Famous Puerh in the West: 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang

 

As stated in the comments here, this puerh is sort of historical in the West.  Like many puerh that have become popularized in Western puerh lore, it had an early fresh off the press release from Houde.  I remember when it was first released and the stir that it created with the early online puerh community.  As I stated in the comments of an introductory post on this puerh, 

it’s historical in the West because you get all these super famous puerh people/ bloggers trying to decipher something that no one really has much experience with- Phil Sheng, Vlad, Thomas (Tou Cha Tea), Hobbes (The Half-Dipper), Marshal’N.

Here we have, at the time, one of the first exposures to 1- very fresh Gushu puerh 2- Autumnal production 3- cleverly marketed and at the time crazy expensive Boutique Branding 4- a new an exciting area called Gua Feng Zhi.

There are two main sources that you can still access that give you an idea of the initial response to this 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang (Autumn) Yiwu Chawang.  One is from the famous Hobbes of the Half-Dipper Blog.  Hobbes and Marshal’N, the most old school drinkers/ Bloggers at this time, really dig their heals in and you can see the resistance to this new way of puerh in the comments.  Also you can see that Hobbes does give this one a 7/10.  The main criticism of this one is the price which was $80.00 for a whole cake which was at the higher price bracket at this time, unheard of just a few years before.  Globally, this was at the very peak of the puerh bubble before it crashed so there were many discussions about if a certain puerh was actually worth its price.

The other way hype was spread for this 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang was through a comparison tasting of another 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Yiwu also released at Houde- the 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yecha.  The comparison tasting was organized on Puerh Live Journal by the grandfather himself Marshal’N with famous puerh people Phil Sheng and Davelcorp with detailed contributions among others.  The Yecha is a wild tea and was selling for much less and was not as well received as the Chawang.  If fact, the Yecha is still available for purchase at Houde.

The good soul that he is, Hobbes of the Half-Dipper, sent me some unsolicited leftover Chen Guang-He Tang Houde samples around a year later.  One of these was the 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Yecha.  However, I never did try the Chawang… at the time I thought the prices of the puerh at Houde was mad.  I was spending my money on $20-40 cakes.

As far as I understand from these early reviews this tea had good potential.  It sounds like it had fairly good processing with tightly rolled leaves, a nice somewhat bitter backbone, strong Qi, and some old school smoke.  Then take that knowledge with a preferred storage option coming from Daniel (aka Old Man, a source from Puerh.uk which I have a handful of puerh) and the offer to get exclusive access to such things seem pretty hard for me to resist.  This 2006 Chen Guang-He Autumn Yiwu Chawang sold out at $375.00 for 357g cake or $1.05/g but 25g samples of these cakes are now on offer at Puerh.uk for those who are interested in a bit of puerh history…

Dry leaves smell of delicious mouthwatering sweet tobbacco leaves.  It’s a sweet smelling smoke that a lot of Yiwu would smell like from around this era… I like it.

First infusion has a fruity sweet watery smoke woody with a long cool breath.  The sweet taste see is almost banana and melon and there is a slight mesquite BBQ taste.  Nice mouthwatering mouthfeel with subtle sandy roof of mouth.  Instant deep sigh relaxing and notacable head floating spaciness.

Second infusion has a fruity sweet onset with a woody smoke BBQ finish.  There is a mouthwatering effect along with some sticky roof of mouth and cool breath.  Strong sigh relaxing Qi with arms light and chest sensations.

Third infusion has a sweet melon potato mild watery onset with mouthwatering mouthfeeling underlying BBQ mesquite.  There is a sticky sandy mouthfeel with done deep throat simulation and long cool throat.  Stronger spacy relaxing qi with light limbs and chest.

Fourth infusion has an oily fruity melon woody sweet taste. There is a long cooling breath and faint smoke now with sticky squeaky gums and roof.  Bready melon sweet aftertaste gives a slow returning taste.  Really clear flavours.  Strong spacy Qi with chest radiating and energy down arms.  There is a deep throat sensation where the after taste of bread and sweet melon lingers minutes later.  Strong Qi is nice- the chest has deep but strong beats and the mind is clear and relaxed spaced out some body floating.  Slight warming energy.

Fifth infusion has a somewhat oily mouthwatering sweet melon bready woody onset with faint smoke underneath.  The mouthfeel is becoming slight drying lips dry with roof and gums sandy squeaky.  Strong complex Qi- energized but spacy limbs light chest radiant and warming. Cool breath. Long deep aftertaste minutes later of sweet woody bready melon.  

Sixth infusion has a watery woody onset with subtle incense smoke some warming spice faintly bitter.  None to little sweet onset now with a sticky dry mouthfeeling and deep throat feeling.  There still is that returning sweetness but much less mainly sweet woody bready now.  Strong complex Qi.  

Seventh is a long thermos steeping… I take a sip a few hours later and it has a bitterness and woody taste up front with a sweetness underneath.  There is a deep throat stimulation with a long blueberry/Strawberry jam like sweetness that lingers.

The next morning the taste is a light sugary almost melon sweetness with saliva gobs and returning creamy chalky sweet taste there is some sandy sticky mouthfeeling with deep throat stimulation and solid lingering returning sweetness.  There is a creamy sweet almost berries after taste which lingers on the chalky tough coating and into the deep throat.  Full feeling and sweet in this overnight infusion of spent leaves.  Aftertaste lingers minutes later in the throat and saliva.

Did this puerh turn out to be amazing after such a long wait?!??!? I’m not sure about that but it is pretty good and has some great qualities that I look forward to in puerh- old school sweet Yiwu, smoke clear Gua Feng Zhai character long sweet taste, nice strong transforming Qi and bodyfeeling.

Vs 2006 Yang Qing Hao Chawangshu-  I dragged this one years ago mainly because I was quite disappointed with what Yang’s processing and storage did to this one.  The 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang has much better storage and processing.  It shows of the Gua Feng Zhai profile nicely especially in the first infusions also is bitter which the Yang Qing Hao is not.  The Qi of the Yang Qing Hao is so so much better though and the reason I have already drank through a cake- strong euphoria and body feeling.  

Alex’s Recent Tasting Notes on this storage option

Peace