There is a bit of confusion coming from TeasWeLike about the storage options on this solid 2001 Red Ribbon. So I’m going to give it a try here…
I believe this is the first storage option offered on this 2001 Red Ribbon ($188.00 for 357g cake or $0.53/g) from TeasWeLike. This first 2001 Red Ribbon storage offering sold out reasonably fast when it was first offered, I believe, after a favourable review on TeaDB. It took a long while to restock.
I purchased and reviewed the second storage option of this cake two years ago. Initially it was described on the site as a Natural Malaysian stored cake and it’s really did mainly have this vibe. However, later it was revealed that it was stored in Hongkong the first 5 years the same as the first storage option/offering but was then stored in more dry stored Malaysian conditions for 15 years vs the first option which was more humidly stored. I am a bit surprised that the “2001 Red Ribbon Natural Malaysian Storage” had Hongkong storage on it as well. I think this cake had this very present teak woody resin taste to it that I define as very strong Natural Malaysian character. Looking back at my notes there are also nutty notes that are often found in HongKong storage. Interestingly the wetter cake is quite different…
First infusion has a woody dirt almond nut taste. Nutty almost metallic taste with a slippery slight drying mouthfeeling and faint coolness in the breath.
Second infusion has a woody but mainly nutty taste of almonds. There is some lesser dirt taste but nice strong rich nutty taste. Some faint cooling with a slight dry mouthfeel.
Third infusion is left to cool and has a rich woody nutty dirt taste with an almost slippery but mainly sticky dry mouthfeeling. Full mouthfeel. Deep chesty feeling with alertness and heart beats. Overall rich aged feeling.
Fouth infusion has a woody nutty dirt taste. Nice mouth watering feeling with a slight dry gripping slippery feel with very faint cool breath.
5th is a nutty woody dirt. There is some sweet returning taste. Stick dry mouthfeeling. Strong mind alerting and warming qi.
6th has a watery woody sweet taste less nutty now and less dirt the mouthfeel is at first watery/slippery but becomes dry gripping. Faint cool breath. Warming face qi with some deep heart beats and energetic feeling.
7th is put into a long thermos steeping and gives off a sweet slightly syrupy woody dirt rich taste with a subtle talc sweet cherry returning sweetness. There is a bit of bitter gripping feeling but not overwhelming which gives it presence in the mouth. Chest beats with energetic feeling.
8th is an overnight thermos and gives off a mainly sweet slightly woody dirt with a mild mouthwatering feeling.
Vs 2001 Red Ribbon Natural Malaysian Storage- is more teal woody resin with almost candy finish where the wetter storage bings out a lot of dirt tastes, nuttier tastes, not as woody, but more plum cherry talc sweetness. They are both pretty satisfying aged puerh and I don’t know which I would prefer… but I do know that the purity and straightforwardness of the woody teak flavour resin is something that I don’t have in the puerhs I have so I finished that cake in about a year … haha
Peace
2 comments:
I'm drinking the "Natural Malaysian Storage" one at work as I type this! I could be wrong but I don't think the Malaysian storage on it was dryer than the other one... I think the 5 years of Hong Kong storage was in a dryer storage compared to the other version.
Steely J,
Cheers!
There is a bit of confusion about these two partly due to the descriptions and corrections on the TeasWeLike site. The correction makes it clear they both underwent 5 years of Hongkong storage then were both store in Malaysia by the same collector. The site now states that the Natural Malaysian Storage cake was under drier storage than the other.
However, I totally understand your logic and thinking that the first release was drier stored because it has retained much more of the Hongkong storage character. It’s just that more humid Malaysian storage is a very aggressive storage and the excessive humidity and heat must have kept the humid feel of the first release. The drier natural Malaysian storage would have pushed the puerh into a less Hongkong feeling end state.
Peace
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