SOTD- sheng of the day

grasshopper · Sep 7, 2011

2005 Ancient Arbor Sheng
Lao Lin Cang Tea Factory
Life in Teacup
Bought a 25g sample of this and like it quite a bit. It has that lemonade-sugarcane-red clover-grapefruit thing running in it. Back in 2005, I might have been able to afford a tong+1 (the only way to fly). Easy to drink. Big flavor-burst with no unpleasant notes. Brewed some yesterday and found myself thirsty for it again tonight. That speaks well for it. Having but five short years, it is no longer a nascent sheng, but it is still is a young sheng, not even near adolescence. We like to augur the age-worthiness of a sheng as though we know whereof we burble. This might become a yummy aged sheng fifteen years down the road. Today, it's a darned yummy young sheng. Regards, ~grasshopper

P_K · Sep 8, 2011

2010 Shi Kun Mu - Pin Jian

Herbal with straw...kind of simple but tasty in a gaiwan. Better in the yixing pot.

shah8 · Sep 8, 2011

2003 Wistaria tuo again. Felt like I needed to have a better handle. Used the celadon gaiwan instead of tokoname pot this time. Much, much less astringent this time around. Still starts out with savory roasted veggies taste for around the first four brews and gradually becomes more Yiwuish after that. Not as cooling, more throat feel, more thickness in texture. Still a fairly dark and austere taste. Earlier rounds do have nice high pitched wood tastes. Good qi that's pretty nice. Very durable. I liked this. It's not cheap, about $110 for the amount of a cake. Definitely is a value if you specifically want Yiwu of some quality. While it *is* more interesting than a '99 Song Charactered Changtai, it's much less sweet, full, and friendly. I would not strongly prefer this over similarly aged material like Tai Lian or Dayi Bulang. It also probably can't command a purchase over the 2005 Taihe, which has supreme characteristics, even if not totally pleasant. Lastly, this tea's durability made me wonder about Yiwu teas in general. Outside of the Nadacha Guafenzhai, no other premium Yiwu tea 2006 and later has been consistently even mildly durable, let alone be an all day affair like the tuo can be.

Checking out the Life in Teacup website, I saw the Guanzizai Bingdao, which looks a lot like my sample, and it's $45. That's well within buyworthy in my book. Not so expensive that you really have to think about quality of aging.

shah8 · Sep 9, 2011

decided to try the XZH Youle again, keeping in mind what a Yiwu is like. Excellent session. Normal strength in flavor as opposed to last time, same crazy qi that brings wasabi tears, good aroma, unusually dynamic session. This is vastly easier to enjoy than any non YQH '04 Yiwu I've had, in terms of unsubtle, good taste. Qi, energy, and pungency are pretty much a 9 on the 10 point (proper) LBZ scale. It's just a bit less dimensional than a Yiwu is--where a Yiwu is a Beethoven string quartet, this Youle is more Palestrina, or at best a fugue. I believe this is a property of small-leaf varietal. One thing I think now is that it really pays to be highly cautious and critical of imperfectly processed Yibang, Jingmai, etc, because the long term effect is that the aged tea will become fairly flat and sorta dead, like ZhaiZiPo '04. One thing I *really* wonder is why Mengyangxiang Man Nuo hasn't been popular before now, since to some degree, it's a big-leaf kin to Jingmai. Shouldn't it have rather heavy duty aging advantages, like Yiwu compared to Yibang or Youle? Shouldn't it be vastly more appealing than promoting various Lincang villages like Xigui and Nanmei?

grasshopper · Sep 9, 2011

[shah8] decided to try the XZH Youle again, keeping in mind what a Yiwu is like.

[grasshopper] Who sells XZH Youle? Thanks! --~g

shah8 · Sep 9, 2011

Houde, but not anymores! There is not one internet retailer that's selling pre-2007 XZH. I can send you a teeny bit, if you like. Of course, no guarantees that it works for you as it does for me! But some of that Hao grade sheng would be nice! /me been reading those old tea-disc messages.

I've been reading this thread,

http://translate.google.com/transla...php?tid=1732633&extra=page%3D1&page=1&act=url

which is quite illuminating! Takes a long time to go through eight pages, 'cause this guy talks a lot.
A few big points
1) Tea is very labor intensive and generally unprofitable. Boutique tea, no matter that we scream at the high prices, are even less profitable than cheap plantation. There is a reason Dayi can afford an ad budget.
2) High tea prices are a function of competition with easier agricultural commodities, like rubber, sugar, and bananas (and coffee as well, I might add). These commodities compete with tea for land, and more importantly, for labor.
3) We will not see a crash in tea prices, he says, because we habitually overestimate the fraction of tea that is consumed traditionally. There are losses all along the path, everything from processing failures, sampling, tea artifacts like calabashes, tea given to people who hate it/throws most of it away for whatever reason, spoilage during storing, the works. It's not like there isn't just a lot of tea around, but there are many thing happening to it, just as much as we're consuming it.

The comments go on, there is quite a bit, and at a language level that gives Google fits, so you'll have to work even harder than usual to understand.

One fun bit, in describing all of the main Bulang premium villages, he mentions the confusion about Man Nuo. Sez that the Bulang Man Nuo is usually very bitter with a decent huigan--and I think, because Google botches this really ambiguously--but Meng Man Nuo is interesting, tastes like LBZ, but too far away, the crop is too small, and so there is no hype around it.

grasshopper · Sep 10, 2011

[Shah8] 3) We will not see a crash in tea prices, he says, because we habitually overestimate the fraction of tea that is consumed traditionally. There are losses all along the path, everything from processing failures, sampling, tea artifacts like calabashes, tea given to people who hate it/throws most of it away for whatever reason, spoilage during storing, the works. It's not like there isn't just a lot of tea around, but there are many thing happening to it, just as much as we're consuming it.

[grasshopper] That line of thinking makes good sense. But Gingko of LifeInTeaCup has this to say: "I believe in future 5-10 years, there will be more dry-stored older sheng (10-15 years, or older) available in the market or in hands of collectors. They will no longer be so rare, and very likely, will not be forbiddingly expensive." Sometimes I'm pretty good at knowing what happened. But knowing what WILL happen, well, that's another matter.

Except for samples, I pretty much ceased buying pu'er after 2007 because I did not want to wait for my sheng to age when I'm eighty-five, and I do not know if there will be much storage space for my piles of cakes in whichever assisted living facility might accept me as a resident.

shah8 · Sep 10, 2011

Drinking some nadacha Bangwai, is as usual...

Gingko, I think will be correct about there being more dry-stored older sheng. OTOH, I think prices will diverge. There is just a ton of not very good puerh out, and so much of that will be thrown out. Mediocre aged puerh will not be able to compete for dollars against fresh baozhongs and darjeelings, and they will get stuck doing substitution duty like puerh once was. The good stuff, the stuff that has dynamic flavor, lots of qi, and all, those will cost a fortune. So you see, Gingko might be right, but not materially right.

As for the rest, I guess you have strong motivations to keep in shape! And socialize (neighbors, nieces, nephews, etc), for goodness' sake!

apache · Sep 10, 2011

shah8(2), it must be took you hours of search on the web to find those forum pages about puerh, let alone painstakingly to wade though almost unintelligible Google translated text.

I notice that he/her actually wrote two volumes of works and it took 5 years long. The link you gave is the 2nd vol. 1st vol. is 15 pages long! Here is the links to both volume in "Urtext" edition. (Just paste the link to Google translate).

Vol1: http://bbs.fblife.com/viewthread.php?tid=1668958&extra=page=1
Vol2: http://bbs.fblife.com/viewthread.php?tid=1732633&extra=page=1&page=1

Me trying to read them in Urtext, but very slowly.
I might try to share a few interest points if I find any.

shah8 · Sep 10, 2011

Spent all day reading the first volume! Someone really needs to do a proper english translation, since it's kind of a lecture series rather than anything bloggy...

apache · Sep 10, 2011

Just read Vol 1 page 1, it's very interesting. I think have to do this properly. Need to find a special sticker on this forum or on TC. So the whole 2 vols with all the important points can be find in one place. A Wiki will be ideal and more than one person can share the effort. Also, if we going to translate the whole thing, we need to inform the original author what's going on.

shah8 · Sep 10, 2011

Well, there's another Big Yunnan thread on the fourth page of threads, and in this one he talks about all different sorts of Yiwus, including Laos side of the mountain Guafengzhai...

shah8 · Sep 11, 2011

Nadacha manmai. Behaves just a little like that HLH Green Ripples. 'Cept that the aroma is still very nice and the harshness in the throat is much restrained until about the 10th brew and some of it is of the sort that does release flavors after the sip, so... Nadacha Bulang '10 is definitely the most properly processed Nadacha from 2010. How well a sheng is processed really can be hit or miss for all sorts of reasons. Eh..., the manmai is still the second best all around performer. Mansai very occasionally performs like a proper bulang, so it might sort itself out in time. Bangwai has (as BBB sorta mentions about lancangs in general) a relatively monophonic approach to taste, but you know? It's really relaxing to drink it, even if it won't capture your imagination in a session with full prep. Also tastes good as well. There is a very definite bump in quality for Nadacha '11s, aside from the bulang.

I watched football (losing football for all my teams except Philly) with a blend of Wistaria '03 tuo and the rest of the Delan '94 chunk (3/4 ratio). Good qi, good thickness, gets a bit sweet. The Yiwu dominated early until the rock hard Delan broke up, but there wasn't a nice blending of wood properties like I thought there would be. Aroma was strong but only so-so. Any later Yiwu fruitiness got soaked up. Oh well.

Hobbesoxon · Sep 12, 2011

Howdy chums.

Do you remember the 2002 (2005?) Fuchaju "Ailaoshan"? It was sold under the name "Fochaji" by vendors at the time.

The consensus back in 2007 was that it sucked like unto something most sucklesome. It was bitter as anything. I tried it again in 2008, and found it to be "empty".

Three years later, looking to get reacquainted with the back end of my collection, this cake is actually pretty darned good. It is still bitter, but it has a broad, solid, Simao base of chunky grain-like flavours that really surprised me. I am very encouraged. My notes tell me that this was about $40 back in 2007, which I thought to be quite cheap at the time - looking back, given that the tea was probably only a few years old then, it's not all that inexpensive, relative to 2007 prices.

It is encouraging to have a cake develop into something interesting, after fading into a dormant state. If you've got one of these knocking around at home, perhaps you'd like to give it a try.

Toodlepip,

Hobbes

Hobbesoxon · Sep 12, 2011

SotYesterday: a 2011 "Manhai" from Essence of Tea. There are plenty of Man* names out there, it seems!

This is currently being sold only at the physical teashop in the UK, and not on-line because Mr. and Mrs. Essence think it a little below par.

Their standards must be quite high, because I found this tea to be quite charming: it is fresh, green, slightly floral and rather satisfying. It may be a touch light, but there are "hand-selected" cakes of significantly lower quality being sold out there.

Perhaps a bit of gentle pressure might persuade Mr. Essence to make this one available. But you didn't hear it from me. -___-

Toodlepip,

Hobbes

arghblech · Sep 12, 2011

Hobbes is drinking tasty stuff and I'm polishing off some crap samples. Today is *gasp* 2001 CNNP Yiwu Zhengshan Old Tree from Puerh Shop. This was one of my first samples. I have 2 more sessions of this stuff.

shah8 · Sep 12, 2011

I'm drinking tasty stuff too! 7.7g/140ml loose wrapper fannings 2005 Dayi Mengsong Peacock. Just like the description sez on Houde, actually, and the "juvenile wildness" has definitely stopped trying to kill me. Also much less "filed down" than it seemed last time.

P_K · Sep 12, 2011

08 Menghai 0622 -

A bit astringent with a fairly narrow range of flavors....but drinkable.

thanks · Sep 13, 2011

08 Menghai Dayi 08 tuo. This is a fat 250g tuo that was a remarkable value for money when it first appeared in the market, and I'm impressed with how it has held up. Still chunky, still complex, sweet, some kuwei. Good amount of leather and tobacco, and a good consistency. Huigan seems somewhat longer than I remember.

Not sure if it's worth the now $15 price tag, but if you picked some of these up when they were new, hopefully they're continuing to surprise you as much as they are me.

shah8 · Sep 13, 2011

Hey there Thanks, was looking for your blog, to refresh myself on your opinion of the Dayi Mengsong. Wound up settling for the flickr. Great to see you around!

Had two shengs of the day.
Nadacha '10 Mansai. Drinking this too much. As much as I like the flavors, I'm getting a little too contemptuous of the flaws. Gotta put it away for awhile.

XZH '09 Jingmai. Excellent session. Jingmai is no 3 after LBZ and GFZ/Mahei for good reason. Beginning to darken in flavor. I panicked in my first infusion because I thought I accidentially put in a grain of YS '09 Lao Chatou, which, fortunately, was not the case. Aroma is actually kind of mild except for the pour aroma in the later brews. It is, however, very complex. Intense flavor, which led me to systematically underbrew as far as huigans were concerned early on... The huigans I did get later on were tremendously complex and very long lasting. 7-8th brew had the most intense incense wood I've ever had, in the strength of taste and in length. Great relaxing, full body qi (focused on head, though). Lasted about what it always does--12-13 brews. Much less rough than it used to be, with only a remnant dryness towards the end of the session that only served to prolong the flavors in the mouth. I wonder if Atlanta weather specifically knocks the stuffing out of rough puerhs. As for p/q ratio, you might be overpaying a bit @Houde, but it's practically guaranteed that it will be much more expensive later. Peak brew of this stuff knocks the stuffing out of any '07 Spring XZH I've had. Much better than the Yiwu or the Kuzhushan, for example. Better than the XZH Mengsong as well, really.