Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Marco’s 2021 Blind Tasting Delta

Oh notorious Delta… why have you such a bad rep these days???

Dry leaves smell of very smoky pine like odour.  There are still some hairy with tipped smallish leaves which look maybe 5 ish ? years old

The first infusion has a surprisingly light watery almost fruity viscus body to it.  It has a smoky & meaty finish to it with slight cooling.  Overall watery and light with meaty smoke.

The second infusion has a watery smokey liquid that has a faint hard to pin down not that sweet plum taste.  The mouthfeel is a bit viscus then fades to a drier mouthfeel with only a faint throat opening that leaves a smoky finish on the mouth.  There is some faint bodyfeelings that I notice early on- little things here and there but nothing substantive.

The third infusion has a smoky pine watery flat taste with a faint touch of caramel.  There are some bodyfeels that manifest as faint face twitching and tingling.  There is an incense finish to the taste that makes it seem older that it feels initially.  I’m getting the sense that this is older and perhaps Taiwanese stored.  The mouthfeel is faintly viscus initially then fades to a thin dryness.  There is a faintly but powerful floating mind sensation going on with this Qi.  The tastes are really separate, watery and loose feeling. Can feel a body easing feeling with some Heart racing.  It feels a touch like a factory tea but also a bit like a gushu.  Maybe a special production?  I’m leaning towards Xiaguan but could be Menghai Factory. It’s a unique feeling tea that is hard for me to place.  Definitely Menghai region puerh though. Something about the clear separate taste and clear storage reminds me vaguely of Wistaria productions as well.



The fourth infusion has a woody varnish like sweet woody surgery taste.  The taste is more condensed here with woody, slightly-moderate smoky especially in the finish.  There is a rolling faint creamy sweetness that fades into the breath nothing but smoke in the aftertaste.  The bodyfeelings are quite strong with this puerh as I have a strong pounding Heart now and tingling limbs and even my respiration is impacted.  My limbs have a tingling feeling and my head feels floaty.  Qi is really really strong.  This puerh is really about this strong Qi.

The fifth infusion has a faint sweetness onset with faint woody pine and smoke.  The tastes are all quite separate.  They come over a faint weak dry mouthfeeling and not much in the throat.  The finish that comes out of these tastes is a long thin candy taste.  The bodyfeeling is in the face, limbs, chest.  Floating mind qi feeling.

The sixth infusion has a smoke and woody pine simple and kind of empty flavor.  There is a subtle sweetness to it.  Strong Qi beats the heart.  Strong mind floating.

The seventh is much the same.  The flavor and aroma is very loose, light, and simple but the Qi is strong and engaging.  Woody pine, moderate smoke, long faint caramel sweet finish that fades out.  Strong face and limb reactions.  Intense Heart racing.  The cooled down remainder of the cup is quite woody-candy sweet but the taste is crisp and narrow.

The eighth infusion has a watery woody onset with less smoke and an emerging faint sweet incense finish.  The taste is really thin here.  The mouthfeeling is a very thin dryness.   The Qi is less strong as well as this puerh has really dropped off quite a bit.  There is still a floating spacy feeling that is pretty strong and a limb lightness type of feeling.

The ninth infusion has an incense onset which holds as the main taste throughout and just kind of fades away.  The Qi is still big and floats and sedates the mind.  There is glimpse of candy faint in the aftertaste under woody incense.  Heart opening feeling is strong.  Strong incense core tells me this puerh was dry stored for quite a while possibly sealed.  I re-evaluate the age of this puerh to be older than my earlier suspicions.

The 10th infusions is much more of the above incense, strong Qi, subtle candy hard to grasp faint aftertaste.  Thin dry mouhfeeling not much for throat feeling or stimulation.

11th are quite watery and insipid with only a faint incense and faint barely sweet finish over a dry mouth.  Strong sedating Qi now starts to really take hold of my mind.

12th I steep for 20 seconds to see if I can push some other tastes out without getting to much dry mouth.,, the result is a more condensed pine woody slight smoky taste with some faint cooling in the mouth over a increasingly dry mouthfeeling.  Big floating and sedating qi.  Strong bodyfeeling and Heart beats.  Faint long candy cooling and incense finish.

13th I put in a long infusion here… left to cool its quite woody sweet with a bit of a cooling numbness in the mouth.  The Qi has really backed me into a corner here and I feel quite docile and useless totally groggy under the spell of this puerh. A very strong downer Qi!

I push out another long one before ending things it tastes of woody varnish faint coolness faint bitter dryness.



Overall, I’m a bit unsure of this one… the taste is very simple and uncomplicated there are only really a few clear spaced out notes that emerge- wood pine, smoke, some sweetness(caramel rarely appears, sometimes a faint short candy finish), and a stronger incense core.  This one is really about the really big Qi and bodyfeelings- strong floating mind, sedating, and in the end I feel quite useless- like caught in a vat of pudding.  The bodyfeelings are intense with strong Heart sensations, limb and face tingling, and limb floating.  The Qi is really very powerful. 

Guess: It is mainly dryer stored, I think, maybe sealed and 8-15 years old ish.  It has a powerful Menghai area feel to it. In some ways this feels like a factory production and in some ways it feels like more than that. Hummm…. Not to sure about this one.  For some strange reason Marco’s take on my Alpha sample sounds a lot like this Delta sample… eerie…

Peace

Today I am drinking mug infusions of the spent leaves and they have a sweet plum and incense note, slight wood with a cooling menthol finish.  There is an incense and bitter coco aftertaste that lingers.  These mug infusions puts this age at early 2000s, maybe Xiaguan?

Peace

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