Official Pu of the day

[Rui]

Of the tea list posted the only one I have sipped before is "2002 Yong Pin Hao "Red Yi Wu Zheng Shan" Raw Pu-erh tea from Yi Wu" and that is because I tend to drink raw pu'er teas mainly although some of the teas you listed tempt me.

[daidokorocha]

Of the tea list posted the only one I have sipped before is "2002 Yong Pin Hao "Red Yi Wu Zheng Shan" Raw Pu-erh tea from Yi Wu" and that is because I tend to drink raw pu'er teas mainly although some of the teas you listed tempt me.

'
Rui, is this by chance you? http://steepster.com/rui-antunes

By other people sometime ago and on Yunnan Sourcing It is described as having a very heavy grape flavor, which I found interesting. Did you not get any of that?

A bit on the expensive side and I hope it is worth it.

[Rui]

Of the tea list posted the only one I have sipped before is "2002 Yong Pin Hao "Red Yi Wu Zheng Shan" Raw Pu-erh tea from Yi Wu" and that is because I tend to drink raw pu'er teas mainly although some of the teas you listed tempt me.

'
Rui, is this by chance you? http://steepster.com/rui-antunes

By other people sometime ago and on Yunnan Sourcing It is described as having a very heavy grape flavor, which I found interesting. Did you not get any of that?

A bit on the expensive side and I hope it is worth it.

Yes, it is me alright. I was wondering how long it would take for people to trace me back here. Now I better hide.

It is a very pleasant tea alright but I need to check my drinking notes and come back to you about specifics. Yong Pin Hao teas are in general of good quality and Yi Wu region teas also attract a premium for the past few years but in general they are worth the extra cost.

[Rui]

Today I am sipping some more of the 2005 traditionally stored 7542 that I bought from Green Tea Guru in UK. I love this cake with almost no wet storage characteristics which quickly disappear within two steepings.

[Rui]

This must be the week of the 2005 teas: today I am sipping 2005 Yi Wu Cha Yuan Big Green Tree of a sample I got from Yunnan Sourcing.

[Nighttrain]

Tea Urchin's 2013 Yiwu Peacock and I am FLYING. love this tea.

[debunix]

2005 Menghai "Early Spring" sheng tuo....now getting to be a reasonable age, and aging marvelously. Spicy, earthy, mellow.

[Tead Off]

2013 Xigui from Teadezhang. 3 year tasting. The color of the leaves have darkened as well as the liquor. Delicious, full flavor, deep, full of energy.

In the background, I have agarwood chips burning on the charcoal burner that have been soaked with oudh oil. Normally, burning incense usually interferes with my enjoyment of tea, but I find that this combination of the exquisite smell of the agarwood chips combined with the exquisite taste of the Xigui are nothing short of perfect.

[jayinhk]

2014 Laos Ban Payasi sheng from Chawangshop. Really lovely tea. Nice wild floral gushu taste, smooth, clean and calming qi. Sweet, a little smokey and no bitterness. My kind of sheng, but I wonder how tea like this will age long term as it seems so delicate. Great for drinking now for sure! Honza thinks it will age well, and he knows his stuff, so maybe I should pick a few up when I'm in Kunming in five weeks.

Still on the Laos Ban Payasi the day after--infusion two is fuller flavored and the smoke has dissipated. Really lovely stuff. Brewing in F1 hongni (170ml) from EoT. This pot works extremely well with younger sheng.

[ethan]

2013 Xigui from Teadezhang. 3 year tasting. The color of the leaves have darkened as well as the liquor. Delicious, full flavor, deep, full of energy.

In the background, I have agarwood chips burning on the charcoal burner that have been soaked with oudh oil. Normally, burning incense usually interferes with my enjoyment of tea, but I find that this combination of the exquisite smell of the agarwood chips combined with the exquisite taste of the Xigui are nothing short of perfect.

When it is hot season in Bangkok, it is good to have these life-enhancing things for comfort & pleasure at home. Cheers!

[daidokorocha]

I received my order from Yunnan Sourcing today. I really did not expect it today. Incredibly fast shipping! I tried the two CNNP 2005 Anniversary samples I selected, one sheng one shu. First was the sheng. I swear I did not use enough leaf for this, but either way it was very good and I would consider buying a whole cake. You could smell the sweetness from the pot from quite a distance. Slight smoke and earth, no bitterness whatsoever, very clean, sweet, slight fruit and sour taste. I didn't count but surely I had 10+ on this thing before I stopped. There seemed to be more left in it as well. I felt very lovely and floaty after drinking this one.

The shu on the other hand.... well it was good. I recently went out to dim sum and ordered a pot of their cheapest shu and my fiancee remarked that it tastes like garbage to which I replied yes, it does and I sort of enjoy the taste. I will say that cheap shu makes me sick after a few glasses though. This certainly did not make me sick and had the flavors I enjoy without those disgusting ones that makes you think twice about continuing to drink, so I was happy. It was very mellow, earthy without being overwhelming. I could drink it all day easily. However, I did not feel that there were any special flavors. No real dark fruit tastes I was hoping for. Just sort of a standard shu that got sweeter over the course of the brewing. It was a long brewer as well and left an incredibly pleasant taste on the palate. This one is nearly the same price as the sheng and I would not spend the money for it.

My fiancee liked both teas, so that probably says something about cheap puer.

[jayinhk]

Cheap shu...just don't do it. Wet piled tea on a concrete floor in rural Yunnan with chickens and dogs running around, bugs, etc, and you wanna go cheap? I've had cheaper bricks (still not the really cheap stuff) that tasted of pesticide. If the cheap stuff makes you feel sick, there's a good chance your body is telling you there's something wrong with the tea. Chinese tea aficionados are known for drinking tea with their bodies...if the tea makes you feel bad, you should probably bin it.

I recently found a pube in a 2005 CNNP 7581 and quite a few tea seeds. To me, that indicates they were just throwing low-grade leaves in piles without any real sorting. I stick to Dayi/CNNP shu or YS now because cheap shu honestly scares me. The better shu cakes from Dayi are really quite nice and less likely to have weird extras.

BTW, if you like the Tiger Monkey, you'll like the Laos Ban Payasi I'm drinking. They taste quite similar, although the Ban Payasi is quite a bit sweeter and more complex as far as the floral aroma goes.

Try a YS-brand shu..they are lovely!

[daidokorocha]

No worries, I don't actually buy the cheap stuff I learned years ago.

I did buy a few YS cakes, but they aren't pure puer and weren't expensive by any means. I figured though since everybody always praises YS that I they should decent for casual puer drinking. Luckily, I have never found anything in my puer ever. Probably one day and I am hoping it is nothing too serious!

How did you obtain your Ban Payasi? Any specific company I could go through?

[jayinhk]

No worries, I don't actually buy the cheap stuff I learned years ago.

I did buy a few YS cakes, but they aren't pure puer and weren't expensive by any means. I figured though since everybody always praises YS that I they should decent for casual puer drinking. Luckily, I have never found anything in my puer ever. Probably one day and I am hoping it is nothing too serious!

How did you obtain your Ban Payasi? Any specific company I could go through?

David, it's from chawangshop.com. The owner, Honza, is a member here. He sourced maocha in Laos (Yunnan borders Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) and pressed it in Yunnan. IMO the Ban Payasi is as good as much better (and more expensive) cakes from Yunnan trees.

Which YS cakes did you get?

[jayinhk]

I bought a bunch of 2014 V93 tuos a few months ago and I've had them sitting in the brown paper bags they come in from Dayi. I opened a bag up today and pulled out a tuo. I was surprised to find a dessicant pack in the bag, but I've seen that with fancier tuos from Dayi that come in cans.

V93 is lovely. Clean, tasty and ready to drink. I may have to pick more up! No off odors and the price was right too. I pay China prices for Dayi tea so I'm definitely going to buy some more.