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Some tea I just bought

MarshalN wrote:Some tea I just bought

I don't recognize the bricks on the right. what are they?

Thank you, Tea Friend.

Bryan

bryan_drinks_tea wrote: I don't recognize the bricks on the right. what are they?

I am pretty sure it's 正山大葉厚磚 (zhengshan daye hou zhuan) -- 500g bricks, I think started being produced around the late 90s? I have some which the seller says are from around 1998, and it's supposed to be Yiwu area tea (slightly different stamp on the brick). Hou De sells a slightly later one. There are two of them in the bamboo wrapper in that picture (they're very thick). I think the tea tastes pretty good for the price (and several folks who tried some locally also thought it was quite good).

The brick is the standard red on white brick wrapper, but with '正山大葉' stamped or printed on the top right corner (if you search for the characters above, you'll see plenty of pictures of the tea). As well as being thick, they're pretty tightly compressed, and I've found some little seeds and other stuff in it. So, even with some storage in a humid environment, the examples I've had have tasted pretty fresh, though somewhat mellowed.

It's the same bricks as what Guang's selling.

MarshalN wrote:It's the same bricks as what Guang's selling.

You mean the 2003 250g bricks?

MarshalN wrote:It's the same bricks as what Guang's selling.

Ah, of course. pretty good stuff.

tst wrote:

MarshalN wrote:It's the same bricks as what Guang's selling.

You mean the 2003 250g bricks?

Yes

Got back from Hong Kong when I should have spent the week in KL at the Tea Expo instead. I did spend time visiting some tea shops in HK, and ended up buying mostly dry stored new raw teas (which is still not widely accepted by HK tea drinkers).
The HK ripe fermented teas sold and served in most yamcha places do have it's own unique flavor not commonly found in drier stored ripe teas sold in China (perhaps with the exception of Guangdong).

The 200gm bings were sold in a basket of 3, no tasting. From SFTM. Do not even know which 3 of the 6 mountains these teas are produced!

Best before date on puerh: ha!

I have had really bad luck with sheng samples being really harsh and difficult to drink. So I was really surprised and happy when the owner of a tea shop in Taichung Taiwan, served me some of this. He said it is from 1999. The language barrier was pretty high as I don't know Mandarin, but from what I could understand, this was a special recipe commissioned by him? Could any of you shed some light on this?

I wonder if all the sheng samples I have received off the internet are bad or if they were just too young for my taste. All of the samples I have had are around 2-3 years old.

Anyway, after drinking this, I had to buy it. Now that I have been back for a while, I opened it up and brewed it up. Very smooth, earthy... and almost a minty taste... hard to describe, but very good.

debunix wrote:Best before date on puerh: ha!

I know, isn't it funny? I see this label in teas in Taiwan and HK, and I am guessing it's probably because of their laws on shelf life on food products.
I'm not throwing away that tea bing after 2017 even if it's not consumed by then.

Dayi gold '11 & silver '12

phoenixK wrote:I have had really bad luck with sheng samples being really harsh and difficult to drink. So I was really surprised and happy when the owner of a tea shop in Taichung Taiwan, served me some of this. He said it is from 1999. The language barrier was pretty high as I don't know Mandarin, but from what I could understand, this was a special recipe commissioned by him? Could any of you shed some light on this?

I wonder if all the sheng samples I have received off the internet are bad or if they were just too young for my taste. All of the samples I have had are around 2-3 years old.

Anyway, after drinking this, I had to buy it. Now that I have been back for a while, I opened it up and brewed it up. Very smooth, earthy... and almost a minty taste... hard to describe, but very good.

well yes i think in general there is more bad tea on the internet... well you
just have to think, they just need to know how to make an internet site.. and just wait for someone. yes tea on the internet is usually very bad, its profit without any risk and you are practically at their mercy most of the time, there is not a lot you can do anyway if they send you bad tea. well thats at least what i personally believe.

KC Lam wrote:Got back from Hong Kong when I should have spent the week in KL at the Tea Expo instead. I did spend time visiting some tea shops in HK, and ended up buying mostly dry stored new raw teas (which is still not widely accepted by HK tea drinkers).
The HK ripe fermented teas sold and served in most yamcha places do have it's own unique flavor not commonly found in drier stored ripe teas sold in China (perhaps with the exception of Guangdong).

The 200gm bings were sold in a basket of 3, no tasting. From SFTM. Do not even know which 3 of the 6 mountains these teas are produced!

IMG-20120626-00163.jpg

These three are blended , SFM released those few years back as one time commemoration series honoring Yunnan minorities (Lahu,Dayi,Yi,Yao, Hani etc.)

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