1999-2000 Fuhai Yiwu Six Green Leaves= Powerful

This is a bit of a famous cake stored by the more famous and at times controversial Cloud’s Tea House… I got this sample from LiquidProust.  It was a damn cold Spring day with lots of wind and cold and this seemed like a very satisfying drink to warm up to…

Dry leaves smell of cardboard-woody damp paper bag.

First infusion has a soft fluffy onset with some watery humid notes, some dirt notes, then a mild bitter astringency pop and a cooling almost creamy sweet finish.  The mouthfeeling is really gripping and engaging.  There is a tobacco note that appears minutes later.

Second infusion has a rye-whiskey woody onset with a smooth woody creamy sweet transition in the mouth.  There is lots movement in the taste from a woody rye whiskey onset a bit of bitter astringency then returns a creamy sweet almost wine like long finish that sort of merges with cooling.  Then there is a lingering aftertaste minutes later that has a tobacco taste to it.  The mouthfeeling is chalky and tugging and really full.  It reaches down the throat deeply stimulating it.

Third infusion has a strong rich smoke woody rye-whiskey slight dirt with strong mouthfeeling and dry chalky gripping feeling with a strong returning sweetness of cooling menthol with a creamy sweet finish.  The flavours are very strong and distinct. Very intense gripping full mouth and deep gripping throatfeeling.  Long tobacco finish in the mouth many minutes later.  Very subtle warming feeling in the body.  Subtle focusing and relaxing.

The 4^th infusion has a woody wine whiskey vibrant pop of flavours that has a plum taste kind of layered in there.  There is a strong menthol cooling with pops of plum cherries and a long cooling creamy sweetness with long tobacco finish.  Very strong full tugging mouthfeeling and throatfeeling.  This infusion has stronger cherry-plum sweet vibrancy.  The mouthfeeling continues in be quite intense and the Qi is this subtle warming relaxing focusing energy.  You can feel a warmth in the diaphragm. 

5^th has a strong woody whiskey barrel onset with some distant smoke and distant sweet plum there is a strong mouth and throat presence here with a bitter astringency underneath and strong simulating mouth and throatfeeling.  Camphor woody and not as creamy sweet.  Intense mouth and throatfeeling taste centered by very soft warming relaxing Qi and comfortable bodyfeeling.  Have never experienced the extremes of this dichotomy in a tea this old and aged. Qi has a distinct warming heavy sensation in the Stomach and diagram.

6^th infusion has a strong woody whiskey barrel taste with some developing cherry-plum some lesser camphor wood.  Nice tobacco and creamy sweet finish.  Very strong pulling mouth and throatfeeling.  Nice strong warming diaphragm and stomach.  Relaxing focus.

7^th infusion has a creamy sweet woody onset with a touch of bitter astringency.  The mouthfeel is more oily and velvety with a long plum camphor taste.  There is this tobacco finish in this puerh that I just love in Yiwu puerh.  The creamy sweet profile is long throughout the profile. 

8^th has a plum woody whisky barrel onset that is mainly sweet with lesser bitter astringency in the last few infusions.  Nice camphor cooling with a creamy sweetness and some bitter finish in the mouth.  There is a creamy sweet and tobacco with bitterness in the finish.  Strong diagpragm warming feelng. Very full chalky gripping mouthfeeling and deep and strong throat stimulation.  Long cooling in the throat.  Some faint dirt and plum tastes initially.

9^th is left to cool and gives off a subtly smoke, subtle dirt coco bitterness, and soft creamy sweetness initially.  The initial tastes go long in this cooled down cup.    There is more smoke and more dirt taste in this infusions.  The throatfeeling has more tugging strength than the mouthfeeling which is more of a dry chalky.  Nice relaxing focusing with strong warming digapragm and Stomach.  The warming centering Qi is really compforting.

10^th has a silky full mouthfeeling with a stimulating pulling throat feeling with a creamy sweet coco dirt onset with an expanding creamy sweetness.  Longer creamy sweet profile now with lots of creamy coco taste.  Strong warmth in Stomach and diaphragm.

11^th is cooled down and gives off more dirt tastes than creamy sweet coco.  There is this dirt and bitter taste that has a certain brackish taste to it.  This infusion has some faint camphor and barely sweetness but is mainly this bitter dirt taste.  The Qi is still strongly warming and relaxing.

12^th has a bitter dirt with some creamy sweet notes underneath.  The bitter dirt taste pretty much tastes over the taste here.  The mouthfeeling is dry tugging with strong throat stimulation only faint creamy sweet coco tastes now.  Strong relaxing….

I put these same leaves into mug infusions….

The result is a bitter dirt bland strong tasting broth that is not that enjoyable tasting but strong relaxing and warming Qi remains.  Nice warming and relaxing feeling on this slow moving unseasonably cool and windy day.

This is a powerful factory Yiwu puerh with power in its taste and mouth- and throat-feeling.  Yet very warming and relaxing and comfortable in its Qi.  The dichotomy is striking.  The strength and power of the mouth and throatfeel in an aged puerh like this sort of reminds me of the 88 Qing Bing.  It also offers an interesting contrast to the Black Stamp of the same year which is quite refined, smooth, and very tasty fruity taste with high quality body feeling.  Very opposite this Fuhai in almost every way.

Peace

2000 The Essence of Tea Camphor Aroma & Exciting Zhongcha Finds

This 2000 Essence of Tea Camphor Aroma is apparently a plain old white paper, Ba Zhong puerh that was dug up in Malaysia.  That doesn’t sound that exciting on the surface of things, does it?  Maybe that is why even after a few years after being released this tea hasn’t gotten that much attention.

However, I imagine David and Yingxi tasting hundreds, if not thousands, of such common aged sheng that are so common in Asia.  Then finally, one day, “this is the one!”  They stumble upon some Zhongcha puerh that is actually pure, vibrant, very aged, maybe of old tree material or at least blended in.  This $179.00 for 350g cake($0.51/g) is that very puerh… come on… that’s exciting now right???

Dry darker humid stored leaves are surprisingly void of any strong odour they have been dried out from the humid Malaysian storage.  They seem like they are factory chopped material and maybe pretty compressed, hard to tell from this sample.  The dry leaf has more of a very distant muted odour of library, distant dirt, not really plum, dry odour.  Not very Camphorous nor very aromatic.  Feeling that these leaves will probably need pushing I dump a generous amount of them into my teapot.

The first infusion has a dense and viscus very oily and stimulating mouthfeel.  In it are oily dirt tastes as well as a distinct prune juice like flavor.  Of course, there is a long dense sweet prune camphorous aftertaste.  I am pretty surprised at how dense the taste is considering the dry leaf was so inert.  The qi on the first infusion is enough warm energy to break me into a sweat.

The second is even thicker this puerh is packed full of oily, thick, viscus deliciousness, a deep woody, dirt and prune flavor.  I continue to sweat.  There is a finish of almost sour, almost tart dark cacao now but overshadowed by dirt, camphor and prune tastes.  The mouthfeel on this tea is very very nice.

The third infusion is much the same as above with more of a sweetness than previous steepings. A very very dense, oily, prune, and camphor taste is very strong.  The qi very warming.  I admit defeat and remove 1/3 of the leaves from the packed tea pot.  The power of this puerh has me checking on the price about right now but maybe it is just the fact I over-leafed it initially…

The fourth infusion with less leaf has much more nuanced plumb/ prune tastes almost floral note seems lingering in the heavy, deep fruit taste.  The Qi hits the head with a dizziness almost spacy feeling.  The body is full of combustible warmth.

The fifth infusion is denser, cloying, oily fruit tastes initially.  As this tea goes on, I feel like the complexity and nuance of this fruit taste improves.  The mouthfeeling is very thick.  There seem to be lighter fruit suggestions under the heavier fruits.  The Qi is big and makes the head really float and energizes the body a good balance of strong sensations.

The sixth has a more woody camphor taste now with the fruit tastes underneath.  There are edges of vanilla date, prune, wood.  A returning camphor with hits of cinnamon.  The qi is a big one.  Very much in the head and mind.  It brings a joyful feeling.  The Lungs can feel the deep effects and I breathe deeper.

The seventh infusion has a deep plumb fruit onset buried within.  The long camphor taste is there as well. Dirt notes reside within.  The warmth is very nice.  The mouthfeel is thick and oily and somewhat stimulating.

The eighth infusion is very berry light fruity tasting now.  It has a long camphor base taste and almost brandy taste to it.  This puerh reminds me of a rich brandy.

The ninth has an almost mushroom like taste with initial fruits and woods underneath.  The camphor cooling aftertaste is long and woody now and less fruity and sweet.  The mouthfeel is sticky now as well as oily and rich.

The tenth infusion has a woody profile throughout a dark sweet honey note in there as well a fruit taste is more underneath things now.  The woodiness dominates there are suggestions of something fruit and honey something else a touch interesting underneath.

The eleventh infusion starts with a plumb like taste and then slowly transitions to woody notes and coolness in the aftertaste.

I add a few seconds to the flash infusions but this tea seems to have great stamina and still lots of flavor here.  In the twelfth infusion there are lots of deep aged wood notes along with a jujube, Chinese date taste.  There starts to a grain like taste in there as well.

The thirteenth is still full of deep aged fruity tastes backed by cooling woods.  The qi in the head is something wonderful, clarifying, illuminating.  I am a little surprised about the stamina of this puerh.  Getting late in the day, now I rest this tea until tomorrow morning.

The next morning I continue to squeeze out a handful of date fruity, woody, aged tasting steeps with a low menthol finish.

Overall, the deep fruitiness reminds me of aged blended Eastern Xishuagnbanna something with some smaller leaves in the blend pressed relatively tight and with medium- heavy humidity.   The fruitiness and slight tart with no bitter taste profile somewhat reminds me a bit like 2006 Yang Qing Hao Qi Xiang (the reference has also been made to other more famous Yang Qing Hao cakes by others).  Interestingly, both the 2006 Yang Qing Hao Qixiang and this 2000 Essence of Tea Camphor Aroma are priced similarly- this cake tastes much more aged though.  For the price you would have a harder time finding something of this quality and being and tasting this aged from Western puerh vendors.  The Qi profile of these two teas are quite different and the age gap but both tend to be on the warming side of things something in this one reminded me a bit of the Qixiang though.

Also an interesting comparison can also be made to the 2006 “Rustic Zhongcha” from Teas We Like that is very similar in price- although they are really very different Zhongchas.  This 2000 Essence of Tea “Camphor Aroma” has a much more humid, traditional Malaysian storage where the 2006 “Rustic Zhongcha” has a dry Malaysian storage the difference is obvious as is the aged feeling between the two.   The 2000 “Camphor Aroma” has fully developed aged notes like date, aged woods, and aged camphor, it has a rich brandy or whisky like depth to it.  The 2006 Rustic is just starting to develop hints of this but I believe will have a much more distinct sweet date taste than this one.  The Qi is different too with this one being a balance of relaxing and energizing where the 2006 is still very energetic feeling.  They both have really good mouthfeels but the 2006 has much more going on in the throat.  They both have not super great stamina but enjoyable while they last.

The last time I tasted something this aged with anything close to this taste profile was a Zhongcha cake in Korea from the 1990s.  It reminds me of this experience very long ago.  Thanks David for sending this free sample in my last order and gifting me this familiar experience.  This is a nice aged puerh for its price.

Steepster Tasting Notes

Peace

2000 Hai Lang Hao Bulang “Mushroom Tuo”: Nice Aged Kunming Dry

Kunming dry stored for whole life- check.

Super crazy tight compression- check.

BuLang Bulang-E-ness- check.

While this one checks a lot of boxes for me.  The description on Yunnan Sourcing’s site says that good ol’ Hai Lang picked this up in Menghai in 2000.  It currently goes for $102.00 for 250gmushroom or $0.41/g a price determined by Hai Lang Hao and passed on to us by Yunnan Sourcing.  Yunnan Sourcing has many options for Bulang puerh.  This one seemed to be the most interesting to me so I picked up a sample…

Dry leaves smell of classic smokey barely sweet fruit odour.

First has a nice mellow very faint smoke with mainly sweet tasting thin layer of dried pear, and a base of wood.  The mouthfeel is slightly sticky and sandy with the sensation more on the tongue than in the throat.

The second has a nice sweet approach with a very faint mild woody smokiness left. The taste is mainly this monotone sweetness that is almost a woody, grassy, and non-distinct almost not-really there dried pear taste.  There is faint smoke on the breath.

The third gains a bit of strength as a slight bitterness where a sweet grassy woodiness comes out.  The sweet fruitiness is overtaken by bitter and woody grass here.  There is a nice powdery dry storage nuance in here now.  There is a deep underlying menthol that start to generate over a flat sandy stimulating tongue feeling and less active throat.  A very faint candy breath can be found.

The fourth develops a rich nutty sweet onset that is mainly sweet but in a nutty and rich woody type of way.  There is a deep underlying pungency which pushes an almost cherry like sweetness out in the breath.  The mouthfeel is this almost sandy full tongue sensation that is not overpowering but still significant.  The aftertaste turns into a longer running sweetness.  The smokiness is pretty much non-existent now.

The fifth has a thick mushroom almost pecan onset with grassy woodiness underneath.  The overall taste is sweet but it’s hard to describe it almost like a dried/ dehydrated pear sweetness that melds with the mushroom, nutty, woody and grassiness.  There is a slight richness to the taste.  The mild building pungency is apparent in the aftertaste that pushes out a mild candy sweetness.  The smokiness is pretty mild and more in the aftertaste.

The sixth infusion has a mild bitterness with woody and mushroom and it turns into a nice sweetness.  The sweetness is almost a nutty rich sweetness like how a nut butter is sweet.  The mouthfeeling is full and kind of a dry tight mild coating especially on the tongue.  The throat is more opening at the top and mid level.  There is an extension of the sweetness in the aftertaste as a powdery almost cherry like and very faint candy lingering on the breath.  The overall taste is rich, warming, clean, woody and mushroom almost but not really dried pear.  The Qi is mildly relaxing.

The seventh infusion has a woody rich menthol onset with a strong nuttiness in there as well.  There is barely any bitterness here more of a grassy woody menthol type with a strong clear almost plum richer sweetness. There is some candy on the breath and a good powdery-ness in there as well. 

The eighth infusion has a very woody lumber rich taste to it.  There is a honey almost smoked maple syrup edge to it.  The mouthfeel is slightly sandy and dry on the tongue but feels somewhat full. There isn’t really a bitterness now its more of a drier, sharper finish.  This infusion has a nice mild powdery cherry nuance. The Qi is a moderate harmonious Qi not a typical strong Bulang Qi sensation. 

The ninth has a sandalwood taste with mushroom and sweetness to it.  The sweetness is hard to describe it taste so blended into the profile it feels like sweet wood.  The mouthfeel is slippery and thicker.  The menthol incense wood nuance is nice and echoes deep into the throat.  Dry menthol wood and mild sweetness.

The tenth has a sweet dense dry woody presentation.  The taste is almost a syrupy maple syrup taste intertwined with wood tastes.  The mouthfeel is a powdery, dry, sandiness on the tongue.  The Qi is super mild but really harmonious it is a touch alerting and a touch relaxing.  The tea feels really nice in the body, gentle but I can feel something relax my face.  It has a cozy aged warmth to it.  Smoke is gone now.  The fruity aftertaste is long on the breath.  There is nice cherry powdery fruity tastes here.

The 11^th infusion has woody sweetness, at times it almost seems like dry pear there is this low reaching pungency to the taste which pushes out a faint sweetness on the breath.  Overall this puerh feels somewhat dense, full and complete but harmonious in the body and mind. 

The 12^th infusion has a strong woody with faint smokey nuance.  The taste is full and tastes of woody notes and chestnuts.  The Qi makes me feel good.  Relaxed and content. 

The 13^th infusion has a pine wood taste to it with a pungent sweetness that emerges in the aftertaste.  The mouthfeel is really stable throughout all the infusions it remains full and a sticky powdery sandy on the tongue.

The 14^th has a fruity mainly woody mushroom onset.  Still full mouthfeeling with a low rising pungency and a bit of sweetness under wood mushroom to finish.  There is a flat woodiness throughout now. 

The 15^th infusion has a pine woody sweetness the taste is really dense and feels full on the mouthcoating.  This is a nice harmonious jincha.  The low lying pungency is nice and pushes some sweetness out of the woodiness.  There is a nice peachy sweetness pushed out somehow.

I put this one into overnight steeping as I run out of time in my day…

This one tastes like a bit of a sweeter, lighter Bulang with a mild suggestion of a more bitter and sweet with distant smokey classic Bulang nuance.  This is partly because the bitterness and smoke have aged out a bit and the dry storage and compression is favorable for the sweetness.  This Bulang has a really mellow Qi sensation even for a two decade aged Bulang.  The Qi is not typical of my experience of Bulang.  Either way it works nicely..  for a nice easy drinking dry aged puerh.

In some ways this mushroom reminds me of a bit of the Bada puerh producing region with a mild sweet profile and nice mellow Qi.  I don’t know that I’ve ever tried an aged Bulang that tasted this mild and smooth.  There is something satisfying about this.  On the plus side the dry storage tastes of candy and sweet flavours are nice to behold in something like this due to its nice dry storage.  The storage of this mushroom is ideal Kunming dry storage.  Nicely tight compressed.  I think the storage and compression work well for a lighter and sweeter Bulang like this.  I think this is fair price for what you get considering this is 20 years aged nicely dry Kunming stored puerh.  For me it’s an easy drinker Bulang- just not exactly what I’m looking for.  Anyone interested in clean dry storage on a truly aged Bulang with a smooth mild presentation should give it a try.

Peace