Today, I had some 2011 Yihe Liu Xiang mengsong, sourced from CreamofBanna. Very pleasant, with good aroma, decent tastes, and some huigans early on. Only a little less inferior to something like 2010 YS Yakou, which is fuller in taste, sweeter, and more durable. Liu Xiang had a lot of caffeine. It's hard not to notice how many reasonably priced Mengsongs there are out there for daily drinking.
Yesterday, I had Essence of Tea Guafengzhai. The first half of my session, I was fairly disappointed, merely okay, but not too complex or exciting. After a rest of some hours, however, I came back to a much better back end. I still think this is worth the ~$250/400g price in today's market (hey, that 2005 Mengsong Peacock is still going up, and has become the most expensive 2005 Dayi at Donghe). However, that Guoyan GFZ does pretty much blow this tea out of the water--my thinking still is that if I'm going to pay hundreds of dollars for a cake of tea, I'd really want to do that for top stuff, rather than for mediocre from the best place, even if that's twice the cash. If you're already crazy enough to spend so much for tea...go the whole hog.
Yesterday, I had Essence of Tea Guafengzhai. The first half of my session, I was fairly disappointed, merely okay, but not too complex or exciting. After a rest of some hours, however, I came back to a much better back end. I still think this is worth the ~$250/400g price in today's market (hey, that 2005 Mengsong Peacock is still going up, and has become the most expensive 2005 Dayi at Donghe). However, that Guoyan GFZ does pretty much blow this tea out of the water--my thinking still is that if I'm going to pay hundreds of dollars for a cake of tea, I'd really want to do that for top stuff, rather than for mediocre from the best place, even if that's twice the cash. If you're already crazy enough to spend so much for tea...go the whole hog.