SOTD- sheng of the day

[shah8]

Only have notes for today's tea due to emergency reboot...so the rest will have to be from memory.

Did thermos of the '20 XZH Taiji maocha and the '19 XZH Taiji. '19 was much darker and more herbal and less vegetal. Both had good thickness and lots of good quality qi. Also, I've been thinking about these teas more, and now I'm switching from the idea that they are elite Wuliang teas to being the proverbial unicorn of a good Laos tea (not the stuff directly across the border that gets sold as high end Yiwu). I believe that Yiwu is pretty well explored by now. There hasn't been a new place since Tianmenshan at around 2012, and other newish places are essentially super micro-areas of the Tongqinghe group, going from Baihuatang, and now Pythonqing, and this one other micro area I can't remember right now. Of course, all of these areas are at least $500/kg. Wuliang teas suffer from the fact that gushu areas are dotted accross the countryside with very small yields, as typical of most northern tea areas--thus the best areas aren't much cheaper than the very best teas further south, like Mojiang county Phoenix' Nest. Laos, on the other hand, is relatively underexplored, so there's always been a chance that a non-GFZ/WGZ area Laos tea would show up that's actually great. Laos tea and Wuliang tea does have some overlap in nature, and Taiji does do stuff similar to both. And in this way, what is clearly Sanhetang's best tea of the very recent years could be cheaper than their named stuff like the '19 Tianmenshan, etc, etc.

The shu of Friday was Loyal Soldier from White2Tea. I liked this session more than I did the first session. One key thing that is true from the blurb is that the soup viscosity is indeed thick and sticky. The character of the aroma and taste is a little unsteady, early brews can have a very nice caramel aspect that fades away and leaves one wanting more. Main regular taste is root herbal, herbal, fermentation depth, gets minerally in late brews like Sunday Special. Not too aggressive about aftertaste, and there is some qi.

The sheng of Saturday was the 2011 XZH Lao Wu Shan, going down the list of XZH Lao Wu Shans. This tea wasn't overstored, unlike the 2010. Can't really remember what the aroma was like, early brews had a bit of that fruit candy sweetness, but it move to a more dark herbal, woody scent. The taste was dark herbal, somewhat similar to a XZH '07 Shangpin from Kuzhushan, but it had a somewhat sweet nannuo carrot nature in that depth. The viscosity was decent and smooth. There was some good cooling, including cooling of the lips. Main aftertaste was a bit of yiwu huigan and some mouthcoat that has the cooling associated with it, and which lingers. The qi was moderate to strong of very nice quality. Not particularly durable.

Compared to the 2010, this 2011 is better stored, is richer and more robust in aroma and taste. It's weaker in terms of nuances in taste and complexity of aftertastes.

The sheng of today, which I have notes for, is some maocha of 2020 XZH Tianmenshan. It is about $1.20 a gram for 50g in a canister, like the 2020 Taiji that is only 51 cents a gram. It is fairly inferior to the Taiji, which has its own problem in being a bit open and vegetal. The TMS is dense and dark in contrast. This TMS maocha can't be the material on the level of the previous cakes of TMS that XZH has done.

The aroma was unusually weak and didn't last that long into the session. It varied a bit, but I think the center of gravity was herbal and mineral, while also having honey, vegetalness, fruit, barnyard, cola as potential elements. The taste while the tea was really going was choco, some bitter tcm, mineral, a touch of cola. This tea isn't very layered in taste and becomes simple pretty quickly. In later long brews, it had a pleasant and consistent light mineral and honey character. The mouthfeel is good, very thick with a pudding texture, doesn't have much astringency. As with the Lao Wu Shan, there is a lot of cooling, and particularly associated with the mouthcoat. There was also a bit of yiwu huigan. The qi was pretty good and somewhat positive tilt. Durability was pretty poor, though. Gotta wonder if it's fall tea.

 

[shah8]

The shu of Friday was the finishing off of the 2015 XZH Xige shu sample. The blurb is pretty similar to the blurb for the 2018 XZH Carefree. There is a bit of similarity, lower fermentation, and the late session move towards an herbal mineralness. It's slightly more expensive. However, I like Carefree much more--Xige is too mild, and frankly, I also like the W2T Loyal Soldier more as well. One reason might be that it has quite a bit of stems involved.

Aroma tends to have a camphor edge to it, along with wood and herbal notes. A caramelish sweetness and some floralness also shows up on occasion. The taste tends to have a fermentation depth, a touch of choco with that depth, herbalness, and bark. When pushed, there is a light bitterness. Root herbal and mineral late. Mouthfeel is okay, decent thickness and smoothness. There is a bit of varied yiwu huigans that also have cooling associated, the white choco yiwu huigans tends to lead to a bit of mouthcoat involving TCM ginsengish, relatively light in character. There is some qi.

I find it a bit interesting just how much more picky I feel I need to be with XZH shu than with sheng. A lot of things are roughly about the same price, but aren't really that much the same quality. I wonder how that happens--labor cost much higher percentage of final cost?

The first sheng today was the W2T 2019 Well, well. My first try some time ago had me thinking that it was one of the soft and sweet Lao Man'e that W2T does, but today, there wasn't a lot of that mushroom sweetness that was present when fresh. So it has felt like a blend of western Yiwu--Gaoshan, Manxiu, and one of the eastern Mansa teas. Overall, it's a nice drinker, with very good mouthfeel and some qi, but it's too mild for me, and I have doubts on how well it will age (in the sense of gains).

Aroma tends to have honey, mineral, nuttiness, high barnyard, a bit of wild honey and herbalness. Can have have some fruitiness in some brews. Early taste tends to be honey and mineral, but a bit later it's more of a wild honey and tobacco (with a tart edge). After that the tea gets higher and fruitier before becoming more of a dark herbal, honey, and mineral taste late. Hints of floralness in taste. Really brewing it hard can bring out bitterness and substance. As mentioned before, the mouthfeel is good, fairly thick with smooth feel. While there is some cooling, only a hint of mouthcoat aftertaste is there early and late brews have a bit of yiwu huigan; this doesn't really have a strong aftertaste game. Qi is at about moderate. Durability is okay, but as before, you have brew pretty firmly before too long into the session.

While I was never excited, this was a decent enough tea.

The second sheng of today was a 4g session of the 2012 XZH Lao Wu Shan. Aside from mouthfeel, this is pretty markedly inferior to the 2010, 2011 Lao Wu Shan. Highly lacking in dynamism, and not much richness in taste or a lot of aftertaste. So far, it still feels like Lao Wu Shan is to Kuzhushan like Xiangchunlin is to Yishanmo. More delicate, floralish, refined, with thicker soup.

Aroma is pretty consistently a wood, honey, and a sort of green vegetalness that's like a cross between a conifer and parsley. There can be a bit of fruit note in aroma. Taste is honey, herbs, and later in the session, some woodsiness. Viscosity is thick with a pudding texture. I've wondered about agricultural techniques, as 2012 was when you started seeing much more thick viscosity puerhs. There is only a bit of aromatic aftertaste when the tea is brewed to a bitterness. Qi is moderate and a bit nice, but this is also below how nice the qi is in the 2010 and '11 teas.

I didn't really attempt to take the two shengs today all that far, but at least for Well, well, I got it to about thirteen brews.

 

[shah8]

Two teas of the day, today, but think I'll be brief...

First was a very good session of the 2006 XZH Lao Man'e. Short active phase of about five brews, but it was very nice with a very appealing aroma that was plummy, honey, wood, and choco at its peak. The taste was pretty similar to LBZ with tangy dark tobacco that has a choco tone with it, along with plumminess and a nice woodiness. Viscosity was good, and generally smooth, but astringency can build up by end of cup. Aftertaste has a lot of forest floralness in yun, mouth aroma. Slight yiwu huigan to sweet nutmeat along with a lingering mouthcoat. There is a strong cooling effect in mouth, and some feeling going down throat. The qi is moderate to strong of pretty good quality. After the good stuff, the tea is still pretty good with a generic depth that has a bit of aromatic woodiness along with decent mouthfeel and qi. Just boring.

The second tea was a 4 gram session of 2013 XZH Lao Wu Shan. I was quite pleasantly surprised by it. I was expecting a decline from 2012, but the overall quality is at least at the level of 2011. The big aspect is a really nice and refined aroma and taste of honey, a nice woodiness, and a distinguished herbalness. In later brews, there are hints of an alternatively sweet nannuo carrot or fruitiness in aroma and taste. The mouthfeel is good too with decent to good thickness and it's smooth. Has same high quality qi as the rest. Aftertaste, while not super great, is also not a zero--capable of a decent if slight mouthcoat and hints of yiwu huigan and mouth aroma. The 2011 LWS has a richer aroma and taste, but they're not quite as nice. The 2013 LWS is notably well stored compared to earlier teas. The 2012, interestingly, is not on the pricelist that I have for XZH currently, so I wonder if it is recognized as not the best or something, or perhaps just casually left off for other reasons. The SRP of $535/400g for any of these teas (have yet to try 2016 sample)is still just too much in my book. The 2013 LWS really reminded me a bunch of the 2010 Koreahao (Wuweisanfang) Kuzhushan that got sent out as samples some time ago. If you liked that tea, I think you're fairly likely to like these LWSs.

 

[shah8]

The shu of Friday was the 2017 White2Tea Sunday Special. Still has some cotton-seedy wodui edge to what is an aromatic soil/woodiness and mineral aroma and main taste. There is a bit of fermentation depth with touches of root herbal and cola in later brews. Decent mouthfeel. A bit of yiwu huigan to sweetness that is found in many decent shu teas. Good qi. Not a very complex teas, and it's relatively thin tasting and mineral. Heh, as I'm writing this, I'm comparing with the Nuo Xiang also sold by White2Tea. Not that different in broad style, butNuoXiang is more decisively woody in a more nuanced soup, has less fermentation depth. Of course, I took this tea down to compare with '18 XZH Carefree. Carefree has a lot more going on, and it's more astringent, but it does have a somewhat similar long brew with fementation depth, root herbal etc, etc. Anyways, I enjoyed this session a lot, despite its simplicity. Aging hasn't changed this tea much other than making it less erratic in a session, and with more of a sense of itself.

The first sheng of the weekend was the 2020 Essence of Tea Tianmenshan. The new Essence of Tea pressings came out and I went ahead and bought the Baihuatan, Youle, and the 2012 Cloud Watching. Therefore, I decided to finally have my last full try of the TMS today. It turned out to be decent enough, but it's definitely pretty far from what a good TMS is like.

The aroma and taste typically has a dark roasted grains aspect to things. Early aroma has more vegetalness and minerals, while later aroma is more dominated by a custard note. Honey and fruitiness poke out here and there. Some cups, if you wait a bit for the soup to cool, with have an excellent floralness that verges on to incense. The early taste has a bit of vegetalness and choco, but that quickly switches over to a roasted grains and bitter TCM note with a tartness and a bit of vegetalness. Late brews has the bitter tcm fading, and replaced by a light custard note as with the aroma, with a touch of roasted grains, much higher than when the session started, and a touch of honey. The mouthfeel is pretty good. Good viscosity, and earlier on, it has a silky-pudding texture that is nice, but it quickly turns to a generic texture. Not that high in astringency until late, but there was one cup with a bit of astringency in throat. Aftertaste game is fairly weak, only managing a bit of sweet herbal mouthcoat consistently. The qi however, is at about moderate, but with that positive tilt that definitely improved my mood today. Durability...meh, it doesn't take long before it's a light custardy taste, but that taste does seem to continue through many brews, and I stopped before I wrung out all the flavor.

Yeah, nobody is going to be getting great TMS at $1.20/g. The flip side is that...well, if you're not getting TMS from Sanhetang, the best easy to purchase TMS is the yiwuteamountain dragonball--at more than $3/g. This is why I'm anticipating the Baihuatang primarily as tuition. The good stuff is way more than $1.4/g. I just wanna have an idea of what one would call a Baihuatang. Interesting to me, the EoT TMS' roasted grain aspect is not typical of TMS, which tends towards more dark herbal on the one hand, and honey-floralish on the other. So who knows what I'll get with the BHT. Better bet that the Youle or Cloud Watching will be better teas...maybe?

The second tea of the day was the XZH '07 Jipin. Profoundly enjoyable. There was a couple of brews with some sourness. Otherwise, it has a really signature mushroominess much like a shiitake or some other woodsy wild thing (and not Menghai mushroom like what you'd find in Nannuo, Mengsong or the mushroominess found in Chawangshu through Bohetang axis in Mansa). Plumminess also consistently there--not a very dynamic tea in terms of top taste. Very smooth mouthfeel and feeling goes down throat. Sedate, spreading aftertaste that segues from yiwu huigan to mouthcoat and then yun. Early brews has some pungent shallow huigan in throat. A number of brews had a lovely strawberry jam aspect that seems to be a very fast yiwu huigan. Hmmm, strawberry jam and mushroom... Great qi, and one that lasts a long time after the cup is finished. Extremely durable-I made sure to do flash brews until I was sure I could step up times. I was probably at about seventeen brews before finally giving up for the day, and likely will do a few more tomorrow before finally throwing out the leaves. Jipin is slowly, but surely turning into an aged tea worth anticipating.

 

[shah8]

Eh, nothing too complex today...

I did a few more brews of Jipin before throwing it out.

First new tea was the 2001 dual neifei Purple in Yellow from Houde, finishing off the sample. It's just nice traditional storage that's well dried out. Pretty ruby colored soup. Dark herbal and grain syrup sweetness for aroma and taste. Not much aftertaste beyond a touch of yiwu huigan and not much qi. I much prefer good shu over traditional storage teas. Stronger thickness of taste and depth, even if ultimately fake, and more softer and comfortable to drink.

Then I did 2019 Fall YiwuTeaMountain Gaoshanzhai. It's pretty good, fairly standard gaoshan aroma and taste, stronger honey sweetness than usual gaoshan. good viscosity. a touch of mouthcoat and a touch of qi. I spent some time comparing with W2T's Well, Well. Well, well is thicker viscosity, with stronger qi, and maybe a slight touch more aftertaste. More muted aroma and taste.

 

[shah8]

Nothing too fancy this weekend.

The shu of Friday was the 2007 Denshihai, the first bit from the tong I bought so long ago, having finished that first cake. I'm satisfied I didn't buy a tong of fake tea! It's pretty much the same as it has always been, but noted this session in that most of the early brew is quite thin in taste, and the later brews with some depth to it is quite soft. Very ethereal camphor-wood. Qi is strong. Nice active cooling feel. Some mouthcoat aftertaste, maybe some subtle yiwu huigan. I also compared this tea to the NuoXiang from White2tea, lots of food for thought with that tea!

The main sheng of yesterday was the 2020 Essence of Tea Lao Jie Zi. A year's worth of settling down made for a tea that I enjoyed more than with my first try. The balance of flavors was more obvious and enjoyable rather than a bit boring. It's too weak in the aftertaste department to be considered as something truly excellent, though.

Aroma and taste has varying levels of green shenginess, wild honey, honey, fruit (that handwaves towards cantelope) a bit of higher barnyard and some mineral. The taste also had a tcm bitter pole for a stretch. Everything is nuanced and flavors seamlessly flow with and in one another, making it entertaining to explore. In the long midsession, the taste is anchored by a mushroom taste similar to what one finds with Yishanmo teas. In the later part of the session, the taste becomes more unbalanced towards a fruity mineralness. The mouthfeel is excellent. very thick viscosity with a pudding, slightly velvet texture, and the mouthfeel is pretty durable and largely outlasts meaningful flavor. A touch of astringency. There isn't much aftertastes, though, some light sweet herbal mouthcoat early, the stuff the tcm bitter generates. A yun early as well. A wandering sense of cooling in the mouth might have been more impressive. The qi is about moderate, but it is of good quality. Durability was some like fifteen to eighteen brews.

As with most of the Essence of Tea stuff, this is a touch expensive for what it is, but this is going to be true of most name Yiwu places unless you buy older teas.

The second tea of the day was the last Lao Wu Shan sample from XZH, 2016. Basically the same as the 2013, but less refined, and not as good. Still quite pleasant, kind of had this sort of tea grow on me...

The tea today was the 2009 XZH Fengshabao. Not as vegetal as it could be today. Was pretty good. Mouthfeel not as good as Lao Jie Zi. Qi is stronger but not as high a quality. Stronger aroma, richer deeper taste, sort of raisins, wood, spices sort of thing. Aftertaste is well better, though. I did my jog afterwards, and I was constantly salivating like I had some kind of wintergreen hard candy in my mouth and this was quite enjoyable.

 

[shah8]

Nothing too unusual this weekend.

The shu of friday was the trusty ole '07 Dayi Anxiang. Trusty in being absolutely excellent in what I care about--qi and aftertaste game. Primary weakness of this shu is that it's relatively thin and delicate in terms of primary taste--bulang barnyard-choco, papery wood. Gets more paper-wood later in the session.

The first sheng of Saturday was the 2006 Teahorse from Essence of Tea. I liked it okay, but it's way too mellow and simple (in a way, say, that Lao Jie Zi, is not), and fairly low in dynamism. It has a Northern Menghai dark tobaccoey raision nature you find in some Heikais, Pashas, LBZs, etc. The tobacco can easily be interpreted as a nice aromatic wood. That's both aroma and taste. Mouthfeel is decent, good enough viscosity with a slight disposition to be sticky in texture early. There's some mouthcoat and associated cooling. Some mild-moderate qi. This is a fairly nice drinker. It has the problems that I associated with the XZH '07 Yuanshilin, which is also a Hekai that has had too much oxidation in at least part of the blend--, but the oxidation issue is a touch worse with the Teahorse cake.

I decide to move on and did a session of '02 Tailian. Was pretty good, had a noticably strong and thick honey aroma, some floralness. My chunks was mostly mulch so it was potent, made all the worse with one brew clogging the pot and making for a powerful and bitter cup. Took a bit to recover from that. It's almost twenty years old and the cake isn't brown. And I like it like that. I have a cake that I thought was a fake for the longest time that has had humidity--so it has some dark flavors, etc, etc. But it's not really less capable of bitterness and the qi/aftertastes are really not as good. And when I got it, the humid stored cake clearly has had some myco issues, which interesting enough to me, has faded such that I don't need to have a wash brew anymores. Myco issues also faded with that 6ftm shu that I like a lot as well...hmmm, just gotta hold tea some time, huh?

The tea today was some XZH '07 Xishangmeishao. Quite good as usual--character is aromatic wood, spices, butter, and a kind of substantial/sober sort of caramel. Strong qi, great aftertastes as usual. Noted that XZH '07 Jipin has essentially caught up to this tea, such that Xishangmeishao is only superior in terms of aftertaste game. Very durable tea, with active phase not yet exhausted (at least in terms of aftertastes) around brew fourteen to sixteen before being put in the fridge. Was delivering brew after brew of buttery caramel with nuancy aftertaste and a touch of chicory finish.

 

[shah8]

Mostly a bunch of familiar stuff this weekend...

The shu of Friday was the '09 XZH Xicontianxiang. As usual, it was very deep and concentrated tasting. The aroma was rather sophisticated woodsy floral, in comparison to the simpler taste. Good viscosity, good qi, not particularly interesting in aftertastes. Nice session overall, but some comparing to the '04 6FTM shu made me antsy about getting more of that shu--it's similar to the XZH, but more complex and fun to drink.

The first sheng of Saturday was the '19 YiwuTeaMountain Bohetang Huangpian. Hmph, without the novelty of trying it the first time, I was bugged alot more by the huangpian nature of the tea. It had some green sheng character in aroma and taste, there was some mineral in taste. There is some positive nuttiness, mushroom in the aroma and taste much of the way, some fruitiness at a couple of points. There also can be a harsh tartness and a general sourness in the early session. Best thing about the tea is the mouthfeel, only moderate viscosity, but a very tender, soft, velvet texture. Some mouthcoat with cooling associated early, and some yiwu huigan to caramel in later brews. Qi of decent strength, but not remarkable quality. I didn't take this tea a long way as I didn't enjoy it that much.

The next tea was the 2007 YQH Lingya. It was quite enjoyable, essentially because of a strong, good quality qi. Aroma and taste weren't remarkable, hueing broadly to southeastern Mansa like Tongqinghe themes. You had a delicate aroma and a thin taste of barnyard and nannuor carroty around a pole of tcm bitter that may have a touch of choco to it. Good mouthfeel, a little aftertaste. However, what really got me mellow was a strong, long lasting qi that promoted a good sense of wellbeing. I didn't push this too hard either. '07 YQH Qizhong is much richer in aroma and taste, but doesn't have this qi, and is less pleasant to drink.

One tea today, which was my 500g version of the Houde Zhencang Chawang. There have been a renewed discussion about the various '04 Zhencang Chawangs out there. Apparently there are three 500g YQH teas with the Zhencang Chawang-ish wrapper, along with a 400g Zhencang Chawang. Reading and writing about it had me interested enough to take out my 500g tea from Houde and try it. I found it to be outstanding, with the only flaw being that it's a relatively high and thin tea. Some people thought this was like the Tejipin, but my try and my reading of other people's try is that it's somewhat leathery and smokey, which is not true of my tea. The main similarity is that the Tejipin is thin and delicate in taste. Yang has described the Zhencang Chawang as being GFZ area. This ZCCW has little in common with the southern GFZ rim, and for a stretch of this session, it had a plummy barnyard depth that made me compare with more western Yiwu stuff like '06 Dayou 858 Museum or the '06 XZH Third Anniversary silk wrapper Yiwu. It wasn't very mushroomy, but what the ZCCW was most like was the '08 Auspicious Chawangshu, and as I said, this was a very good session.

Aroma is barnyard, plummy, honey or thereabout earlier on, before it gradually changes to a more light aromatic wood, herbal, honey aroma in late session. First few brews are a barnyard, honey, and plummy depth with a rod of tartness that is narrow, sharp and doesn't linger, so it does the same thing as bitterness. First tartness, then plummy, and then barnyard loses its grip and the taste becomes a strongly sensate sweet honey with a touch of woodsap and herbals providing a bit of depth. A few more brews and it's just a honey brew without the sensate sweetness. The mouthfeel is good, moderate viscosity with a light astringency that gives a somewhat silky texture. Astringency does grow as the session moves on. The aftertastes were great early, with a seamless yiwu huigan to mouthcoat and with developing lingering flavors. Flavors also dance in the throat in the sort of yun-ish pungent huigan. After the first five or so brews, where I took a long time savoring these cups, the aftertaste game settles down to a more standard, singular nice mouthcoat or yun before petering out late. The qi is strong and of high quality, of course. I put this in the fridge after about fourteen or so brews and with plenty still left in the tank.

Definitely one of the best YQH teas, mostly on the back of an outstanding aftertaste game.

 

[shah8]

I got in my EoT order this week, so I did some thermoses...

Got a free sample of Secret Forest wild tea. Pretty meh for me, I'm long past interested in any wild tea.

Thermos of Cloud Watching...First brew had strong soapy floralness. Not sure it's not the soap that I used to clean it out, the day before. Otherwise, it's a fairly narrow and deep tea. Kind of like a Thai tea, but with a Southern Bulang nature. Some nuances in the depth, good qi.

Thermos of Baihuaqing...was pretty good, and pretty similar to how the thermos of the '14 YiwuTeaMountain Tongqinghe was. First pour had a bit of that vanilla ice cream finish I like. There was a lot of nuances vaguely like fruit in depth. There was also a lot of a certain medicinal effect nature, like spearment, wintergreen, cinnamon in it as well. moderate qi.

Thermos of '07 YQH Lingya (because I think it might be a related tea to baihuaqing). The bitter core was sort of the same as the baihuaqing, but thinner taste with a bit of the nannuo carrot sweetness.

The shu of Friday was Modern Witch from W2T, 2019. It's settling on down, but it still has some cottonseed wodui. A shu that is a relatively high tasting version of lao man'e based shu like the YS or W2T The Great Divide, with an unusually strong fruity nature to it. I brewed this with an eye toward comparing with W2T Loyal Soldier. Loyal Soldier is clearly more potent in terms of aftertaste and qi, but I really enjoyed how Modern Witch generated feeling in the mouth and throat along with the more subtle aftertastes. Modern Witch is clearly more coordinated and coherent than Loyal Soldier. Needs a bunch more years of aging, though.

The tea today was the 2021 Essence of Tea Baihuaqing. I did a ton of comparing with a number of other teas as I drank this. Stuff is beginning to run together and all dem forest teas are tasting alike for me! Anyways, I broadly had a reaction to this similar to 2015 XZH Hongyin. I also thought a lot about the 2019 BYH Bohetang, and oddly enough, the 2020 W2T I Am.

The aroma early had alkaline florals, mushroom, some fruit, a touch of green sheng. As the steeps progress, barnyard becomes central, with caramel, wood playing supporting roles. The taste has a tcm bitter pole throughout. Early brews had a chicory dominated taste with mushroom and subtle shadings of barnyardy fruitiness. Later brews has the chicory fading, becoming more mushroom, and eventually becoming more empty mineral and more prominent fruitiness. The mouthfeel was pretty good--viscosity bounces around a lot from enough to pretty good, but it had a good pudding texture most of the way through. Moderate astringency, does fade late. Strong capacity for cooling of lips and mouth. There is a fast yiwu huigan to caramel that tends to place it among main flavors, and sometimes a slower yiwu huigan to fruit. This didn't really have another notable aftertaste until after a rest period, where I got a couple of yuns. The qi is about strong and of decent quality. Seems to be fairly durable, took it about fourteen brews, hafta dump for tomorrow's tea...but it had plenty left.

I think it's better than the 2020 EoT Tianmenshan in ways other than qi, but the 2020 Lao Jie Zi is probably better, particularly over the short run. The alkaline florals, chicory, and thick mouthfeel made me think of the 2015 XZH Hongyin, and the way that the tea was not particularly dynamic in the first stretch of brewing and so was kind of boring but after a rest becomes subtly enjoyable. The same with W2T I am. 2015 Hongyin isn't very mushroomy though. This was a relatively sweet caramel-y mushroom tea that reminded me a lot of the 2019 BYH Bohetang or the big YTM 2020 BHT blend that also has a sweet mushroomy taste, even though the EoT doesn't have the savory florals. I definitely like teas with a pleasantly bitter TCM bitter pole like this tea does. Now I have a hankering to retry all of these teas I mentioned.

 

[shah8]

Yesterday I did a couple of teas...

The first tea was the Essence of Tea 2012 Cloud Watching. Interestingly enough to me, this is effectively a Thai type tea even though it was picked from trees on the Xishuangbanna/Myanmar border. While I enjoyed this tea, in comparison to what's on offer from TeaSide, Cloud Watching is a fairly expensive tea in comparison. One could get a 357g cake of one of the 2006 Thais and, say, 2014 Fox 200g for less than one 357g cake of Cloud Watching. And those Teaside teas aren't going to be overmatched by regular puerh's greater richness...

The aroma and taste are generally similar--a kind of dark herbalness (a little like licorice), maybe a touch of gamey with that darkness, along with a citrusy sweet herbal. There can also be a woody herbal taste as the citrusy brightness fades in later brews. There is a firm, pretty traditionally Thai, bitterness that's always there. The viscosity is good with a pudding texture some of the way into the session. In the early part of the session, there is plenty of cooling feeling, some mouthcoat and some yuns. Later, most aftertaste is the lingering aftermath of the bitterness. Qi is strong, pretty decent quality. Very durable. I wound up doing a lot of brews and continued with more today because I enjoyed the taste profile, mouthfeel and qi. It doesn't actually ever get bland.

The second tea of the day was the 2020 YiwuTeaMountain Gaoshan. Disappointment, as it's obviously green tea, with a green string bean flat taste. It's not too bad in the very earliest brews with plenty of honey in the taste and in yiwu huigan, along with touches of leather and florals that fades into greeness as session goes on. Viscosity is moderate with a bit of astringency. A little bit of qi Yuns very early. As one might guess, this tea gets boring very quickly. I was expecting this tea to be nicer than the 2019 Fall that was pretty acceptable.

Two teas today.

For the holiday, well the paid holiday day, I did the 2009 XZH GFZ. It is quite excellent with the only flaw being that the astringency is definitely at the moderate level. Much like the '05 YQH long name with the potency of the '07 YQH Wushang Miaopin.

Aroma and taste is pretty simple--plummy, honey, and a woody/wood herbal fringe. It gets a bit more woody in the taste of later brews. Aroma is generally light, tho', but taste is very full. The mouthfeel is very good, thick viscosity, soft oily-pudding texture, moderate astringency. Feeling goes down throat a bit. Strong aftertaste game with yiwu huigan to wine, custard, yuns, plenty of shallow pungent huigan, lasting mouthcoats, including a particularly nice and long lasting sweet fruity mouthcoat that caused salivation. Qi is strong and of good quality. Absolutely and thorougly enjoyed. It's weird, though, that the taste wasn't as dark and complex as it was in my first session with this cake--not so herbal, no halibut umami, etc.

The second tea was some shu, the 2020 W2T Amalgamation of Capital. About the same as it was last time. A gongting shu that's more mineral than these teas usually are. Along with the usual deep choco-tinged barnyard fermentation taste, there is a touch of that toffee/caramel sweetness that is also in W2T Nameless. Good viscosity, not much aftertaste, good qi.

 

[shah8]

Not too complicated a tea weekend...

The shu of Friday was 2020 W2T The Stranger. I wanted to see how it stacked up against Amalgamation of Capital, as these two are similarly priced per gram. The Stranger won pretty easily. It had a floral-woodsy sort of herbly aroma. There is some depth, with a lot of fruit for a shu. Lots of cooling feel. good qi. I don't really remember too much in the way of aftertaste, but I do remember thinking about how it compared to Loyal Soldier, and it beats that shu pretty easily as well. This session didn't have much in the way of woidui, and seems to have settled pretty fast for a lighter fermented shu.

The first tea of yesterday was the Essence of Tea Youle Gaogan. I basically think that it is pretty good, but feels underpowered. It's not precisely underpowered, but... This tea does a bit of the stuff of higher end teas that leaves an expectation of more substance that it doesn't really fullfill. I sort of think this effect is probably caused by overpicking over the years. Lastly, for me, it's a bit unusual in the sense that the Mengla (Youle being usually a blend of Menghai and Mengla characters) aspect are a bit more typical of Manzhuan area teas, much less floral in the way of yibang or gedeng teas, along with a big solid round taste.

Aroma doesn't last very long into the session. However, do take care to note aroma in empty cups and pitchers, stronger than usual aroma sticking there. Anyways, what aroma in the cup changes a lot in every cup it exists. From lots of green sheng-mushroom with cupcake and florals, to barnyard and choco, to wood, herbal, and fruit, to vague honeysucklish aroma afterwards, when there is some aroma. The taste is fairly Menghai (in the sense of Pasha/Banzhang), green mushroom, barnyard, a touch of choco (fresh 2021, so early for that sort of thing, tweaked?), aromatic wood, barnyard, and a bit of bitterness. The taste bends towards lots of menghai honey mid session, and then becomes mostly Mengla fruity with slight Menghai nature still hanging around. There is a slight medicinal character early in the session that adds some cooling feel. Viscosity is good, at least early on, with some pudding texture, but it does mostly go on a downswing in thickness and character as the session goes on, until late. This is a moderately astringent tea, and in very late session brews, fairly strong astringency. Early brews had a reasonably vigorous aftertaste game, but this declines pretty quickly to a bit of mouthcoat later. However, there is floral mouth aroma, some tonguetip sensate sweetness, and some yiwu huigan in addition to mouthcoat very early. Strong cooling as mentioned before, and it does create a bit of feeling at the top of the throat. Qi starts off mild moderate and builds to a respectable and pleasant strength over the course of the session. Durability is pretty good, and lasted at least fifteen brews, maybe eighteen or nineteen over a couple of days before throwing it out on account of low flavor high astringency wanting new tea.

I think this Youle has a fairly favorable aging prospect as a tea, like Pasha, LBZ, the stiffer Manzhuan, but higher and fruitier. The tea is fairly expensive, and I don't think the value proposition is particularly great. Genuinely comparable stuff is about as expensive or more among the new teas from the shops I'm aware of--truly good Pasha, banzhang area, and Manzhaun are no bleep expensive. Comparing with similar priced YiwuTeaMountain stuff, or with W2T items like Queen of Clubs, the Youle does well, but it still feels underpowered--e.g., capable of full fledged gushu aftertaste game(but only fleeting) in a way not true of, say YTM 2020 Tianmenshan maocha...

The second tea of the day on Saturday was the 2017 XZH Maniac 4g. It's basically a simulation of a very fancy, very delicate, and very sweet green tea. Not green tea, but still... I like it, but I would only ever view this as an expensive drinker in the way I'd drink a great green tea with lots of aftertaste. If this were cheap, I'd like some, of course.

Aroma is generally alkaline florals, with some dry florals, fruitiness, and sugaryness from time to time. Taste has a buttered zucchini, sugars, and floral nature that doesn't change that much over the session. There is a bit of chicory early. A touch of bitterness here and there. The viscosity is good, but not as impressive as I remember it. The texture is still quite good and soft. Numbs the tongue early and there are plenty of cooling feels. Aftertaste game is pretty singular, lots of lingering mouthcoats, lingering yuns, tonguetip sweetness, fairly one thing at a time sort of thing, but they linger for a long time and plenty of savoring. Good qi. Didn't press too much on durability, sort of got bored, and 4g sessions are a touch more effort to do, the way I do things.

Sheng of the day today was the 2008 XZH Blessings Iron. Trusty, reliable, and truly gushu in a way so many teas today are not. If it ever shows up again on FB auction, I'm bidding for a third cake.

 

[shah8]

Again, nothing too exciting going on...

The shu of Friday was the 2006 Taipei Memorial. Thicker, deeper, and more concentrated taste than usual, choco, barnyard, all that good northern Menghai shu stuff, in a 7572 format. Potent qi and very strong mouthcoats, so it was a very enjoyable session for me, better than usual from this tea.

Yesterday's first tea was 2007 XZH Mengsong. It was a pretty good session, but quite shortlived for practical purposes. It was somewhat more livelier than usual with a certain floral woodiness in aroma and taste. But anyways, the appeal of this as a substitute bitter leaf LBZ is largely unchanged. floral wood, tcm bitter rod, dark choco, deep barnyard, with subtle underlying honey plumminess that's more overt late in the taste. Good viscosity, qi, but not too much in the way of aftertastes. I ended the session thinking that with another decade, this will be a very good tea with aging bringing out more oomph in taste for the late part of the session. However, the northern XZH teas from '07 probably will outpace this even more by then.

The second tea yesterday was a 2020 Tianmenshan maocha sample bag--probably either from XZH or YiwuTeaMountain. It was nice enough, but it wasn't very good. It seems obvious to me that some of this tea is younger tree stuff with a fairly strong green vegetal note that fades into something more recognizably dark herbal TMS taste.

Aroma is mostly green sheng vegetalness, not too unlike the northern teas EoT has done, like the Jinggu or Boundless. What there was of late brew aroma is more, slightly dark, herbly aromas. The taste was green vegetalness and dark herbal much of the way, before the green fades and the tea was mostly a pleasantly herbal taste. The tea is capable of some sensate sweetness in the taste. Viscosity is good, a touch of pudding texture, somewhat moderate astringency. There is a bit of aftertaste game. A touch of floral mouth aroma, some yun and feeling at top of the throat, a bit of mouthcoat, and some yiwu huigan to sweetness. Qi is on the stronger side of moderate, but not particularly interesting. The big issue with the tea is that it's all broad brushes, and not a whole lot of finesse, so I didn't really push to see what the durability is really like. It certainly takes after the TMS like the 2017 XZH, where it's more of a LBZ behaving sort of thing, but this sample doesn't have the strength of solidity to really mimic that. Noted that the EoT Baihuaqing is much superior to this stuff.

The tea today was the 1990's Essence of Tea Qingbing. This was a pleasant and enjoyable tea that is better than many teas one could get from the '90s. It does get boring relatively quickly unless one remembers to up that steep time more than usual.

The taste and aroma gets more generic late. I noted that there is substantially less nannuo carrot today than when I had it the first time. While it was going, the aroma was quite nice, with a good wood element, some choco, barnyard, herbalness, mushroom base and a bit of camphor. The taste has some metallic tartness early, but with wood, slightly sweet mushroom, a bit of dark barnyard, choco, and camphor to round things out. The cooler late soup taste in early brews can have a distinct fruitiness. The mouthfeel was decent, a decent viscosity and a velvet texture, but can be astringent. A very capable cooling mouthcoat that is sweet and lingers nicely. Also has a slight yun and feeling down throat. Qi is moderate with some of the niceness of what aged tea qi presents. I didn't push this tea too much either, as I quickly got to a generic, muddled aroma and taste of mushroom-barnyard-fruitiness that was soft and not very distinct, until the last one where I brewed it a lot longer than usual and got some distinct flavors around a stronger deep barnyard note. This went into the fridge for weekday brewing.

 

[shah8]

Lots of tea to go over in this little diary, let's speed through them...

The shu of Friday was the 2017 XZH Peach Drunk shu version. This did not have a strong aftertaste game or remarkable qi, but what it did have was a fairly strong and deep taste and good aroma.

Woodsy floralness in the aroma of most brews, some dark herbals occasionally as well. Taste is consistently dark herbal with some choco and a coffee accent along with the usual shu fermentation depth. Late brews rises in taste, gets a little aromatic soil, generally more simpler taste as expected. Viscosity is good. There is a bit of mouthcoat early, and some yiwu huigan late in the session. Qi is moderate and sort of builds in a sneaky way. good enough. Seems to be durable enough, but wasn't pushed.

The first tea of Saturday was the White2Tea 2021 Diao Retro. I liked this tea, it gives me a sense of a blend between young tree Wangong and old tree Mengku. It is, however, a strong tea, and it's hard on the stomach and body in general. There were lots of hints in the blurb, but this is decisively a tea you store, tho' it's tasty enough now. Another thing I noted is that (perhaps my expectations are mistaken--I haven't really drunk enough $100/200g tea to be sure) this tea punches above what its dollars per gram ratio suggests.

As expected with a blend like this, the aroma and tastes are jumbled and vary to a degree from brew to brew. It usually had some green sheng, mushroom, dry florals, and touch of fruit early on, becomes more progressively sweet mushroom with occasional other notes in some brews like herbals and wild honey. Tastes starts off being wild honey and tcm bitter like yibang/gedeng/some wangongs. There can be fruit and herbal notes in some brews. The taste also bends towards mushroom notes as the session goes on as the soup rises and wild honey/tcm fades. The viscosity is generally decent, not much distinguishing texture, but definitely moderate astringency. There is plenty of cooling. A bit of mouthcoat, but definitely a good yun. The mouthcoat was enjoyably long lasting for my run. Some decent yiwu huigan to fruitiness is there, and very occasional ones to sugars. Qi is strong. Durability feels like it would be quite good, but I stopped well before fully testing that out.

The second tea of the day was some XZH hongcha made from yesheng. It was decent enough, very strong and solid plumminess/slight winey. There is a nice bitter pole. There is also a nice resiny wood aroma and taste aspect. Decent mouthcoat, a bit of qi, nothing particuarly outstanding as hongchapus go.

The first tea today was the 2005 YQH Yibang. This was pretty educational. Can obviously dry a line from something like the 2016 EoT Yibang and this tea. Early brews are really good, but quickly requires very firm brewing hand.

Aroma is bark, dark herbal, woodiness, maybe a high plumminess with an idea of dried apples. This eventually fades towards a more generic herbal sense. Taste early was a smooth, soft, and broad dark herbal taste with a bitter tcm pole, a wood fringe, and a bit of fruitiness towards dried apples. The viscosity is good with a velvet texture. Astringency builds toward moderate level and fades from there. Lots of cooling feel, and there is a subtle feeling that sort of feels like it goes down throat but not quite? Good winey mouthcoat, good yun, and some fast yiwu huigan to caramel. Qi is moderate-strong and of excellent quality. Drank first few brews slowly, but then soup became boring before I became a lot more aggressive in lengthening brew times. I probably brewed about ten times or so.

There were never many of these cakes sold, so it was mostly a learning opportunity. One thing it did do is make me appreciate the Qixiang a bit more, and the general idea of blending yibang small-leaf with broad leaf tea as Tony Chen has done. Small leaf teas generally will not make as good aged tea as comparable quality broadleaf teas--dynamic period is so short and can quickly get boring.

I did something labeled 2018 YQH lincang maocha last. This was dark stuff so I thought maybe it was older than usual, but it turned out to be wild tea. It was nice enough. Has a foetid barnyard aspect, and was sort of meaty, but it's less odd and lemon sour than many such wild teas are, with more sweet flavors, but it's still just wild tea, have one, pretty much have 'em all.

 

[shah8]

Lots of good teas to go through...

First the YQH '18 Lincang wild tea maocha did a lot of rather good brews in the long brews during the week. Still wild tea, but a rather refined, slightly full for wild tea taste.

The shu of Friday was the W2T mid-teens Failcorp shu. I enjoyed this more than I did on my first try. The main weakness is still there, it's somewhat thin in taste with rather little shu fermentation taste. Paper woody light aroma, paper wood in taste along with some choco and a core deep plumminess. There can be a slight sourness. The viscosity is okay. Aftertastes tends to be a rather subtle yiwu huigan and mouthcoat. It generally has strong qi. I compared it to things like An Xiang and v93 for the kind of paper wood it has, the Star of Menghai for the deep plummy surrounded by bulang barnyard/choco, and a bit to the Taipei memorial on account of the thinness of the taste, strong qi, and the aftertaste games are similar even if Taipei is much stronger. Not a bad value at all at W2T.

The first tea of the weekend was the XZH '11 Classic Yibang. Great tea, a notch or two below '14 XZH Hongyin Grade A. It is smaller than the '05 YQH Yibang and doesn't have the peak in refinement that the YQH has early. It is a very subtle tea that rewards thoughtful drinking with concentration. Like all the other yibangs, it has a short active phase, but long brews were quite enjoyable.

The aroma is pretty dynamic over the session, but a recurring aspect in a very melded aroma was caramel and dry florals. There can also be nuanced high barnyard with a suggestion of fruitiness present. Tcm bitter actually made into the aroma in one brew. Caramel, a slight tcm bitter pole, wood is generally what the earlier brews taste like, but later on, it gets more dark herbal, barnyard. In the very late long brews this morning it's tcm bitter, a touch of barnyard, and caramel. Mouthfeel is great, good viscosity with a feeling of high structure pudding/velvet texture. A light bit of drying astringency. There's a bit of cooling. Aftertastes are relatively subtle. There is mouthcoat most of the way with the best part being a buildup of winey notes, and by the very last cup, a nice long lingering mouthcoat was releasing flavors. A few brews had yiwu huigan to caramel and fruitiness, and a bunch did a nice long yun.

One thing piques me in that while most of these small leaf teas has some clear issues with being great agers, gedeng teas seems to me have been a more consistent good ager. Wonder if it's just that I'm drinking better gedeng than yibang.

The next tea of Saturday was the W2T Sentinel. Opinions haven't changed much. It's not really a hongchapu that diverges all that much from hongchapu traits, but it does what it does very well, with balance and a few flourishes as well, and is pretty recommendable. Aroma has usual hongchapu with a certain kind of dull, sober honey, and a nice floral aspect. The taste has your standard hongchapu character with sour plummy malt, but it also tends to have a certain kind of honey nature, sometimes overt, sometimes subvert. There is a wood and herbal fringe. Late brews tend to produce a nice peach tone as well as a reduction in sourness. Good enough mouthfeel. Aftertastes has a quick hitter yiwu huigan leading to a mouthcoat. Can have impressive yun. Moderate level good quality qi.

The tea today was the XZH '21 (with spring '20 maocha) white taiji. Very enjoyable, but the '19 Taiji is better for me as it's deeper and less vegetal than this '21. Also, while earlier sessions with this sort of tea had led me to wonder whether or not it's Wuliang or Laos tea, this session made me somewhat confident that this is a Bangdong area tea. It reminded me strongly of YS Bangdong Think that the main issue with this tea, and why it's not ascended is that it's a puerh for grizzled puerh nerds. There is little primary sweet flavors, little floralness in aroma or taste, not that much in it that feels refined like that granny furniture "orchid" note.

Lots of mineral in aroma and taste and tends to be more pronounced in later brews. Other things in the aroma, early, is wood and herbalness, as well as a nuttiness I associate with mangjing. Taste has a relatively strong bitter core, has some manging nuttiness early, more consistently dark herbal and a degree of green vegetalness. Late brews have herbal and vegetal notes. Very late brews tends to have that dark and wild mushroom taste that's close to what aged Xigui offers. Tends to have a thick viscosity, particularly late, with a pudding texture. Astringency is there, and gets moderate strong late. Aftertaste tends to be a relatively strong yiwu huigan to caramel and fruits, while the bitterness generated lingering flavors as mouthcoat. One or two early brews have an excellent yun with good feeling at top of the throat. The qi is strong and good, but it seems to fade late.

Again, Tony Chen calls this a banzhang killer, but nah, that's a fairly optimistic hype, that flows from the hype around Xigui being a banzhang of the north. Hype around dark and dense taste with some floralness and lots of potent bitter generated aftertastes.

 

[shah8]

Did lots of investigation drinking this weekend.

The shu of Friday was some of that 1999 Light Fermentation Shu Brick from Essence of Tea. It was pretty good, the astringency was a bit less. It smelled and tasted a lot like a 40ys aged sheng, and the qi was of very good quality. OTOH, while it did have lots of nuances that changed from cup to cup, like more or less of a fruity sense, I did get a touch bored with this tea--it's a touch muted and mellow and maybe a bit too rounded (such that I wasn't quite in the mood for). Lasted a good while.

The Sheng of Saturday was my first, for sure session with the 400g version of the YQH Zengcang Chawang. Yeah, this is not the same tea as the 500g from Houde that I have. What I can make out (guess) is that this is material similar to the 2005 taidi/shengtai GFZ cake that Yang sold recently with some of the stuff from the 500g cake sprinkled in to enhance. There are some advantages--this tea is much richer in aroma and taste, with more layers. The disadvantage is that it's much less gushu, with a somewhat lesser qi and much less aftertaste game. I enjoyed it a lot, particularly when the best stuff still kept singing with lighter touches of the weaker material still keeping things interesting. Still not sure if that try I had some time ago was from a fake cake--so far I'm still sort of inclined to think it is--it was really dark tasting, so definitly not like my 500g, but it wasn't dark tasting in the proper way for the 400g version either.

First cup had a bit of yang storage. An herbal woodiness with a touch of that halibut umami that is very typical of GFZ-ish teas was in the aroma. Does have some nice variations--more plummy/honey early, and a really nice candied and spicy sort of tone around that herbal-woodiness mid-session. Also relatively strong and easy to enjoy. Taste is pretty consistent and hews very close to southern rim GFZ lines--dark herbal, wood, halibut umami, deep plummy, and a subtle underlying honey. There can be tartness, choco, and floralness ocassionally. The viscosity is good with a velvet texture that eventually loses the astringency and become smoother late. The aftertastes mostly limits itself to a light mouthcoat and a bit of a yun. One brew had some yiwu huigan to sweetness. Qi is a very good quality but not super-strong. Durability seems very good, but I had to ditch the tea before it was truly done.

Good tea very well worth having and wasn't sold at a harsh price.

The second tea of Saturday was the W2T Astro Red. It's still really expensive and hard to justify the purchase. However, it is definitely a hongchapu with a notably rich aroma and taste. The aroma tends to be a deep hongchapu plummy with floral and honey tones. The taste tends to have a bit of bitterness, as you can guess, but it also has a rather lot of higher choco notes like what you'd expect from northern Bulang. The taste also had plenty of wood and florals along with the traditional hongchapu plummy and tart flavors. Mouthfeel is pretty decent, moderately good viscosity, smooth. Not a ton of aftertastes, has a bit of yiwu huigan to sweetness. Moderate level of qi. Great stuff with lots of things to say, just really expensive lecture fee. Especially for a hongcha where most tastes pretty close to one another.

The first sheng of today was the 2021 XZH Taiji Black. It's okay, but I didn't like it as much as I did Taiji white, because it wasn't that rich or full of details in aroma and taste. More of a broad, sweet flavor with subtle nuances in it. There's a lot of echos with the LBZ '05 and '06 Taiji, but the '19 is much better relative to the '21s than the '05 fall was to the '06, and while the white and black taijis from both '06 and '21 seem to differ in the same way, one being more potent, detailed, and aggressive and the other more mellow and nuanced, the '06 Taiji white was not really as good as the black while the opposite was true of the '21s. Does feel like the '19 is a combo of both white and black of '21, as well as just being superior in general to both. Lastly, going back to the '21 Taiji black, what it does is pretty comparable to many other northern teas, especially like the 2013 XZH Lao Wu Shan, that is only slightly more expensive, but is more refined and enjoyable.

Honey and herbal with less mineralness than the white Taiji in aroma. The taste is generally a broad honey taste with an abrasive, lingering bitterness with some dark herbals/chicory associated with it. There isn't a huge amount of dynamism throug the session for either aroma or taste. Late brews does have some changes as notes rise in aroma and taste, more vegetal in aroma, and consistent broad mushroom and caramel theme in taste. Viscosity is good, tends to be a bit notably astringent, with a velvet texture. Aftertastes are sort of weak, a bit of mouthcoat, particularly on the tongue, and a good yun. This doesn't have the nice yiwu huigans that the white Taiji has. Qi is strong without noticing any particular quality to it. Didn't press the tea too much and put it in the fridge. I suppose it's reasonably durable.

The '21 Taijis aren't really above what Paul Murray or Dave Collan can do, and it's probably the best of '21 teas, maybe, so *sad bugle sounds* for the super-premiumness of XZH.

The last tea of the day was the 4g 2019 W2T Gore of the Forest, which I thought might be similar to the Taiji. It's sort of similar to the Black Taiji, the XZH Lao Wu Shans, etc. I enjoyed it, particularly its broad sweet flavors, but it didn't have much in the way of aftertastes.

Mineral, herbal, and barnyard in aroma. Broad notes of honey, wild honey, and caramel, along with a balancing bitterness and herbalness associated with it. Mouthfeel seems decent enough without catching my attention much. Again, not a very dynamic session at all. Not really much aftertastes, but decent enough qi. Durability is probably only okay, tea does start fading pretty quickly. Did some and put the gaiwan into the fridge. Using my experience with the XZH Lao Wu Shans, I do think this is likely to age very nicely in an engaging way.

 

[shah8]

A ton of good brews during the week from Gore of the Forest. Gotta say, it's probably the best tea at around its price point sold at W2T.

This was a pretty good tea weekend...

The shu of Friday was the 2013 Dayi Danqing. This was an alright session, decent enough if not the best it could be. The thing that captured my attention was that FailCorp from W2T is pretty superior to the Danqing, which is itself a fairly premium Dayi shu. So I got to wondering what went on with that company, why it made this particular shu that obviously must have required money and expertise to make...

The first sheng of the weekend was the 2004 YQH Dingji test cake. This tea doesn't have much resemblance to either of the ZCCW, so I feel it's a misrepresentation to describe it as one. Also, this tea is pretty clearly inferior to the 2004 YQH Dingji proper--it's a bit thinner and higher in taste, and is notably astringent. Lastly, let me put on my tin-foil hat on an suggest that the idea that the Houde ZCCW was a test cake is almost certainly false. Just way too discussion about this tea in english and chinese media from the 2006-08 time period. I strongly suspect that what happened was the the 500g Houde cake is the actual Zhengcang Chawang, and that the 400g cake is effectively a 402 version that used up leftover maocha as well as adding in some bulking GFZ maocha.

Aaaanyways... aroma and taste are largely like the Dingji. There is some Yang storage aspect early. In late brews, aroma and taste are more woody than the Dinji is, in a nice way. Per taste, in the normal Dingji, there is a deep, broad herbal and plummy taste, but in the test cake there are more distinct notes providing for more complexity. Mouthfeel is largely the same as Dingji, thick viscosity and all that. However, there is more astringency, at a a moderate level for the test cake. As with the Dingji, not a huge amount of aftertaste game here--just a bit of nice cooling feeling and a bit of mouthcoat. Qi is about the same as Dingji. Durability is decent enough, but it does get higher faster than the Dingji would.

There is a certain sense of incompleteness feeling that reminded me of long ago experiences of test cakes from ChenGuangheTang (an '03), and XZH (an '01)

The second tea of yesterday was far more exciting. Fall '10 Xikong from Yunnan Sourcing. Said this before, but this is clearly one of the best tea YS has ever sold and easily outclasses later Yunnan Sourcing brand pressings. One thing that is interesting to me is that the hongcha issue hasn't popped up in the last few times I've brewed it--at least not in that Ceylon tea fruitiness way. Wondering how aging is affecting that issue. I drank this tea with a mind on the YQH '05 Yibang and the XZH '11 Yibang. This tea is smaller than those tea and has thinner main taste and viscosity. However, it has vibrant flavors in the top taste and sports a strong aftertaste game, such that I really appreciate that this is dry stored in a positive way.

Aroma tends to have caramel, apple, floral, and a slight touch of aged yibang dark herbalness, particularly in later brews. The taste has tcm bitter, some aged Yibang dark herbal, can have a broad apply fruitiness, especially in later brews. Viscosity is moderate with a touch of velvet stiffness in texture. The soup thickens a touch as the session develops. The aftertastes were great. In particular, the bitter pole generates a strong and sweet caramel yiwu huigan, and some times it's fast enough to feel as if caramel was part of the top taste. There was also plenty of feeling at the top of the throat with yuns. Occasional strong mouthcoat that is fruity. Aftertaste game is easily better than the '11 XZH, and a little better than the '05 YQH, I think mainly because of storage. Qi is about moderate-strong of notably good quality. Durability is unusually good for small leaf tea. Probably more than fifteen brews yesterday and today and in the fridge for more brews during the week. Tho' last brew was pretty tired.

Last tea of the weekend was the 2003 Bulang Jingpin. Exceptional session today, was a good reminder of why banzhang, LBZ is a top tea. Broadly very similar to deep, tart tobacco and wood like teas such as XZH '07 Longfeng, Yuanshilin, '10 Chenshenhao LBZ, etc.

Generally a wood and herbal aroma, aroma can have sweet nutmeat when the brew is a bit understrength. Taste is a nice wood, herbal, dark and tart tobacco. Late brews have a generic but tasty broad root herbal with choco and sweet nutmeat subtone. Viscosity is moderate with velvet texture, stiff with a bit of astringency. Aftertastes are really good. Sensate sweet tonguecoats early in the session. Complex yiwu huigan that shimmers in flavors in the length of the taste. A few good mouthcoats. A great deal of nice yuns. Cooling feeling lingered a long time around my mouth. Lots of feeling in the throat, mostly at the top. Qi is moderate to strong, but is subtle and kind of complex feeling.

Can't buy new teas like that anymores.

 

[shah8]

A not that interesting weekend...

The friday shu was the 2004 6ftm shu that I've been enjoying a lot, but this last session was a more typical pretty good session. Good aroma, though. Taste is like a thinner and plummier Star of Menghai. Good qi. not much aftertaste.

I had done another shu on Saturday--it's one of those 2015 XZH colorfully wrapped 5g mini-tuos. These turned out to be fermented tea dust, a bit like the 2009 XZH Xicontianxiang shu. Not as good, of course. It is very similar to W2T Prosbloom, which was very interesting to me, so I'm wondering if there is some kind of tradition specific to shu of this nature. More rich tasting, a bit thicker in viscosity, of course. Nothing at all special.

The first sheng of Saturday was the 2004 500g ZCCW from Houde that was stored in the US somewheres. It was terrible, with only the qi being something like what it should be. The nature of the tea seems to be right, but it suffered from genuinely terrible dry storage that faded the taste a lot, and also imparted something I think of as plastic baggie umami, which is an unpleasant offnote that I typically find in teas that have been sitting in decaying baggies for ages. The aroma did not last more than a couple of brews, and the taste seems younger than my tea, with more of the younger tea's mushroom notes. Some later brews did have the barnyard depth of a more aged sense, but it was thin tasting. There was a bit of that nice honey and wood notes here and there. The viscosity was actually a bit thicker than my tea, but the astringency was higher--texture was more pudding than the sort of silk my tea had. Very little aftertaste, mostly mouthcoat. And there was some qi.

I quickly decided that I needed a second tea, and decided I should do a bit of chore exploration--have this 2002 Tai Lian cake from Paul Murray that had been stored quite a bit more humidly than the cakes I've bought so long ago. I generally have used them for thermoses for work, and are usually among the better material for that without pulling out something good. Much of the time I've had this tea, I thought it was a fake tea, and only in the last couple of years that I changed my mind and thought it was real. This tea (as did the 2004 6ftm shu) originally had myco or pesticide/herbicide issue that had meant that I needed to wash this tea to prevent funny feelings in mouth or throat. That hasn't been true the last year or two. Stuff must have broken down some... Anyways, it was decent enough (especially considering how broken the material I was using)--different from mine in the sense that it had a darker taste of chicory herbals. However the aftertaste game was a lot weaker. It also didn't display much benefit in aging in the sense that it was still about as hard to drink as my teas are. It was decent enough.

Today, I wanted specifically good tea, and took out the big guns. '12 YQH Yehgu. Yup, still roughly about at the tier of the '14 XZH red mark cakes. Aroma wasn't super strong, but it was nice and complex and kept going all the way until I put the tea in the fridge. Main aroma character was wood and sweet herbal, a touch of savory floral. The taste was the usual bitter choco, sweet herbals, and plumminess in a complex melange. Mouthfeel was notably really good. There was more of notable yiwu huigan to caramels this session, but the same sheer power in throat as usual, both with feeling going down and yuns so potent they feel like supershallow pungent huigans. Potent qi. I had to take breaks due to the potency. The first break was necessitated by a massive case of the munchies.

Pu-erh.sk has new 2020 teas out, and the top tea looks like Yehgu! The blurb sort of sounds like it, but Alex of Teanotes really emphasizes that this tea has a foetid barnyard/urine aspect to aroma or something in his review. Yehgu does have a bit of foetid barnyard, but not a lot, but eh, anyways, as Pu-erh.sk usually is, this tea is too expensive for me. The cost of Rareness6 is basically almost the same as a 2011 XZH Trigemenial Qing (and one generally should go for the ultra high end manzhuang!). A non-gushu Mansong costs more than purportedly gushu YiwuTeaMountain Yishanmos/Xiangchunlins or Essence of Tea Baihuaqing!

 

[shah8]

Kind of a messed up weekend for me so I didn't wind up drinking much tea.

Shu of Friday was Dayi An Xiang, showstopper as usual--the qi was really notable this session.

Sheng of Saturday was the 2012 Essence of Tea Cloud Watcher. Previous notes still holds. This is a really nice tea that has good qi, particularly late in the session, and it has pretty decent aromatic performance. The taste however is sort of thin with a strong theme, and it's not a dynamic tea. Not much of interest in aftertaste game or much feelings in mouth or throat beyond a bit of cooling. Definitely expensive for what it is in material terms, but still a both classy and easy going tea.

Didn't really have a sheng of Sunday besides a few late brews of Cloud Watching. Did try a western brew of bamboo packed and roasted laos tea--tastes more or less like a roasted green with some of that bamboo note.

 

[shah8]

The shu of Friday was the 2018 XZH Chocobrick shu version. I found it even more enjoyable than what it was like when I first got it. The original sourness is more muted, while the cottonseed-y wo dui is still present but pleasant for me. Initial brews had deep and strong choco element along with mineral in aroma and taste. Some wo dui in taste. The choco and wo dui fades quickly, thoug and we have some minerals, florals, cola, fermentation depth in aroma, along with fermentation depth, cola, sweet herbal, and a nice fruitiness for taste. There is a really nice subtone of custard/coconut flan sweetness underneath it all. Soup is thick and smooth, with a touch of growing astringency late. There is only bit of traditional shu yiwu huigan to sugars. What is more remarkable is an herbal-mineral lingering mouthcoat. There is also a bit of sensate sweet tongue-coat. Qi is as strong as I remembered it. This is good stuff, and I ordered another 50g chocobrick for $15 to go with my purchase of the '18 Carefree shu and some expensive sheng samples. This shu reminded me of yiwu sh--like from YS (Yiwu Rooster) and the brick shu from YiwuTeaMountain.

The sheng of saturday was the XZH '07 Manlin that I intended to have last weekend. This was an outstanding session, beyond my expectations that it'd be the usual smells-great-tastes-great-but-doesn't-do-anything-else-interesting-sort-of-session that I normally get. It was the sort of session, much like good LBZ sessions, that really reminds you of how much a good deep dahongpao sets the standard of what is a nonpareil tea experience in Chinese eyes.

The aroma was really nice, complex in cup and dynamic over session. Early was->cupcake like young manzhuang, wood, woodsap, choco. Then->sweet fruit flavor marshmallows like what you get with Lucky Charms cereal, wood, subtle rod of dark choco. This goes on, as the marshmallow sweetness fades, mineral comes in, and wood gets stronger. Late->fruity honey. The taste was less dynamic. Early->plummy-nannuo carrot, mineral, woodsap, hint of choco depth. Then it was a series of a sort of meld between choco depth, mineral, and wood, changing in strength as the session moves on. There were usually some sweet nuances, like nannuo carrot or fruity marshmallow hidden in those depths. Late brews were wood, honey with a fishy umami in taste. The mouthfeel was quite good, being thick with a stiffness to it, and a bit of drying astringency. Aftertaste game for the first four or five or so brews were unusually good for this tea. The primary aftertaste is a long lingering, active, and shimmering mouthcoat. There were also occasional shallow pungent huigan, some very subtle floral mouth aromas and yuns. Yiwu huigans were subtle and also tended to be too fast to be distinguished from main taste. There was plenty of good cooling and good feeling in throat. The qi was on the strong side of moderate and was quite soothing. I brewed this approximately 20 times, I think.

This was a session roughly about as good as the typical YQH Zhencang Chawang session for me, and is certainly better than the benchmark '04/'05 BYH Manzhuangs tries I've had that are usually better overall than the XZH. What happened? My guess is that three things were involved. First, this is the best time of the year to drink sheng, really, early fall-ish--lots of thing taste their best around now. Second, this tea has spend about a couple of years outside of TW, and has done some unclenching from the storage they got for those poor XZH over there. And lastly, it's fourteen years old, and making the second turn around the track towards being true old tea.

The first sheng of Sunday was the '02 Tai lian that I got from YS, to think about in comparison with Paul's tea that was gifted and tried gongfu recently. Does not have the rounded dark herbal/chicoryish taste that's subtly sweet. More of a wood, squash nutty, subtle patchouli herbal/floralness. Thicker viscosity, but more astringency than the humid stored version. This particular set of leaves didn't have as much aftertaste as it could have. In terms of difficulty of drinking, there isn't a difference. Decent enough qi. Not a particularly impressive session for this tea.

The second sheng was a 4g mini that finishes most of a 2015 XZH Lanyin sample off. I don't really think I can say much more than I did for my original try. Very likely to be Yibang, not a very substantial tea, particularly without brewing towards the bitterness, and definitely inferior to the same price '15 Luyin. It is also inferior, entertainingly enough for me, to the '10 YS Xikong (you know that must have been some kind of one time thing for YS or something).

Mineral, bark-wood-gamey in aroma and taste through most of the session. Can have floralness, honey, fruity aspect. A treat is when a buttery caramel shows up in aroma and taste. Good viscosity, fairly smooth. Feeling goes down throat sometimes. Good cooling feeling. Early brews have a fruity-winey yiwu huigan, and main aftertaste feature is a long lingering and shimmering mouthcoat. Hits top of the throat good as well, with coating, and an occasional yun. Qi is mainly nice-as-expected-for-expensive-tea, but not remarkable aside from that. Brewed dunno, maybe twelve? Put the gaiwan in the fridge for later this week.

The sheng of Labor Day was the '09 XZH Diangu Iron. Really nice stuff. Liquid Proud had some at a good price but apparently not anymore.

Anways, you know the deal. mangomy milan dancong fruity, alkaline, wood with a bit of floralness to it, bitterness with some nice character to the aspirin nature. Good, almost thick viscosity with velvet stiffness to it, some astringency. Strong coating aftertaste game. Strong qi. Lots of nuance in all of that. One of the best, relatively unique, northern teas one can buy.

 

[shah8]

I've been off starting Thursday, so I've been drinking gongfu sessions since. Generally, sessions have been great, so I'm figuring that it has just been a great climate for sheng to perform in Atlanta these days.

The shu of Wednesday was the XZH '15 Luyin Iron Cake. My impressions haven't changed from the first time I've tried it. The key qualities this shu puts forward is the mouthfeel, the strength of taste, and the strong qi.

The aroma can be pretty good, especially early with fermentation depth, chinese herbal medicine, and wood melded together into a whole aesthetic. Sometime has a subtle sumac berry/rooibos sort of fruitiness to it. The taste is a strong and deep fermentation taste with choco and barnyard notes around a bitter pole that gradually dissipates as the session moves on. The depth also gets shallower into a sort of barnyard-plummy-sumac basis taste deep in the session. The viscosity is very good with a mucilaginous, sticky texture. There can be an electric feel on the tongue. This shu isn't that big on aftertastes, with mostly a bit of mouthcoat with associated cooling. There might be a subtle yiwu huigan to fruitiness here and there. The qi is strong with the strength lasting pretty deep into the session.

This is one of their most expensive shu since 2011, that porno shu reviewed before, but I don't find it a great value. While it does some things well, I really want more complexity, dynamism in the taste and aroma, and more aftertaste game.

The sheng of Thursday is the 2010 Essence of Tea Manmai. Pretty much as with the last time I brewed this. Intensely sweet early brews that then moves to a more focused bitter but tasty tea.

The color of the soup was almost a fresh sheng yellow that brew "this is what 11 years of Atlanta storage does?!", before adopting a more rose gold color as the session moved on. The aroma of early brews is wood, honey, custard like creme brulee. Later brews had more of a fruit emphasis. The taste has that sterotypical Bada raspberry edge throughout. Early brews has honey and creme brulee sweetness, wood and with a bitter pole. This eventually led to a more focused bitter taste with lots of nuance within, but also occasionally has some complementary fruit and wood notes without later in the session. Viscosity is moderate with a velvet texture, but astringency tends to be on the high side of moderate. Some of it does melt into aftertaste. Main aftertaste is a good mouthcoat, and there were some subtle yiwu huigans to sugars. One brew had some nice shallow pungent huigan. The qi is moderate to strong and is pretty relaxing.

I wound up thinking alot about EoT's Cloudwatching and Thai teas and Yehgu while drinking this tea--savoring the bitterness is part of enjoying this tea, and it's sort of like Thai teas and Cloudwatching, but has a much fuller taste.

I brewed late brews of the XZH shu as well as some '15 XZH lanyin from last week. The lanyin was still mostly a subtle and minerally tea, but the roundness and thickness of the mouthfeel was quite obvious and smooth. The qi was also good from both the shu and sheng late brews.

The sheng of Friday was the XZH Fall '07 JingGu Baicha. Outstanding session. Was much darker tasting than it usually is, still remember how much of a gaoshan oolong it could be, but this was only in effect for the first/wash brew. So I wound up comparing this with XZH Lao Wu Shans, '19 Taiji, and various aged/darkened Bingdaos.

The aroma tended to be this great honey/dark honey, chicory, wood, with some barnyard highlights. The first brew had a taste of intense honey sweetness with some fruit and wood. Then the taste taste dived to a chicory/dried fruit depth, with honey still there along with some fruit and aromatic wood. Late brews rises up, has more of a dark honey and fruity sense. Mouthfeel is outstanding, much like a bit watered down honey, thick viscosity with a stiff oiliness to it. There is some astringency, but it's sort of pleasant. This tea is very active in the earliest brews, with a lot of feeling down down throat and an active aftertaste game. Late brews is a more subtle yiwu huigan staying around as mouthcoat sort of thing. However while the going was good, you had obvious flavors going everywhere in mouth and throat from bright yiwu huigan to mouthcoat. There was an active yun as well as a deep pungent huigan effect. Strong good quality qi that is a complex feeling. Was pretty durable, as I enjoyed it a great deal so I kept brewing it, probably did about twenty brews.

This is a tea substantially better than any Bingdao I can imagine being able to afford. Having had so many XZH lao wu shans, and the XZH bingdao-ish young teas like Peach Drunk, Carefree, or Maniac, I feel like I can safely say that it's indeed a Jinggu that's more like Lao Wu Shans. Bingdaos really tend to be more mushroomy than this tea, tho that Shuanglong '08 Bingdao EoT sold wasn't very mushroomy either. Bingdao sweetness really tends to be more caramel rather than more honey notes seen here. One thing I was also thinking was that this JingGu Baicha painted in broad brushes in aroma and taste, it wasn't that complex in any micro sense, in comparison to, say, the '07 XZH Shangpin, Jipin, '08 XZH Blessings, or other things like the '05 SM Mother Trees, '16 YS Bingdao, etc.

The tea today was an outstanding session of 2006 XZH Bulang Brick. The big pleasant surprise here was the plumminess having a distinct black cherry tone.

The early brew aromas are pretty typical of aged banzhang teas--wood, light mineral, choco, barnyard, some chinese herbal medicine. As the session progresses, the aroma has less deep notes and more plummy, black cherry notes until that fades to a generic sort of wood, mineral note late. The taste was surprisingly deep early with choco, a bitter pole, wood, deep plummy with that black cherry aspect as well as some other subtle notes such as herbal medicine, spices. This tea usually has a more plummy taste with a not-so-concentrated-or-deep choco note, so less concentrated than a factory tea. The session today could match a decent factory tea punch, at least early on. The tea relatively quickly loses the deep bitter choco and rises to the more typical barnyard and plummy taste, still with black cherry. The black cherry fades to a more generic if still quite nice late taste. The mouthfeel is great if not stunning like yesterday's JingGu. Good viscosity with a pudding texture. What astringency there is, is delicate. This tea also goes down throat decently and provides a touch of cooling. Aftertaste game is mostly a great lingering mouthcoat. There can be some yuns, and an occasional shallow pungent huigan early. Throughout there are some subtle and small yiwu huigans to sugars. The qi was strong and of high quality. I brewed this a ton of times also, but more like sixteen or seventeen rather than quite as much as the tea yesterday.

The interesting thing to note with this tea for me, is that at the very least, most of this is Bulang/Banzhang eco-tea, with some chance that tips from gushu trees were added in. This was always more expensive than the explicitly Xin-Banzhang eco-tea cake that XZH also sold in '06. So this isn't truly a gushu tea, or at least mostly not so, and it still provides a higher end experience than most "gushu" tea made today. Mainly, it's a bit smaller than gushu teas, and the very best aspect didn't maintain for that long, but still...A lot of stuff goes into what makes for a good tea, and one should try to get experienced as quick as possible so one can taste and estimate quality for oneself rather than rely on flowery words or shallow truths.