Official Pu of the day

[Teaism]

Extremely rare and fortunate tea day. Had tea with an old and famous tea collector who deal with auction houses etc.

Pu of the day from the collector's treasure box:
1960s Kwangtung Tuo Cha (in yellow box)
1950s Liu Bao
1910 Song Ping Hao.

Also have the chance to see many of his grandmaster teapots.
Extremely happy day. I am lost for words!

Cheers!

[bellmont]

Today and as of late, I have been drinking a lot of the 2007 Xiaguan "Xiao Fa" Tuo Ripe. There's a umami similar to the Japanese kombu seaweed or a heavy soy sauce without the saltiness. A dark brown-red liquor with a thick texture. A subtle caramel sweetness. I am getting a pleasant fullness after drinking, that makes me ponder the usefulness of this tea to drink when I am hungry.

Wet leaf aroma is a bit of a paradox because I think it smells like dried wood. My later steepings produced a liquor with a lighter caramel color, and a “clean” mineral taste. I also noted a hint of char during the entire session. I use this tea as my (cheap) ripe benchmark, ie. shou that costs more than what I picked this up for at Yunnan Sourcing needs to give me an overall better experience than what I have had with this ripe.

--As an aside: The value of this ripe is great. Right now, I want to drink this daily but I only have one tuo so I have it about every other day.

[Teaism]

A nice session with some good tea friends. We had:

1960s and 1970s Guang Yuen tribute tea and 1970s CR brick tea. Wonderful wonderful.

Cheers!

[shah82]

My first minituo, a Bulang Big Tree shu. Basically a more Bulangy v93. Not an especially strong taste, but is more fully durable than the Mangtang no2 yesterday. Has plenty of caffeine (and in generally, seems to be on the lighter fermentation side of things). Some sips have a notably sweet and plummy finish. The soup thickness is not very good, but it is smooth.

[mr mopu]

Having Wymm’s “Mangnuo Cane Tea” today.
I have brewed all of the samples from them in a neutral glass vessel. I think this is the best way to get a handle to the “essence” of the tea on your first tasting.
I gave a really quick rinse to this one just to wake it a bit. It has a nice green tea and musky aroma to it. The sips are warm, grassy and buttery with the honey sweetness coming through . It has a slight touch of bitter that dwells for a second goes and drifts back in as well. What has really impressed me is the sweet of this seems to dance about a while after drinking it. This has no smoke at all in it. I would say it has been processed with pride. I have had 8 good infusions so far and i will keep going as long as I can with this one. I am up to 20 second steeps and still getting some goodness.

Flavors: Bitter, Butter, Grass, Green, Honey, Sweet

[BioHorn]

This "Taichung brutal style" sounds brutal. Must be a good stress test though, bad-average teas fall apart under conditions like that.

Taichung is Taiwan's most famous "Gangster city".

Those guys could not come up with a better method
to tell (tear?) apart bad from good teas...

I am loving this conversation. There is nothing like a good stress test to see what is really in the tea.

[xiaobai]

This "Taichung brutal style" sounds brutal. Must be a good stress test though, bad-average teas fall apart under conditions like that.

Taichung is Taiwan's most famous "Gangster city".

Those guys could not come up with a better method
to tell (tear?) apart bad from good teas...

[TwoDog2]

White2tea's New Amerikah 2 brewed in "Taichung brutal" style:

5g in a flat (160 ml) duanni pot
(no rinse, just let the pot overflow in the first steep)
1min/50sec/1min/2min/4min/8min/16min ...

Water from a Kunzan tetsubin at full boil (with steam coming out
at least 30cm out of the spout) and pouring into the pot at short distance.

You need the duanni to suppress the bitterness a bit.
And make sure you preheat the pot very very well...

Definitely, this method is not for the faint hearted.
But the tea feels just AMAAAAAZING!!

This "Taichung brutal style" sounds brutal. Must be a good stress test though, bad-average teas fall apart under conditions like that.

[shah82]

2011 Mangtang N.2 from YS. Has second grade Lincang leaves but has much of the aroma/taste character of a Dayi 7262 in its sweetbread way (not as strong, though), along with typical lincang bark quality. The tea hollows out quickly after about three brews, and becomes more of an emphasis on lincang edgy aromatics. This tea does coat the mouth with a characteristic taste. Slightly sour. Smooth, but not that thick, a couple of very light astringent finish. Has a bit more caffeine that expected, so with age, probably will gain some qi. This is an alright shu for the money.

Been doing more research on that shu cake and think I have it narrowed down to (if neifei is accurate and not a taipai) 7572/7592/8592 from the late '90s to '00 or '01. This tea was cooked pretty hard, which is not normal for 7572. 8592 generally don't tend to have perfectly generic wrappers.

Wistaria Hongyin was never a particularly overpriced tea unless the prices have changed radically. I'm not hugely excited about it, but it should actually be a good ager...

[BW85]

Re-visiting the 2008 Red Mark from Wistaria. This is a tea that is perplexing. The price tag vs. the enjoyment do not match up at all. It is smoky. It is slightly wet stored. It is rough in the finish. It is incredibly long lasting. But, there is no enjoyment for me in the drinking of it. Usually a tea like this smooths out after a number of brews and becomes accessible. After a dozen or so brews, the same taste, same roughness, some smoke and wetness. Eventually I gave up on it. Why drink anything that is not enjoyable unless it is medicine. And this, isn't medicine.

Is it possible that it's intended for long term aging? I thought I read somewhere about it being a recreation of the 50's red mark

It might be, but that doesn't mean that you can't drink it younger and have a nice tea to enjoy. I'm not a believer that a good puerh has to age 20 years before you can enjoy it. If it's good leaf, you should be able to drink it anytime. Of course, it will change over time, but no guarantee it will change to something really good. Storage smells and tastes are also not 'my thing'.

I've heard that the original red marks were nothing you'd want to drink young... Supposedly gut wrenching. I always assumed it was only relatively recently that puerh started being produced in a way that made it more conducive to drinking young.

[Tead Off]

Re-visiting the 2008 Red Mark from Wistaria. This is a tea that is perplexing. The price tag vs. the enjoyment do not match up at all. It is smoky. It is slightly wet stored. It is rough in the finish. It is incredibly long lasting. But, there is no enjoyment for me in the drinking of it. Usually a tea like this smooths out after a number of brews and becomes accessible. After a dozen or so brews, the same taste, same roughness, some smoke and wetness. Eventually I gave up on it. Why drink anything that is not enjoyable unless it is medicine. And this, isn't medicine.

Is it possible that it's intended for long term aging? I thought I read somewhere about it being a recreation of the 50's red mark

It might be, but that doesn't mean that you can't drink it younger and have a nice tea to enjoy. I'm not a believer that a good puerh has to age 20 years before you can enjoy it. If it's good leaf, you should be able to drink it anytime. Of course, it will change over time, but no guarantee it will change to something really good. Storage smells and tastes are also not 'my thing'.

[xiaobai]

White2tea's New Amerikah 2 brewed in "Taichung brutal" style:

5g in a flat (160 ml) duanni pot
(no rinse, just let the pot overflow in the first steep)
1min/50sec/1min/2min/4min/8min/16min ...

Water from a Kunzan tetsubin at full boil (with steam coming
at least 30cm out of the spout) and pouring into the pot at a short distance.

You need the duanni to suppress the bitterness a bit. And the pot must
be flat for it to cool quickly (but make sure you preheat the pot very very well...)

Definitely, this method is not for the faint hearted.
But the tea feels just AMAAAAAZING!!

[BW85]

Re-visiting the 2008 Red Mark from Wistaria. This is a tea that is perplexing. The price tag vs. the enjoyment do not match up at all. It is smoky. It is slightly wet stored. It is rough in the finish. It is incredibly long lasting. But, there is no enjoyment for me in the drinking of it. Usually a tea like this smooths out after a number of brews and becomes accessible. After a dozen or so brews, the same taste, same roughness, some smoke and wetness. Eventually I gave up on it. Why drink anything that is not enjoyable unless it is medicine. And this, isn't medicine.

Is it possible that it's intended for long term aging? I thought I read somewhere about it being a recreation of the 50's red mark

[Rui]

2014 YS Autumn Qing Mei Shan Old Arbor Pu'er. Young tea but very enjoyable.

[Tead Off]

Re-visiting the 2008 Red Mark from Wistaria. This is a tea that is perplexing. The price tag vs. the enjoyment do not match up at all. It is smoky. It is slightly wet stored. It is rough in the finish. It is incredibly long lasting. But, there is no enjoyment for me in the drinking of it. Usually a tea like this smooths out after a number of brews and becomes accessible. After a dozen or so brews, the same taste, same roughness, some smoke and wetness. Eventually I gave up on it. Why drink anything that is not enjoyable unless it is medicine. And this, isn't medicine.