SOTD- sheng of the day

[twt_reddit]

that 2004 HTC is the first cake I got from Teaside, currently have 4..
my impressions were quite similar to yours, with the prunes and it being VERY aged compared to the 802 ad 803.. from my notes a couple of years ago: "...looks and feels like wet stored. tastes aged, sweet and "smeared", but fun and not boring (for a very wet stored tea)..."

I haven't had it the last year, ever since the c virus messed up my taste buds..
Some teas I can still enjoy, but others have become dull to drink..

If you're a tea-drinker you should definitely not get the virus

 

[shah8]

My vacation started Tuesday night so...

First things first--when I threw out the '04 HTC, I noted leaves of two different shades. There is discussion online, including in a recent post by MattCha, where HTC are understood to blend some post fermented stuff with the straight sheng. So I guess the 2004 is a classical HTC product they've been making for decades.

The sheng of the day yesterday was the 2014 XZH Luyin. It was pretty good, but the taste wasn't quite as rich and dark as it usually gets (so far in very few tries), and I didn't get any of that winey aftertaste that's so enjoyable. Active phase is also over sort of quick, absent firm hand brewing. However, it was a very enjoyable session.

The aroma is generally your Xigui mushroom and mineral with slight floral and herbal nuance among many nuances in the early session. Same goes for the taste. Consistently mushroom and mineral, with a lot of shimmering nuances in, say, the first four brews or so with a tartness and a bend toward darkness that's subtly choco. The late session has a lot of flat, but mushroom and mineral, but the mineral tends to have a yancha-like fruitiness to it. The viscosity is very good with a velvet texture along with varying degrees of mild to moderate astringency. The mouthfeel keeps going very nicely deep into the session. This tea can generate some good warm feelings down throat, a bit like high quality alcoholic spirits. The aftertaste game early on was reasonably nice with powerful mouthcoat quite similar to a high end yancha along with some pungent huigan, and these two effects tended to promote a floral aroma in the mouth along with a touch of fruitiness. Mouthcoat is lasting. One brew had a bit of notable good yiwu huigan to sugars. Late session brews were generally firmly brewed to bring out whatever punch was left, and sometimes a bit of good mouthcoat comes back. I didn't pay that much attention to the qi, but it was moderate to strong of good quality. Durability was pretty good, probably almost twenty brews done before leaves thrown out this morning. I drank this tea extremely slowly in the first six or so cups, so much was going on, so almost twenty brews was a very long time.

Aftertastes were so aggressive, I doublechecked to make sure I got the luyin and not lanyin...

The sheng of today was the 2017 XZH Tianmenshan. It's pretty much the youngest great tea anyone can buy that I know of. Extremely impressive session today. Said it before, and extra true today, like a super rich/broad aged Yibang.

The knockout blow came early. The aroma was awesome for about six brews, essentially a blend of powdery dry florals, savory florals, and a certain herbalness that together gave a good sense of high quality incense. There were notes underneath like barnyard or custard, too. It is not usually this floral, It's usually more of an orchid dry floral rim on some dark herbal and barnyard for this tea's aroma. The taste early is dominated by a dark herbal with a chicory sensibility, some of the aroma floralness, a deep plummyness underneath, and a bitter pole. As the session goes on, the taste loses the florals and chicory sense, and there are proportional changes between herbal and deep plummy until it settles at a certain proportion later. Very late brews has a very tasty sweet herbal that's almost specifically fruity or fleshy floral. Bitterness also can show up very late, if brewed firmly enough. The sweet sense that was so present with a deeper tasting session of this TMS last time was more occasional and faint in the taste in this session. The mouthfeel is typical of high end teas, but not easily notable qualities. Aftertaste game isn't quite as outstanding as any of the '14 XZH Hongyins, but it's still pretty good in the early going with a notable yiwu-huigan to mouthcoat segue that shimmers with a lot of minor flavors. The mouthcoat lasts nicely One brew had a good feeling go down throat and come back up in a small pungent huigan. Again, I didn't pay a ton of attention to qi, but it's weaker than the luyin yesterday, but still moderate-strong. I did about fifteen brews I think. I did come up against notably rising astringency by the last cup today. Will do more cups tomorrow before I start a new tea.

This was about as good as what the '14 XZH Grade A offers, overall...

 

[shah8]

Ok, got a bunch to do today, eh?

The next tea was the 2007 Fall XZH Puzhen. It was deeply impressive, essentially at 10/10 for viscosity, strength of qi, and aftertaste. Very broadly speaking, this tea is similar to 72 Hours, and just about orbital nukes what is a tea that would be hard for normal teamakers to make today for normal people. It's also a tier above what is a very good '14 XZH Luyin and Lanyin, in a way that, say '17 TMS that I just had couldn't do to any of the Hongyin set. Drank this over the course of two days and wound up casting a shadow over my enjoyment of the '12 YQH Yehgu.

I didn't keep notes so trying to come off memories. Aroma is generally mushroom with a bit of wood and a fruit nuance. It maybe gets a bit mineral late. Biggest weakness is that the taste is notably sour the first four brews. Anyways, first third is mushroom based with a pleasant delicate aromatic woodiness and a touch of fruit. Second third is sugars based flavors, and last third is mineral and fruits. Viscosity is thick with a velvet mouthfeel with a bit of astringency. Has strong feeling down throat, some cooling. Most notable thing about the tea are extremely strong and expansive pungent huigan with a complex flavor. Does yuns and mouthcoats as well, and the flavors shimmer in the mouth, which gets more obvious late. Qi is very strong and relaxing and had me planted in my chair. This took awhile to drink, unexpectedly so because this tea usually gets unpleasant at a certain point, but I blew past that point and it was pleasant again. I probably did about eighteen to twenty brews.

It is a very strong pity that the 2008 Puzhen available to us are overstored to a degree.

The next tea was Yehgu as I mentioned before. Also writing from memory. I was basically just cruising through the first day, situation normal, everything expected even though it was really good as usual. General character is dark choco, foetid barnyard, woodiness, sweet herbal, a tangy sourness similar to sharp cheddar cheese and a bitter pole lurking deep within that tanginess. Thick viscosity, relatively smooth. Feeling punches down throat as usual, with some light pungent huigans coming back up. Main aftertaste feature is a complex yiwu huigan primarily to custard sweetness but with lots of other little flavors. Strong qi as usual, but didn't feel slightly weird like it normally does. Brewed this a reasonable number over two days, but this really got squeezed, so leaves were saved and put in the fridge. I enjoyed this much more the second day, particularly during a couple brews with a very sweet herbal flavor that bordered on blueberries. The latter stage of Puzhen earlier in the day took something away from my enjoyment of this tea the same day. I suppose the lesson is--Don't drink two awesome teas in a row on the same day! Or something.

The last two teas I did do notes for.

The 2014 XZH Lanyin is a really good tea, clearly better than the '14 Luyin. The performance today is somewhat similar to the 2014 Baohongyinji Nuowu. This tea does broadly follow the sense of various descriptions of Nuowu teas. One could also compare to the 2018 XZH Carefree, a little. The session today was less wildy floral in general, and aftertaste game was much more even through the session. Late brews was much more pleasant than previous tries.

The heated dry leaves was very pleasant to smell. The aroma of the soup kept the promise of those dry leaves with a classy floral, dark herbal blend with a subtle barnyard tone underneath in the early going. As the session goes on, almond sweetness becomes more prominent in the aroma and then become prominent with florals and dark herbals in background. Further into the session, it gradually flips again to more of a mineral and fruit aroma. The taste often changes somewhat as the soup cools, especially early, sometime more floral, but more often more almond sweet. The basic taste is dark herbal with a nod towards chicory and florals through most of the session and eventually becomes mineral and fruit late. At least a couple of very late brews was a quite nice dark herbal and honey taste. A few early-mid sessions had strong sensate sweetness that was pleasant for a sweet-tooth, and late brews had a weak sensate sweetness. 2018 Mae Hong San and this tea's late performance are fairly similar. There is generally a lot of shifting nuances in the taste. The viscosity is very good with a velvet-mucilaginous texture. Astringency is light to moderate with episodic strong astringency in later brews. Very early brews had electric mouth. Plenty of cooling. Plenty of feeling going down throat. A bit of yiwu huigan to fruit very early, but much of the rest of the session is yiwu huigan to almond and sugars. Very early brews had strong sensate sweet coating of the tonguetip and front of mouth. Very long lasting mouthcoats through most of the session with melting astringency contributing to the flavors and length. Some shallow pungent huigans. A touch of mouthcoat aftertaste regularly happens with very late brews. There is a bit of floral mouth aroma here and there. A rather full aftertaste game. Qi is strong and of good quality, tho I didn't pay that much attention to it. Durability is very good this time. I've had previous session where I wasn't eager to continue very long due to a tartness over a not that appetizing taste. Today I had to throw out a tea that still had some good brews left about about twenty brews. It brewing these nice, light sweetly fruity cups with a little aftertaste.

It did not, however, overshadow today's tea, the 2007 XZH Fall pressing Diangu. A less complex tea, sure. A thinner tea than recent stuff, sure, but a rather impressive one nonetheless.

Aroma is fruity, bending towards mango/milan dancong, a certain salty alkaline sense that reminds one of cheesecake, or the sea (in later brews), the filler material in pills, and wood. The taste broadly reflects the aroma, but it can have a touch of sour very early and a little tart more often. In general, the taste was very appetizing in the way of dancongs. Less wood taste than previous session. The mouthfeel was quite nice with very good viscosity and a high-surface-tension velvet texture. Generally light astringency with some later cups having a bit higher astringency. Feeling goes down throat very nicely with a few cups having a deep pungent huigan coming back up. Primary aftertaste is a very nice and strong yiwu huigan to caramel that can pool into a yun. Some winey mouthcoat early but mouthcoat gets a bit more generic later. The qi was just notably nice today as well as strong. I was feeling unreasonably happy drinking this and reading manga today, and the cups often pulled my attention away from the screen. I didn't do a huge number of brews today, probably about fourteen, so that's going into the fridge as well.

whew!

 

[shah8]

A long weekend with a bunch of teas I didn't really do much in the way of notes for...

First, the '07 Diangu was beautiful during the short week, got about seven more quite excellent brews with great qi, so about twenty one brews total with still more in the tank before I reluctantly dumped it.

The shu of Thursday was the W2T '21 The Bringer. A ton of wodui dissappeared in between the first session and this one, more so than for Reckless Daughter. Broad character is that herbal note found lightly fermented shu like The Stranger or the XZH Dragon Brick, along with cookie dough, and a bitter pole with a choco character. I got two brews after the intial brews with a really nice deep choco punch like a good LBZ shu. Taste quickly rises, though, and gets more mineral. Durability isn't the best for elite shu, at least at the level I'd want it, but this shu also clearly has space for aging and I think a decade or so will extend that durability. The qi was very strong, was sort of enjoyable. The aftertaste game was a minor aspect for this tea, it's there, but it's very subtle, especially during the part where the taste is strong. Reckless Daughter has a more overt and engaging aftertaste game. Aroma wasn't much of a factor for me.

The sheng of Friday was the Essence of Tea 2012 Cloud Watching. My original conclusions hold. It's easily grouped in with Thai teas and it is substantially overpriced, at least in terms of strict quality vis a vis other Thai gushu style teas. Compared with TeaSide gushu-style Thai teas, Fox is about even in quality (guestimate as it's different), and Mae Hong Son is clearly superior, but 400g of either would be $180 or $260 rather than $298 for the EoT. Cloudwatching does have the advantage of being more aged, and it has a somewhat stronger taste. The session was not dynamic so it's easy to describe the tea as having an aggressive dark herbal taste with a deeper prune sweetness within. Some sweet herbals show up as the session goes on. Aroma about the same. Viscosity was good, smooth. Tends to do a good job with a mouthcoat, with one brew managing a complex aftertaste with yun, yiwu huigan and slight pungent huigan to go with that mouthcoat. Qi is decent enough, moderate to strong with a sense of settling or peace in it. Name's not a bad one. This is a good tea. If you can overspend, it's not going to a bad choice for a slow day with something unobtrusive and inward outward breathing sort of life into the nothings of the day.

I did more brews of that Yehgu afterwards. The late session taste bored me a bit, but the qi did not. Notably stronger than Cloud Watching.

The New Year's Day tea was the XZH Youle. You guys know the deal. Not many teas better. Main weakness is the usual, not as deep or as rich tasting as the very best of teas, a touch small. Aroma and taste are very layered, does not have any dried apricot or apricot skins this time, does have a lot of wood, tcm, spice, a little nannuo carrot, early brew had some choco around a bitter pole, etc, etc. Moderate to good viscosity with good mouthfeeling (so not top of the line viscosity either). Exceptional performance in the throat, feels the sip go all the way to the tummy, strong sense of it painting flavors in the throat with subtle pungent huigan. Good yiwu huigan, good mouthcoat, some mouth aroma, all that jazz. Great qi of course, less strong than it used to be, but higher quality. Older tea qi can be so much nicer. Brewed this one all day and one more long brew the next day.

The second tea of New Year's Day was the 2017 XZH Peach Drunk, 4g session. Not really all that much to say about it. It's essentially an alkaline floral Bingdao mode much like that 2011 Bingdao Tea Refining Co Bingdao, but tweeked such that it's a bit more oxidized and fruity. This wasn't very peachy this time. It is a nice enough tea, but like a ton of these Bingdao-ish teas, this is more of a drink now tea--it certainly won't hit the tummy as hard as that 2011, but a very expensive drink now tea at $518/400g. Aroma is the usual akaline floral, with a dash of fruitiness (not malty), and the taste is more or less the same but with minerals. Good viscosity. Does a good job with a caramelly yiwu huigan, can do some fruity mouthcoats. Qi is moderate to strong. Does have good durability.

The sheng of today was the 2006 Tea Horse Road Yuancha from EoT. This is a Gelanghe, Pasha or something like that tea that is softer than more potent tea, but fairly elegant. Not complex or dynamic, though, and weakens kind of quickly. Aroma and taste is a tart dark tobacco mode that's typical of this region's tea, but this is so much softer that it's a pretty leather and dark herbal rather than a super strong suggestion of tobacco/raisin. Wood grows in aroma and taste as the session moves on. Honey and subtle dark fruit show up here and there. The mouthfeel is good, not too thick but has a nice sticky velvet texture to it for at least a short way. A bit of yun in the earlier brews. More often are mouthcoats. Slight yiwu huigan here and there. I didn't push the durability much. Ultimately, there are better teas (given good storage) of this genre, like the 2006 Taipei Memorial Hongyin Forever for not that much more, $266 at TheTea.pl, for example.

 

[shah8]

Nothing too crazy this weekend, mostly just clearing out samples, didn't take notes for any of them.

The XZH and the '06 Tea Horse Road did will with plenty more brews over the week.

The shu of Friday was the 2017 XZH Peach Drunk 7.2g with about 1.2g of 2014 XZH Truth Returning. This was a very nice session. The 2014 added a touch more depth to the tea, and Peach Drunk was really nicely TCM in the way of old sheng tea, along with wood, some dark fruit and a little fermenation depth. Decent mouthfeel. Capable of really nice yiwu huigan-mouthcoat that reminds of coffee with milk. Decent qi. This tea is a bit more expensive than I'd really prefer it's roughly about a fair price--a touch more than W2T The Stranger per gram.

The first tea Saturday was finishing the sample of the '06 Ming Dee HongThaiChang Thaipu. This was pleasant enough. There was some of that tangerine segment fruitiness early before settling into the usual Thaipu dark herbal, prunish notes. Complexity in cup goes pretty early in the session, so I wound up drinking a bunch of cups quickly. Decent to good mouthfeel. Capable of pretty decent mouthcoats after finishing cups. A bit of qi.

Did a second tea Saturday, an early-mid2k premium liu-bao with high grade (smaller leaf). Excellent liubao session with a lot of depth from the punch that small leaf fermented tea does, like gongting shu. A bit of wood, a touch of choco, and the usual liubao betelnut character. Good mouthfeel. Relatively steady performance in terms of aroma and taste. A high quality moderate qi was quite soothing. Notably durable.

Sunday was was 6.5g of W2T 2020 Mirage and 1.5g of W2T We Go High, finishing the Mirage sample. Mirage is a very good daily drinker that makes me think of Wuliang tea with less solanacae vegetalness and more honey. Of course some lincangs do this as well, like Mangfei. Aroma and taste are broad tobacco and honey with a bit of floralness early and a tendency towards fruit tones late. Viscosity is quite good, and it is smooth most of the way. Not a whole lot of aftertaste, and has a bit of qi.

 

[shah8]

Another set of brief no-notes teas, still taking it easy...

Friday was the 2006 Taipei Expo Memorial shu. Extremely thin taste, but very enjoyable. Really plump, almost jello like mouthfeel that was a highlight. The aroma was pretty good, old sheng TCM and wood notes, mostly. There had been a sense of florals wafting in and out. Taste is old sheng TCM and wood, and a broad thin ginsengish sweetness. Good mouthcoat, sometimes with a nice surprise fruity sweetness. Good qi. Very durable for shu.

The sheng of Saturday was the 2021 YiwuTeaMountain Gaoshan Spring. I didn't have high expectations, and frankly, I'm not very into Gaoshan as a Yiwu tea. How did this tea perform? I enjoyed the second day a bit more, while drinking more casually. Again, as per YTM habits, this is fairly strongly overpriced. On the flip side, this 2021 spring is the best of their Gaoshan Yiwus I've tried. Has something of the value of Manzhaung teas, thick taste, decent viscosity, etc. It should be a good ager. Does not have potent aftertastes or qi. Isn't very dynamic in a session, but not terribly boring. Aroma is honey and a sort of leathery herbal. It is not as floral as many Gaoshan tends to be. Taste is sort of honey, grains, a bit of leather. Good viscosity, not particularly astringent. Offers a light mouthoat aftertaste, and a bit of qi.

The second sheng of Saturday and which I enjoyed more is a half and half blend of 2019 W2T Well, Well and 2015/4? W2T Bosch. Bosch provided a meatiness to flavor and Well, well added a lot of nuance. I got a pretty decent aftertaste game in the initial brews. Flavor was a sort of meaty dark banyard with a toffee sweetness, and sometimes a fringe of aromatic wood. Viscosity was quite good, with a bit of astringency. There were some yiwu huigan, a bit of a deep feeling yun, and mouthcoats. However, the fun was over quickly, but the session still had plenty of worthwhile brews. Good qi. I'd blend them again if I had more Well well. I finished that sample.

Another sample I cleared out on Sunday (after drinking a bunch more brews from yesterday's teas) was the 2020 Essence of Tea Boundless. Not a particularly remarkable tea. Taste doesn't have enough depth of character. It is a nice tea, though, and among the more fairly priced teas at EoT, but W2T generally has a number of high value per dollar material at that price range, for example. Anyways. Aroma and taste are basically, herbal, a high sweet barnyard, and a sort of pepperment candyish sweetness. Not very dynamic at all. The taste is low contrast, low saturated compared to previous teas the day before. Some brews have a light problematic sourness. Viscosity is enough. There is some mouthcoat aftertaste. The qi is very present, but it doesn't have much character and doesn't last much past the sip/cup. Durability is okay, but I didn't do too many brews and put it in the fridge for workday brews.

 

[shah8]

Pretty good tea weekend!

Shu of Friday was the Dayi An Xiang. Fascinated by the fact that I am so consistently thoroughly enjoying this tea, very reliable at a high level.

The first sheng of Saturday was some more sample killing--I blended the last of two Thai teas, the '06 HTC 802 and the '04 HTC Classic equally. It was a pretty good tea. Taste was on the thinner side in the way typical of Thai teas, with a nannuo-carrot and prune focus on taste, eventually mostly just thaipu prune. Good viscosity. There is a bit of aftertaste with some mouthcoat and light yun and a bit of feeling at the top of the throat. Some qi. Again, while Thaipu ain't on the level of real pu, it is a very worthy heicha in general, and I am glad to have collected a few cakes.

The second sheng of Saturday was that new wild tea I bought a bit back, that 2013 百福藏倉 yesheng. Kind of got curious about it some more. I think, with the provisio that it does have a bad astringency that makes the throat feel harsh, I genuinely like this tea and will want to affirmatively drink this from time to time. It has a strong character, and more broadly, it's the strongest/thickest tasting yesheng, particularly one that isn't bitter, I've ever had. Did notes for this session...

Dry cake and leaves smell very pleasantly fruity in the way wild teas are. Aroma and taste has this general theme of a sort of pungent green woody herbalness that's sort of in the direction of pachouli or celery. I've tended to enjoy this sassy strength, and in a thermos, the aroma punch is...well a cousin of incensy if not incense... In the first four or so brews, a broad stale lemon sourness is present in the taste, with it a bit in the aroma in a cup or two. Also, there is a pleasant, but very subtle fruitiness very occasionally among the first six or so brews. After about four to five brews, the sourness fades and leaves a kind of herby-mineral-milk broad taste from which the theme green-wood-herbal rises. Very late brews can have a nice subtle sensate sweetness. The viscosity is good with a velvet texture, and the mouthfeel sort of improves for a stretch of the session. Of course, while the soup enters the mouth smoothly without much astringency, it tends to build an unpleasant feeling in throat, even if it's not that strong. There is some cooling in mouth and definitely manages a bit of feeling down throat. Aftertaste game is pretty interesting early in the session, with a subtle, but dynamic mouthcoat. There is also a good yiwu huigan to sugars (similar to one type of Bingdao mode teas) that shows up around the time the sourness is fading, providing for an interesting contrast in flavors. The late infusions still has some subtle mouthcoats. This teas brew pretty indefinitely, as I'm pretty sure I did over fifteen brews over the course of two days and could have easily brewed more worthwhile brews when I threw it out. The qi is strong-very strong early, but it fades to something more gentle late. When I threw out the tea, I inspected the leaves to see if I can figure anything out. This does seem to have two sets of leaves, one set is rather lobular, but more medium size than your typical small-leaf puer. The other bunch is a bunch of long, darker leaves and much tighter rolled leaves. These leaves are very pretty and mostly whole, with even a few intact brooms. I've wondered whether this is a blend of wild and domesticated leaves, but I'll never know for sure, I think. I might try and get another, non-yesheng from this brand...

The tea of Sunday after a ton of brews of the yesheng, was the 2006 XZH Lao Man'e. I had an unusually good thermos on Friday, so I decided I wanted to a do a session during the weekend, and yeah, stuff is getting good or something. This is still a a touch thin tasting Lao Man'e, but this stimulated pretty closely a bitter LBZ--not that different from the YQH or CYH LBZ, so I enjoyed it very much. Aroma was generally plummy with hints of barnyard, choco, and wood. Taste early was a wood rim, deep bitter pole, choco, plummy with a touch of barnyard. It then becomes mostly a dark plummy, before getting darker with a dark herbalness, an herbalness much like well aged puerh. The mouthfeel had very good viscosity with a round feeling, and a light bit of astringency. The aftertastes were really nice for me. Earlier brews had a bit of yiwu huigan to almond notes, but the star of the show was a plummy-winey mouthcoat similar to certain other LBZ winey coatings. Qi was strong. While durability is not usually this tea's strong fort, I drank a lot of infusions, particularly as very late brews were maintaining a substantive taste of dark herbal.

Country might be going down the tubes, but life is good.

Ah, was reading a somewhat perplexing review from Alex the German Blogger on one of my favorit shus, but I took note of where he got it from, and this place Pu-erh a Hei-cha Archivy - Tea Mountain - https://www.teamountain.cz/kategorie-produktu/caje/pu-erh-a-hei-cha/ has a number of XZH samples (and Dayou, but none of the teas are of his higher end work), and some of those XZH teas a number of people might want to try--both of the 2008 XZH shu, the 2010 bulang bamboo sheng/shu, the '05 XZH LBZ brick, and it's not a ton of money. However, it looks like it's only for Europeans, even though I left an email asking if US can buy.

 

[shah8]

The shu of Friday was the 2019 Modern Witch. It was a touch unsatisfying, I think because I am automatically comparing to better shu, and the lesser richness of the aroma and taste was noted. It is a notably fruity shu. I also thought that the 2018 XZH Carefree shu was pretty similar in style. There is a bit of aftertaste, but the qi and the quality of it is pretty comparable to more expensive shu. Interestingly, the 2020 remake of Modern Witch just sold out, so it was definitely a popular blend! Paul believes that for many people the quality/price ratio must really have struck for some customers, as he thinks that other shus he has made like Loyal Soldier are clearly better.

The sheng of Saturday was the 2004 Nanjian Zhaizipo sold at Houde, tho' I bought this cake a decade ago. First note--while many teas have "black tea notes" or "tones", this tea is very heavily oxidized for a puerh, as you could see from Hobbs' review: 2004 Nanjian "Zhaizipo" - http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/2010/06/2004-nanjian-zhaizhipo.html . I've never really agreed with the other things about it said by Hobbs, but people who don't like hongchapu should miss this one. Next, this tea's blurb talks about arbor small leaf teas--that would really just be one of either Jingmai, Kunlu, Yibang/Gedeng, or Manlu/Naka/Mengwang Mannuo (or some unknown Wuliang near the factory). My broad and general estimation is that this is a Yibang. Dunno where Zhaizipo is, or what it is. Next, one thing I've found interesting, is that I can't seem to google for this tea--while google sucks these days, it doesn't seem to be sold at any of the Eastern marketplaces I try to check for, tho' Taobao through google search. Anyways, I think this is a genuinely excellent tea made with very much gushu material.

Early aroma is wonderful, hardwood, fermented fruitiness, with a touch of vegetalness(malt?). After a few brews, it settle down to a dark and rich honey aroma with some fruitiness. Earlier taste has a tangy tcm bitter pole that bends towards a cola flavor with a wood rim. The taste gradually rises over the space of some brews. Then there is a lot of a kind of hongcha malty brews before it steeps out into a honey-fruitiness in the late taste. The taste isn't that rich and is sort of small. The viscosity starts out as only being enough, but it gradually becomes pleasantly thicker with a nice soft texture with mild to moderate astringency. The aftertaste game is really good and at a fairly high end gushu level. Fairly strong mouthcoats, strong yiwu huigans to honey, deep yuns and soft pungent huigan with a bit of wood mouth aroma to round out all of that. The qi is also really really good--moderate to strong, but of high quality. I had finished one cake of this because I treated as my reading tea, drank it for the qi, and it's still great now. I brewed this well over twenty brews, but there were a few honcha brews in there that I didn't enjoy that much, but still a very durable tea.

Firmly recommend buying the tea, because I suspect that like the 2005 SM Mengku Mother Trees, you are unlikely to find this tea at an affordable price elsewheres. One thing about my own personal reaction to hongchapu--I don't really tend to notice "ah! black tea notes" when I'm drinking these teas, mostly because I don't tend to view these features as a fault. I normally do not like excessive oxidation because they tend to lead to sour/tartness when aging, and tend to mess up the things I'm looking for, like aftertaste or qi--largely the same reason I don't dig humid stored/warehoused tea. I do not like the 2001 or 2003 Chenyuanhao yiwu wilds, for example, too oxidized in a way I don't like.

The first tea of Sunday, after doing more Zhaizipo brews, was the finishing off of the 2020 Essence of Tea Jinggu Wild. It's okay. It's very lively and kind of sharp, at least in the early going, but it's just not something that shows off anything unique or genuinely interesting. Early brews has green taste, a spicy herbal like oregeno/marjaram/thyme, etc accent, and some sencha like sweetness. It eventually changes to a more general chalky senchaish sweet taste. There's some honey in there occasionally. Okay mouthfeel with some astringency. Some cooling, a little mouthcoat. Blend of caffeine and a bit of qi. I didn't push this many brews.

The last tea of the weekend was the '06 YQH Qixiang. One of its more middling level performances. Woody and plummy in aroma. mostly a honey and plummy taste with a touch of bitterness. Good mouthfeel. Early brews had good yiwu huigan to honey, a building mouthcoat, and a nice slow yiwu huigan to wine at least once. Comforting qi. Really generally an unobjectionably good session from this tea today.

 

[shah8]

Drank a lot of good teas this weekend!

The shu of Friday was White2Tea The Stranger. I enjoyed it a bit more than I expected, and drank this very slowly for a shu session. I thought about the similarities with Reckless Daughter. Taste is a generic light-fermented-shu dark herbal, cookie dough, and a touch of barnyard. There were often nice subtle hints of fruit in the depths. Aroma is more or less the same, with at least one cup having a nice hint of florals. The mouthfeel was pretty good with very good thickness and a nicely round feeling. There was a small aftertaste game, the best of which is a lasting mouthcoat. The qi was strong and somewhat nice. One thing I realized was that for very lightly fermented shu, this had much more/richer flavor than my older super-light fermented shu. OTOH, my older shu had more complexity, at least in aroma, and much better aftertaste games.

The first tea of Saturday was me finishing off yet another sample, the '90's Qing Bing from Essence of Tea, which is now sold out. On the one hand, I enjoyed this tea and sort of think it's worth it's $300/357g cost, but on the other hand, I can easily get more or less the same hedons with younger teas for half this price--thinking especially of the HTC '06 803. The broad issue is that the material, while it's not super-taidi, and is nice, it's still not very high end at all. Any decent MTF production of remotely around the same age would be very clearly better. So what you're paying for, ultimately is the sort of qi that its age grants it.

Aroma starts off nannuo-carrot and wood, and eventually becomes a nice, but light wood aroma. The light HK storage is evidenced by broad fermentation herbal depth and a fishiness in the early steep taste. That taste also had a wood rim and a sort of tangy bitterness. As the session moves on, the depth goes up, leaving behind a wood taste, and then later more of a thin menghai honey taste with some subtle fruit notes. The mouthfeel is decent with okay viscosity but not that much texture, aside from a bit of stiffness in there. Early brews has some moderate astringency. Late brews seem to lose some viscosity. Aftertaste game is mostly a bit of mouthcoat that can have an active spreading feel. Got a decent yiwu huigan late. Qi is moderate of very good quality, but it doesn't last that long into the session. Durability is okay, but I got pretty bored of the tea after about, oh, 12 brews or so.

The second tea of Saturday was the last 4g of 2019 White2Tea Snake Wraithe. I enjoyed it, and it has improved from the first time I brewed it more than a year ago. However, I don't find it that compelling. It feels like a certain sort of Mengku tea with a wig on (from the bamboo roast).

Still pretty cannibanoid. Sorta the way MJ smells in aroma and taste with a foetid tone to it. There is a regular bitterness in the taste, and a more spotty fruitiness. There is also occasional subtle sensate sweetness, and a hint of citrus zest here and there. Late brews have more woodiness. The mouthfeel is excellent, very thick with oily/runny honey texture to it. Not much astringency here. Not much aftertaste, just a light mouthcoat from my notes. There is some qi.

The first tea of Sunday was the 2011 Essence of Tea Bulang. This was pretty good. I had always thought of the 2009-11 EoT Bulangs as Lao Man'e, but this struck me today as something closer to Bulang Mannuo if not exactly like it. I was also reminded of Yehgu to, in certain ways.

Aroma was rather dynamic over the session, taste, too. Early aroma had a sharp tobacco-wood aspect that almost *smells* like bitterness, with wood, choco, foetid barnyard, and a touch of honey. Then it moves to a more sweet herbal focused aroma, then to more barnyard, and then back to a more wood/sharp herbalness in the late brews. The taste is a bit more consistent with early brews having a strong tcm-bitter pole with choco and sweet herbals that reminds me of Yehgu. There was also some hints of plumminess. There was a few middle brews with a really nice floral-wood taste. And for what seems indefinite, there is a strong broad depth of dark herbal with a weak bitter pole--the tea doesn't really fade or rise much as the session goes on, just becomes more generic. Also, late brews has little sweetness, which was odd to me. The viscosity was moderate, but very stiff texture, between thick velvet and pudding. A bit of notably productive astringency early. Aftertaste had strong and sweet yiwu huigan to honey with a good mouthcoat early. A bit later there are light yuns and pungent huigan. Active phase is generally over quickly after about six brews, aside from a kind of build up mouthcoat that one tastes after the cup is finished. Durability is very good and gives robustly flavored cups very deep into the session, with some mouthfeel but not that much else. Qi is moderate-strong.

The last tea of the weekend was the 2014 Teaside The Fox Thaipu. I enjoyed this more or less. This stuff might be from old trees and there might be a touch of evidence for that in the performance, but it's not especially gushu in the meaningful sense. However it's pretty tasty.

Herbal fruity in the aroma, earliest aroma more emphasis on fruity. Taste is generally dominated by a rubber-dark-herbal bitterness with subtle fruit notes in the beginning, a gradual dominance of a milk caramel sweetness for a few brews, and then back to a more generic version of dark herbal bitterness rather similar to EoT Cloud Watching. Viscosity is good, but not that much notable texture. Some astringency late. Does do some pretty good mouthcoats, light yuns and pungent huigan (early). Also a touch of mouth aroma early. There are some slow yiwu huigan throughout. One early brew had that sweet tonguetip-coat that generates salivation. Later brews have an interesting cooling feeling in the throat (and some feeling going down) rather than in the mouth as typical. The qi is decent but of no notable quality and fades in my awareness as the session goes forth. Durability seems to be good here, also a bit boring late with lots of dark herbal bitters.

 

[shah8]

This weekend was okay...

The Friday shu, I got sort of wrong-footed with the 2018 Chocobrick. It had that light sourness that I noted when initially trying this tea, and I sort of thought it had aged away, so I was distracted from fully enjoying the rich cola and herbal aroma and taste. Good viscosity and strong qi as well. I didn't push this tea that hard.

The sheng of Saturday was a laid back session of XZH '09 Yinfeng Pekoe. It's a tippy tea and it has that oxidized white tea note you get from aged tippy white teas. Not a particuarly strong/full/broad aroma and taste, but what's there is very enjoyably honey with subtle fruit and wood notes. Good viscosity. Excellent yiwu huigan and mouth/throat coat. Moderate to strong qi.

As you can see, an easy going winner for me. Not the most exciting or highest quality of tea, but quite good enough.

I was thirsty later on, and decided that I'd make use of the 2010 XZH Court Tea, which I've not really liked much, as a disposable thirst quencher. This tippy tea opens up very similar to a higher end lincang shu, a sort of sharp, almost bark woodiness with a white choco sweetness. This didn't last that long, but a subsequent few brews had a normal shu depth with a nice, if subtle sensate sweetness. Then it became a boring shu, but did its job in the refreshment category. Mouthfeel was decent, like milk, not too viscous. Not much aftertaste or qi.

The last tea of the weekend was the 2001 Simplified Yun 7542 that I bought a decade ago from Houde and drinking ever since. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even though the start of the session wasn't very much like a 7542. Late brews had a lot of that trad 7542 plummy.

Wet hay is in the aroma of most brews. This session didn't have much of an ammonia punch like in previous sessions. Earlier brew sometimes had this really nice wet hay, nannuo-carrot, subtle fruit, and a kind of cinnamon-wood (hey camphor is related to cinnamon!) Later brews are more wood and plumminess, while very late brews are more wet hay being dominant again. The taste early is ultra high and more like a Wistaria TaiHe rather than a proper 7542--wet hay, honeyish taste. Then it moves down to the more typical dark mineral, subtle fruit, bitterness and a touch of choco around that pole. As the session moves on, plumminess seeps in and replaces the early mineral, along with a light woody fringe, giving a more normal 7542 perspective even if still not typical. Late brew taste is a balance between wet hay, mineral, and a thin plummy. The viscosity is good, the texture has something of a stiff velvet feel with also a grainy/silty/sandy aspect that one finds in aged teas. There was a lot of feeling in mouth and throat. However, in the early brews, there was a relatively strong problematic astringent tightness in throat. It didn't bother me that much, especially as it fades, but yanno, I worry. Anyways, the aftertaste game was really nice for the first eight to ten brews with a lot of really nice pungent huigans early and later brews more focused on big sweet yiwu huigans. There was a lot of astringency conversion in mouth and throat. Mouthcoat was good and it lasted well past the swallow. A couple of brews had a very nice floral wood mouth aroma rising from top of throat. Qi was strong and of high quality. The session lasted something about fifteen brews, and while there's more and this is going into the fridge, I still sort of wish there were more strength in the taste in the end, doesn't feel like there is much more I can wring from this tea.

Heh, and I was comparing my experience with the reviews of the 88 QB that were available at Houde and Essence of Tea in a Teachat thread thread in 2013. Heh, we sure got hung up on soup color! My tea didn't produce anything near as red at a slightly younger age, mostly a dark honey color with a tint of orange.

 

[shah8]

Ah a great tea weekend...

First, I got at least seven good brews out of that '01 Simplified Yun through the week, so definitely does at least twenty brews for me. I really enjoyed the qi and mouthfeel.

The shu of Friday was Amalgamism of Capitalism. This is a straightforward shu that I rather enjoyed. Strong qi, a nice, if slow yiwu huigan to fruit, and late session subtly sweet fruitiness is there. Not a whole lot of inherent flavor. The shu is fully fermented, and there is a strong fermentation depth, with only a bit of choco and some mineral. There is also the bamboo roast notes of wood and that cannabinoid funk. I had the distinct impression that A of C is a shu version of Snakewraithe. Could be wrong, but it does feel similar.

The first sheng of Saturday was a really excellent session with the '02 Tai Lian International. I wanted to keep going with twenty year old tea. I have twenty year old tea these days! Yaaaaay!! I'm also in my mid forties, now. Booooooo!! The most excellent thing about the session was the mouth aroma of patchouli floralish wood in a bunch of brews. Taste was mostly BingdaoMode!Rock Sugar with a touch of chicoryish dark herbal. Really good mouthfeel with an clearly aging astringency getting that slick feeling. Lots of feeling down throat with some pungent huigans and some mouthcoats. Strong qi, tho' not as strong as '01 Simplified, which is really rather strong, of high quality. I really enjoy aged tea qi.

The second tea of the day was some '01 Zhongcha Tiebing. I wanted to see how breaking some tea up and airing in a loose yixing jar does things. First things first, it's using good quality leaves. It's been stored very heavily, but not warehoused--red soup, no warehouse aspects in taste or aroma, but hollows out in later brews like warehoused tea. Lastly, it's very dirty. Soups are cloudy with lots of suspended grit for multiple brews, and there are an absolute ton of tea cherries in that cake.

As for the session, I'll mostly just stick with Mattcha's review http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/2022/02/2001-teas-we-like-iron-zhongcha-oil.html It's not very complicated. Aroma and taste has a nice medicinal and wood note with a bit of mushroom. Capable of fruit note, again, for me it's more like strawberries rather than Matcha's cherry. It's indeed thick, but texture can be unpleasantly gritty from all that suspended solids in there. Capable of decent yiwu huigan to sugars. Also has a moderate to strong qi--really no slouch for a factory tea, so regardless of the lack of sanitation in that factory, it did use relatively potent leaves. I didn't push it too hard for durability.

As much as the wrapper reminds us of famous Xiaguan productions, this doesn't taste like Xiaguan iron cakes, old or new. I sort of wonder what it is, most likely culprit is some sort of Shuangjiang Mengku shenanigan--this isn't especially different from a Yuanyexiang.

The tea of the day today was the 2007 XZH Jipin. Pretty much absolutely excellent, and better than last '14 XZH luyin try. Essentially like drinking a flavored, sweet liquor. Could be richer in taste and more fuller like the factory teas I've been swilling, but... Anyways. Aroma is wood, less of that nice mushroom character, more of a fruity aspect. Taste largely the same. Early brews has a bit of sour plumminess that goes away quickly. Through much of the session, the taste also had plumminess, honey, and a sweetness that is very similar to banana flavoring one find in candies. I have a sweet tooth and this was very appealing to me. It has a very strong mouth and throatfeel with cooling and all that is quite a bit like drinking something alcoholic. Lots of yuns and gently pungent huigans. Moderate to strong qi of good quality. Very durable. This tea can get bitter easily, so I am slower to raise steeping times, but still have good potency.

 

[shah8]

Okay, gunna try to keep the notes short and sweet this weekend...let's see how I do...

Shu of Friday was W2T Nameless. Thoroughly enjoyed. Ultimately won't be surprised if it's a Xigui-ish shu. Choco with a bitter core early. Has a sour weight early as well. Kind of a nice yeasty-mushroom character late. Can have nice fruit note. The nice savory florals that were so strong in the aroma is a subtle note now. Good mouthfeel, good qi. Main aftertaste is a nice yiwu huigan to fruit. Does a bit of yun as well. In general, in my book, if you're willing to pay $35/200g for W2T shu and above, you're going to get a fairly nice shu. I've only found very expensive shus, Nameless, Bringer etc, to be decisively better.

The first sheng of Friday was the 2003 Zhongcha 7532 that has been dry stored in Malaysia and sold at TeasWeLike. I've never been very impressed with this tea. Decided to try it to think about it in comparison to the 2001 Iron tried last week. This session is more or less like the others. It basically smells good (wood, spices), tastes good (plum, honey early, sour early, and wood, plum late), and has a good mouthfeel with good viscosity and is rather smooth. It just doesn't have much presence, with not much qi of note and only slight mouthcoat aftertastes. Late long brews were actually fairly pleasant though.

The second tea was me finishing off 2014 XZH Blood Brothers sample. I don't think I could say it's a great storage candidate. It has a nice low note of funk and honey and subtle fruits in aroma and taste, but everything is rounded off and not very rich. Definitely has some of the sense of later XZH teas of lower potency and more rounding out with processing for drinkability. The aftertastes and qi were definitely good enough. I do think that dosing heavily will give a more properly full aroma and taste, and it's certainly potent enough to always offer something after aging.

The last tea of the weekend was the 2007 XZH Yuanshilin, the Hekai tea. Aroma and taste was awesome early with a wood and choco top and slight tobacco hints and an underlying plumminess. Aroma is interesting very deep into the session. The taste was something like the aroma early and transitions to a more plummy tea with barnyard, honey, mushroom subtle accents. Good mouthfeel with some astringency. Restrained aftertaste game with good yiwu huigan, a bit of mouthcoat, and yun. Good feeling in throat and strong qi of pretty good quality. Thoroughly enjoyed.

 

[shah8]

Nothing too much happened this weekend.

Long infusions of the Blood Brothers were pretty nice, so I felt maybe I was underbrewing it some.

I had a pretty good thermos of the '05 Dayi 100g tuo, it was deep and rich tasting. Not much qi or aftertaste, but rather a good example of what I wanted from a factory tea.

Shu of Friday was the 2021 Reckless Daughter. Clearing up and settling more. Wodui-pumped (like last year's cologne bomb with Nameless) feminine floral aroma was very nice. Taste early had a distinct melon fruitiness, while later brews were more generically fruity. There was a slight tint of fermentation barnyard depth, a bit of asprin-like bitterness. There was also a layer of typical shu cookie dough notes. Good viscosity. Good aftertaste game for a shu with strong yiwu huigan and mouthcoats early. Strong capacity for cooling feeling in mouth and top of throat. Strong qi. Thoroughly enjoyed and I took this a long way into the night. Soup is aggressively pretty, might want to use clear or white cups.

The first sheng of Saturday was some 2011 EoT Mannuo. Earlier brews still has some of that nice butterscotch in aroma and taste. Early brews also largely had a broad flat stale juice nature with a touch of sourness, and I had the feeling like it was some hongcha character. I eventually came to the conclusion, especially after late long brews that the issue is that the taste is thinner and higher, and as age took the sparkle away from the soup, there was little depth or richness to make a sense of even roundness. Anyways, broadly speaking, the basic aroma and taste is Menghai honey with a floral woodiness. Small core of strong woody bitterness. Decent viscosity, somewhat astringent. Good aftertaste game with yiwu huigan, mouthcoat, yun. Good quality moderate qi. Durability was good enough. It was a good but meh session that was probably just reflective of not the best leaves in the cake...

Second sheng was a try-out of that Dayi tuo in a gongfu setting. This had been in San Fran most of it's life, but it has obviously had some high humidity as there is a strong, not entirely unpleasant fishiness. Otherwise, yeah, deep, rich, good thickness, not that much aftertaste or qi. Not dynamic in a major way, and later brews wear away all of that warehoused? softness and reveals a pretty strong bitter core. This is much better thermosed than gongfu, really. It's also a lot better than that 2003 taipai 7532, well at least in scratching whatever it is that is my puerh itch.

Last tea of the weekend was the '09 XZH Diangu Chen with the leaves harvested in '08. Dancong pu. I really like this stuff. Diangu Chen is more mellow than the other Diangus, and has a evenly broader, somewhat full taste in comparison. Aroma is this pill powder character, which is in the taste, especially late--a weird sort of woodiness (of the sort converted from youthful floralness). There is a slight seaweed note too. In a few brews, dancong fruitiness is in the aroma. Taste is fruity, mangomy in the bulk of earlier brews before moving towards this vague hay, slight fruity, pill-woodiness in late brews. Strong bitterness. Aftertastes good early with caramel yiwu huigan the height, and fades a lot after about six brews. Good mouthfeel. Good qi. An expected good session.

 

[shah8]

Alright, another low key weekend with no notes taken...

After the success with Reckless Daughter last Friday, this Friday I went with W2T's The Bringer. The earlier review still mostly holds: SOTD- sheng of the day - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/sotd-sheng-of-the-day.59712/page-385#post-11515424 Wodui is much less. Aroma is fairly complex and confused. Deep and potent depth with bitterness, a touch of choco, dark fruit and a sort of licorice root herbalness in the taste. Good mouthfeel, not as much aftertaste as Reckless Daughter, mostly yiwu huigan/mouthcoat. Good qi. Durability could be better. Reckless Daughter last week was the superior tea. Of course, I have a lot of shu vaguely in Reckless Daughter style, but The Bringer is my only shu of its style.

The sheng of Saturday was 2008 XZH Puzhen. I definitely felt the difference in overall quality between the '07 and '08. Aftertastes not nearly as impressive. Taste is a little different as well (also a touch different compared to how it used to be) in that earlier brews had a bitter dark chicory tone. Think this tea has been cut some compared to the '07. Late brews is like the '07 in taste. First five or so brews are sour, as usual and like the '07. Aroma is roughly the same, TW storage taken into consideration. Mouthfeel is still excellent. Qi is still excellent. Durability was good, drank a lot of long brews. I took leaf off the back edge of the binghole, and got a fairly mashed up compressed chunk that meant that the soup was a bit turbid, more than typical of the tea. Also added a bit of gritty texture early.

First sheng of today was the 2008? Jingmeitang 100g Hongtie Forever! Jingmeitang is a sort of celebrity blender-led brand pressed by Changtai. It was better than the 2003 taipai 7532, but there was a similar "This is merely tea" sort of unsatisfactoriness for me. Does make decent thermoses for work, though. Aroma is wood, mushroom, with later brews adding a sort of camphory medicinalness. Taste is largely the same. Later longer brews bring out a bitterness and plummy notes. Very good viscosity, a touch of pleasant astringency. Earliest brews have a bit of mouthcoat, mild qi. I didn't push this at all. Same sort of "good taste, good aroma, good thickness, doesn't move me" issue as the 7532. There is definitely some classic Changtai rounding off and taming that makes this a more passive tea.

Went for some real tea and got out that 2013 baifuzangcang wild tea ****. Thorougly enjoyed. Really notable how thick the taste is for a wild tea with presumably no regular leaves in--broad, sour, sorta custard taste with that penetrating aromatics in the taste as well. Aroma is penetrating, engaging, and there's a lot of depth of stuff to sniff for in there. Mouthfeel is very nice. I decided I was going to be cautious about stepping up brewing times, and went about eight brews before reaching 15-20s and getting that bad throat irritating astringency. Aftertaste is really nice too with a complex sweet floral and fruity yiwu huigan appearing as the sour fades. In later brews there is a subtle sugars sort of yiwu huigan. Also a touch of yun in early brews. Qi is strong and odd in that wild tea way. Did about twelve brews before putting it in the fridge. Shudda just had this tea, but guts wasn't feeling great in the beginning of the day and I didn't want to waste anything too nice while distracted.

 

[shah8]

Okay, it's Baifuzangcang 百福藏倉 weekend as I finally got in my order.

I had been really impressed with liking the wild tea cake, so I took the risk and bought the two top bougie standard teas, the Taichi Chawang and the Tianlong Chawang. Baifuzangcang has more expensive teas than these and some seemingly really only for very wealthy people. I mean, NT$10k was how much it cost apiece for the chawangs, both of 2015 pressings. The Taichi chawangs looks like they use the same material every year, but the differences in descriptions for 2020 and 2021 Tianlong Chawang suggests a somewhat different tea every year. Some of those expensive teas were RMB13600 and RMB18000 for like 200/357g cakes...decidedly genuinely rich people only tea. The Taichi Chawang is the wild tea chawang while the Tianlong Chawang is the regular tea chawang. I also bought the 2016 Ganlu shu, which was a wild tea shu, for NT$4k. I bought the Tianlong because I gauged, from reading what the brand creator wrote about his tea philosophies et cetera, that there was a good chance it would be a Mansa, and I thought that I might be able to get a Mansa at least as good as the 2015 XZH Luyin or Lanyin and only pay $365 or so for that priviledge. The guy primarily does most of his work in Lincang, so there was always a risk it was some Bingdao-ish tea. I got the Taichi Chawang essentially because if the regular stuff is so good, the better stuff must be mindblowing, and it's not as if I have a ton of wild tea--so an expensive afterthought. The wild tea shu was just "oh hey! wierdo tea, probably fun!" I got samples of a 2012 "bingdao" (it's definitely too cheap to be too real) and the shu I already bought.

I did thermoses of the Bingdao and the two Chawangs.

The Bingdao's broad profile is similar to the broad profile of the Mainland China stored version of the 2002 Tailian International. It's also like the 2018 XZH Carefree. It did a lot of small flourishes of fruit, particularly melon, and floral aspects, and there were some sensate sweetness. It was a very pleasant and promising thermos. It suggests that this tea's material is better than the bulk of the Tailian material, but not as good as the handful of the best stuff in it.

The TaiChi Chawang

was really awesome as a thermos. It basically tasted like BBQ ribs that had been smoked a bit with some woodchips on the grill and lathered with a honey based sauce. A lot of umami with a sort of smokey/incense wood rim, and a bunch of wild honey with fruit/plum notes within. Strong feeling in throat and a lot of aftertaste. Strong qi with a wildly enervating sense that urges me to believe I could lift my desktop materials at work by the sheer force of mind.

Tianlong Chawang

was also really good as a thermos. Broad strong brown sugar taste that really had me thinking it might be Bingdao, or Yibang, or something something Bohetang. It has a notable black pepper spiciness/burn. Lots of aftertastes and plenty of qi here as well.

The shu of Friday was indeed the 2016 shu (with leaf picked in 2014)

. The cake actually sort of smells like sour cream. It was remarkably like a dancong chatou like what you'd find from Imen shop at TeaHabitat. It's obviously a lightly fermented shu with a very light taste, but not actually all that watery. The leaves are big and leathery and there are lots of stems.

Okay, the aroma tends to be light and somewhat nuanced with a wood rim and something like sour cream or beeswax filling it out. Sometimes there is fruit. Not too dynamic. Wet leaves tends to have a bread dough aroma. Taste tends to go along with the aroma, fairly light with wood, custard/beeswax/breaddough base, fruit, and this tends to be similar to a dancong chatou taste. Sometimes there are floral flourishes. The viscosity is good with a stiff texture, but high astringency (a theme with this brand--dude's a bitterphobe, but totally fine with all kinds of astringency). Aftertaste game is quite good with good yiwu huigan to custard notes, fruity mouthcoats, some yun. Feeling goes down throat. Of course strong qi. Durability is decent. It's easy to to tell that the original material is roughly the same as the 2013 wild tea I had bought earlier.

This isn't the most awesome of shu owing to the subtle taste and high astringency, but it is very interesting and has lot of qi and aftertaste.

The sheng of Saturday, because I couldn't wait, was the 2015 Tianlong Chawang. Verdict? Success. Does seems to be a Mansa (and twigs my bohetangy antenna), and essentially of the caliber of the '14 XZH Hongyin or YQH '16 18 Trees. So...500g of this stuff, huh...

This is a very dynamic tea with distinct phases. Aroma in the early brews have a more honeysuckle, mineral, floral, and a bit of barnyard giving a funkiness similar to how thaipu aromas are. After the first phase, there is an intermediate phase where the aroma darkens to a deeper barnyard. Afterwards, the aroma tends to vary to different notes, one brew being candy, another being a sweet and savory thing, still another being sugary or honey, so forth and on. The aroma, while never strong or bold, lasted through to the end of the session at about 18 brews with something interesting to give. The taste in the beginning is a very delicate yiwu sensibility with honeysuckle, mushroom, barnyard, with a touch of mineral. Then the taste gets darker with barnyard, a touch of sourness, a small tcm bitter pole and with a rim of wood and florals. The bitterness in this tea tends to bite at the tongueroots rather than stab at tonguetip. And after that was a dead cat bounce where the depth thins and there is more of mushroom, wood, and a touch of fruit. Then the taste goes deep with a sensibility very similar to YQH '06 Shenpin Chawang or the YQH '10 Shenyun Tiancheng with tcm bitter depth coming back along with a deep plumminess that is very durable out to at least the 18th brew before I threw out the unfinished leaves. The viscosity is very good with a certain pudding texture. There is a distinct black/sichuan pepper spicy feeling that "pops" and coats the mouth with a certain burn. Also, the astringency is generally at moderate and wavers around it, but generally declines a bit very late. The cooling feeling is very considerable, especially focused at the top of throat and down the pipe, so I really felt this tea going down. Also I might have been imagining it, but there was also a sort of cooling feeling at the nostrils, tho' I don't know how that works. The aftertaste game was intense, complex, and durable throughout the 18 brew session. There was a consistent slow yiwu huigan from the astringency melting into fruit flavors in general, and also including custard notes very late. The end of cups usually leaves a long lasting fruity mouthcoat. There was a fairly consistent appearance of savory floral mouth aroma, mostly rising from the yun and in the back of the mouth in general. There were some pretty powerful yuns and a number of brews with good pungent huigans coming right back up from the deep feeling going down. The qi was pretty normal, though, if very strong, of course, in a somewhat sedating sense. The tea left my cup very fragrant, so I recommend using aroma cups with this one.

This tea is obviously at the caliber of the 2014 XZH Hongyin set and the likes of YQH Yehgu, Shenyun Tiancheng, and 18 Trees and the like. It very much fits in with my current conception of "Bohetang" genre teas, particularly in the intense cooling nature and the rather vivid aftertaste game. It does not have much in the way of savory florals in the aroma or in main taste as found in most teas of this nature. Nor does it have any choco or all that much barnyard notes like the XZH '13/'14 teas that features some BHT aspects in a broader, bigger, less delicate taste profile. It is pretty similar to the '12 XZH Kingly Aura in terms of general taste behavior and the variedness of the aftertastes. Cooling is different with Tianlong being more more solid cold while Kingly Aura is gentle and evaporative. Tianlong is not nearly as big as Shenyun Tiancheng, and not prone to having direct fruit flavors but more complex in taste and much stronger aftertaste game. In general, Tianlong is much less bitter than most of the teas that one could compare it with, let along Yehgu or 18 Trees. Anyways, this is wildly well worth NT$10000 and people looking for a great Mansa should try for it if and when Wong places this up for auction again.

Okay, whew! Still one more tea to do!

The Taichi Chawang, how good is that tea? Well? eh, it's like the diangu--it's not C. sinensis sinensis, but it's been obviously domesticated at some point back in the mists of time, prolly about the same time as when the first Mesoamerican gave a grass fruiting body the stink-eye and thought about doing something about those measly seeds. Or to put it shorter, it's as palatable as regular tea. Really good regular tea.

This one is a lot easier to describe as this is not dynamic on the broad features. The aroma and taste generally featured a broad umami that is somewhat close to refried beans (more pleasant than that, of course) along with a certain kind "smokey" wood rim. Fruit, much like how wild tea usually is fruity (this tea is obviously a variant of the sort of wild teas that are dark and bitter like the 2017 EoT Kunlu wild or the Jingdong wild of the same year--except not bitter under gongfu circumstances and lightly bitter in a thermos) shows up every now and then. As the session goes deeper, more fruit notes shows up and the umami softens towards a kind of custard base note. Late session brews aren't fruity. There was a cup with a bit of sourness, but more cups with sensate sweetness. Very early brews had a cranberry/metalic bite in the finish. Viscosity is good early and builds to very good with a sort of velvet/cream texture before gradually thinning as the session goes on. Astringency bounces to moderate a few times early but gradually declines to mild. The feeling is a bit interesting in that there is a lot of warming feeling as well as cooling feeling in the mouth and throat, particularly the top of throat. All that changing temperature is stimulating. Aftertaste is dominated by a big yiwu huigan seguing to mouthcoat delivering fruit notes. Mouthcoat is long lasting. There is yun and some pungent huigans in the early part of the session. The qi is...very interesting. Same phenomenon as before, a bright enervating relaxation making me wonder if this was what a 8ball is like. I try for some psionic skillz yet again, unsuccessfully. Durability is not particularly great when it comes to excitement, while flavor and mouthfeel goes on, it's pretty done at twelve brews, markedly inferior to the 2013 baifuzangcang wild tea (which, frankly, if it weren't for the negatives, would be marked higher than this tea on some measures, particularly in it being good for way longer, more dynamic, stronger taste, etc, etc)

This tea was also well worth with NT$10000 I paid for it. What is interesting to me is that in a promotion, a tong of this tea is considerably more expensive than a tong of the Tianlong, despite being the same price in other circumstances for single cakes (and 20/21 versions of these teas also being the same price).

Okay, I did pictures just this once, despite how horrible my attempts were, because there are virtually no cake pics on the internet for these cakes other than ganlu shu...

 

[shah8]

Okaaay, a bit behind schedule since checking out all the reactions to the Oscars, but now, let's get back to tea and make it snappy...

Taichi Chawang lasted very well through the week to my surprise. Very long brews gave a good enough soup with nuanced flavor and interesting qi.

The shu of Friday was the trusty '07 Dayi An Xiang. A bit more paper woody than usual.

The first sheng of Saturday was a Baifuzancang sample of Bingdao. There was no info other than Bingdao on the sample packet, so could be one of 2012-2014, and cake or brick. This was a pretty enjoyable tea. I also immediately pegged it as being very similar to the '02 Tai Lian International Expo, as with the thermos last week.

Earlier brews had various aromas, most brew had woody herbal and barnyard. Melon, honey, florals, minerals showed up here and there. After about four brews, the aroma simplifies alot and you had things like savory florals, melon, but most later brews were something like herbal and rock sugar. Taste during the more active phase centers around a bitter core that is woody herbal and throws off savory floral taste and mouth aroma. There is also chicory and barnyard notes, but the nicest notes are honeydew melons. These earlier brews also are lightly sour and tart. As the brews go past four and five, the bitterness, sourness, tartness eases and taste first is dominated by savory florals and then rock sugar/barnyard/a bit of herbal with some sensate sweetness. A very late long brew the next day had a nice strong honeydew taste with a bit of dark herbal. The mouthfeel is pretty good, with good viscosity and oily texture along with moderate astringency. Some cooling. Aftertastes include the aforementioned mouth aroma, a vigorous yun early also releasing aromas, but the main consistent features after earliest brews were some yiwu huigan to fruit and especially a durable mouthcoat that can last a long time after the cup. The qi was moderate-strong, and first cup was quite warming. Durability is okay, like about 12-15 brews, but active phase is very short.

Pretty sure this stuff is shengtai but I found it enjoyable. It's certainly better than the likes of 2016 Spring YS Bingdao. Reading my description of the 2005 SM Mother Trees, it sure sounds like they are similar teas (wonder if a bitterness mediated savory floral/aromatic wood mouth aroma is a big tell for Bingdao?). My memory (and the description) is that the '05 tea is was much more mushroom.

You can perhaps snipe this at auction between NT$5k and storefront is NT$9k for the most expensive 2012 cake, both prices being more than fair/357g.

Anyways, I decided I need to do a second session with some '02 Tai Lian to see if this is the same sort of tea. Turns out that it broadly is. Main difference is that it has a much deeper basic taste with some foetid deep barnyard. Taste has thicker layers/components, in general, stronger. Fruit is much more subtle in this tea. The aroma also has this barnyard. Also, the aroma is much stronger, more durable and more dynamic over the session than the baifuzangcang. There are some quite nice floral fruit barnyard aromas in mid session. Viscosity is thinner than the baifuzancang. The astringency is much nicer feeling. The sweetness is more honey than rock sugar. The aftertaste game is strong in effect with stronger yiwu huigan and mouthcoat. Also more of a tendency to generate feeling down throat. The qi is stronger and of higher quality.

Tai Lian has a real benefit from being a decade (at least) older. Baifuzancang is purer and more coordinated, and the material is better than the bulk of the Tai Lian. Tai Lian has a little bit of the best material.

The Sheng of Sunday was the trusty 2008 XZH Blessings, another sort of Northern tea that's Bingdaoish. Absolutely excellent. It doesn't have super strong characteristics, like the mouthfeel or strength of qi in the '07/'08 Puzhen, but it also does not have negatives. This one didn't have sourness or bitterness and the aroma/taste was very coordinated. Early brews were earthy woody sweet, gradually rises as depth fades, and eventually gets to the last brew which was a long brew that gave me an astounding flavor of honeysuckle slight barnyard, wood depth that's explicitly sweet. Only moderate viscosity of no specific texture, light astringency. Only a bit of yiwu huigan and a good mouthcoat for aftertastes. Qi was moderate-strong but of quite good quality. This probably was the best tea of the weekend.

 

[shah8]

Trying to do this quickly this time, nothing too dramatic...

The shu of Friday was the XZH '18 Carefree. It was mostly a little too subtle until deep in the session. Good creamy notes and mouthfeel. Decent qi.

The sheng of Saturday was the 2017 Happy Anniversary, Baby, which was the first time I drank this in about four years-deliberately waited until this was to come back. It was pretty decent. Felt like to me a blend of Gaoshan/Manzhuan and Mengku, and I was also reminded of the 2019 W2T Well, well...

The aroma was fairly rich for the first four to five brews, with plenty of honey, fruit and/or high barnyard showing up in certain brews, and it tended to have gunpowder sulfur rims. The taste early had plenty of honey, some fruit and a sort of weedy herbalness tied to a bitterness. After five brews, the taste is reduced to mineral, weedy herbalness around a core bitterness which isn't that bad. Because this tea does deliver on mouthfeel with very good viscosity with a pudding-ish/velvet? texture, and consistently does as deep as I wanted to take this tea. The aftertaste game is also a bit more durable than the big flavors with nice yun attached to feeling down down throat a bit, a slow yiwu huigan, and a bit of mouthcoat. Qi is moderate to strong. Durability seems good, but I sort of got bored with the very small late tastes and didn't push it.

I was taking new pictures of my baifuzancang cakes with better lighting, and this prompted me to do a second shu session with the '16 baifuzancang ganlu shu. I took out this thick walled egg pot looking to cook that tea a bit more than it was in the heavy stoneware gaiwan I typically gongfu my shu (I was actually looking for my nixing pot, but figured this would do). Performance was okay, but was indicative of why I use the gaiwan rather than the sort of thick walled pots for shu. I got more flavor, typical shu flavor rather than dancong chatou, and interesting to me, I got much less astringency. However, I lost a ton of nuance in the taste and didn't taste the aftertastes as much. The qi was still the same, being very strong for shu. I enjoy this shu.

The last tea of the weekend was the 2010 XZH Hungshan. Of a lot of my teas, this one is definitely winning on the whole speedtest idea--one of the most consumed teas I bought from auction, even compared to teas I broke up a substantial amount for tinning and drinking. There is a reason for that, I really like it. Main issue is that it's thinner in taste than ideal. However, the aroma is really nice and nuanced. The aftertastes for the first seven or so brews is really top tier, very strong yiwu huigan and mouthcoats, and with plenty of pungent huigan in some brews. And of course, the qi is really good, too.

 

[shah8]

Hmmm, a bit to process this weekend.

Did a thermos of the '17 W2T Anniversary cake, and it was much more Bulang in sensibility, tho' still rather fruity. So maybe Manzhuang/Bulang or something? Just guessing...

The shu of Friday was the 2020 W2T Saturday Mass because I was feeling like I should give it a bit of attention. It didn't turn out as well as I might have liked because it's a bit on the simpler side, and I was feeling depressed and needed something a bit more complex to distract myself. Good viscosity, plenty of both citrus zest and old chenpi medicinalness. Dark shu with depth, but with a very strong almond/vanilla ice creamish sweetness. Qi is pretty decent. I had gotten used to drinking more fancier shu with a lot more subtlety, and this one is not very subtle, and the shu part definitely isn't at the level of other $60+/200g shu.

The first sheng of Saturday was the 2006 YQH Shenpin Chawang. The quality of the qi was quite helpful for me, tho' I didn't drink it for the medicine reason--I was going to do a retest of Tianlong Chawang today and wanted to have a fresh memory. Anyways, this tea did pound away at the inner storm clouds, and also did a decent job anti-anxiety-wise. Definitely worth having as medicine, at least for me.

The aroma usually had some plummyiness to it, but over the session the aroma was relatively dynamic and random in organization. Barnyard and Nannuo-carrot were a common companion. Florals, wood, fruit, dark cacao were nuances that were there depending on the brew. Plumminess was also consistent in taste, with wood often there. More barnyard, a touch of sour early, more cacao and a general deep plumminess late. One brew had an aftertaste generating light bitterness. Fruit is there on occasion. Viscosity was good, didn't have that distinct a texture, astringency starts of mild-moderate, but drops off a lot, depending on the brew late, making for smooth and very pleasantly swallowable soup. Mouthcoat is consistently there as for aftertaste. Early brews had a lot of good yuns, strong feeling in mouth and throat and leaves the throat feeling coated. Cooling feeling seems to have been noted more late in the session. Middle part of the session has a yiwu huigan to almond dominating, and a sense of sensate sweetness being present. As for the qi, well, you've seen that already--tea with one of the highest quality qi you can buy in my book. Durability was a bit less than I expected, but wasn't too bad, about fourteen or so over two days with a bit more still left, but needed to move on and use the pot again.

The second session of Saturday was a four gram session and finishing off of the 2015 XZH Luyin sample. It's quite decent, but the aftertaste game is carrying this tea a lot. This particular session tingled my Bohetang sense, but who knows.

The early session had honey, fruit, and a bit of high barnyard in aroma. Mid-session had refined sugars, florals, barnyard. Late session had strong mineral with fruit, floral, barnyard notes in aroma. Taste is delicate and kind of high. The herbal taste of mint has a habit of showing up in various cup through the session. Early session has honey and barnyard flavors. Mid session has a dark (mild)bitter herbal and brown sugar character, and late session tends to have this herbal sugar fade to mineral notes. Decent to good viscosity with a strong sense of smoothness. Like I said, aftertaste game is pretty strong. Has a good yun/shallow pungent huigan. There were yiwu huigans of a variety of speeds and flavors, generally fruit or sugars. Later brews tends to have a lot of good mouth aromas, and an occasional yun or two. Generally will leave the mouth coated in flavors. Feeling went down throat a bit, there was a cup where the tonguetip was numbed. Qi was pretty good. Seems to be pretty durable, probably did about thirteen or fourteen brews, and it still had plenty left.

This was a very worthwhile tea, but aroma and taste are delicate, and judging from a friend's comment, prone to being underwhelming. Rather similar to W2T's Unicorn, I think.

The last sheng of the weekend was the 2015 Baifuzangcang Tianlong Chawang. This was a very different session than my initial one. Either my first try was quite travel sick, or perhaps this is relatively blended and I got a different set of leaves. I'm leaning towards the first explanation. Anyways, my initial session had me thinking this was a tea that was sort of a cross between the 2006 YQH Shenpin Chawang(hence the try) and the 2012 XZH Kingly Aura. This session is much more like a cross between '12 YQH Yehgu and '09 XZH Fengshali.

Aroma was really good and was a factor in all my brews. Most of the session has this fruity note that was a cross between orange slice candy and mirabelle(to steal from a german vendor's desciption of a Jinsong Yu BHT) plum. In earliest brews, wood/woodsap, choco are the dominant aromas. Then fruit becomes more dominant with wood and eventually barnyard notes. Late brews had a bit of that GFZ halibut note. Some later brews had a certain fleshy floral subtle jasmine note that tends to suggest itself as citrus pith from the fruit in the aroma. Aroma again coated cups and pitchers, and it was also a relatively high riser, my nose does not have to be right above the cup to smell it. Unlike my previous session and certainly not like what the thermos suggested, most of the session delivered brews with a robust deep choco taste. There is a dark herbal bitterness very similar in nature to Yehgu, but it is much less bitter overall, particularly early, but it's more present in some long brews. Wood is also regularly present before the late session. One early cup had a bit of coveted savory florals. Barnyard only pops up here and there. The late session has a higher thinner choco with a mushroomy base. Very late brews lose the choco and be more deep plummy with a touch of bitter. The viscosity is thick with a sticky pudding texture. Mouthfeel does thin as the session moves along. This is among the best of teas, but this session is a touch weak on the aftertaste front, not being quite as good as Yehgu or the '15 Luyin, a bit because it's underneath a strong top flavor and a bit because the flavor aspect isn't that strong. Cooling wasn't as consistently strong as my first time, but it did have a couple of strong chills. Feeling went down throat consistently. Much of the session had a yiwu huigan to custard similar to how Yehgu does it. Some sensate sweetness in the later brews with the yiwu huigan, too. The early session had great yuns and pungent huigan coming up from the feeling that went down the throat just before. Lots of good mouthcoat early-mid session. Aftertastes lasts at least twelve brews or so, mouthcoats, yiwu huigan, yuns still showing up faintly. Unlike with XZH '14 Hongyin, this tea is tired at the twelfth brew. Durability is very good, did about sixteen brews, still had plenty before putting it in fridge with the Luyin.

This isn't quite as good as the '14 XZH Hongyins, but it's not far away from that at all.

 

[shah8]

There were a lot of good long brews from the '15 Tianlong Chawang with choco-fruit and a good thickness in viscosity and good qi. Fairly durable.

The shu of Friday was the trusty light '06 Taipei Commemorative. A bit richer in taste, with more nannuo-carrot notes, some sensate sweetness, less prominent aftertastes compared with the norm.

The sheng of Saturday was the 2009 XZH Fengshali. A bit disappointing compared to recent brews. And reading other notes, it seems as if this tea is fairly high variance in character and quality. Bulk of the session felt like more of an aged but really nice Phongsali tea, but later long brews had a pretty good, consistent Mansa experience.

Aroma is pretty good most of the way, with most brews having a brown sugar, barnyard, plummy, and butter aroma. Other brews before and since have more of a mineral focused brew with things like light incense or sweetness/honey. The taste earlier on has a deep vegetal base with a bit of choco, plummy, mineral, and a wood rim. This was much like the original try I had of a sample where I thought this was some sort of nice factory tea. Earliest brews has some sourness and bitterness. The later brews are more dominated by a deep plummy with a fruit edge, but can have things like deep vegetal, mineral, etc, generally more of a general Bohetangy area Mansa experience a bit similar to the likes of the YQH Shenyun Tiancheng but not as big or good. Viscosity is good with a stiffness to it, but astringency wobbles around mild to moderate levels through the session. The bulk of the aftertaste game is over after about four brews. Most of it is mouthcoat, with occassional yun and pungent huigan. There is some cooling. Qi is good at moderate-strong and comforting, but nothing special. Durability is pretty good for me, somewhere north of 15 brews before needing the pot for the next brew.

This next brew was a new try of 2015 Baifuzangcang Taichi Chawang. This has apparently sold out. Probably only a tong was ever up for grabs. I'm glad I got it because this is pretty top level (at least for petit bouggie) puerh without qualification of nature--ya know, good for thaipu, or liu bao or whatnot. This was essentially at the level of the '14 XZH Hongyins, with weakness being that Taichi isn't as strong or rich tasting as those teas are.

Aroma is great and very complex. Most of the session will have that refried beans umami (with a supportive underlying plummy), a little like the blackeyed peas note that you get from warehoused tea. However, there are also a lot of very nice sweet florals with or without that umami. Some dry powdery florals also showed up as well as some fruit. Later brews are more likely to have wood and cacao-nib notes in aroma. Taste has the umami and plummy layer in most brews. Cacao nibs are in earliest brews, and wood is in more of the early brews. Earliest brews has a bit of sourness and tartness. One brew had a strong bitterness and a bit of sourness with cacao nib--strongly reminiscent of the dark bitter wild teas like the EoT '17 Kunlushan. Anyways, the tea settles into a lot of umami/plummy with a wood note brews before then seguing into sensate sweet mineral brews in the long brews. The mouthfeel is generally excellent. Good to Thick viscosity with a pudding-velvet texture. Astringency starts off mild, goes up a touch as the session progresses, and then drops very low late-which made the mouthfeel of very late brews very nice. Feeling with down throat, and in early brews, a pungent huigan comes back up. In general a complex and strong tasting set of aftertastes, all major type represented. The strong qi is ennervating, but I didn't get as wired as before. It is also tends to promote a strong sense of warming in body and throat. I'd imagine this tea hard on a summer day, maybe...depending on how the resulting sweat does. Durability is very long, I was drinking for the qi, sweetness of taste, and mouthfeel at the twenty brew mark... There's still more so this is in the fridge. Well worth buying for me.

 

[shah8]

Huge pile of samples in and more on the way, so it'll be new teas, mostly, for awhile.

The shu of Friday was a 2012 XZH loose "pasha" shu. Can't figure out what the actual name of the tea is. Anyways, this one of that line of shu that low fermented, using special Menghai springwater, blah, blah, blah, and results in a shu with TCM-ginseng-wood notes. '08 Xishangjiaxi and '17 Peach Drunk are examples of this sort of thing. Anways, yeah, tcm-wood-ginseng in aroma and taste, decent mouthfeel, a little yiwu huigan to sweetness, and a bit of qi. Not a particularly notable shu. It was loose and the leaf well preserved and I probably needed to brew this a bit firmer than I did, but I wouldn't have gotten all that much more excited.

The first sheng of Saturday was the 2007 Wuweisanfang Shan originally bought at T-shop. This is supposed to be a 6ftm blend. Most of the session it felt like a mostly yibang with a bit of manzhuang. Late long brews gave more of a yiwu feeling. I thought it was mostly okay. The early brews were of fairly high quality with a sophisticated aroma and taste, good mouthfeel, and some nice aftertastes. It tired out quickly, and I got the sense that the leaf was tweaked a bit to remove bitterness at the cost of some fullness of taste. I got the sense, again, that I needed to brew harder when late long brews had a more full taste with some bitterness. Overall, it's a poor value at more than $2 a gram.

Early aroma had a nice foresty sensibility with dry florals, mineral, light bit of barnyard, and a sort of savory herbalness. It mostly moves towards a broadly mineral aroma later. The taste gives a few brews of something I felt as yibang-y--cola, dark herbal, a little tart. Taste then moves to mineral and plummy for most of the way. Late long brews are a solid plummy yiwu with a bit of leather and wood at the rim. Viscosity is very good with a slight sense of velvet. Astringency goes up and down from mild to kind of high and back down to near nothing depending on brew. Feeling goes down throat, and a light pungent yiwu huigan comes back up in the early brews. A good yun when there isn't the power for pungency. There is a subtle yiwu huigan and a lingering mouthcoat coming from whatever dissolving astringency there is that cup. Qi is moderate to strong, not of any real distinctiveness. I didn't really push durability as hard as I needed to because I stopped when this tea stopped being that interesting and only did late long brews the next day before I needed the pot for the next tea. In the end, I'd say that there is a problem in that the active phase isn't really long enough to be worth much excitement.

There was a second sheng of Saturday, a tea from Linda Louie at Bana Tea Co--2013 Mengsong Secret Garden, a small sold out cake at Bana, but perhaps still can be gotten here: Meng Song Secret Garden Raw Pu'er from 2013 | 1001plateaus - https://1001plateaus.com/shop/tea/meng-song-secret-garden-raw-puer-2013 . This is pretty good, tho' dollar a gram like at that shop is pushing it. Also, it felt more like a jingmai than a mengsong, but it's clearly mostly small leaf puerh.

Honey, woodsap, and dried fruit are in most brew's aroma and taste. Mushroom, nannuo carrot, florals/aromatic wood peek out here and there, mostly very early and late. The small and narrow taste generally also had a strong bitter pole with the dried fruit around it. Good viscosity, not much of a distinct texture. Astringency is light or very low most of the way. Feeling goes down throat, notable cooling. Good yun, associated mouth aroma. Some good fruity pungent huigan. Lighter (tho' a couple of late ones are strong) yiwu huigan and mouthcoat. Good qi, stronger than Shan, I think. Durability seems to be pretty good, and it's in the fridge after maybe twelve brews. Quite worthwhile, but it's a small tea in the mouth. Core is very strong, with good implications for what aging will do.

Last tea of the weekend was the 2021 XZH Diangu Purple maocha. Not a very serious tea, and definitely meant for drinking now. Very bulky maocha that needed wetting before it'd fit in the pot. Aroma and taste revolve around a barnyard and mango-ish nature. Taste isn't very rich. There's a bit of aspriny bitterness. Mouthfeel is pretty good, thick and smooth, but can have fairly notable drying astringency. Early brews have a strong and fruity mouthcoat, a bit of mouth aroma. This isn't very durable in an interesting way, tho' the mouthfeel and qi keeps going. I stopped relatively quickly as a result, but it's in the fridge too