Official Pu of the day

[William]

2010 Douji Yu Dou. This has been an excellent performer over its life. Really a classic cake. One I should have bought more of....but I didn't know the price for a 2010 cake would go from $28 in 2010 to $127.00 in 2014. Absurd. It's good and all, but there is no way would I pay that for it.

Would it have the same price, without the many reviews this producer received?

[puerhking]

2010 Douji Yu Dou. This has been an excellent performer over its life. Really a classic cake. One I should have bought more of....but I didn't know the price for a 2010 cake would go from $28 in 2010 to $127.00 in 2014. Absurd. It's good and all, but there is no way would I pay that for it.

[debunix]

2010 Pa Sha Zhong Zhao Mao Cha from Xishuangbanna, via Norbu, a loose sheng puerh.



3.8 grams of tea in small Petr Ent pot—very pleasant scent to the dried leaf—or rather, the mostly intact pieces of stem plus leaf plus bud or two.



All infusions with water 205-207 degrees from the kettle. First a flash rinse—light touch of smoke, herbs and anise, mmm.



Now just a series of flash infusions—sweet, herbs and anise, and earthy bit; smoke is mostly gone even at 2nd infusion; ditto for 3rd, 4th, 5, 6,7, 8…lost track of infusions, held overnight twice for a few more infusions, and very pleasant as a morning tea by that point, as mostly sweetwater with a little extra kick.

Here are the leaves after infusion—can’t recall if these were from the first or second series of infusions, because I started the second as soon as the first set of leaves were done, it was so delicious…



All in all, a remarkable lovely tea, and sadly long sold out: I wish I’d stocked up on this one, but I only bought 50 grams and by the time I finally opened it, it was far too late. 2010 may not have been a brilliant year overall, but this fall tea was as lovely as any young pu I’ve had, very much to my taste.

[shah82]

I've only ever found one shu from 2007 for CYH online--has plum blossoms against pink background on the wrapper. Something something fragrance. So far, I'm not a huge fan of CYH, but I've not had any of their good stuff, yet. The red 2001 Yiwu, that 2007 shu, and a 2012 Bingdao

How can you tell if it's a good year, given how much tea areas changes hands and how grades of tea can change for the same product next year?

I mean, fo' shore, 2009 was a great year. However, I can't really say for sure about any other year--2011 seems to have been a good year, but frankly, I think that's because it's the last year anything decent was within the budget of the working man. Really thinking on it...it seems like 2008, 2010, and 2013 were not good years. 2007 was the year of the lucha. Flip side is, I've read all these claims about certain years, particularly 2004 and 2005 being bad years way back when people first started gossiping about puerh in the US, and I'm not sure just how serious we should take any generalization about years, without more consistency.

Blended some anon Bangwei and 2002 7542. Combined their aggressiveness, but seems to have amplified a little fruitiness, and stays in the mouth long. It's okay, if highly caffeinated for some reason. Bangwei was the minor ingredient, but has stronger flavor deeper into session.

[puyuan]

What broad character did the '14 Hong Yin have? Is it like any particular area or traditional blend?

Have you had the Chenyuanhao shu from 2007? Did you like it?

Answering your second question first, it's a blend, but completely original in the terroir of the material. I know the recipe but I'm not sure I can say it in public. PM? I'll comment on the character then.

Is it the andian shu? I think they have more than one from around this time. I have a single-brew sample incoming, but it shouldn't be here for another month.

Back to a comment of mine above, by coincidence I casually found out the CYH Chahuang is about 650 usd a piece. Ugh.

I wonder why 2014 was the year of trying to produce *the* puer cake for so many producers I like. Certainly 2014 spring was unusually good, but I guess everyone is afraid prices will double again. For many regions pricewise things are getting unwieldy even for the upper echelon guys.

[shah82]

What broad character did the '14 Hong Yin have? Is it like any particular area or traditional blend?

Have you had the Chenyuanhao shu from 2007? Did you like it?

[puyuan]

Having my expectations defied by this weird session, I decided to try another CYH Yiwu that was stored in Guangzhou, from 2007 spring, a supposedly nice production I had never seen named anywhere.

It was an even weirder surprise. The dry leaves look very oxidized but also very clean. I was expecting an elegant, sweet, energetic Yiwu guafengzhai-ish tea. The brew does taste clean, but way older than 7 seven years, and has quite a bit of camphor. Because of the surprise factor, I was disappointed at first, but it won me over quickly as I adjusted to what it really was. The material used is good and because of the "accelerated" and nice aging this tea is very worth its price. It will taste like a 20+ year tea in no time, just not what I'd expect from its area of origin. There's already some aged psychoactivity (which I suspect was absent from the young tea). I know the storage was wet and all, but I have to wonder if they used aged maocha to press this guy?

i'm not surprised if they did blend in some aged, or some light to mid fermentation tea leaves to nucleate the process, after all most high end tea factory owners are superb tea blenders/tasters, and often not "simple". not that blending is bad though.

Excellent hypothesi all, and I'll be to investigate them soon regarding this tea.

[puyuan]

Had the incredible XZH taiji black wrapper earlier today. The mixiang is still stuck to my throat. And it made me wish I could drink it fifteen years from now, now. But not even the magical chaqi of this tea goes that far...

Of interest, it's aged proof of how ridiculosly awesome Sanhetang's now standard picking of leaves 1-to-4 (instead of classic 1-to-3) is. Even if the material they use was, on average, a notch inferior, I'd still be seeking out their teas for this alone.

Still green enough that it might prove useful as a benchmark for evaluating the 13 version of an yearly Banzhang (very much Lao, I suspect, but the producer keeps it a secret for various reasons) cake that I'll be trying soon. The 14 version had a higher grade commemorative xiaobing counterpart, for the first and last time. Probably the craziest 14 tea I happened upon other than the xizihao hongyin. Both cost an arm, a leg and soul, and I'll shy away from even sampling this grade of young tea in 2015; it just stops making any and all economic sense when we have fine teas from preceding years still available.

[puerhking]

2014 Jingmai Gushu huang pian mao cha - When I first tried this I was not crazy about it. Has a very different flavor profile. Hard to describe. Some pu notes and also some oolong notes yet neither. After I tried it a couple of more times I was hooked. Given its very reasonable price I recommend grabbing some on your next Chawang Shop order. Yum.

[puyuan]

Inspired by our recent discussions, I brewed the Bore again. Man, scratch whatever I said last time. Yesterday's tea was probably a little sample I had mislabeled. I plucked a little leaf from my cake and brewed the actual thing earlier today. It was stored very dry, and unusually so. The tea is very green and has something of roasted oolong to it, and I don't think it's due to rounian like "oolongfied" puers. I can either simulate it's original store and see where it leads in some 15 years or experiment with keeping it in my usual natural storage. Let's see.

Having my expectations defied by this weird session, I decided to try another CYH Yiwu that was stored in Guangzhou, from 2007 spring, a supposedly nice production I had never seen named anywhere.

It was an even weirder surprise. The dry leaves look very oxidized but also very clean. I was expecting an elegant, sweet, energetic Yiwu guafengzhai-ish tea. The brew does taste clean, but way older than 7 seven years, and has quite a bit of camphor. Because of the surprise factor, I was disappointed at first, but it won me over quickly as I adjusted to what it really was. The material used is good and because of the "accelerated" and nice aging this tea is very worth its price. It will taste like a 20+ year tea in no time, just not what I'd expect from its area of origin. There's already some aged psychoactivity (which I suspect was absent from the young tea). I know the storage was wet and all, but I have to wonder if they used aged maocha to press this guy?

just to confirm, you are talking about this cake?



Jia Mu Tang (嘉木堂) has another even stronger yesheng (野生) cake in 2007.

No, no, the Zangjing! I own precisely the 2013 chawang cake from the picture you posted but have yet to try it. The aged versions got way too expensive, unfortunately. I also like the 250g yesheng (green font) cakes that started in 2012. I suspect they are Bohetang teas. I tried also getting a sample from the Chahuang but laoban wouldn't pry the cake... Must be expensive, because he sent me 2014 Bingdao and some very pricey aged samples.

[quikstep]

Inspired by our recent discussions, I brewed the Bore again. Man, scratch whatever I said last time. Yesterday's tea was probably a little sample I had mislabeled. I plucked a little leaf from my cake and brewed the actual thing earlier today. It was stored very dry, and unusually so. The tea is very green and has something of roasted oolong to it, and I don't think it's due to rounian like "oolongfied" puers. I can either simulate it's original store and see where it leads in some 15 years or experiment with keeping it in my usual natural storage. Let's see.

Having my expectations defied by this weird session, I decided to try another CYH Yiwu that was stored in Guangzhou, from 2007 spring, a supposedly nice production I had never seen named anywhere.

It was an even weirder surprise. The dry leaves look very oxidized but also very clean. I was expecting an elegant, sweet, energetic Yiwu guafengzhai-ish tea. The brew does taste clean, but way older than 7 seven years, and has quite a bit of camphor. Because of the surprise factor, I was disappointed at first, but it won me over quickly as I adjusted to what it really was. The material used is good and because of the "accelerated" and nice aging this tea is very worth its price. It will taste like a 20+ year tea in no time, just not what I'd expect from its area of origin. There's already some aged psychoactivity (which I suspect was absent from the young tea). I know the storage was wet and all, but I have to wonder if they used aged maocha to press this guy?

just to confirm, you are talking about this cake?



Jia Mu Tang (嘉木堂) has another even stronger yesheng (野生) cake in 2007.

[kyarazen]

Having my expectations defied by this weird session, I decided to try another CYH Yiwu that was stored in Guangzhou, from 2007 spring, a supposedly nice production I had never seen named anywhere.

It was an even weirder surprise. The dry leaves look very oxidized but also very clean. I was expecting an elegant, sweet, energetic Yiwu guafengzhai-ish tea. The brew does taste clean, but way older than 7 seven years, and has quite a bit of camphor. Because of the surprise factor, I was disappointed at first, but it won me over quickly as I adjusted to what it really was. The material used is good and because of the "accelerated" and nice aging this tea is very worth its price. It will taste like a 20+ year tea in no time, just not what I'd expect from its area of origin. There's already some aged psychoactivity (which I suspect was absent from the young tea). I know the storage was wet and all, but I have to wonder if they used aged maocha to press this guy?

i'm not surprised if they did blend in some aged, or some light to mid fermentation tea leaves to nucleate the process, after all most high end tea factory owners are superb tea blenders/tasters, and often not "simple". not that blending is bad though.

[paxl13]

Today for me was a repeat of the 2002 Green Label of W2T, this tea was even better than the first time I did it! I perceived the milkiness and the cacao bitterness quite clearly! I am in love! Bought it on a suggestion of Paul and so far I'm not regretting it!

[Zacherywolf7]

The smoky/meaty taste is something I didn't mind when I started drinking puerh, but I am finding that I really hate it, it is present almost uniformly in cheap tea. It's the strongest in xiaguan, and that is becoming something I am only able to stomach very occasionally now

I agree. The smokiness in the yun yun is very mild in my experience though, and unlike that of cheap teas. I really like this tea.. It's very active/energetic. There is almost an effervescent quality. Wish I had more than a sample

yes I agree. I definitely just got the smokiness initially on the nose, it wasn't an issue beyond that and really never was.

[BW85]

The smoky/meaty taste is something I didn't mind when I started drinking puerh, but I am finding that I really hate it, it is present almost uniformly in cheap tea. It's the strongest in xiaguan, and that is becoming something I am only able to stomach very occasionally now

I agree. The smokiness in the yun yun is very mild in my experience though, and unlike that of cheap teas. I really like this tea.. It's very active/energetic. There is almost an effervescent quality. Wish I had more than a sample