Ranking of Xiaguan 2001s: 2001 Xiaguan Green Mark King Bing

I was relieved that Teas We Like offered this one in a Quarter cake because I really wanted to sample this one but yet couldn’t fully commit to a full $450 g Qing bing.  That’s right- this 2001 Xiaguan Green Mark King Bing is a big 450g cake that goes for$1.00 g!  The description of this cake describes it has the same commissionaire as the 2001 Green Sun cake that I quite enjoyed!  At the end of the notes I will rank all 2001 Xiaguan productions which I sampled over the last year or so…

Dry leaves smell of peat and subtle incense and dry grass.  I go right into flash steepings after a 10 second rinse.

First infusion has woody peat onset with a watery feeling and dry grass sweetness.  Has a bit of tongue tight tingling.  Slight pond-marshland storage taste.  Still too tight in the pot…

Second infusion has a smoky fruity woody onset with a vibrant oily sweet fruity glimpse.  Nice vibrant oily smoky and slight sweet fruit taste.  Tingling mouthfeeling especially on the tongue.  Subtle marshy peat storage taste.

Third infusion has a sweet peat woody grassy onset with a resin incense body to it.  Overall the taste is sweet but it’s hard for me to explain the sweetness- not quite fruity, not really pastry, more like a sweet grass taste.  The mouthfeeling is oily with a mild tingling sandy feeling on the tongue.  Nice relaxing focusing feeling Qi. 

4^th has a caramel sweet onset with an oily woody resin like taste.  The sweetness returns on a long faint cool throaty breath.  There is this resin woody oily almost fruity taste.  The sweetness dominates but not overly so with a balance of resin-woody, and incense.  The mouthfeeling is really nice with a tingling numb tongue feeling with a subtle gritty sandy mouthfeeling with a very faint going into the throat happening.  There are some relaxing sighs and spacy focusing feelings.  Face and shoulder feel floating.

5^th has a fruity tingling sweet pop with resin incense to follow.  The texture is both a bit oily with the contrast of a tingling tongue feeling.  The cooled cup is more caramel resin incense taste.  There is definitely smoke in there.  The Qi is a relaxing wavy bodyfeeling like I’m in a boat bobbing back and forth.  The cooled down cup of tea is a smoke and caramel taste with an oily body and some resin and incense in the finish.  Nice rocking bodyfeeling and spacy focusing.  Minutes later there is an interesting taffy taste in the distance.

6^th has a resin sweet woody oily taste with a smoke incense finish.  The tingling feeling on the tongue and oily texture is an interesting contrast as is the oily sweet onset and smoky incense finish.  There is a sweet subtle returning that is a bit like taffy and a bit fruity- it lingers minutes later.  Nice Face and shoulder have a numbing floating feeling. 

7^th infusion has an oily resin sweetness with a smoke incense resin mid-profile with a faint breath cooling that is hard to feel but brings out nice taffy sweet taste.  Nice relaxing feeling.  Nice taffy taste minutes later in the mouth which is really tasty and pretty unique.  Face and shoulder Qi feeling.

8^th the liquid is left to cool and then it gives off a caramel with a candy taffy finish.  This candy finish is a nice dry stored feature that is really sought after.  Nice face and shoulder floating Qi with a relaxed feeling.

9^th has a bland woody with a fruity edge less smoke and resin here.  The mouthfeeling is really good with a tingling tongue.  Long taffy sweet finish in the mouth.  Nice relaxing focusing feeling.  Shoulder and face bodyfeelng of floating.

10^th has a resin smoke and subtle emerging sweet taste.  The texture is an oily but a bit rough and dry smoke underneath.  Nice relaxing feeling with face and shoulder sensations.  It’s thinning out a bit here.

11^th has a smooth sweet onset with a thin woody almost smoke mid-profile.  Somewhat oily onset with edges of fruit sweetness and a dry gritty tongue and mouthfeeling that makes the mouth pucker.  Nice focusing energy- shoulder come up and face feels heavy.

12^th has a woody sweet onset with a smoke mid-profile and some faint returning candy like sweetness in the distance.  Nice numb tongue and faint candy but also gripping and puckering strong mouth and upper-mid-throat feeling. 

13^th has a woody smoke taste upfront with some cooling breath and sweetness that tries to come through.  A bit rough in smoke and dry and puckering mouthfeeling.

I mug steep out the rest and get a nice rich resin smoke taste with any sweetness left.  The mouthfeeling is a bit harsh dry pucker.  It almost reminds me of watered down coffee and has a nice soothing Qi feeling now with face and shoulder Qi sensations.

Longer mug steepings have a medical bitter woody taste there is a bit of sweetness underneath but the bitter-astringency is just so overwhelming here and with the smoke taste doesn’t come off too enjoyable.

The overnight infusion of spent leaves gives off a very deep sweet plum taste with a deep mysterious fruity taste and not much else.  This gives you an idea of how durable these leaves are.  There is almost like a black berry and coco taste to it.  Its very rich and sweet and deep.  Nice rich sweet taste here almost brown sugar at times as well.  This one will continue to age well…

Overall, this is a nice oily sweet resinous tea with a nice smoke and amazing tingling tongue mouthfeeling.  The Qi is really nice too with great bodyfeeling in the shoulders and face and a nice relaxing Qi.  As the session progresses the harsher smoke and dry astringency shows itself which suggests it’s not quite ready to drink to full enjoy.

Ranking of 2001 Xiaguan and Xiaguan-like productions

1-      2001 Xiaguan 8653 Huang Yin- ($1.00/g) (wet leaves pictured above) This one spent its life in Houde’s epic Huston storage.  I had this one before drinking the strong 2001 Green mark and it is significantly better in my mind mainly because it is strong but not harsh where the Green mark is a bit rough and harsh.  This one is just crazy insane powerful!  Much stronger that the Green Mark.  It has an insane strong alerting and really overwhelming energy to it, as well as a strong bitterness but not any astringency really.  I use only ¼ to ½ of the dry leaves I normally use and its still insanely strong.  Love it.  Easily drank through my sample.  I passed on a cake a few years ago but obviously would have been pretty happy with one.

2-      2001 Iron Zhongcha- ($1.00/g) This one is the outlier of the group, its storage is also a nice drier Malaysian giving it a much richer aged feel.  Material seems better than the rest.  It is basically an oily tasty lubricating cherry fruity puerh with satisfying well aged taste and it’s something I could easily drink through really fast!  Nice relaxing Qi with a heavy chest bodyfeeling.

3-      2001 Xiaguan 8653 Iron cake- ($0.79)  This one was purchased from Teas We Like and has Taiwanese storage on it which leaves it both powerful and a bit harsh but also complex dense and a bit aged.  The result is stunning and the old factory puerh nerd in my lost my shit over this storage in a completely blind tasting here.  I ended up picking up two cakes when it was available.  Probably not truly as good as this Green mark but as far as just a really good and satisfying example of the classic 8653 Iron- it is better.

4-      2001 Xiaguan Green Mark King Bing- ($1.00/g)- maybe the roughest of the bunch.  Storage similar to the 8653 above.  Not as powerful as the Huang Yin.  Has the best bodyfeeling of the bunch with its floating face, shoulders, body levitation.  Could easily be at the top of the list for some other people.

 

All pretty amazing 21 year aged Xiaguan productions!  I had a really awesome experience with tasting these!  Thanks to Teas We Like for curating these!

 

Peace