pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
Hello puerh of the day thread! My name is Andrew and I’ve been active on Steepster for a few years now. At this point in my tea drinking, puerh has become a daily activity. While I may own a sample site for puerh, I hope you all can appreciate what I may have to remark here which seems a bit easier to just throw my thoughts down than a tasting note as many are not in the system. This thread has over 7000 post and that’s awesome! I have been reading it for a bit and now feel comfortable with taking time throughout the week to drop some thoughts here.
Tonight I am drinking some of the 1990’s Ding Xing Hao that I included in the last Pubertea group buy I had. Strong storage taste with little bite. For the price I didn’t expect much, however it was quite nice and very enjoyable. Left it alone for awhile when my friends were over but then I boiled some water and hit it hard; was at 90c prior. The tea came back to life with a side effect of dry mouth feel after. Earlier the tea was softer so maybe this leaf just doesn’t handle boiling water or… anyways, pretty solid stuff for the low cost.
I tried a ripe from Puerhshop that was quite good, a Zenpuer production from Buland, very tasty.
Then I moved on to the 2017 B___ P___ from White2Tea club. This was a very nice tea with sweet and floral notes to it. I was sweet with some notes that might be described as Apricot or Stonefruit. I liked this tea a lot, too bad they only sent 50g. It is supposed to be a very high quality tea but I don’t know how you judge a tea like that by taste. I don’t think the paper with the club box said exactly where it was from just described the area as pristine, etc.
2006 Menghai V-93 sheng tuo.
Bought this from a private seller that originally purchased from Yunnan Sourcing.
10 grams to brew. Rinse and wait 5 minutes. Steep times 5secs,5secs, and 5secs. Tried to drink it 3 times.
Notes, bitter,metallic, and drying. I am a believer that this has sat wrapped up with no humidity to age it with. Goes into the maybe I can salvage it bin.
Heh. I have a tin myself that’s full of teas that are on the too dry side of things. They are broken up and hit with optomistic levels of humidity. We’ll see.
You can fix teas if the base was good to begin with…if the tea wasn’t all that and perhaps if it dried out too much…the best hope is tropical storage. It’ll be drinkable down the line
Sorry to hear that, doesn’t sound promising. One consideration is that some teas simply don’t age well. You will get answers if you can locate the same tea from other sources, ideally one with a reliable storage.
Hope it gets better!
Just wondering about some feedback. Fair warning, relative newbie here! I ordered and have tried this Pu-erh tea: https://www.musiccitytea.com/collections/pu-erh/products/copy-of-black-puer-tea-10-years-old-cooked-puer-tea-cake
Says it is 47 years old. Price affordable for me. I did enjoy this tea. Mellower than expected, some peat notes in the beginning. I don’t remember specifics, perhaps a taste I can’t name…enjoyable tea all around. I’m wondering if I’ve been duped considering age and price? Just joined Steepster and looking forward to learning and tasting! Cheers!
Welcome!
All I’m going to say is… Quite a few will be dropping some remarks due to that link.
Thanks for sharing that link; my roommates are probably wondering what is so funny…
I was wondering from the dimples shown in the picture if it might be a Dirty ‘ol Baoyan Brick, but comparing pictures, this tea looks like it may be even lower quality material. See for comparison: http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/2008/04/2001-xiaguan.html. Note that the tea you link has larger leaves, so it’s probably huangpian, which is less desirable.
Welcome in! Shou wasn’t developed till 1975 and marketed in 1976. That probably isn’t puerh though.
“I’m wondering if I’ve been duped”
Yep, like MrMopar said.
I would not buy from that vendor again if I were you, they are either amazingly incompetent or deliberately scamming their customers. Either is bad, and there are vendors that are neither.
Thanks all! If it is not pu-erh…what is it!? lol
‘1970’ (sample) – leaves are large and pretty chewed up, very dark. Smell is underwhelming, not much there. Taste is okay, not unpleasant but a tad flat, earthy. Fair amount of tea dust sediment at bottom of cup, pouring through filter. Not gritty.
2013 Denong Wild (sample)- leaves smaller, cleaner. I think this is a loose tea rather than cake. Aroma is fresher, vegetal with hay notes. Lighter in color. Taste is cleaner somehow, little sediment.
Pleasant lingering taste, slight astringency. Ok, not memorable.
Enchanting Beauty 2015 Raw – sample also from Bana Tea. Leaves whole with stems. Noted floral, mild cooling. (notes found from a couple months ago.)
And with that I thank you all for sharing your information. I’ve thought about ordering tea from Yunnan Source for a good while now, I will have to go ahead and place an order. And, after reading some of this forum I think it will be an interesting comparison! I have a lot of reading ahead of me!!
@ a bad pasty, the age claim of a 1970 shou tea. Shou wasfirst produced in 74 and marketed in 1975. There are where the “Standard for ripe puerh” the Menghai 7572. Others are Menghai 7562, brick, 7592, cake like the 7572 and the Kunming 7581 brick. Shou was developed when all the factories were still under government/Kunming factory umbrella. There are some other blends like the 7692 Menghai the next year and others trying to improve the process and taste of the tea. It could be heicha. Lu an or something similar though. I don’t think it is a ripe from 1970 though. If the claim was after the development of the shou process which is what I think it is seems more believable. It really looks like a 7581 or a 7562 from the pressing on the brick. I think it is a tea from after 1975.
Thanks for the explanation mrmopar. I’m mostly on on the same page with all of that; I guess I could have been clearer. Is there anything about the looks of the leaves that suggests that the tea is something other than puer, whether that’s another kind of heicha or something else? It’s not even clear to me that the brick and the broken bits are the same tea. . .
Those high compressed bricks are very hard to break sometimes. Think XiaGuan like compression.
Anyone else noticed the URL for the tea says it’s a copy of black tea and 10 years old?
A 1970s brick for that price is laughable
Drinking what I think is a 2003 Xiaguan Iron cake.
Which is to say it’s supposedly a 2003 XG Iron cake. I am not entirely convinced it’s not fake, even though it looks the part. Perfectly drinkable tea but the jury is still out.
Pics? Why do you think it’s fake? Pu erh faking is incredibly rampant, even with 2017 cakes
@TeaLife.HK
Pics: https://imgur.com/a/3wNJH
Well, first of all the price, I think I paid less than $20 for this cake which seems too cheap. Not that I was scammed, I bought it out of curiosity kinda expecting a fake. Second because the weight is 345 gr and I am not sure how much might get lost since 2003 (if it is that old) but it seemed a bit light, assuming XG really had it at 357 when it was new. And then there is the mystery that the cake was sold as a 2009 but when I got it the nei fei says 2003.
What makes me think that MAYBE it’s not fake is that MarshalN had a blog post where he bought a cake which he thought is real and which looks very much like mine, both the wrapper and the tea. (the tea in my pics looks a bit greener but that is the photo, the real cake looks more like his) Scroll down a bit: http://www.marshaln.com/2014/01/
So I don’t know. The tea is not bad though, not fantastic but not bad. A tad of xiaguan smokiness the first two steeps or so, much less later on. Good mouthfeel. The compression is very hard, but I have never had a genuine iron cake so I am not sure how hard they are supposed to be. The print on my wrapper is off-center but MarshalN’s is too, though in another direction and a bit less. I am not sure if this is a sign of fakery since I have no idea how well XG printed their wrappers back in the day.
If you (or anyone) can spread any light on this please do.
Like I said, that’s what I though. Tea looks rather similar to MarshalN’s though his wrapper is better.
Chenpi Puer – 6 year old chenpi, with 2016 finished Yiwu ripe, blended by ourselves (not stuffed fruit peel!). Tried with gong ting and cha tou over several sessions, including today. Great winter drink.
more details here if interested:
www.yiwumountaintea.com/blog
I bought some chenpi from my local Asian grocer, and find that it hardly infuses any orange at all (I’ve tried it with various ripe teas). It smells more like smoke than citrus, honestly.
It was dirt cheap, like $2/half #, which probably is significant.
Today I decided to brew up the 2000 Xia Guan toucha that I had unpacked over the weekend. The smoke and strong bitterness from memory has dissipated greatly. The familiar Xia Guan signature of woodsy citrus and floral is recognizable but with a darker complexion. Old style puerh tea that packed quite a punch in its early day, now showing signs of mellowing out and becoming smoother.
2016 Yi Wu Gushu Xiao Zhu dragonball.
I am not a fan of young raw but this is an interesting tea. Too early for a review but not bad for a sheng this young. It’ll probably become something nice when it grows up. I actually bought a box of these as a gift for a friend (and so I had to get some for me too).
2010 Menghai Zhuan ripe. Woody, fruity, smooth. Some notes that I can’t really place, either from the fermentation or the storage, dunno. But good, need a few more sessions to make up my mind.
Somebody introduced me to a person who visits Yunnan to source material for a boutique store… I was sent some samples to try in case I decide I might want to partner up and tonight I pulled out a sample that I kind of had some negative thoughts about before trying it.
1. this tea said it was ‘single tree’
2. I’m fed up with marketting
3. I don’t know this person well… single tree??? ummmm
4. maybe I should just try it and see what happens
So I pull out this sample of single tree LaoMan E from 2016 and brew it up. First steep made me remember I miss being a kid when I could just pick up plastic dinosaurs at the dentist office and not care what is going on around me.
By the 5th steep I decided I don’t care if it’s single tree, LaoMan E, or even 2016… this stuff is kicking my butt.
Thank goodness it is turkey day tomorrow… I shall be up all night with this.
Malaysian boutique, Huang Chen Hao. I don’t know much more yet. I’m going to inquire because I have no idea what this may cost… but it’s going to be my best friend tonight
WTF is up with this obsession with single tree tea anyway? I’ve never seen any evidence or even heard a reasonable hypothesis why it would be inherently better. Not that the claims are hardly ever true. People need to stop falling for so much marketing BS.
It’s a supply/demand thing. Tuhao are asking for the biggest/oldest/best/coolest/tallest/funkiest/smelliest/bitterest/silliest… (exaggerating just a little bit here) tree and willing to pay extra for it. The news spreads and every takes their most XYZ tree and makes a single tree production and sells at a higher price. In reality, it’s more like it markets itself due to the customer demand and not worth mass marketing as there is insignificant production (apart from faked stuff).
Maybe it’s supply and demand, but where is the demand coming from? :-) Not sure what is the chicken and the egg here. Vendor-driven hype or customer-driven obsession. There are a lot of people getting hung up on tea attributes that have questionable or no impact on taste, which is what puzzles me. Tree age being the other obvious example.
A lot is curiosity and some is so you can say I got this single tree stuff. I think more curiosity on my end. There is single stuff out there but they say the blends are usually much better.
“Tuhao”—sounds to me like people with a lot of money to throw around. 土豪。 I looked it up. Google gives “tycoon.” It’s mostly Chinese. The price of stuff in stores in Beijing, Shanghai, even Kunming reflect considerable uptick in the interest in tea from Yunnan and other places as well.
Trying not to make remarks on this matter because it’s what is in the cup that matters to me… but, there were only 13 cakes made from the tree and only 5 cakes left. I haven’t done much research as to how many cakes a single tree would produce and all. Trying not to cause commotion over this but it does push me to learn some new stuff!
“because it’s what is in the cup that matters to me”
Uh-huh, so why are we talking about single trees for then?
“in case I decide I might want to partner up”
“only 5 cakes left”
Ah, might that be why? Are you marketing a cake here?
In my original post above I believe I made it clear that I went into it not caring about the claim. I still don’t… this should be an area I am able to discuss such things with the potential to learn; in this instance, how much a single tree would yield… but I figure we would get into age, area, and a bunch of other crazy stuff that cannot be verified easily.
In regards to marketing, maybe there needs to be rules here? From my perspective I’m just jotting some thoughts of a sample, but to someone else they might be thinking ‘oh here he is to talk this thing up…’. I’d be cool with either one, people who know me understand; however the issue is those who do not know me right?
Good statement. Whats in the cup speaks for itself. I have some of the single tree from EoT so I am curious always about this stuff. I always trust you on your notes so no worries with me. I welcome new venues that get found like this.
“In regards to marketing, maybe there needs to be rules here?”
Well, I have no idea what the rules say about that, but you are either selling something or you are not, right? If you are, then is that not what the “Tea Companies and Promotions” board is for? Perhaps not but my point is: if you are marketing stuff, say so clearly. I dislike hidden marketing because its dishonest to the core.
Half the posts in General are from people selling stuff, including group buys and whatnot (literally half, I counted the other day). I find it discouraging that the “tea community” nowadays seem to consist mostly of people with commercial ambitions and/or dreams of becoming the next Scott. But that’s just me, apparently everyone else is happy.
“… you are either selling something or you are not, right? If you are, then is that not what the “Tea Companies and Promotions” board is for?”
Sounds like a fair and logical question.
Group buys are usually and should be so listed in the title of the thread.
A forum of tea lovers (enablers & buyers) is naturally going to attract sellers and together, we comprise a vibrant & mutually beneficial community as long as everyone follows the forum rules:
“7) Make your titles as descriptive as possible. Help people understand exactly what they’re getting themselves into.
8) We’re all trying to make a living, but don’t sell anything or ask for money without permission from Steepster site administrators. You can contact jason@steepster.com with any inquires.
9) If you’re a tea company, please do not start new forum topics about your products or promotions. Feel free to post replies where relevant, but anything overly self-promotional will be removed. Also, don’t rate your own teas because of the (obvious) conflict of interest. It’s misleading and everyone will figure it out anyways – you’ll turn away the very customers you’re trying to attract."
https://steepster.com/discuss/67-discussion-guidelines-please-read-before-participating
Group buys are different from tea companies and promotions though, aren’t they? They do not normally make a profit.
Point 9 is also not precisely how things are currently happening – the tea companies have one promo topic for themselves each.
(It makes no difference which board things are on for me as I look at all discussions so see them all in one place. Tbh I find the group buys a lot more content-filled than a lot of the disguised SEO posts).
“Group buys are different from tea companies and promotions though, aren’t they?”
Agreed. But the title of the thread should state that it’s a group buy.
“Point 9 …. the tea companies have one promo topic for themselves each.”
Agreed, and they should be posted under: “Tea Companies and Promotions”
“…group buys a lot more content-filled…” Agreed.
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