pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
EoT “Camphor Aroma,” which is an alleged 2000 white-wrapper CNNP cake. Was thinking about getting another one, guess I should have acted before the GBP started going back up.
Trying Crimson Lotus’s Black Gold this morning. I really appreciate the effort that Crimson Lotus is making by producing shu out of high quality material. However, for me, the flavor on this tea fell flat, particularly given that it is expensive. I guess I’m not yet convinced that expensive/quality material will necessarily translate into a superior ripe pu erh. It is certainly an OK tea, but I found it to be a little astringent, especially in later steeps, and woody (which I personally don’t like in shu). The broth looks excellent, and the tea holds up well to multiple infusions, but the flavor just got worse and worse as the steepings progressed. I could have just had a bad experience, given the more positive reviews, though who knows.
OK, so I realized I found the last two teas I tried tasted bad. I thought maybe it was me and not the tea, though I was confused since I have had them in totally different environments (one at work one at home – different water, etc.) Then I tried a couple of my favorite teas. They tasted bad as well. So what gives? About a week ago, my doctor has me start drinking hydrogen peroxide (yeah, sounds crazy but it is a real treatment for infections). It tastes like drinking bleach. Needless to say, I think this might be messing with my taste buds. So to be fair, I will sample this tea again after I stop. I bet it will taste much better!
> drinking hydrogen peroxide
??
What kind of dosage, what concentration?
I can see how that might have an effect on your ability to taste.
Yeah, it is a weird thing to do. If you search in internet you will find lots written about it. There is a book called the One Minute Cure as well. I was told to buy 35% food grade H2O2, and put 6 drops in 6 oz of water and take it twice per day. Each day I am to increase by a drop until I reach 15 and stay on that for 2 weeks. Wreaks havoc with my tea tasting though!
Went for shou this morning with 2013 Huang Ying Menghai Ripe mini brick. The paper was impossible to not rip, and the brick is tight, but it was worth early morning frustration with packing to drink a nice sweet should. Not too complex and didn’t have staying power, but it was very nice to have.
Today I drank the first of the teas I sourced from Taobao. Sourcing teas from Taobao can be a gamble but this one turned out to be a winner. It was the 2017 Xinyi Hao Longzhu Puer Tea Ancient Tree Ripe Puerh Tea, 1000g column. The shape of this tea was unusual. It was essentially a brick but compressed into the shape of a column. I really enjoyed this tea. It was quite complex with three main notes to it. First it had a fair amount of fermentation flavor, but this flavor was not unpleasant or fishy. Second it had a bittersweet note that I probably would not go as far as to say bittersweet chocolate. And third it had a note of camphor or spice depending on how you want to describe it. The earth and the bitter lasted about six steeps. After this there was a sweet and spicy taste to the tea for a few more steeps. Finally the spicy note was gone and what was left was a sweet note like a dried fruit but one cured without sugar and not a super sweet type like a pineapple. This was overall quite enjoyable and there was even some qi to it, although it was fleeting and didn’t last long.
Today was a 2007 CNNP 7581 shou sample that I got before my big sample order from YS. Not much flavor in this and the flavor that is there has too much woodiness to it. Not bad but nothing worth writing home about. Glad it is only a sample.
Redeeming myself from yesterday with 2010 Haiwan Supreme shou from Berylleb on eBay. This is fantastic shou, nice tastes along the way, though it took a while to really open up. Plenty of infusions from it.
Tonight I finally tried my sample of 2002 little yellow mark from white2tea. Oh my word. Reading reviews of folks being sad they loved this when it was $150/cake a few years ago is um something, because right now I’m sad that I love it and want more and it’s $250/cake now.
The flavor progression has involved earthiness, umeboshi (tasty sour plum), fruity sweet aftertaste deep in the throat, vanilla sweet aftertaste, and now as I write this (6 steeps in so far) smooth sweet dirty cola.
And beyond flavor, I just feel dreamy and happy, it’s all lingering deep throat sweetness and wooziness.
Yesterday I started a session with 2008 Hai Lang Hao Star of Bulang (raw) that went 12 rounds with no signs of giving up, so I went to finish it today and got another 8 in, and now I’m throwing it in a travel mug for some “farmer style” goodness to get every last but out of it. That is a good tea that really lasts. Can’t pick up a cake for a bit since I just got a nice sized YS order in with some good stuff in it.
Today I was craving shou, so I grabbed a mystery mini tuo that was thrown in for free from another order. Wasn’t even sure it was shou until I brewed it. It had fairly nice taste, though it is low quality material as it was mostly broken bits. Did not last long, but I didn’t really have time for it to last any longer so it worked out nice. And now I don’t have to figure out what it was so that’s nice for my desire for organization. Got a couple more sheng samples I need to try before I break into my new stuff that is resting from shipment.
2016 Jingmai. A generous gift sample from LP; Only other thing I know about it is that it was in the group of ‘expensive’ samples.
Well it’s very good. Goes in light and easy for a young sheng, with just enough pleasant astringency to give a steady aftertaste. Has plenty of returning aftertastes as well, in a blooming perfumey kinda way. Excites the stomach. A touch of qi-ish effects to boot.
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