To me that TeasWeLike has seemed to release its Malaysian puerh in different waves. The first wave within their first year was the release of their three Malaysian dry storage cakes. The 2006 Rustic Zhongcha, a favourite of mine, is doing better than most of my cakes in my horrible Canadian dry storage (see recent notes here in comparison with the 2004 Red Label). Then there is the 2003 Zhongcha 7532- which unbelievably I have not tried yet because it always seems to be either sold out or I have other pressing interests haha… I promise you a review when I track it down! There is also the 2001 Iron Zhongcha, another favourite in my 2001 iron cakes comparison last year.
Not long after that they released the dry natural Malaysian stored 2005 Nan Qiao Bulang Double Lion which, again, (see the trend) is also a favourite. In the description for this 2005 Nan Qiao Purple Peacock TeasWeLike quotes 4 other quality NanQiao productions that they have offered and for which the quality of this 2005 Nan Qiao Purple Peacocks can be compared- the 2005 Nan Qiao Bulang Double Lion, 2006 Nan Qiao Bulang Double Lion, and 2004 Nan Qiao Bulang King I will take and compare them at the end….
Then last year or two they released a bunch of dry Natural Malaysian stored cakes which include this 2001 Red Ribbon as well as the Colours of Malaysian cakes.
Sometime in the last few months or so they finally released their first full on more heavily Natural Malaysian stored cakes - this 2005 Nan Qiao Purple Peacock ($310.00 for 357 g cake or $0.87/g) is one such cake…
First infusion has a deep almost earthy woody with some hard to grasp fruits and florals that push through a pop through leaving a nice cool breath with a floral grains sort of grape creamy sweet taste underneath. There is some salivating with the returning sweetness but a silty chalky mouthfeel overall. You can feel some chest beats in this deep based complex infusion.
Second infusion as a deep woody heavy but also light sweet creamy almost fruit floral. Here is a nice cooling with sweet creamy sugary that pops in the mouth over a base of deep woods, leathers, and faint prunes. Mouthfeel is a chalky silty full feeling with deep cooling throat. Qi is both alerting, chest beating and calming while being very comfortable in the body.
Third infusion has a deep woody leathery taste with a lighter creamy sugar cool sweetness that returns in the thick deep aged base taste. Deep calm focused feeling. There is a fruity prune leathery sweetness that is almost bitter at the end. The qi is nice and warming and pushes me into a sweat.
Fourth has a sweet woody deep prune silty touch smoke full feeling dense presentation with cool breath and light creamy sugar sweetness able to punch through. Deep cool breath deep relaxing calm and warming qi with steady energy boost.
5th has a deep woody slight smoke silty leather taste with a cool breath with less sweetness riding there now but big warming qi with chest swelling and deep calm and energy rising. A incense with deep woody silty taste. Strong deep energy built up feel a bit peppy energy.
6th is left to cool but has a sweet bready mineral sugar taste up front with cool breath and sugar finish. Nice full dense taste. There is a silty mouthfeeling a bit fluffy silty. There is less heaven deep base taste in this cooled down infusion
7th is also left to cool and gives off a deeper woody slight smoke incense there is a stewed plum sugary leathery taste to it. Almost sour astringent but not really. Softer silty almost slippery feeling. The effect excentuates the sweetness and makes it taste quite fruity and long in the aftertaste. Warming chest Qi and a bit calmer here.
8th is a thick full deep woody subtle smoke incense leather almost mushroom with an underlying growing bitterness. Deep strong chest earth and energy charged up restorative but also superficial energy boost.
9th has a woody ashy incense smoke which is not that upfront in the thick leathery woody taste. There is some significant cooling on the breath. There is a woody deep silty almost bitter taste throughout. Strong warming and energy boost.
The 10th I put into a long overnight mug steeping and it comes off light creamy sugary sweet with a subtle bready mushroom taste. Mainly sweet now. With slighy dry silty mouthfeeling.
The brilliance of this cake is that it has pretty heavy relativly wetter Malaysian Natural Storage but yet it retains lots of its complexity. We see that in the Qi sensation with it being superficially energizing but also a long deeper energy boost that might keep you up at night. Also can have a simultaneous calm feeling in some infusions. Some mild body feeling of swelling in chest but a strong warmth that can push you to sweat. The mouthfeel and flavour is similarly complex with deeper leather woody and sometimes prune notes but still not washing out a sugary creamy sweetness that sometimes tastes fruity.
Ranking of the four premier Nan Qiao releases from TeasWeLike:
1- 2005 Nan Qiao Bulang Double Lion- Medium dry-ish natural Malaysian stored delivers strong sweet flavours of long plum sweetness and bittersweet coco dense taste with a lubricating oily mouthfeel. Strong immediate energetic Qi and touch of smoke makes you remember that it’s Bulang!
2- 2004 Nan Qiao Bulang King- Taiwanese dry stored with a similar storage feel to Wistaria storage. Lots of complexity and subtle nuance to it due to the storage. Pulled this one out of some deeper storage sampling it first time in years it has done well, lost most of its bitterness and simply has a nice dry storage woody subtitles. Nothing off about it not really any flaws. This has to be the best cheaper puerh that TeasWeLike has sold. Has the best qi out of these I think with a strong energetic euphoria. So refreshing and enlivening!
3- 2005 Nan Qiao Purple Peacock- the heavier Natural Malaysian storage gives the taste and feel of aged puerh while not drowning out what this nice complex Menghai area blend. It can give off sweeter lighter and deeper aged flavours. Still some bitter and astringency left in here somewhere. The qi gives a deeper energy boost with stronger warming energy.
4- 2006 Nan Qiao Bulang Double Lion- dry Natural Malaysian storage, the most straightforward Bulang of the bunch with a herby vegetal bitter profile and slight dry gripping squeaky gums feel. Stronger Qi alertness and buzziness out of the group.
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment