2006 Yang Qing Hao Blended Brick: Golden Flower Spores Puerh Brick

There are yellow “Golden Flower” flecks throughout my sample of this 2006 Yang Qing Hao Blended Brick ($70.00 for 250g brick or $0.28/g ).  I remember once seeing it on a puerh cake in Korea many many years ago but never again.  Golden Flower spores are usually just found on Fu Heicha bricks but its rare to see vendors selling them on puerh.  You can see them if you look closely at the photo.  Dry leaf smells of a distant hay- and dry grass-like sweetness with subtle decomposing leaf and hay storage odour.  I find it interesting that there are golden flower spores on this cake but not on any other Yang Qing Hao cakes to my knowledge.  This makes me wonder if this puerh brick was stored somewhere else? Or maybe it was stored by someone else? Or maybe deliberately in a different manner? Or was it a storage experiment by Yang? Or perhaps because this brick was only released for sale recently and is apparently a random janitor’s mix of leftover 2006 material pressed into a brick- it was somehow forgotten or neglected in Yang’s storage only to be newly discovered??? All the hypotheses are amusing for me to think of… and I wonder how it will differ, if at all, from the typical and much bemused “Yang storage”? 

To my knowledge there is no tasting notes on this one so far…

First infusion has an onset of hay and grass with a soft moving barely creamy sweetness.  There is a fluffy aftertaste and a subtle astringent tartness.  There is a bread like almost sourdough aftertaste that is a bit funky.

The second infusion has a hay and dry grass onset with creamy like almost bread like sweetness that rolls with a lingering cool aftertaste.  The mouthfeeling is sandy and almost pulling.  There is just faint suggestions of astringency but mainly hay, grassy, creamy not to sweet and bread-like taste with a touch of pungency.

The third infusion has an almost woody-cherry kind of wine like suggestion over hay and dry grassy base there is a faint-hard to taste menthol on the breath and a bread and fallen leaf finish.  The mouthfeel feel is taught and almost sandy.  The throatfeeling is stimulated mildly in the upper throat with the tautness.  The Qi is mild so far.

The fourth infusion has a wine taste at on onset and throughout like almost like fermented grapes and slight oak barrel nuance.  There is an elegant richness, subtle fruity suggestion that appears almost a nutty finish.  There is a fallen leaves and red wine like taste in this infusion.  The mouthfeeling is sticky and slightly taught.  The upper throat is stimulated and there is a very ghostly menthol there is a subtle sour fruity taste in the finish.  The Qi is mild with a subtle spaciness.  There is a candy like sweetness that is hard to grasp.

…It seems like the first few infusions have a bit of a more funky/bready kind of storage taste but I believe its still a part of Yang storage although a touch different…

The fifth infusion starts with a red wine onset with subtle oak barrel.  There is a nuttiness, fruitiness, woodiness, leafy-ness, and dry grass and hay.  The complexity starts to appear in these infusion.  The mouthfeel becomes more simulating and full and the throat feeling starts to get to upper –mid depth.  The finish is of mild faint breath menthol with wood and sour fruits.  There is a mild astringency throughout.  The Qi is starting to feel spacy in the mind and release the mid back.

The sixth infusion has a woody, fallen leaf, almost wine like onset with sour fruits and menthol woods in the finish.  There is a almost bread tastes, dry wood and fallen wood tastes.  A few minutes later is a faint candy-like finish that come and goes and is easy to miss on the breath.  It pops a few times over the span of a minute or so.  The mouthfeel is sticky and slight tight not quite dry.  The throat opens to a upper-mid.  The Qi builds up.

7^th has a stronger woody, leaf onset with a deeper almost light syrup sweetness.  The sweetness, darker/deeper woodiness, and richness are more apparent here.  There is a longer camphor taste as well.  This infusion feels like a solid autumn material is blended in here although it seems spring material is also in the mix.  This seventh infusion finally develops a depth and fullness that this puerh has lacked until now.  The brick must be loosing compression and leaves opening up.  There is a layer of fruity almost tart fruity tastes that form the base taste over deeper notes.  There is a returning breath of camphor and faint candy that is hard to grasp over a woody deep flavor.

8^th has a creamy sweet deep woody onset.  The returning sweetness is starting to develop more complex presentation in the aftertaste.  This infusion is a balance between deeper woody, and lighter creamy sweetness.  The aftertaste is showing subtle signs of florals, sour fruits, leaf and deeper mid-aged notes, long lingering candy.  The Qi is mild and relaxing.  There is a subtle astringent woody note throughout.  The mouthfeeling is sticky and taut. 

9^th has a sweeter creamy onset with wood underneath.  The sweetness is featured in these last few infusions but there is still some astringency and lots of depth faintly lingering under the woody and creamy sweet.  This infusion has that long candy finish.  The lips seem dry.  The Qi is relaxing, mild and makes the head feel a bit floating now.

10^th starts with a rich almost nutty woody robust taste that develops a significant undercurrent of creamy sweetness which expands in the upper-mid throat and streams in the aftertaste and breath.  There are some florals, fruits, sour, astringency, but mainly the creamy sweet is noted.  The sweetness is becoming longer and longer on the breath. The Qi is steady in the mind and makes me feel level but subtle bodying feelings are starting to develop like scalp tingling, chest release, subtle Hear beats, limbs numbing, nose numb, a bit interesting.

11^th has a roasty almost woody and grass/hay sweet onset with a subtle undercurrent of almost berries fruit and subtle creaminess.  This infusion is showing some different fruity and almost wheat tastes and less woody and creamy sweetness.  The mouthfeeling is taut and makes the lips dry.  Qi is building behind eyes.

12^th has a velvety wine and fruity layered onset with wood barks before a subtle under toe of wood and hay there is an expanse sweetness in the throat, breath and aftertaste.  Qi is almost dizzying mild but doing lots.

13^th has lots of creamy sweetness with a woodier approach.  There is a wine note that comes initially with creamy layers of sweetness.  There is a subtle suggestion of fruit, florals, hay, leaf.  Mainly sweet overall with a finish of wood and long candy sweetness.

14^th has a oaky, almost wine like onset with a blackberry fruit suggestion.  It is over a woody and leaf base.  There is a wood very faint astringency with creamy sweet balance in this brick.  The mouthfeeling is chalky dry taut.  There are more fruity tastes that seem to come with more astringency.  Complex dark, woody, fruity, creamy presentation.

15^th has a creamy rich sweet approach with woods underneath.  There are faint suggestions at florals and blackberries but mainly a rich sweetness is dominant and turns to a creamy light candy finish over semiaged woody notes.  The mouthfeeling is sticky taut but never drying and has a very subtle astringency that pulls the aftertaste along.

16^th has a sweet fruit onset with some woody and creamy sweetness underneath.  There is a soft fallen leaf and woody base over some long creamy sweet finish.  The finish is long.  The mouthfeel is sticky and tight stimulating the upper throat.  Long breath creamy finish.  Qi is mild with some face, limbs, and chest and back sensations.

17^th has a woody, peat, leaf onset with faint fruits and creamy sweetness underneath.  There are a bunch of faint more complex suggestions in this puerh.  Overall, the long creamy breath sweetness is reassuring.  The lips are sticky and almost dry as is the tongue and mouth.  The upper throat opens.  There is an almost raspberry taste in the aftertaste now.

18^th infusion the onset is creamy woody sweetness with subtle complexity.  The mouthfeel is what it has been throughout and is holding nicely.  The slow unfurrowing of the tightly compressed leaves gives this puerh some nice stamina.  Woody sweet with subtle floral sour fruit faintly underneath.

19^th I put into a 15 second longer infusion to see what I can push out… woody almost faint perfume… chalky almost dry mouthcoating.

I put this one into long steepings…

After about 20minutes it steeps out a very rich, woody, almost nutty, sourer, and this time quite bitter brew.  There are muted florals, subtle sour fruits, woods, leaves, not that much creamy sweetness.  A tight mouthfeeling.

Vs. 2006 Yang Qing Hao Baisuixiang… the Baisuixiang is a more full autumnal blend and is really deep and rich whereas I believe this brick has some more higher quality but sparse spring material blended in I think and has a bit of that woody deep richness of the Baisuixiang.  The Baisuixiang is not as complex as this 2006 Yang Qing Hao Blended Brick.  The blended brick has a subtle complexity which suggests that a bit of higher quality spring gushu is blended in.  I like the blended brick better than the Baisuixiang overall.

Vs 2005 Yang Qing Hao Cangliu these puerh have some similarities.  The 2005 Cangliu is overall more complex and has much more flavor complexity and change infusion to infusion.  It has a changing mouthfeeling as well.  The Cangliu is the more interesting of the two for this reason.  However, the 2006 Blended Brick has a more full, rich, and complete taste.  It also has a substantially longer sweetness and deeper aftertaste.  The complexity of the blended brick is in subtle tastes and suggests that there is small amounts of very good material in it.  The 2005 Cangliu has a much less full and complete feeling overall.

Out of these three I prefer the 2005 Yang Qing Hao Cangliu for how much dynacism it has but the 2006 Blended brick is a decent second and then the 2006 Baisuixiang is a distant third due to the more static nature and less vibrancy overall but the 2006 Baisuixiang does have a nice deep rich autumnal gushu feel to it.  All of these three would make nicedrinkers for the price.  The 2006 Blended Brick is nicely accessible at a lower price point being a 250g brick which will also be nice for those on a budget.

Peace