Official Pu of the day

[debunix]

My problem with Petr's wares is that I like all of the them--snowflake and shino, bizen and tree bark, celadon and clear, magda and grass....

[Cwyn]

I am an admirer of Peter Nowak's Bizen ware especially. He works that style so deliberately, I never feel like the glaze effects are random achievements or part of a bulk process, but I feel his eye and full attention on each piece. Worth every penny, and they sell out fast. Perhaps I'll manage to get a piece sometime.

[puerhking]

Samples are one of those things that sometimes slip to the back of the tea bins and then provide a pleasant surprise when rediscovered.....

I gotcha. That happened to me on one of the green tea OTTIs with not so good results!

[Tead Off]

Thai?

[kyarazen]

having a thai "gushu" pu-erh





ooo.. bubbly pot

[debunix]

I was trying to resist the charms of this little pot, but it kept whispering in my ear until I gave in.

[TwoDog2]

And it's making friends with the Bizen yunomi that I hoped would complement it

Love that pot. You always have such beautiful teaware!

[debunix]

Samples are one of those things that sometimes slip to the back of the tea bins and then provide a pleasant surprise when rediscovered.....

[puerhking]

I'm experimenting with this new bizen-like Petr Novak teapot to see what tea it likes. It seems happier with today's Essence of Tea Mansai puerh (the very last bit of TeaChat OTTI #5 (young sheng puerhs)

You have samples left from OTTI 5!!!!

2012 Yunnan Sourcing Mu Shu Cha. This bing has been a bit of an enigma. It has never exhibited any aroma from the bing or much flavor for that matter. It seems that it has always been asleep. Very muted flavors of grain and flowers and a touch of a kind of sour flavor. Not my favorite.

[debunix]

I'm experimenting with this new bizen-like Petr Novak teapot to see what tea it likes. It seems happier with today's Essence of Tea Mansai puerh (the very last bit of TeaChat OTTI #5 (young sheng puerhs)



than it was with some TeaHabitat oolong last night.

And it's making friends with the Bizen yunomi that I hoped would complement it

[Balthazar]

I've been drinking more shu puer lately than usual. Earlier this year I ordered a bunch of random samples from Chawang, about 50/50 sheng and shu. One of the samples, 2002 Fu Cha Ju Ailaoshan, was finished tonight. Not a lot of it left, unfortunately, so I used my smallest gaiwan rather than the shu-pot I almost always use.

(The first time I have a tea I will usually use a gaiwan, with the exception of shu puer which I pretty much always brew in my pot. For some reason I almost always find the end result better when I brew shu in a pot.)

I recall liking this quite a bit the last time I had it, and tonight we (me and the pu, that is) really hit it off. I find more complexity in this than in other shu's I've had, a distinctive hint of smoke and wood that almost recalls lapsang... The usual gang (caramel, dates ...) also shows up. In general more "clean" in its taste than other shu pu I've tasted (keep in mind that I'm quite inexperienced, I've mostly had some of the popular Menghai recipes and a few samples from unknown factories, plus an absolute horrible Douji (my first shu-pu) a few years back).

So I went back to Chawangshop to check price and info, and it appears the tea material may have a lot to do with these pleasant qualities:

"This high quality ripe cake is made of spring large-leaf varietal arbor tea from Ailao mountain. Ailao mountain is one of high mountain in Simao area. Old tea trees material ripe puerh tea is quite different from garden tea ripe puerh.

The raw material is completely the same as sheng puerh products which Fu Cha Ju made in 2002."

$70 for 500g of shu-pu is more than I'm willing to pay as of now, but this one was nice enough to make me bookmark it in my "teas I will buy when I get rich" folder. Not that I expect that to happen anytime soon.

[mam2431]

Emmett - thanks for the recommendations.

I've been trying to find Nannuo teas to add to my puerh collection. Today I am enjoying the 2005 NannuoShan 7549 from Cha Wang. Tea notes posted on TeaDB alerted me to this one which I find very easy to like. There is an appealing bitterness and it provides a surprising mixture of tastes - aged-worn leather, forest wood and tobacco but there is also a bit of fruity sweetness (maybe plum) present. Nice huigan which builds throughout the session leaving an aftertaste which offered a pleasant cooling effect.

Any recommendations for other Nannuo shengs? I should mention that I also have two Nannuo offerings from White2Tea.

You should try the 2008 American Hao 0802 Nannuo from Puerh Shop and the 2007 Changtai Nannuo Wild Arbor. Both are very decent. The Changtai you can still find on ebay I believe.

[BioHorn]

Enjoying 10g of shuish-sheng labeled "90's 8892" (CNNP?) from White2Tea. It has nice creamy yet complex components, dark teeth staining hue and respectable length of finish. Nice to see a vendor offer some mature tea. Thank you for the sample!

[PurplePotato]

2012 Ruiyuan Nannuo today. Good thing I didn't buy this just for the taste, as it tastes almost completely different from the last time I had it. Has also changed to having a drinkable level of a astringency.

It is always interesting when I don't try one of my teas for awhile and then it has had a large change in character. This happened to me with a tea that I had shelved for a couple of years in America and tried a few months ago! Puer will often be surprising, especially the younger teas. After a younger tea is pressed it is in a near constant state of (relatively) rapid evolution for a few years.

Hopefully the newly evolved taste was pleasant?! If not, back to the shelf.

A few years would have made sense; for me it was about three weeks!

The new taste was interesting. I expended quite a bit of mental effort during the session trying to figure out how I could describe the flavor, and the best I could come up with is a bean curd (tofu) dish I used to get at a Chinese restaurant, which is probably wrong and helps no one. In any case, I find that if the qi is interesting enough, some issues in flavor can be forgiven.

On a similar note, I did a side-by-side tasting of some of Yunnan Sourcing's Wulaings lately; the 2013, 2012, and 2010. Although there were some differences, I could have believed that they were all from the same cake.

[Emmett]

I've been trying to find Nannuo teas to add to my puerh collection. Today I am enjoying the 2005 NannuoShan 7549 from Cha Wang. Tea notes posted on TeaDB alerted me to this one which I find very easy to like. There is an appealing bitterness and it provides a surprising mixture of tastes - aged-worn leather, forest wood and tobacco but there is also a bit of fruity sweetness (maybe plum) present. Nice huigan which builds throughout the session leaving an aftertaste which offered a pleasant cooling effect.

Any recommendations for other Nannuo shengs? I should mention that I also have two Nannuo offerings from White2Tea.

You should try the 2008 American Hao 0802 Nannuo from Puerh Shop and the 2007 Changtai Nannuo Wild Arbor. Both are very decent. The Changtai you can still find on ebay I believe.