, but in the late session, a very nice butterscotch with fruit tone mouthcoat happens. The qi feels moderate earlier, but all of a sudden feels strong late, giving me the sense that the qi is a bit sneaky. Qi is never as strong as with The Stranger, but I suspect the quality of the qi is better. Durability is pretty decent, did about thirteen brews. I'd say that this isn't as good a value as The Stranger is, but is still materially better than The Stranger, even though it's more of a straightforward shu than The Stranger's psuedo-shengitude.
A quick note on '20 W2T Zero Sum. Did a thermos. Appears to be a blend with the Censors' Guizhou baicha at the core, and with some Fujian and Yunnan Baipu blended in. So for me, this feels like an upgraded Censors, mostly, with a more well rounded white tea as a result.
Editing to add that there doesn't really seem to be a real *menghai* shu among the big new teas, tho' Saturday Mass might be one. That'd mean that Modern Witch '20, should it be the same as the '19, is still relevant in terms of being that dark, rich, and bitter menghai-y shu. Reviews of Loyal Soldier don't give me the impression that it'd be much like Modern Witch or The Great Divide.
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Yesterday was the gongfu of '20 W2T Zero Sum, which I enjoyed well enough to seriously consider buying the cake even though I've spent far too much on tea already.
Censors white tea (particularly the aged "2016") has this sort of pumpkin seed nuttiness that I'm going to call heicha nuttiness, since it's a predominant note in various heicha like fuzhuans from Anhua county.
Aroma is heicha-nutty with honey and sometimes florals. The taste is much more fruity than Censors is, but overall is not as thin and flat as Marion. It typically also has heicha-nutty, honey, and in early brews, floras, light choco, coffee. The mouthfeel has that beeswax texture in the early brews before becoming more generic later, good thickness for a white tea. Censors, particularly the 2016, has a readiness to be fairly astringent that is not present with Zero Sum. Outstanding aftertaste game for a white tea; early brews has a complex and merged interaction between yiwu huigan, mouthcoat and yun. Many brews afterwards has a good yiwu huigan to fruit or a sort of sweet nutmeat-sugars taste. Say, sweetened hazelnut creamer? Qi is about moderate of good quality. The durability is okay, but after the active phase is done, this doesn't change much other than gradually thin in taste, but I certainly liked it enough that I took it about fifteen brews.
I don't find it either that pipe-tobaccoish or creamy in sensibility for either aroma or taste.
The teas today was '20 W2T Planetary Shark Feed shu, single serving dragonball. This is put in my mental filing cabinet as a third grade shu similar to Dayi 7262, v93, Honyun Yuancha 100g cakes, etc. Not too complex, even if a little unfocused. Early brews has choco and fermentation taste, along with a subtle fruit note, then it becomes a subtly herbal note in the fermentation murk. Slight sensate sweetness early and occassionally late in session. A slight proper and pleasant bitterness. There is a sort of sandlewood or whatever, but that's just hopefully leading marketing talk. This sort of shu will eventually develop a sort of papery wood note, though. Good viscosity and smooth. It has a bit of mouthcoat aftertaste and a bit of qi. Does have wodui, so won't be truly ready until about 2023. This isn't particularly special, just something slightly nicer (and more random) than the standard stuff, and it's the sort of stuff where you buy by the kilo tong rather than individual cakes and drink often.
The second tea of the day was the '20 W2T Mirage. This is a relatively tobacco and honey tea that's much like a Mangfei, but it's bigger than Mangfeis usually are and it's substantially sweeter. I can also consider the '18 EoT Nancai subsituteable for this tea as well.
Green sheng, tobacco, honey in aroma, generally, with a bit of floral here and there along with a tendency for sweet honey notes to step forward as the soup cools. The taste is largely the same as the aroma, but more strongly tobacco early and generally green northern sheng later. There is a moderate bitterness that generates some mouthcoat aftertaste. A couple of times, like the aroma, cooling soup leads to more prominence of sweet honey notes. Moderate viscosity with a few brews having a nice velvet texture. Caffeine and qi, at a light to moderate level. I didn't push this tea durability-wise, not interesting enough.
Censors white tea (particularly the aged "2016") has this sort of pumpkin seed nuttiness that I'm going to call heicha nuttiness, since it's a predominant note in various heicha like fuzhuans from Anhua county.
Aroma is heicha-nutty with honey and sometimes florals. The taste is much more fruity than Censors is, but overall is not as thin and flat as Marion. It typically also has heicha-nutty, honey, and in early brews, floras, light choco, coffee. The mouthfeel has that beeswax texture in the early brews before becoming more generic later, good thickness for a white tea. Censors, particularly the 2016, has a readiness to be fairly astringent that is not present with Zero Sum. Outstanding aftertaste game for a white tea; early brews has a complex and merged interaction between yiwu huigan, mouthcoat and yun. Many brews afterwards has a good yiwu huigan to fruit or a sort of sweet nutmeat-sugars taste. Say, sweetened hazelnut creamer? Qi is about moderate of good quality. The durability is okay, but after the active phase is done, this doesn't change much other than gradually thin in taste, but I certainly liked it enough that I took it about fifteen brews.
I don't find it either that pipe-tobaccoish or creamy in sensibility for either aroma or taste.
The teas today was '20 W2T Planetary Shark Feed shu, single serving dragonball. This is put in my mental filing cabinet as a third grade shu similar to Dayi 7262, v93, Honyun Yuancha 100g cakes, etc. Not too complex, even if a little unfocused. Early brews has choco and fermentation taste, along with a subtle fruit note, then it becomes a subtly herbal note in the fermentation murk. Slight sensate sweetness early and occassionally late in session. A slight proper and pleasant bitterness. There is a sort of sandlewood or whatever, but that's just hopefully leading marketing talk. This sort of shu will eventually develop a sort of papery wood note, though. Good viscosity and smooth. It has a bit of mouthcoat aftertaste and a bit of qi. Does have wodui, so won't be truly ready until about 2023. This isn't particularly special, just something slightly nicer (and more random) than the standard stuff, and it's the sort of stuff where you buy by the kilo tong rather than individual cakes and drink often.
The second tea of the day was the '20 W2T Mirage. This is a relatively tobacco and honey tea that's much like a Mangfei, but it's bigger than Mangfeis usually are and it's substantially sweeter. I can also consider the '18 EoT Nancai subsituteable for this tea as well.
Green sheng, tobacco, honey in aroma, generally, with a bit of floral here and there along with a tendency for sweet honey notes to step forward as the soup cools. The taste is largely the same as the aroma, but more strongly tobacco early and generally green northern sheng later. There is a moderate bitterness that generates some mouthcoat aftertaste. A couple of times, like the aroma, cooling soup leads to more prominence of sweet honey notes. Moderate viscosity with a few brews having a nice velvet texture. Caffeine and qi, at a light to moderate level. I didn't push this tea durability-wise, not interesting enough.
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