Comparing the Big 2004s: 2004 Yang Qing Hao Tejipin

 

I believe this 2004 Yang Qing Hao Teji Pin sample was taken out of Yang Qing Hao’s storage the year it sold out in 2021. I sampled this a long with a sample that had three years of North American storage at that time in a post here.  I will retaste today simply to see how it’s (poorly) aging in my too cold/dry storage but mainly to compare to the other top favourites the 2004 Yang Qing Hao Dingji YehSheng and the 2004 YangQing Hao Zhencang (also sold out in 2021) with some discussion to follow on preferences/ favourites/ strengths and weaknesses…

Dry leaves have a slight sweet bready odour.

The rinsed leaves have an icing sugar sweet odour.

First infusion has a clear pure woody watery onset that returns as this pure icing sugar sweet taste.  Long icing sugar sweet aftertaste.  Tinging body and face with deep focus. 

Second infusion is a sweet icing sugar pure elegant sweetness.  Long icing sugar sweet taste watery with no much Yang Storage nuances yet but subtle.  Long sweet almost candy but mainly icing sugar sweetness pops and has a long lingering aftertaste of sweet taste.  Big Qi feeling of head floating and flushing chest sensations and hands numb.

Third infusion has a hay and icing sugar onset with a long sweet icing sugar pure finish.  The mouthfeel is mossy and doesn’t interfere with the pure sugary ethereal taste and feel.  Qi is big with a floating head and face and hand tingling. Spacy relaxing warm brow.

Fourth is a woody onset with a sweet icing sugar that emerges ebbs and flows into the aftertaste.  The mouthfeel is slight sticky dry here.  Some wet mouthwatering.Qi has a big focused floating head feeling.  Relaxed focus. Open chest numb face and hands.

5th is left to cool and is a bit melon sweet with woody pure clear taste.  Slight dry sticky mouthfeel.  Face Qi feelings. Stronger focused relaxation.

6th is also left to cool and gives off icing sugar sweetness there are some bready sweetness.  Lots of sweet sugar and sweet bread.  Long sweet finish.  Relaxing focusing.  Face flushed and head floating feeling. 

7th has an almost sour sort of fruity sweetness , sour white grapes taste, with faint woody background a slight dry mouth.  Creamy Sweetness on the dry tongue. Very relaxed and mind slowing. I was feeling productive under the qi influence at the beginning but now I’m a bit lethargic from it hours later.

8th has a sour woody taste that is not as sweet with a silty mouthfeel.  Woody sour taste with not much sweetness.  Mild silty dry mouthfeel.  Very relaxing lazy Qi.

9th is a long mug steeping… it has a woody slight dirt slight root beer taste… There is an almost red wine dirt taste.…  mainly a woody dirt taste. There is a creamy sweetness under the wood.  Dry throat and mouthfeeling.  Dry dirt taste is not super tasty but the Qi is still quite nice with more chest feeling and sensations.  Some tingling hands and elbows less floating feeling now. The mouthfeel is quite dry here.

After drinking the big 3 Yang Qing Hao in three consecutive days these are some of my conclusions…

Qi…. All are really good… First of all, I really liked the Qi of this Tieji.  I liked it three years ago and like it now.  To me the Qi of Teji Pin is of higher quality and just makes me feel better than the other two.  I sampled all at work and had this happy focused vibe with some enjoyable body feelings with the Teiji pin.  The Zhencang made me feel more stoned and had a more simple bodyfeel out of the three but still strong and foating happy stoned feeling still of good quality and complex but more narrow and pointed.  The Dingji YeSheng has a very complex Qi sensation that does a lot all at once and is simultaneously excitatory and deeply relaxing and a whole lot of other things- there is lots happening with it and I like the wild ride quit a bit but at work it was a bit much and left me feeling pretty stoned that day.

The taste of the Zhencang is the best out of the three offering excellent resin Yiwu tastes at its finest and the processing of this cake seems to have given it an edge over the others. Dingji has some harsher or rougher elements of bitter astringency that can sometimes emerge from the blend that the others don’t have.  To me this is a benefit and part of the dynamic nature of this one.

The storage taste/ processing and weaker stamina of the Teiji Pin weakens my enjoyment of it a bit this is the most elegantly sweet icing sugars tasting of the bunch but the stronger storage does not do it well and it eventually much more quickly than the others descends into that Yang Storage base taste of as I describe it above as “woody slight dirt taste”.  However, as I said three years ago, I’m convinced I would have caked it regardless for its 400$ price tag.

Peace

2004 Yang Qing Hao Ding Ji Yeh Sheng: Big Complex Qi

I purchased this 2004 Yang Qing Hao Dingji Yesheng ($615 per cake or $1.23/g) cake straight out of Yang’s Storage in January 2024($525.00 for 500g cake). These notes are from that cake. I have purchased a few of these cakes in the last few years.  I appreciate the complexity and variety session to session due tothe blend and the strong Qi is always consistent session to session.  Not as elegant as other 2004s Yang Qing Haos but I prefer the complexity and variety of this blend and mainly the strong deep and powerful Qi…

 Dry leaves smell of a very sweet creamy woody sweetness.

Rinsed leaves have a very creamy very sweet odour to them.

First infusion has a creamy vibrant sweetness to them.  Smooth creamy and sweet.  Slight woody and cooling with a silty slight tight

mouthfeel.

Second infusion has a creamy sweet onset with a spacy Qi.  Creamy slight vegital woody but mainly creamy sweet watery taste. Slight warming Qi development. Big complex qi with heart beats and energy but relaxing euphoria.

Third infusion is left to cool and is a smooth creamy sweet woody creamy onset with wet mouth and a slight dry mouthfeel underneath with some mild a salivation.  Long almost candy creamy sweet aftertaste.  Big qi deep energetic and relaxing euphoria with big chest beats.

Fourth is a smooth creamy sweet slight woody sweet taste. Some kouthwsterinf long creamy sweet almost candy.  Overall soft smooth and almost muted.  Complex big qi feeling.

Fifth has a creamy sweet creamy woody smooth soft taste.  There is some creamy smooth almost candy aftertaste.  Big complex Qi slight dry mouthfeel under a wet coat.

Sixth infusion has a watery juicy creamy sweet pop of almost fresh fruit flavour with creamy candy finish. Strong spacy qi makes me giddy.  Woody creamy almost Smokey but very creamy sweet throughout with some fresh fruits trying to push through the creamy sweet. Warm brow and heat heart, spacy euphoric.  

I come back to the leaves at the end of the day.

Seventh is a creamy sweet bready sweet taste.  Soft and smooth but with a cottony full mouthfeel a sticky silty feel is left behind.  Some salivating pop of candy sweet almost fresh fruity sweet taste. Spacey euphoria with energetic chest beats and leaving body spacy.  Limbs and face light and numb with face warmth. Lingering cinnamon note minutes later.  Lots of layers of sweet tastes, mouthfeels, and Qi sensations experts a complex feeling overall.

The eighth infusion has a fruity almost fresh sour fruit. Creamy sweet more candy in the finish.  Long creamy candy finish.  Cotton mouth with creamy.

The ninth infusion is a very sweet creamy custard with icing sugar and some faint fresh fruits.  There is a bit more gripping dry woody almost bitterness now.  Dry woody candy finish.  Stronger Qi feeling in the head now with strong chest beats and spacy fuzzy head.

The tenth infusion is left to cool and is a sweet fruity fresh pear with a creamy sweet woody talc finish.  Creamy sweet almost candy finish.  Less salivating now and slight dry mouthfeel. Strong spacy feeling.

11th infusion has a sweet woody fruity taste.  It’s getting more woody a bit cereal and less sweet layers.  Almost a dry woody bitterness.  Spacy strong Qi sensation.  

12th is a long mug steeping and it gives off a thick oily sweetness there is a thick fruity taste but also faint smoke, very faint bitterness.  Thick almost leathery but lots of sweetness.  Strong flavour and depth when pushed harder here.  Lots of stamina left in these leaves.  Big Qi feeling… very spaced out today!

I put it into an overnight steeping of spent leaves it comes out slight woody sweet vegital then transforms into a woody sweet mint coco sort of reminds me of those Jr. Mints chocolate candies. Very yummy.  Lots of fresh minty woody coco fresh fruity silty mud mouthfeel. Sweet pops of flavour oily thick feeling in the mouth.  

Although it has always been a top Yang Qing Hao production the price has always remained high so it has not sold out like some of the others that were priced lower.  I still like this one a lot!

Peace

Best 2004?: 2004 Yang Qing Hao Zhencang Chawang

Ok the Yang Qing Hao Re-Experiencing project is back online here…it’s next in the cue pending a few surprise samples I’m receiving in the mail.  But you want it and I’m committing to it…. This tea is definitely the last time I feel like I got a complete steal of a bargain … so that was like 4 years ago… ha!

I picked up a bunch of these cakes in early 2021 when Yang was clearing out the last of his cakes and offered them at a special clearance price because some in the tongs had damaged wrappers but none of mine were even damaged.  This 2004 Yang Qing Hao Zhencang 400g cake unbelievably sold for $250.00 for 400g or $0.63/g.  I like them so much I grabbed a few more from Liquid Proust who bought up the last tongs and immediately turned them around for $325.00 for 400g or $0.81/g he too sold out fast.  It should be noted that there is also a 500g version of this same material.

A lot of the older reviewers seemed to place the 2004 Yang Qing Hao Dingji Yesheng and the 2004 Teiji ahead of this cake but age has treated this one very well and it might be the favourite cake I own…

Dry leaves smell of creamy sweetness.

First infusion is vibrant honey floral fresh fruity clearer taste than Dingji YehSheng.  Sweet fruity honey clear taste. Mouthwatering and vibrant.  Slight rubbery soft mouthfeel. Slow heat beats and face numb with happy feelings.

Second infusion has a vibrant resin honey taste.  There is an overarching sweet taste that becomes creamy in the aftertaste.  There is a pure long creamy honey slight woody aftertaste with cool breath.  Nice resinous woody balances the sweet.  Doesn’t have the typical washed out Yang feel is a bit clearer and purer.  Happy Euphoria feeling with face and shoulders tingling. Long honey creamy taste.  Slight sticky rubbery mouthfeeling.

Third infusion has a vibrantly sweet onset with a mouthwatering effect.  The sweetness is a pure honey almost fruity and almost purfume floral.  There is a resin base to it.  Silty mouthfeeling.  Really nice honey layers and resin base with spacy happy feeling. Slow chest beats and happy floating feeling.  Long honey resin finish that fades out.  Face and should numbness and lightness.

Fourth infusion has a creamy sweet pop of flavour with a resin woody mid and honey creamy sweet finish.  The mouthfeel is a bit drying.  Creamy chalky sweet taste left on a slightly pasty dry tongue.  Happy space feeling.

5th infusion has a sweet creamy resin woody pure honey taste.   Mouthwatering chalky sweet taste with honey fade out in the mouth.  Silty chalky mouth coating.  Spacy happy vibes. Light floating bodyfeeling.

6th has a woody resin sweet creamy taste with honey sweet finish that fades out with resin dry woody.  Slight dry silty mouthfeel.  

7th has a sweet woody resin with a sweet fade out finish.  Silty slight mouthwatering.  Happy floating feeling.

8th has a pop of coco bittersweet honey that fades quickly into a woody resin onset with less sweetness now- there is some and it lingers as a honey sweet in the background. Honey sweet fade out.  Happy floating feeling. 

9th has a honey sweet resin onset with pop of initial sweetness almost bitter pure and vibrant still.  Silty faintly dry mouthfeel.  Happy floating qi.

10th has a honey woody clear taste initially with a creamy chalky return.  Clear pure tastes with a silty mouthfeel.

11th is a long mug steeping and has a woody resin slight bitter honey taste. Slight dry mouthfeel with some cooling throat.  Big slow heart beats with floating bodyfeeling and spacy happy high feeling.  Some faint candy under the dry woody aftertaste. 

…. So good had a session yesterday and it makes me feel so so good every time…. Maybe it’s the best puerh produced in 2004!

Peace

2004 Yang Qing Hao Jin Cha vs Tuo Cha!

 Okay… back to the Yang Qing Hao re-experiencing posts…

This 2004 Yang Qing Hao Jin Cha goes for $200 for 300g Jincha or $0.66/g.  Dry leaves smell sweeter than other 2004 due to tight Jincha compression.

First infusion is a watery meaty smoked beef jerky taste.  Mesquite BBQ but mainly watery a bit creamy sweet… this flash infusion is still too compressed but the meaty mesquite supersized me none the less.

Second infusion cooled down is a creamy oily slight smoke mesquite with a wet oily mouthfeel.

Third infusion has a watery creamy sweet taste with much much less mesquite which is so faint now. The aftertaste is an icing sugar but faint almost minty herby.  Wet/ oily mouthfeel.  Some chest and collarbone heaviness with mild qi quietude.

Fourth left to cool is a creamy sweet watery oily soft chalky creamy sweeet.  Subtle smoke background.

Fifth a fruity smoke pop of sweetness with mouthwatering almost melon sweetness oily taste.  Oily Smokey creamy melon finish. Mild relaxing qi.

Sixth infusion is left to cool and has a creamy sweet oily smooth taste.  Slight faint melon and creamy very slight smoke. Creamy sweet and smooth.  Soft chalky wet slight oily feeling. Peaceful Qi.

Seventh has a melon creamy sweet watery taste faint rubbery vegital some faint mesquite.  Mouthfeel is slightly dry.  Mild relaxing qi mild qi in face and forearms. Heavy collarbones feeling. 

Eighth has a melon dry bark slight smoke slight dry mouthfeel.  It’s lots it’s oily and soft feel and has a drier almost bitter feel.almost bitter coco bland taste as well. Rubbery sweet finish.

Ninth rubbery dry woody with throat grip.  Rubbery squeeky gums.  Dry vegetal rubbery bland taste that isn’t very seeet but some mouth cooling. 

10th has a woody almost sweet under the squeaky gripping dry mouth and throat.  Pucker dry feeling is strong.. 

11th the next day back to the leaves … its back to a creamy almost fruity watery taste.  Creamy watery aftertaste with soft silty almost dry mouthfeel.

12th has a fruity almost minty onset with woody dry base and some pops of fruity fresh melon sweetness. Mild tastes of sweet creamy finish.   Mild relax peace.

13th left yo cool is a more distinct creamy sweet.  It still has a pop and some vibrancy with an almost fruity pure clean creamy sweet taste.  Mouthwatering effect still. Mild relaxing. Some mild face tingling.

14th is left to cool and has a mild sweet melon slight sour pop with a vegital taste.  Mild relaxing qi.

15th is a long mug steeping… has a dirt bitter bland woody taste with dry mouthfeel.  Mild spacy relax.  The Yang storage notes are just starting to feel strong here from the very tight Jincha compression. 

Hours later it has a woody dirt syrupy sweetness and an oily mouthfeel with squeaky feeling.  There is a pucker sweet cherry fruity finish in the mouth.  Reminds me of choke cherries.  Too yummy so I drink it up and do another long mug infusion …. Still getting through the tight Jincha compression…

17th is overnight and is a woody sweet faint dirt oily taste.  Oily feeling one day later. Almost coco taste.  Syrupy sweet woody.

Vs 

2004 Yang Qing Hao Tuo Cha goes for $200.00 for 300g Toucha or $0.66/g.

Dry leaves are a creamy bready sweetness.  Not as compressed as the Jin cha sample I got and smells more bready slight less leaves in the pot and more crushed up is the sample I have.

The rinsed leaves have a sweet almost tobbaco leaf pungent sweet quality.

First infusion has a creamy watery sweetness.

Second is left to cool and is a creamy woody slight bland bitter sweetness over a watery mouthfeel with slight dry squeaky feeling.  Some Heart beats heavy feeling in chest.  Almost cherry taste ghostly minutes later.

Third infusion has a watery woody dry sweet straw and almost fruity creamy not that sweet taste. Some creamy almost pungent sweet very faintly returns.  Any smoke or mesquite at all in this sample compared to JinCha. Spacy almost mild sleepy qi.

Fourth infusion had a watery woody creamy sweet slight quick moving pungent creamy sweet return with melon fresh fruity finish.  Slight dry mouthfeeling with sqeeky gums.  Spacy lazy qi.  Wu is more sleepy and stronger and slightly warmer than Jincha.  Long lingering muted fruity taste.

Fifth infusion is a woody creamy dry sweet taste.  Some straw cereal sweet taste returns. Cooled down is a woody dry mouthfeeling with a fruity sweet slight dry bitter finish.  Dry mouth with squeaky. 

Sixth infusion has a woody creamy dry mouthfeel with slight creamy sweet but mainly dry bitter bland finish.  Dry chocking throat feeling.

Seventh infusion I get back to the leaves the next day.. and it’s a smooth woody sweet almost smooth rich woody.

Eighth is left to cool and is a watery woody almost nutty almond sweet taste.

9th is a woody dry slight creamy almost dry root beer vegital taste.  Is a bit bitter and bland and dry not much sweet in these flash infusions.

10th has a woody dry sweet dry wood taste.  Some sort of vegital dry taste.

I mug steep out these spent leaves for a long infusion and it has a woody dirt sort of oily sweet taste with a vegital bland taste.

Then I overnight steep it and it is a woody minty slight root beer.  Smooth slight oily taste.  Not bitter but a bit oily and savoury salty.

Overall, the two have more differences than I thought!  The Tuo Cha which was much less compressed, leafed lighter in the pot, and was more broken up was much better in taste and surprisingly in Qi as well.  The Jincha has the mesquite flavour and rubbery, vegital, and bitter tastes which intermingle with sweet tastes but it doesn’t come off as too tasty to me.  The Jincha has a mild relaxing feel.  The Toucha has a spacy and sleepy better quality qi and feels warmer in nature.  At 20 years old the Jincha still needs some aging out but even then…. Not bad at all … Not sure if it’s worth it.

Out of all the Yang Qing Hao productions I have tried so far these two were some of my least favourites.  The mild Qi with light sometimes a bit akward favours put these lower on the list for me.

Peace

Damn Year of the Snake Don’t You Dare Tariff My Tea!?!?!?

 Happy Year of the Snake gentle readers…. Okay even rough readers as well! 

It’s been a rather busy year for me here.  All my many offspring are getting a bit older.  There is a certain busyness that comes at this point in life where they still rely on you very much but yet they are starting to do many things outside the home.  Work life is also busy… especially in the last half of the year where you see my posts drop off… work is where I get my evaluative sessions in and write ups used to occur napping young-in’s or rocking the babies…. Yes I’m that dad! But kiddies nap no more!  I am propping up a sick sleeping coughing kid as I write which gives me just enough time for this post…

Boy did I have a nice run of the fresh stuff this year! Thanks vendors that sent some in to me. I went into the autumn with my fresh 2024 samples and had to drink aged shu daily to counter balance the cold energy from damaging my Spleen/Stomach.

Wow! James even dropped a few new articles on TeaDB. Congrats James on joining the League of Distinguished Tea Daddies! Haha….

My blog goals this year are to finish sampling and posting the Yang Qing Hao Re-Experiencing project thing I’ve been working on.  It is my most important blog thing and I have given it a high priority to finish it before fresh samples start to arrive in my mailbox.  I have a few really nice samples from Liquid Proust that I drank over the last month or so that I have to post. I have some really great ChenYuan Hao samples and some early Gushu stuff from Puerh.uk that are of second priority!

Yes I am drinking some amazing puerhs daily!! STILL! ! It’s mainly teas that are in my way or in my path.., I am not curating a specially selected puerh to drink… it’s the random stuff that I can reach for …. But I keep good company close by…. It’s scary how I can destroy a cake of very nice puerh without thinking twice!

I got some nice Yame Matcha that arrived last week and some friends coming down from Calgary that like drinking that stuff … so might post on how fun that is… not sure but there is a few matcha in there I have not sampled ever which I’m excited about!

Oh No…. I think the snake swallowed up some samples that were sent to me a week or two by a kind vendor! Canada post strike which was resolved over a month ago has made reviving packages even today… a bit more difficult than usual.  But I’m actually not buying much…. The Canadian dollar was bad this year and I have not been buying…. Currently it is at all time lows because some other snake is putting on a joke of a performance… and I’m left wondering if our tea will be tariffed anytime soon? 

Huh …. Let me meditate on that a little…

Peace