I plan to revisit alpha. I think you are right.
Yunnan Sourcing pu'er blind tasting notes - Spoilers
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I plan to revisit alpha. I think you are right.
I had extensive notes typed out on gamma today, and then my computer crashed and I lost it all. I think I can sum it up this way: murky, largely tasteless dreck.
Thanks! This tasting really drove a point home for me, something that I already knew, but was reinforced like a ****. Not to have preconcieved ideas of what any given tea should taste like. Your absolutely right about the parameters, varying them can make the tea taste "almost" like a completely different tea. Even the visuals "color" can come out completely different. Even though I approach a new tea with my tried and true formula it,s nessesary to play around with each tea to bring out it,s full potential. But seriously, my participation in this tasting was not about "name that tea" for me it was an opportunity to learn what I dont know. And this has been a really good experience.
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Oh come on now. It,s not that bad, is it? It,s certainly different being so brown and heavy but there are some things I liked about it. I dont think I,d buy it but it was nice enough while the sample lasted. It kinda reminds me of a shu.
I had a similar reaction to Scott, albeit a bit less severe. I like the fact you said it reminded you a bit of shu because I had that same thought. I think it was the early wood flavors and touch of mustiness.
While drinking this tea I couldnt stop myself (and I tried) from thinking, in a few years this is going to taste just like shu. But that,s also why I thought the tea was interesting. Ive never had a sheng that tasted anything like this before. This could turn into something really unique. Or.......maybe not.
"Delta" today
Appearance: darkish leaves. Few tips
Soup -yellow tending to orange as infusions progress
Aroma: Light. Juicyfruit gum. Malt. A touch musty
Taste: beany. Very tingly and active in mouth. In 4th infusion serious bitterness comes in. Low toned. thick. Head pounding.
I would guess this one is the Ban Zhang. Very active tea, and my favorite of the bunch so far.
Appearance: darkish leaves. Few tips
Soup -yellow tending to orange as infusions progress
Aroma: Light. Juicyfruit gum. Malt. A touch musty
Taste: beany. Very tingly and active in mouth. In 4th infusion serious bitterness comes in. Low toned. thick. Head pounding.
I would guess this one is the Ban Zhang. Very active tea, and my favorite of the bunch so far.
I wish I knew who was responsible for the "banzhang = brutal, agonising, bitter" misassociation, because it's spread like wildfire!
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
banzhang = bittersweet, beautiFull body
Delta:
Sweet and sour aroma off the dry leaves. It was pretty potent straight out of the bag so I went easy for the first few infusions. The bitter/sour combo was really prominent early. I couldn't discern very much from the first few and decided I should push it a bit to try and bring out the more familiar flavors. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I used 8g which is fairly normal for my 120mL gaiwan but it could have been too much leaf.
I'm pretty sure that this tea has something nice under the hood. I have only caught glimpses of it. There was one good thing about this session... I noticed an almost hoppy note in this that lasted throughout the first 10 infusions or so. I want to play around with this tea some more before I state a preference.
I think I could have misbrewed an empty gaiwan today. It never felt right or comfortable so I'm not going to take it out on the tea. When I've finished epsilon I'll go back and try alpha and delta again.
Sweet and sour aroma off the dry leaves. It was pretty potent straight out of the bag so I went easy for the first few infusions. The bitter/sour combo was really prominent early. I couldn't discern very much from the first few and decided I should push it a bit to try and bring out the more familiar flavors. It didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I used 8g which is fairly normal for my 120mL gaiwan but it could have been too much leaf.
I'm pretty sure that this tea has something nice under the hood. I have only caught glimpses of it. There was one good thing about this session... I noticed an almost hoppy note in this that lasted throughout the first 10 infusions or so. I want to play around with this tea some more before I state a preference.
I think I could have misbrewed an empty gaiwan today. It never felt right or comfortable so I'm not going to take it out on the tea. When I've finished epsilon I'll go back and try alpha and delta again.
Put extra effort into the Epsilon, the results are amazing.
I missed out on all of this, so I'm grateful to read your opinions. When you finally reveal what's what, I'll be able to make an informed decision as to what to buy.
I'm counting on you guinea pigs too!
The whole world is watching.
Okay... I just want it to be known that I would totally eat that!
I'm a bit late to the game gents, but I've tasted all of the teas, and I'm putting my initial guesses here.
First a bit about the process: I blinded myself against foreknowledge or influence by re-labeling the teas 1-5.
I brewed all teas competition style, 3g for 5 minutes, back to back. A friend with little pu-erh experience sat in for the tastings and I shared flavor and aroma impressions with him. It was really useful to hear his impressions which were free of expectations of what young Sheng should taste like. I've also had a standard session with 4 of the teas.
Today I uncovered my labels to reveal the original mappings, alpha-gamma.
Two of the teas were clear standouts in every way: Alpha and Epsilon. The first distinction between these two came from the competition tasting: Epsilon immediately puckered my mouth quite numb, so I guessed Ban Zhang. Alpha was also very strong competition style but surprisingly pleasant to drink anyway. After gongfu brewing a standard session with both of these, I'm confident in saying that Alpha is the YiWu, and also a really excellent tea. After Epsilon's powerful competition style showing, it was surprisingly unimpressive in a standard session: I may need to adjust things next time.
Another tea, Gamma, was not like the others: this is pre-aged tea. Looking over the YS descriptions, I see that the Bu Lang is made from 2006 MaoCha. It is the no better for it, more on that at HobbesBlog. I didn't bother with a standard session.
And so only Beta and Delta were left. I tasted these two teas 1st with a standard gongfu session. I found myself really pushing these teas to get enough of an impression of them. I'm not nearly as clear about these two, having only limited experience with You Le. But from my tasting notes, I'll guess that Delta is the You Le and Beta is the Wu Liang.
First a bit about the process: I blinded myself against foreknowledge or influence by re-labeling the teas 1-5.
I brewed all teas competition style, 3g for 5 minutes, back to back. A friend with little pu-erh experience sat in for the tastings and I shared flavor and aroma impressions with him. It was really useful to hear his impressions which were free of expectations of what young Sheng should taste like. I've also had a standard session with 4 of the teas.
Today I uncovered my labels to reveal the original mappings, alpha-gamma.
- Alpha: Yiwu
- Beta: Wu Liang
- Gamma: Bu Lang
- Delta: You Le
- Epsilon: Ban Zhang
Two of the teas were clear standouts in every way: Alpha and Epsilon. The first distinction between these two came from the competition tasting: Epsilon immediately puckered my mouth quite numb, so I guessed Ban Zhang. Alpha was also very strong competition style but surprisingly pleasant to drink anyway. After gongfu brewing a standard session with both of these, I'm confident in saying that Alpha is the YiWu, and also a really excellent tea. After Epsilon's powerful competition style showing, it was surprisingly unimpressive in a standard session: I may need to adjust things next time.
Another tea, Gamma, was not like the others: this is pre-aged tea. Looking over the YS descriptions, I see that the Bu Lang is made from 2006 MaoCha. It is the no better for it, more on that at HobbesBlog. I didn't bother with a standard session.
And so only Beta and Delta were left. I tasted these two teas 1st with a standard gongfu session. I found myself really pushing these teas to get enough of an impression of them. I'm not nearly as clear about these two, having only limited experience with You Le. But from my tasting notes, I'll guess that Delta is the You Le and Beta is the Wu Liang.
Epsilon:
Dry leaves are just shimmering with sweet floral aromas. I'm really looking forward to this one.
Rinse: Bright and clear. Pale yellow.
5s: Sweet, bright, and crisp (this may be what Hobbes calls effervescence). Wonderful treble notes. Rings like a bell. Powerfully sweet aroma left in cup.
7s: Still sweet, bright, and crisp but soup is darkening and bitterness is starting to creep in. Delicious.
~20s: Distractions! Soup is dark and I expect to get hit with the ku bat. Even overbrewed this wasn't bad at all. Not nearly as bitter as I was prepared for and still drinkable.
15s: Settled down a bit more. Complex still but more middle notes like beans, melon, and citrus zest. Still crisp but mellowing.
20s: Soup lightens to yellow again. Awesome all around. We seem to have reached equilibrium between the highs, mids, and bass. One of the better single infusions of any tea that I've tasted.
25s: Depth. Less bitterness and astringency than I had expected. Grains, bass notes, vegetation, earth. I'm still digging this.
I did many more infusions but stopped taking notes as the tea started to decline.
Sessions like this are why I drink tea. I suspect that this cake is the expensive one. I love this one but I just can't pay that price for a single cake yet. Maybe one day.
Note: I've yet to revisit alpha and delta but I will try to get them in tomorrow. None of the others have come anywhere close to this.
Dry leaves are just shimmering with sweet floral aromas. I'm really looking forward to this one.
Rinse: Bright and clear. Pale yellow.
5s: Sweet, bright, and crisp (this may be what Hobbes calls effervescence). Wonderful treble notes. Rings like a bell. Powerfully sweet aroma left in cup.
7s: Still sweet, bright, and crisp but soup is darkening and bitterness is starting to creep in. Delicious.
~20s: Distractions! Soup is dark and I expect to get hit with the ku bat. Even overbrewed this wasn't bad at all. Not nearly as bitter as I was prepared for and still drinkable.
15s: Settled down a bit more. Complex still but more middle notes like beans, melon, and citrus zest. Still crisp but mellowing.
20s: Soup lightens to yellow again. Awesome all around. We seem to have reached equilibrium between the highs, mids, and bass. One of the better single infusions of any tea that I've tasted.
25s: Depth. Less bitterness and astringency than I had expected. Grains, bass notes, vegetation, earth. I'm still digging this.
I did many more infusions but stopped taking notes as the tea started to decline.
Sessions like this are why I drink tea. I suspect that this cake is the expensive one. I love this one but I just can't pay that price for a single cake yet. Maybe one day.
Note: I've yet to revisit alpha and delta but I will try to get them in tomorrow. None of the others have come anywhere close to this.
Alpha: Not as nice as epsilon but still pretty good. Better bitterness than epsilon. More delicate than gamma, delta, or beta. I enjoyed this but I had to push it after the first few infusions.
Delta: This tea wasn't on par with Alpha and Epsilon but I think it was my third favorite. Gamma was my least.
Delta: This tea wasn't on par with Alpha and Epsilon but I think it was my third favorite. Gamma was my least.
Finally found time to go through the samples. A big thank you to Scott of YS for the samples and to Hobbes for organising it.
Overall it was a great experience, I enjoy yiwu the most among the samples. Youle is a bit thin but makes a nice drink for those who like young sheng.
Here are my notes to share, copied from my blog (http://puerhcollection.blogspot.com/)
Refer to it for photos.
Ratio of 10g to 100ml gaiwan is used.
Same gaiwan, same water, same person, different samples. The frog is the witness.
Floral aroma with a sweet aftertaste that lasted a while. Slight bitterness which was acceptable with no astrigency. Typical broth and character of the yiwu region.
Broth is not thick but its quite reasonable if compared to yiwu material of recent years which seems to be thinner than those from the pass decade.
Some medium sized whole leaves mixed with some bits of leaves. Enjoyable sheng.
My Pick: A distinct Yiwu character
First impression was similar to yiwu, weaker huigan and much thinner broth. Low to medium level of bitterness which stayed without much transformation and without astrigency. Slight smokiness but still quite easy to drink.
A few overly roasted leaves could be found in the brewed leaves which could be the cause of smokiness (Centre Leave in the pic above). There's a bud with 4 leaves and some with 1 and 2. Overall, not as balanced and consistent as I would like for collecting.
My Pick: Youle
Another floral sheng aroma with a fresh, cooling aftertaste, medium to strong level of bitterness which just disappeared. Broth is thin.
Again, some slightly overly roasted leaves are observed, mostly small to medium sized leaves. Overall not much character and complexity in this one.
My Pick: Wuliang, to me it have a similar level of bitterness as the Epsilon/Gamma sample (Below). However it did have a clearer presence of sheng/floral aroma along with a fresh cooling aftertaste which was the only highlight in it bearing in mind wuliang mountain is of a higher altitude.
Level of bitterness was not as strong as Delta or similar but it had a strong presence on the tongue. Not much aroma present.
Size of brewed leaves are medium to big.
My Pick: Although my pick is Banzhang, it did not stand out hands up as a banzhang. (Read on to Gamma)
Mellow, medium broth which have a strong bitterness not just on the surface of the tongue but also on the roof of the mouth with slightly more aroma than Epsilon. The broth is much darker and this should be due to the use of aged maocha for pressing (Refer to pic of broth color above)
My Pick: Bulang. From my limited experience, I observed that this is the difference between Bulang and Banzhang. The degree of aroma, body, mellowness.
I believe this and Banzhang would have some cha qi in it but did not have the chance to experience that since I did not go through the entire session of the brew.
Overall it was a great experience, I enjoy yiwu the most among the samples. Youle is a bit thin but makes a nice drink for those who like young sheng.
Here are my notes to share, copied from my blog (http://puerhcollection.blogspot.com/)
Refer to it for photos.
Ratio of 10g to 100ml gaiwan is used.
Same gaiwan, same water, same person, different samples. The frog is the witness.
Alpha:
Loose compression with some loose leaves, very slightly moist and not entirely crispy leaves. Floral aroma with a sweet aftertaste that lasted a while. Slight bitterness which was acceptable with no astrigency. Typical broth and character of the yiwu region.
Broth is not thick but its quite reasonable if compared to yiwu material of recent years which seems to be thinner than those from the pass decade.
Some medium sized whole leaves mixed with some bits of leaves. Enjoyable sheng.
My Pick: A distinct Yiwu character
Beta
Very loose leaves with a light floral aroma.First impression was similar to yiwu, weaker huigan and much thinner broth. Low to medium level of bitterness which stayed without much transformation and without astrigency. Slight smokiness but still quite easy to drink.
A few overly roasted leaves could be found in the brewed leaves which could be the cause of smokiness (Centre Leave in the pic above). There's a bud with 4 leaves and some with 1 and 2. Overall, not as balanced and consistent as I would like for collecting.
My Pick: Youle
Delta
Medium to tight compression.Another floral sheng aroma with a fresh, cooling aftertaste, medium to strong level of bitterness which just disappeared. Broth is thin.
Again, some slightly overly roasted leaves are observed, mostly small to medium sized leaves. Overall not much character and complexity in this one.
My Pick: Wuliang, to me it have a similar level of bitterness as the Epsilon/Gamma sample (Below). However it did have a clearer presence of sheng/floral aroma along with a fresh cooling aftertaste which was the only highlight in it bearing in mind wuliang mountain is of a higher altitude.
Epsilon
Tightly compressed chucks with few loose pieces.Level of bitterness was not as strong as Delta or similar but it had a strong presence on the tongue. Not much aroma present.
Size of brewed leaves are medium to big.
My Pick: Although my pick is Banzhang, it did not stand out hands up as a banzhang. (Read on to Gamma)
Gamma
Medium compression with some loose leaves.Mellow, medium broth which have a strong bitterness not just on the surface of the tongue but also on the roof of the mouth with slightly more aroma than Epsilon. The broth is much darker and this should be due to the use of aged maocha for pressing (Refer to pic of broth color above)
My Pick: Bulang. From my limited experience, I observed that this is the difference between Bulang and Banzhang. The degree of aroma, body, mellowness.
I believe this and Banzhang would have some cha qi in it but did not have the chance to experience that since I did not go through the entire session of the brew.
Hobbes: Have you created the location for us to put our reviews? I'd like to upload/input mine and start reading what the folks not from B&B had to say.
Yes indeed - I've been posting articles at the Half-Dipper as promised.
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
