Official Pu of the day

[shah82]

I'm still in the "discovery phase". I still don't know anything...

[beecrofter]

I'm still in the "discovery phase". I still don't know anything...

Me too, and when I learn more I will know even less!

[nickE]

I'm still in the "discovery phase". I still don't know anything...

Me too, and when I learn more I will know even less!

Such is the world of tea I suppose.

Anyway, Shah -- I guess you could say that the Dingxing is the more coherent tea. In the end, I thought it was far cleaner where I guess the Jinchanghao was a bit muddled.

[shah82]

I do know this, on a good day, Nada's Bangwai is criminally good. It's a measure of how small the western pu community is, that his tea isn't sold out yet. I'm enjoying every bit of this session, which is winding up to be longer (woohoo).

[nickE]

I do know this, on a good day, Nada's Bangwai is criminally good.

Agreed.

Bought a cake of the Taobao-famous 2005 Yiwu Manluo that Puershop just stocked. It's really very good, although somewhat simple. Lots of wood, earth, and a very thick mouthfeel. Even had some camphor at the start.

[heatwaves]

Bought a cake of the Taobao-famous 2005 Yiwu Manluo that Puershop just stocked. It's really very good, although somewhat simple. Lots of wood, earth, and a very thick mouthfeel. Even had some camphor at the start.

I have a sample of this on the way. Last week, when Tea Goober's blog discovered that Puerhshop had the Dingxing, I wondered how long it would take to sell out. Over the past week, two more blogs wrote about it. Yesterday there were nine cakes... and tonight there are none!

Thankfully, I ordered a second cake that's on it's way with the Yiwu Manluo sample.

[shah82]

I'll have to try a sample of it sometimes, but I'm not really a fan of wetter stored cakes (in large part because they get simple, far too quickly), and I'm especially dubious of wet-stored Yiwu like either the Dingxing or the Manluo. A decent Yiwu is far too nice to need wet-storing. The fact that they were both $40 something is generally a warning in my book. In time, I might have bought the Dingxing, but almost certainly not the Manluo, those dollars can get me a nice bulang or something...Wet-stored bulang or something else that can really take a beating is more my thing...

I don't like Kumming storage either, actually.

[ejs811]

Bought a cake of the Taobao-famous 2005 Yiwu Manluo that Puershop just stocked. It's really very good, although somewhat simple. Lots of wood, earth, and a very thick mouthfeel. Even had some camphor at the start.

I have a sample of this on the way. Last week, when Tea Goober's blog discovered that Puerhshop had the Dingxing, I wondered how long it would take to sell out. Over the past week, two more blogs wrote about it. Yesterday there were nine cakes... and tonight there are none!

Thankfully, I ordered a second cake that's on it's way with the Yiwu Manluo sample.

Which blogs do you read?

[MarshalN]

I'll have to try a sample of it sometimes, but I'm not really a fan of wetter stored cakes (in large part because they get simple, far too quickly), and I'm especially dubious of wet-stored Yiwu like either the Dingxing or the Manluo. A decent Yiwu is far too nice to need wet-storing. The fact that they were both $40 something is generally a warning in my book. In time, I might have bought the Dingxing, but almost certainly not the Manluo, those dollars can get me a nice bulang or something...Wet-stored bulang or something else that can really take a beating is more my thing...

I don't like Kumming storage either, actually.

You really have never tried good traditionally stored teas then.

[shah82]

Well, today, I had some more '04 Zhai Zhi Po. Way better than a Hall's lozenge.

MarshallN, I don't know...First of all, my trusted suppliers don't really specialize in Hong Kong stored stuff. I mean, Nada sources from Taiwan, how traditional is that?

Here are what aged tea I've had...

1987 Chungcha 8582. It was clean, TCM, but didn't endure and only offered qi, and I didn't really enjoy that.

1980s Shin Ya. Thoroughly dried stored, very little soil, even for a shu. At first, I thought it was too smooth, but I've come to enjoy it, especially the qi.

1993 7542. I enjoyed this a great deal, not least because it was cleanly stored, and the shicang was light.

1996 7532 Dayi and Zhongcha little yellow label. I vastly preferred the Dayi because it was drier stored, and didn't get simple quickly. Both 7532s tended to make me nauseous for some reason.

1997 Henli Chang Bulang. This was definitely fairly traditionally stored. I've enjoyed both session I've had with it, basically as if I'd enjoy an expensive dark chocolate. However, it's far too expensive for what I'd get in personal hedonism points. $150 gets me two or more XZH cakes, and I'd enjoy them more.

1998 Dayi Qiaomu. I really enjoyed this one. It's said to be fairly traditionally stored, and I got more or less endless cups of aromatic complexity. The shicang was very light though.

1999 Dadugang Yunnan Yiwu. Very dried stored, very light tasting, and I botched my expectations and preparations when making this one. Remember a nice light wood taste and good yun.

1999 Changtai Song Charactered. Was somewhat wetter stored than the Dadugang. Lasted forever with good taste, but wasn't the most inspiring of tea.

2000 Kumming Lan Yin Tie Bing. Think this was the most traditional stored cake I've tasted, and I've enjoyed this one very much, with a kind of orange-carrots-soil taste with plenty of vanilla in it. I think this cake was *very* potent when it started out.

None of the Yiwus I've ever had that were old can give me the same number of hedonism points as the '04 YangQingHao Special Reserve, or even the '06 Liudashancha. I think every one of the aged wetter-stored cakes I've enjoyed were originally very muscular, like the Henlichang Bulang. I think I simply can cope with and enjoy younger sheng's roughness and bitterness such that smoothness and other attributes of traditionally stored sheng lacks strong appeal--especially given the costs. Make me choose between HK Henry 7542 and a XZH XiShangMeiShao, and the latter will win every time, even though I *like* that 7542 quite a bit.

[MarshalN]

Well, having never seen the exact cakes/teas you've had in question, it's hard for me to judge, but to just say that traditionally stored teas get "simple" very quickly would say to me that you just haven't had the good ones, which are anything but simple. They may not be your cup of tea, but if it's "simple" then something's wrong.

Stuff stored in Taiwan are all over the place in terms of storage condition -- some Taiwanese vendors know what they're doing, but a lot of others sell things that taste like they've been stored in swimming pools. When buying aged teas from Taiwan, well, buyers beware.

Of the teas you've had here, I know the 99 Dadugang Yiwu and the Changtai are both relatively insipid teas, however stored. In fact, anything made by Dadugang is almost by definition bad.

Of course, it could just be that you prefer the younger, brighter stuff, which is fine. I was just contending with your characterization of traditionally stored teas as "simple".

[shah82]

mebbe I *should* have attempted to join that aged sheng OTTO, at least for those two teajournaling samples. I definitely do not mind soil, and I certainly can enjoy thick 'n smooth. I enjoy the Mengku YYX thick papered, but I don't think I would ever prefer it to a thin-papered version, especially since most of those are reasonably wet by western tastes, I gather.

[heatwaves]

Which blogs do you read?

As many as I can find.

My personal favorite is Hobbes' Half-Dipper. He's a humble, approachable writer with a great deal of knowledge in the (western) world of pu.

There are also many tea chatters who have very informative blogs. MarshalN's Tea Addicts Journal was actually the first tea blog I ever read. MarshalN, when did you start your blog? 2004?

His blog is super informative, if you don't mind your blogs laden with pretense and grouchiness. (kidding)

Bears Bears Bears has another great blog (and an exceptionally helpful section for puerh beginners). Unfortunately, he doesn't update it as much as others would like.

Basically, I visit Half-Dipper everyday and then "spin-off" that one with the other recently updated blogs that he lists on his site.

You might also check out: http://www.teabloggers.com/?q=content/member-blogs

This is a pretty large list of tea bloggers.

So as to not entirely hijack this thread, I'm drinking 2005 Changtai Qian Jian Feng (Red Lantern Tea). I'm not as big a fan of it as others, particularly for the price tag.

[shah82]

You can get it from puerhshop $10 cheaper, if you like...

XZH nuercha brick in my cup this morning.

[nickE]

XZH nuercha brick in my cup this morning.

One day I'm going to try that, as you seem to like it so much.

Yesterday's Pu was a sample of the American Hao 1005, which is a ripe brick. Pretty disappointing, some wo dui still there, and really not much to like. I prefer Dayi for Shupu.