Private Collection

Just tasted a puerh tea made from BangDong(邦东) tea region in 2009 year.
Floral, honey and herb like aroma from the dry tea leaves.
It has impact on each sip, bitter and retreats fast.
Astringency is weak from the beginning to the end.
Thick tea liquid is rich with density.
Tea flavor in mouth lasts long and varies with time neither too fast nor too slow.
HuiGan comes soon and from wide place in front side of mouth and tongue.
Salivation is always on a satisfying level and lasts very long even after the session.
Long lasting steeping times.
Fragrant tea flavor even like comes from inner nose.
Very energizing especially in this stifling hot afternoon in Guangzhou.
According to the tea flavor from dry leaf and cold cup along with brewed tea leaf, guessing it was blended with GuShu tea material on a high ratio even with some wild tea leaves blended in.

Well aged till now, and it is still can be highly expected on evolution in coming years in GuangZhou.
Brewing method.
7g tea leaf.
70ml porcelain GaiWan (full capacity of 120ml)
Filtered running water.
97 Celsius degrees to boiling water.

This is a fairly nice tasting semi aged raw tea. It started out with notes of tobacco and leather. They were not too overpowering and lasted about four steeps. By the fifth steep it began to transform into something nicer. I’d say it developed a sweet note of sorts but am not sure how to characterize it. While I was drinking this I was bidding on two ripe teas on EBay from Menghai Tea Factory. In each case I was outbid at the last minute by some idiot who didn’t do his homework, a novice bidder from his EBay score. In each case he bid over my price driving the bidding up to the buy it now price. I hate these idiots on EBay who don’t realize that the object of the auction is not to get the item at any price but to get it at a good price. Why will some idiots bid the thing up to any price. If my maximum bid had been above the buy it now price I’m sure this idiot would have come in and spent more than that to get the tea. Now I guess I wait for the seller to relist the two teas on auction. The same idiot is not likely to bid on them again although another one might. I could always just buy the tea but will probably wait for the seller to relist it. He will almost certainly do so.

Back to this tea. This is a very nice semi aged tea for the price I paid. The somewhat unpleasant notes of leather and tobacco did not last too long and it developed into something fairly nice. Considering I only paid $60 for three teas I think this is a good tea. It’s not spectacular but I think a good solid value. I thought before I drank it that it might be no good because the leaves smelled a little musty. There was no mold on the leaves.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml teapot with 8.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec. 5 sec. 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

Got this in the mail the other day. Bought it from a private collector that Mr Mopar hooked me up with. Also bought some raw from him. Will probably try one of those later. This one is I am sure not what it claims. I paid $60 for all three cakes. You do definitely not get Yiwu Gushu for that price. I’d be really surprised if it was either Yiwu or gushu. It is, however, pretty good tea. It was slightly bittersweet in the first few steeps with a note of bittersweet chocolate. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it. Probably about the right amount for a dry stored 2007 tea mind you so I expect that the age is in the ballpark anyway. There was also a not a camphor early on, I’d say the first three or four steeps. The various notes were replaced by a sweet note around steep six or seven. Could be mushrooms, maybe, I’m not really sure but it is a mildly sweet note. Overall I really did like this tea. For the price I paid I am tempted to buy a couple more of them. Despite that there was no possibility that this tea was what the name claims it was pretty good. I expect that the private collector did not come up with that name but that the tea was called that by whomever he bought it from. I always wonder why they take what is already a good tea and call it by something it isn’t rather than just calling it what it is, a good tea from somewhere else. Who really knows. The Chinses are very fond of calling puerh from a less famous location by the name of a more famous location, in this case Yiwu. In any case I really did like this tea.

I steeped this tea 12 times in a 105ml Yixing Teapot with 8.5g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The tea leaves were not done at twelve steeps. I would have gotten at least three or four more steeps out of them but I was done. I will post a picture of the wrapper here on the odd chance that someone recognizes it. I know I have seen it before. I just don’t know where.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJAs8Svj7AD/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJAzyVFD91n/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

I really like this tea. I tried it for the first time today. I love the flavor. I have a hectic busy day planned today.