SOTD- sheng of the day

[shah8]

Did four shengs this weekend!

The Mengsong lasted pretty long through the week well, and I wrung what I could from the purple diangu...

The shu of Friday was the '04 6FTM No. 1 recipe. One of the better sessions, good simulation of aged tea with good aroma, good mouthfeel, nice yiwu huigan to sweetness and good qi.

The first tea of the weekend was the XZH 2010 Boutique Fengqing that was released last year. Heh, if my sample was anything to go by, all that delay was necessary. It was mostly mulch, and the resulting soup was actually red. So obviously this isn't a normal XZH production, and might be either a production that they rewrapped or getting the discards from someone else's maocha buy. One thing that was interesting was that despite the red soup, the tea is very clean of warehouse nuances--literally better than Sanhetang's own drier storage of Sanhetang's own teas (ya know, the 2010 and 2011 stuff that had a touch of mildew and wet cardboard...). Now, how did I like it? Pretty decent. Very bitter early, but enjoyable, tea is not hollow in the way warehoused teas often are, but it poops out quick. Not really worth the money even if it wasn't already sold out.

The aroma is generally fairly plummy with a bit of that lincang dark herbal. There can be barnyard and wood notes, and at least a few late brews are fruity-plummy. In the earlier brews the taste is bitter dark herbal, wood, and some dark dried fruits adding nuance. When the bitterness fades, the tea becomes more decisively plummy with a bit of wood. Some late brews are fruity-plummy in taste. The viscosity is thick and smooth, with astringency building lightly from a low-moderate point until about six brews in. The early brews regularly has feeling go down throat and a slight pungent huigan coming back up. Astringency is productive in generating a lasting mouthcoat. Leaves throat feeling coated as well. Initial brews has some mouth aroma. A light yiwu huigan shows up as the tea stops being super interesting at around brew six. The qi is pretty strong. I didn't do a ton of brews, but probably a respectable 12-15 brews. Again, I definitely liked it, especially in light of how humid the storage was. Also, the aftertaste game, especially early on, and storage being a consideration, was relatively on the higher calibre level. While I could dismiss this as not being worth the money at $560/400g--taste could be richer(heh, and not be a lincang), active phase could be longer, but it is indeed a price that some people definitely could find fair.

The second tea of Saturday was the 2004 YQH Teji. My first gongfu in a number of years. My attitude about it has not changed, broadly speaking. Taste is generally on the thin level, plummy with some leather, kind of Classical Yiwu and Mansa blendish.

The aroma performed quite well. First couple of brews have Yang storage/minerality. Subsequent brews regularly featured plumminess much of the way with a common appearance of roasted sweet nuts, wood, and herbals. Later brews had a nice incense/aromatic wood note to them. The taste tends to be thin, can be sensate sweet at times, usually has plumminess and leather. Hints of sourncess in a couple of brews. Dark herbals in more, later brews. Moderate viscosity with a touch of velvet stiffness/feeling. Astringency is generally very light. Main aftertaste feature is yiwu huigan that can be complex and has different flavors depending on brews, usually almond sweetness or fruit. Earliest brews can have aromatic wood mouth aroma. Qi is moderate to strong for me. I didn't push this durability-wise. As with the Wuweisanfang Shan '07, this needs aggressive pushing in brew times after some brews. Shan '07 has a stronger core taste, better mouthfeel and a more complex/better aftertaste game. Teji has a nice sweetness and better quality qi. The 500g version of ZCCW that I have, tho', is much better than either Teji or Shan.

The first tea of Sunday was sort of a bust, should be the 2013 or 14 藏壽正秘境千年野生古樹茶 from Baifuzangcang. It's largely the same old thing that has me disinterested in wild tea, but it was still nice. Instead of being what I hoped for, a tea like my own 2013 wild tea but without the sourness or throat scraping, it's more like a low end version of the 2015 BFZC Taichi chawang. It's very mellow and pleasant, though. Has some of that umami that the Taichi does, but weaker and not quite as bean. The brand owner tries to suggest this as wild honey, and I suppose if you squint... Anyways, its a thin darkish umami taste with a strong sweet sense. You have to brew very hard to get any bitterness or astringency. Aroma is more or less the same, tho' a couple of brews have a nice floralness or something else in it. Mouthfeel is very smooth and thick. Not all that much in terms of aftertaste, but can occasionally give strong cooling in mouth. Qi is moderate to strong. Very low dynamism from cup to cup, doesn't seem like it's ever going to put a show on for the ole tastebuds.

Had to do a second tea, second day in a row, and went with the XZH 2020 maocha Secret Village. I went into this tea assuming that it's a Mansa, but it could be lincang or something even more exotic. I enjoyed it, but the tea tires quickly. From this and the purple diangu experience, I get the sense that the cannister teas are more or less large samples rather than serious teas. Big and pretty leaves, but probably not first pick and potent.

First half of the session is herbal/woodsap and honey in aroma, gradually becoming more fruity, with a nice peak of sugary/candy fruitiness and honey before ending up a light mineral and honey aroma late. The taste is generally honey/dark honey and dark herbal, some barnyard. Hint of sourness in a brew and a peak in another with a nice conifer wood rim. Late brews is generally a variant of honey taste without much herbal or barnyard. Mostly just decent viscosity without notable texture and generally light astringency. Has a really nice yiwu huigan aftertaste game with varied flavors and generally strong. One brew with some light pungent huigan, and the initial brew had a bit of mouth aroma. Midsession had strong mouthcoats and a bit of yun. By about seven or eight brews, the tea is pretty tired and the aftertastes are mostly played out. Qi is strong and relaxing--really enjoyed some jazz with this one. I drank the first four or so brews very slowly, so I was enjoying this a bunch. Just wish I had better durability out of it. This is definitely going in the fridge.

 

[shah8]

The Secret Village maocha lasted well through the week. A thermos of W2T We Go High was unexpectedly excellent and sweet.

The shu of Friday was W2T 2022 Tailchaser, that roasted shu. I liked it okay. It was not a great shu in terms of what makes shu good--there isn't the depth or richness I'd want. Viscosity wasn't impressive, but smooth enough. Also the aftertastes are muted, and qi is mild. The aroma was good and rising. It did have a sort of yancha-like mineral based mouthcoat aftertaste. The most impressive thing about this tea was how notably easy on the body it was. Probably as safe as it gets for actual night time drinking or sensitive tummies. As far as the aroma and taste goes, I was mostly remarking to myself how much like a shui xian it was (because of the depth provided by the shu bottom, later I thought about hongshui oolongs and meditated on the changes wrought by roasting in particular).

The first sheng of the weekend was the 2009 Bulang from Tshop, not sure if it's originally from Wuweisanfang like the others I've tried. This was overstored for my tastes. Soup being orange with red tint and all despite only being 13 years old. Otherwise the description at the shop is largely accurate.

Aroma is generally dark dried fruit. Earlier brews also has toffee-iss notes, and a couple of brews had some additional barnyard. Late brews can be more of a plummy and leather aroma. Taste tends to be relatively empty but with dried fruit, bitterness, and wood. When the bitterness goes, it turns into a mellow and light plummy and leather taste through the late brews. The earliest brews has some slight mineral storage notes. Really good mouthfeel--thick viscosity, pudding texture, does have a pronounced crisp moderate astringency. Doesn't really have a lot of aftertaste. Has a sneaky light yiwu huigan to sweetness mid session, and late session has a sensate sweet finish/mouthcoat. Qi is moderate to strong of explicitly good quality. I wouldn't say it's particularly durable, the active phase at least is short, about five-six brews, while the bitterness lasts. After that, it's mild thin tasting plummy soup that you're really just drinking for a nice bit of sweetness, mouthfeel, and qi.

The second sheng of Saturday was the 2021 XZH Remembering The Past Lincang single trees. Another one of those later pick big'npretties that's definitely for sampling and drinking now. It's basically something from the Bingdao area or something, judging from session. I liked it well enough, but one issue that's a constant theme with these maocha is the lack of dynamism in the session. None of these teas to date has changed that much brew to brew.

Aroma is consistently dry florals. Early brews has some vegetalness and honey. Late brews has some fruit and honey along with the dominant dry florals. Taste is dry florals as well, with a touch of vegetalness, and honey. Mouthfeel not too exceptional, moderate. Pretty much all of the real fun is in the yiwu huigan, multiple strands of differing speeds, but usually a fast melon fruitiness and a slower caramel. There's a little bit of mouthcoat, and at least once a sensate sweet mouthcoat, and about once a yun. This doesn't do much in the throat. Qi isn't really a factor, mild to moderate.

The one tea of Sunday was the tea Sanhetang only lets you buy one of, 2021 Spring Heaven's Legacy, with the blurb saying an unidentified area with 30% banzhang in it. I wasn't too impressed by it, but it's worth at least the $1.40/g value. So far, the best Sanhetang I've had in this recent sample binge is the Boutique Fengqing.

Aroma tends to have mushroom and forest floral (sense of pine needle in the way similar to zest included) in it, with woodsap, tobacco, and barnyard there early. Mid session has the mushroom become more dominant, and late session has a mineral note show up with the mushroom and forest florals. Early taste is very foresty much like certain northern Bulang teas if not LBZ, and it's quite pleasant. Soo, mushroom, honey, tobacco, forest florals and bitterness to start, before simplifying to a mushroom, bitterness and light forest floral. Late brews are pretty broad mushroom taste. Mouthfeel is pretty good, thick viscosity without a real texture and generally light astringency. Aftertaste game centers on a somewhat slow but fairly strong yiwu huigan in early and mid session before fading late after about six brews. Earliest brews capable of feeling going down throat teensy pungent huigan coming back up. A few brews has a lasting mouthcoat after the yiwu huigan starts the show. A bit of cooling feeling early in session. Qi is about moderate and didn't command my attention. Fairly durable tea, but didn't push too long, probably did about thirteen to fourteen brews.

This tea roughly only performs around what its price per gram suggests it to be. For example EoT Baihuaqing is the same price per gram, and it's sort of better than this tea, but is clearly a smaller tea in terms of taste and mouthfeel. Vesper Chan King's Seal is clearly better--the taste with the Heaven's Legacy is sort of loose even though it's broad, while King's Seal is densely mushroom with a more consistently potent yiwu huigan and qi. Doesn't have the nice forest floral aspect that the XZH has, tho'.

 

[shah8]

So it was a pretty good tea weekend...

Shu of Friday was the An Xiang. It was better than usual.

The first tea of Saturday was the 2010 Wuweisanfang (koreahao) Yibang and presumably bought at Tshop. TShop is effectively selling it for like $3 a gram, and more expensive than the '07 Shan. My personal judgement is that this is a relatively weak tea, given the standards of the brand, and as with all of these koreahaos, it's been stored more heavily humid than I'd prefer, but not obnoxiously so.

Aroma is a bit dynamic during the short lifespan--honey in the first brew, then wood/herbal/chicory, then wood/herbal/chicory/honey, then simplifying to wood, and then toffee for a bit before mineral remaint. The taste in most brews tends to have tcm bitter/depth and some wood. The bitterness is fairly thin. First brew had a bit of youthful yibang honey, wood, woodsap. There is a bit of sweet cola-ish note in some brews. Late brews has a generic depth, mineral, with more details provided in a specially longer brew. Viscosity is good, and improves as the session moves on. The astringency is usually at a moderate level with dips on occasion. Not all that much of an aftertaste game, with my note showing some mouthcoat/moutharoma for the first couple of brews and noted a bit of yiwu huigan in late brews. Qi wasn't really noted, but I estimate at moderate level. I didn't push this tea as that I was bored.

The second tea was the 2021 W2T Liu'an Tegong. I liked this tea but it's hard on the body. Also, it's not that much like my previous experiences with liu'an, which was much more herbal and woody and I guess a touch floral. I suppose for the better, since liu'an without a wodui process is weird and bitter for many many years after being made. This one tends to have the qualities both of a choco congou hongcha, and a pumpkinseed/nutty squash heicha.

Aroma is pretty consistently hot choco powder, nutty squash and perhaps a dark herbal woodiness. Initial brews have a taste of deep choco, squash nutty, and halibut umami before rising and becoming less choco and more a higher sweet darkish herbalness with squash-nutty. Mouthfeel is very good as it's fairly viscous. Astringency starts off moderate and declines. Main aftertaste is mouthcoat. Strongish side of moderate qi. Durability is pretty good, but this isn't a very dynamic tea.

The star of the show this weekend was the 2012 XZH Like a King sample. This was mostly like my first try, but I've had so many great teas since then that I've become fairly jaded and critical. The main issue with this tea is that it could be a bit richer/more robust in taste. Let nobody be deceived, tho'. Great tea. Most of the showstopper stuff is in the first three-four brews.

The first four brews has some savory florals, some of which is converting to aromatic wood, but mushroom is the base with some mineral, barnyard making appearances. After the initial brews, there is a transition stage where there's some fruitiness there before later brews sort of alternating plummy/fruity and mineral focus. The early taste has sweet mushroom as the base with that dominating the first couple of brews, a bit like YiwuTeaMountain's QBCZ before a bitter pole shows up with associate bit of choco for a couple of brews. There is also barnyard and halibut umami. At a turning point, there is a pleasant brew with sweet mushroom, some aromatic woodiness and subtle fruit. Taste then moves towards to varying degrees of sensate sweet barnyard-plummy-fruit-mineral. The mouthfeel is okay with decent viscosity and a moderate level of astringency. That astringency early on tends to promote an extremely complex mouthcoat aftertaste that I have a hard time picking out flavors of for the first four or so brews. There is also strong feeling down throat, but with not much of the way of pungent huigan coming back up. A bit of a yun. Notably, that kind of tactile emphemeral cooling doesn't really happen this session. It's more of a strong, normal cooling. After the fifth brew, the aftertaste dies down into a light, generic mouthcoat. Some very late brews have a subtle yiwu huigan that is nice. The qi is strong, tho' I habituated it readily. Explicit qi feeling does come back after a rest. Durability was sort of good. While active phase was very short, about four to five brews, they did take a long time to drink due to the complexity. And the brews after that were just sensate sweet and tasty even if not generally that complicated, with only a touch of mouthcoat and yiwu huigan showing up. Did about fifteen brews and put it in the fridge.

 

[shah8]

This was an interesting tea week...

I couldn't get too much more out of the '12 XZH Kingly Aura, but one of those brews did emphasize the tactile coolness that made me interested in the tea in the first place with my original session.

The shu of Friday was the Baifuzangcang '16 wild tea shu, not from the cake, but sample packet (just to be precise, the packet, for example, is less twiggy than my cake). It was a nice session, not too overtly remarkable--much like W2T Lesser Evils with a fermentation depth and dried fruit sweetness, along with a lot of nuance and a tendency to bright fruit notes in depth and length of yiwu huigan aftertaste. Good qi.

The first sheng of Saturday was the 2014 Creation Brick 2kg. I didn't have high expectations for this tea, so I brewed this on a Saturday instead of a Sunday where I'd get the chance to brew over the rest of the week. This turned out to be pretty good and is better than any 2015 XZH other than the Hongyin of that year. It is interesting to me how stark the quickness that XZH fell off the leading edge after 2014. However, this is a more dynamic, less coheisive, and less refined tea than the likes of the '15 Lu or Lanyin, but it's bigger, heartier and fuller.

This tea tends to have an aroma in the earlier going with savory herbal and florals that is a bit close to the savory florals that people tend to pay the big bucks for. There is often mineral and woodsap notes. Aroma shifts after about the fifth brew to a more mineral and plummy aroma. The taste sort of follows the aroma. Earlier brews have savory herbal, woodsap/wood, high barnyard. This gradually thins and turns into a light mineral and plummy taste. A couple of early cups has a slight bitterness, and late long brew cups has bitterness returning which is productive. Mouthfeel is decent enough, good viscosity, low, low-moderate astringency. Does a good job generating feeling down mouth. Aftertaste game is pretty good. Yiwu huigan is fairly strong and contributes custard sweetness towards the top flavor, especially as it becomes thin and light in later brews. Decent mouthcoats are regularly there. A couple of cups one early, one late were noted to have mouth aroma, and one cup generated a yun. Bitterness in late brews generates a pleasant lingering aftertaste. Qi is moderate to strong, of good quality. I pushed this a long way, despite this getting thin a bit quickly, as aftertaste went well with the thin mineral-plummy. I probably did about fifteen brews. Well worth having, but far too expensive for a huge 2kg brick.

The second tea of Saturday was the 2008 Mr. Feng's Selected Trees from Essence of Tea back in the day. 2008 Mr. Feng's 'Selected Trees' Tea by The Essence of Tea — Steepster - https://steepster.com/teas/the-essence-of-tea/69745-2008-mr-fengs-selected-trees . Some quick summations--This is similar to how I read descriptions of the 2006 Shuangjiang Mengku Qiaomuwang. It is substantially less fruity and sweet than it used to be, and is a bit more sour. I have ready access to better Bingdaos of the camphor, wood, and caramel mode...

Aroma isn't that dynamic. Most early brews were caramel, barnyard, wood, and herbal in aroma. Late aroma were more wood and camphor in nature. There can be a slight floralness. Aroma usually is pretty enjoyable. Taste isn't dynamic either, dark bitter herbal with aromatic wood or camphor. Sometimes there is fruity or caramel nuances. A few brews are sour. Mouthfeel is moderate in terms of viscosity with a cottony texture a little similar to Maheis. A bit of astringency Aftertaste is mostly a cooling mouthcoat. A couple of brews had a touch of the sensate sweetness that I liked from my first try maybe eight years ago. Qi is moderate and is nice. Durability is fine but the tea is kind of boring, so it's going into the fridge with still plenty left after about thirteen brews.

The last tea of the weekend was the 2006 YangQingHao WuShang MioPin. I realized that I was drinking this tea too fast and too critically after restarting after a break. This tea does the same stuff most YQH from this era does and the taste is a bit more nominally boring than it actually is. While I liked this a good deal, I think that among the 2006 YQH, Shenpin is still my favorite teas. It is something of a tragedy that YQH teas of this time period are generally as overstored (at least according to my taste) as they are.

Initial brews had a wet hay aspect to the aroma, and early aroma in general focuses on a nice wood and plummy note. Later brews are more plum centered with some mineral helping out from time to time. Most brews usually has a taste of deep plummy with choco tones with depth sometimes having barnyard, soil, and/or wood. Very late brews are mineral and plummy. It's not very complicated and there isn't much to stop me from drinking cups fast. The taste is broad and full, tho'. Has a tendency, like a number of other older YQH, to have a sensate sweetness in the soup taste. A bit of sourness here and there. Mouthfeel is very good with good viscosity and a sticky pudding texture. Outside of a couple of brews, astringency was low. Feeling went down throat nicely and generated more feeling in the chest in the early going. Early going aftertaste game was very nice, the second brew had lots of pungent huigan while the third, fourth, and fifth brews had a single each at the end of the cup. Mouthcoats happened in the first half of the session. There is a more common yiwu huigan that is subtle and delivers fruit, custard, and a sweet sense. Qi is pretty strong, but not as high quality as the Shenpin Chawang. I drank about fifteen brews, it is fairly generous with simple sweet tastes and qi for a long way.

 

[shah8]

Okay, long weekend, super long post, let's get to it (psyches myself up)

2008 Mr. Feng's Selected Trees performed well in the weekday long brews. Lowkey, well worth seeking out as a premium, if not superpremium tea.

The shu of Friday was me finishing off a sample of mid2k W2T NuoXiang with a few grams of 2007 Dengshihai shu to fill the gaiwan. It was nice enough. Very thick, and the nuoxiang gave lots of marshmallow sweetness, and there was some nice woodiness. A bit of qi.

Alright, the first sheng of the weekend was the 2021 Fall Heaven's Legacy. There is some ambiguity as to what exactly this is. There is a maocha version that seems to suggest that it's pure secrit village without any banzhang, and there is a cake version that seems to suggest that there is banzhang blended in again. The sample did not have any chunks in it. My general impression of this tea is that it's pure something something Xigui area, tho' brews the next day had more of a suggestion of banzhang about it. I was pretty satisfied with it, but it wasn't that dynamic, so I got bored a bit.

Earlier brew aroma had a bit of oregano/majoram/thyme-ish savory herbal, green sheng, mushroom. This transitions to a more mushroom and piney-citrus zest aroma, and later brews add in a bit of caramel sweetness before the aroma fades. The taste consistently follows aroma with a bit of bitterness. Later brews develop more caramel, mineral, and much less mushroom or pine-citrus notes relative to aroma. Viscosity is good, and something of a velvet texture. Astringency is about moderate most of the time. This has a fairly well rounded aftertaste game in early brews with fast yiwu huigan to caramel and an occasional slower yiwu huigan to fruit. Strong mouthcoat early, and best aftertaste brew also had some mouth aroma and a bit of pungent huigan. The qi is strong and of reasonable quality. Durability is good, but again, not very dynamic so I didn't wind up pushing this tea too far.

I liked it, but it was too youthful, and in general did not push my buttons too hard. Probably needs to try again at some point.

The second sheng of Saturday was the 2011 XZH Zhangjiawan. This is something very similar to the 2004 YQH Teji, cleaner stored, but not as good. It's not quite so similar to other recent Zhangjiawan area teas that I've had, the 2020 from Essence of Tea and the 2019 XZH Huangyin Grade A, in the sense that the aftertastes are a bit weaker in promoting a strong yiwu huigan to fruit, and the taste isn't particularly mushroomy. Also a kind of boring tea, but it's quite sweet, mellow, and enjoyable.

The aroma mostly had two stages. The first stage is wood/woodsap, plummy, caramel, a sort of tofu umami. The second stage is plummy and a sort of peaty scotch sort of aroma. A late brew aroma had a striking and interesting fresh cut apple slice aroma. Taste is very consistently some proportion of wood/woodsap and plumminess. Early brews a touch tart. Viscosity is only enough with a nice sort of oily texture, and astringency is generally low. Earliest aftertaste has a reasonably potent mouthcoat that also coats the top of the throat and lingers for a while. The tea quickly shifts down to just a consistent yiwu huigan, occasionally to fruit but mostly to a subtle caramel sweetness. A light mouthcoat still happens. Aftertaste game mostly fades to subtlety by seventh brew. Seems to be an indefinite brewer, did a number of brews the next day and eventually put it in the fridge for weekly brewing.

I like it, but view this as far to expensive to consider pursuing, with many better choices available for the money. It kind of gave me a sense of why Zhangjiawan so often tends to be one of the cheapest Mansa teas.

On Sunday, I did the 2014 XZH Carving Jade. This was very similar to the same year Creation Brick for me, if not as good. In general, this tea does press my buttons, and does what I want a casual nice tea to do for me. I already have too much tea so not in the market for another expensive cake, but a slight temptation, hey?

Savory herbal, mushroom, high barnyard, sweet floral, and caramel is in earlier aroma, and later aroma is more mineral with perhaps fruit or florals. First couple of brews have a sweet mushroom, halibut umami, mineral, and a thin TCM bitter pole in what is a nuanced soup. Then taste gets darker with a generic dark herbal, bitterness and a wood rim. Later the taste oscillates between mushroom or dark herbal with some mineral notes and lower bitterness. Mouthfeel is quite good with thick viscosity and pudding texture. Late brews are very thick. Astringency starts off light, builds to maybe moderate and then fades. First couple of brews have feeling going down throat and pungent huigan coming back up. One later brew also had a pungent huigan. First couple of brews also had a complex assortment of yiwu huigans of different speeds and flavors that segues seamlessly to mouthcoats which was nice, and while the complexity goes quickly, later brews tends to have some yiwu huigan. Distinct mouthcoats are also routinely present, some of which is from dissolving astringency. There was a yun in a brew. The qi is strong, decent enough in quality, but didn't note anything special about it. Durability seems okay enough, but markedly inferior to the creation brick, which had more enjoyable late brews. I didn't push this as far as I could have, since I needed the pot for the next tea after a couple of morning brews the next day.

The Memorial Day treat was the 2013 Risk One's Life from XZH. The claim is that this is single (or few tree) tree Bohetang area stuff. I guess I can believe it. Extremely pretty and elegant, particularly in aroma. Can probably go up against nice oolongs at the stuff they are good at.

Aroma is very consistently a nice savory floral and plummy character, more durable and is a factor deeper into a session than other good teas. Some cups have nuances like coffee-barnyard or caramel, and mineral late. Does coat cups and pitchers lightly. The taste is also largely consistent with savory florals and plumminess much of the way before switching to a wood and plummy taste, with mineral showing up late. Early brews have the plumminess being tart, as well as including a thin TCM bitter pole. Both the tartness and bitterness fades as florals changes to wood in taste. Viscosity is generally moderate with a silky texture and astringency generally on the lighter side. Some feeling goes down throat a bit, and cooling feeling is generally strong. Aftertaste game is pretty good for about five brews. Yiwu huigan is notably lengthy and lingering, and sometime complex with multiple threads of timing and flavors. There are shallow pungent huigan, some mouth aroma, and a yun early. After the fifth brew, there's still a tendency to alternate between yiwu huigan, mouthcoat, or mouth aroma for a few brews. Qi is strong and kind of centering and relaxing. Durability seems to be fine, but I had not pushed the tea that much today, about ten brews, so plenty more weekday brewing to do.

Expensive as heck but well worth having. Not as good as the 2014 Hongyins, as those are richer and more dynamic in taste, but not inferior to very many teas.

A reminder of the pitfalls of trying a tea only once: SOTD- sheng of the day - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/sotd-sheng-of-the-day.59712/page-374#post-10206427 My first try was not anywhere near as nice as this try.

 

[shah8]

A bit less luxurious of a tea weekend than last but nice enough

I did do a lot of brews that Sunday, but Risk One's Life pooped out pretty quickly, but the 2011 XZH Zhangjiawan lasted a long time through the week.

The shu of Friday was the 1999 Light Fermentation 7581-ish shu from Essence of Tea. Not dynamic at all, pretty consistently a good tcm aroma and taste with a bit of wood and sweetness, more or less how a 7581 is, just not as woody and camphory as some are. It had a good mouthfeel and the qi had an interesting (and good) moving quality to it. Really is a pretty good way to approach how aged sheng is on a budget.

The first sheng of Saturday was the 2022 W2T Pink and Blue. In general, at this point, I'm considering P&B, Injured Coast, and Tailchaser to be essentially an exotic yancha with puerh leaves rather than puerh per se. No different than hongcha or baicha with puerh leaves. They are substantially less puerh-y than bamboo roast puerhs, tho' there are obvious similarities. In the end, they don't really scratch my puerh itch all that hard. Aftertastes seems to be curtailed some, and durability is much less. Also, they all need a year or so more for the fire to go down.

Anyways, P&B seems to be a Menghai'y set of leaves? The aroma has standard fire roasty element as well as a nuttiness found in all of these puyanchs. This one also tends to have a dark herbalness aproximating your northern Bulang mountain stuff, like Pasha, some Hekai, Banzhang. The taste has that roast, dark herbal, as well as barnyard and a slight touch of bitterness. Turns more roast and minerals with a bit of florals and aromatic wood as the tea dies. Good viscosity with a touch of velvet texture and generally low astringency, tho' one brew had moderate astringency. The aftertaste is primarily a bit of mouthcoat, tho' there is a touch of yiwu huigan very early, and a stronger one in the fading brews. The qi was at least moderate to strong, tho' I remember not being affected that much by later brews, but that might just be a bit of habituation. I probably only did about ten brews. Broadly, the durability is pretty equivalent to a yancha. I'd be inclined to say that this would be a good aging prospect, but yancha doesn't age like puerh does, but the roast might not be strong enough to stop all such aging. It's certainly not highly oxidized, so might not get that sour with humidity...

The afternoon tea was a "MH Banzhang" distributed by a Malaysian friend, a 4g session. I was a bit meh on Saturday because it was small and a bit delicate, and presumably it's one of the banzhangs pressed by MTF in the early 2ks, say like the '02 Old Round Tea--so I was comparing to things like the '99 BGT or the '05 Mengsong Peacock/Ugyen Yuancha Pine smoked tea, and it wasn't comparing that well. However, the long brews today were nicely fuller and enjoyable. Seems like it's pretty durable. The leaves are whole and small, interesting relative to other? MTF productions.

Aroma early is pine foresty, sour plummy. Sour plummy fades, and more wood and dark herbal aspects show up, with plumminess on occasion. Taste early is dominated by dry storage tart-sour plumminess. This follows the same pattern as the aroma as it gradually grows more piney forest, wood, and non sour plum. The taste kind of thins going on the normal increases on steeping time until it's a light wood and sweetness. The next day, with deliberately long brews, it was nicely full, plummy with a small bulang bitter pole, wood, and a touch of halibut umami. Mouthfeel was interesting in the sense that it started rather thin for anything considered premium, and really bulked up as the session went, especially the second day. Pudding texture. Astringency was generally at least moderate, tho it does fade late. The bulk of the fun aftertaste was during that tart early phase as happens so often with dry storage tea--yiwu huigan to almond and a durable mouthcoat. A bit of yun as well. Feeling went down throat a touch. Aftertaste was generally over after about six brews. Qi was decent, moderate-strong, good quality. Durability seems good, did about 14 brews and seems like there's more.

The first tea of Sunday was Injured Coast from W2T. Much more complex than P&B, and sort of what my impression of a baijiguan yancha is like, tho' I've never had a baijiguan.

There is a core aroma of roast, nutty and some caramelized sugars, and various brews could have fruit, honeysuckle, and minerals at various points. Late aroma is more minerals, roast, toasted/caramelized sugars. Early brew taste is roast and a strong sort of floralness with a bit of bitterness. Then it moves towards a sort of honey and bitterness and which thins from there to a roast, mineral, a touch of florals and toasted sugars. Good viscosity, sticky texture, with moderate astringency early and which peaks and then fades. Feeling goes down throat a bit very early in the session. Aftertaste game is a bit full very early--manages to almost have a pungent huigan. Has the usual yancha-ish yiwu huigans and mouthcoats, which the bitterness early converts to. A couple of brews does have some nice floral mouth aromas. I took this about ten brews.

In both P&B and Injured Coast, cooler soups tend to reveal a fruitiness.

The last tea of the weekend was the 2017 XZH Single Tree. This was a line of cakes that Tony Chen made of a variety of single trees. This specific one is a Tianmenshan. This is a more elegant nice tea as opposed to a more fully well rounded top puerh.

Aroma and mouthfeel are excellent and generally pretty consistent. Aroma consists of dark herbal, floral, forest floral, with a bit of honey providing a bit of sweetness in a combination that is usually ethereal and elegant. It is not as rich as a similarly elite aroma like 2013 XZH Risk One Life's performance last week. The mouthfeel was like licking jade very early before it becomes a slight bit more astringent and gets more of a sticky texture. The taste is sort of low volume, with a sober, subtle mushroom base, some plumminess, a bit of halibut. Here and there, a bit of forest florals, honey sweetness, and dark herbals can show up. The aftertastes aren't strong at all, a slight yiwu huigan and some mouthcoat. Can have a little floral mouth aroma. Notably in terms of feeling, one late brew had a very tactile cooling, like the 2012 XZH Kingly, and I suppose that 2015 BFZC Tianlong has also done something like it. Durability seems okay, particularly in the sense that the aroma keeps going. Did about ten brews before putting this, the banzhang, and Injured Coast in the fridge.

 

[shah8]

Okay, a sort of interesting tea weekend even if not that great. Did a lot of tea.

MH Banzhang is pretty durable, not much aftertaste or all that much qi, but full bodied plummy taste with plenty of bitterness and good thickness.

Single Tree TMS was a joy to drink in extended brewings through the week.

The shu of Friday was the 2008 XZH gongting loose shu, presumably from Mengsong. Pretty much like other gongting shu, including the xicongtianxiang '09, but anyways--Rich aroma, rich and deep taste. Good mouthfeel and good qi. Not very dynamic. Was pretty durable. Very ontologically shu in the best sense.

There was a sample box from Puerh.uk run by someone who goes by Paola Panda. He's basically starting out and has run into a lot of controversy by being aggressive in digging for TW sources from people present in forums, etc. Heh, there was also the time he promoted a 2003 Wangong (which is before Wangongs were generally sought after) that was apparently sold much cheaper on Taobao. So I wasn't someone who would be normally interested in buying a sample. However, recently Puerh.uk had a Baohongyinji Bohetang for sale by the gram or cake. I do not have a good impression of Baohongyinji either, but I did want to expand my notion of what someone would consider a Bohetang, so I bought a session's worth of tea. I also bought a 2014 BHYJ Dijie, and to cover another gap, and one I have higher expectations of, the 2005 CYH Shanzhong Chunqi. I wound up getting a ton of other samples because I apparently inspired Paola in some capacity as far as seeking out puerh in the East, via Facebook auctions and the like.

Anyhoo, first up the list, the 2014 Baohongjinji ChunYue, which is a Xiangchunlin. Now, ah, why do I not like BHYJ? They pull this stunt where they make a tea that has the broad character of a microarea according to its prevailing stereotype in tea media, but it would be less complex and dimensional than it really should be, and durability would suck. I dunk on later issue Biyunhao and Zhengsilong on this, too, but they do this sort of thing quite a bit less dramatically. As you might guess, the Xiangchunlin conforms to such expected disappointment.

Another note, more broadly speaking, all of the BHYJ has a slight fishy note for some reason, a little like the halibut noted in various teas. I think it could be something to do with a standard cheaper tea being used to bulk things up, but it could be storage as well.

Aroma is wood/woodsap, herbal, and plummy, gradually becomes higher and sweeter before being mineral-plummy. Original aroma comes back with a strong brewing time. The taste is generally kind of plummy with a green herbalness (sort of celeryish) with occasional brews having a wood rim. late brews have a cola depth with mineral and herbal nuance. Mouthfeel is pretty decent, good thickness with a bit of pudding texture. Light to moderate astingency that produces a nicely herbal mouthcoat. There is a bit of qi, say moderate. Durability is poor--I only have notes for seven brews and I probably did ten before the tea was just too thin to keep going for.

I did another tea, a 2018 wild tea dragonball with the note "pretty good". I did not drink very many cups of this tea, very much a bog standard wild tea--dark meaty umami with some fruit, bitter pole, and a touch of wood/florals. Very similar to the 2016 Essence of Tea Jingdong Wild, except a bit more elegant and not as rich. Meh. Not much aftertaste or qi either.

The first tea of Sunday was the 2014 BHYJ Bohetang. I started with bated breath, but cakes expected to be sold at over a $1k gets to be more fundamentally nicer, and this is a more reasonable tea than what I've come to expect from the label. The general character is pretty similar to my second try of the 2015 Baifuzangcang Tianlong (now that's a tea I want to try for merely the third time!) The complexity and durability is better than other BHYJ, but not super great. The qi is strong, at least early, but the aftertaste are kind of weak. I did save the wash/first brew but I didn't get any cool effects when I drank it cold, perhaps it needs to be loose leaf or some approximation of which, and I had a few chunks. However, this tea did consistently change flavors as the temperature of the soup in the cup cools, which was nice.

Aroma in the first couple of cups are a bit erratic with savory herbal, high barnyard, nuttiness, fruit, and caramel in varying proportions, then there is a longer series of a sort of fruit-plum aroma similar to the Tianlong. A couple of brews had interesting contrasting notes, one cup had a onion soup note pleasantly contrasting with the plum, and another had a nice woodiness. Late brew has fruit diminishing compared with contrasting mineral or herbal notes. The taste is typically dominated by a deep TCM bitter pole similar to some yibangs and gedengs with some minerality. The bitterness can linger in the mouth awhile. As soup cools, other flavors like herbals, broad mushroom, or plumminess becomes more evident. As the tea progresses along the session, the tcm bitter pole fades, and the taste is more plummy, mineral, and sometimes floral/aromatic wood. The mouthfeel is generally good, with good viscosity and a bit of pudding texture. The astringency is generally low-ish, but a couple of cups did build up dryness by the end. There wasn't that much cooling feeling, but a couple of early cups did have a dynamic and spreading sense of cooling, as well as a bit of feeling going a short ways down throat. The aftertaste game is weak and subtle, but fairly well rounded. Early brews had a very subtle and very shallow pungent huigan. There are subtle yiwu huigan to almond and fruit notes. A late brew or few had a bit of mouth aroma. Most consistent performer is the mouthcoat which is fed by the astringency and can be a bit dynamic. The qi, at least in the early going, was strong, but I didn't really seem to be feeling it late, going by notes and memory. The durability isn't great, tea starts to thin quickly after about four brews, and the bulk of the fun is over after about seven brews, and I took this about twelve brews. Aftertastes do linger a pretty long way, at least through nine brews.

Is it real BHT? Almost certainly not, but it's probably from the general area. So this stuff is generally with the Tianlong and Yehgu. Other sorts of Bohetang are the savory floral ones (which probably are the ones that really go for the money, my guess), like the 2013 XZH Risk One's Life, and then there are the sort of delicate, barnyard, brown sugar BHT-y stuff like W2T Unicorn. YQH Shenyang Tiancheng, XZH Fengshali, and YQH Shenpin Chawang are all more plummy and fruit centered version of the first group of BHT, I think. Who knows, I'm speculating. Anyways, if you'll look at the map, the general idea of these teas go in this horizontal stripe from Yangjiazhai (and Douyishu)all the way to the Laos border, north of Lengshuihe. So lots of variations.

Last tea of the weekend was the 2014 BHYJ Dijie. Not impressive at all, would be hard to press to the idea that it's superior to the YS '17 fall Dijie. It's certainly inferior to the 2016 YS Bingdao, even tho' the Bingdao is at least a quarter again more expensive, never mind something like W2T's 2018 The Box, which is even more expensive per gram.

Aroma is generally sort of fruity, and at its most distinct, much like canned peaches (reminding me of XZH '17 Peach Drunk). There are often herbal and mineral notes that eventually swamps the fruitiness in later brews. Early brews had a light mineral and high barnard taste. Most of brews has a taste that is dominated by a strong tcm bitter in a way typical of northern teas, along with some fruit or floral/wood nuance. As this tcm bitter taste fades some in the later brews in favor of a basic mineral profile with some fruit note. Good viscosity with generic texture and light astringency. The aftertaste game consists primarily of a light dynamic mouthcoat to a nice fruitiness. There is also an occasional yiwu huigan to caramel, particularly evident in later brews. Qi is about at moderate level? Not especially notable for me. I brewed this about ten or so brews.

 

[shah8]

Alright, let's see if I can't keep this a bit shorter and sweeter...

I neglected to mention that the Dijie is really notably bitter. I never really minded it but it occurred to me that that's probably something important to specifically mention, even tho' I said it was strong. Brews through the rest of the week were dominated by a bitterness that I enjoyed anyways.

Long brews for the BHYJ weren't that productive, tho', and these late brews were not particularly graceful in the way of taste and feeling in the mouth, leading me to think ever more that it may be mostly shengtai or something.

The shu of Friday was me finishing off W2T Failcorp shu. It's a very decent shu but not particularly outstanding. There was a nice hint of floralness in the aroma. the color of the soup is very good. Delivers a pretty good regular shu yiwu huigan to evaporated milk sweetness. Sort of a thin taste typical of light fermentation.

The shengs of the weekend were mostly me taking a break from samples and enjoying my nice teas.

The sheng of Saturday was the trusty 2012 YQH Yehgu. I really love this tea. There was a bit more savory florals hiding in the murk. tcm bitter not as choco as it could be. Good mouthfeel. Great qi, and relatively well rounded aftertaste game with strong yiwu huigan to plummy and custard and a strong mouthcoat through most of the session. I really enjoyed some later brew's balanced bitter, deep plummy, wood and custard yiwu huigan. A couple of late brews had a nice blackberry fruitiness. Some brews had active cooling and feeling went down throat well. While this is considerably more austere than the BHYJ in terms of flavors and aroma, I still think that this from a stand somewhere in the general vicinity of BHT, tho' it could be Tongqinghe/Baihuaqing as that area often has the super dark and stiff looking leaves.

The second sheng of Saturday was a freebee from Puerh.uk, labeled 2016 Guafengzhai with 2011 maocha. I did not do too many brews as I didn't like it. Early brews were rather sharply woody-herbal along with wood, and it was slightly sour. I didn't get much character out of it so I quickly stepped up time in a sort of mini-competitive brewing way and got something that's a bit close to how Lengshuihe does things, with high choco and wood. Mouthfeel wasn't great, not that thick, and give a bit of that pesticide/myco issues feeling in the throat. Didn't have much qi. A touch of mouthcoat. At this point I'm disinclined to trust Paola's judgement in selecting teas, and would only recommend that people get teas that you recognize on your own, like that Chenyuanhao Shanzhong Chunqi.

The last tea of the weekend was Tianlong Chawang. This was different again from the first two session and mostly resembles my original thermos. Gotta wonder if it's aggressively blended or something. I still think it's similar to the BHYJ BHT but it's less so than the last time I did a gongfu. Compared to the BHYJ, that tea had brighter flavors and stronger aromas, but a bit less nuance in the early going, but Tianlong was good a lot longer. Both teas were not as nice as Yehgu.

Aromatic performance is much weaker than first two tries. Lower strength of aroma, and it's not as flashy bright fruity plum. OTOH, there was a bit more savory florals. So anyways, early brews have a bit of that fruity plum, mushroom wood, and savory florals, and later brews have more of a dark fruitiness. Late brews have a mineral and plum aroma. Taste is much less tcm bitter that last try or the BHYJ. There was also a broad mushroom and brown sugar base. This mushroom and brown sugar degenerates to a more generic depth with a bit of tcm bitter in later brews. Late brews is mostly mineral and plummy with a very light touch of tcm bitter. In general, there a lot of nuanced tastes that shows up as the soup cools. Mouthfeel is pretty good. Early brews had very good thickness with a certain softness, and most of the session had light astringency. In the late session, soup is thick and with pudding texture and is very nice to drink. Feeling goes down throat consistently, a few brews had a nicely active cooling feeling. A few pungent huigan here and there in the earlier brews. Lots of fast/complex yiwu huigan, and this tends to have a strong mouthcoat. There was one brew with a yun, one brew with a nice throatcoat. Most of the fun is in the first six brews, tho' aftertaste does goes on for quite a bit past that. Durability is good, overall about fourteen brews before putting it in the fridge with plenty left.

KJ Wong has an asking price for this tea of a little over $1k/500g, which I judge to still be a more than fair price, tho one has to compare with spending the same money on 2010 YQH Shenyun Tiancheng. A little more boring and not as good aftertaste game, but more robust and big. Or the 2015 XZH Hongyin Blue Seal which is same price level for 400g, also the same more boring profile, limited aftertaste goodness, but robust goodness.

 

[shah8]

Tianlong chawang lasted well all through the week, and even its last long infusion delivered a nice changing feeling in the mouth.

The shu of Friday was the '07 Dengshihai. This and the Nuoxiang offered by W2T really are very similar, with the Dengshihai being a bit more woody and camphor and a sulfer note. Anyways, the mouthfeeling was really good, as well as the qi. Good session.

The first sheng of the weekend was some of this tea, 30g which was kindly donated to me after a discussion about Kunlushan: Pu-erh Tea > Raw Tea - https://www.banateacompany.com/pages/kunlu-mountain-raw-pu-erh-tea.html . This was very much a superpremium tea. It did have the standard small-leaf tea weaknesses, notably the active phase durability.

Aroma tended to consistently have mineral, while earlier brews (1-4) had fruit, herbal, tamarind (like aged jingmais) and a bit of florals. Taste is very soft in most of the session. Early brews were like a very soft aged jingmai with tamarind/woody herbal note. It eventually rises to a a more plummy taste before settling as a kind of light honey note with a plummy tone the rest of the way. The viscosity is thick with a moderate to high astringency. While this astringency is productive, this is a tea that is notably hard on my stomach, about what the Diangu does. Can have strong cooling in mouth, especially on tongue. Early brews have decent feeling going down. Full range of aftertastes in active phase-yiwu huigan, complex lingering mouthcoats, pungent huigan, and mouth aroma are all represented. Mouthcoats and a light yiwu huigan are still sometimes present in the deeper part of the session. Strong qi. Durability seems good. I didn't do this as long as I could have because I wanted to reuse the pot, but it does feel like the light honey-plummy brews would have lasted a long ways if one doesn't get bored.

I thought that this was a really good tea. I do think I have a rather close substitute in '04 Zhaizipo found at Houde- broadly similar flavors and behaviors modulated by the excessive oxidation.

The second sheng of the weekend was the Essence of Tea 2018 Bamboo Spring. I had gotten a cake of the 2022 Bamboo Spring and I wanted to seek how this one is doing. The performance was quite good. EoT characterizes the 2022 as a daily drinker, but if it's faithful the 2018, that wouldn't really be the case. Essence of Tea offers tea from this area in the shop and in tea clubs for a reason, price-quality ratio is really high. They claim that it's because of the remoteness of the village, but you see Farmerleaf touting some really remote stuff that's a little less than twice the cost of the Bamboo Springs. Gotta shrug. The main weakness here is that the usual issue with many northern teas in that the main taste isn't rich enough to age gracefully.

This tea was intensely fruity, straight from the very beginning with the aroma of the heated dry leaves in pot. Pretty much all soup aroma had at least some fruit, most brews had fruity and vegetal notes, while a couple had nuttiness, barnyard and sugars as well. Taste is dominated by fruitiness early one, has some vegetalness. Mid session has bitter herbals,dark herbals, and savory herbals creep in with the fruit and vegetables. Late infusions develops a bitter herbalness vaguely similar to aged lincangs. Moderate to decent viscosity with a certain tenderness or silkiness for texture. Moderate astringency through the session. Lots of cooling and early brews had feeling go down throat a bit. Excellent and long lasting fruity mouthcoat, has bingdao-like yiwu huigan to sugars, but usually fairly subtle. Sort of a moderate qi but enjoyable. Durability seems pretty indefinite as the bitter herbal core taste seems slow to fade. I think this was a better than usual session, I don't really remember this tea as being so brightly fruity.

The third sheng of the weekend was the 2005 Chenyuanhao Shanzhong Chuanqi. This tea does have a lot of fans, and I did more or less enjoy it. However, this seems like a rather expensive tea and it's a fairly normal good tea that has a ton of good competition at its age range. If given an appropriate range of choices, I don't think this tea would stand out among them (not because it's bad). One last issue, I got this sample from Puerh.uk, and there has been a number of comparisons with TeasWeLike on the topic of storage, especially that the Puerh.uk is excessively dry or something. I did not find this tea to be dry stored, but it did tend to create a notably problematic astringent feeling in the throat, which is often caused by problematic storage.

Aroma is mostly wood and cocoa powder, and earliest brews were more plummy while later brews were more generic wood and mineral. The taste kind of had two clear stages. The first stage had this kind of metalic tart woodsap with plumminess and wood. Occassionally, very subtle notes of cocoa or fruit. The late infusions were of a more solid (well more like a shu "solid") root herbal depth with a sensate sweet finish/rim that thins as the session goes deeper. A very late brew returned back to a cocoa-plummy. Good viscosity with moderate to high astringency (built to when cup is finished) in the mouth and the aformentioned astringency in throat. While an early brew had a bit of yun, the main aftertaste here is a solid mouthcoat. Has a good moderate to strong qi that can last a bit after cup is finished. I didn't press durability because I wanted to get to next tea and didn't think there was anything new on offer.

Overall, this is good, but I would rather buy YQH with the same money if I were buying teas of such a price/age range--better teas for cheaper. Also, notably, but not that relevant, 2005 is early enough that there are a lot of better factory teas, tho' I think all are far more expensive.

The last tea of the weekend was thoroughly enjoyed--The 2021 Essence of Tea Baihuaqing. I enjoyed it much as I would enjoy the Yehgu, actually. It was never priced high enough to expect super-premium stuff, and the size of the tea in the mouth and the lack of a great aftertaste game here reflects that. However, it was a well rounded and very enjoyable experience even so.

Aroma starts off dominated by alkaline mushroom, mushroom eventually fades but alkaline stays through the end. There is a subtle floralness, and a number of brews had a dark/root herbal. Plumminess is suggested here and there. Taste has a tcm bitter pole, a dark taste with a blend of dark herbal and wild honey that is very nice. Earlier brews had some florals and sensate sweetness in taste, while later brews had a nice woodiness. Very late brews has a thin and high herbal/wild honey and plumminess. Taste tend to change a bit more than usual as soup cools. Viscosity is moderate to good with astringency moderate earlier but tending to lighten up late with occasional comebacks. Strong cooling and a decent, lingering mouthcoat. A couple of brews had a nice floral aroma rising from throat, and there are subtle yiwu huigans to almond sweetness in various brews. Moderate to strong qi. Only did about ten to twelve brews and should still have plenty of brews left when I put the pot in the fridge.

This tea has held up well over the year I've had the sample. People who own a cake are probably going to be happy campers. Hopefully they like bitterness as much as I do (tho' we're not talking a huge amount of it but it does lingers like yehgu or lao man'e)

 

[shah8]

Okay, a long weekend's worth of tea to write about while the website has fireworks going on. *sigh*



First the Baihuaqing lasted all through the week with many tasty brews. All in all, a very satisfying extended session.



Second, I did a thermos of the 2009 XZH Jingmai in order to evaluate how I thought about the 2007 Kunlu. The Jingmai was substantially less fruity than the Kunlu and main taste was more the core dried longan or tamarind note. The viscosity was less as well. However, the taste was more elegant, the qi is about the same, and the quality of the aftertaste was about the same. That Kunlushan is strikingly fruity for the age. Only these "mansong" '01 dragonballs are as fruity while being old.

The shu of Friday was the '09 Dayi Ziyun. This was sort of meh--it's good, but I'm spoiled for super high quality shu these days, and it's not really close to the An Xiang. It's definitely better than most other Dayi shu, like Dragon Pole. It's kind of a bulang forward shu with a bit of depth and a sort of finish/yiwu huigan to a sensate sweet dried fruit. So something like a Star of Menghai but with dried fruit instead of plummy.

The first sheng of the weekend was the 2021 Essence of Tea Youle Gaogan. Overall, it was a pretty good tea, but it didn't really bring much of a gaogan essence for me. The really enjoyable stuff is shortlived, but it does seem to be an indefinite brewer. Also, this is very much more of a fruitier banzhang area tea rather than a burlier 6FTM.

Heated dry leave was nicely fruity and Menghai. Soup aroma early tended to be more mushroom, sweet dark herbal (approximating the usual tart dark tobacco of northern menghai tea of a certain age), and a forest/wood sense. Aroma then turns toward apricot fruitiness with mushroom with herbals and wood on occasion. This only lasts two or three brews on top of the original two or three brews, so by about brew five, the aroma permanently moves towards a menghai alkaline and mushroom note. In the taste, the wash had some apricot before moving to tart dark tobacco, or the herbal proximate, with wood, dried fruit sweetness, and mushroom base, along with a small bitter pole. The highlight brews were with a sensate sweet blend of apricot, alkaline mushroom, and a slight bitterness. This is quickly over and most of the remaining brews were a sort of menghai alkaline mushroom, a slight bitterness and a little herbal without much variance. Mouthfeel is good, with good viscosity that is stiff with mild astringency that occasionally ups itself to moderate. There is some nice cooling attached to a strong mouthcoat in aftertaste. Only other aftertaste noted was a singular nice yun. The bitteness often lingers in the mouth and generates a touch more aftertaste. The qi is at about moderate to strong, nothing too special feeling about it. Durability is indefinate, but the really good parts doesn't last very long, fun stuff over by brew five to six and the rest isn't that engaging.

The second sheng of the weekend was the 2007 ChenYuanHao Fall Yiwu Chawang from Puerh.uk. I did not have a lot of confidence that this would be a good session (particularly since the cake costs exactly as much as the Shanzhong Chuanqi which left me meh), so I kept my expectations low. I was then quite surprised to find that I enjoyed the session on its own terms--might be the second best tea on that website after the Bohetang. Of course, only samples and a couple of 1/4 cakes are currently available. I sort of enjoyed it like I would my 2004 YQH Zhencang Chawang, but darker and woodier, and not as good aftertaste game or qi.

Aroma is very dynamic so...first was standard aged yiwu plummy, then wood and plums, then herbal and plums, then couple of brews of fruity with plums and honey/caramel, then light herbal, then fruit and herbal, then fruit before resting at a kind mineral wood. Whew! Taste is similarly dynamic, so again: starts off with plummy and light wood/soil, then a solid deep taste with cola, dark herbal, wood, and a slight choco note, then a higher, more focused and tangy-bitter dark herbal with a bit of wood, then woodsap, wood, cola with a bit of tart-bitter, then light wood with a thin cola depth, then plummy is present the rest of the way, with cola, wood, herbals and fruitiness showing up. Very late brews are more of a generic and thin light wood and plummy honey. The viscosity isn't particularly great in most of the session but a couple of brews had a bit of a nice mouthfeel with enough viscosity and a pudding texture. This doesn't have much astringency until late where it's sort of high (but not unpleasant), past brew seven. The aftertaste game isn't particularly strong, but it does have a nice and lasting strong mouthcoat. Durability seems pretty good, I think I did about fourteen to fifteen brews, and it still has a bit left so the pot goes into the fridge.

Alright, let's move onto Sunday! The first tea of the day was the 2019 Vesper Chan Stone Legend. I generally had a conception of Vesper Chan being typically more expensive than the tea is worth and approached this tea with that mentality, but instead I found it to be of an acceptable value at $170/200g. It's sort of a Bingdao-ish tea of the peas and honey-fruit mode. Only these peas are fairly umami like canned peas instead of snappy fresh or steamed peas. It was a very mellow, easygoing, and relaxing session.

Aroma isn't too big a player here, honey, herbal, and mineral early on before becoming very light. A couple of extended brews have a light mineral, herbal, and incense note. The taste starts off being more like Nahan and that general Bangdong area (and hey, Bangdong teas often have a stone yanyun narrative around it, sooo, Stone Legend?). This sort of has two phases. The first phase has the wash being mineral and almond sweetness, then herbal and honey with a touch of fruit, then back to herbal and almond sweetness, and then there is a switching point where there is a couple of brews with minerally incense along with vegetal sweetness, with the vegetal sweetness becoming more emphasized as the soup cools. The second phase is then a kind of umami peas vegetal cooling to a sweet sense of maple syrup/almond/fruit on a regular bases--I had to wait a bit to drink my cup at max pleasure...Anyways, this goes a very long way, while only thinning in taste and effect. The viscosity is good with some degree of oily texture and moderate astringency. Aftertaste game is mostly a good(and sweet) mouthcoat, a few times with a nice if light incense mouth aroma, and a pungent huigan. The qi is moderate or so, but it's rather positive feeling and mellowing. I took this deepish into the teens brews before having to throw it out for the main event tea on Monday. Thorougly enjoyed. Not a spectacular tea but good for a casual or subtle session.

The second tea of Sunday was a four gram session of the 2020 Essence of Tea Lao Jie Zi, the gaogan from near Zhangjiawan. I mostly was left feeling with a slight meh feeling. I'm just not a huge fan of Zhangjiawan teas--they are rather spartan Yiwus when it comes right down to it, so a lot of structure and form and not a lot of flashy-thing attention getting here. Bauhaus aesthetic, if you will. Also, they need attentive brewing to get the best out of them. In any event, the LaoJieZi does follow this pattern, but it was still a fairly enjoyable tea.

Aroma, taste? Not that complex in basic idea. Mushroom. Cola. There are some other notes like fruit(including a nice melon note in one brew), nuttiness, and tcm bitter herbalness. It has decent-good viscosity with light astringency in most of almost all of the session. Early brews had feeling down the throat, warms the throat, and some very light pungent huigan coming back up. Slight yiwu huigan and slight mouthcoats in much of the session. The mouthcoat can be long lasting. One brew had a bit of mouth aroma and one had a yun. Good quality qi, can't really describe how so, at about moderate strength. Durability seems to be decent, I did at least ten and probably about twelve or so and there's still plenty in it so gaiwan goes into the fridge.

Alright! Last tea to cover for the weekend, the 2015 Baifuzancang Taichi Chawang, to celebrate a tragic Fourth, unfortunately. This tea is much less variable than the Tianlong chawang. While it is not as floral as last session, it's pretty similar to the first session. I also got the sense this session that this might be a blend--I detected notes similar to the 2013 BFZC wild tea that I own and the 2014 BFZC wild tea that I got to sample--higher grades, of course. Who knows. Anyways, this was an intensely sweet tea that has a very long active phase. Again, gotta say that this is among the best teas trivially buyable (tho' I don't know if that's true anymore, since the original seller seems to not have anymores) on fairly straight puerh norms. Only weakness is that the strength, depth, and richness of the taste isn't super high, but it's still equal to many Lincangs and Jinggus, and definitely equal to many teas deep in the session.

Most of the complexity in aroma and taste is in the nuance, while it maintains a basic idea of honey, refried beans umami, and wood in different proportions. Slight sourness in the taste in the initial brews, a lingering bitterness in a few cups, and there is fruit in the aroma of a couple of brews. Late brews are mostly honey in taste. Most brews has sensate sweetness in taste. The mouthfeel has the viscosity being fairly good with very little astringency through most of the session, with only a bit of light astringency in a couple of cups. Lots of cooling in the mouth through most of the session, strong feeling down the throat in the first seven or so brews with strong pungent huigans coming back up. Tends to have a fast yiwu huigan to fruits and a slow yiwu huigan to sugars in the early going. Stong mouthcoat that is also sensate sweet, did I mention that this tea is sweet? A touch of secretive mouth aroma and yun pops up here and there. Qi starts off very strong early, and still very present and non habituated when I stopped. Very mind alerting. Durability is top notch and approaching '14 XZH Hongyin for the depth of its active phase. It was so active in the first three or so brews that I took a long time and got tired (also because it was thinner and bright with acidity and slight bitterness), but I sped up a bit as the taste got richer and less bright and full of lengthy aftertastes.

extremely enjoyable.

Thank goodness for Notepad, would have taken forever with all those fireworks!

 

[shah8]

Did plenty of nice long brews of the Lao Jie Zi, '07 Yiwu Chawang, and the TaiChi. A thermos finishing off the last of the Lao Jie Zi gives a pretty similar verdict as the sessions. Pretty good, structured, not that exciting. If I had a cake, I'd like it.

The shu of Friday was the '18 XZH Choco Brick. Notwithstanding the pronounced sourness of the early brew, I consider this one of XZH's best shus. The fermentation and leaf structure suggests a pretty strong similarity to the '15 Luyin Iron. While it's definitely not as good as that shu, this is still a tea with a good depth, a nice wood rim, a sweet herbalness that's almost blueberry, and a lot of sensate sweetness to go with that sourness, and after the initial brews, just sweet. The viscosity is very good, does a good job with mouthcoat aftertaste, and has strong qi. I milked this sucker a long time, it was very enjoyable this time around.

The first sheng of the weekend was the 2019 Yao Zhu Di from Essence of Tea, more or less finishing this tea sample off as well as well as setting a recent memory to compare when I eventually try the tall tree version from this year. It's gotten kind of dark tasting now, tho' I think it was always on the heavier side. It's not too remarkable in the value it offers for the money from a western vendor, good or bad. It's a nice tea, and I definitely enjoyed later long brews.

Reading my notes, it could fit a description of a session with Pasha or Hekai leaves in the pot, if I didn't know it was Yiwu. Anyways, the aroma didn't last too long with this tea. Plummy is in every aroma, and various brews had one or more of mineral, forest, dark herbal, mushroom, and a touch of barnyard. The taste starts off with mineral and plummy and a bit of dark herbal before adapting a bitter (touch tart) pole that brings along a touch of barnyard and forest along with a stronger emphasis on dark herbal. Taste gradually thins until it's a slight bitter-mineral-wood rim on a body of mushroom-slight plummy, which while drunk quickly on account of lack of nuance, is still pleasant. The mouthfeel is one of this tea's good points, good viscosity with a nice lightly pudding texture with somewhat moderate astringency. This tea mostly doesn't have a strong aftertaste game-it's mostly mouthcoats with very subtle yiwu huigans and a couple of cups with good yiwu huigans. Qi is moderate to strong. Durability seems good, overall, but active phase is over pretty quickly.

As I've said before, this is mostly just a fun, nice tea, but if someone wanted a strong value with no strong particular preferences, one would be much better off with 2016 Wujin Cang - Yangqing Hao (en) - http://www.yangqinghao.com/index.php/teas/2016-yiwu. If my memory is right, not even all that different from YaoZhuDi. The advantages of older teas when better teas were cheaper than today.

The second tea was a puerh.uk sample, the ChenShengHao '17 Jinbanzhang, which apparently is no longer for sale on the site. Guess that's a good thing because it was a horrible value at over a dollar a gram. There is very little that is even broad banzhang about it. It has an ammonia punch first immemorialized by MarshalN in that '03 Quanjia bulang tea and what I get from the 2001 Red Dayi Simplified. Anyways, while it's sort of true that the broad banzhang has tea like this, this isn't really what people naturally think of LBZ or BZ in general, and it certainly doesn't taste remotely like the CSH LBZ productions. Aaaanyways, beyond that, it does have a bitter core similar to banzhang, but that is only a small part of the taste, which is more ammonia/urine, mineral, honey. The aroma and taste is very structured. It has decent viscosity. Does not have much aftertaste at all, and doesn't really have much in the way of qi. Billionity bulangs better for the money out there.

Last tea of the weekend was my old trusty and beloved 2008 XZH Blessings (Shuangzi Lingman). It's teas like this that makes me a grouchy old fart when it comes to so many of these teas I'm trying now, because hey, people are talking about them, like the '05 Shanzhong Chuanqi. That tea's good, but it's basically good like that '19 Yaozhudi is good. It's just isn't on this XZH's level or many other genuinely good tea's level, and people pay $500-$600+/380g for this, and I'm feeling like "This is inefficient." Eeeeh, let's end the rant here.

Anyways-- minerally tea with subtle honey, barnyard, fruit note--super delicate, austere and unroasted yancha, effectively. Not super appealing on the surface, very nuanced and rewarding of attention, tho. Good mouthfeel with moderate astringency--astringency getting old and squeeky slick. Strong feeling in mouth and down throat, some pungent huigan back up, some yun, good and lasting mouthcoat. Only a subtle yiwu huigan. High quality moderate to strong qi. Plenty durable, with a very long active phase, more than ten brews. To me, very much defines taste beyond taste and all that metaphysical harmonious puerh blah blah blah. I just know I'm happy and sated after this sort of thing.

 

[shah8]

The start of a long marathon of samples...

A thermos of '08 XZH Blessings was wonderfull.

The Shu of Friday was the '06 Taipei, mostly just okay, not its best day.

I started off this trip with the most disposable seeming teas this weekend...

So, the first tea was the 2010 Kexing Bingdao that the Taiwan Facebook dude KJ Wong is selling. It's a pretty good example of why no one should ever buy a Bingdao from any brand you don't have strong confidence in without sampling (unless it's very affordable, of course). Anyways, my memory (website seems to be gone) is that that the direct sale price is about $400, so no dice here. This tea is heavily stored. Not wet, but kind of intense.

Aroma is a wood, mineral, high barnyardish thing going on, not very interesting. Later brews have a caramel or buttered popcorn-caramel aroma that gives some amusement. Taste is a gentle dark herbal depth, with some wood and minerals, essentially. There are occasional caramel sweetness here and there. A little bitter early. Later tastes thins the depth and makes the caramel sweetness a bit more evident. The big plus with this tea is the mouthfeel, thick viscosity and oily texture. Moderate to high astringency. Aftertastes are light in volumes, with some cooling/mouthcoat and a yun. The qi is about moderate of good quality. I didn't push this too far.

It's not a bad tea, and it reminds me of this tea:

https://www.facebook.com/sanhetang/photos/280817968674756

, but that one was more nicely conifer-woody and honey when I had it probably a decade ago...

So I move on to the second tea pretty quickly, which was the 2001 Xiaguan 8653 Yellow Mark from Houde 2001 Xia Guan 8653-Recipe Huan(yellow)-yin, 450g Special-Ordered Batch - https://houdefinetea.com/product/2001-xia-guan-8653-recipe-huanyellow-yin-450g-special-ordered-batch/ . Substantially speaking, I agree with Mattcha's review 2001 Xiaguan 8653 Huang Yin: Best of Xiaguan - https://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/2020/12/2001-xiaguan-8653-huang-yin-best-of.html?m=1 . I think this is a good example of what anyone should mean by a "good factory style cake", albeit northern material.

Aroma is a rich wood, herbal, soil thing, that can swerve to a plummy-strawberry fruitiness for a bit. Early brews tend to have herbal depth with wood, hay rim, and a touch of sourness in taste. It quickly settles into a core taste of plummy-strawberry with wood, mineral, and a subtle mushroom interlaced with it and this goes on like this more or less the rest of the way with a changes in emphasis and thinning late. A late brew did bring back a nice dark herbal depth. Viscosity is good, and tends to be plump. Astringency doesn't feel very high at the start of cups, but tends to build in mouth by end of cup. In terms of aftertaste, the early brews had a fairly seemless yiwu-huigan to mouthcoat experience, with an active yun. One cup was firmly brewed enough to have a pungent huigan after a nice feeling down throat. Later brews have a more separate yiwu huigan and mouthcoat, with more a light effect for yiwu huigan and a stronger mouthcoat. Qi is merely noted as present. Durability seems okay, but the lack of dynamism didn't have me wanting to come back for more as opposed to starting a new tea. A few brews the next day was quite nice, though. Did about 13 brews in all.

While I would prefer the '02 Tai lian to this, this is still a pretty good tea. If you like teas like this, I suggest you look around for the 2002 Shuangjiang Yellow (yellow ribbon) in Green cake--broadly similar idea, tho' somewhat astringent.

Then I did a yancha session! I figured that I needed to recalibrate the understanding of what makes a tea good, and yancha does tend to be the ultimate benchmark. Heh, I also am thinking about the W2T puyanchs. Anyways, the tea is from the late, great Mandarin's Tea Room, and it's a 2016 Dahongpao high fire. High fire is right. Very smooth, doesn't have much taste other than mineral and a roasted leaf depth. Aroma is a nice mineral with a floral rim. Decent viscosity for yancha, texture is kind of tender. Little astringency. Usually manages a nice yiwu huigan to sugars before the tea tires out. Durability was like six brews or so?

Now the teas for today...

First was the 2003 Wistaria Zipin cake. I knew it was smokey, but I was surprised at how smoky it was. In general, this tea is not the same as the zipin tuo, which tastes mostly like a "yiwu" made from mengsong material. Anyways, back to the cake, I had fun imagining the proprietor of Wistaria sipping a 1999 BGT and someone telling him it's a Yiwu and he does a spit-take and thinks "That's not a Yiwu!!1!", decides to do a yiwu processed very similarly to a 1999 BGT or 2001 no.4, going "now THIS is a Yiwu!" The material in this yiwu isn't that high end--overall grade of the tea is certainly less than the '99 BGT blue/black stamp, and is only a bit better than Changtai yiwus. There is a touch of pesticide/herbicide/myco feeling as well.

Aroma starts off very early with retired smoke, wood, nannuo carroty. Wood and smoke thins as plummy shows up here and there, and ends up mostly a light mineral, wood, smoke aroma. The taste is also nannuo carroty at first, with some wood/smoke and an underlying plumminess. Quickly develops a deep plummy taste with light choco and cola tones, with some bitterness and tartness at the beginning of this phase. Taste mostly stays the same, simplifying to a deep plumminess and then thinning and rising in taste. Good viscosity, light astringency, not much of a notable texture. Tends to be a lot of decent yiwu huigan to sugars, with at least one yiwu huigan to fruit. Consistent mouthcoats. Good quality qi. Feels like it would do okay with durability, tho' I did not push this much before putting this into the fridge and moving on...

Last tea of the weekend was the 2015 Baifuzangcang GuZhai XiangYun, which is a Bailingshan at the NE tip of Lincang. 2020 古寨祥雲(375克餅) - https://bpcollection.com/bpc_2020/t-2020h036.html . I enjoyed this very much--vastly better than previous experiences with baiyingshans, like Crimson Lotus Beneath An Emerald Sea series that I have heard was Baiyingshan. This is roughly on par with XZH laowushans, tho' these are different teas.

Aroma was dynamic, so... floral, toasted oatmeal->strawberry milkshake, floral->sweet corn, floral-->savoy herbal, floral->creamed corn, floral before it faded some. Taste consistently had toasted oatmeal/oatmeal as the main part. There is usually a subtle fruitiness/strawberry milkshake, particularly early, and more of a brown sugar sweetness late in the session. Some savory herbals late in the session as well. Mouthfeel is decent with decent viscosity, not much texture? a light bit of astringency. Late brew has the viscosity up and a more pudding texture show itself. Lots of sneaky floral mouth aroma. Consistent mouthcoat, yiwu huigan are more evident in later parts of the session. One brew manages a pungent huigan. A couple of yuns as well. Qi is moderate of good quality.

Not on auction very often at all, but if you see it and you don't have too much tea, it's a steal for what it would normally go for. Straight from the brand, it's about $350/357.

 

[shah8]

Both the Zipin and the BFZC lasted a goo ways through the week.

The shu of Friday was the W2T Nameless. It was kind of mellow and boring. Very sweet and pleasant, didn't have much of a bitter pole that keeps things interesting. Pleasantly strong qi. The nice cologne stuff only showed up very late in the session.

The first tea of the weekend was the 2003 可以興 易春瑞茶 易武正山喬木老樹茶, Ke'xing brand Yiwu. This was one of those random samples that I thought I'd get out of the way quickly, particularly as the 2010 Bingdao from the label wasn't particularly great. However, I wound up buying a cake of this (NT$8K from KJ Wong), at least the purple/color label. There is a black label that uses the same maocha but was pressed in 2005. Why did I get it? It's a pretty good Mahei-type tea that's slightly similar to Zhenchunyahao, but has had little oxidation either for floralness like the mid-90's tea or the hongcha plumminess like most Yiwus of this time-period--processing is kind of unique for the period (gushu style whole leaf rolling, etc, but stronger rolling and less oxidation) with a fairly high quality base material. It's somewhat heavily stored, but only a couple brews with basement minerality.

Initial brews had basement mineral, spice, dried fruit in aroma. Then it moves to wood, savory herbal, spice, dried fruit. Then a stage with some of that Mahei milkiness, honey, spice, dried fruit. Next is wood and herbal, and then a lot of this sweet dark herbal with dried fruits and hints of something wood/spice/savory herbal. Taste has no plumminess or ceylon hongcha. It's mostly this nuanced dance of mineral, wood, dried fruit, herbal with a stretch of Mahei milkiness in the middle of all that. There is a certain metallic taste found in some Classical Yiwu where you'd normally find plumminess in a cup or two. The mouthfeel is generally very good, with decent to good viscosity and a touch of that Mahei cottony softness, also a sort of cream feeling as well in the texture. Astringency has a tendency to build through a cup. Some of it is productive for aftertaste. Late brews are good viscosity with more of a pudding texture. Aftertaste game is generally subtle, but is pleasantly tactile and dynamic in the mouth--yiwu huigan, a touch of pungent huigan, and good mouthcoats. Qi is good and of high quality. Durability is very good at least fifteen brews over two days, and active over much of this span.

This was a rather elegant tea. My notes weren't really as good as they could have been because I was slapdash in the beginning before being convinced I'm drinking something really good.

The second tea was the 2012 Baifuzancang Pasha. This tea had a problem in that the leaves are really tough--probably pretty gushu, but it obviously wasn't rolled hard enough to get good flavor without really brewing it hard.

Brewed normally, it has a strong apricot fruitiness in aroma and taste. Taste also had dark herbal, a little bit of wood, a little choco and an underlying honey sweetness. There's a bit of bitterness. Can have sensate sweet taste. When brewed hard, you get a fairly standard dark LBZ-ish thing with deep and robust taste with a foresty accent. Good viscosity with juicy texture and light astringency. Aftertaste game largely similar to LBZ, astringency converts to yiwu huigan of almond/sugars, some pungent huigan, light mouthcoat and cooling. Qi was about moderate and not that notable. I didn't push this too hard for length as I was brewing for a long time for a cup.

Not really a bad tea, and it's very close to a LBZ, but it kind of has some of the downside of LBZ without a strong example of the upside.

The first tea of Sunday was the Essence of Tea 2022 Rocket Mountain. Quick verdict? Good, fully gushu (not that this is really an aspect of gaogan tall tree--this isn't really old tree tea). Very similar to Chawangshu, not as sweet. Very well put together in that well dressed sense (sort of like that ChenShenHao Golden Banzhang, but good tea). I drank this tea very slowly in the beginning--not really because it was especially complex, but very full of itself in the way Dave Collan likes his gushu teas.

Aroma starts off with lots of green sheng and mushroom, then gradually loses the shenginess, gets more mineral, and the mushroom gets sweeter. Then there is a stage with mushroom and herbal, then mushroom and fruit before finally fading. Aroma lasted as a significant factor through ten brews. Taste had a lot of subtle interplays->starts off mushroom, green sheng, subtle fruit-> bitterness that penetrates to tongueroots, mineral, honey, mushroom-->less mushroom, alkaline, less bitter->green sheng fading to barnyard, still less mushroom, still bitter->subtle blend of bitter fading into tart, alkaline, barnyard and mushroom->tart fades, thinner general taste-> a series of brews of mushroom and minerals taste with varying degree of funk that lends it a sense of darker mushrooms, and some sweetness. Mouthfeel is good, with good viscosity and silky texture. Astringency starts off light, builds, and fades over the course of the session, never gets above moderate. Full range of aftertastes. Generally not too strong in flavor. Notably, the yiwu huigan is usually fast and goes to sugars, with one cup having a nice maple syrup sweetness. some nice if light floral mouth aroma. Initial brews had very slow yiwu huigan that appear after cup is finished. A bit of mouthcoat and cooling. Early brews had a strong yun with aroma rising above throat. Feeling down throat with some light pungent huigan coming back up, but with little flavor. Good quality qi at moderate to strong, a bit too new to really be sure how good. Durability seems very good

Note that the maocha is really wild and fluffy and is totally not pot friendly. I used a stoneware gaiwan for my first brew and then transferred to pot.

Last brew of the weekend was the 2022 Bitterleaf Tea Daheishan Yibang that was really expensive. Long and short, it's a oolonged ripoff. Not a bad tea by any stretch, but the lack of real qi was a quick tipoff. The taste itself is flattened in a way typical of something processed, and overly processed, such that I was consistently drinking this quickly where I drank everything else this weekend slowly. Anyways. It's a very floral tea, savory florals, has a mushroomy base. Some bitterness Floralness kind of sticks close to the cup rather than rising and concentrating like other good yibangs. Thick viscosity in soup with little astringency. Aftertaste game is not bad, manages strong floral mouth aroma, has some yiwu huigan, and coats mouth strongly. For some reason, it's not as enjoyable as the lower volume aftertastes of previous teas this weekend--kind of brash and primary colors or something. I dumped this tea pretty quickly.

 

[shah8]

Both yiwu teas lasted well through the week. Both probably at least approaches 20 worthwhile brews.

One sort of clarification needed about the EoT Rocket Yiwu--I do not quite mean that it's *not* gushu, I mean that the focus on what is supposed to give the tea the quality that it has comes from the fact that it's tall tree. For intents and purposes, it's gushu, tho' I think it's probably younger than Chawangshu, which is one of the oldest of Mansa groves, I think? Rocket Mountain was probably planted in the late Qing, I'd bet on some tea upswing...

The extended brews of Rocket Mt also makes me feel more sure that I'd like it to be more sweet and floral--it's definitely a touch on the austere side of things--which aging in a nice cake form would proooobably help.

I did a thermos of the XZH '07 8582. Rather tasty, not very much at all like an actual Dayi 8582 aside from a touch of the camphor. Oxidation also made the liveliness of the soup equivalent to fruit juice that's been sitting out in the sun all day... Still quite enjoyable.

The shu of Friday was the 2021 XZH To Be Addicted. I understand this is sold out. I can see why. Long and short of it is that it is a somewhat lightly fermented shu, and has feature like the 2018 Carefree or W2T Lesser Evils, but also clearly has some banzhang elements, so there was a general sense of drinking brownies like the other, more fully fermented banzhang shu I've had like the two HLHs or '15 XZH Luyin iron. There is wood, and a touch of florals with the brownie in aroma and taste. Mouthfeel is good with good viscosity and a texture with high surface tension. Manages a bit of feeling down throat and a strong mouthcoat. Good qi.

The first sheng of the weekend was something else sent by KJ Wong, but seems to be in BFZC style packaging--90's Spring Yiwu. This is warehoused tea that's pretty clean, but still has a problematic catch in the throat here and there. Largely has the usual flavors of warehoused tea, but not really concentrated, presumably because the leaf grades are 1, 2, 3, fairly small, which gives more refinement and less heartiness, and a bit extra bitterness. The small leaves also make for a thick soup with oily texture, but astringency is moderate. Not really much aftertaste, and there is light-mod qi. Some people who like this sort of thing will do fine, but there are better quality warehoused tea all over the place in terms of more complex flavors, more aftertaste and qi.

The second sheng of the weekend was the 2022 Essence of Tea Bulang. The long and short of it is that the plusses and minuses are equivalent to the 2021 Youle Gaogan. It's gushu (also supposed to be gaogan as well), but kind of limited in the strength of the gushu-ness and active phase is over too quickly. As for the claim that it's the best Bulang EoT has done, I'd disagree. It's certainly better processed than earlier Bulang (2010 is oxidised a bit, 2011 has smoke), and has better mouthfeel than any of them. However, there is a certain lacking of bold potency in aroma, taste, and qi--which also endures way down the session for this 2022 Bulang. I will grant that it's better than the 2012 EoT Bulang.

Green menghai mushroom, mineral, and a light barnyard is present in most earlier brews, and a nice menghai honey or herbal (whose bitterness one could *smell*) shows up here and there. Later brews have more of a mineral focus with herbals and maybe barnyard. The taste is pretty consistently mineral, menghai mushroom and menghai honey with a bitter pole that has a slight suggestion of choco, and generally softening in flavor and bitterness as the session proceeds. Late brew are a dark herbal note. Good to thick viscosity with a pudding texture and generally light astringency. Aftertaste game ends at about brew four with a bit of mouthcoat lingering afterwords along with the lingering bitterness. It's pretty good while it's going. Feeling goes down throat while managing a decent yiwu huigan, strong mouthcoat, and pungent huigan. One cup had a bit of yun going and floral aroma rising from it. Good qi through the earlier brews, but either gets weaker or habituated to by the late session. I'd say it's fairly durable, overall, but I didn't push this as far as I could go because I needed to use the pot again and wasn't excited by the potential of late brews.

The chunk was extremely easy to pull apart, so this cake is pretty softly stone-pressed.

The third tea of Saturday was the W2T Hypnotrain. Clearly a lincang, not hugely gushu by my estimation. Very dynamic session in terms of flavors and aromas. I liked it, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. After doing some checks, had to judge that the price was fair, and my tastes very expensive.

Aroma shifts from a palette of green sheng, fruit syrup, grits/cream of grain, florals, mineral, and with a suggestion of honey here and there. Taste consistently has mushroom, bitterness. It also can have honey, floralness, as well a bright fruitiness in some proportion. Has decent to good viscosity with a stiff velvet texture and a light astringency. Has a rather tactile mouthfeel, with a degree of mouthcoat. Fast yiwu huigan to sugars as well. One cup manages a yun. This didn't leave much of an impression when it comes to qi. Prolly about moderate, on the low end and of little distinction.

I could happily drink this, but I wouldn't seek it out at the price.

The last tea of the weekend is the monster W2T, Must Be. A quick take on this is that this is a Bingdao-Bulang blend. Or it could be Bingdao and a bulking agent. Fresh Bingdao can have some real similarities with fresh Bulang. Mushroom, floral, a bit of alkaline... Also, Bingdao is just the placeholder for saying high end Lincang--I can't be sure I really know what Bingdao is. However, this tea does have strong resemblance to the 2010 Ke'xing Bingdao and Best Tea House Stone Legend. A degree of commonality with XZH Puzhens. Of course, not so strong resemblance to '12 or '14 CYH Bingdao, or BFZC Bingdao, or any of the Bingdaos sold at EoT, etc, etc, so what do I know?

Anyways, I did like this tea a lot, and more than something like the Best Tea House King's Sea in terms of tea that are almost 4 dollars a gram. Also, if there indeed was Bulang blended in, that would give me some confidence that it would age in a more pleasing way than otherwise would be the case. But moot, as this stuff is far too expensive for me, particularly in comparison to what that sort of p/g ratio would get me in terms of older teas.

Aroma starts off mostly like a Bulang with menghai mushroom, barnyard, herbal, a touch of alkaline, before shifting to grain syrup, fruit, florals, mineral in late brews. As with BTH Stone Legend, it is best to let the soup cool, and give the sweet flavors a greater prominence. Taste is much like a subtle Bulang most of the way with mushroom, barnyard, mineral, while cool soup promotes a pome fruitiness and/or grain syrup. Throughout the session, there are subtle nuances like various florals, rock sugar, other fruit, etc. Has a light bitterness in a few brews, but tends to be very low in bitterness. The mouthfeel is top-end, being thick viscosity with a silky texture. Usually light astringency until very deep in the session. Aftertaste game is complex, but also not so loud. Can have very dynamic yun with rising floral aroma. Can do sweet sense coats of front of mouth/tonguetip. More subtle, but dynamic mouthcoats in general through the session. There can be a tactile feeling in the mouth from this mouthcoat as well as cooling. Some light pungent huigan early. Yiwu huigan are generally more to the latter half of the session, almost surprise-like randomness? The qi is strong and of excellent quality. Seems to be pretty indefinite brewer--did about 13-14 or so brews and feels like it has plenty left, and that's in the fridge.

whew!

 

[TWoloszyn]

Both yiwu teas lasted well through the week. Both probably at least approaches 20 worthwhile brews.

One sort of clarification needed about the EoT Rocket Yiwu--I do not quite mean that it's *not* gushu, I mean that the focus on what is supposed to give the tea the quality that it has comes from the fact that it's tall tree. For intents and purposes, it's gushu, tho' I think it's probably younger than Chawangshu, which is one of the oldest of Mansa groves, I think? Rocket Mountain was probably planted in the late Qing, I'd bet on some tea upswing...

The extended brews of Rocket Mt also makes me feel more sure that I'd like it to be more sweet and floral--it's definitely a touch on the austere side of things--which aging in a nice cake form would proooobably help.

I did a thermos of the XZH '07 8582. Rather tasty, not very much at all like an actual Dayi 8582 aside from a touch of the camphor. Oxidation also made the liveliness of the soup equivalent to fruit juice that's been sitting out in the sun all day... Still quite enjoyable.

The shu of Friday was the 2021 XZH To Be Addicted. I understand this is sold out. I can see why. Long and short of it is that it is a somewhat lightly fermented shu, and has feature like the 2018 Carefree or W2T Lesser Evils, but also clearly has some banzhang elements, so there was a general sense of drinking brownies like the other, more fully fermented banzhang shu I've had like the two HLHs or '15 XZH Luyin iron. There is wood, and a touch of florals with the brownie in aroma and taste. Mouthfeel is good with good viscosity and a texture with high surface tension. Manages a bit of feeling down throat and a strong mouthcoat. Good qi.

The first sheng of the weekend was something else sent by KJ Wong, but seems to be in BFZC style packaging--90's Spring Yiwu. This is warehoused tea that's pretty clean, but still has a problematic catch in the throat here and there. Largely has the usual flavors of warehoused tea, but not really concentrated, presumably because the leaf grades are 1, 2, 3, fairly small, which gives more refinement and less heartiness, and a bit extra bitterness. The small leaves also make for a thick soup with oily texture, but astringency is moderate. Not really much aftertaste, and there is light-mod qi. Some people who like this sort of thing will do fine, but there are better quality warehoused tea all over the place in terms of more complex flavors, more aftertaste and qi.

The second sheng of the weekend was the 2022 Essence of Tea Bulang. The long and short of it is that the plusses and minuses are equivalent to the 2021 Youle Gaogan. It's gushu (also supposed to be gaogan as well), but kind of limited in the strength of the gushu-ness and active phase is over too quickly. As for the claim that it's the best Bulang EoT has done, I'd disagree. It's certainly better processed than earlier Bulang (2010 is oxidised a bit, 2011 has smoke), and has better mouthfeel than any of them. However, there is a certain lacking of bold potency in aroma, taste, and qi--which also endures way down the session for this 2022 Bulang. I will grant that it's better than the 2012 EoT Bulang.

Green menghai mushroom, mineral, and a light barnyard is present in most earlier brews, and a nice menghai honey or herbal (whose bitterness one could *smell*) shows up here and there. Later brews have more of a mineral focus with herbals and maybe barnyard. The taste is pretty consistently mineral, menghai mushroom and menghai honey with a bitter pole that has a slight suggestion of choco, and generally softening in flavor and bitterness as the session proceeds. Late brew are a dark herbal note. Good to thick viscosity with a pudding texture and generally light astringency. Aftertaste game ends at about brew four with a bit of mouthcoat lingering afterwords along with the lingering bitterness. It's pretty good while it's going. Feeling goes down throat while managing a decent yiwu huigan, strong mouthcoat, and pungent huigan. One cup had a bit of yun going and floral aroma rising from it. Good qi through the earlier brews, but either gets weaker or habituated to by the late session. I'd say it's fairly durable, overall, but I didn't push this as far as I could go because I needed to use the pot again and wasn't excited by the potential of late brews.

The chunk was extremely easy to pull apart, so this cake is pretty softly stone-pressed.

The third tea of Saturday was the W2T Hypnotrain. Clearly a lincang, not hugely gushu by my estimation. Very dynamic session in terms of flavors and aromas. I liked it, but I wasn't a huge fan of it. After doing some checks, had to judge that the price was fair, and my tastes very expensive.

Aroma shifts from a palette of green sheng, fruit syrup, grits/cream of grain, florals, mineral, and with a suggestion of honey here and there. Taste consistently has mushroom, bitterness. It also can have honey, floralness, as well a bright fruitiness in some proportion. Has decent to good viscosity with a stiff velvet texture and a light astringency. Has a rather tactile mouthfeel, with a degree of mouthcoat. Fast yiwu huigan to sugars as well. One cup manages a yun. This didn't leave much of an impression when it comes to qi. Prolly about moderate, on the low end and of little distinction.

I could happily drink this, but I wouldn't seek it out at the price.

The last tea of the weekend is the monster W2T, Must Be. A quick take on this is that this is a Bingdao-Bulang blend. Or it could be Bingdao and a bulking agent. Fresh Bingdao can have some real similarities with fresh Bulang. Mushroom, floral, a bit of alkaline... Also, Bingdao is just the placeholder for saying high end Lincang--I can't be sure I really know what Bingdao is. However, this tea does have strong resemblance to the 2010 Ke'xing Bingdao and Best Tea House Stone Legend. A degree of commonality with XZH Puzhens. Of course, not so strong resemblance to '12 or '14 CYH Bingdao, or BFZC Bingdao, or any of the Bingdaos sold at EoT, etc, etc, so what do I know?

Anyways, I did like this tea a lot, and more than something like the Best Tea House King's Sea in terms of tea that are almost 4 dollars a gram. Also, if there indeed was Bulang blended in, that would give me some confidence that it would age in a more pleasing way than otherwise would be the case. But moot, as this stuff is far too expensive for me, particularly in comparison to what that sort of p/g ratio would get me in terms of older teas.

Aroma starts off mostly like a Bulang with menghai mushroom, barnyard, herbal, a touch of alkaline, before shifting to grain syrup, fruit, florals, mineral in late brews. As with BTH Stone Legend, it is best to let the soup cool, and give the sweet flavors a greater prominence. Taste is much like a subtle Bulang most of the way with mushroom, barnyard, mineral, while cool soup promotes a pome fruitiness and/or grain syrup. Throughout the session, there are subtle nuances like various florals, rock sugar, other fruit, etc. Has a light bitterness in a few brews, but tends to be very low in bitterness. The mouthfeel is top-end, being thick viscosity with a silky texture. Usually light astringency until very deep in the session. Aftertaste game is complex, but also not so loud. Can have very dynamic yun with rising floral aroma. Can do sweet sense coats of front of mouth/tonguetip. More subtle, but dynamic mouthcoats in general through the session. There can be a tactile feeling in the mouth from this mouthcoat as well as cooling. Some light pungent huigan early. Yiwu huigan are generally more to the latter half of the session, almost surprise-like randomness? The qi is strong and of excellent quality. Seems to be pretty indefinite brewer--did about 13-14 or so brews and feels like it has plenty left, and that's in the fridge.

whew!

Hey, I just wanted to correct that the shou you tried wasn't the 2021 To Be Addicted but rather 2021 Heaven's Legacy ripe (which is now sold out). 2021 To Be Addicted as a ripe in cake and loose form is still available for sale. The good news is Mr. Chen produced a new 2022 Heaven's Legacy old tree ripe this year but unlike 2021 which was Yiwu area the 2022 is Nannuo/Menghai.

 

[WenC]

2017 Pu'er from parents.

 

[shah8]

Sorry for the confusion, it was just in a packet labeled To Be Addicted. Heaven's Legacy makes a lot of sense since it's clearly a banzhang shu...

 

[TWoloszyn]

Sorry for the confusion, it was just in a packet labeled To Be Addicted. Heaven's Legacy makes a lot of sense since it's clearly a banzhang shu...

This is interesting as I was told the 2021 Heaven's Legacy ripe was made using Yiwu material. It's of course possible it was blended with Banzhang/Bulang area as well. IMO it's the highest quality ripe XZH have released since the 2015 Green Mark Iron.

 

[shah8]

Huh, weird. Does not taste like the known Yiwu shu that I've had. They'ved tended to be soft with a certain cola note.

As far as highest quality XZH since '15 luyin iron, I'm probably still going to go for the chocobrick. As far as the light fermented stuff goes Heaven's Legacy is prolly highest since '09 Mengsong Blessings. My judgement is that the '14 Huangyin is a regular fermented shu, tho' it's somewhat on the lighter end.

 

[shah8]

Another weekend, another bunch of teas drunk by...

During brews through the week, Hypnotrain, with a general bright (sort of pineapplly) fruitiness, mineral and bitterness lasted a long way, as well as Must Be.

I did a thermos of '08 XZH Puzhen (The two XZH Puzhen are the closest XZH to Must Be), and it was really good. I finished off the Must Be sample with 1.6g of Must Be and about .8g of '08 XZH Blessings dust. That got a thermos that was really rather similar to how We Go High thermoses, at least when it was young. Which brought to mind how when I first got We Go High, I was also thinking this was like "is it Mengku or Bulang, or is it both?" So perhaps Must Be will also become more stereotypically Mengku as it ages.

The shu of Friday was W2T's Amalgamation of Capital from 2020. Bamboo roasted gongting/1/2grade leaf shu that has really settled down. Thoroughly enjoyed this time around, more robust taste with balanced small-leaf shu potent depth with choco and dried fruit sweetness and bamboo high notes. Am probably going to do The Stranger next Friday and see how that is settling as well. Good viscosity, good qi. Think there was some yiwu huigan and a bit of mouthcoat as well in earlier brews. Not that durable.

First sheng of the weekend was a '97 Menghai Tall something or other. Warehoused tea, very clean with very little warehousing note. Same typical warehoused sheng flavor, deep dark herbals, wood, blah, blah, blah. Most of these things genuinely tastes very similarly to one another. However, in this case, while this tastes the same as most of the others, it is also a very robust and full-flavored version, in strong contrast to last weekend's tippy warehoused tea. Good viscosity and gloopy and all that. Maybe a little bit of qi. I did get some of that feeling in the mouth and throat that something's a bit up with that, but not too strongly or unexpectedly. I didn't try a huge number of brews before moving on to the next tea, not dynamic, all it does is thin and rise in taste. It's too bad I don't know where this sample came from because I figure that the people who really like warehoused tea would like this one a lot.

The second sheng of the weekend was the 2012 XZH Yibang Classic. This was a disappointment. Sanhetang does not really do pure Yibang Classics--all Yibang Classics aside from the 2011 are blended with Walong Manzhuang. The issue with this tea is that probably both the Yibang and Walong were oxidised according to Sanhetang's usual preferences, but what that did was amp up the Walong's natural element of plumminess while blunting the Yibang's sharpness of florals and bitterness and amping up Yibang plumminess as well, and one winds up with a tea that has some of the soft and round plumminess of hongchapu. So generally, too mellow and less character than there should be. Only takes a look at the 2013 to guess that Tony Chen realized his error quickly. One thing that interests me is that it seems like 2012 in general was kind of a down year for Sanhetang teas, aside from the two best teas, so far.

Early brews had honey, wet hay, wood, woodsap in aroma. Then transitions to a more general plummy aroma before the usual late mineral with some hay and plummy. The taste starts off with a general, somewhat thin plumminess with a touch of honey and wood. Eventually a deeker, more or less aged Manzhuang, register comes in, wood, somewhat choco underneath a thin and translucent plummy taste. A bit of tangy bitterness shows up here and there, and late brews are a consistent low Manzhuang/Walong sort of taste. Mouthfeel is good with thick viscosity, velvet-oily texture. Astringency is light most of the way with a couple of brews with higher astringency, particularly very late when I'm brewing hard. Primary aftertaste is a lingering mouthcoat that can be pleasantly winey very early in the session. There was one cup with a nice yiwu huigan. The qi is decent of no particular character. Yibang dies quickly, but the Walong seems to brew a long way. I did about 10-12 brews on Saturday, did not expect to brew many more on Sunday, but wound up doing five more or so because the Walong was quite nice enough, so it's pretty durable, overall.

The first tea of Sunday was the Essence of Tea Yao Zhu Di 2022 maocha. Long and short of this is that this is much more of a drink it now sort of maocha compared with the Rocket Mountain. It's not really as seriously a gushu tea as Rocket Mountain in the way I care about. It's much sweeter and agreeable than that tea, or the earlier 2019 Yaozhudi tea.

Green sheng mushroom in aroma and taste as it starts off. The aroma shifts to something around the theme of darker mushroom, barnyard, dark herbal, slight floral and fruit. Wet leaf aroma can be fruity. The taste is largely similar, dark herbal with some mushroom, barnyard, and an underlying honey sweetness. There are changes in nuance, but not of substance that much in either aroma or taste. Not particularly bitter. It's not super rich tasting or potent, especially compared to Rocket Mt. Mouthfeel is very good as well--thick viscosity with oily texture. Early brews deliver a bit of yiwu huigan either being that "underlying honey" or contributing to the sweetness of the regular flavors. Very light astringency with a couple of peaks into moderate astringency. More consistently, this tea delivers a strong mouthcoat before the late brews. Qi is more on the moderate side, not too distinct in any quality. Seems to be durable, but the flavor does get a bit boring and light late. Did about, hmmm, 13-14 brews before putting it into the fridge.

So again, this is more of a drink it now tea with sweet nuance and really good mouthfeel. Taste does a have something something Empty Zen-ness of subtle tea without huge flavor. Not hugely to my taste.

The last tea of the weekend was the 2005 Baifuzangcang wild tea brick. Old maocha pressed into 357g bricks. I got a sample to understand better how wild tea ages. Seems like they age fine--core taste is a deep plumminess broadly aligned with the performance of other teas of this age and comparable humid level storage. Anyways, I wound up quite enjoying this.

Aroma starts off with a sort of grape and honey note with a umami that's sort of around refried beans. Then it gets deep with deep plumminess and some herbal, before rising to a higher plumminess, camphor wood, and sugars, and then the mineral of late session. Taste is generally a deep, dark plumminess with a variety of other flavors through the session. Flavors like herbal/camphor wood, pungent barnyard (early in session), tartness, a bit of refried bean umami, a bit of honey/sugars (stronger in late session). Just good viscosity in a weekend with thicc teas, with some astringency (which dissolves to aftertaste). There's a certain stiffness in texture that's nice. Aftertaste has a strong mouthcoat that is very nice and lingering. There is a bit of yiwu huigan. Earlier brews has good yun, and one brew had a light pungent huigan. Qi is very strong, and somewhat active in the body, particularly early. Probably did at least fifteen brews before putting it in the fridge.

Yum.