TeaChat

kyarazen wrote:

its a calculated risk

Guangzhou City Cancer Therapeutic centre and Zhong Shan University/Southern Medical University on pu-er teas.

This:



Chimneys of factories are seen in Guangzhou in November 16, 2010


The modern Chinese should revisit ancient wisdom because honestly they are totally lost, they are becoming too Westernised and adamant to ignore the real issues. Excessive industrialisation, loss of traditional culture and values, etc, more here:

http://www.thechinastory.org/2012/09/th ... ing-china/

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/25/world ... isclosure/

I would really worry about that and not puerh tea.

City Cancer Therapeutic Centre?? Don't get me started....

Don't you think...that golds are a bit un-natural..?

They do make those gold fungus by spraying chemicals in Guangdong and Guangxi...since some people seek that phenomenon on tea...

well...I am not experienced on Pu & Heicha either

Tead Off wrote:

mr mopu wrote:

Tead Off wrote:

shah82 wrote:Agree, those are golden flowers, and safe/nutritious to drink. Most anything else, just toss.

What are golden flowers?

They are a kind of fungus that grows on a "Dark" brick or "fu" tea as I believe they are called. They are cultivated on the tea for health benefits that they bring to the tea. Here is a link to one. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bai-Sha-Xi-Clas ... 2a271a22b7

I'm curious as to what this tastes like. Have you had any?

It tasted like TEA...or maybe someone who has a keener tongue than me might describe better

kyarazen wrote:
if the mold on the tea's from the famed eurotium species, it might be perfectly safe with the tea flavour enhanced by fungal metabolites. but if its from the other family of "common yellow molds" i.e. aspergillus, you run into the risk of the presence of certain toxic aspergilli species that secrete aflatoxin. (incidentally the chinese name for aspergilli type of molds 黄曲霉 literally translates as "yellow mold")

The seller claims the tea is artificially infected with Aspergillus Cristatus

Also, I did not try the tea itself - when we moved in our new house, it was built quite fast and since all the humidity havw not gone during building, we had some issues with molds, so since then I'm a bit cautious with them (fortunately, a de-humifier helped a lot).

So, a couple of days ago, searching for something new, I ordered this tea:

http://www.chawangshop.com/index.php/he ... -100g.html]

As you can see, it has exactly the same Aspergillus Cristatus flowers. They're not dangerous mold if the thea is processed correctly. But I haven't tried it yet . I'll certainly keep you posted.

OK! My tea has arrived and with it the "Golden Flower"-tea... oh that sounds so much better than "Yellow Mold-tea

I haven't prepared a detailled examination yet and since the package arrived via air freight three days ago, the tea probably isn't over his jet lag yet and not in best form. But enough for first impressions

First of all: It really is very unique. It has a really special taste profile, very different from Shu or Sheng.. Its difficult to describe, its rather mellow, with strong taste and medium astringency (very pleasant for me) but really not bitter.

At first its differentness is a little shock, but actually its quite easy to like that tea.. its much more accessible than a wet-stored Sheng or a fishy Shu. It has some of the "creamyness" of better Shus, but is in general more bright than them, also the leaves are greenish and the infusion is yellow, slightly orange.

So it does exibit some traits of mellow Shengs, better Shus or even Oolongs, but from all them only a bit.. a lot of its character is totally unique and very likeable.

Also its interesting how the tea 'feels' - it doesn't have a very strong and punchy Qi, its rather laid-back and lets you still be connected to the ground and is not as demanding on the stomach as a 2011 Sheng would likely be.. so it feels a bit more Shu-like. Just as I said.. to give you an orientation.. it cannot be confused with something else.

I used the loose leaves first, they don't have a lot of smell in the open, but the still-compressed pieces do.. Aroma is not weak, rather intense but pleasant and with a lot of stamina... there is quite a shift in taste over various infusions. It doesn't have the complexity of oder Shengs, but its from 2011 and so that doesn't come as a surprise.

So I expect quite a bit more of interesting impressions once the tea has fully acclimated and I get to loosening up the brick-part.

But I certainly found a new friend here. Not bad at all and a very welcome change. Theres a large discount if one takes the 1kg-brick, I'm thinking about it.. might be nice to give this tea some time to mature.

So, here is a very nice topic that assembles quite a lot of info on the subject:

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17858