@OCTO
Sounds like a lovely session. Have you tried Lu Da Shu 2nd generation? If you have, any input on comparison to the 1st generation?
What Pu'er Are You Drinking
@StephenStephen wrote: ↑Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:32 pmInteresting. Don't think I'm familiar. It sounds like a lower quality tea, but easy to drink.DailyTX wrote: ↑Mon Feb 15, 2021 9:57 pmI am not good with translation lol. I think the professor in the video mentioned a few characteristics of qing puerh: Leaves were harvested near the boarder of Yunnan, harvested from tea plantations that have exhausted the nutrients in the soils, Guangdong area (offspring of the Yunnan puerh tea trees), and other areas in China outside of Yunnan. The tea leaves are younger of age, it has a fragrant scent, a bit sweetness, and lighter mouth feel. He went into differentiating Sheng puerh which does better with age vs. qing puerh which tea lose flavor and fragrance over time. It’s an interesting lecture that led me to rethink about the types of puerh to add to my collection.
I am too not familiar. However, for aging puerh, I have heard different schools of knowledge. Some said select a tea that taste good now and it will taste good later. Some said select a tea that taste bitter now and it will mellow over time. I guess we will find out in the next couple decades lol
It's generally a selected 7542 blend at a premium price. I've discovered it's more rewarding to make my own quirky blends...
@OCTO
I had no idea that it’s a 7542 blend. I was given half cake of the 2nd generation. The leaves size seem bigger than the 7542 I have tried from early 2000s. Maybe batch variation?
2010 Zi Juan Yunnan Purple Beauty loose puerh from Norbu. The pouch of this has been sitting in my tea drawer for a long time....and the tea did not mind. What Greg wrote about it then still feels exactly right today
"Zi Juan is usually either processed as a roasted green tea or is processed like Pu-Erh tea. This batch of Zi Juan was processed basically in the same way as Pu-Erh tea and dried in the sun.....Because it was processed like Pu-Erh, this tea shares a lot of common flavor traits with a young Sheng Pu-Erh tea.... This Zi Juan is a plantation grown tea from relatively young plants, so the infused liquor is not as thick and full flavored as the liquor of a tea produced from the leaves of wild growing, old trees. Like young Pu-Erh, the flavor is a balance between bitterness and astringency, and, because of the higher than usual anthocyanin and catechin levels in these purple leaves, the bitterness tends to be more apparent than with other plantation grown Pu-Erh teas. This increased bitterness is not at all unpleasant; rather, to me, it makes Zi Juan that much more interesting to drink...."
Berries and fruity and earthy and that bit of bitterness that keeps it from being boring. It has tolerated my careless neglect remarkably well; no idea how it would translate to real aging. this was a thermos session shared widely during afternoon clinic, and was definitely a hit with my coworkers.
"Zi Juan is usually either processed as a roasted green tea or is processed like Pu-Erh tea. This batch of Zi Juan was processed basically in the same way as Pu-Erh tea and dried in the sun.....Because it was processed like Pu-Erh, this tea shares a lot of common flavor traits with a young Sheng Pu-Erh tea.... This Zi Juan is a plantation grown tea from relatively young plants, so the infused liquor is not as thick and full flavored as the liquor of a tea produced from the leaves of wild growing, old trees. Like young Pu-Erh, the flavor is a balance between bitterness and astringency, and, because of the higher than usual anthocyanin and catechin levels in these purple leaves, the bitterness tends to be more apparent than with other plantation grown Pu-Erh teas. This increased bitterness is not at all unpleasant; rather, to me, it makes Zi Juan that much more interesting to drink...."
Berries and fruity and earthy and that bit of bitterness that keeps it from being boring. It has tolerated my careless neglect remarkably well; no idea how it would translate to real aging. this was a thermos session shared widely during afternoon clinic, and was definitely a hit with my coworkers.
Really enjoy ‘03 Wistaria ZiYin (purple mark) from Nannuo Mountain, produced at Menghai Tea Factory that @pedant shared with me a few years ago. Wet leaf aroma is rich and spicy almost fruity. Read some ‘13 and ‘16 reviews that mention leather, smoke, old books, basement characteristics - none of those are present now, they are replaced with an elegant rich complex liquor that is silky smooth and spicy, with a subtle bite in back. Roof of the mouth is sweet and expansive. Chest warming. Pleasant astringency is salivation inducing with a lingering palate. This sheng has aged really well after 18 years, and has longevity -so far at 13 steeps and going. I see it is still available at Wisteria. Very nice thanks pedant 
The last couple of days I've been drinking a 90s Hongtaichang shu. I think I've mentioned before that I very rarely drink shu. It is simply not a category of teas that I find very interesting and for "comforting winter tea" sessions where all I care about is to have something warming that doesn't upset the body, I'll usually go for a fuzhuan instead. However, the recommendation from fellow shu-shooer @sqt (who kindly offered me to get in on a purchase) had my intrigued.
I've brewed this tea a couple of different ways now, today it's in a larger (230 ml) Nixing pot. I'm quite sure this is one of if not the most enjoyable shu puers I've had. Low fermentation, Taiwanese storage for most of it's life. Got plenty of the medicinal/herbal notes I usually look for in aged sheng, with hints of geosmin, wood and old books all being present. No wodui of any off-flavors to be found. If I was trying really hard to find faults with it, I guess the aftertaste could be longer. But that's nitpicking considering the overall experience.
I've brewed this tea a couple of different ways now, today it's in a larger (230 ml) Nixing pot. I'm quite sure this is one of if not the most enjoyable shu puers I've had. Low fermentation, Taiwanese storage for most of it's life. Got plenty of the medicinal/herbal notes I usually look for in aged sheng, with hints of geosmin, wood and old books all being present. No wodui of any off-flavors to be found. If I was trying really hard to find faults with it, I guess the aftertaste could be longer. But that's nitpicking considering the overall experience.
I had the 2018 eot yiwu today (not the 10 year anniversary). It struck me as a very sweet tea, with honey some tropical notes that I couldn't identify. Elegant and smooth going down. Very good, but puzzling for me with the unknown fruitiness. I went back to the eot website, but it doesn't appear to be for sale any more. Maybe they have some in Malaysian storage for later sale.
following the lead of our Malaysian friends here and trying out mixing things up a bit... 3g each of an '07 Xiaguan tuo and an '07 Menghai shu cake, 175ml pot, very long slow steeps. I gotta say, I'm liking this... the bitterness from the sheng and touch of smoke combined with sweetness from the shu makes for a really nice combo, like a medicinal candy or lozenge which is a flavor I've been kinda chasing after lately. feels much nicer for my body too- shu makes it easier on the stomach and is relaxing, a bit of energy from the sheng keeps you from wanting to fall asleep but also not feeling like you touched a live wire. very tasty but also very easy drinking... don't know why I didn't try this before.
while I don't think this will make a sheng drinker out of me it does make me keen to try ripe/raw blended cakes where the material has been chosen to go together a bit more carefully and had some time to age together.
while I don't think this will make a sheng drinker out of me it does make me keen to try ripe/raw blended cakes where the material has been chosen to go together a bit more carefully and had some time to age together.
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belewfripp
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2021 8:10 am
- Location: Pennsylvania
I am currently drinking 2007 Liming "Golden Peacock" sheng cake, according to my order receipt from Yunnan Sourcing. I actually had to look that up because it is no longer in its original (highly bug-bitten) wrapper. I got tired of tea scraps raining down whenever I drank it so I repurposed it in a different wrapper. Now, I just know it from its aroma/appearance/taste. It's nothing amazing, and i'm mostly trying it now to see how it tastes after being with me for the better part of a year and how it tastes with my custom water. But it isn't bad - no real bitterness, some astringency-into-cooling. Some cha qi, though not a lot. It still has some green character to it, especially in the aroma of the wet leaves (which i can't quite describe, sort of like lentil/mushroom soup meets alpine meadow). The aroma of the brewed tea is more floral, but the flavor is very savory. For $0.17/gram it's not a bad tea.