Official Pu of the day

[puerhking]

Some 2014 xiao hu sai autumnal puerh cha from yunnan sourcing.

I'm having this as well. Pretty tasty...freshly mown field....herbaceous. It does get a little bitter in later infusions...very youthful. Doesn't seem like an autumn tea.

[Rui]

Today I am sipping a sample of Fengqing Old Tree Raw Pu-erh Cake Tea 2013 from TeaVivre. The soup is smooth with a gold yellow colour. I am tempted to get some more.

[benm3]

I just put a 10 gram ball of White2tea's new foil-wrapped Guafengzhai- wow what a refined tea! Thick, smooth, deep, subtle-- still really green. My tummy hurts, and it's nuts to drink tea of this quality at work. Also, I really didn't need to put 10 grams into my gaiwan. Delicious. Worth the cost.

[Puerlife]

I'm having a pleasant session with W2T's 2006 Old Bear Fang Cha. I did the first several infusions in my teapot and then for the heck of it switched the leaves to my favorite gaiwan and blecchhh, so harshly bitter, so I switched the leaves back to the teapot and all is well again, a strong but good bitterness with a nice umami finish. What a stark difference, from absolutely undrinkable to quite pleasant and more-ish.
Edit: The gaiwan, chip and all, is also from W2T and I love the shape and the feel and the looks of it. It's perfect for any tea that doesn't need to be housebroken.

[ethan]

Puerlife,

That photograph makes the double-walled glass server look like a chip of ceramic is floating or the side got gouged. Looks a handy bit of teaware to have though.

Good to hear about the differences in taste from gaiwan to yixing.

Cheers

[Tead Off]

I'm having a pleasant session with W2T's 2006 Old Bear Fang Cha. I did the first several infusions in my teapot and then for the heck of it switched the leaves to my favorite gaiwan and blecchhh, so harshly bitter, so I switched the leaves back to the teapot and all is well again, a strong but good bitterness with a nice umami finish. What a stark difference, from absolutely undrinkable to quite pleasant and more-ish.
Edit: The gaiwan, chip and all, is also from W2T and I love the shape and the feel and the looks of it. It's perfect for any tea that doesn't need to be housebroken.

I recognize that teapot! I helped sell those for Khun Zhang last year. These were a very good find at a very good price. Good zini clay mixed with a little duanni for aesthetic effect. Nice to hear it is working well for you.

[Rui]

Sipping one of my daily drinkers: Spring 2014 Jingmai Shengtai Pu-erh Tea from Bannacha. One of the cakes I need to finish before their 2015 teas come out.

[Puerlife]

I'm having a pleasant session with W2T's 2006 Old Bear Fang Cha. I did the first several infusions in my teapot and then for the heck of it switched the leaves to my favorite gaiwan and blecchhh, so harshly bitter, so I switched the leaves back to the teapot and all is well again, a strong but good bitterness with a nice umami finish. What a stark difference, from absolutely undrinkable to quite pleasant and more-ish.
Edit: The gaiwan, chip and all, is also from W2T and I love the shape and the feel and the looks of it. It's perfect for any tea that doesn't need to be housebroken.

I recognize that teapot! I helped sell those for Khun Zhang last year. These were a very good find at a very good price. Good zini clay mixed with a little duanni for aesthetic effect. Nice to hear it is working well for you.

Yes, I remember that. In fact, that's what gave me the confidence to buy one when I flew down to Bangkok to see them, so thank you for that. Khun Zhang recently had (and still has?) some very nice looking tea caddies apparently made of the same combination of clay.

I started another session so I could do another gaiwan-teapot comparison, this time with the last of my Tea Urchin sample of 2011 Autumn Luo Shui Dong. There's not much difference, although I got an offtaste in one sip from the gaiwan infusion. But it's hard to say much because this tea, being autumnal, is more muted and seems to be changing from steep to steep, unlike the fang cha which was pretty much the same from beginning to end.
Ethan -- do you mean the mostly oval shape. If so, that's the remains of the label, which I've kept on because it's a good level marker.

[ethan]

Yes, it's the label.

[benm3]

I am on my second day with the same 10 grams of White2teas's new foil wrapped Guafengzhai- it is still such an impressive tea on the second day. Thick, gloopy, deep, refined. This is the good stuff- and it's not too terribly expensive for what it is. I don't usually drink such fresh sheng (because it hurts my tummy), but this is just such a good tea that I might have to buy a few hundred grams.

[mam2431]

Enjoying the 2011 Autumn Xi Kong sheng from Yunnan Sourcing. Even though this is from an autumnal harvest, it is powerful and full of character with solid endurance (11 infusions so far). Actually I enjoy several teas from the 2011 YS autumn group - it was a good year. Note: I did increase my typical leaf amount by about a third since this is from an autumn harvest.

[shah82]

Pretty much limiting myself to one session a month these days, but...

'07 An Xiang was all sorts of awesome again, today.

Not the strongest of taste or thickest of soups, unlike, say, Star of Menghai, so it's not really a favorite among Chinese shu drinkers.

However, accepting those limitations, this shu has an appreciable percentage of the hedons of an excellent mature puerh. When I mean excellent mature puerh, I mean the aged sheng that never seems to leave the Far East in any appreciable amounts and which most people experience from gifts but not purchases.

Has never not been appreciably better than the An Xiang sheng version, for some reason. For example, the huigans were/are stronger than the sheng, both in the mouth and throat. Has stronger qi, tho' the sheng does have something something tightly bound to caffeine feel. Coats the mouth thoroughly. Complex taste and aroma. Durable. Always a big treat when I let myself have some.

[apache]

What? a session a month? Are you ok?

I haven't tried 07 An Xiang shu for sometime and I only have one cake of shu and a few cakes of sheng. This one cake of shu is going to last much longer than my sheng cakes. I find drinking shu is really hard going and I can't do it more than once in a week or that off taste of shu would linger and I need drinking oolong to detox!

Pretty much limiting myself to one session a month these days, but...

'07 An Xiang was all sorts of awesome again, today.

Not the strongest of taste or thickest of soups, unlike, say, Star of Menghai, so it's not really a favorite among Chinese shu drinkers.

However, accepting those limitations, this shu has an appreciable percentage of the hedons of an excellent mature puerh. When I mean excellent mature puerh, I mean the aged sheng that never seems to leave the Far East in any appreciable amounts and which most people experience from gifts but not purchases.

Has never not been appreciably better than the An Xiang sheng version, for some reason. For example, the huigans were/are stronger than the sheng, both in the mouth and throat. Has stronger qi, tho' the sheng does have something something tightly bound to caffeine feel. Coats the mouth thoroughly. Complex taste and aroma. Durable. Always a big treat when I let myself have some.

[Rui]

Sipping a very nice 2014 Yunnan Sourcing Autumn Da Qing Gu Shu raw pu'er.

[benm3]

I had a session with pu-erh.sk 1999 Haiwan "Wild" Yiwu. So good. Sooooooo good. Thick, dark, gloopy, oily, refined and energizing qi. I felt this one the next day. It's not cheap, but I just went online and bought the last beeng. I have been very impressed by older Haiwan products (both sheng and shu).