TeaChat

Thanks Chengdu, I'll try imgur next time around. Found the cake on Taobao:

http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a23 ... 9464132241

A little cheaper, but mine looks much more aged. I'm picking the other one up ASAP as I quite like it. Funnily enough I found this cake by walking home up a different street than usual. It's crazy, I really can't walk down the street here without tripping over bings.

2005 Xiaguan Superior Grade TuoCha. Good for the cold weather.

Mix of Tea Urchin's Yishanmo and Bangwei from last year, quite nice a blend, if I may say so myself

The last of an '09 Dayi Ziyun 100g. Good little shu cake

Drinking 2011 LauYuFat 50 Ann. today.
http://half-dipper.blogspot.co.uk/2012/ ... years.html

It tastes rather sweet today, I never noticed that.

An unknown puerh today: I often repackage small amounts of cakes or larger bags of loose mao cha for taking to the office, and this one I didn't label onthe new bag. It's got long flat thin dark leaves, a fair bit of stem, and is still young enough to be a bit smoky as well as earthy and sweet. It's good enough to deserve proper credit, but I probably have written about it by name when brewing from the original packaging....

debunix wrote:An unknown puerh today: I often repackage small amounts of cakes or larger bags of loose mao cha for taking to the office, and this one I didn't label onthe new bag. It's got long flat thin dark leaves, a fair bit of stem, and is still young enough to be a bit smoky as well as earthy and sweet. It's good enough to deserve proper credit, but I probably have written about it by name when brewing from the original packaging....

HA! This exact thing happened to me this morning. I had several small bags that I brought in before Christmas, that I did not label. Now, I am playing guessing games about what I am drinking.

Today was very Mengsongy, but appeared to be a blend. It has a good huigan and appears to be a few years old. All in all a smooth and enjoyable tea. Good thing I don't know where it is from

I had some 2006 Fall Lao Ban Zhang Raw Pu-erh Tea cake from YS today.

It's compressed pretty tightly and it takes 2 infusions after the rinse to warm up. It has a nice lingering sweetness that lasts a long time, which cakes that cost 1/4th of the price with a similiar taste don't have and it can handle lots of infusions while retaining it's strength. The sweetness tones down after 6-7 infusions, even though the taste itself does not weaken.

It'll most likely age very well, but if you're like me and like to drink your pu now, the LBZ premium pricing doesn't make it worth it for me at $125 a cake.

If you can wait another 15-25 years I suspect it'll be worth the money though, given it's staying power.

That's not LBZ pricing.

Red Lantern Tea sells 2008 ChenShenHao LBZ for $723.

In fact no especially good tea from 2006 commonly sells for $125. Some Dayi teas sell for that, and more, so forget nice single estate.

$125 is pretty reasonable price for something that genuinely performs at that age. Sampletea sells a white paper (and anon) fall '05 LBZ for about 180-220 dollars. Wouldn't bet on either being genuine.

shah82 wrote:That's not LBZ pricing.

I know it can easily go to tripple or more these days and it's the starting range for LBZ, but given the fact that cakes with similar taste that have less staying power and no lingering sweetness (not that important to me with sheng) can be had for $30, it's still a high premium.

I also think 6 years of aging don't do too much to most shengs that are compressed this tightly.

It was probably the best LBZ labled sheng I had yet though.

Had a go at this 2012 YUNNAN SOURCING "DRAGON OF JING MAI" RIPE PU-ERH TEA 100G MINI CAKE today.

Medicinal taste without any depth. I don't like any of their sub 15$ shus (would be above that though if it wasn't a 100g cake). You pretty much get what you pay for and I wonder why they make them. I don't know what aging will do to them but my expectations aren't high.

I finished my sample of 2005 Jiang Chen "gu shu cha wang" from houde and it was interesting. The tea was not very clean: i removed the stems, a few leaves, and even some earth. After a good airing period, the leaves had a very realistic and attracting walnut aroma. I brewed the last ~10g in a porous qing shui ni pot : i thought it could help with the wild/off flavors I had when I tried the sample a few weeks ago.

Dry leaves: walnut / Wet leaves: spices & old leather
Taste: wood, juice, leather, pine at the beginning... then, there are some interesting agedness flavors and even some malt when pushed.
Huigan: nice. immediate huigan is about leather and sweetness … then some wood, herbs and spices.
Aftertaste: not great at the beginning: there are some wild notes like slight hints of cat urine, but it doesn’t last much.
Mouthfeel: decent salivation, a little oily on the top / Stomachfeel: good
Astringency: no
Qi: fast and relaxing qi at the beginning… and after a while it became stronger and maybe a little hypnotic, then I stopped paying attention.

I think this tea is complex and interesting. At the beginning the aftertaste is not great despite some good huigans, but it doesn’t last.
After a few brews a slight but promising musky(?) agedness flavor appears. The qi was strong during this session. There are better 2005 shengs to drink right now but this one has clearly lots of potential, even if I’m not the right person to say that.

Some either 2009 or 2010 Essence of Tea Nannou. This is from the year he had two offerings, this is the plantation one.

I am sure my storage has not done it a lot of flavors, but its decently mellow, oddly leathery, and some nice subtle sweetness too.

Crazy small world, Adam, I've had that sample on my counter in order to brew it for the last week. I think I'll go enjoy it right now... thanks for the reminder! (I've just had it sitting in its paper container on *top* of my pumidor, so will be interesting to see how it has done in the last few years).

Actually, stupid question time, it's been so long... I remember that there were two versions of the Nannuo that year. My sample is marked "old plantation" -- is that the one you're talking about? (I think the two versions were old plantation and a qiao mu, but i can't remember)