Saturday, August 22, 2020

Marco’s Blind Tasting Beta (2004 Teas We Like Twelve Cent Brick)


Dry leaves compressed in a loose brick smell of sweet slight mesquite bbq smoke with an underlying sweetness.

First infusion has a sour pond onset with salty tastes upfront.   There is a mild cooling on the breath and a bland almost mushroom aftertaste.  The mouthfeel is a sticky almost sandy full feeling on the tongue.

The second infusion has a fruity pear sour fruity onset that arrives in a juicy explosion.  There are some salty mid-tastes and moderate smoke.  The cooling rides out pear tastes in the throat.  The liquor has a nice juicy viscus feel and is balanced by a smokey middle.  The mouthfeeling is pretty full and the throat has a faint mid- throat opening feeling.  There is an interesting contrast of sensation and flavours immediately apparent in this puerh.  I can feel the Qi building in the chest.  This feels like Northern puerh to me.

The third infusion has a juicy thick somewhat sour fruity taste with underlying smoke.  There is a vanilla bean and salty mid-taste that is left in the mouth.  The tongue is a fine sandy full stickiness and the throat opens deeply.  There are some sunflower seed tastes, soft smoke, almost a creamy sweet but mainly sour fruity tastes.  There is an interesting balance and mix of tastes in this puerh brick.  A nice chesty Qi is developing.  I like the full and contrasting taste and feel of this puerh a lot.

The fourth infusion has a thick fruity velvety smoky almost sour pear a bit of a creamy but mainly dense smoky kind of apricot sweetness.  There are some salty and smoky tastes.  The presentation is thick in taste and the mouthfeeling is also quite full with a sandy sticky full mouthfeeling and slight open throat.  I feel happy and harmonious sitting with this Qi.

The fifth infusion has a smoky, dense fruity onset with some sour fruit coming out with salty savory flavors.  The effect is salivating and saliva producing in the mouth.  There is some faint coolness in the mid throat and a resulting creamy sweetness that turns into a sour fruitiness all over a thin smoky veil.  The salivating and sweet with slight smoky and sour gives this puerh wide and diverse breadth of taste experience.  It feels really smooth in the body and in the mind.  It has a kind of harmonizing Qi with a very mild and soothing bodyfeeling.  I really like the taste and feel of this puerh.  Its engaging but harmonious and not overly confusing or busy, both simple but complex.  A blend of tastes and energies that works quite well together.

The sixth infusion has a sliky smooth sweetness that develops into a sour fruity taste then to a very mild coco slight bitter nuance.  There is some salty taste that is kicked up.  Then a faint deep pungent pushes out some creamy sweetness, almost caramel, along with smoke.  The taste almost reminds me of smoky salted caramel candy… so tasty. The saliva just fills the mouth and throat and gives this puerh a very full and satisfying mouthfeeling and sensation.  The Qi has faint sensations on the face and scalp and feels very comfortable in the body.  This puerh is very nice.

Seventh infusion has a rich salted caramel sweetness.  There are some dense fruits and creamy sweetness, faint smoke, salty savoriness.  With a strong saliva producing effect.  The taste is extremely good, it’s a brilliant balance of sweet, sour, salty, faint bitter, bland.  There is a longer cool throat pungency with a stronger returning sweetness.  This is the type of smokiness that is mild and only adds to the taste never detracting from it.  The Qi is really harmonious and gives me a nice feeling of wellness and balance and focus.  There are some faint bodyfeelings in the scalp, head, and face a very mild open chest feeling. 

The eighth infusion starts with a creamy fruity taste. The sour taste is almost gone and it leaves a more creamy fruity sweetness.  There is some forsty almost green tastes but this infusion is less salty, sour, bitter and is mainly a creamy fruity almost faint spearmint finish in the throat with a sticky mouthfeeling and tongue coating.  The last few infuisons have a kind of forest freshness, almost spearmint finish to them.  There is less salivation here.  Good happy harmonious Qi in the body and mind.

The ninth infusion has a sour, sweet taste, with a creamy sweet finish and a foresty body.  There is a spearmint coolness with a bit of sweet cream at the end.  The taste and mouthfeeling have really dropped off in the last few infusions leaving simple tastes behind.  The mouthfeel is more watery but there is still lots of faint throat simulation but none of that intense salivating sensation. 

The 10th has a juicy slightly sour fruity and creamy sweet onset.  There is a forest middle taste then a faint throaty spearmint that expands the creamy sweetness.  The aftertaste of this puerh is weaker here and is mainly just mild creamy sweetness.  Mouthfeel is more of a flat slippery.

The 11th has a creamy mild flat bitter coco finish.  That coco taste kind of runs into a faint spearmint throatiness and expands into a coco somewhat forest bitter finish.  The salivation effect, fullness in the mouth, and thick mouthfeeling has diminished but the deeper mild throat feeling has held nicely here.

The 12th has a flat forest bitter not really that coco taste but more bland forest kind of thing.  There is a nice cool spearment that develops in the aftertaste with some barely creamy sweetness.

The 13th is much the same but a bit more coco.  Even with just the coco bitter onset with spearmint throat and some forest creamy sweet finish.  Some cereal toasted grains show up in the aftertaste.  It’s still decently enjoyable.  I push it with a 20 second beyond flash steeping…

The 14th has an almost licorice sweetness to it with a woody base taste, slight cooling throat, flat finish… I put this one in the mug to grandpa steep out…

The wet leaves are still greenish and pretty small and tightly rolled…

The mug steepings are quite salty with a bit of bitter and a bit of cooling throat.  There is some veiled sweetness under the bitter but mainly salty and bitter…  Interesting….

The overnight steeping yields very sweet fruity juicy tastes upfront with less bitter and cooling and salt but a more obvious smoke but faint smoke which is a beautiful contrast to the vibrant fruitiness.

This seems like a nice balanced and engaging Jinggu blend to me, could be other Northern area but has a Jinggu feel to it.  This actually reminds me a lot of how the 2020 white2tea Mirage could taste like 6-8 years down the road.  I like this brick a lot.

The fact that this puerh is a young semi-aged, possibly Northern, possibly Jinggu material, or at least blended region with a bit of smoke it might be something that could be had for a reasonable price but hit way above the price especially if this is a white label offering.  I hope that it is and that Teas We Like can bring this in because I really think it’s something that is relatively rare in the Western puerh market and a very enjoyable experience that a lot would enjoy.  On the other hand it has the possibility of being something expensive priced exclusively on the tea experience it offers.  If this happens to be their Twelve Cent Brick and I’m way off on the age assessment, and it is just really dry stored then its value is 2-2.5X more than the price it sells for!

Guess: 5-8 years blended possibly Northern, possibly Jinggu, or multi region blended brick. Twelve Cent brick?

Answer: 2004 Teas We Like Twelve Cent Brick
Peace


No comments:

Post a Comment