pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou

I finally got back to the Sheng Olympiad today, giving the 200X “A” a try. Wet stored, but a very good example of such. I followed that up with a sample of the Mr. Feng FD from EoT that I purchased recently, as the savoriness of the middle steeps of the A brought it to mind. It struck me as much less savory than the first time I had it (though the aroma was still somewhat miso-y and some savoriness was present), with some bright citrus notes fairly obvious. Both are pretty excellent teas.

2017 Gushu Raw from the W2T teaclub (mengsong, iirc).

I’m in a rather good mood today, so I’m going to describe this tea in a positive light.

Compression: Unlike W2T’s Brother/Sister bricks, this tea isn’t compressed so hard as to be undrinkable, just hard enough to cause a small mountain of dust and make me fear for my fingertips.

Smell: Unlike W2T’s Pin, this tea has the benefit of not smelling like urine. Actually, last I checked, the Pin has progressed nicely, and no longer smells of urine. Double win!

Taste: Unlike W2T’s 2016 Bronzed Diaphragm, which was so rough on the stomach that I has to stop halfway through my session, this tea is merely boring, which allows me to drink a few more cups before giving up.

So, I’m presently having the ‘06 Xiaguan Gold Thread tuo. This is the fifth Xiaguan tuo I’ve tried. Both productions of the Dali Tuo production I can get with. This one falls into the latter category, I’m afraid. It’s not as bad as the Nanzhao tuo or the Red Chamber, the latter I’m chalking up to still needing time, thinking optimistically. However, the Nanzhao and the Gold Thread share traits that I had chalked up for “storage.” It’s not. They’re from different vendors neither providing other items that gave me pause about storage conditions. Both the Nanzhao and the Gold Thread smell like foot. The Nanzhao tuo is undrinkable. The Gold Thread is drinkable, with hints of fruit, tobacco, ashtray, and minerals. Nice and sudsy. Decent storage with a deep brown color. Interestingly, the Nanzhao cake is great. The Dali Tuo are too. As far as raw smoky productions, I feel Haixintang makes the best.

‘08 Boyou F6-Huanggang. Got this from YS quite a spell ago. At ten years old, this cake is ready. The broth is clear and dark. Extremely sweet, hints of roast, the camphor notes are much more present than when I finished of the first cake some 4 yrs ago. The camphor is very good in there. Just one pot and my tongue is numb. Lingering roastiness in the aftertaste. Very, very clean tasting. No astringency to speak of. Perhaps a dash of bitter. 5yrs storage under fairly intense conditions of heat and humidity, at least 4mths of the year. Gorgeous crystal clear broth. Better than I remember. Sweeter and with more camphor and less bitter than 7581. I wouldn’t say I detect any chocolate or any of the proverbial “earthiness.” This is the only Boyou production I’ve ever tried. Boyou, yet another Dayi/MHTF protege.

Had my second attempt to join Badger and Blade yesterday so I can partake in the fun SOTD thread there that has been going on forever but I was told that as a ’vendor’I have to pay fees to participate in the forums. Well, that sucks.

Anyways, this is going to become larger given time!

Yesterday I drank the 2012 Mahei by BiYuanHao with an impressive 10g in a 75ml shbo. Was pretty crazy. Not much flavor going on but some great relaxation came of it. I have yet to had non-boutique mahei so between this and XiZiHao is my only exposure. Light stuff, decent feels, all at a lower cost than the higher end Yiwu productions that both companies focus on. Not sure what the cost is on this so I cannot remark on that aspect. I don’t foresee this material going much further with its depth over time though. Leaf size is nice, but for aroma and taste it is somewhat lacking to its cousin productions.

Right now I am drinking what translate as ‘Golden Tian’ from XiZiHao. This is the, or the, 2015 production sent as a sample from a shop in Taiwan that seems to specialize in high end raw puerh. This stuff had a strong aroma at first with a hint of spice behind the upfront fruity taste to it. Somewhat complex as the dry finish gives off this fruit lathered leather note which is hard to describe. On infusion 12 while watching JoJos with my friend on Skype. I’m not sure if the show has my head spinning or this stuff, but it’s a wonderful Saturday and I feel good.

Today I am drinking a YS shu, 2014 Tie Guo Li “Lun Dao”. This was very funky when purchased a couple years ago, but something about it was very appealing even then. As I try it now, the funk is going, though not yet completely gone. It is a burly highly fermented dark chewy brew. Very thick, bittersweet, and espresso like, and starting to smooth out. A great shu for those who like it dark and strong. This is a hidden gem.

Crimson Lotus ‘Planet BaiYing’ – The weather is crappy outside with icy rain, so I decided to bring one of these to work today. This is coming along well, the first two steeps are really smooth and almost a bit too subtle, but it opens up with a thicker body and very pleasant bitterness. It has a ‘green’ note to it, that I could do without, it reminds me more of a mid range long jing, but it dissipates and become some floral again.

Another Liquid Proust mystery sample this morning, labeled only “Raw Secrets”. It was sheng, lovely clean petrichor and some rounder fruitiness later on. The aftertaste was a really nice lingering sensation of light clean air after rain.

I cleaned my kettle this morning! Wowwww it had gotten gross in there. I should go retaste all the teas I haven’t liked recently just to make sure it wasn’t just the nastiness of my kettle that was problem after all >.<

2016 Diangu from XiZiHao… I am willing to bet an entire cake that 9/10 people who try this would think I’m brewing a dancong.

I brewed this up and I thought since when do I brew dancong in my puerh vessels and when did I even load dancong in here?

This is by far one of the most unique raw puerhs I have come across and there is very little I can say to even explain how ridiculous it is to have a ‘dancong’ brew out for 12 to 15 infusions. Nice oily mouthfeel with a punch you in the face fruity taste that ends with a soft bitterness allowing the huigan to do its thanggggggggggggggggggggg

Planet Bangdong. I’m only about 6 steeps in at the moment, but so far it’s the first CLT planet I’ve been disappointed by. I loooooved Planet Baiying (super beany yums) and Planet Jingmai (spicy sandalwood and flowers and body feels), but this one is just kinda boring me.

It’s really not bad, kinda savory, starting to get more pleasantly bitter now, totally fine, but that seems to be all there is to it. No throat feels or body feels or aftertastes.

Maybe it needs to rest longer before I try another, it only arrived a few days ago but I got impatient. Ah well!