Official Pu of the day

[TokyoB]

1999 Xiaguan Iron Cake (sample purchased from Nicolas Tang).

I'm still quite new to puerh. I brewed this incorrectly at first. I believe my first mistake was to break off five one gram pieces as opposed to one five gram piece. It is impossible to break this apart into leaves.

Then the first couple of brews were too long (after 2 initial rinses) - maybe 10 secs each.

As a result the first couple of steepings were very bitter, but still drinkable. I shortened the next few and it was much better. The tea was quite durable. I didn't feel much qi for some reason.

I still have 20gms left to experiment with. Oh, I used a 100 ml yixing pot.

[bagua7]

I dunno but the pu-erh world is driving me nuts a bit. It's a parallel universe, and love the really old ones. I could live on a diet of drinking vintage pu-erhs, fresh fish and a few organic veggies. But who on earth can afford drinking +40 year "pus" on a daily basis.

[Marco]

Yesterday I had a 2008 Hai Lang Hao "Star of Bu Lang" from YS and I did not like this one. It really was very harsh. Perhaps to young? Or should I stay away of this one?
Does anybody know it?

Today I have a 2002 Hai Lang Hao * Mengku Wild Arbor raw cake * from YS in my cup. Interesting. It is so different. Has this smokiness but in a very mellow way.
Did anybody try?

[TokyoB]

2006 Yiwu from Pure Puer (Jin Yu Xuan is the factory) - supposedly from ancient trees.
http://purepuer.com/puer_tea/do/product ... Tea%20Cake

I haven't seen many TC'ers mentioning ordering from here. Has anyone else?

This tea is rather mild, very little bitterness. Strong qi (although I did drink 2 different yancha before this so hard to know what the impact of each was). I do think these greener puerhs are a little tougher on the stomach though, no??

[nickE]

Yesterday I had a 2008 Hai Lang Hao "Star of Bu Lang" from YS and I did not like this one. It really was very harsh. Perhaps to young? Or should I stay away of this one?
Does anybody know it?

Today I have a 2002 Hai Lang Hao * Mengku Wild Arbor raw cake * from YS in my cup. Interesting. It is so different. Has this smokiness but in a very mellow way.
Did anybody try?

I haven't tried either one, but I would expect young Bulang to be pretty bitter.

Hobbes reviewed both cakes here:
http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/2009/10 ... -xing.html
http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/2008/10 ... iaomu.html

[Marco]

I haven't tried either one, but I would expect young Bulang to be pretty bitter.

Hobbes reviewed both cakes here:
http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/2009/10 ... -xing.html
http://half-dipper.blogspot.com/2008/10 ... iaomu.html

Thanks nickE - just read them. Think he had the same feeling about the "Star of Bulang" as I had.

My yesterdays Pu Erh has been 2009 Guan Zi Zai "Ban Zhang Wild Arbor" from YS
This one gave me a bad feeling
It has been astringent like hell and kind of sour. Made me feel bad in the stomache. Maybe it is just because of its youth but I won't try it again for a long time.
Does anybody know this one?

[shah82]

Marco, the HLH bulangs people like are the 2007 Bulang and the 2008 Lao Banzhang Man'E cakes.

The Guanzizai banzhang cake is made with Lao Man'E leaves, or so the community thinks. Lao Man'E is very flavorful, but it has a notorious bitterness that isn't as pleasant as the bitterness from Lao Banzhang/Jingmai/Lincang. You will be best off leaving that cake to age a decade and some more years to wear off that bitter. Alternatively, brew each cup as fast as you can until the bitter edge wears off and you can brew longer.

Utilize Hobbe's tasting list in The Half Dipper, so you can avoid the howlers and make good guesses as what sort of cakes will please you.

[debunix]

Yesterday I finally brewed up a couple of free samples included in a recent order from Norbu, two loose young sheng puerhs: 2007 Spring Yong De Mao Cha and 2010 Spring Lao Ban Pen Mao Cha.



Both of these have long intact-appearing leaves and a fair bit of stem. The leaves smell sweet and earthy, a stronger mushroom odor to the Lao Ban Pen than the 2007 Yong De.


Yong De on left, Lao Ban Pen on right

I put 2 grams of each into my tiniest gaiwans, with 1.5 ounces near boiling water. After a flash rinse, both smell even stronger and more delicious.

First infusion, 205°F/96°C, 10":
YD--sweet anise
LBP--smoky, earthy, sweet

Second infusion, 205°F/96°C, 15":
YD--sweet anise, woody/earthy starting up
LBP--sweet and earthy, woody, bit of anise and smokiness lighter already


Yong De on left, Lao Ban Pen on right

Third infusion, 205°F/96°C, 20":
YD--sweet anise, woody/earthy
LBP--sweet and earthy, woody, bit of anise, smokiness almost gone

Fourth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 20":
YD--sweet anise, woody/earthy, still the anise is very strong, bit of bitter aftertaste
LBP--earthy, sweet, smoky

Fifth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 35":
YD--sweet anise, earthy has retreated now, bitter/sweet aftertaste
LBP--sweet and earthy, bit of herbaceous flavor

Sixth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 60" (stopped to take a picture of the leaves):
YD--sweet anise and earthy, rich and strong
LBP--sweet and earthy, deep, warm, rich

Seventh infusion, 205°F/96°C, 1': both a little dilute, should have let them go longer, more sweet water with hints of anise (YD) or earthy (LBP)

Eighth infusion, 205°F/96°C, 3': oh, this is much better, my anise and earthy flavors are back. Still delicious, yum. Young sheng stars.

Losing count--10? 11? still wonderful, both of them. Troubling fact: I want to shoot the spent leaves, lay them out to show the size and pluck, but they're just not quitting, now 15, 16 infusions in. It will be a long night.

1.5 liter later (the kettle was filled completely when I started), they're not as rich, but still, a little better than just sweet water.

Wet leaves are are mix of light brown and green, but the LBP is more uniformly light green, and the leaves are a bit smaller than the YD.

Yong De on left, Lao Ban Pen on right

[nickE]

Nice review, Debunix.

Pu of the day was 90s small Yellow Label from EoT, a free sample with my last purchase.

It's pretty standard aged stuff, not bad, and has had good storage. Thick mouthfeel, woody/mossy taste, decent durability. The leaves are pretty chopped up, though. I'm not sure if I'd buy a cake of this, despite it having a low pricetag.

[auhckw]

Very nice leaves for the Yong De. I have never purchase/brewed this kind of big leaves yet.

[tenuki]

Cheap shu from puershop - it's ok after a few rinses. Nice on a rainy day for a change of pace.



* Pardon the crappy cell phone pics, but hey, matches the cheap shu.

[nickE]

American Hao 0903 from PuerhShop today, also ageing a bit, great session.

I've realized that the Puerh stored in my dorm room is ageing much faster than the stuff I'm storing at home. This makes sense as there is no A/C here so the windows have been open for the past few months (=more humid).

What I'm noticing is that I really like the wet storage, at least from the few months it has gotten. I wouldn't wanna wet-store it for years or anything, but I think I may move some cakes to my dorm in the spring (when the humidity comes back) to kick start their ageing.

[debunix]

2007 Rui Cao Xiang 'Wu Liang Wild Arbor' Sheng from Yunnan Sourcing, brewed a little cooler than usual at first (180 degrees), smooth but complex, with some elements of umami, smoky, herbaceous, sweet, and earthy. This one can be aggressively bitter if I'm not careful, but treated gently, it is lovely. I think it will keep beautifully.

[gingkoseto]

I am drinking a CNNP 2008 tuo made with tea leaves from Burma It's not the aromatic type that I like the most and I was very reluctant to drink it when it's only 1 year old. But I had never had any tea from Burma and couldn't wait to try it out. The flavor is not very aromatic, but with great strength and only limited bitterness. The leaves are in wonderful shapes.

[bearsbearsbears]

Lancang Tea Factory 2009 shu recipe 0081 (marked "10" on neifei & neipiao). Probably 2008 fall material (pressed January 2009). It's soily, woody, makes me salivate, sweet--not terribly interesting but very comforting on a rainy day. No off flavors and forgiving when you brew it. A good tea to bring to work.


2009 Lancang Factory 0081 Shu Bing - wrapper 1 by bearsbearsbears, on Flickr


2009 Lancang Factory 0081 Shu Bing - back by bearsbearsbears, on Flickr