Official Pu of the day

[Rui]

2012 Cang Yan Gu Feng raw puerh. Lovely freshness and sweetness.

[debunix]

A splendid evening session with my favorite plummy earthy 2009 Lao Cha Tou shu from Norbu. I brought an extra thermos of tea to work today, knowing I needed to stay hydrated with my cold, and because I got lucky and finished a little early, I get to enjoy cup after cup without rushing. Very very nice.

[shah82]

Relevant reading for pu heads: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/ ... tside-game

[AdmiralKelvinator]

Today's pu was a 2006 Banzhang I picked up from Wisteria on my last trip through Taipei.

Out of curiosity, was it pressed by Wistaria or does the wrapper carry a different brand?

good question, this cake was not pressed for Wistaria but rather by a factory called "云草堂" (Yuncaotang).



kyarazen,

by "moisture content meter" do you mean the moisture meters they use for wood? do those two pin ones really work on tea? If so, might be a neat tool to have in the teachest.

[BW85]

EoT 2005 Yiwu sample. A nice tea, a bit weak if not brewed with a rather heavy hand. I like it but not enough to buy a cake at this price.

I actually quite enjoy this tea. A lot. Maybe different water will help, or letting it breath

But yeah.. The flavor isn't upfront an blunt, as yiwu teas usually aren't like that. This tea more so feels good when I drink it

[futurebird]

http://sampletea.com/product/1980s-tong ... cake-green

This is a musty tea but in a good way.Plesent aged scent. Muted camphor. I'm on the 10th infusion and there is no sign of it stopping. I only used 1/2 of the sample!

It steeps fast and dark... needed two rinses to wake up. Don't be fooled it has caffeine.

It's a bit simple at first, but keep steeping it there's more there.

tastes older than the 80s jeez do any of you get cravings for old sheng this will fix that.

[j.p.rich]

EoT 2005 Yiwu sample. A nice tea, a bit weak if not brewed with a rather heavy hand. I like it but not enough to buy a cake at this price.

[puyuan]

Today's pu was a 2006 Banzhang I picked up from Wisteria on my last trip through Taipei.

Out of curiosity, was it pressed by Wistaria or does the wrapper carry a different brand?

[William]

haha..
if i write too much here.. then i'll end up having too little to write in my blog. there had been a long pending article on tea awakening, refreshing and water content of various teas for storage... but i'm just so busy and occasionally lazy.

tea after refreshing and tossed in a roaster, water content is reduced to 7-8% from an original 11%. this water that is lost in the gaseous state brings with it undesirable scents.

Thank you for the explanation.

[kyarazen]

if you have a moisture content instrument, you know it will awaken in a day or two when the water content of the leaves go above 10%.

How changes the water content of a tea, that has been refreshed with a heat source?

haha..
if i write too much here.. then i'll end up having too little to write in my blog. there had been a long pending article on tea awakening, refreshing and water content of various teas for storage... but i'm just so busy and occasionally lazy.

tea after refreshing and tossed in a roaster, water content is reduced to 7-8% from an original 11%. this water that is lost in the gaseous state brings with it undesirable scents.

[William]

if you have a moisture content instrument, you know it will awaken in a day or two when the water content of the leaves go above 10%.

How changes the water content of a tea, that has been refreshed with a heat source?

[kyarazen]

Today's pu was a 2006 Banzhang I picked up from Wisteria on my last trip through Taipei. Previously sampled this tea on two separate occasions and decided to pick up a cake tho it wasn't cheap (not that people go to Wisteria for bargains in the first place). While I was impressed with this tea when I sampled it (it had an unmistakable body response both times that left me feeling quite tea drunk) taking it back home and brewing it now leaves me very underwhelmed. Feels thin and fades into bitterness without any of the good vibes it had previously. The cake was presented to me wrapped in plastic, so I might air it out for a little while and try again. I'm loath to break it up, but I wonder if it will improve much in cake form. Maybe just a bad session?

pick out 5 grams and put it into an empty pot for a couple of days to let it "awaken". if the weather's too dry the awakening process may need much longer or may not even occur!

if you have a moisture content instrument, you know it will awaken in a day or two when the water content of the leaves go above 10%.

[TwoDog2]

Today's pu was a 2006 Banzhang I picked up from Wisteria on my last trip through Taipei. Previously sampled this tea on two separate occasions and decided to pick up a cake tho it wasn't cheap (not that people go to Wisteria for bargains in the first place). While I was impressed with this tea when I sampled it (it had an unmistakable body response both times that left me feeling quite tea drunk) taking it back home and brewing it now leaves me very underwhelmed. Feels thin and fades into bitterness without any of the good vibes it had previously. The cake was presented to me wrapped in plastic, so I might air it out for a little while and try again. I'm loath to break it up, but I wonder if it will improve much in cake form. Maybe just a bad session?

If you had good experiences with a cake in the past, don't be too quick to worry after a bad session. Even throughout a single cake sessions won't always be uniform. Some teas I really like can fluctuate quite a lot, not to mention all the other factors involved, an important one being my own mood and attention.

Give it another session or two and report back. Curious to see what you find

[AdmiralKelvinator]

Today's pu was a 2006 Banzhang I picked up from Wisteria on my last trip through Taipei. Previously sampled this tea on two separate occasions and decided to pick up a cake tho it wasn't cheap (not that people go to Wisteria for bargains in the first place). While I was impressed with this tea when I sampled it (it had an unmistakable body response both times that left me feeling quite tea drunk) taking it back home and brewing it now leaves me very underwhelmed. Feels thin and fades into bitterness without any of the good vibes it had previously. The cake was presented to me wrapped in plastic, so I might air it out for a little while and try again. I'm loath to break it up, but I wonder if it will improve much in cake form. Maybe just a bad session?

[shah82]

1998 white wrapper tuo from white2tea.

Most other bloggers have gotten a good take on this, but...

1) This was relatively high in caffeine, and some that + qi shows up.
2) Fairly thick soup
3) Has a theme for flavor/aroma, a sweet flavor. First couple of brew has dried out warehousing taste in it.

Not so much on the plus side
1) Definitely isn't particularly clean wrt hairs. Geez
2) The taste is relatively thin, and very constant, not much complexity.
3) There is a lot of suspension of microparticles in the soup, making for a gritty experience at times.

I like the 2002 zhongcha 7572 sold at white2tea better, as an all around tea. Also think that this tea is best dealt with english style and not gongfu, for max thick taste and max pork fat cleansing.