This was the first 7542 quarter cake set ($230.00 for approx.350 g ) available from Teas We Like which followed the sale of a full
individual cake of
Due to the length of my tasting notes I will publish each
quarter of the set individually with a ranking in the last post...
701
Dry leaves smell of woody musty odour.
First infusion has a musty mushroom hay like taste a subtle
fishy almost woody mid-profile then a vague sweet finish. Slight drying mouthfeeling and lips dryness.
Second infusion has a woody straw fishy onset with some flat
bitterness and a pop of caramel and subtle breath coolness. The mouthfeeling is a full fine sticky faint
dry pucker with dry lips. Mild alerting
energy with mild energetic Heart beats.
Third infusion has a woody herbal incense onset with some
woody almost fishy pond likely storage notes with a flat woody bitter that
returns a cooling almost coco caramel sweetness. A nice full condensed taste with full sticky
faint slight pucker dry mouthfeeling.
Nice warming alerting Qi with a sweaty face and some increase Heart
beats and increased energy boost.
The 4th infusion has a rich warming woody herbal
dense onset with a woody bitterness to it.
There is a cooling in the mouth and a caramel coco syrupy sweet
finish. The Qi is factory strong but the
storage has imparted a warming energy here.
The mouthfeeling is becoming a bit drier and gripping now- full with the
condensed tastes and alerting Qi is a solid package.\
5th infusion has a woody herbal rich dense bitter
woody onset with coolness and returning coco caramel herbal woody finish. Strong Qi quite warming here. Strong gripping mouthfeeling and even throat
gripping but not overly dry. A bitter
almost vegetal herbal taste is left in the mouth minutes later.
6th infusion has a woody incense rich almost pond
bitter strong onset. Strong Heart racing
and alerting surge of energy but still quite warming and inducing a mild
sweat. With a strong cooling mouth and
throat the bitter returns a coco than caramel and herbal kind of finish. Lips, mouth, throat are a bit dry and
simulated.
7th infusion has a woody mushroom hay rich
bitterness with some cooling mouth and coco caramel finish. There is a full dry gripping mouthfeeling and
strong alerting Qi. Some herbal finish
in the mouth. Some mouthwatering saliva
that the dry throat pushes out.
8th is left to cool but gives off a rich woody
herbal bitter coco incense the sweetness is more pronounced with the coolness
in the aftertaste but with still lots of woody herbal taste, some caramel in
the finish.
9th has a woody rich herbal bitter onset with
some cooling mouth coco and caramel taste.
Strong Qi and sweeting. Nice full
dry mouthfeeling.
10th infusion has a rich woody coco-bitter-wood
taste. Strong Qi heart racing. Tastes
stronger and more intense than the 2010 7542 at TeasWeLike. Lots of rich coco sweetness coming out
now. Strong invigorating Qi.
11th infusion has a strong rich coco onset
bitter-coco-woody slight creamy sweetness like coco. Nice engaging mouthfeeling on lips, throat,
tongue. Strong Qi.
12th I come back to the teapot the next day and
there is a cup of cold tea left in the cup from the 12th
infusion. The overnight cup is
surprisingly fruity sweet with distinct watermelon candy notes being the
strongest with some faint bitterness and a creamy sweet fresher fruity
body. This surprised me a lot. The mouthfeeling more of a mild full chalky.
13th infusion comes right from the hot tea pot
and has a fresh fruity taste to it mainly with creamy fruity watermelon, candy,
and passionfruit tastes. There is a tiny
bit of cooling and some faint background woodiness. The mouthfeeling is now chalkier. With a longer creamy fruity aftertaste. Not any bitter or woody or herbal or coco in
these next day infusions.
14th has a soapy floral sweet creamy custard
berry taste to it. Quite sweet and
creamy. Has a herbal woody base to it
with mild bitterness and cooling. The
main taste now is sweet fruity creamy tastes.
There is a smoother chalky mouthfeeling.
The Qi also isn’t as altering in these next day infusions.
15th infusion has a soapy woody herbal fruity
sweet creamy sweet onset. There is some
cooling to follow then a soapy fruity woody finish. Softer chalky mouthfeeling
now. Nice mild alerting.
16th infusion woody herbal soapy fruity expanding
in the aftertaste to almost creamy sweet woody almost camphor finish in the
mouth. The taste is less condensed but
strong. Mild alerting. Woody camphor finish.
17th is a woody herbal spicy creamy sweet onset
that collides with a bit of cooling to come out as camphor wood with a bit of
sweetness and mild bitterness. I can
feel the Heart beats now and moderate alertness.
I mug steep out the rest… woody bitter astringent coco
herbal taste with some coolness in the breath and strong alerting and Heart
beating.
Overnight infusion is a bit fruity oily woody tasting.
Peace
5 comments:
I'll be interested to see your ranking. I too enjoyed the set but was surprised by which ones I preferred. Also IMO one of the better TWL offerings. I've tried the majority of their stuff and refer to TWL as Teas They Like.
Do you differentiate between caffeine and qi? I haven't gotten more than just a smidge of qi from this one and not a significant amount from any of this set (which I actually like in this case). When you say "Nice warming alerting Qi with a sweaty face and some increase Heart beats and increased energy boost," I read: 'caffeine'
Ignoramus,
Teas They Like … hahahaha…. Lol!
I agree that this has to be one of my favourite offerings as well. I actually picked up 2 sets which was the limit. Again I hope they do interesting 7542 sets in the future.
You are right, I don’t differentiate between Chaqi and caffeine for these three reasons:
1- caffeine is inherently part of the Qi or energy of a tea
2- there isn’t really a way to know for certain that other properties within the tea aren’t causing the effect or interacting with the caffeine in a tea to create the effect
3- to measure the caffeine in a tea can be done objectively in a lab where chaqi can only be measured when imbibing the tea
Peace
… but I would say this one had that caffeinated feel to it…. Hahaha
If you want to leave your thoughts on any of these and/ or final ranking, I’d really enjoy that!
Much peace
Sorry for delay in getting back to you Matt, I wanted to retry these again before sharing my opinions.
I enjoyed these all but not a lot, for the sake of controversy I'll rank them:
1- 701. Most bitter and astringent but also with a good amount of sweetness and complexity. Most caffeine-like feels, too much for my taste.
2- 502. Thickest and deepest but this and the 504 had a specific nasty acidic flavor for me that despite being rather mild in this tea it's still one of my least favorite storage notes*. With different storage this would easily be the best of the set.** I got more relaxing energy and head feels than I remembered. Thick, sweet, rather harsh & short-lived.
3- 601. Weakest of all but least harsh (based off these sessions I had a differen experience than you). The crushable 7542 for me. Could be rated above the 502 for me, or even above the 701.
4- 504 same harsh sour storage of 502 but without as much bassy sweetness to balance it out. Battery acid, potpourri & hawaiin punch.
*I've had this specific acrid sour note in many older teas and I have gotten rid of a handful of samples and a cake rendered undrinkable by them. The amazingly compressed and nasty 2000 yiwu huangpian cake on YS is my reference for this offender.
**Unlike the inner circle, I find quite a few of TWL offerings have storage flavors that sap my enjoyment of the tea.
Unfortunately I enjoyed all of these a little less than I remembered. My accounting for this is that paying more attention to these teas (as I did this recent tasting) makes their harshness overly apparent. Whereas if you gongfu these more casually the huigan, strength and fruity-woody complexity are more enjoyable. These are all harsh but still fun and enjoyable teas with a good amount of flavor and mouthfeels.
Ignoramus,
“For the sake of controversy” hahahaha…
I also find the storage notes in a lot of the puerh at TeasWeLike to be weird. I think there is a bias towards natural Taiwanese storage based on the percentage of this type of storage at TeasWeLike. I’m not sure if this is due to the tasting panel’s personal preference, their past history and puerh drinking experience, or if it’s just that it’s easier for them to source, or this is simply where their contacts are located, or maybe it’s a value decision????
Either way for me it took a little while to acquire some of these weird storage tastes and I still much prefer a well done Kunming, Hongkong or Malaysian storage or some combination of these storage over the type of Taiwanese storage that TeasWeLike bring in.
However, as a result I have developed a deeper appreciation of this storage and find that it often is quite complex while still overnight nice warming aged energy.
I think you would have really enjoyed the Hongkong dry stored 2010 Liquid Proust 2010 7542.
Thanks for posting your notes and ranking I really enjoyed that!
It’s interesting that I tried the 601 and 701 when they first came out and the eee see e was a lot of talk of the 601 not being elegant and complex and the 701 being too “modern factory “ at that time.
Fun to try them now!
Peace
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