2004 Nan Jian Phoenix Aroma Aged Raw Pu-erh tea cake

This tea is quite complex, and it is changing quite interesting from round to round.
Where i live the autumn season begins at the moment, and the color and the taste is fitting very well. I even taste some withered leaves or foliage in it, but that might be a psychological thing… with all those beautiful leaves in our garden.

I guess this one is a good example for a semiaged tea. I like to drink it now and enjoy it, but i guess for some people it could be “neither fish nor fowl” … it is far away from young sheng and at the same time it has some foliage taste wich is, what i guess, a sign of a not “fully” (or just more) aged tea.
Sidenote: i know people differ on the question what a “fully aged” tea is very much, some say 30 years, some say 14 or 20+ … etc., so i use this term with all that caution.
So the first 2 infusions had quite a obvious smoke hint underlying… but it was more a hint… and not very intense. A fine sort of smoke, like from well prepared smoked meat.
The mouthfeel is good, quite viscous, also not extremely, just good. I like the balance (again) here: a bit of brown sugar (or even dates?) in the back, quite, but not too much, astringency and a bit of bitterness that comes along with some tastes of: conifer resin, juniper berries, a little bit of this “old book” taste…
After the first 3 rounds it get`s even much sweeter without loosing the other complex aromas… good.

Dry this tea smells like cow manure. I gave it 2 quick rinses with water at 95C and then did a quick 3 sec infusion. Still smelled like cow manure. Threw it out and did another infusion. Still smelled like cow manure. Tasted it. Yep, tasted like cow manure. Next infusion it started to get smoother and lose the cow dung taste. Even a bit better next infusion but far from a tasty tea. I think this would have probably been good on infusion 10 or more but I threw it out before that. It did have a good cha qui . I am just not into the aged shengs too much. The energy feel is good from them but I prefer the taste of a younger sheng.

This tea was part of November Yunnan Sourcing Tea Club.
my usual gongfu parameters for sheng
5.5g 100 ml porcelain gaiwan 200F
rinse/pause/5/3/3/5/5/7/10sec etc
I keep sipping. i like this tea a lot. Some earthiness, hay, sweetness. overall very smooth and easy to drink. no off taste or smell. i really like the color !

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