Official Pu of the day

[jayinhk]

2001 7542--HK traditional storage. I've had the cake in my living room for a few months. Storage flavors persist, but nothing too major after some air and the tea is extremely smooth. Nice black tea notes, too, and almost no bitterness!

[kuánglóng]

Having some fun with 5g of 2006 Myanmar Kokang Mei Hua (chawangshop) in a tiny zhuni pot. Nothing too sophisticated but a primarily brisk, fruity tea with some pronounced tartness, a pretty long aftertaste, remarkable leng xiang in the empty cup and some uplifting qi. I'm getting more than 10 refreshing steeps out of these leaves and will probably get another mini-tong (5x100g).

[jayinhk]

Having some fun with 5g of 2006 Myanmar Kokang Mei Hua (chawangshop) in a tiny zhuni pot. Nothing too sophisticated but a primarily brisk, fruity tea with some pronounced tartness, a pretty long aftertaste, remarkable leng xiang in the empty cup and some uplifting qi. I'm getting more than 10 refreshing steeps out of these leaves and will probably get another mini-tong (5x100g).

Nice, I have two of these 100g cakes and have yet to try them! One has been stored in my pu cabinet for a year. Sounds like I should give it a try!

[debunix]

Late report on a lovely session yesterday with Menghai Golden Needle White Lotus shu, so adapatable and delicious whether in small unglazed shiboridashi, or in thermos bulk brew with not-so-hot water from the tap of the water cooler. Gotta love a tea that does whatever your need so beautifully.

And later, a small session with the 2007 Yong De white bud sheng: there is a fuzziness around the flavor of this tea that sometimes interferes with getting at the earthy and sweet notes that are there underneath, and this time the fuzzy dominated. I've got to figure out why sometimes that is the top note and sometimes just a background hint, because I have a lot of thise tea, and because even in the past few months I've had some very nice sessions with it that convinced me it was ready to start drinking seriously again.

[kuánglóng]

2016 Spring old gardens Jinggu (bannacha)

Sipping some on an (almost) empty stomach right now. Flowery, mellow, with a dominant, velvety kuwei and seemingly endless, slightly salty aftertaste. Great mouthfeel, OK huigan, almost no adstringency, the tummy feels OK and the qi got me more grounded right after the first steep. Good stuff

[kuánglóng]

2012 Jin Ma 8682 via ChaWangShop--one of the ripe pu erh stuffed tangerines.

Funny stuff, Jay. Looking forward to making red-cooked pork (hong shao rou, 红烧肉) with chinese cabbage and spring onions for some friends today and I'll serve this tea to wash it all down.

[jayinhk]

2012 Jin Ma 8682 via ChaWangShop--one of the ripe pu erh stuffed tangerines.

Funny stuff, Jay. Looking forward to making red-cooked pork (hong shao rou, 红烧肉) with chinese cabbage and spring onions for some friends today and I'll serve this tea to wash it all down.

I bet that will work wonderfully, actually, and the dried tangerine peel is perfect for this time of year! Prevents colds and the flu as the seasons change.

[kuánglóng]

2012 Jin Ma 8682 via ChaWangShop--one of the ripe pu erh stuffed tangerines.

Funny stuff, Jay. Looking forward to making red-cooked pork (hong shao rou, 红烧肉) with chinese cabbage and spring onions for some friends today and I'll serve this tea to wash it all down.

I bet that will work wonderfully, actually, and the dried tangerine peel is perfect for this time of year! Prevents colds and the flu as the seasons change.

Sure works. The peel as well as the tea have gone through some serious fermentation though but I still have a lot of aged organic tangerine peel lying around here, just in case. I've added a healthy overdose of sichuan pepper to our red-cooked dish today; just the right stuff for this cr@p weather ... I need more tea - now.

[debunix]

I don't think Linus Pauling was right about megadoses of vitamin C, but I do use that feeling of cold coming on as an excuse to eat more oranges and peppers, and drink more orange juice: I'm certainly happier whether or not I'm healthier.

And edited to add what I came here to post: enjoying a smooth session with the 2009 Lao Mansa sheng from Norbu. It was one of the first shengs I tried, and I went back to my original 2009 note about it (from another forum, you can read it here), and I was surprised to see that smokiness was the first characteristic I mentioned. That is completely gone now, after 7 years of aging in my dry LA office and home. The fruity notes are also mostly gone, and the dominant note now is earthy and spicey. After I finish the bits I recently pared off the been, I'll put it to bed again for another 1-2 years.

[kuánglóng]

I don't think Linus Pauling was right about megadoses of vitamin C, but I do use that feeling of cold coming on as an excuse to eat more oranges and peppers, and drink more orange juice: I'm certainly happier whether or not I'm healthier..

Yeah, kiwis, oranges, tangerines, (still no pomelos in sight, sigh), all sorts of peppers and for some reason I'm totally mad about chinese cabbage these days - in salads, on sandwiches, kimchi (old favorite) and all sorts of chinese dishes, can't get enough of that stuff - and tea

[jayinhk]

Just bought the following, direct from an authorized dealer in Kunming:

2015 Xiaguan T8653 x 1
2016 Xiaguan FT14456-16 (125g cakes) x 12
2016 Xiaguan Qianjiazhai Bing x 1
2016 Dayi 7542 1601 x 7 (my first tong!)

Aside from the Qianjiazhai, which I'm curious to try, the rest will age in a carton in a dedicated pu erh corner of my office, where I hope to be able to mostly forget about them and let them do their thing for a decade (fingers crossed)! I hope to keep one part of the office dehumidified, 24x7, 365 days a year, but where the pu erh is stored, I only run the air conditioning as needed (when I'm around)!

[kuánglóng]

2015 Mengsong Old Tree (chawangshop)

This is the least dynamic of the chawangpus I got with my last order but has surprisingly distinct notes of turkish honey (the white stuff), decent kuwei, little adstringency, a pretty viscous soup and long, rather subtle aftertaste. Nothing too deep or energetic going on here but I'm glad I bought one those cakes instead of a pound of those turkish sugar bombs.

[kuánglóng]

2012 Xiaguan Jia Ji - dark green box (chawangshop - $4.20/100g)

Made some late lunch for some friends at their home today and felt like breaking into one of their tuos afterwards.
I wouldn't necessarily want to drink this stuff on a daily basis but the dynamics, huigan, deep throat action and relaxing qi we all experienced today sure give some way more expensive teas a serious run for their money.

[jayinhk]

2012 Xiaguan Jia Ji - dark green box (chawangshop - $4.20/100g)

Made some late lunch for some friends at their home today and felt like breaking into one of their tuos afterwards.
I wouldn't necessarily want to drink this stuff on a daily basis but the dynamics, huigan, deep throat action and relaxing qi we all experienced today sure give some way more expensive teas a serious run for their money.

I have some traditional storage 2001 JiaJi and it is lovely! Never tried a younger dry storage one, but I hear they can be rough drinking.

[kuánglóng]

2012 Xiaguan Jia Ji - dark green box (chawangshop - $4.20/100g)

Made some late lunch for some friends at their home today and felt like breaking into one of their tuos afterwards.
I wouldn't necessarily want to drink this stuff on a daily basis but the dynamics, huigan, deep throat action and relaxing qi we all experienced today sure give some way more expensive teas a serious run for their money.

I have some traditional storage 2001 JiaJi and it is lovely! Never tried a younger dry storage one, but I hear they can be rough drinking.

Yeah, they can be a bit rough (and smokey), especially with less than ten years under the wrapper and/or overly dry storage and this one sure wasn't overly smooth either. However, they all mature just fine albeit a bit slowly but under the right conditions it doesn't take decades to smoothen them out. I have a nice collection of all sorts of XG and other sheng tuos in storage and while I have much, much better teas I still like those tuos, especially aged ones for what they are.
If you're looking for some younger, relatively smooth XG stuff with some decent qi this could be your ticket:
http://yunnansourcing.com/en/2012/2780- ... n-box.html
.. but you'd probably get more pronounced huigan and deeper throat action from the less polished 2012 Jia Ji I've mentioned.