any information on aged/compressed black tea?

Oxidized tea
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Tue Oct 27, 2020 3:18 pm

... but more importantly, @Balthazar how's that Farmer Leaf cake? I really liked that sun dried red tea they had released. I don't order from them much since I'm not a big sheng drinker, but if they keep getting these interesting shu micro-fermentation batches and making more black tea I'll have to keep a closer eye on them.
John_B
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Wed Oct 28, 2020 3:03 am

I have that same Drunk on Red cake. To me it's ok but a bit more tart than I prefer black teas to be. Maybe it's aging well, gaining depth and warming in tone, with some of that dropping out, since I've had it for awhile.

Moychay sold a small cake version that was quite similar in style. They're sold out of it, but have another listed (an inexpensive tea version; the quality could only be so good):

https://moychay.com/catalog/chaj_proizv ... shan-100-g


They had been selling a compressed Wuyi Yancha oolong pressed version that was much better than it should have been for the selling price, much better than the average loose version one runs across, related to Chinatown shop scope, at least:

https://moychay.com/catalog/chaj_proizv ... 2017-100-g


I first tried a really nice shai hong version of a pressed black tea, a sun-dried type of Dian Hong, more or less. To me the theme seemed a lot more promising for experience a very pleasant and interesting example right away. Since those are said to improve with age, and it had great depth and richness then, I've tried to forget I have it, with a big chunk of that brick left, stashed somewhere.
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Balthazar
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Wed Oct 28, 2020 3:04 am

@wave_code: We're currently in the process of selling our apartment, so most of the tea that can survive my parents' storage environment (two words: cold, dry) has been moved there. Therefore, I haven't been able to try it yet. Will report back once I have, though.

Currently sipping on their "Spring 2018 Jingmai Ancient Gardens Black" (which I see is now sold out). It has a really nice and lingering tartness/bitterness and a thick, velvety mouthfeel.

By the way, I received a sample of one of the micro-fermentation shu batches (the "Jingmai Micro-batch Ripe Pu-erh") and it's ... interesting? The jury is still out as to whether or not it's something I'd enjoy in the long term or if it's just the novelty of trying something completely different that has me exited about it, but I'd definitely recommend trying some if you haven't.
John_B
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Wed Oct 28, 2020 3:10 am

It seemed unlikely that vendor I tried the first version from would have something similar restocked, but in checking they do:

https://www.teasenz.com/sun-dried-black ... -shai-hong

Their offerings seem to be a bit hit and miss to me, generally pretty good, but really spanning a range. I suspect that value would be the same, that they are sourcing and selling somewhat inconsistently, so you kind of get what you get.

I reviewed that tea in early 2017, and I'd been through some range of tea back then, but how I interpreted versions against other types and quality levels seemed to develop a bit more in the years since. So it goes. I'll probably say the same in another 2 1/2 years, even though it really seems to have leveled off.

This was the initial review, with initial tasting notes made before I even sorted out what type it was, since I was interested in blind tasting themes back then:

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... -hong.html
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