2004 CNNP Red Mark: Rustic Sweat Heat Mesquite

 

This 2004 CNNP Red Label is a part of the Colours of Malaysia Quarter Cake Set from TeasWeLike.  I sampled the 2005 CNNP Blue Mark yesterday and it was a pretty satisfying easy to drink puerh and very different from this…


Dry leaves smell of dry woody almost roasted aroma.

Wet leaves have a sweet mesquite smoky odour.

First infusion has a Smokey woody incense- pretty strong smoke with a light plum sweetness to counterbalance the smoke.  Overall moistening mouthfeel with fine sand silt.

Second has a sweet mouthwatering plum taste with mesquite BBQ smoky background.  Smoke but not charred.  Warming Qi makes me sweat.  Mouthwatering with warm chest feeling some head beats but lots of heat making me sweat it out!  Armpits face and chest strong heat.

3rd is a balance of mesquite BBQ smoke and plum sweetness with the smoke starting to take over the sweet now.  Lubricating mouthfeel with fine silty sandy feeling.  Warming strong sweats.  

4th is left to cool and has a sweet plum onset with a strong smoke background.  Strong warming qi especially targets the face and chest.  You will sweat.  Smooth silty fine sandy mouthfeeling.

5th is left to cool and has a plum sweet onset that is quickly overtaken by smoke.  Warming break into a sweat Qi with some energetic feeling.  Mouthfeel is getting more sandy in the mouth.  This is classic rustic puerh stuff.

6th cooled is a smooth plum with mouthwatering sweet taste and feel with some fine grain sand.  Warming qi nature with nice uplifting feeling.  

7th was put into an overnight thermos steeping.  It comes out very sweet viscus creamy plum almost candy which fills the mouth with the thick viscus mouthwatering mouthfeeling.  The smoke is gone and there is a subtle background incense now at the end of the long sweet thick taste.  The sweet taste in this overnight thermos reminds me of a candy apple very delicious here.

Overall, this is a nice example of a smoky but very sweet rustic puerh.  The session progresses with smoke dominating the first few steeps then the sweetness builds up as the session goes on before completely overtaking the smoky rustic taste leaving us with a sweet end to the session with longing for childhood candy apples.  Most old school rustic puerh end to Smokey or not enough sweet to counterbalance puerh with the smoke wining at the end of the session.  This one sweet wins!  It should also be noted the powerful hot warming Qi that really makes you sweat!

Vs2006 Rustic Zhongcha from TeasWeLike- (wet leaves bottom) I sampled this one the next day as it is somewhat similar both are Rustic blends both Zhongcha generic brand both dry Mayalsian stored.  The rustic Zhongcha seems drier stored (Malaysian dry storage vs Malaysian dry Natural storage) with the leaves lighter and dry leaves smell more cherry sweet.  The liquid is much lighter as well.  There is more of a delicate higher quality to the material of the Rustic Zhongcha with more separate taste.  The Rustic Zhongcha has a more pronounced coolness camphor with more seporate sweet cherry plum taste.  The mouthfeel has a mild astringent gripping whereas the Red Label has more silty fullness.  The Rustic is more complex overall but has much more delicate flavours.  Where as the Red Label has much stronger and forward tastes, dense, rich tastes, more cohesive tastes and mainly stronger tastes.  The sweetness of the Red Mark is so strong and overtakes the smoke at the end of the session whereas the Rustic Zhongcha shows its complex dry storage at the end!  The strong warming Qi of the red Label is notable and stronger than the Rustic whereas the Rustic has more complex subtle Qi comparatively.  They are quite different afterall Rustic with better quality materials and dry storage subtly and Red label with more dense strong power…. But mainly sweetness!

Peace

Single Gongfu Cha Session Lasts A Week

 I was recently asked exactly the specifics of how I am stretching my puerh sessions across a week. So I thought I would just elaborate in a post.  I suppose it is quite unusual and, I believe, a product of my own invention.  The basis of the week long session is that I am using some basic concepts of gongfu cha brewing ,which I’ve been doing for decades now, and applying it to my novel life situation…

Why exactly would you want to steep a puerh across an entire week rather than just drink it in one sitting?  The short answer is really you would not want to do this.  I would much prefer sitting cross legged on the floor at my charcoal fired hearth and drinking an hours long session in ceremony while meditating and taking in the full vibe of the tea.  If you go far enough back in this blog that’s exactly what I am doing there.  Having young children pretty much wrecks this vibe.  If you only have one child it’s still kind of possible to do proper gongfu cha when they are at certain ages.  I used to wake up early and do so years back.  Having as many children like I have here now, it’s impossible.

For years now I have had my tea table set up right in the heart of the kitchen counter so I can brew facing out to everyone.  The kids sort of interact with my session today my toddler wanted to sniff my puerh mug which she undoubtedly learned from watching me gongfu brew.  Anyways, the mornings when I drink tea have just gotten progressively crazier and crazier with each passing year and I have found my self gravitating to larger and larger Yixing pots.  I don’t measure them exactly but first it was 275ML, then I got one a few years ago that is probably 400ML, the last one I got a few months back is maybe 600 ML? Playing around trying to steep many times in a super small pot is just too distracting and more work.  When you have a bunch of kids you have really hacked it if you mainly just keep it simple.  A year or so my large glass fair cup that I had for over a decade broke (any suggestions wear I can find a replacement?) so I just started to pour directly from my yixing pots directly into the mug.  I usually choose the colour I’m in the mood for and pour into these Classic Le Creuset mugs which really hold the heat in nicely.  I still pour into some small ceramic cups on the tea table at anytime during the week long sessions if I want to do shots to get a better concentrated read on a tea anytime throughout the session.  

The tea table setup is basically a front row of these 3 Larger yixing pots, back row of a large mug and smaller gongfu ceramic cups.  I snapped this picture of the display case in the kitchen and you can see it a bit.  I used an extra large white ceramic cappuccino mug for the largest pot and Classic Creuset mugs for the other two pots.  The mugs often sitting off the bamboo tea table and I use a handy tea shammy to wipe away any spillage.  Often I will have two weekly sessions going at once.

The xtra large yixing I might use 40g of puerh leaves.  Again I’m not sure because I don’t measure but when they open up they often fill the pot.  You can imagine these larger pots have a slower pour so they really push the dry leaf pretty hard.  They also will loose less heat than a smaller pot as well.  First I'm just doing flash steeping directly into the mug.  I often use a technique called “keeping the root” whereby you always leave a 1/5 of the liquid in the mug before pouring another flash steeping into the mug.  If I want I increase the steeping time as needed.

You can imagine that I’m not having too many steepings each morning - sometimes just one others a handful.  Then I just simply put my bamboo table back up into the display case there with the pots and cups and with the mugs if they are still holding the root.  This keeps the kids from playing around with my hundred dollar pots… haha.  The next day I just pull the bamboo table down from the display case and step the leaves that were left in the pot without water on them overnight.  Ideally the pots would go in a fridge but again it would be too easy for someone to accidentally break a pot in the fridge.  This goes on for days until the tea leaves are sufficiently spent then I leave the boiling water on them in the pot overnight to push the last of it out.  I find that this style of brewing let’s you really reflect on the steepings of the week long session that you had that particular day and how it compared to the days before.  It’s like a full on slow motion style of gongfu cha.  It’s also a pretty heavy handed way of brewing which usually does aged tea well.

Peace

2005 CNNP Blue Mark: Interesting Enough Complexities

 


This 2005 CNNP Blue Mark is from the a Malaysian Dry Natural Storage Colours of Malaysia Quarter Cake Set from TeasWeLike.  It also is being

offered as a stand alone 357g cakes for $188.00 or $0.52/g.  I found it a bit unique, complex, and interesting.



Dry leaf has a dry distant woody odour and seems to be cover in a fine white dust I’m not sure if it’s the wrapper or mould?  Either way doesn’t stop me…

First infusion has a creamy sweet watery almost woody taste in a wet mouthfeel.  There is a faint powdery talc creamy sweetness throughout.  The mouthfeel is wet but has a bit of fine silty dryness.

Second has a woody teak woody onset with a creamy sweet layer underneath.  The sweetness is the talc creamy almost cherry.  The sweetness returns  almost grape and the mouthfeel has a bit of pucker but very faintly.  Nice grape sweetness into the throat.  There is a silty mouthfeel and open throat.  With a stick roof and gums.  Nice slowing Qi.

Third infusion has a woody creamy talc sweetness with a silty gripping mouthfeel.  There are subtle almost trap sweet notes when swallowing in the throat.  Senses are a touch more sensitive with a bit of slow motion Qi.

Fourth infusion has a bit of a smoky woody watery onset with less talc sweetness hardly any now.  There is a bit of bitterness and a flatter slight gripping mouthfeel.  Teeth, gums, roof feel squeaky dry. A bit sense enhancing. 

5th has a water woody slight talc creamy sweetness.  There is a silty dry mouthfeel with a bit gripping.  I take a sigh with subtle soft sense enhancements.

6th is a watery talc woody creamy sweet.  Dry woody slight sweet finish.  Dry silty finish.  Deep sighs with visual acuity heightened.  

7th is a good 30 min steeping.  It comes out woody and silty not sweet not bitter but smooth with a faint incense finish.

8th is an overnight Thermos steeping and is oily slippery with a viscous sweetness and subtle woody taste.  The sweetness has a sugary almost pastry taste to it.  Nice an oily feeling.

This is pretty easy to drink with a nice smoothness to it and Qi that is much better than standard factory fare.  It has a bit of mind slowing and sense enhancements Qi.  The mouthfeel is really good with four different stimulations playing out in the mouth- squeaky gums and roof, silty texture, and nice mouthwatering oily viscus and some mild throat gripping stimulating.  The sweetness is similarly complex with a talc creamy sweetness, grape like returning sweetness and a pastry sugar sweetness in the overnight steepings.  The thickness and pastry taste reminds me of ManZhuan.  For the price this interesting blend has lots to offer and I had a great time with it!  Thinking about testing out a full cake in the speed test.

Edit Nov27/23: I had this one a few weeks later and it has this nice bitter coco and lubricating feeling.  It reminds me lots of 7542 504… I should compare these.

Peace

2001 Red Ribbon (First Release Storage Option) vs Natural Malaysian Storage (Second Release Storage Option)

  

There is a bit of confusion coming from TeasWeLike about the storage options on this solid 2001 Red Ribbon.  So I’m going to give it a try here…

I believe this is the first storage option offered on this 2001 Red Ribbon ($188.00 for 357g cake or $0.53/g) from TeasWeLike.  This first 2001 Red Ribbon storage offering sold out reasonably fast when it was first offered, I believe, after a favourable review on TeaDB.  It took a long while to restock.

I purchased and reviewed the second storage option of this cake two years ago.  Initially it was described on the site as a Natural Malaysian stored cake and it’s really did mainly have this vibe.  However, later it was revealed that it was stored in Hongkong the first 5 years the same as the first storage option/offering but was then stored in more dry stored Malaysian conditions for 15 years vs the first option which was more humidly stored.  I am a bit surprised that the “2001 Red Ribbon Natural Malaysian Storage” had Hongkong storage on it as well.  I think this cake had this very present teak woody resin taste to it that I define as very strong Natural Malaysian character.  Looking back at my notes there are also nutty notes that are often found in HongKong storage.  Interestingly the wetter cake is quite different…

First infusion has a woody dirt almond nut taste.  Nutty almost metallic taste with a slippery slight drying mouthfeeling and faint coolness in the breath.  

Second infusion has a woody but mainly nutty taste of almonds.  There is some lesser dirt taste but nice strong rich nutty taste.  Some faint cooling with a slight dry mouthfeel.  

Third infusion is left to cool and has a rich woody nutty dirt taste with an almost slippery but mainly sticky dry mouthfeeling.  Full mouthfeel.  Deep chesty feeling with alertness and heart beats.  Overall rich aged feeling.

Fouth infusion has a woody nutty dirt taste.  Nice mouth watering feeling with a slight dry gripping slippery feel with very faint cool breath.

5th is a nutty woody dirt.  There is some sweet returning taste.  Stick dry mouthfeeling.  Strong mind alerting and warming qi.

6th has a watery woody sweet taste less nutty now and less dirt the mouthfeel is at first watery/slippery but becomes dry gripping.  Faint cool breath. Warming face qi with some deep heart beats and energetic feeling.  

7th is put into a long thermos steeping and gives off a sweet slightly syrupy woody dirt rich taste with a subtle talc sweet cherry returning sweetness.  There is a bit of bitter gripping feeling but not overwhelming which gives it presence in the mouth.  Chest beats with energetic feeling.

8th is an overnight thermos and gives off a mainly sweet slightly woody dirt with a mild mouthwatering feeling.

Vs 2001 Red Ribbon Natural Malaysian Storage- is more teal woody resin with almost candy finish where the wetter storage bings out a lot of dirt tastes, nuttier tastes, not as woody, but more plum cherry talc sweetness.  They are both pretty satisfying aged puerh and I don’t know which I would prefer… but I do know that the purity and straightforwardness of the woody teak flavour resin is something that I don’t have in the puerhs I have so I finished that cake in about a year … haha 

James and Denny’s (TeaDB) Tasting Notes

Peace

2006 Dragon Tea House Yiwu: Heartburn!

This 2006 Dragon Tea House Yiwu goes for $480 for 400g cake or $1.20/g.  It’s billed as a favourite of Dragon Tea House productions…

Dry leaves have a smokey with a sweet odour underneath.

First infusion has a creamy oily rich expanding cooling sweetness. Nice oily creamy viscus taste. There is a bit of creamy sweetness that exapands in the returning taste then a finish of smoke.  Nice relaxing focusing feeling.

The second infusion has a creamy oily viscus sweetness with subtel hint of floral that expands as the cooling throat sensation takes hold.  Nice smooth creamy buttery sweet taste with overall rich and deeply satisfying rich oily taste.  Finish is a bit smoky but still creamy oily sweet.  Very oily and rich presentation with smooth mouthfeeling and deep thoat opening and deep trapped saliva gob.  Strong Wave of Qi wraps around me and makes my heart expand and vibrate.  I feel very spacy and out of body with mind floating sensations. 

The third infusion has a rich woody resin smokey onset with some mouth and throat gripping a strong saliva producing feeling.  Strong Qi pushes me into a sweat with face and head numb and spaced out feeling.  The cooled down infusion has an almost melon floral creamy sweet onset with a touch of astringency and smoke.  Nice saliva producing in the mouth and strong Qi.

The fourth infusion has a milky chocolate that is more milk chocolate than dark chocolate.  Nice rich chocolate milk taste with chalky creamy full mouthfeeling.  Very nice full creamy sweet taste.  Nice mouth salivating astringency from last few infusions is gone now. 

5^th has a rich woody almost salty sweetness that has a creamy sweet backbone.  Nice fully chalky creamy feeling in the mouth with deep throat opening and cooling with returning chocolate taste with subtle not really floral fruity almost tobacco subtle suggestions as well.  Nice chest opening feeling and mind floating feeling.

6^th has a smoke woody onset with incense- resin taste initially with a subtle coolness and some creamy sweetness returns.  Overall lots of smokey taste, char more than incense.  Nice mouth salivating and strong mind freeing Qi feeling. 

7^th is left to cool in the cup and gives off a sweet fruity taste with a smoke char finish.  Nice pop of fresh melon fruity taste fades into a more dry gripping smoke that is a bit dry and gritty but mainly full oily in the mouth.  Nice mind floating Qi.  You can really feel it in the face too with a numbing feeling and arms are really light and airy.

8^th has a rich almost coffee like taste with a bland-bitter-woody-roasty-smoke onset.  Nice roasted nut sort of lingering sweetness in the mouth.  Nice floating body Qi feeling.  Oily saliva producing even minutes later.  Strong Heart opening feelng.

9^th is left to cool and gives off a sweet melon rich bitter woody coffee sweet creamy onset.  There is some smoke in there and an overall resin sweet base taste.  Nice pop of sweet taste and dense layered tastes.  Strong Heart opening, floating head/limbs Qi.

10^th is left to cool and gives off a bitter woody melon fresh fruity roasted coffee taste.  Really nice condensed taste with a resin roasted coffee base taste with faint smoke.  Nice dry silty mouthfeeling now.  Long coffee and sweet melon aftertaste with saliva producing effect. 

11^th has a roasted nut and melon onset with a coffee-like bitter roast base taste.  Lots of condensed strong taste initially with a returning milky creamy sweet-bitter coffee aftertaste.  There is still a splash of melon taste initially.  The mouthfeeling is getting more silty-dry and full with lots of saliva producing.   It doesn’t finish as sweet as is a bitter-bland coffee.  Heart opening chest opening feeling with floating head and limbs that are a bit heavy now.

13^th infusion has a smoke woody resin onset with a smothered sweetness that can’t quite break through.  There is a stronger gripping dry mouthfeeling and more of a bitter-dry-coffee taste to it.  Not any saliva producing so this infusion comes off a bit rougher.  Nice mind floating…

Overall this is a pretty awesome example of Yiwu!  Unfortunately it’s acidity was maybe actually and truly acidic and this puerh gave me heartburn every time I consumed it.  No puerh has ever did this to me.  I know acidity in puerh can be quite a positive attribute, even for me, but this one is something else.  The 2001 Menghai Tea Factory 7542 Simplified Yun, 2003 Hongkong Henry Serious Prescription, and 1997 Menghai Tea Factoy ShuiLanYin are examples of acidic puerh which I find to be excellent but none ever actually give me acid reflux (of course the ones I’ve caked have Traditional HongKong Storage on them and this Dragon Tea House is dry stored)!  The strange thing is, I never get heartburn… damn it but I really like this puerh! 

I think I would really like to try the 2004 Dragon Tea House Yiwu with the site bragging it’s power and tight compression.  I was pretty much offline over the last few weeks so missed the preorder.  Once I track it down there will be a good comparison tasting…

Marco’s (Late Steeps) Tasting Notes

James and Denny’s (Tea DB) Tasting Notes

Shah8’s Tasting Notes

Peace

When the Autumn Cold Comes, Drink Aged Puerh

 I had a really wonderful month or so of fresh puerh reviews in early- to mid-Autumn from Tea Encounter, ChenYuan Hao and Puerist!  The last few years here in the Canadian prairies have had warm early- and mid-Autumns.  This weather makes it tolerable to even drink fresh puerh.  The last few years have also had early Winters with snow arriving before the end of October and staying until the melt off in Spring.  The intensity of the shift from warm to cold in a few weeks really shocks the system and sends you gravitating towards aged and semi aged puerh almost immediately.  This year was very much the same.

The last few years I had consumed no fresh puerh from this time until Spring.  This year the snow and cold came even a few weeks earlier and really gave the body a jolt.  As it were, I still had a few more fresh 2023 Chenyuan Hao samples left so I uncomfortably pushed through.  If they weren’t so damn good I surely would have waited for next year.  After finishing those off I have been really enjoying some aged puerh over the last few weeks here.  

I have been using my Large and XL Yixing pots and steeping out some satisfying aged puerh into a mug.  Typically I am steeping the same leaves out over 3-7 days.  It’s a really slow way of unraveling a puerh over a really long time and I’m quite enjoying it.  Many days I have spent sitting by the wood burning fireplace sipping at these comforting puerhs as the picturesque snow coats the world.  Some 90s stuff, Traditional Hongkong storage stuff,  some iron bings and even some Yang Qing Hao have been given the weeks long strong hand big pot treatment. Haha

I have, as I always have done for years now, been drinking lots of puerh from my favourite puerh vendor TeasWeLike.  The big size quarter cakes and full cakes leave me in no rush to evaluate and I catch myself lost in my enjoyment of drinking them as I think to myself “ I should really write something about this sometime.”  I made a few purchases over the last few months stocking some of my favourites to consume as it gets cold out.  They have such satisfying puerhs.  I am to post a bunch of it in the next month or so.

Until then…

Peace

2023 ChenYuan Hao TianMenShan: Beautiful Piling On Sweetnesses

 

I got this sample free for review but 2023 ChenYuan Hao TianMenShan goes for $784.00 for 357g cake or $2.20/g.  This is another area that has become crazy expensive lately and to tell you the truth there is this mystique surrounding this area, unlike others, that casts its spell on even quite famous puerh producers.  The oldest trees in the area seem to be difficult to obtain and they seem to be marketed in such a way that projects that even the producers feel honoured and maybe lucky to get them.  

The only other Tianmenshan Gushu I’ve tried was the 2020 Essence of Tea TianMenShan GaoGan.  They said that they will likely not be able to get the leaves again and only got to press this stuff in 2020 because of the lack of foreign travel due to the pandemic shutdown.  They have not pressed another.  ChenYuan Hao also has a similar scarcity narrative with this 2023.  So there is hype with this area.

I guess the price of TianMenShan material might have doubled since 2020 or maybe this ChenYuan Hao is twice as good as the Essence of Tea?  Let’s find out…



Dry leaves smell of distant forest almost nutty.

The rinsed leaf smells like forest.

First infusion has a clear woody watery taste with a sweetness that slowly expands into a candy taste.  The mouthfeel has a metallic smooth sticky feeling.  The qi expands in the chest.  

Second infusion has a woody mild bitter almost coco oily taste with a slow strong returning sweetness that transforms slowly but powerfully from clear sugar into strong candy taste.  The mouthfeel is slippery and sticky with a pasty feeling.  Qi has a chest puffy feeling.  

Third has a bitter floral onset with woody grains notes that turn to a mouthwatering returning sugars after taste which slowly and powerfully transforms into candy.  Sighing feeling with some body floating body feeling.  Mouthfeel is more full gripping now.  Chest expansion big chest balloon feeling.  

Fouth infusion is a floral woody mild bitter with a sugar returning sweetness that strengthens into an almost carmel then to a candy sweetness.  This is a beautiful feature of this puerh the strong and changing transformation of sweet tastes.  It has a mouthwatering effect with a mild gripping and slight sticky dryness.  Qi feels like mild expanding chest and head.  

Fifth infusion has a watery woody onset with a sugary returning sweetness that expands a bit into a caramel sweetness and then predictably into a more mild candy with dry mouth and wood.  The mouthfeel is a dry pulling but not overly abrasive.  The effect is saliva producing pushing saliva from the deep throat into a candy sweetness.  Nice mellow mind with puffy chest feeling.

Sixth infusion has a watery woody grains taste.  Sticky slight gripping feeling.  There is still some returning sugar into candy but mild now.  Mild mellow mind Qi now.  Some mild puffy chest.

The seventh is an overnight thermos steeping… the next day it tastes juicy oily fruity taste the oily sweetness fades into the aftertaste.  There is a bit slippery then turns to more drying and gripping in the throat.  There is some nuttiness in the saliva.  

Vs 2020 Essence of Tea TianMenShan GaoGan.  The Essence of Tea had much strong and brilliant Qi in the mind and body.  I really like the swaying bodyfeeling and the build up of pressure and release feeling.  It is really all about the Qi.  This 2023 Chen Yuan Hao is all about this transformative, morphing, building sweetness.  It does this thing where it starts off sugar, then slowly to carmel, then long candy sweetness.  Its like the slow steady piling on of layered sweetnesses with each sip.  Really beautiful and refined but it really lacks a complex Qi experience for me.  The ChenYuan Hao ChaWangshu and especially the BaiChaYuan offer more for the same price when it comes to the bodyfeel and Qi.

This is my last of these 2023 ChenYuan Hao free samples for review.  The quality of these samples is pretty amazing with no flaws in the whole line up.  I didn’t get a chance to try some of the crazy expensive stuff but I’m going to try to shake Paolo down a bit (haha) to get these last ones before I conclude with a ranking for commenter Roadie.

Alex’s Tasting Notes

Paolo’s Tasting Notes

Peace