I got to thinking about the early Autumn Gushu productions produced in the earlier Gushu era by the big Taiwanese Boutique producers. Before 2005 they didn’t market Autumal puerh. These were also the very early days of the Gushu movement. And with the puerh demand increasing and the bubble ready to pop there was all of a sudden a bunch of Botique puerh producers quite interested in good Autumal material. So, as a result we start to see these high quality Yiwu Autumal Gushu productions around this time.
I tried my first back then which was a blind sampling of a fresh impressive 2007 Autumn Xi Zhi Hao Pu Zhang (not even Yiwu area) thanks to Thomas of Tuo Cha Tea who acquired it from Houde. Xi Zhi Hao had a few good Autumnal puerh this year. I have not tried any of these earlier Autumn Xi Zhi Hao productions since- to expensive for my tastes back then. But there are earlier ones from other Boutique producers. Four of which I have tried recently and will speak to in this post…
The 2007 Chenyuan Hao Autumn Yiwu Cang Shu is maybe the most famous of these earlier Autumnal Yiwu Gushus. Certainly it’s the most delicious of the bunch and is super subtle but deep yet delicate. Some mild nice body feeling and qi but mainly just really delicious and easy to drink. Has a bit of the choking throaty feeling which I found to be a negative.
The 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang is winning the speed test at my house the last two months. I cant resist its perfectly smoky taste and odours and its deep complex power. It’s got that long Yiwu sweetness but that Guafengzhai qi. Has still strong bitter base and needs pushing. Same hot and dry storage as the above 2007 Chenyuan Hao Autumal Yiwu Cang Shu which along with its tighter rolled leaves makes it pretty good. The clear sweet pure delicious taste of the Cang Shu reigns supreme.
2005 Yang Qing Hao Cang Liu this is an Yiwu Autumn blended with Spring materials and other 6 famous mountains areas. I just retried this and it’s really getting better with age since I last tried it. Nice complex puerh sweet spacious tastes and notable bodyfeeling. Tastes are delicious like the Cang Shu not as delicious but many better and more complex body feelings. After sampling I got to order a cake which I last saw at $205.00 for 500g cake. I hoped to pit it against the 2006 Qixiang in a speed test but it’s all sold out!
2006 Yang Qing Hao BaiSuiXiang- this is an Autumn 6 famous mountains blend. Retrying it is a bit more washed out than I remember with a more typical woody Autumal profile. It has a deeper richer woodier profile mellow Qi with heavy bodyfeeling. Not bad but doesn’t compare to above.
Peace
