Official Pu of the day

[BW85]

1999 zhen cang pin yellow mark. This cake was aged in Hong Kong natural storage, and definitely has some humidity in it with a healthy bit of white mold throughout. I broke the cake up as soon as I got it a few months back and have been waiting patiently for it to air out some. Tonight I tried my hand at refreshing this tea over the stove and gotta say, it did wonders an amazing aroma caught my nose as soon as the dry leaves hit the preheated zhuni. Very clear taste profile throughout the infusions. The flavor just hit my tongue and blossomed

Next I will take the advice and try refreshing some old shuixian

Glad you had that experience with the wet stored tea. Usually, that wet odor doesn't really go away even if you break the cake up. Refreshing is a surprising way to get rid of it. Post your results with the SX in the oolong section. I found waiting some days after refreshing even better.

The refreshing didn't necessarily get rid of the humidity, it just seemed to help bring out the more enjoyable flavors and aroma... Brought balance. I have been drinking this tea every two weeks just to see how it changes as it airs out. It had been slowly improving over the past eight weeks, but with the refreshing it was drastically improved. Hopefully it will only continue to get better

I found the wetness fully gone after refreshing. I will check again to see if there is a return of it while sitting for a while.

That's really good to hear, maybe I could have done the roasting a little longer or hotter and had even better results. I was trying not to over do it as it was my first try. Definitely will experiment and practice

[bagua7]

09 Menghai Dayi Gong Tou. Delicious ripe. One of my favourite ripes overall whether tuo or straight cake. Grapes, muscat grape, louquat and a slight hint of vanilla but almost unnoticeable. Fresh black grapes is the dominant note hardly any earthiness to this one. Wood is there but just a tad.

A real winner, I wish they were sold at $6/100g instead of the $14! But then at that price point quality wouldn't be that high.

[TwoDog2]

09 Menghai Dayi Gong Tou. Delicious ripe. One of my favourite ripes overall whether tuo or straight cake. Grapes, muscat grape, louquat and a slight hint of vanilla but almost unnoticeable. Fresh black grapes is the dominant note hardly any earthiness to this one. Wood is there but just a tad.

A real winner, I wish they were sold at $6/100g instead of the $14! But then at that price point quality wouldn't be that high.

These days, f you can say the words real winner in the same sentence as $14/100 grams then you've got an enviable situation on your hands

[bagua7]

Sure, but have you tried the tea to make that statement!

If you did, what was your state of mind when you did?

Did you have a session with this shou with an empty stomach?

I don't like drinking any Chinese teas after a meal, but that's me, others are different as usual.

[TwoDog2]

I just meant that I think that is a very attractive price for a tea that is a real winner

[bagua7]

The joys of internet communication. I totally misunderstood your message...I wasn't upset though, just a bit surprised.

All good!

Did you get similar notes?

[debunix]

Brought out the dragon for a spin with some Norbu 2009 Lao Mansa.

I used a quite small quantity of tea for the size of the vessel, and long infusions because of that, but still, a lovely session starting last night and into this morning.

[kyarazen]

having some hojo daxueshan wild pu-erh.

not bad, a very light whiff of smoke but not very deep tasting, a tad short on the umami and brew thickness, violet florals and green yellow fruitiness. perhaps will improve very much in proper storage/aging and increasing leaf quantity.

[chrl42]

Cha Zhong You Yi ripe, Shun Hai factory.

They say made from Bulang material.

I had Sheng (Xigui + Bingdao) the other day..and thought it needs to be stored longer...this time their ripe one is much better, and ready to drink.

[Rui]

21 years old pu'erh from Mariage Freres:

http://www.mariagefreres.com/boutique/U ... T2012.html

[kyarazen]

Just had an amazing ripe liubao at a tea acquaintance's place in malaysia. Kinda blew my mind that it could taste like that. Memorable.

Very Small lesson learnt not to discriminate the ripe, although majority of ripes are disappointing.

[Zacherywolf7]

Early 70's Guang Dong Tuocha from Essence of Tea
Smelled liked aged puerh. Massive taste and Qi, my notes are, "Huge smell of perfect woodsiness. Herbaceous. Dark. Incredibly clean. Damp forest of the Gods, mushrooms, very nice bitterness. Qi like no other…….. " written in a frenzy of tea drunkness.

[debunix]

A very very nice session with the ever-reliable 2008 Norbu Yi Wu bamboo-aged puerh: a small portion of a column in a very small Petr Novak shiboridashi for several infusions; then after the leaves sat overnight, a busy day led to their being dumped into my thermos, topped with water just off the boil. Despite this tea-leaf-abuse, the result was a lovely afternoon with a lovely tea, sweet, caramel, and fruity notes predominating. Mmm.

[PurplePotato]

A bulang(ish) blend today, started off in the morning and still going strong. No exact measurements, but roughly (1 part >= 1 gram):

4 parts - 2012 Autumn Da Meng Long Ya Kou
2 parts - 2013 Spring Zhangjia
3 parts - 2007 Wild Big Leaf CNNP Tiepai
.5 parts - 2010 Yunnan Sourcing Spring Jie Liang

[Balthazar]

2005 Mengku Gong Ting mini cake, yesterday evening. My first Mengku ripe, which delivered all I could hope for (and a bit more) for that price. Actually reminds me quite a bit of V93. I have no idea how it tasted back in '05, but nine years later there's definitely no traces of off-flavors. Only 4-5 great infusions, but I rarely have shus that deliver more than that anyways.

Shouldn't have started as late as I did, though, another night with problems falling asleep.

I see YS sells a 2007 version (400g cake) for $26, if that's that the same thing (only a bigger cake and two years younger) I might have to pick some up in the future. Although the 2005 version would only be ~$30 per 400g, so I might just stick to that. In any case, a new favorite for me as far as affordable recipe shupu goes.