2011 Jing Gu Gushu Raw from Tea Urchin

2011 Jing Gu Gushu Raw

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Char, Dark Wood, Heavy, Plum, Red Fruits, Sweet, Tobacco, Astringent, Hay, Honey, Smoke, Mineral, Stonefruit, Sweet, Warm Grass
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Average preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 3 oz / 100 ml

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5 Tasting Notes View all

  • “This not a very pretty tea. The leaves are stout and heavily compressed; A gray sheen covers the surface of the tea. The chunk smells of brief char and wet grass. The compression was fairly tight...” Read full tasting note
    86
  • “I was hoping for a more aged taste based on what I could dig up on this tea, but honestly, wasn’t getting much love from this one. It’s not much of a bitter tea, although it has a teeth smacking...” Read full tasting note
  • “So now I know what it is like to have buyers remorse for those who buy YQH and do all they can to make it taste better than it is because of the price tag… Tea Urchin is my go to place for high end...” Read full tasting note
  • “annnnd this session was completely different I had shorter steepings which helped the “soapy” taste vanish but the liquor was no longer a darker reddish hue and now it was a deep honey. It didn’t...” Read full tasting note

From Tea Urchin

2011 Jing Gu Gushu Raw 357g
This Jing Gu gushu puer cake was made in the Spring of 2011 and already exhibits aged characteristics. The wrapper is hand made and the calligraphy hand painted. Despite the recent price increases for ancient tree puer, Jinggu remains good value.

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5 Tasting Notes

86
Recommended
526 tasting notes

This not a very pretty tea. The leaves are stout and heavily compressed; A gray sheen covers the surface of the tea. The chunk smells of brief char and wet grass. The compression was fairly tight to get any other scents. I warmed up my pot and placed a bit inside. I lift the lid to meet oak barrel, strong pipe tobacco, wet leather, and sweet plum musk. This is a burly kind of tea. I washed the tea for a bit and then prepared for brewing. The taste begins sweet and thick with a pleasant aftertaste. The base of the brew is of maple wood with chestnut. Later steeping brings tobacco, red fruits, and maple syrup. The tea takes about six steeps to finally break away from one solid mass. The taste is fairly decent with good complexity and sweet/bitter mix. However, the qi is what’s so unique about this brew. When I look back at my notes, I can tell how strong a tea was by how much profanity I tend to use. Lets just say that there was good vocabulary in my journal. The sensation begins slow and creeps behind you. The qi becomes powerful and heavy (a bit too much). The feeling acts as a ton of bricks and it slowly presses down on you. I took a few breaks away from my tea table. Personally, it was a bit too aggressive for me, but I think some others would enjoy this.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BH2wT4lAwRa/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Flavors: Char, Dark Wood, Heavy, Plum, Red Fruits, Sweet, Tobacco

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
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106 tasting notes

I was hoping for a more aged taste based on what I could dig up on this tea, but honestly, wasn’t getting much love from this one. It’s not much of a bitter tea, although it has a teeth smacking astringent quality despite that (can feel all my teeth while drinking this one).

The aroma is incredibly honeyed and there is something like a waxy honey aftertaste, although the liquor itself has almost no sweetness until closer to the end of the steeps, and even then it is a more of a throat sweetness than a mouth sweetness. The color is less red, more deep yellow bordering on orange.

All in all, wasn’t feeling this one, it was too dry for me to enjoy what flavors might have been underneath (although that honey aroma is pretty nice, I have no idea how it can taste almost nothing like how it smells). Also not a huge fan of the hint of smoked leather or tobacco clinging to the edges of it.

Flavors: Astringent, Hay, Honey, Smoke, Tobacco

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1113 tasting notes

So now I know what it is like to have buyers remorse for those who buy YQH and do all they can to make it taste better than it is because of the price tag…

Tea Urchin is my go to place for high end stuff that makes e feel good, but this one did not do that. I should have read more about it online to know it wasn’t within my own preferences of a tea, but when there’s a group buy and you get deals… TRY EVERYTHING!

This particular sheng is in the medium to dark range for a sheng. Typically I like my raw tea to have essence of flower or fruit making it seem like it was a cake worth breeding with things that the bees like, not that the flies like; which leads me to this dark, damp wet hay. Some people really enjoy that taste, I do not.

I am in luck though, I can put 25g of this in the pu’erh TTB that is coming around :)
However, I need to find someone to swap the rest with because I won’t drink this… I’m becoming pickier with my sheng; but not my beengholes :P

p.s. for reference, I did steep this 14 times because it last and I love me some TU so it was hard hard hard to go ‘this is the first one I don’t want to hold onto’
18 comments
Show 16 previous comments...
MzPriss 9 years ago

If someone has “buyer’s remorse” with YQH they can send it right to me – I will give it a loving home right up until it goes down my neck and I will savor every drop.

Liquid Proust 9 years ago

I know of at least four people, but that only surfaced after I made a remark; seemed like they didn’t want to because nobody is making those comments.

MzPriss 9 years ago

Well bless their hearts. Teji is my favorite thing right now.

Grill 9 years ago

I’m sorry but “do all they can to make it taste better than it is because of the price tag” is pretty insulting. Why would I even want make stuff up? I’ve spent countless hours talking to people, reviewing and discussing these teas not to spread misinformation but to educate myself and other on what they are all about. On top of that I sampled up nearly half a cake out of pocket the last few months to people that asked about trying certain cakes.

Also to label the whole brand as overpriced, hyped or whatever is shortsighted. You have 3 reviews posted here on steepster, maybe you tried more Idk but there were 39 different teas being offered by Mr Yang and Emmett. Imagine trying 3 teas from any vendor, not loving them and then saying well they all must suck cause these did, seems a bit silly no?

You and others didn’t like them? That’s cool, there are plenty of teas I don’t like that lots of people love. I respect their opinion and they respect mine, like Cwyn said in her blog post, no one can tell you what tastes best to your taste buds.

I don’t want to make it sound like you attacked me personally cause you didn’t. Just like you said you speak for people with buyers remorse, I believe I speak for the people that are very happy with how they spent their money.

boychik 9 years ago

Me three. Love YQH , haven’t tried all of them but whatever I’ve tried was top notch.

Liquid Proust 9 years ago

@Grill it actually isn’t insulting because if you read it in context it is in regards to those who experience buyers remorse. In regards to the amount I’ve tried; that’s the way things are realistically as I give a band 3 songs or a tv show 3 episodes before I decide to give more time to it (which is what money is)

There is just no way I’ll find an old leather taste to be appealing, but I’m always up to keep trying which is what I have been doing. I am the same with White2Tea: I’ve tried over 12 of their raw teas and I’ve only liked one…

Liquid Proust 9 years ago

Thought about the English language and realized that you could say that my comment could have offended you… but it wouldn’t be me who did it but rather those I have spoke to who explained that they too like me couldn’t find a way to enjoy the YQH samples that they had tried. Considering it all comes down to opinions it’s pointless to argue; we know Bernie is a better canidate then Trump, Honda makes better cars than Ford, wheat bread is better than white, Star Trek is better than Star Wars, oh and oolong is the best type of tea. I suppose I don’t realize that people don’t know me so reading my comments are tough. I’m just some dude drinking tea and spilling thoughts from the top of my head. No expectations at all. However, maybe I should review what I say and how I say it. Either way, I come to Steepster without much rereading or monitoring so that could be what I look into changing next for myself.

MzPriss 9 years ago

Um no. Star Wars > Star Trek.

Liquid Proust 9 years ago

Data was hands down the best character on tv of all time. The entire human idenity is his character. Now that’s just one element of Star Trek. I suppose I’ll clarify: Star Trek TNG > Star Wars 4, 5, 6, and that recent remake where there is a larger Death Star in it but this time it blows up planets before it’s destroyed. TNG is hands down 110% more intellectually stimulating than Star Wars.Anyone who starts and finishes TNG will have gained an experience that just… It makes life better.

MzPriss 9 years ago

Nope. Best TV character of all time is Bobby Hill.

Tea and Cheese Lover 9 years ago

TNG or TOS or DS9 or VOY > Star Wars

MzPriss 9 years ago

Voyager was not better than pretty much anything, except possibly Enterprise. DS9 was meh. TNG was MIGHTY but still not better than Star Wars, but close. Because Worf.

Tea and Cheese Lover 9 years ago

I have nothing against Star Wars. A good action movie, but Star Trek always intrigued me. I haven’t seen enterprise and am on season 4 of Voyager right now. TNG was my favorite. DS9 was close. What it lacked in “exploration” it made up for delving deeply into spiritual matters on many levels, and different types of ethical questions as other series. VOY and TOS are tied for me so far. To keep things on topic, I like watching Star Trek while drinking tea ;)

MzPriss 9 years ago

The Doctor needs to be everywhere.

Gooseberry Spoon 9 years ago

Data is just the best. God now I got to go watch The Most Toys again and wonder…

rosebudmelissa 9 years ago

I’m a fan of Star Trek and Star Wars (and Doctor Who), but Stargate: SG-1 will probably always be #1 for me.

DharmaTea 9 years ago

I’m with you on the YQH MzPriss. I dunno how people have “buyers remorse” with samples but am pretty sure anyone with cakes could find a new home for them fairly easy. Especially when there are price changes coming and declining inventory. Thanks for your comments and reviews Grill. I learned a lot from you and James and appreciate the time and effort you put into it. While I like some of the YQH line better than others my only regret is that I couldn’t get more… As they say, there is no accounting for taste. peace

MzPriss 9 years ago

@DharmaTea – Teji WAS my fave. Now I’ve had Dingji. I echo your thanks to Grill and James. I would have been so very, very sad if I had never had any of this tea.

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127 tasting notes

annnnd this session was completely different I had shorter steepings which helped the “soapy” taste vanish but the liquor was no longer a darker reddish hue and now it was a deep honey. It didn’t help that I used 3 different types of water (spring, alkaline, filtered tap) in the same session but this time I had none of the dark fruity tastes and mianly just a generic sheng puer slight sweetness.

The only things that have held constant through all steeping of both session is it bubbles every steepings, not tea scum per say but definite bubbles maybe higher sapponin content? and also none of the steepings were ever bitter. Another interesting twist is that I read on yunnan sourcing this area has some “Camellia Taliensis growing in Jing Gu’s red soil has prominent large fat leaves and hairy white buds. Tea from this region is well-known for it’s beautiful appearance, and tea sellers have been know to blend this tea with Yi Wu tea to make it more beautiful and bright in appearance while at the same time bolstering it’s sweetness and thickness.”

so maybe this species has isnt own unique characteristics? and maybe that’s why it’s a cheaper price?

Flavors: Hay, Sweet, Warm Grass

Preparation
7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
5 comments
Show 3 previous comments...
Jiāng Luo 10 years ago

very far from a controlled experiment but I think “spring water” has had the best result with tea I just buy the cheap generic jewel 2.5 gal and they seem to taste better than my filtered tap or this extremely expensive “alkaline water”

Stephanie 10 years ago

interesting

mrmopar 10 years ago

If you are overstocked with this let me know I will work a swap to try it.

Jiāng Luo 10 years ago

I only have a few grams left not sure if that’s worth your time

mrmopar 10 years ago

You might be surprised. How much did you end up left over?

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