Young Sheng

[Maitre_Tea]

So I'm a little intimidated about posting here, but please help me out. I've had young sheng a few times before, and I kinda liked it. A recent sample of Hou De's 2007 Spring "Hong Yin" of Chen Guang-He Tang pushed me over the edge, and I think I'm ready to start exploring the world of pu erh.

I have way too many other tea interests, so I can't afford to devote too much money on pu erh, so I want to try some young sheng, which I actually like...if that's shocking to anyone here. I know that some people might suggest samples, but that doesn't really work with me.

As it's been pointed out in some of the threads here, the cost of samples and the amount doesn't balance out with the cost of a cake, especially if it's young stuff. Secondly, I like to spend many sessions with a tea...three or four sessions usually isn't enough for me to decide whether I like a tea or not. Call me slow if you want, I want a good amount of tea leaf to experiment with.

I'm thinking of ordering multiple cakes, so probably Yunnan Sourcing will be my first choice...especially since I might be picking up some tea ware as well. I've perused the Yunnan Sourcing reviews a bit, but I was wondering if anyone has suggestions for young sheng that's good to drink now and not terribly expensive. I would also want a wide variety of cakes, maybe from different factories, regions, recipies, etc. Thanks!

[Oni]

Hi, I have been reading about puerh on the net for a while now, I want to order a book, I saw one on houde about puerh>
A Glossary of Chinese Puerh Tea by Chan Kam Pong, Hardcover,
http://www.houdeasianart.com/index.php? ... cts_id=981 ,
And I read on an informative site that Six Famous Mountains has produced cakes from diffrent origin places for sheng puerh, so you can taste such teas that in the past were only part of blends (for example you could not taste a pure Youlee or Yibang cake, only in blends), now you can taste them in an individual cake, that would be a great collection, nowdays there are more than 26 famous places, but it would be nice to taste single estate teas from those six old puerh making regions.
Anyway I haven`t seen this collection on the internet, so if somebody could help me out it would be great. Another name for this company is "Liudachashan".

[Oni]

P.S. I would try nada`s personal made Nannuo.

[moonraser1]

Hi,
I was only reading and was not even a registered member up untill I saw your post. I had to register.

My own experience with Yunnan Sourcing was not a good one at all. I ordered from them on August 2nd and my order arrived only on Sept 20. Way too long on the shipping time.

I also ordered puerh on August 14 with Dragon Tea House and I received 2 weeks later August 31.

Another place I love to order from is Tuocha Tea. I have ordered 3 time from them and their shipping time is no more than 2 weeks.

[Oni]

Ask Scott to mail you express mail, it arrives in one week, but with standard flat rate shipping all chinese packages arrive within 2 weeks +, so don`t give him bad review, it is not his fault, the chinese post is a bit slower than the japanese, japanese EMS arrives in 3 days, maybe the airlines are slower, or the airports in china are not as fast...
Do not blaim anybody for this...

[Zanaspus]

As a self-professed young sheng whore, and a customer of Yunnan sourcing, I avoid things that say "great for young consumption." These just come off as insipid to me. I actually WANT that bitter, rough-edged, good for aging stuff. All that said, bang for the buck, it's hard to go wrong with young Menghai cakes IMHO.

[Zanaspus]

Hi,
I was only reading and was not even a registered member up untill I saw your post. I had to register.

My own experience with Yunnan Sourcing was not a good one at all. I ordered from them on August 2nd and my order arrived only on Sept 20. Way too long on the shipping time.

I also ordered puerh on August 14 with Dragon Tea House and I received 2 weeks later August 31.

Another place I love to order from is Tuocha Tea. I have ordered 3 time from them and their shipping time is no more than 2 weeks.

It happens with SAL. Not Scott's fault. Sometimes it shows in 2 weeks, sometimes six. It's just how the Chinese roll.

[odarwin]

i say skip the young sheng and try cloud's precious aged and fine aged raw tea... save your tummy...
they are around 10 years and 5 years old respectively...

it will give you a glimpse on how aged tea should somehow taste like...
no aged aroma yet for the 2, young enough to still have that punch, but aged enough to be light on the tummy, its a mix of different cakes that cloud mixed together himself i believe. i myself have both but haven't tried the 5 year tea yet... but for the 10 year one... i do like it enough to order at least a kilo of it soon

[Maitre_Tea]

btw, I know that everyone will have their own take on this, but it never hurts to ask...especially if one is still a beginner:

how young is a young sheng? Something under 5 years? Under 10 years?

[betta]

how young is a young sheng? Something under 5 years? Under 10 years?

Maybe I'm wrong, but as far as I know there's no such as exact aging time to classify the cake. It returns back again to the cake's characteristics, whether it is still very 'hard to drink' or readily drinkable. Some people can tolerate more bitterness, astringency, sourness than others, so it depends on each individual whether the cake is "ripe" enough for him/her to drink. I have several samplers of 04's cakes from Scott, which are from my point of view are not readily drinkable because aging is quite slow in Kunming. While the Nada's 12 gentlemen yiwu wei zhong wei 2007 is rather gentle and more readily to be drunk now for me.
I agree with OMTP to trust our tastebud due to this subjectivity.

[Salsero]

how young is a young sheng? Something under 5 years? Under 10 years?

Since I enjoy the taste of young sheng and it doesn't bother my stomach, I don't notice a point when the tea becomes potable for me.

I normally think of anything less than 10 years as young. I think some people have described 10 to 12 years as adolescent. But many 5-year-old cakes have changed quite a bit and most cakes are clearly in transition after 5 years.

Course, it depends on the cake. A tightly compressed tuo may take forever to age. And as you will notice here, different people can have dramatically different standards and preferences.

[Maitre_Tea]

how young is a young sheng? Something under 5 years? Under 10 years?

Since I enjoy the taste of young sheng and it doesn't bother my stomach, I don't notice a point when the tea becomes potable for me.

I've heard so much about how bitter/astringent/nasty young sheng can be, but I think that's it fine (I've only had a few young sheng though...04/05/07 stuff). I also think that my previous experience of drinking other teas have probably buffered my taste buds to bitterness. My mom had a taste of Hou De's 2007 Spring "Hong Yin" of Chen Guang-He Tang which I was brewing, and she said it was too bitter, and I was like, "really? I actually think it's kind of sweet...."

I've also realized that I've developed a taste for bitter melon and dandelion greens, which I absolutely detested when I was younger....it surprises me how much my tastes have "grown up."

[aKnightWhoSaysNi]

A more recent personal favorite of mine is this 2007 Menghia Jiaji cake: http://cgi.ebay.com/Menghai-Jiaji-Early ... .m14.l1262

About $24 with shipping... it's light, fragrant, clean-tasting, and his this nice minty aroma. I like to divide puerh into two broad categories: dark, heavy, and dank... and light, fragrant, and delicate. This one definitely falls into the second category.

[Zanaspus]

i say skip the young sheng and try cloud's precious aged and fine aged raw tea... save your tummy...
they are around 10 years and 5 years old respectively...

It's funny. I always read about young sheng upsetting the stomach, but I have an extremely delicate GI tract, and it never adversely affects me. More lightly oxidized ball oolongs on the other hand...

[beecrofter]

I have what would be considered a cast iron stomache which has even tolerated chemotherapy with minimal complaint but when it comes to young sheng in quantity it is a bit sour on the belly. One thing that helps is to brew young sheng with cooler water instead of a full boil.