Official Pu of the day

[shah82]

Bryan_drinks_tea... most factory teas take forever to age. For example, the 1999 Xiaguan iron bing, which is one of the more popular makes and models of tea, is still very young tasting, even in fairly humid environments.

On the other hand, the Xiaguan 'shroom from 2003 I got from HouDe seems pretty mellow, if not all that woody from age.

Many boutique teas from '06 and '07 are beginning to enter the non-new stage. Obviously, some more than other...

If you want anything like aged tea anytime soon, you need to buy at least 10 years old tea, roughly! 20 years old dry stored will still be pretty sharp!

[teaisme]

Finishing off the last of 2004 XiaGuan Nan-Shao Quality-Sealed "Golden Tips" Toucha from houde. My very first whole piece of puerh. Purchased back in Oct 2011.

This was a nice one (80% of the time). After I understood what worked for it brews got better and better. A couple tries in the beginning left me underwhelmed and my mouth full of bitterness. But fully my fault! Now we are very good friends

Nice lesson in breaking apart tea. Still no pick or knife, and my fingers live to tell the tale!! Only drew blood once the whole tou, nothing serious, just a little scuff on a thumb. Lots of gentle wiggling, hopeful coaxing, finger, forearm, and wrist muscles building

Relating to size of samples for a total newb in the puerh world....this one took about 100g before I felt very comfortable and happy with my outcomes. I would have a totally different view of this tea if I had only had a 25g sample. I would also have no clue how to break apart a tight packed toucha with my bare hands, I feel......more a man

[AdamMY]

Dayi 8582 Batch 801... lets see if it tastes any better now that it has a few more years on it.

Still not great but developing some interesting character, dried leather and hints of tobacco. Also interesting hints of almonds, though not really much if any fruit at all.

[auhckw]

Just arrived today. New arrival for 2012 series in the shop famous for its custom puerh. It's their 10th year anniversary.

All their puerh are from early spring first harvest. Single estate. High mountain. Old trees (age from 100++ to 500++ years old). Chiao Mu. Stoned pressed. Price range from MYR 88 to MYR 9XX per piece.

This year there are 10 types. 2 wild, 1 Lao Ban Zhang and 7 others.

Their 2011 puerh
LBZ: MYR 5xx
Wild: MYR 6XX

Their 2012 puerh
LBZ: MYR 9xx
Wild: MYR 6xx

Big jump for this year's LBZ as there are shortage and demand increases. Though expensive, their more expensive puerh is always finished first.

[auhckw]

2012 Yoler Raw Puerh

Cheapest among the 10. Chiao Mu from 100+ years old tree. Good aroma. A little bitter (not much). A little salty.

[auhckw]

2012 Mystique Raw Puerh

Chiao Mu from 200+ years old tree. Good aroma. Stronger aftertaste compared to the Yoler. This is first time production.

Usually they will name their puerh using the mountain/area name. But the chinese name of this puerh is changed to something else.

Reason, last year they introduced a new area puerh and it was a good seller. So, their competitors went this year and started buying it therefore the price increased a lot. The shop decided not to take it since it is above their expected price. A lesson learned from them, they said from now any new area puerh will not use the real name.

[auhckw]

2012 Pasha Raw Puerh

Chiao Mu from 500+ years old tree. Weak aroma. Soft. Smooth. Thick tea broth.

[auhckw]

2012 Mensian Raw Puerh

Chiao Mu from 500+ years old tree. Same like Pasha. Weak aroma. Soft. Smooth. Thick tea broth.

[auhckw]

2012 Far Year Raw Puerh

Chiao Mu from 500+ years old tree. Stronger aroma. Good aftertaste in the mouth. Thick tea broth. Taste of mineral is strong.

[auhckw]

2012 Bron Ancient Raw Puerh

Chiao Mu from 500+ years old tree. Stronger aroma. Stronger flavor. Good aftertaste in the mouth. Thick tea broth.







*My today's fav

[auhckw]

2012 Manner Raw Puerh

Chiao Mu from 500+ years old tree. Didn't get the chance to try this yet. Not enough time. I have tried their previous years production of this. All of them have the same similarity. Super bitter and freaking strong. Can get drunk quickly on this.





I have tried 6 out of 10 today. Pending... Manner, LBZ, and 2 Wild... The remaining 4 most expensive among the series... Will try it next visit

[fdrx]

....they said from now any new area puerh will not use the real name

This explains why I can not find much information on my favourite bings!

[Drax]

I was wondering why there were so many ... odd ... names. Yoler? Bron? Very ... interesting.

Thanks as always for sharing the bounty!

[gingkoseto]

....they said from now any new area puerh will not use the real name

That's what quite a few boutique producers are doing now. Usually the region name is still there (for marketing purposes) but village names are omitted. Many teas from famous villages aren't really from there anyway.

I think a good thing this reflects is, there are so many options. If prices of some areas go up, there are always less expensive high quality options.

[shah82]

I suspect they will release the names some years down the road, because no-names affects the "collectible" aspects.

The thing I was surprised about was all the 500yo tree comments. For example, you will not see genuine especially old tree Pasha for less than obscene prices. People don't talk about Pasha that much, but it does have very strong fans, and very old tree Pasha can be hard to get your hands on. Heh, could be true, but it could also be not very good old tree.

At the end of the day, you want arbor, older than 100yo, and you pretty much have good tea. Tons of 200yo tree leaves that are way better than 500yo leaf. In some areas, plantation tea is done very well, and you can have machine harvested tea that's better than hand harvested old tree.

So again, don't get hung up on "old tree", as anything more than an advertisement for quality.