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Drinking young sheng today!

Hojo's da xue shan 2019 mao cha (wild tea)

Opening the bag, I was greeted with a thick fruity aroma like grape juice and ripe melons! Brewed 3.5 grams in my 110 mL late 70s hqsn from Bok. Flash brewing of course.
Wow is this green tea or sheng?

Very juicy fruity flavors like white grape juice and some honey. Is this really young sheng?

Where is the bitterness???

Where?

Can't find it in this tea.

There is the slightest throat prickle of astringency...or was that from drinking the tea while it was too hot?

Felt very energized after drinking - 3.5g is more than enough! Could actually drink this on a daily basis!

Spent leaves:
Update: after a few sessions, it is clear the tea "changes" quickly once exposed to air, shedding its fresh fruity aromas and gaining more oolong like characteristics. 3.5 g per session quickly becomes too flat - and I find myself progressively using more leaf. On the plus side, the tea gains body and properties that remind me of good gaoshan. The aftertaste is exceptionally robust and comes back in strong waves. Very nice! It makes me wonder if the withering process was done a bit longer than typical. In this post from Hojo, he mentions experimenting with very long withering times for sheng, achieving a gao shan like aromatic profile:

https://hojotea.com/en/posts-166/


I may start brewing this as an oolong! Still, astringency is nearly absent. This is def. a separate genre compared to typical pu. It is more like some hybrid of oolong, white tea and sheng!

Update: brewed it more like oolong: 5g/110 mL rinse/ 25s/20s/25s/30s/40s/50s/60s/2min/3min/5min

The fruity flavor is resurrected with this method. However, the aftertaste somehow suffers though is still present. Interestingly, the cha qi is very strong with these longer infusions, which makes me realize this is still a genre of sheng, even though the flavor profile is different

Update: brewed it more like white tea:
2g/100 mL
2min, 2min, 3min, 5min, 7min, 10min, 15min

Brewed this way, the tea is more complex but a little flat. Astringency and bitterness are more present in early infusions yet not overbearing..again a surprise for young sheng.

Final update: brewed at Hojo parameters again, going back full circle but using gaiwan. The teasoup is full of floral aromatics and complex fruity flavors. There is also a distinct mushroomy mustiness and a very mild acidic note that actually "livens" up the experience. The hqsn clay that I had been using was actually muting the brightness and mustiness, as well as shaving off the fruity flavors and floral aromatics. Because of this, it seems the optimal teaware should indeed be porcelain gaiwan for this tea.

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:58 pm

Drinking young sheng today!

Hojo's da xue shan 2019 mao cha

Is this really young sheng?

Where is the bitterness???

Where?

Can't find it in this tea.

There is the slightest throat prickle of astringency...or was that from drinking the tea while it was too hot?

Haha, hilarious post @LeoFox. Maybe it’s processed more like a hybrid between white and puerh? A slightly fermented white.

Last bits of this brick - well lucky not that one, that is another one waiting to be broken up... still my favourite Puerh by a stretch.

Going to try an OCTO-blend by combining a lovely (but simple) loose leaf 90s pu er with a few bits of some 90s cake that was stored too dryly to be palatable to me.

Yes, teaberry included.

You can probably tell just from this photo that one of them has been stored quite differently to the other.

Andrew

Bok wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:48 am

Last bits of this brick - well lucky not that one, that is another one waiting to be broken up... still my favourite Puerh by a stretch.

+1 +1 +1

Andrew S wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 15, 2021 10:28 pm

Going to try an OCTO-blend by combining a lovely (but simple) loose leaf 90s pu er with a few bits of some 90s cake that was stored too dryly to be palatable to me.

Yes, teaberry included.

You can probably tell just from this photo that one of them has been stored quite differently to the other.

Andrew

@Andrew S how is it??

@OCTO: it was very interesting, but I need to play with the ratio a bit next time. This is a fine art that I haven't learnt yet...

Andrew

Victoria wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:22 pm

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 05, 2021 6:58 pm

Drinking young sheng today!

Hojo's da xue shan 2019 mao cha

Is this really young sheng?

Where is the bitterness???

Where?

Can't find it in this tea.

There is the slightest throat prickle of astringency...or was that from drinking the tea while it was too hot?

Haha, hilarious post LeoFox. Maybe it’s processed more like a hybrid between white and puerh? A slightly fermented white.

I think you may be right! The withering process may have also been pushed to increase oxidation to achieve some oolong like notes. After brewing this tea in many ways, treating it like oolong and white tea, I've settled back to Hojo's light parameters but using a porcelain gaiwan. Since there is no bitterness to suppress, hqsn clay is really not needed in this case.
viewtopic.php?p=34962#p34962

I bought two cakes of this during Wing Hop Fung's sale when they closed their LA Chinatown location. That was several years ago, and I did not keep track of anything about it. I know a few times I took photos of the shelf labels but in this case, I have zip.
5.6 grams of tea in 90 mL water in Petr Novak unglazed pot.
Tiny rinse, then flash rinse with water just off the boil.

Earthy, sharp, warm, a hint of leather and mustiness.....and touch of plum, no bitterness.
Ditto flash infusions 2 and 3 and 4 and counting (xxxxx xx(accidentally longer)xxx xx

This is very interesting.

The liquor is deep red-brown.

At infusion 9 (maybe 10 seconds? not quite flash), it's still earth, leather, plum. 12 in, and I'm done for the night. I'll revisit this one tomorrow.

Bok wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:48 am

Last bits of this brick - well lucky not that one, that is another one waiting to be broken up... still my favourite Puerh by a stretch.

What is this brick?

Chadrinkincat wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 7:36 am

Bok wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 07, 2021 7:48 am

Last bits of this brick - well lucky not that one, that is another one waiting to be broken up... still my favourite Puerh by a stretch.

What is this brick?

2006 Gushu. Private factory if I remember correctly. Before you ask, it was a gift…

finished off a sample of a 2005 loose Changtai shu. Tried brewing it lots of different ways and it always came out quite pleasant whether brewed up dark or lighter, gong fu or big pot. A bit of gingseng like character, and very much on the woody side, as in dry aged wood rather than forest floor. I understand Changtai post '05ish doesn't have a great reputation and shu seems to have never been their main thing, but I found this one more to my taste than quite a few other recent samplings, enough to pick up some more. A pleasant surprise for something tried on a whim.

I'm starting to think maybe its not a coincidence that my 3 favorite shu at the moment are loose storage.

debunix wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 12:46 am

I bought two cakes of this during Wing Hop Fung's sale when they closed their LA Chinatown location. That was several years ago, and I did not keep track of anything about it. I know a few times I took photos of the shelf labels but in this case, I have zip.

I think the trick to identifying it is the color of the tea character. Vivid yellow was not a standard color. The wrapper looks like it uses Traditional instead of Simplified Chinese characters. Also it says something under the tea character besides "Zhongcha Brand". Might be an homage to the cakes from the 80s? Kam Chan Pong says that "Yunnan Chi Tse Beeng Cha" in a bigger English font rather than a smaller font was a popular printing style of the 1980s on cake wrappers.

The bottom line of characters on the embedded ticket should say who made the tea. It is interesting that it doesn't say "tea factory" on there... when did they start just saying "Produced by Menghai"? (Which Menghai? Or is this more accurately "Product of Menghai"?) As this cake does not have a QS mark, I think it would be from before 2007 if it is genuine, unless there is an SC code on the back of the wrapper.

mbanu wrote: ↑

Mon May 03, 2021 3:17 pm

debunix wrote: ↑

Sun May 02, 2021 12:46 am

I bought two cakes of this during Wing Hop Fung's sale when they closed their LA Chinatown location. That was several years ago, and I did not keep track of anything about it. I know a few times I took photos of the shelf labels but in this case, I have zip.

I think the trick to identifying it is the color of the tea character. Vivid yellow was not a standard color. The wrapper looks like it uses Traditional instead of Simplified Chinese characters. Also it says something under the tea character besides "Zhongcha Brand". Might be an homage to the cakes from the 80s? Kam Chan Pong says that "Yunnan Chi Tse Beeng Cha" in a bigger English font rather than a smaller font was a popular printing style of the 1980s on cake wrappers.

The bottom line of characters on the embedded ticket should say who made the tea. It is interesting that it doesn't say "tea factory" on there... when did they start just saying "Produced by Menghai"? (Which Menghai? Or is this more accurately "Product of Menghai"?) As this cake does not have a QS mark, I think it would be from before 2007 if it is genuine, unless there is an SC code on the back of the wrapper.

Thanks. When you say SC code on the back of the wrapper, are you referring to the ticket that is stuck to the top of the cake?

Back of the wrapper I mean along the edges of the wrapper folded into the back. There is usually a spot that has info printed for legal purposes, such as a GB/T code to say what tea it is, or a QS or SC code to prove the factory has passed the government sanitation check. (With QS codes, they would put a little stamp on the front with the number underneath, or a stamp with no number and then the number on the back.)

Here is an example from a Wing Hop Fung cake being sold currently. They have done it in a fancy way to ensure the whole thing is visible, as normally this info would just be printed in a corner of the wrapper and would be maybe partway folded up.