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SOTD- sheng of the day

SOTD Late 80's thin paper 8582 from tea masters. I am very impressed by tea. It was almost perfectly stored . I did choose to rinse it and was rewarded with an excellent first in fusion with only a very mild hint of storage. The cha qi was noticable from the third sip on becoming so strong I had to wait between infusions. By infusion two the expansive slippery taste of the 8582 was in full effect. The 8582 taste is hard to explain It always makes me think of roast marshmallows. The 03 Bada cake at sunsing can sometimes have this taste. There is almost a cooling aftertaste along with the hui gan. At 4 dollars a gram the price is very fair for its quality. For my hard earned Consumer dollar 8582 beats out 7542 any day of the week. THe sad part is they are much harder to find.I have over a tong of different aged 7542's but only 1.3 aged 8582 plus a couple of bits and pieces :( .


Silent Chaos @ origintea has also put a 80's thin paper 7542 for around 3.50 a gram that looks interesting he also said he is posting a 2007 Yan qing hao cake but I have yet to see it.
 
Inspired to be in an 8582 mood, I pull out the Sanhetang 2007 8582. Not nearly as fun as the 2005 Mengsong Peacock. Rather light and delicate taste (and aroma) of wood with a fruit-ish finish. Good length of taste and layering. Good yuns. Good qi. Has some issues with astringency and very light choke-throat, not really very durable. Thickness is so-so. Say, compare it with the Wisteria Red and Blue Mark, it beats them on qi and sophisticated taste, taste soundstage is broader. Loses to them on loudness of the taste and the activity in the mouth. Maybe on soup thickness, too. If you like darker taste, the Wisteria have you there, as well.

There aren't that many famous 8582 blends. You got the mid 80s thick paper, the blue water mark mid 90s, and in the 2ks, it seems like the color Dayi from 2004 for Malaysia might be the only 8582/8582 style factory cake with any special sauce.

Found a thread that seems to list many of the early Chen Yuan Hao: http://tinyurl.com/kjj7vg4
 
Treated myself to 2006 XZH Youle. It was great. Thicker and juicier soup than usual, and almost as thick as Diangu. There is less of that tootsie roll cornstarch taste and aroma and a stronger aromatic wood taste on the top (similar to other aged lobular leaf's aromatic qualities, like Jingmai's cloth-dry-florals or Yibang's tar sensibility). Underneath was a tea taste. It had strong and physical huigans, but not too violent, great yuns, and astringency that converts to long lasting flavors. Great qi. Not very inclined to be fruity (only hints in finish, etc), and really rather unlike most other Youle. There's usually some fruitiness, and some nods towards Yiwu characteristics, but this tea basically emulates a combination of Banzhang and Jingmai. Durability was pretty good. However, on starting the backend, I got some bad feel, like pesticide, on the tongue and a bit of choke throat. Did not repeat on subsequent brews. Brewed about 16 times total.
 
2010 Essence of Tea Bangwei. This is far closer to a Mengku style tea than Jingmai. Like a nuttier so-called Bingdao experience. The sweet flavors from the finish were nice, but muted, presumably compared to actual Bingdao. It *is* interesting just how stark that yun is, after the session, and after you down a glass of water. Pops right back up, delivering sweetness.
 
2004 Tai Lian Youle (with sekrit Mengku). Almost finished with the sample. Fed up with the smoky, a good tea underneath it. Decent qi, decent thickness and finish, and some sweet flavors/aromatic woods.
 
2011 Essence of Tea Bulang. A good performance today. Some solid huigans early on, consistently layered taste, early on herbal and savory, later sweet flavors, consistently with a hint of fruit. Aroma is okay, only the first couple had strong brews. Thickness was generally good (smooth, with some drying astringency), if not as good as EoT 2012. Besides the fact that there are huigans, this tea is also clearly better than the 2012 in the fact that there is qi.
 
2009 (pressed 2013) Essence of Tea Wuliang Wild. I think I like this tea about as much as I do the 2008 Bulang. It can't really be considered puerh, or counted on to age well, but I like the smell, and I like taste. I like the qi, and I like the coating finish. Body is reasonably thick, durable with many sweet infusions with many yuns. Not too high on the complexity, and generally somewhat like other teas at its latitude, in that it would be floral with a sweet taste, but not too much depth or complexity.
 
What does "coating finish" mean? Can you give me the Chinese characters? Oh, and tell me what you mean by qi in reference to cha.

2009 (pressed 2013) Essence of Tea Wuliang Wild. I think I like this tea about as much as I do the 2008 Bulang. It can't really be considered puerh, or counted on to age well, but I like the smell, and I like taste. I like the qi, and I like the coating finish. Body is reasonably thick, durable with many sweet infusions with many yuns. Not too high on the complexity, and generally somewhat like other teas at its latitude, in that it would be floral with a sweet taste, but not too much depth or complexity.
 
2006 YQH Gushu Chawang. 7.4g/120ml There isn't much to the top flavor--mostly like dying lobular leaf. There are, as before, lots of nuances, especially in the aftertaste. Good thickness and texture like velvet. Complex aroma that rises and lasts, but not too strong. The aroma performance lasts very deep into the session. Has some good yuns, and a couple of solid huigans. Best thing about it is the strong qi of relatively high quality. Late infusions on the back end of the session were sweet. Lasted about 16-18 brews. Finished leaves are large and pretty. This is a good tea, and well worth $175, and is illustrative of a classic mistake. At the time of purchase, 2005 Dayi Mengsong Peacock were $35, while this tea was $135. The Mengsong can probably be considered a better tea on account of it being more well rounded. And that's just the most stark of opportunity costs. Like with the XZH Xishanmeishao, it's just gonna have to hang in my stash purely because of its qi...


Coating finish: Your cheeks and other parts of the mouth still has flavor on it after you've swallowed, causing salivation until it's gone.

qi: The quality of the high not associated with caffeine. Tends to be a very relaxing feeling, but different teas, and different puerh have different kinds of qi. Essence of Tea Bangwei33 is pretty soporific and downer. Sanhetang XZH Xishanmeishao is more of a euphoric feel.
 
Had some of that Yiwu Manxiu PuDi from Sampletea. Pleasant and all, but the tea's flavor is very short, to the point that it's like soda pop. Cannot capture attention at all. Decent aroma, some flavor, a bit of a yun, but leaves little impression.

Also tried some 2004 Brick of Dehong. It's not nasty, but it's bad tea because it's basically like a light version of bad Mengku shu. Bark and sweetness, with no depth. The qi wasn't of a good quality either, and I pretty quickly dumped it and went back to the original PuDi. People shouldn't be buying tea like this. Either spend the money for a decent aged Mengku shu, many of which, with some digging, costs just as much or less. Or spend it on liu bao, like from https://www.teatrekker.com/liubao-2003 . It will cost more, but is far better border tea than bad border tea from Dehong. If you insist on cheap liu bao, chawangshop has plenty of those you could try!
 
1998 Menghai Wild Arbor marked as lightly wet stored. This was a small sample sent by by another member here.

I have a cold so no detailed tasting notes. It sure is helping my sore throat though.
 
So, today is the first day and first tea of a 11 day blind tea examination series where I get to evaluate and try to guess what the tea is.

So, Sample A, 6.1g in 120ml! The dry leaf looked like it had been aged a bit (leaves still glossy), looks like smaller leaf and a bit broken. Dry aroma was mild. The early infusions had a deep yellow soup, which gave off a generally elusive aroma that is durable. This tea had a real aroma more than ten brews in. The taste of the early infusions were mostly kind of mushrooms, honey, and light wood, but not herbal, like Nannuo. A slight sour edge. So, I was thinking that this was a Mengsong, somewhat like the Liu Xiang from Yi He ChaZhuan. The body had decent thickness and good texture, a kind of silky mucilaginous tension. Not much in the way of qi. Some hesitant layering, energy in the mouth and mild cooling feel in the throat. There is a persistent drying feel, much of which converts. As the tea heads into the fourth and fifth brew, there was a more definite aromatic wood taste, but still very light. The tea changes in the sixth brew, beginning to have a very sweet sensation in the back of the mouth before swallowing, as the brews went further on, the sweetness intensifies towards a sweet entry as well, and there are some definite throat rhymes with some lovely floral and fruit notes. A very mild qi shows up. I change my mind and think, "oh hey, this must actually be Bingdao!" The session slows down to accommodate the nice aftertastes in both the mouth and throat that shows up after the sip. Eventually, the aftertastes and throatfeel becomes an iffy proposition, but the tea never fails to be very sweet, past twenty brews. Not much top taste, but completely refreshing sort of tired leaves that I would have saved and brewed until it doesn't taste sugared if I didn't have more tea to try.

I was so sure it was Bingdao, that I was making lots of notes to myself how similar Tai Lian was to it, and there were some similarities. However, the answer for Sample A turned out to be 2005 Yangqinghao Yiwu Chawang, from that dude that was selling cakes to make the rent back when. I was pretty surprised, because it doesn't taste very much like a Yiwu at all. No vanilla, no caramel, no strong wood notes, not even a plum rhyme. This could be a GFZ, and if that's so, it's a pretty good reminder just how different GFZ is from Yiwu proper.
 

ouch

Stjynnkii membörd dummpsjterd
Zero degrees equals Baoyan brick. Those Tibetans know how to handle the cold.
 
Sample B: This set of leaves 6.1g/120ml, has seen some light humidity, but no storage. The leaves are a bit dull, so some years. Initial pair of brews had a rather undefined taste and aroma, making me think of camphor and spicy herbs. Only a bit of body, but with some degree of energy (might be pesticides), and cooling. No real yuns or huigans. The third brew is stronger and more defined, and to me, rather like the Shuangjiang Mengku Bainian tea that Best Tea House sell, only not so mustardy and with more depth. There is astringency, energy, and cooling. A light qi also shows up. The tea continues largely in this vein, with different nuances of the same theme, and increasingly better aftertaste and feel in the throat. Aftertaste is from astringency conversion. After the sixth brew, the tea plateaued, and gives a few more infusions after that.

I was thinking something Mengku again, but the answer turned out to be the 2008 Finepuer Dingjiazhai. At this point, I firmly believe after these last two tries, and the blind sampling of fdrx' teas, that I can consistently mistake Yiwu teas for lincang teas. Then there was a discussion about YQH 2005, dry storage, and whether it could truly be considered a premium tea. Now, while I enjoyed that tea, and certainly enjoy it more than I did the Finepuer tea today, I wouldn't pick that 2005 YQH over the 2006 YQH Guchawang, on account of the better qi, and general better reliability. We decided that it might be a good idea to get an example of that 2005 that has had more humid storage. I'm not sure that will work out...the 2003-2006 single estate Wisteria teas I've had all have had dry, if generally good storage in Taiwan. Might be tricky to find someone who would let an expensive tea have some real moisture.


Late infusions of the Finepuer, after I knew what is was, generated some pleasant cups with some of that traditional late infusion sweetness and a bit of light qi.
 
Alright, Sample C: My pot got soaped, so have to use gaiwan from here on out. It's about the same volume, actually, so I think not quite filling up the gaiwan will at least keep the volume the same. 6.1g


The leaves look a bit old, not that glossy, not that big leaves, and with a bit more diversity in broken stuff, and a huangpan or two. Not much aroma to the dry leaves. First infusion gives notice that there is plenty of camphor and plenty of thick body. Entry is pretty moist, but the finish is drying and there was a slight choke-throat. The aroma and taste are reasonably loud, with a camphor and wood sensibility. It doesn't seem like it's quite the camphor of converted smoke, as there isn't the kind of "warm mushroom" taste that often comes with camphor cakes. There isn't much aftertaste or qi. The second infusion, the astringency recedes a bit, and no choke throat. The body is still very nicely thick and moist. The camphor strengthens such that I do think of it as converted smoke. However, acidity increased a bit here as well. Third infusion, the acidity recedes. The flavor and aroma subsides a bit. A slight qi starts showing up, and some aftertaste--most of the aftertastes in the session really only shows up after you finish the cup and not right after the swallow. The taste, however, is long, and there are things to find within the depths, so this tea certainly can capture the attention to some degree. The top taste is much better and more interesting than sample A or B. Cooling also improves. By the fifth infusion and past, the tea starts dying, but takes a long time to die. The exhausted leaves gave sweet water nicely. I was thinking that this was some kind of good Xiaguan, and a bit confused because the closest tea would be the 2003 HongYin. Not like the 2012 JinSeYunXiang or 2008 N.6 in behavior, and lasted longer than any modern Xiaguan.

The answer turned out to be the 2007 YangQingHao Qizhong, incidentally drunk right after TwoDog posted his impressions. Needless to say, I was surprised once again. This tea is basically comparable to the 2007 C grade XZH. The 7542, 8582, and LongFeng. The taste is much stronger and heavier than those teas, and heavier than the other YQH I've had before. The thick body and quality moist texture is also superior to those teas, and I bet time will ease the drying finish and improve it even more. The Qizhong is inferior to the XZH in the sense that aftertaste and qi are much less. So now, I think I'll think of it as a boutique classic Xiaguan take. While I bet that this tea is a more consistent and solid performer, in no way does it have the kind of big time moments that sample A '05 YQH Yiwu Chawang can provide, particularly in the throat. It is better than the Finepuer DJZ. It can also be compared to the '05 CGHT Menghai YiehSheng in the sense that it's about providing strength in the taste, but pretty different overall, and inferior to the '05.

Is this tea a good value over at OriginTea? Well...It's basically of the same quality as the leftovers at Houde or worse, and it costs more. However, leftover XZH, YQH, CGHT are such because most everyone who wanted the tea and knew about it has their tea. Qizhong is a new entry to the premium tea Westerners can buy, though. As such, does the price reflect market values? First, it's a 2007 tea. You can pretty much file this tea safely in terms of what the aging prospects are, and you only have to wait a year or two before it's fully into first stage. Safe knowledge of quality tend to be valuable. $270 good? LongFeng and 8582 are roughly about $240 on Taobao, and that reflects the Sanhetang website prices as well, at least for the LongFeng. I suspect that the extra $20-$30 premium for dealing with a straight English speaking vendor (and no payment for Taobao/international payment intermediary) is appropriate and fair. The estimate is that it's a fair price. Not a good deal, but not a bad deal either.
 
2006 Dayi 7582 I bought this cake from Steve after trying a couple 90's 7582 and really enjoying them. After trying it I immediately regretted the purchase. The cake was the dustiest chopped up rock hard Menghai cake I have ever seen. he taste was not much better being super astringent and not much else. After almost two years of more humid storage tyhe killer astringency has faded leaving some initial leaving a much more well rounded with a nice initial sugariness and a bit of a cooling aftertaste. This tea could not more different than the 03 7582. That tea is similar to the 05 Yan qing Hao Yi wu Being all mouthfeel and aftertaste. But well worth the $45 dollars it costs. If only to be used to blend with other more flavorfull tea that are more thin in nature.
 
Sample D: As usual, 6.1g...

The dry leaves look fairly premium, lots of stems, generally looks aged a few years, and has a dry aroma. The first brew has a strong, somewhat woody aroma while the taste was kind of dark, in the chocolate, wood sense. My immediate impression was of some kind of aged Bulang, maybe Banzhang, but there isn't the kind of fruitiness that should be present, and there were both sweet and sour sensations. The soup has reasonable thickness and energy, but no character to the texture. No qi or afterstastes. The second brew has more defined aroma and taste, but the energy is down and the thickness goes down as well. That aroma is woody with a kind of herbal edge. The taste came with more sourness, however, there were some aged huigans and aftertastes. There was also a good mouth coat that delivered aftertaste after the cup was finished. Third infusion had a really great wood, fruit, herb aroma. The sourness dies down to allow the taste of wood, with delicate hints of perfume florals and caramel to shine. The feel in the throat was good, and with nice, slow aged huigans, some with flavor returns, others without. The qi began to show up, and I start thinking that this might be LBZ, more specifically the 2005 XZH fall, even though this is sort of woodier than I remember that sample. I note at this point that the early brews were relatively low in astringency compared to the earlier samples. The fourth brew has the aroma and taste simplify and plateau a bit. The energy is less, and the thickness is still declining. Astringency and sweetness is present. Some nice huigans. Fifth brew is the same, but qi is weakening fast. Sixth is worse flavor and aroma, improving thickness, and worsening astringency, with a light choke-throat. I'm still sticking with the XZH idea, and the seventh infusion improves, making me inclined to think one should be aggressive in lengthening brew times with this sample. As I go on, the top taste is dying down, the qi steadies at a low power. At the tenth and the following brews, the aftertastes becomes majestic, and made for excellent savoring, and cold soup by the time I finish cups. Late infusions have a kind of raisin taste.

So, what was this tea? The 2006 ChenGuangHeTang Fall Yiwu Chawang! I wasn't too surprised, because the heavy GFZ does have that dark taste with wood and chocolate, and especially an herbal tinge. I was, however, impressed with this tea. Much less fruity and caramelly than the sample I bought in 2010, and seems to have aged nicely. This sample came from a cake that has been stored in Taiwan until recently, so it had some humidity as well. The fall character, and the reasons why you don't want fall tea, was pretty present in this tea though, with weaker character in terms of qi, texture, and to a lesser extent, top taste. What was also present was just how much better GFZ tea is, whether of the light floral and sugarcane bent, or the chocolate-wood-herbs bent, to most other Yunnan teas. Much less flaky than the 2005 YQH Yiwu Chawang. Vastly superior to any Mahei/LSD/GSZ. Less insipid than Mahei, more character than the others. I suggest the people in the market for GFZ try and find samples of this tea. It oughta be possible to find, and you'd have a pretty good example of what a proper dark GFZ/WGZ/National Forest should be like, and why you'd want to age them. Not quite the best tea...When I was mulling over whether it was LBZ, I was puzzled in the sense that the XZH Youle was better, my last session. It's underpowered, and the qi gives out. But it's way better than the 2003 Zipin, 2008 Finepuer DJZ and things like that. Probably should be considered better than the 2005 YQH Yiwu as well, though that's not quite fair since that tea does different things.
 
Most Simao teas age differently than most Yiwu teas. I would think that it's relatively easy to differentiate an aged Jiangchen from an aged Gaoshanzhai. There's a distinct wool sensibility to Jiangchen, like from sheep or camel, and it's more aromatic than most Yiwu.

Now, Sample E: 6.1g

The leaves look a little aged, and are dark, small to moderate size. They also look like they had been pressed firmly, as you can still see patterns from the bag or stone press on some leaves. Tips are present and are pretty. The dry leaves have a real aroma to them, a little indistinct, a little fruity. The soup from the first brew has a humid aroma that suggests age--not warehoused, though. The taste was pretty vague, with a light aromatic wood, and a hollow in the center, where only a subtle sweet fruit taste exists. It's thick, but doesn't have an interesting texture. No aftertaste or qi. From the start, I had been thinking of the 2003 Da Yeh brick that Houde sold, and it guides my impressions. The second infusion yielded a stronger aroma and taste with a nice aromatic wood element but still vague outside of that. Thickness is about the same, but astringency, cooling and aftertaste creeps up. Qi is also showing up, and I think of it as an aged tea leaves qi, appropriate for 2003 or thereabouts. Third infusion is still stronger with the same qualities, but noted better qi, and better, a velvet, texture along with a drying finish. As the soup cooled though, there was some slight bitterness and sourness, but a corresponding yun rewarded such, and the drying astringency converted to flavor after the cup. The throat felt good. The fourth brew gets strong enough that I feel that there is character in the top taste. This tea really takes time to go! Some tartness and a mild huigan also happened. The texture is very nice, moist, and velvety on entry, but still has a drying finish. More good cooling and feeling down the throat, and a very high quality body centered qi is showing up. Not strong, but it feels really good. The taste and texture declines in the fifth brew, but the aroma continued to get better. Increased astringency and yun shows up while the qi remains the star of the show. The sixth and seventh brew becomes very astringent and hard to drink, so I stopped and guessed that this was a firmly pressed (iron cake or brick) Mengku tea from the first half of the 2k's. I thought so because Mengku teas have such a sort of hollow woodiness taste (though this tea wasn't that bark-like or "spicy"). I also though that this had been in humid storage for much of the duration, but not warehoused. I compared it to unfavorably to the 2003 Xiaguan Baoyan Jincha I had, because I was disappointed with the sudden increase in severe astringency, and thought that Jincha was more durable.

The answer? 2007 YangQingHao Qiaomu Jincha (the stem is so short, it's almost a ingot or tuo). My first instinct was to think that this doesn't really taste like a Yiwu, since Mengla County is what YQH really does. I felt like this was pretty close to Baoyan in sensibility, and then I thought, well, this isn't really worth paying lots for, but that qi is very nice, and it might be worth getting some and trying to age that astringency away. Anyways, I'm like...I'll go back and drink more cups and get my (not paid) money's worth out of this sample. So I did the eighth, ninth brews and found it very astringent still. However, by the tenth brew, it begins to moderate, and I enjoy roughly 4-6 more brews. Especially the qi that still remains. There are some new flavors around tenth that fade quickly back into the normal in a few cups. After a long rest, I enjoy a spectacular backend of the session, along with a little Lila Downs singing "Black Magic Woman" and other songs. Not much flavor, but the qi is still quite good. A little sweetness. No real thickness or texture. If I didn't have other samples, I might have put this one in the fridge for more, since the last cup still had good feelings in it. Ah, a note, this tea definitely leaves aroma on the lids of gaiwans and bottoms of cups. At this point, this is a tea I would seriously consider buying depending on the price (Imaginary me with money, that is). I like it more than I do the Qizhong (this was the same price/g as that tea as of early 2012) I've just tried, and I like it as I would Baoyan, with more oomph and cleanliness of taste. I also strongly suspect that the (I dare to imagine I taste Mengku) material used for this tea is cheaper compared to Banna tea than it is now, like the way I think about Tai Lian, and might wish to buy as a sneaky way to purchase high quality arbor leaves.
 
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Sample F:

Unlike previous teas, the dry leaves here looks dark and young with pretty gold tips. A recently made tea. Dry leaf aroma of sharp, metallic, sheng. The first brew is more of a wash because the tea was in a tightly pressed chunk. Anyways, a leather aroma, with a light, aromatic taste with length and slight layering. A little thickness, a bit of energy, but also some harshness in the swallow. No qi. The second brew brought forth a kind of plastic (or artisinal clay) element, that I associate primarily with Yangta tea, in the aromatic component. The taste is still a generic light aromatic wood, but with cooling and slow, shallow huigans. New aftertastes show up well after the sip is swallowed. The third brew has a slightly different aroma again, somewhere between the '03 S.M. Bainian and '02 Tai Lian. Not particularly rich soup, but with a sweet flavored finish. The body had a slight silk texture, and generated strong ben-gay feel in the throat as well as some drying astringency. A slow and weak body-style qi suggests itself. A decent yun also shows up well after the cup is finished. The fourth brew gave a strong similarity to the Tai Lian in both aroma and taste. The aroma in the sense that it changes from cup to cup a bit like Tai Lian and has things to sniff for in every cup. Not as bitter or as tart as the Tai Lian, though, but also not nearly as potent in taste, huigan, or qi. The strong feel in the throat continues. A bit of nice sweet flavors shows up as finish towards the end of a cooling cup, and something between a yun and huigan also shows up. Astringency increased again. Fifth brew continues the Tai Lian path, adds a bit more thickness to the body. Still a kind of a bothersome astringency is involved as well, and into the top of the throat. Aroma is steady and interesting in the sixth brew, but the taste, thickness declines as well as the ben-gay throatfeel. Most of the fun is increasingly about what happens after the swallow from the good aftertastes. Astringency tests my patience. Seventh and eighth brew continues along those lines, but the top flavor changes a bit to be a bit vegetal, like the way a new JingGu could be. Aroma is declining during those cups. While the aftertastes were nice, I got fed up with the astringency and weak top flavor, and made my guess at this point that it was a Bingdao or some tea made from roughly Mengku County through to Qianjiazhai in Zhenyuan County. Doesn't have the sweet grains of further north, like the Fengqing Sunning tea, and doesn't have Banna characteristics.

The answer turned out to be a tea that Tony, of OriginTea fame, likes, from a Hong Kong teahouse, called the DTH Yiwu. Lincang and Yiwu, rinse and repeat. On the other hand, I simply do not find a strong Yiwu character in this tea. I'll be the first to admit that I'm wrong, but in practice, we're pretty much only talking about Luol Shui Dong or some odd Mansa tea, and I find it a stretch to think of this tea as approximating even those areas. At the end of the day, there isn't really any sort of Banna taste, and none of the sort of sweet floral, honey, mushroom in it. Plenty of leather, but that's it. I restarted for the backend, and while I enjoyed it, the exhausted water is also rather consistently slightly bitter, and not bitter like Yiwu, and certainly not inclined to do sweetwater, even like the Tai Lian. Is inclined to give pleasant aftertastes. Also qi is a touch more present during backend. This issue makes it problematic for me to judge how good this tea is. It is certainly well better than many Mengku and Bangdong area teas typically offered for the West, like the Najiao from Bannacha or the Mushucha/Nanpozhai from YS, and a cake for $100-$200 I would supposed to be approximate value. As a Yiwu, I would be pretty worried that it won't age like a Yiwu should, and wondering if it was mislabeled. In certain ways, it's pretty potent for a Yiwu, like the cooling. However, I'd want a Yiwu like other eight year old and older Yiwu I've had, in seven years. That would make me uncertain.
 
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