Tuesday, May 5, 2020

2017 Tea Urchin Xiang Chun Lin vs 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin


I have sampled a decent amount of Tea Urchin stuff but have not decided on how to post it yet.  I have posted some before here but I have tired much more.  Thought I would start with a few interesting comparison posts between similar areas and close year Tea Urchin and Zheng Si Long productions in the next few posts.  This one is from a puerh tea producing area that was newly introduced to me by this 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin.  I purchased a cake on it own merits but had not had a chance for cross comparisons of the area  Xiang Chun Lin is a newer sub category area of Yiwu near the boarder.  This Tea Urchin 2017 Xiang Chun Lun goes for $75.00 for 200g cake ($0.38/g) vs 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin which now goes for $202.03 for 400g cake ($0.51/g).

The dry leaf smells of delicious orchid florals layered in rainforest and sweet high-noted honey slight peach.  There is a deeper lingering note of deep forest.  The dry leaves smell very nice.

First infusion has a light icing sugar sweetness to it.  It is very sweet like pastry with a very faint forest base taste.  The long icing sugar taste stretches in to the breathe.  The mouthfeeling is slippery and there are some florals lingering in the throat as well as some faint spice.  The pastry sweetness is dominant and throughtout the profile.

The second infusion has a mushroom and melon onset with layers of light honey and pastry sweet cake that follows.  The taste has a mineral note to it as well underneath as well as a rainforest like base taste.  The mouthfeel is just a ghostly astringent and mildly sticky in the mouth the throat really seems to open to a mid-level letting in this deeper floral nuance.  The Qi is immediately spacy and I can feel my heart beat.  There is a calm alertness in here.

The third starts with a honey sweet, with a layers of forest a returning melon and wildflower sweetness.  The creamy pastry sweetness is long in the throat and goes on for a while.  The Qi is nice and strong in the head.  The lips are sticky and the mouthfeeling is sticky and pasty feeling.  The throat opens to a mid- to deep opening where high notes of melon, florals, honey and mainly pastry sweetness resides.  There is a spicy cinnamon nuance lingering throughout.  The Qi is decently big in the chest the mind feel free and a bit spacy high.  The Qi is notable here.

The fourth infusion starts off with a melon, honey, and candy floss like sweetness.  The Qi is nice and big and makes me feel high.  The mouthfeeling is quite sticky/pasty/slippery.  The throat feeling is stimulated and deep.  The underlying tastes are of spice and forest and incense but this puerh shines with its nuanced and complex high notes.  The Qi is nice and strong more alerting now.

The fifth infusion is more incense with fruity melon and honey layers.  There is a foresty spicy woody incense taste the pastry sweetness is less now but still lingers.  The sweet and highnoted floral notes are almost equal to a foresty incense spicy cinnamon note.  The pastry sweetness is more in the returning sweetness.  The Qi is strong enough to break me into a sweet.  The mouthfeel is more a slightly drying sandy stickiness now.

The sixth infusion has a sticky mouthfeeling with icing sugar and pastry returning after a few back to back infusions.  There are foresty and almost incense notes under the stronger pastry notes.  The Qi has a stoner like effect on my mind.

The seventh has this velvety sweet taste that is almost cake and pastry and almost candy with a rich forest base.  The sweet taste continues to be long and satisfying.  The tastes feel more congealed here.  The Qi continues to be pretty relaxing as well as alerting.

The 8th has a chocolate cake note.  The taste is real nice creamy very sweet and now a bit coco and richness with some faint spice, melon, forest notes.  The throat feeling is pretty deep.  The relaxing stoner feeling is very nice.

9th is more coco upfront with a sweet cake taste that tastes real nice.  The mouthfeelig is slippery and barely dry sticky.  The taste is stone mineral, rich and deepening now with notes of spice, incense, forest, faint floral mainly coco and cake.  The Qi speeds the heart. 

10th is becoming more coco bitter and stone mineral tasting the sweet cake is less but the mineral and a incense is still there.  

The 11th has a bittery onset with an almost sour astringency over dark coco nuance and layered forest and incense tastes.  There is a berry fruit note that seems to come out of the astringency and bitter.  The mouthfeelig is starting to be astringent.  The heart races.

The 12th infusion has more of a berry mild bitter coco taste with forest, incense, deep faint cooling throat.  Astringent mouthfeeling.

13th presents with a woody drier astringency with a dry woody taste.  The 14th is dry tight astringent and bitter with a coco berry taste and the mouthfeeling becomes drying here and puckering astringency.

I put this into an overnight infusion next to the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin. 

This Xiang Chun Lin tastes and feels more like a Man Zhuan or Wa Long puerh than a border tea/ Wan Gong thing that is the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin.  This 2017 Tea Urchin Xiang Chun Lin has an interesting progression through the infusions with sweet in the first and bitter astringency in the later.  This is a decent puerh with an interesting change of profile as it goes through the infusions.  The 2018 Zheng Si Long has deeper play of floral and light and fruity tastes and a longer stamina, it is the more elegant of the two in taste.  Still need to try more from the Xiang Chun Lin region to see its character- I would have pegged this 2017 Tea Urchin as Wa Long, I think.

The Qi of both of these is quite big the 2017 Tea Urchin might even be a tiny bit stronger as it produces a stoner effect in the mind and a body feel in the chest.  The Qi of the 2018 Zheng Si Long is more complex in the body and mind and has a very relaxing but altering acuity effect on the mind, dizzying at times, spacy and clarity, and also has a body feeling in the chest.

Peace

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