What HeiCha are you drinking

Puerh and other heicha
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Balthazar
Posts: 706
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Location: Oslo, Norway

Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:50 am

Great pic :)

Ah, I assumed you were talking about continuous boiling on a stove (e.g. "border area" style brewing).
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StoneLadle
Posts: 347
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2020 12:19 am
Location: Malaysia

Sun Sep 27, 2020 5:00 am

Balthazar wrote:
Sun Sep 27, 2020 4:50 am
Great pic :)

Ah, I assumed you were talking about continuous boiling on a stove (e.g. "border area" style brewing).
Restaurants do that and dilute down for service as individual serves or glasses of iced tea... That kind of cooking goes for a finite time and the tea is strained out and the cooking continues till the leaves are spent...

One nice thing about LB is that with the right ratios given the brewing style, it never goes bitter and is very tolerant of margins...

Madame just corrected me and said it was between 5 and 6 brews per tea and I was busy chatting and smoking ... But here are the tasting notes for the three baskets of 2002 Duoteli...

Each were fresh and lively, and well stored. The earthiness is just starting to give way to medicine and the body loosing it's mustiness to turn into more smoothness. Lots of potential for further aging. All three baskets were spoken for and at USD 45/kg for the 50kg baskets, I can see why...
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debunix
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Location: Los Angeles, CA

Sun Sep 27, 2020 10:17 am

StoneLadle wrote:
Sun Sep 27, 2020 2:43 am
...and then this happened...
Image
How much tea is in
this
?
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StoneLadle
Posts: 347
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2020 12:19 am
Location: Malaysia

Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:25 pm

@debunix

This is a standard Liu Bao basket, and when full contains around 50kg of tea when new.

A few of us bought this basket as a joint purchase and because I took more in terms of weight than the other people, I got to keep the basket. In total I have about 20kg of this tea, an early 90s CNNP marked LB...
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wave_code
Posts: 575
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2018 2:10 pm
Location: Germany

Sun Sep 27, 2020 12:52 pm

sounds like a very nice/lucky day!

not gonna be able to make anything gong fu for a bit going on a trip, so it will be just black tea floating in a mug. so I decided to make some treats the last couple days- some '05 four gold coins yesterday and some 90s I suspect wuzhou that was stored in Taiwan. both were very nice and have a lot of this sort of starchy flavor to them I haven't been able to put my finger on until the other day. in younger teas it has an almost potato like character and I don't really enjoy it so much, but over time as a tea mellows out or matures it changes into something I rather enjoy. I boiled both of them after which was also really tasty and brought out more of this flavor, but once boiled I think I figured it out- it really reminds me of roasted chestnut. perfect for the fall weather that is now here.
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StoneLadle
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Location: Malaysia

Sun Sep 27, 2020 10:35 pm

@wave_code that's wonderful!

I think you've just found what a lot of us refer to us dessert sweetness in LB...

Last night while cupping through some 80s LB one basket consistently gave off notes of green mung bean, used in many Asian desserts while another gave us a nuttiness that could be chestnut like...

It was cosy and warming for a cool evening in the tropics...
polezaivsani
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: Kaliningrad, RU

Tue Sep 29, 2020 4:57 am

Picked up a sample of 2005 Sea Dyke liu an for a day starter and as invigorating as it was, it worked out fine. Cozy old books and puffed rice from the pot, good body with a rather slick texture and lots of steamed oak lumber in the savory soup. Second come roasted walnuts and there a glimmer of cherry in the afterglow. Not much signs of wet piling, but a bit of pleasant earthiness. No sweetness, slight cooling sensation in the first rounds and a touch of spice in the empty cup. Steeps out a notch quicker than similar specimens. Still am learning what this betel nut tastes like by averaging it from all the liu an and liu baos, but there's some of it here :D
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cbrace
Posts: 54
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2020 9:00 am
Location: Amsterdam

Wed Sep 30, 2020 12:49 am

A very nice 2011 Fu Zhuan Hei Cha from Hotsoup, Lovely dark, round, dry flavor. I like to make it with one long infusion: 5g/150ml/95°C/5min
thommes
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Location: Central Ohio

Tue Oct 13, 2020 3:10 pm

My first fuzhuan. Gold Dust from Bitterleaf Tea.
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OCTO
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Location: Penang, Malaysia

Wed Oct 14, 2020 11:38 am

Closing the night with a 2003 LiuAn paired with a thin wall lightweight ZiNi teapot. Heat retention is remarkably good. Brings out the aroma and huigan of the LiuAn.

Cheers!!

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polezaivsani
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: Kaliningrad, RU

Thu Oct 29, 2020 3:24 pm

Got acquainted with a 2010 Sun Yishun liu an from Swiss Länggass tee. Has much more dried fruits than what i got from the older exemplars - dates, raisins and apricot, accompanied by a punchy bitterness. First handful steeps billow up with mild sweet and cooling lilac flowers. I've been pondering lately about how a lot of tea effects are described as stimulating and calming at the same time. Well this particular tea fits right in with good deal of buzzing headspace, which doesn't make you jittery. And flowing down, touching shoulders and spine turns into a grounding and calming sensation.

The bottom line for liu an teas for me - i'm unlikely to go for anything younger than say 15 years, at which point the earthy and aged sweetness make it so much more interesting. Am leaving these baskets to do their thing for some more years.

I also tried the qing zhuan from the same folks and was heavily moved by it. Will share more details later when the whole piece arrives.
thommes
Posts: 170
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Location: Central Ohio

Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:31 pm

Been drinking my second fuzhuan, Nightcap from Bitterleaf. Incredible stuff! Aroma of bing cherry and taste of bing cherry. So glad I opened this kilo brick early to see if I liked it as they had a sale going and I picked up another kilo brick. Have to see if the fungus in the tea actually has any positive impact on my health.
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wave_code
Posts: 575
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Location: Germany

Fri Oct 30, 2020 5:44 am

@polezaivsani are those 200g full baskets? Maybe I should pick up a couple. I haven't tried any of their teas before because I remember looking at them a couple times and thinking their prices were very high, but looking again now things don't look so unreasonable. Don't know if that is a shift in my financial perspective, or maybe the exchange rate has moved in my favor. That kang brick they have is pretty tempting too.
polezaivsani
Posts: 191
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:43 pm
Location: Kaliningrad, RU

Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:08 am

@wave_code, yep, they are complete little baskets. I initially wanted to get the qing zhuan brick from them, but had slightly less than stellar experience blind buying at the time and opted for liu an as an excuse to sample the brick first. Ended up enjoying qing zhuan much more. Also had a super leathery sheng, which looks so shabby i wouldn't even think of trying it. Which is to say that sometimes it tastes way better than it looks :).
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wave_code
Posts: 575
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Location: Germany

Fri Oct 30, 2020 6:59 am

I do wish some of what they had they would offer in a sample size- might be worth asking if they have something open if they could toss you a few grams to try next time.

Looks can be very deceiving, especially with those kang bricks. they look like a square cow pie. Its the same year and factory so probably a good chance its from the same batch that Chawang used to have, and I think Lao has or had it. I got a sample once from Lao, it was a while ago and I remember it looked god awful and that making it in a gaiwan rather than a pot was a mistake for how broken up it is, but that it tasted really nice!
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