TeaChat

Chip wrote: 5. SC is paying me 10 grand, so you know I approve it! OK, just kidding on this one ...

No discount?

teaisme wrote:I think the fact that most seasoned drinkers on this forum are jumping on is good indication this is a worthy en devour. Sure you could order cakes yourself by phone, but can you order 6 samples? I imagine not.

This is a sampler. Samplers usually are associated with a jump in price vs bigger quantity. Fair enough that SC charges a small finders fee. Just pretend it is the price you pay for getting 6 harder to access samples. Also consider the small finders fee as a educational fee. Getting direct feedback about these from more seasoned drinkers, while drinking yourself from the exact same cake, is worth some money in itself imo.

Even though I wont be participating in this round, thanks SC keep it coming!

Part of why I started this whole thing is precisely because it is not possible to sample, for various reasons, a lot of the teas that we would like to sample. Maybe some of you can, but I certainly can't afford, just for example, to buy an entire cake of 80s thick wrapper 7542 just to sample it.

SilentChaos wrote:

Chip wrote: 5. SC is paying me 10 grand, so you know I approve it! OK, just kidding on this one ...

No discount?

... that is the member discounted price.

Everyone who mailed so far is in. Registration is closed. Thanks everybody, enjoy the tasting!

brandon wrote:Everyone who mailed so far is in. Registration is closed. Thanks everybody, enjoy the tasting!

Wonderful! It will be an amazing sampling!! You might want to post a basic tasting technique since these are High-end Puerh, what do you think Brandon?

Well finally after a long time, I finally got around to opening my first sample bag of high quality pu-erh for tasting! The first I chose was the youngest of the lot, the 2007 Blue Mark, Menghai. Pardon my lousy descriptions, I'm not familiar with tasting notes.

Water used, Volvic. Brewed 5g in a 120ml gaiwan. Filled it to 110ml roughly. Flash rinsed with boiling water and flash first infusion with off boil water.

1st infusion: There is a fishy smell which I detect but however can't taste in the tea. Very smooth and uplifting I would say. There is a slight hint of mellow sweetness. Overall a bit light for my taste but probably due to the flash infusion.

2nd infusion: Off boil water. ~5secs infusion.
Fishy smell is very faint now. What replaced it is a very nice aroma from the tea leaves. The huigan is starting to grow stronger. Can feel it around the sides of the tongue.

3rd infusion: Off boil water. ~10secs infusion
No more traces of fishy smell. Very nice huigan now, something akin to the taste of honey without actually having any sweetness (not sure if that comes across well). There are those 'zingy', pleasant feelings on my tastebuds. However I can feel the 'roughness' of the tea in my throat. Not sure why though.

Subsequent infusions: I just want to enjoy my tea now Thanks to SilentChaos for the great experience!

I'd highly suggest around 10g for a 120ml gaiwan. Will be updating site with a better laid out space for these discussions.

Brewing 2003 Qing Teng (Mengsong).

Took me a few brews to understand the tea, the taste is pretty straightforward, sweet, causing salivation. With my Purion kettle it was tasting very savory, I switched to glass for neutrality. But it is mostly in the aftertaste - heavy mineral giving way to lighter talc and finally ending with lemon.



This tea is on its own schedule, but it is worth waiting for it to sink in.

brandon wrote:Brewing 2003 Qing Teng (Mengsong).

Took me a few brews to understand the tea, the taste is pretty straightforward, sweet, causing salivation. With my Purion kettle it was tasting very savory, I switched to glass for neutrality. But it is mostly in the aftertaste - heavy mineral giving way to lighter talc and finally ending with lemon.

This tea is on its own schedule, but it is worth waiting for it to sink in.

I had my first session with this tea today aswell. It really was all about the aftertaste. The aftertaste had a little bit of a lemon sage taste. I enjoyed it. I just got it in the mail yesterday so it's really not going to give a good performance. It will be interesting to see if there is a little more upfront flavor after it gets over its jet lag.

brandon wrote:Brewing 2003 Qing Teng (Mengsong).

Took me a few brews to understand the tea, the taste is pretty straightforward, sweet, causing salivation. With my Purion kettle it was tasting very savory, I switched to glass for neutrality. But it is mostly in the aftertaste - heavy mineral giving way to lighter talc and finally ending with lemon.



This tea is on its own schedule, but it is worth waiting for it to sink in.

I can't see the pic on flickr

Sorry about that

2003 Zi Yin (Nannuo)
Much more refined than the younger sister Qing Yai. Smell wafts up in all directions, taste is a little floral, a little sweet. Long lasting and deliberate.

2007 Blue Mark - Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Would have never guessed Menghai blended material, would have gone with Yiwu. Shows what I know.



Check out the little crispy bits from the hot wok.

I had an instinct to use a little less leaf on this one, and I think it worked out for the better. Still went two days on the brewing.

The first I tried of the flight was the 2003 Qingteng. Overall not my favorite tea, a bit too acerbic - I can see why people would like it, but it's not my favorite. The body and texture of the tea were very pleasant.

Pic of the 10 grams I steeped below, More pics here.



The second session I had was the 2004 Jiang chen. I much preferred this tea to the Qingteng. Smoky and savory, but also with a similar smoothness. Probably a little less body than the Qingteng, but more interesting overall. (for me) Will upload pics later.

Zi pin and I'm floating in the middle of nowhere. Everything is slow and heavy. Yay.