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“This tea surprised me. This was my second Green Hype, and it came as a free sample like the previous one. I enjoyed the previous one, but it’s still a little full bore for frequent consumption even...” Read full tasting note
The latest installment in the Green Hype saga. A significant amount of aged material in the blend to smooth out the experience. The new material in the blend is punchy and full bodied with an intense huigan [the lingering sweetness in the mouth after drinking a tea]. Excellent daily drinking raw Puer with plenty of intrigue and character to keep you engaged from cup to cup.
Each cake is 200 grams. Tongs are 5 cakes wrapped in bamboo.
From the June 2022 tea club letter:
This year’s blend includes some very old material (already 4 years of age on some of the blend) as well as a blend of teas from this year’s spring. Some of you are longtime fans old enough to remember the first hype cake back in 2017. The blend started as a way to make a reasonably priced blend with ultra-clean material. At that time we used the strictest possible European Union MRL test available listing every agricultural chemical in the standard and it came back sparkling clean. (Since then, we haven’t tested again—partly because we aren’t made of money and those tests are pricey and partly because we’re pretty hands on with this stuff and nothing has changed drastically since the first blend) With all that being said, it’s a pretty rustic blend. It’s not the prettiest tea, not going to win any beauty contests. Not as much of the refined aromas and mouthfeel of higher end raw Puer either. Instead it’s a straight off the farmer natural brawler type of tea. A burly comb of flavors and aromas that punch right out of the gate with plenty of kick. If I have scared you with that last sentence, the youthful vigor of the cake is tempered by a healthy dollop of older material too. This spring was by most accounts one of the more troublesome for weather in the last decade. Heavy rains made processing tea and selecting materials more challenging than any tea maker would hope. The aged materials in our blend help bolster the strength and feel, and even out some of the harsher character of the youthful teas. Our usual advice applies, when you’ve got a big cake to play with, do a little experimenting. Try this cake when it first arrives. Take a few notes. Try it again in two weeks. Take more notes. Stash it away and try it again in three months. Take notes again. Observing a new cake of Puer tea as it settles will teach you a lot about your aims if you plan to age your own teas in the future. The material will calm down quite a bit as it sheds excess moisture from pressing and begins its journey towards becoming an aged tea itself.
Brewing instructions: Gongfu style, with roughly 6g per 100ml in your vessel and fast steeps. Personally, I would use boiling water for this tea. However, if you are opposed to astringency, bitterness and/or intensity, we recommend that you drop the temp down to 90C. You could also brew a couple (as in 2 or 3) grams or so grandpa style. This will be jet fuel to some, but a pleasant pick me up to others. Follow your own preferences.
This tea surprised me. This was my second Green Hype, and it came as a free sample like the previous one. I enjoyed the previous one, but it’s still a little full bore for frequent consumption even with a few years of age on it. Despite this one’s 2022 vintage, I’m guessing the provenance or the amount of 4 year aged material has it very drinkable by Dec 2022. Two flash rinses at 100C is perfect for me. It’s still got lovely light, fresh aroma with palatable astringency in the early steeps. More apricot jam shows up in subsequent steeps with good huigan. It’s not particularly stewey or soupy, nor is the stimulation aggressive if I moderate my consumption in a session. The tea has good legs to it and develops decently over a longer session.
I really like the balance of this tea right now, and feel like it would be easy to talk about what it doesn’t have. It’s not a tea of excess in any area, which I’m beginning to appreciate. I don’t have to be in the mood for what it’s offering, because what it’s offering is just nice. It’s not stewy or bitter or aggressive, it’s not heavy on tobacco or aloeswood or prunes or cotton candy. But unlike many teas that are middle of the road, this one doesn’t bore me. It rewards me, it develops, it holds my interest. It’s not easy to unpack what’s going on in the background, and I honestly don’t want to try. Sometimes Baroque music is nice playing in the background. This is one that I didn’t take as seriously as I should have when I first got it because it was young and it was a tea club cake, but I’ve grown to appreciate it. I’ve had “better” teas that I drink less of because they are have a strong and demanding identity. This tea strikes a great balance between demanding attention and not warranting it. It’s something that I can forget that I’m drinking until a fresh cup sparks new joy when it touches my lips, and it’s at a great price point for doing just that.
Flavors: Apricot, Jam, Pepper, Tangy
