Ive been drinking some low quality ripe pu that i bought in Chinatown. Most of it still has that nasty wou dui taste. I tried a raw Xiaguan toucha (most likely a fake) that wasn't to my liking, too floral. Ended up going to Red Blossom to try their 1993 sheng and It actually tasted pretty good compared to the Xia but the price was just a bit too high for unknown loose tea. If I'm gonna pay $10/oz i want to know a little more about that tea than just its supposed aged. So Instead i placed an order with PS after doing endless amounts of research on pu-erh. Since i don't like green teas in general I'm skeptical about liking young raw pu but i figured i should keep an open mind about it and just order some. I didn't mean to order the CNNP 7542 since i got the Dayi version. I guess i get to compare them. I'm not looking to age anything, just want ready to drink stuff. Anybody have anything good/bad to say about these teas?
2006 CNNP 7581 (full brick)
2004 Menghai Superior Grade Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler
2004 Langhe LH7569 Pu-erh Tea Brick Sampler
2007 Premium Ripe Pu-erh Tea Brick Sampler
2009 Laocangjia Arbor Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler
2006 Jingmai Laoshu Gongting Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler
2004 CNNP 7542 Green Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler
2004 Old Youle Ripe Pu-erh Tea Brick Sampler
2007 Dayi Yunxiang Pu-erh Tea Cake 2 oz.
2001 CNNP Yiwu Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler
2004 Dayi 7542 Pu-erh Tea Cake Sampler
TOTAL= $59
Re: First order of samples
I cracked open my samples. Seems like a significant amount of dust/waste before even breaking them up. After breaking up all of the samples and part of the CNNP brick i was left with about 30g of waste(soon to be teabags). I see why some people think a 357g cake is a sample.
Used 4-5g/100ml gaiwan, standard gong fu timing
2007 Dayi "yunxiang" - No aroma. Left my mouth/throat feeling a bit dry. If i bought the whole cake i would've been disappointed by my first impression but since it only cost $5 I'm not too worried about it.
2004 Old Youl ripe brick - fruity sweetness from start to finish, not too happy about the amount of dust in this bag though. It came already broken up so after pouring out dust i was left with 15g. Fragile leaf crumbled just from lightly touching it. I would hate to see how beat up the whole brick would be.
2006 CNNP 7581 - dry leaf smelled very sweet. taste of clean soil w/ a very light floral finish. I'm not sure how i felt about the "cha qi" on this one. Felt like i had low blood sugar and smoked some hash but it faded fast. I'm curious how this brick compares to the 2003. Paying $30 + shipping from China seems like a bit much though unless. Too bad PS doesn't carry it.
2004 Menghai Superior grade - aroma of honeydew melon, taste was pure sugar water. I think a 21g sample might not be enough of this one for me.
Looking forward to trying these again in a week or so once they've had a little more time to air out.
Used 4-5g/100ml gaiwan, standard gong fu timing
2007 Dayi "yunxiang" - No aroma. Left my mouth/throat feeling a bit dry. If i bought the whole cake i would've been disappointed by my first impression but since it only cost $5 I'm not too worried about it.
2004 Old Youl ripe brick - fruity sweetness from start to finish, not too happy about the amount of dust in this bag though. It came already broken up so after pouring out dust i was left with 15g. Fragile leaf crumbled just from lightly touching it. I would hate to see how beat up the whole brick would be.
2006 CNNP 7581 - dry leaf smelled very sweet. taste of clean soil w/ a very light floral finish. I'm not sure how i felt about the "cha qi" on this one. Felt like i had low blood sugar and smoked some hash but it faded fast. I'm curious how this brick compares to the 2003. Paying $30 + shipping from China seems like a bit much though unless. Too bad PS doesn't carry it.
2004 Menghai Superior grade - aroma of honeydew melon, taste was pure sugar water. I think a 21g sample might not be enough of this one for me.
Looking forward to trying these again in a week or so once they've had a little more time to air out.
Re: First order of samples
Unfortunately, crumbly leaf is somewhat "the norm" in Shu Puerh. Some of the Dayi stuff has decent leaves, I guess.
Re: First order of samples
I don't regret buying this one even with the large loss of leaf but I think if i was going to buy the whole brick of Old Youle i would ask them to special wrap it to compress it tighter during the flight. Yea the Dayi ripe sample wasn't nearly as fragile.
Dec 12th, '10, 18:34
Posts: 1574
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 21:16
Location: The foot of the great Smoky Mountains
Re: First order of samples
found myself in the same boat as you..probably with the same raw Xiaguan toucha! funny...
anyway I went and ordered from YS with some help from Marco..
2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Gua Feng Zhai" Raw Pu-erh tea of Yi Wu
2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Bu Lang Jie Liang" Raw Pu-erh tea
2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Ge Deng" Raw Pu-erh tea
2010 Hai Lang Hao "Cha Wang" Yi Wu Ancient Arbor Raw Pu-erh tea cake 2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Wu Liang Shan" Raw Pu-erh
I'm new..hopefully I will like these
anyway I went and ordered from YS with some help from Marco..
2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Gua Feng Zhai" Raw Pu-erh tea of Yi Wu
2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Bu Lang Jie Liang" Raw Pu-erh tea
2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Ge Deng" Raw Pu-erh tea
2010 Hai Lang Hao "Cha Wang" Yi Wu Ancient Arbor Raw Pu-erh tea cake 2010 Yunnan Sourcing "Wu Liang Shan" Raw Pu-erh
I'm new..hopefully I will like these
Dec 12th, '10, 23:02
Posts: 1574
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 21:16
Location: The foot of the great Smoky Mountains
Re: First order of samples
would that be bad?shah82 wrote:You bought a *cake* of that Hai Lang Hao?
Dec 13th, '10, 00:42
Posts: 1574
Joined: Dec 30th, '08, 21:16
Location: The foot of the great Smoky Mountains
Re: First order of samples
heh! ok..it was a sample not the whole cake!iannon wrote:would that be bad?shah82 wrote:You bought a *cake* of that Hai Lang Hao?
Re: First order of samples
Lol! I think the issue here is that, in the case of HLH, price does not necessarily equal quality. That cake may or may not be better than something you could get at half the price or even less, but nothing wrong with sampling!iannon wrote:heh! ok..it was a sample not the whole cake!iannon wrote:would that be bad?shah82 wrote:You bought a *cake* of that Hai Lang Hao?
I am quite interested to know what you think of it.
Re: First order of samples
Millhouse, Langhe ripe should be good, but if you wanted 2007 ripe, I suspect you could have done better than yunxiang. I haven't tried it, so I don't know for sure, and given that shu isn't especially drastic in differences, rub some salt in that last statement.
2007 Dayi I have tried, Star of Menghai, which isn't really ready to drink but very much worth having. 7262, which is totally ready to drink and very fragrant with sweet bread smells. Secret Fragrance is one of my favorite shu, and that also tends to be fragrant, depending on circumstances. Samples can definitly undersell the quality of the cake. On the other hand, Yunxiang has never been noted for particularly great fragrances in any review I've spoted. I'm not a fan of Bailin Yinzhen '07. Good, but fairly boring for something as expensive as it is for shu.
2007 Dayi I have tried, Star of Menghai, which isn't really ready to drink but very much worth having. 7262, which is totally ready to drink and very fragrant with sweet bread smells. Secret Fragrance is one of my favorite shu, and that also tends to be fragrant, depending on circumstances. Samples can definitly undersell the quality of the cake. On the other hand, Yunxiang has never been noted for particularly great fragrances in any review I've spoted. I'm not a fan of Bailin Yinzhen '07. Good, but fairly boring for something as expensive as it is for shu.
Re: First order of samples
Shan82,
Even after trying "yunxiang" a couple more times Im not overly impressed. It has some seriously earthy mineral taste going on which i do like but maybe not enough to buy it. I mainly bought it since it was the only 2oz Dayi sample PS had and i was already placing an order with them for a full brick. I'd would've preferred to try a standard number recipe if they had one though. Preference for 07-7572, 7262 or 09-7562? One of those might be on my next order from another vendor since PS only has 2009/10.
Even after trying "yunxiang" a couple more times Im not overly impressed. It has some seriously earthy mineral taste going on which i do like but maybe not enough to buy it. I mainly bought it since it was the only 2oz Dayi sample PS had and i was already placing an order with them for a full brick. I'd would've preferred to try a standard number recipe if they had one though. Preference for 07-7572, 7262 or 09-7562? One of those might be on my next order from another vendor since PS only has 2009/10.
Re: First order of samples
Hmmm, Puerhshop sells a Changtai Banna shu that has had its day of praises some time back.
You also might want to check out Royal Puer, which is run by the same guy who does Teaspring. Small factory stuff that's not liable to kill you and might be decent.
Dragon Tea House is where I get my standard factory shu from multiple years.
Jase-teas will have '07-10 factory serials. Check out the Yongde Organic '08. The '07 also has had its day in the sun...Norbu tea sells the '07, but not sure Norbu overall is what you need as a vender.
You also might want to check out Royal Puer, which is run by the same guy who does Teaspring. Small factory stuff that's not liable to kill you and might be decent.
Dragon Tea House is where I get my standard factory shu from multiple years.
Jase-teas will have '07-10 factory serials. Check out the Yongde Organic '08. The '07 also has had its day in the sun...Norbu tea sells the '07, but not sure Norbu overall is what you need as a vender.