2001 Xiaguan Jingua Tuocha Shu

Stephane of Teamsters sent a 2001 Xiaguan Jingua Toucha Shu freesample a few years ago.  Usually this 450g melon goes for $210.00 or $0.47/g.  As a part of my 2001 Xiaguan study and to compare to the “1960s Loose Leaf” and because it was damn cold this day and to warm me up…. I decided to crack this sample of a very classic traditional style of Shu.  It turns out I know very little about what is going on with Shu puerh these days but I know a good classic shu when I come across one and this was pretty satisfying… thanks in advance Stephane!

Dry leaves smell still of fermentation storage like smells like pretty drier stored shu.

First infusion smells of dank mushroomy old factory shu to me…. And tastes milky, watery mushroom, woody taste, with some faint coolness and empty mouth sweet taste left behind.

Second infusion has a deep chocolate onset that has rich milky layers, a hazelnut taste along with chocolate gives a Nutella like taste over an oily mouthfeeling.  Rich and chocolate nutty tastes. 

Third infusion has thick rich oily chocolate nutty hazelnut taste it has some woody mushroom taste underneath but mainly this thick oily chocolate hazelnutty taste.  Nice mild calming mind and relaxing sighs.  Nice deeply spacy relaxing feeling.

The 4^th has an oily milky sweet taste upfront then turns into a nutty mushroom taste, oily thick. With a woody-mushroom chocolate finish.  Nice oily full mouth and full throat oily feeling.  Nice deeply spacy and relaxing feeling.

5^th has an oily rich coco chocolate taste with a subtle mushroom woody taste under the thick oily coco taste. 

6^th is left to cool and has a creamy milky taste with a flat oily mouthfeeling and faint distant cooling and a woody straw like coco finish.  Nice oily throat and saliva.  Very relaxing vibe.

7^th has a milky flat woody taste.  Very consistent from infusion to infusion but really delicious and great Qi.  There is definitely a straw grains finish in the last few infusions now with lessening amounts of chocolate and sweetness.  Still very nice relaxing qi sensations.

8^th is a more woody coco creamy sweetness with the woody and coco and milky sort of presenting together.  The result is nice with a touch of cooling that brings out some creamy taste. The mouthfeel is now moving towards becoming slightly dry.  I feel energized with the energy- it bumps me up but then again is a bit relaxing.  The cumulative effect is energizing though.

9^th has a dryer woodiness to it and less of a smooth oily milky or coco taste.  The energy is strongly alerting now as the liquor accumulates in the body.  Strong alerting now.

10^th was left in the pot for a good minute and has a woody coco less milky sweetness.  The alerting energy in here reminds us that this is a strong Xiaguan!  Heart beats now..

I flash steep out of the pot the next day with woody hay coco oily tastes.  Still very tasty and mild alerting energy. 

I push the spent leaves in the mug for a few days and am satisfied with the result of coco taste.  Super enjoyable shu,classic, no nonsense.

Peace

white2tea “Small Batch” Shu Marketing & Selling Dreams

 

 

I have a good friend who is actually dying of terminal cancer.  He is one of the only people I have actually turned onto puerh tea who is native to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.  He is also one of the top new car sales people in Western Canada.  One of the first questions I ever asked him was how exactly he sells so many new cars every year when most people already have perfectly drivable cars at home and they really don’t need a new car.  His answer…

 “Matt, I don’t sell cars, I sell dreams.”

Isn’t All Puerh “Small Batch”?

Oxford dictionary defines “small batch” as Designed or relating to a type of small-scale production in which goods are made in limited quantities, often by means of traditional or artisanal methods.

Wait a minute… every Western puerh vendor’s raw puerh would meet this definition of “small batch”…. Every one… yes all Western puerh facing puerh vendors would then be considered “small batch”.  Look at this last post… David stated that his 2020 Tian Men Shan and Lao Jie Zi were around 10KG productions.  And look Tiago is producing a 4Kg production of Autumnal puerh… look at the puerh Yunnan Sourcing is producing most of it is 10KG, 50KG of puerh… all of that, meets the definition of small scale production compared to Big Factory productions or even larger boutique puerh vendors in mainland China and a lot of these other Western puerh Vendor’s puerh productions will actually be smaller than many white2tea productions.  So even though most sheng puerh productions from Western puerh vendors can be called “small batch” they simply choose not to use this marketing language.  However, we are talking about sheng puerh here and not shu…

Paul decided to come out in front by creating his own definition and marketing terminology catch phrases long before “small batch shu” was released to the customer.  For many months now Paul has been repeating the marketing key word over and over and over again on his social media.  Basically, the definition of “small batch shu” was a complete fabrication of white2tea and was created to be inclusive of his product while excluding the competitors’ shu productions.  No doubt he did this to differentiate the shu puerh white2tea sells from the shu puerh the competition sells.  It’s actually pretty brilliant.  One thing it most definitely does is put a wedge between white2tea and the pretty successful shu puerh productions of Yunnan Sourcing.

Over the last few years Yunnan Sourcing has been way in front of white2tea as far as developing their own popular shu puerh productions which are all agrochemical free.  Some are blends and others single origin shu - some are even gushu productions.  However, It is my understanding that Yunnan Sourcing usually buys plied material.  Yunnan Sourcing leaves the overseeing of these piles to artisans who have been doing it for many years/ decades as opposed to overseeing the piling work themselves.  This is mainly where the differentiation of the product lies with white2tea vs Yunnan Sourcing shu puerh.  Does Yunnan Sourcing shu puerh productions still qualify as “small batch shu”?  Maybe/Probably.  I guess it depends on how you define “small batch shu” .  Is it a wiser decision to let artisans who have been making a shu puerh productions and piling them for decades to tend to the quality of such things vs learn the skill in a few years and go at it alone?  Maybe?  Or maybe not?  Who really knows… the only way to know for sure is to the cut the marketing crap and try the actual puerh.

Is batch size more relevant than location?

I also find it hypocritical or at the very least unusual that Paul of white2tea is adamant that the location/ terroir of the material is irrelevant to the end product yet he finds it very important to educate us about the size of the production.  Personally, I would rather know where the raw material is coming from and whether it is gushu, zhong shu, or xiao shu, or terrace, the town, village and mountain of such material rather than getting the fluffy “small batch shu” marketing that really tells me nothing of the actual material itself.  Wouldn’t you? 

Or maybe you find it more relevant to know how much Paul is caring for his shu piles?  I am not consuming the batch size (or the wrapper) but rather the tea itself.  So I would much rather know about the material.  Whether something is “small batch” or not matters much less than whether it actually tastes good.  In the end it’s about the end product and lucky for white2tea their shu has been really gaining popularity over the last year or so mainly because some of it is quite good others not as much... but apparently this is not “small batch shu” anyways.

Overall, I think that what white2tea is doing with shu “high end material” blends and “light/varied fermentation” is interesting and experimental and very forward thinking.  No doubt, to invent your own definition of something that is specific to what you are doing will save you from trying to continually describe it in longer terms.  I suppose that is part of what Paul is doing with his whole making up a definition thing.  Not too many people out there in the puerh world are doing much of this and Paul makes a really compelling argument for us to at least take notice of his direction of shu puerh production.  He has also dove head first into tackling some of the misconceptions about shu puerh and educating those new to shu puerh about some of the basics.  He is both educating the consumer about why they should buy and age shu while driving traffic to his site/products.  These are really well done articles as a whole.  He has aggressively sought to take back more market share from Yunnan Sourcing.  I hope it works out well for him.  And this is all coming from someone who really feels that shu puerh is not even really “original puerh” but rather an accepted evolution in the marketing of “puerh” throughout the years. 

The thing that I really can’t stomach is all the silly marketing that he has decided to attach to the whole thing.  Heck, he has even created an annual holiday to market his shu and to cue his followers to buy his shu.  It is actually quickly approaching called “Shulloween”…. Hahahhaha… good work.  That one always makes me laugh… its memorable and I think that’s the point… This year with all the “small batch shu” brew-ha-ha it should be extra festive.. 

It’s Just Shallow Marketing Language

If you Google “small batch marketing” you are quickly inundated by articles about car company Mitsubishi.  In 2019 Mitsubishi decided to start referring to its cars as “small batch” and market it as such.  Really they are just selling the same cars with the same features and made of the same materials but they simply re-framed the marketing on them and went with a trendy marketing phrase that really means very little.  To people who can see through the marketing it’s actually a bit sad.  In the end it’s just as if people aren’t actually selling product but are instead shilling marketing catch phrases …

…Or dreams…

Peace

 

 

Marco’s Blind Tasting “Eta” (1990s Kunming 7581 Brick)

This one just looks like an aged iron cake or brick as indicated by the dimples from such a press…

Dry iron pressed/ hydraulic pressed leaves smell like more humid and aged storage odours of rotting woods and slight chocolate.  You can see the dimples from the iron mold also the very dark aged and humid stored colour of the leaves.  Immediately looks like it could be Hong Kong traditional stored Shu.

First infusion has a watery, woody, aged library taste to it with some returning aged sweet hay tastes.  This first infusion is understandably watery and light as the tight press will take a few infusions to release a bit.

The second has an aged woody taste with a bit of chocolate then a woody sweet hay finish.  The leaves have a real aged taste to them.  Over the taste is aged puerh sweetness.  The mouthfeeling is still watery and faint suggestion of gripping sand… faint.  There is a lingering coco sweetness with aged tastes minutes later.

The third infusion (pictured) has a rich sweet woody hay like onset.  The mouthfeel starts to develop a bit of an oily stone texture to it which matches nicely the rich tastes.  This infusion is really smooth and rich and aged tasting.  There is a nice camphor wood taste along creamier rich tastes in the breath and aftertaste.  The Qi is nicely warming and reassuring on this rainy cooler Summer day.

This could be a very nice aged Traditional Hong Kong storage iron bing alternatively it could also be aged shu iron bing either way it had a lot of fermentation with a lot of age.  The wet leaves look like shu puerh to me.  Conventional wisdom wants me to think it is this 2001 Iron Zhongcha as it even matches the description of “rich concentrated dark brew with nice camphor and aged taste”.  But this one is shu and seems more fermented and/or humid stored than that one in the pictures.  I’m leaning more toward to an aged iron pressed shu puerh possibly Traditional HK storage…  I think it is possibly a Kunming 7581 brickfrom the 90s possibly older.  It has that vibe all over it… think I nailed this one…

The fourth infusion has a woody hay sweetness with a rich, almost coco, taste over a slippery tongue coating and nice camphor cooling woody with rich coco in the aftertaste.  This is a nice aged tasting puerh with a deeply penetrating warming energy.  The Qi is soothing but doesn’t make me tired.  I start to feel faint soft fluffy bodying feelings.

The fifth infusion has a woody hay tasting with more mineral and less woody and coco tastes as the sessions progress.  There is a mineral and slight coco taste to it some camphor aged tastes.  There is a very soothing very aged taste to this puerh.  Nice aged warming feeling in the body which gives me a nice glow and wakes me up gently early in the morning.

The sixth infusion has a more mineral earth and woody taste with less hay sweetness and more mineral now.  The mouthfeeling is slippery and just faintly gripping which is enough to give the camphor taste something to root on to in the aged mineral woody aged aftertaste.  I am really basking in the warming soothing Qi of this puerh.

The seventh infusion has a woody deep mineral taste to it with a water type of sweetness.  This puerh has lost a lot of rich tastes and is now a mineral aged tasting puerh.  It has just suggestions of a more gripping mouthfeeling espically as the small particles of leaf are consumed in the liquor.  There is a cooling camphor aftertaste with a bit of sweetness to it but more mineral tastes.  Warming and unraveling Qi that is waking me up slowly.

The eighth infusion has a smooth aged woody mineral taste to it with some camphor cooling in the throat and aged mineral finish.  Nice warm undulating waves hit me from the Qi of this puerh.  The mouthfeel is smooth with a bit of substance in the throat.  Nice relaxing awakening feeling.

The ninth infusion is a cooled cup and it delivers a really delicious rich almost nutty sweet coco taste.  It tastes refreshing warming in the same an iced coffee would feel.  Less cooling camphor, woody, and mineral here in the cup that was left to cool to room temp.

Getting back to the leaves after an hour break has the tenth infusion giving off a rich coco mineral taste.  The camphor and woodiness is almost gone/ quite faint now.  There is now a nutty sweetness to it.  The aged taste is really rich and satisfying.  The Qi is warming especially on the face now and has a slow deep soft but still quite energizing feeling.

The 11^th is a rich nutty almost woody mineral taste.  The mouthfeel is slippery and full and has a bit of throat stimulation.  No more camphor left.  It’s a simple and rich broth.

The 12^th has a rich almost nutty almost mineral taste that comes off nutty sweet in the finish.  Lots of warming energy that especially afflicts the head but also penetrates deeply.  It pushes me into a sweat.

The 13^th is mainly a mineral and woody tasting onset with some dryness aspiring in the mouth and throat.  There is a subtle almost nutty sweetness in the finish.  Warm warm energy.

The 14^th is much the same without the dryness in the mouth and throat.  There is an almost date sweetness with mineral taste that starts to develop with aged woody tastes.  This is a nice aged taste and warming Qi here.

15^th is luke warm cup and tastes of nutty sweetness more rich with a mineral aftertaste and some tight throat.  Still undulating and warming comforts offered by this one.

16^th is more of a nutty camphor taste with some mineral tastes interspersed throughout.  There is some throat tugging but a nice sweet mild finish.  My face flushes- I am warm on this rainy overcast summer day.

17^th is a 30 second steeping… it pours out really dark brown.  It has more roasty nutty rich woody profile and even some faint camphor.  The taste is really nice… I will come back to this pot tomorrow…

The next day I end up just grandpa steeping it out and it really delivers.  A thick oily nutty profile with a nutty sweetness to it.

Guess: An aged shu puerh, very humid, likely Hong Kong Traditionally stored, likely 90s but possibly even older.  Maybe a 90s Kunming 7581 Brick?

Answer: 90s Kunming 7581 Brick from Teas We Like

Peace

2018 white2tea Bamboo Shu & Thoughts on Bamboo Puerh

The concept of puerh pressed into a shoot of bamboo sounds gimmicky but, like white2tea’s take on minis, it actually has quite a long history.  Historically, it has been produced for a very long time by the people of Yunnan.  It is sometimes offered to guests in areas where puerh is produced.  I was even gifted some produced in 2001 by tea guests in the mid 2000s.  I busted up one of those bamboo stalks a few years ago to try it out… pretty satisfying and easy drinking sheng puerh.

The production of bamboo puerh is kind of interesting and different than other puerh and is nicely outlined on this blog post here.

It seems like our western puerh vendors have picked up on the novelty of bamboo puerh or maybe it is just starting to get trendy in China?  Either way, everyone seems to be producing and offering it these days.  Yunnan Sourcing has been offering bamboo puerh on their site forever.  Currently they have three kinds available.  I recently saw that the Essence of Tea is producing their own that is not yet released.  And there is of course this 2018 white2tea Bamboo Shu, a New Year release at white2tea which goes for $32.00 for 200g ($0.16/g) of puerh in bamboo.

Here is an interesting older Teachat link on Bamboo shu with Bears, Gingko, and Marshal’N chiming in with their thoughts.  Some of the first bamboo puerh that was offered for sale in the West was a bit low quality- the producers using the novelty of bamboo to hide the actual poor quality of the maocha.  This is probably the reason why it hasn’t gained greater popularity in the West.

Let’s try this free sample out that I received in a recent white2tea re-order…

The dry leaves smell of muted fresh bamboo more than a typical shu puerh odour.  It’s interesting and almost unnatural to smell shu puerh that smells refreshing.  After the rise the wet leaves have a stronger smell like toasted grains and fresh bamboo.  The taste is fresh and roasted tasting as well as deep and milky almost coco shu tasting.  There is a nice coolness on the breath.  The flavor of roasted grains (or bamboo, of course), slight freshness and rich milky mild coco pairs so nicely together and gives this shu puerh lots of depth.  The roast almost gives it a dark roast coffee vibe.  The qi is strong and alerting, I feel it on the skull.  The mouthfeel is decently rich and velvety in the mouth and throat. It feels really nice, mellow, in the body.  This shu puerh is tasty and I love the flavor combination- very satisfying on this -30 C morning.  This is some great shu to drink now while the roasted effects are still active and fresh within the puerh leaves. 

There has been some debate out there whether bamboo puerh ages well.  Some say that the positives of the bamboo roasting are lost in aging and that it can’t age optimally enclosed in bamboo.  I have personally tired some pretty good sheng that was aged from the 90s in bamboo and it tasted good but the roasty bamboo taste was pretty much gone, not fresh and vibrant like this shu. 

Another thing I really like about bamboo puerh is its very compact compression.  For this 2018 white2tea Bamboo Shu, I really like the way the tight compression slowly unravels the fermented shu puerh tastes.  Notice how shu often gives it all up early in the session?  The tight compression allows for a longer balanced gongfu session- I like that about bamboo shu.

Out of all the bamboo puerh I have consumed, none have been this fresh and bamboo tasting.  I think this speaks how quick it has been put to market after the roasting step of production.  Shu is made to drink now, that’s what I would suggest for this one.  This shu is the same price as the 2018 white2tea Smoove Cocoa minis, but the quality and profile of this bamboo shu is probably at least 3 times better than the 2018 Smoove Cocoa which I wasn’t a big fan of.  This one will sell out fast.

Peace

 

2018 white2tea Smoove Cocoa and Thoughts on Shortstack and Mini Tong Shu Puerh

This is busy season for me.  I’m up very early in the morning and sometimes convenience trumps careful puerh steepings this time of year.  In the wee hours of the morning, tired and still half asleep, I appreciate the ease of popping a mini puerh into my teapot to get my puerh fix…

I received a free single 7g mini puerh cake of 2018 Smoove Cocoa with my Black Friday order.  Smoove Cocoa is a shu puerh that is pressed into a coin for convenient consumption.  I really like this idea for people who are new to puerh and may be intimidated by the larger cake sizes and the often messy removal of pressed leaves from a 200g or larger size bing.  This makes more sense for a tea that is ready to consume now, like shu puerh, instead of sheng which may require aging.  You have to pay a tinny premium on price for this convenience though.  These miniscost $0.16/g for a stack of seven 7g minis vs 200g bing at $0.13/g.

Even at least 20 years ago they were pressing puerh into smaller sizes for convenience.  Dehong Tea Factory was famous for producing puerh iron pressed into 10g coins rapped in bamboo leaf and other more unconventional shapes - they have been doing it for a long time now. ( I wonder how long it will take Paul to press a melon?) In the mid-2000s I was gifted a few bamboo leaf wrapped section of these coins from the 90s/ early 2000s from Dehong Tea Factory, and it’s tasty enough, for sure.  I still have a bunch.  The very tight compression is quite deliberate as well resulting in a slow unraveling of flavours and preserving the high notes in the leaves.  They would typically do this for shu puerh.  This is just a re-imagining of this same concept in a flapjack or mini tong format.

The dry leaf smells more faint wet pile than cocoa but I can still imagine it.  It has an easy feel to it- smooth almost grainy sweet taste before turning to a very mild cocoa and wheat taste.  Almost a raisin/ currents initial taste more than cocoa.  Mild cognac taste.  Slight tight mouthfeel with moderate cooling.  Slight throat dry pulling astringent sensation which I’m never a big fan of.  Overnight infusion gives off some nice wood taste and almost berry suggestions.

Interesting that this tea named Smoove Cocoa is neither obviously chocolate tasting nor is it overly smooth for a shu puerh.  It seems that many white2tea ripe puerh have names that precondition the drinker to find a certain tastes in them but that this naming convention is not used for white2tea’s raw productions.  Is it a certain flavor that they want to curate?

On the plus, this shu has no wet pile taste thoughout and feels nice and clean in the body.  There is most definitely better and cheaper shu puerh out there, but maybe none this convenient in minis form.  I think it’s not fair that my last shu session was the famous 2017 Yunnan Sourcing Rooster King which was a significantly better shu .  I look forward to sampling other white2tea shu puerh in the future to see how their ripe quality is overall.  On the whole there is probably better shu out there for this price, I think. 

On this early cold winter morning I enjoy its warming energy just the same and appreciate the complimentary gesture.  Thanks for keepin' my morning Smmmoooove...

Peace

Making Sense of Your Tea Drinking

I recently read a comment on TeaDB that made me reflect on how to think about my puerh drinking.  In the comment section of this article on justifying the purchase of shu puerh James places his tea drinking into logical categories with rationale as to what teas make most sense for each category.  He states:

For me tea drinking falls into three basic categories. (1) Casual brews I drink/make for my wife. (2) Teas I drink gong-fu throughout the day. (3) Teas I drink with other people.

Ripe pu’erh tends to do very well in category 1 and depending on the audience category 3. It doesn’t make sense for me to be brewing something fancy for category 1 and for whatever reason I just about never want to drink ripe as my gong-fu session for the day. That just leaves category 3, and I’m not sure I’m at the point where I can justify fancier boutique ripe sheerly to serve guests. I’ll admit to having considered but I’m not quite there for myself. I also certainly wouldn’t fault the person who chooses to buy it.

For me, even a few years ago, my tea drinking was very very different but for the last year or two it has been pretty consistent mainly due to stable life circumstances.  My tea drinking falls into (1) morning gongfu I drink/ make for wife and family. (2) Stored productions that I bring out of storage to drink with my family on a rare occasion. (3) Teas I drink with other people. (4) Everyday drinkers I one cup steep at work. (5) better teas I gong fu at work.

Over the last while category 1 tends to be aged sheng of increasingly decent quality but also can include shu puerh, Korean Balhyocha, or Oolong.  My children regularly drink tea with us so I make sure it is of a certain base level of quality.  My wife will not tolerate anything overly harsh or unusual and if its sheng, it better be aged.  She has an increasingly discerning pallet when I’m gong fu brewing.

Category 2 tends to be sheng puerh that I have lesser quantities of and I am trying to hold on to-expensive or cheap, old or young.  Usually, it has some quality of rareness to it preventing me from putting a cake into my regular rotation thereby preventing me from drinking through it on a day-to-day basis.  It also has some level of quality to it, otherwise I would just drink through the cake in Category 4.

Category 3 tends to be similar to category 2 but is sometimes Darjeeling which my wife enjoys as well but that I rarely consume these days.

Category 4 tends to be a lot of factory sheng that I have acquired over the last year.  If I’m simply looking for caffeine after lunch and my day is too busy to deeply appreciate such things it could be some lesser quality sheng that I have a sample cake of or some cheaper Menghai Factory stuff.  If I’m feeling like something of better quality, I go up the quality ladder without hesitation.  I will even consume fresh sheng samples as well at work.

Category 5 tends to be nicer aged sheng or samples where I can spend some time with and enjoy and often blog or write about.

Anyways, I think that helping to categorize your tea drinking is another way other than measuring your consumption that can help guide your future purchases.  This is especially true if you consider yourself more of a puerh drinker rather than collector.

In my case, I have amassed enough tea to satisfy categories 2-4 over the past year and from years before.  So, right now my buying is focused more on high quality drinkers that satisfy Category 1 and maybe for some more special stuff that satisfies Category 2 & 5.  Currently, my generous onslaught of samples are satisfying these categories nicely without me dipping into my stored cakes.  I am also wondering if I should take the plunge into buying more shu puerh?  I really prefer sheng but my wife also enjoys shu and doesn’t really pay to much attention to weather its sheng or shu anyways, as long as its good.  I also feel that my purchasing is slowing down because I have enough to last me many many years.

The tea that I select in each category is strongly influenced by harmonizing with the seasons or attempting to balance individual disharmonies.

I hope that this reflection has helped you evaluate your own drinking needs.  I wonder what your drinking categories are and how that influences your purchasing, if at all?

Hummmm…. Something to meditate on…

Peace

Verifying a “50 Year Old Puerh Brick”

This is one of the three pieces I picked up at a local Traditional Chinese Medicine pharmacy in town.  To me it is the most unlikely to be what the sellers says it to be so it should be the easiest to confirm out of the three purchases that day.  I actually would have not even bought it if it wasn’t for me verifying the authenticity of the other “1970s” bings.  It is definitely the long shot out of the three.

As I said in the initial post, the herbalist was told they were 50 years old puerh from his herbal distributor.  He couldn’t verify the claim.  He said it came from Hong Kong.  He said that it’s the best tasting puerh that he’s carried- much better than the other 2 cakes I purchased.   He says that he is not a puerh tea drinker.  I remember that these bricks were not available for purchase in this same shop in 2009 when I picked up a 2004 Xiaguan tuo for a few bucks.

After inspecting the wrapper closely, it looks newer than the 50 year old claim so immediately I am doubtful.  The wrapper paper looks and feels like the newer type of wrappers used and there isn’t the telltale signs of aging that you would expect on a 50 years aged brick such as yellowing/ browning, teats and holes, and other wear.  If it was stored in Hong Kong I’m pretty sure it would have at least some of these signs after 50 years.

I open the plastic wrap sealing this cake and the dry leaves are a deep reddish colour.  Dry leaf smells of woody odours and piled autumn leaves with a faint plum odour.  It looks and smells like shu puerh to me.  The obvious piled autumn leaf odour indicates that this tea hasn’t really mellowed out for 50 years.  The odour would be mellower and not as sharp.  Also, there is a complete absence of old storage notes to the dry leaf at all.  No dusty, musty, attic, old library odours what so ever.  A 50 year old tea is sure to have some of this. Maybe it was just really dry stored for a long long time and kind of preserved in this state?  It is terribly dry here on the Canadian prairie…

The first infusion is impressive, much better than expected, but a bit inconspicuously lively…

It starts off creamy and sweet with a pronounced date and creamy sweet nuance in leafy woody aged tastes.  The taste is very sweet and ends is a cool menthol on the breath.  The mouthfeel is oily and lubricated with a very slight mild graininess and almost astringency left on the tongue and throat.  The aftertaste is long and very enjoyable.  The sweetness is a thick dense syrupy sweetness.

The second is very thick, dense, oily and heavy syrupy sweetness.  There is also a light sweetness as well gliding overtop the heavier sweetness.  Deep leaf pile and slight wood give this aged tea solid complexity.  There is a deep low smokiness as well.  This tea seems like it is a shu puerh from 5-10 years old tops.  It’s hard for me to tell exactly now old but likely between 5-10 years not 50.  Qi is a bit relaxing and stimulating but nothing too out of the ordinary.

The third infusion starts off with a typical creamy sweet shu puerh notes.  The aftertaste is creamy and slightly sweet.  The mouth has a certain astringency to it.  There is a leafy piled taste and woody taste to it.  At this point it seems obvious to me that this is for sure shu puerh and most likely mid-late 2000s is my guess.

The fourth infusion starts again with a creamy smoothness.  This tea is so shu puerh- creamy sweet dense slightly cooling aftertaste.  Slight woody notes, creamy almost icing sugary on top.  The mouthfeel is full and slightly sandy on the tongue.

The fifth infusion is much the same.  There is a slight scratchiness to the throat.  It really tastes like some standard shu to me here.  It contains the classic shu base profile taste.  It’s not at all bad but not 20 years old, never mind 50 years.  There is a nice vanilla note that is pretty long in the throat in the sixth infusion.  There is a bit of dry astringency in the throat.

The seventh is becoming astringent and drying with a dry woody leaf taste.  There is a slight cooling.  The stamina is not there.

This ones the dud.

For $47.00 for 250g.  This tea is not worth it but still a totally drinkable item.  I have actually gone to this puerh at work a few times and quite enjoyed it.

My guess is a 5-10 year old shu- nice enough to enjoy as a daily drinker.

Peace

100 Year Old Liu An & 70s Puerh Cakes: Urban Legends Do Come True!

Everyone has, I’m sure, heard the story before…

Walk into a Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine shop and start a conversation about old tea.  Old herbalist goes to back of store and pulls out old basket, container, ect.  In it is some puerh, liu ann, oolong, or liu bao that is 100 years old.  He is unaware of the value of such things or doesn’t care about selling such things for prices that defy his logic as a practitioner of medicine.  Think about it this way, would your doctor sell you medicine that is 1000x marked up?  No, of course not, in some ways this breaches ethical behavior.  So in the end you walk out with thousands of dollars’ worth of antique tea for very little money.  If you are a puerh drinker or drinker of aged teas this could possibly be hitting the Holy Grail….

And, no word of a lie, this just happened to me!

Readers of this blog will know that I have hit a patch of bad tea luck as of late.  Over the last month or so I have had an allergic reaction to seemingly delicious tea, I have had a few orders sell out just before purchase, and had an expensive, favorite teapot break.  With this said, I knew things were looking up.  But this… this is an extreme swing in the opposite direction.

I have actually frequented this old Traditional Chinese Medicine pharmacy before.  This was the same shop that I got a nice haul from back in 2009 when I picked up some items in this post.  Nothing too remarkable but good drinking 90s and early 2000s tea.  I actually visit this shop fairly regularly and had developed a relationship with the very old Cantonese speaking herbalist there.  I remember seeing two unwrapped, shrink wrapped, bings of puerh back in 2009.  It looked a bit sketchy and the herbalist said that it doesn’t taste as good as the Xiaguan tou I picked up.  I pretty much just forgot about it until I was in the herbal pharmacy a week ago.

When I saw the same two old bings again still with the $35.00 Canadian dollar price tags on them, I thought to myself, well they are at least 9 years old now and are still here.  They are probably not legit but, why not try them out for fun?  When I inquired about the two lonely bings the old herbalist said they are from the 1970s.  I immediately perked up because they actually do look like a certain cake from the 1970s.  He then tried to dissuade me, claiming that they taste bad like old puerh and old Chinese herbs.  He instead tried to sell me the only other puerh in his shop- 1 of 2 generic wrapped 250g puerh bricks which he says are 50 year old and taste better.  He is not a puerh drinker himself and after a bit of conversation he claims that he got these from his herbal distributor many years ago.  They are the only puerh he carries.

I decide to pick up one of the “1970s bings” for $27.20… I mean what’s too loose at that price anyways?

I took it to work on a day that was extraordinarily busy- one of those days where you are basically running all day without sitting.  I steeped it in a one of my Korean one cup steppers.  Honestly, I was 99% sure this was not what he said it was.  Although it was so busy I could not give it any attention, I got the impression that this was possibly a 1970s bing.  A few days later, when I had a bit of time to give it some attention, I immediately confirmed that it is most likely a 1970s bing!

So as soon as I could, I went back to the old herb store and purchased the other “1970s” bing as well as one of the other 250g bricks.  These bricks had not been at the store when I inquired in 2009 and didn’t even look that old, but after confirming the 1970s bing I wanted to find out for sure.

The old herbalist and I chatted for a bit and he confirmed that he didn’t know for sure if it was a 50 year old puerh brick but that is what the herbal distributor told him when he bought it.  He couldn’t remember how long he had stocked the brick.

Then he asked me if I knew what Liu An tea was. I told him that I was a big fan of it.  He emerged from the back of his store with an ancient looking basket sealed in an old, yellow tinged clear bag covered in a thick layer of dust.  In talking with him he said that it was a 100 year old Lui An basket and could personally confirm its approximate age.  When pressed about it he said it could be anywhere from 100-50 years old approximately.  It certainly looks quite old.

I ended up paying $334.00 in total and walking away with 4 apparently old teas- 2- “1970s bings”, 1- “50 Year Old Puerh 250g Brick” 1- “100-50years Liu An Basket”.

I hope to post extensively about tasting and trying to authenticate these “old” teas in the coming days and weeks.  I am sure some are not what they say but what if…..

I hope you will join me.

Peace

2017 Yunnan Sourcing Blinded Puerh Tasting Event Epsilon & Zeta

Epsilon

The loose hairy small dry leaves smell of an almost metallic pungent odour with a touch of creamy sweetness.

The first infusion has a very intensely creamy cotton candy sweetness in the initial taste which swells in the mouth.  The profile is very pure and clean and sweet.  The mouthfeel is fluffy and slightly sticky.  There is a slight taste of hay or straw in the background and a mild returning coolness.

The second infusion has almost an orchid floral honey like sweetness with the floral note dominating here.  The fragrant sweetness is heavy in the full cottony slight stickiness of the mouth and throat.  The hay note has disappeared to these strong dominant sweet florals.  They linger for some time in the throat.  The lips become sticky and full.

The third infusion has a less intense floral sweetness but it is still strong and dominant.   It has a rain-foresty taste initially as well which plays out through the profile.  The mouthfeel becomes fuller and lightly grainy with that cotton feeling predominating.

The fourth has a creamy floral vanilla almost metallic initial taste with the floral creamy candy like sweetness still dominating here.  There are hints of mild dry wood and metallic taste in the base profile of this tea.  The aftertaste pumps the sweetness up again, it crests, and then recedes slowly like a wave.

The fifth infusion is more forest in initial taste then an orchid sweetness builds.  In the aftertaste it is almost cotton candy like in taste and expands on the full and grippy mouthfeel and throatfeel.  The mid throat is opened up by this sensation.  The profile feels very natural and harmonious.  The qi of this one is nicely relaxing and makes the head and shoulders feel light.

The sixth infusion starts off with pungent forest notes which keeps the pungency but turns sweet quickly.  The sweet taste crests throughout the profile and develops a cotton candy like feel to it.  This infusion is much the same as the fifth.

Seventh has a burst of pungent sweetness and florals.  These tastes are dominant over rain forest like tastes.  The first signs of light fruitiness appears and disappears in the start of the aftertaste.

The eighth has a strong pungent initial taste with sweetness under the pungent.  This spiciness seems to be the dominating flavor in the last two infusions.   The sweetness lasts longer than the pungent in the aftertaste which carries on for quite some time.  The mouthfeel is back to being more cottony now.  The qi continues to mildly relax.

Ninth is more watery now in its taste and carries barely pungent creamy sweetness with a bland forest taste as the base taste now.  The aftertaste continues to be the most interesting of the profile as creamy floral sweetness is left along to linger.  The qi is not overly strong but relaxing and slightly floating.  The body sensation is light and airy.  The wet leaves are small and slightly more stems.

The tenth infusion 10 seconds are added to the flash steeping and it brings out more of the pungent sweetness and more full sweet taste throughout the profile.

The eleventh 25 seconds are added to the flash steeping and a slightly metallic pungent sweet note is fading but present.  The twelfth 30 seconds are added and it tastes and feels much the same but with less sweetness.

This tea is put into a few days long steeping.

I am a bit unsure about what area this tea could be but my best guess is Yibang.  I believe that the sample in question is this 2017 Yunnan Sourcing Brand Autumn Yibang.

Zeta

Opening this sample reveals that this is a shu puerh!  Quicker than the musty, mossy, shu puerh dry leaf odour hits me, I am convinced this must be the very popular Chinese Zodiac shu puerh that Yunnan Sourcing is quite famous for!  This year it is the 2017 Yunnan SourcingRooster King.

My wife quite enjoys a good shu puerh so I decided to puerh mug this shu with her instead of doing one of my conventional reviews.  The mugs were a wedding gift made by a famous local potter and are very dry feeling like the air in the prairies.

We enjoy the thick, viscous and warming energy of this multifaceted shu on this cold Canadian mid-winter day.  The taste nicely evolves and is much more than many monotone tastes but is rather cohesive and full in flavor for a shu.  It has a nice oily mouthfeeling which feels especially satisfying on these cold dry days.  This is a very good and satisfying shu puerh and I now understand why it is so popular in Western puerh circles.

Well that’s all 6 teas blind tasted.

Thanks to Scott at Yunnan Sourcing for offering these teas for the blind tasting and all the bloggers out there who participated.  I look forward to reading may more posts of this blind testing over the next few weeks by some of the other bloggers out there.

Peace

 

Answers:

2017 Yunnan Sourcing "Qing Mei Shan" Old Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake  <--- font="" psilon="">

2017 Yunnan Sourcing "Rooster King" Ripe Pu-erh Tea Cake <--- eta="" font="">