Official Pu of the day

[kyarazen]

hmm.. what was the temperature that the teas were stored at?

[Balthazar]

I did recently start putting a few of my teas in crocks, using tobacco pouches to keep the humidity at an acceptable level. It helps, but I doubt it will able to do much for the goners.

It will be interesting to see other people's experiences with crocks in a few years time. I am under the impression quite a few people have started trying it out, largely thanks to cwyn's informative posts.

[bonescwa]

Just get a stoneware crock and put a little wet sponge with a zip lock back around it so the tea doesn't get wet. Open it periodically to let the air circulate so it doesn't mold.

[Balthazar]

Finished a sample of "2000 Fuyuanchang Yibang" procured from white2tea about a year ago. Oh boy, another example of Norwegian Storage doing some heavy damage to good tea.

Of course expecting 15ish grams of tea to remain unchanged for a year (not to mention aging in a positive way) would probably be naive under any storage conditions. But the havoc that has been brought on this tea is nonetheless surprising. What used to be very smooth, full-bodied and flavorful is now simply undrinkable. Sour, sour, sour, the stomach reacts after the first few sips.

I've mentioned all this before, but I'm glad I didn't go on a puer shopping spree last year. I'm especially glad I didn't buy a tong of tuochatea's very reasonable 2008 8582, which was very tasty when it arrived, but now is also just sour. The 5-6 cakes of raw puer I have are all pretty much undrinkable, though, and my girlfriend bought a bunch of stuff from China last summer that I imagine has fared no better. More recently procured stuff, like the White Whale, has also turned bad in a similar way. I don't think they started deteriorating much at all before winter arrived. And this has been a pretty mild winter, I wonder how bad it would have turned out had it been a more intense one.

There may be a hidden positive effect in all this. I can't imagine ever becoming completely obsessed with raw puer so long as I live where I do (I don't think I'll ever set up a pumidor), so financially speaking this may be for the best. The only way to go from here on is to buy a limited amount of samples each spring, probably only stuff that's already been aged for a while under decent conditions, and finish them all before winter arrives. I think April-late October/early November is pretty safe. If I do buy one or two cakes, they will need to be sealed. I do have a cake of the 2003 Keyi Xing from, which has been stored in a zip-lock bag. Like the rest of the bunch it's lost a little of what it had, but significantly more of its good qualities remain.

Oh, and the shu puer has kept pretty well. Speaking of which, I think I will have some now.

[mr mopu]

Having a 2013 “YI SHAN LAO ZHAI” gu shu sheng From Yunnan Sourcing.
Go this on my last order to try as Jinggu teas can be quite good.
I broke out 10 grams and went with the gaiwan to brew with. I gave it a quick rinse and let it sit a few minutes to open up. I saw a recent post someone else had reflected on their way of letting the tea breathe before brewing fully. It is said to akin to opening a bottle of wine to breathe before you pour it. I think it works for puerh as well.
The tea, it brew up nicely aromatic with a nice golden yellow hue to it. Very clear in the cup. It is semi-thick with some bitterness at first. Just a whisp of the smoke is left in this and not really noticeable till after the swallow. It gives some buttery, salty creamy notes and seems to be active and stimulating. The notes of wet hay and floral are in there as well.
An interesting one and not bad for the price it is offered at. The leaf material can be seen opening up after a few infusions. Nice size some displaying a leaf and a bud on a stem in there. Nice pungent and pretty tasty.

Flavors: Butter, Creamy, Floral, Smoke, wet hay.

[Rui]

2014 Spring Natural Tea Gardens from Bannacha. Finishing the cake ahead of any 2015 tea releases.

[Tead Off]

2009 Spring Yiwu from Tea Urchin. Very nice tea that is still getting better after 6 years.

Seong il 100ml gaiwan, 2009 Yiwu.jpg (48.74 KiB) Viewed 1662 times

[mam2431]

Having fun today with Yunnan Sourcing’s 2009 Lao Ban Zhang Premium sheng. This is a very interesting selection from YS recommended by a few whose opinions I value. Reportedly a special production by the Mengku Tea Factory and according to YS, the tea is 100% Ban Zhang Wild Ancient Arbor. The leaves of the cake appear to be clean, thick and stout. Bright and clear tea liquor. Floral-fruity scent on top of a smooth woody base which is long lasting and powerful. The sip is full and complex yet strongly sweet. There is a pleasant bitterness but this quickly dissipates then a full, delicious, sweet taste dominates and remains in the mouth for quite some time. Nice mouth feel – tongue and mouth tingle after just a few small sips. Good chaqi which begins to come forward after the first cup and builds over several infusions. Nice tea!

[William]

Just finished some wild DXS from the 2014 harvest.
After the first 2/3 brews, the tea became oily and thick on the tongue, maintaining a nice balance between aftertaste's length and body's thickness.

Surely a nice surprise (since I opened the untouched bag few minutes before).

[Drax]

there are different aroma wheels for different cultures.. the chinese one is different from the european one..

Interesting! A good example of why it's nice to have these conversations every once in awhile...

[Drax]

For the record, I think you can have a tea that has very rich and complex top notes, and it can also have a deeper, "rounder" bitterness as well.

Absolutely! Just like you can have a bassoon and a flute playing simultaneously. Sometimes the analogies really do work well...

[kyarazen]

Paxl -- it's a way to think about the flavor landscape as a sound/music landscape. A similar conversion happens when people say 'darker' and 'brighter'... we're trying to convert taste into other senses that are perhaps a bit easier to describe.

There's actually no guarantee that two people will convert the same flavor profile in the same way. And come to think of it, I've never tried to backward convert -- that is, if a tea makes me think of 'low notes,' I'm not sure I've identified what is actually in the taste that makes me think of it that way. Maybe somebody else can throw out some ideas (different topic/thread, perhaps?) -- is a richer mouthfeel lower in tone? Is bitterness higher? Hm.

Hope that helps a little...

its a fun topic dabbling a wee bit into perfumery i realized that there are different aroma wheels for different cultures.. the chinese one is different from the european one..

[AdmiralKelvinator]

Paxl -- it's a way to think about the flavor landscape as a sound/music landscape. A similar conversion happens when people say 'darker' and 'brighter'... we're trying to convert taste into other senses that are perhaps a bit easier to describe.

There's actually no guarantee that two people will convert the same flavor profile in the same way. And come to think of it, I've never tried to backward convert -- that is, if a tea makes me think of 'low notes,' I'm not sure I've identified what is actually in the taste that makes me think of it that way. Maybe somebody else can throw out some ideas (different topic/thread, perhaps?) -- is a richer mouthfeel lower in tone? Is bitterness higher? Hm.

Hope that helps a little...

indeed it's an analogy to musical timbre, and although in a sense all comparisons are imperfect by nature, coming from a musical background its the first frame of reference I reach for.

I guess what I mean by "high register" is actually more temporal in nature, its the flavors that hit the palate first, in that there's no delay between the sip and the first impressions. Using a stainless kettle, the bitterness of the Banzhang hits quickly and it's somewhat "sharp" (again an imperfect analogy but hey). The clay mutes the bitterness, rounds it out and gives the tea a heavier, mouth-filling sensation that feels more "bassy" to me. For me, a good tea has a flavor that morphs as you hold it in your mouth, from high to low and eventually the finish and huigan or what have you.

For the record, I think you can have a tea that has very rich and complex top notes, and it can also have a deeper, "rounder" bitterness as well.

[bonescwa]

Paxl -- it's a way to think about the flavor landscape as a sound/music landscape. A similar conversion happens when people say 'darker' and 'brighter'... we're trying to convert taste into other senses that are perhaps a bit easier to describe.

There's actually no guarantee that two people will convert the same flavor profile in the same way. And come to think of it, I've never tried to backward convert -- that is, if a tea makes me think of 'low notes,' I'm not sure I've identified what is actually in the taste that makes me think of it that way. Maybe somebody else can throw out some ideas (different topic/thread, perhaps?) -- is a richer mouthfeel lower in tone? Is bitterness higher? Hm.

Hope that helps a little...

It would be interesting to know if the molecules that create 'heavier' aroma/flavor are actually heavier and less volatile than those that create 'bright' aromas/flavors. It would make sense, floral and citrus aromas are there to be sensed by pollinators.

[gasninja]

2001 Simao Gu Puer Bangwei from the six Famous tea Mtns set. I. Remember this set as being about 50/50 good and so so when I first got samples. This Bangwei is a really great tea though it tastes older than it is. Strong cha qi check cooling aftertaste check huigan check. There is,even a good amount of granny face powder normally found in older tea. As I am thinking about this I remember that Bangwei has a giant 1700 +year , old mother tree right near/in the village. I ponder how puer was not this exhaulted thing in 2001 but just common tea. If I was a farmer looking for tea Would I go hiking through the junggle to find the leaf or would I climb the giant tea tree in my back yard. Hmmmmm


But it could as easily be taidi cha from
from Hunan.