pu-erh of the day. Sheng or Shou
When do pu-erh suppliers typically announce their Black-Friday/Cyber-Monday sales? Thanks!
2011 Menghai Lao Cha Tou gifted several years ago by the originator of this 10 year old topic, mrmopar. What a pleasure to meet and drink tea with him back then. I hope we can meet again.
Good tea. Very clear, flavorful, smooth. Getting some aged TCM spicy notes to go with the tobacco, bread dough, wet autumn leaves and root beer. So compressed I’ll probably be nursing the for pot 3 days.
Having a small pot at the end of a long work week. So tired.
My boyfriend, who dislikes tea but is game to try anything I brew, said it smelled like catfish and tasted like Lipton black :D
Saturday morning smooth under the cool blanket of coastal clouds. I have no cell phone signal on these days. Time to make another batch of mirabelle plum jam.
Not so dense in taste but the welcome and neutralizing lightness is settling my stomach after a dinner of heavily spiced goat curry and fried dumplings. I should have drank this last night before going to bed!
Two nights in a row of 2013 Chen Sheng Hao Na Ka sheng — from mrmopar 5 years ago? Hope you’re well tea friend.
Plastic baggie and California storage ain’t no thing to this tea. Champ leaf. Starts moderately sweet, then quickly moves astringent with the second cup. That softens with the next 8 or so steeps as cactus bitters prickle my tastebuds. Bittersweet throat. Ends gently sweet with the long steeps. The sheng that end sweet make it feel like a complete experience. Only issue is it’s a bit thin some pours. I have gotten ~2 liters of tea with 7 grams of leaf.
This had been humid-stored before it landed in my cupboard. Wet, decaying wood and some rain-filled ashtray notes. Sounds notsogood, but if you know what you’re getting into, it might be a welcome flavor. This tea pairs well with laying down :)
Again, tonight. Last of the sample. Even though it’s very good, it’s not a puerh I feel compelled to seek out but it is a pleasure to be acquainted with. A sample from another year might be stashed in one of these crocks.
I’d love to try this in another 10 years.
Finished a sample of this tea from my own dry storage. Quite different compared to the one that was more humid-stored from mrmopar. Depth and punch are similar but my own is notably greener, more like yerba mate — slight smoke and moderate alkaline savoriness with a strong herbaceous hay-tobacco note, but topped off with a heap of pollen, a chunk of beeswax, and later, a spoonful of apricot jam.
2004 Hai Lang Hao Ba Ma Gong Chun sheng, another from mrmopar years back. Is it really 2004 or is it the 2010 that’s listed in the Steepster database?
What lies beyond this thick, alkaline, creamy and caramel opening? Already feeling relaxed with the first cup.
Crimson Lotus 2017 Storm Breaker the morning after a day of cold spring rain. So elegant. Worth the dough.
2004 Hai Lang Hao “Nan Nuo Bai Hao” from Yunnan Sourcing
Brothy, numbing, refreshing
Incense utilized as medicine by the ancients, that luscious floral bitterness present in the most beckoning blood-red rose, the earthy spice and smoke of myrhh resin on a freshly lit charcoal, a numbing kava bitter-root emulsion, the musk of oily fingers dusted with cumin, dried peaches and fresh cream in the distance
A cool swallow, the mouth waters, sweetness returns as a sticky date wrapped in cinnamic shiso leaf
Flowers and blueberry skin on the breath
Quite grounding yet the body floats, the spirit uplifted
A hauntingly beautiful tea
A continuation of last night’s pot of 2006 Mengku Rongshi Da Xie Shan from Yunnan Craft. I have an order on the way from them for the first time in 4 years, so figured I’d dip back into their selection.
Tastes like the sheng puerh version of the region’s red teas. Kind of a blond tobacco taste with notes of elderflower, honey, elderberry, raisins, mugwort. Slightly buttery, honeyed and light with sweet smoke at first then becomes more fruity midtoned sparkling and cooling. Cool sweetness in back of mouth. Bitterness is light but if pushed hard, can overtake the tip of the tongue while numbing it. Some steeps can be astringent on my tonsils, others can be rather alkaline, and others oily-colloidal or thin and juicy. Smoke comes out again later with more of a raisiny taste.
The dark shades of the dry leaf cloak the range of green still present in the wet leaf, which sometimes greets with butterscotch when lifting the lid for the next pour from the kettle.
My body swells subtle with wild feel energy. A better afternoon session than evening as the caffeine effects are gentle yet persistent.
It’s a friendly sheng with some age that I wouldn’t hesitate to gift or serve.
Yesterday and this morning: 2018 Wuliang Shan – Arbor from Yunnan Craft. It’s an ongoing experiment https://steepster.com/derk/posts/452091
This afternoon is 2018 Bada Wolf Sheng from Jalam Teas courtesy of Togo 5 years ago. Strong feeling but not very dense.
Yesterday was Tea Urchin’s Mengku Silver Buds 2012 Spring, last drank 5 years ago. Astringency is definitely in the background now.
Stellar energy rivals the taste.
It’s so much like a Yueguangbai but with clear sheng character that is alkaline and has a savory olive oil type depth. Clear and clean liquor, bright orange. Lots of soft and floral cinnamon, pastry, milky oat seed, hay, pollen, cooked apricot. Soft, diffuse bitterness in mouth becomes stronger in tonsils, which leads to instantaneous and expansive huigan with first cup. Very cooling in throat and chest, feels like energy pathways open up. Florals evaporate from savory aftertaste in the back of mouth and into sinuses, reverberating. Final steeps fade into florals, first the powdery bittersweetness of purple iris, then something light and evocative like a citrusy rose.
The cake is sold out.
I cannot forget about Tea Urchin. Some of my favorite sheng have come from them.
I have an ’09 Silver Pekoe, MKRS mini-iron, which comes with quite a bit more force than a Yueguangbai, but an ’05 Yinsen, LCGC (150g) is in the vicinity. I recently picked up an ’07 version of the same production (357g), much sweeter in dianhong spirit, certainly not the pure bud action of the ’05 with more floral expression of an early spring picking.
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