Category Archives: The Junky’s Log

Puerh Junky Visits Marquis

Posted on by Yang-chu
19 Sep

Puerh Junky Visits Marquis du Green Mark picks up in the middle of Sept 2022.  Since at least July Puerh Junky had it in his mind to pay the Marquis a visit, so we find him bowing deeply and apologizing profusely.  The Marquis, clad in purple knee-high stockings with matching knee-low knickers, a white shirt with green buttons, and a gauze-y green cape brushes the formalities aside, grabbing the Puerh Junky’s hand, leading him to the tea room.

Marquis du Green Mark

The Marquis takes out 5.3g of his stuff and places in the red clay Ming replica pot of 100ml.  The taste is surprising.  The summer has in no way imparted a heavier layer upon it and it is clear that a great deal of some of the light humid attributes from previous years have retreated.  At the same time two qualities stand out.

First, the floral creme note commands attention.  Here, we find an expression quite similar in many regards to Creme Florale, MKRS.  Second, comes a crispness that is most surprising.  The surprise come from it being more vivacious than it was previously.  It could be the Marquis’s choice of brewing vessel.  Truth be told, MduG  has always had a grabbiness to it.  That texture in the midst of darker humidity, however, left an altogether different impression, a royal impression.  Now the impression is crisp, almost cold.

Marquis cashed Sept 2022

Marquis du Green Mark is one of a number of Green Marks in the Collection and Stash.  Green Mark is another name for “7542″ recipe, which is to raw puerh what 501s are to jeans.  The idea behind the Green Mark isn’t that it is the best but that it is classic and relatively cheap.  The cheapness factor wanes with age and a proper 7542 needs at least a good 15 years under its belt.  Now let’s shift analogies.

Just as every classical guitarist must have Segovia in their repertoire, so too do most factories feel compelled to offer their rendering of the Green Mark. Meistra Du Qiongzhi was commissioned by an obscure boutique in crafting the Lucky 7542.  A few posts on her have been written.  Here the Lucky serves as an appropriate comparison with the Marquis.

Lucky possesses a similar astringent foundation to the Marquis.  However, Lucky‘s creme florale factor, evident in the earlier infusions, melds more harmoniously amidst a medley of expressions.  While spending at least the better part of the summer in a subdued state of malted hay, it has instantly taken on a much more serious character.

Lucky 2022

Floral astringency is the Green Mark identity.  Raw material and transformation determines how special it becomes.  Lucky is now starting to express woody petrol notes that blends with camphor.  It evokes a sense of a much lighter version of Wang Xia’s Green Mark.  There’s a hickory note in there reminiscent of the 50/50 a raw/ripe blend from years ago.  Those two cakes are both quite a bit more aged, but Lucky is showing promising signs.

The Marquis is a crisp Green Mark without any signs of petrol or camphor.  Its floral character, combined with cream, has remained true with less humidity from a couple years back.  Lucky, on the other hand, is a much more complex balance of tastes, reflective of more dynamic transformation of the Naka material.

 

 

Found: Tinned Pig

Posted on by Yang-chu
08 Sep

Found: Tinned Pig casts a glimmer of light upon the travails of the Puerh Junky, a foundering soul amidst a sea of puerh containers, wrappers, boxes, struts and frets.  As we zoom in, the camera has a retro filter.  We see the Puerh Junky in the cave on the Sunday before Labour Day 2022.  Hair amiss and sweat pouring from his brow and neck, he’s looking for his Gedeng dragon pearls.

Some moody Philip Glass music, monotonous and foreboding, sounds in the background.  A rudderless skiff at night fades in and out between shots of PJ searching.  A thought as to the whereabouts of the missing Pig pops to his mind.  The narrator vanishes and we see him in an interview with a reporter from the world-famous Puerh Storage News. . .

Piggy Went Home

I’m estimating that ’07 Pig sat in its secret location in the cave since May ’22, as that’s around the last time I appear to have last written about it.  At the time, I recall a measure of consternation because it was starting to taste metallic.  Immediately lay to rest the idea that the Puerh Junky listens to this type of music. (note: even in interviews he has this bad habit of referring to himself in third person)  It’s just a serendipitous funny occasioned by the word, and Mariano Rivera’s walk-up tune.  Fact is, I wouldn’t even it know the tune but for Rivera.

For four months it had sat cooking with the lid.  Immediately, I removed the lid and placed in the raw side of the fridge.  It sat there for two days and was sampled on the third.  The results?  Forget you Philip Glass!

Pig Unfocused

This is the sweetest and thickest the Pig has been, but what jumps out immediately is the pallor.  This is consistently the colour the brew throughout.  Where is the aged colour?  I mentioned something about this conundrum when looking at leaves.  May have even gone into the colour deception.

I’ve had the Pig since ’15.  In another post, I discussed the pleasing changes of the Zhongcha Pig, acquired around the same time.  Now, the 6FTM Pig cannot be said to not have transformed, because it has.  All of the edginess, the piercing attributes of a young tippy production have vanished.  There is notable drying astringency as well that takes hold for a spell before releasing the mouth watering.  The floral has transformed to fruity and it resides in the mouth for a pleasant duration.

’07 Pig, 6FTM Cashed

Everything about the taste matches its colour but the age.  I would easily guess that this is a puerh at least ten years younger, except that it doesn’t infuse to a layer where the sweetness dissipates.  I would also identify it as a Lincang, but from the Bingdao side not Fengqing.

Anyway, as far as the ongoing tinning experiment, it appears when the tin is outside the fridge that the lid does not affect the taste.  Inside the fridge, the tin starts to bleed into the taste.  Again, this goes back to the matter of air flow.  The Pig is now happily resting in the fridge without its lid.   Pig isn’t for sale, but a sample of the quite similar Fohai is avail in Sampler U, along with samples of the Lunar Ox and Monkey.

 

 

Replicating Puerh Brewing Results

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Sep

Replicating Puerh Brewing Results extends a conversation regarding Drury Lane at the end of June ’22.  In late Aug of the same year, Puerh Junky endeavored to replicate the splendid results.  The upshot?  Setting the brick out for a few days before brewing reproduced the desired results.

Although it would be nice to just grab from the stash and brew something up, each treasure has its own personality that will be greatly influenced by storage conditions and season.  Only you know your storage and climactic conditions.  Relating my own only demonstrates that there are no hard and fast rules and you’re only going to find what’s right for you through experimentation.

This time Drury Lane sat out for about three days before being brewed.  The results were superb.  It’s fair to say that any brewing without sitting out a few days would be a waste.  One caveat: so long as it remains in the same storage space, the fridge.

Since April ’22, the fridge has become a power-storage space.  Whereas previously, some humidifiers were placed here and there in the fridge, the current setup has a shelf where a tray of humidification resides.  It consists of a simple large plastic take-out food container with two florist sponges about an inch thick.  The tray is filled with water mixed with perhaps 1/8th, maybe less, of food-grade propylene glycol, used to discourage mold.  If I see mold growing on the sponges, then I add a more concentrated mixture.  I don’t just pour the pg into the tray.  It needs to be mixed.

Precision Humefaction

The tray sits uncovered because there is no risk of spillage and because it diffuses faster than if it were covered.  Most all the other storage containers have a similar setup but with lids that have numerous holes melted into them.  I heated a big screw with a kitchen torch to make them without cracking the plastic.  Two of the very big containers have one-gallon jugs cut to accommodate a big sponge and a good amount of water.  Both containers are accessed frequently and allow more airflow than the fridge, so this seemed to be the best way to get lotsa humidity into the containers.

Dodger tape optional

One such container holds ripes.  The morning of Sept 2nd, ’22 occasioned its opening to sample Snake.  The blast of air upon opening promised good “juice-ification” for the treasures therein.  It’s been hot and humid these past few days.  This setup makes for power humidity, enlivening the ripes, making them richer and sweeter.  Right now it’s ultra primo storage, as the air flow and heat is much greater than the fridge.

Already, 2022 has been the Snake‘s best year, so checking in on it was simply to determine whether it would also require a few day’s airing given the difference in storage.  Findings?  No airing necessary.   The plastic container provides nearly ideal conditions with this humidifier during the hot season.

The most current stint of heat has been quite humid so the amount of water that the fridge has been drinking is actually less than June and July.  It could also be that the tea has reached a certain saturation level, but I’m guessing that it has more to do with ambient humidity.

In general, I’m not worried about mold.  It’s never been a problem and the returns are huge in terms of how happy it makes the puerh.  This applies to both raw and ripes.  From mid-Nov to the beginning of July, temperatures will normally only get into the 90s (27c?) maybe a total of 15 days.  September and October will be burners, but usually the humidity will be quite super low.  Perhaps this newly outfitted humidifiers will work with the dry heat to keep up a juicy cooking, but the main purpose is to prevent excessive drying.

Much could be said on these seasonal changes, but the focus here is on reproducing the same effects for an excellent ripe which had started to drop off from excessive dryness and didn’t impress after conditions had switched to greater humidity.  It turns out, the original charm blossomed after sitting out for a few days.  Visiting the Snake confirmed some of the weaknesses of storage in the fridge.  As an aside, it should be noted that there are other items stored in the fridge that don’t seem to need any airing.  Again, each production has its own personality, shaped by material, compression, and mysterious variables necessitating constant fiddling to bring out the best from each.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Puerh is super forgiving.

 

Puerh Rating Creme Florale

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Aug

Puerh Rating Creme Florale takes us to a 23 Aug ’22  tasting of a Mengku Rongshi production from 2011.  It’s been in the Collection since April of ’21 and has now in effect sojourned two Los Angeles Summers.  Here we subject it to the much ballyhooed PJRS.

Mengku Rongshi is an outfit focusing narrowly on Lincang offerings primarily in and around Daxueshan.  Bingdao offerings essentially round out their pre-’14 selections, though in recent years they’ve offered more village specific selections, e.g. Xiaohuzhai, Mangfei, Xigui etc.

For several years they’ve been producing Lunar New Years cakes.  One series with a yellow wrapper and zodiac animal floated around for several years but disappeared after ’19.  Those cakes were 900g and equally handsome in price.  A few years ago, PJ issued at least one missive on the Tiger (500g) of an altogether different series (perhaps a one off) that was nothing short of perfect, possessing that DXS zest with a splendid aged root beer-y and floral expression.  I recently saw a description that it was Bingdao, but it’s not.  I’ve been trying to source the Tiger ever since and the last time I saw it, its price was more than 3X the ’15 price and the vendor didn’t respond to calls.  Oh well.  Onto the Creme Florale. . .

Rating Creme Florale

Creme Florale presents with standard MKRS features in terms of moderate compression and an aggressive nature.  Unique is the cream expression that comes in up front and through the middle before tailing off into an aggressive back end.  The contrast between the two intrigues.

After three rounds the total was as follows:

  • Aroma          12
  • Clarity            9
  • Sweetness   10.5
  • Viscosity       10.5
  • Astringency    8
  • Huigan          10.5
  • Qi                    9

Reflections

Creme Florale possesses an extremely inviting aroma, something like Cream of Wheat with a hint of citrus.  Cream and a hint of grass characterise the first infusion’s broth taste, with a thickening and sweetening as it cools.  On comes the astringency, sassy, along with citrus and definite mouth watering.

Infusion 1

An extravagant vanilla aroma follows in the next infusion with a matching taste.  Astringency is strong with a lilies and orchid in the huigan.  This effect possibly gets overwhelmed by the astringency.  The rating notes that CF rates lowest in astringency, not for lack of it but because it has too large a presence.

The qi hits in the second infusion, heady with hints of being too aggressive in the chest.  Salivary activity, as an expression of huigan, excels.  Hunger starts to set in.  At cooler temp, bitterness is detectable with the aforementioned citrus note.

Infusion 3

By the third infusion the lily-orchid note is in full effect, accompanied by very noticeable bitterness.  Cooler the broth thickens and sweetens, with the bitterness abating before returning in the huigan.  The cream note comes through at cooler temps as well.  In this infusion, clarity rates 2.5 reflecting the overall youthfulness.

Conclusions

Creme Florale is aptly named and perfectly suitable for those who like their raw puerhs on the younger side, i.e., with lots of astringency.  The aroma and up front tastes are divine.  The expression holds true to the MKRS house style, and as the session progresses their characteristic brightness and force are on full display.  Give or take, CR lasts a good nine rounds.  This session was flash brewed in a gaiwan and time wasn’t added till about the seventh round.

69/105 B-

About the PJRS.

Puerh Junky Visits Golden Sail

Posted on by Yang-chu
22 Aug

Puerh Junky Visits Golden Sail picks up with another ripe from the mid naughts.  Golden Sail holds the distinction of selling Yunnan puerh under a Guangdong brand.  As the Puerh Junky has made abundantly clear, brand is about the closest this 250g tuo comes to Guangdong, as it was brutally dry stored.  Some people like that dry-stored ripe vibe, so I made it available even though by my own reckoning it needed resurrection.

The problem with dry stored ripes is that they aren’t sweet.  Ripes should have some measure of sweetness.  I’m not sure how some of the instantly sweet ripes are processed but guesses are that they’re heavily wokked and/or heavily fermented.  Both are heat processing which accelerates transformation of “the stuff” to sugar.

Dry storage also stunts expression.  Notes don’t sound as clearly or vibrantly.  Instead, there are fleeting hints to an otherwise stilted drinking experience.  Such was the case with the Golden Sail, which had hints of fermented cherry but altogether too faint.  Combined with a lack of sweetness and a mid-range vegetal note, it was very difficult to drink.

GS came Puerh Junky Resurrection Center (PJRC) in Dec 2020 complaining of the conditions mentioned above.  An Aug 2021 tasting showed not much change.  The experience was frankly nothing short of horrible, lacking sweetness and if memory serves possessing a sour note totally challenging.  During that session, the cherry note was not detectable either.  I only got through two infusions before tapping out.  Gross.

Aug 2022 presents a vastly improved picture.  Some renovations at the PJRC have afforded more efficient humidification in the summer months to the benefit of all the ripes.  I stopped using a hygrometer.  The Power Humidity Ward (PHW) of the PJRC receives visits on a daily basis, so there is very little concern about mold.  Furthermore, temps remain moderate from daily maritime breezes that cool the air.  Temps have rarely gone above 85, with an average range between 65-85.  Furthermore, any particular concerns about humidity can be addressed by moving ripes from the PHW to another ward in the PJRC.

No such concerns apply to GS, which is now exhibiting sweetness, a cherry-cum-berry flavour, and a slight camphor note.  Remarkable are both bitter and astringent features that express both in the broth and aftertaste, especially the astringency.  The fruit is very promising and much bolder than before.  It’s downright fruity.  Let there be no doubt: GS is in a much better place.

The astringency and bitterness got me curious.  Golden Sail is a Zhongcha/CNNP export brand.  I had assumed that this tuo was their flagship ripe 7581 devised by the Kunming TF but the wrapper offers no indication.  However, this degree of bitterness and astringency doesn’t seem to be in the spirit of the 7581, which is never bitter or astringent.  Such a profile suggests that the material comes from considerably smaller leaves, possibly grade-four leaves and smaller.  Close inspection shows tiny twiggy material, tips, and chopped leaf.

Come to think of it, the release rate of GS is along the lines of smaller leaves, very quick.  Even so, the durability is greater than with most gongtings.  It offers six solid infusions.  As with most ripes this age, clarity is first rate.

 

Puerh Junky’s 2022 Visit Olympics

Posted on by Yang-chu
17 Aug

Puerh Junky’s 2022 Visit Olympics presents us with a tidy way of distinguishing this missive from those of previous years.  Suffice it to say that the ole Beijing Olympics has thrown yours truly yet another curve.  Beijing Olympics still proves to be one of the most enigmatic among the Collection.  Let’s begin.

Previous posts have noted a waxiness and fuzziness in Beijing Olympics taste.  The last tasting did not demonstrate this and anticipated a transition to dark fruit notes and wood.  In that session, Puerh Junky noted that the BJO had definitely turned a corner toward an generally more pleasing and less cryptic experience.  As far as being a tastier experience, this remains true but in terms of the direction it is taking. . . well.

Let’s back up.  Today 17 Aug 2022, I broke into a new cake which has been considerably drier stored than the cake from which I’ve been drinking the past few years.  Yes, it takes several years to get through a cake, as most drinking is dedicated to monitoring recent arrivals’ transition to their new climes here in LA.  I’m lucky if I get to productions that have been on hand for a spell more than twice a year.

A gander at BJO‘s leaves bore the appearance of a production from about 2014, making up some arbitrary year to fully convey just how young these leaves look.  Accordingly, the liquor is nearly clear with some vivid yellow.  The infusions 2-5 were about 3-3.5 in terms of clarity with the sixth being crystal clear and and a darker yellow.  The liquor seemed considerably lighter than any of the previous sessions.  I’ve begun to notice that some productions can actually go from dark to a lighter colour, which strikes me as super curious to say the least.

The taste and body mirror the colour.  There’s no flavour that jumps out and the tastes that are there are hard to identify.  It would be fair to say that the broth is not only Zen but thin.  Then the huigan kicks in.  I’ll get to that later.  The broth is definitely sweeter than ever.  It doesn’t have to compete with fuzziness, so it definitely stands out more than anything else.  It’s not super sweet but the sweetness is definitely pleasant and lasts throughout.  Regarding the blandness, I had two thoughts: maybe brewing in clay and/or more leafage would have been better.  I used about 5.5g in 90g gaiwan.

The aroma and taste sync at the early stage.  After about the 8th round the aroma takes on a vegetal character common with some ripes.  At the early stages, however, there’s a clear resin note that I can only most closely associate with hyssop and lemonene.  There is some citric acid sour in there but it’s hard to pinpoint the fruit, maybe about 25% apricot.  The lemonene note is not of lemons or other citrus.  Many other plants have that molecule, which is why I refer to the molecule and not lemons.

There’s other associations, cinnamon, marshmallow, vanilla, the usual cast of characters, later on Juicy Fruit.  You won’t taste much of it in the broth.  It’s all in a simply marvelous huigan.  Also, I tasted something like split pea or mung beans at infusion 7.  Is that the “yam” that people reference?  The Juicy Fruit made wonder if it’s a slight variant of the vaunted ZC Jia-Ji.

Back to the huigan and the hyssop.  Granted, you might not know that aroma.  It’s somewhere between 65% tea tree and 35% eucalyptus.  It’s camphor but it’s not the camphor of heavy storage.  The effect aggressively cools in the mouth, then you have all those flavours coming in behind it, with the sweetness and bits of sour.  This behavior continues from one infusion to the next.  Each cup you try to identify what you cannot taste in the broth and then sit there for a spell feeling the tingle in the mouth before the dryness passes, the sour and sweet kick in, and those complexities of flavour emerge.  Wash-rinse-repeat.

The qi become fully apparent at around infusion 4-5, heady and uplifting in the chest.  As the session continues and the brew is pushed, the qi sensation increases accordingly.  Although the colour darkens only marginally, BJO‘s age shines through as the session increases by never bottoming out.  The complex tastes in the huigan continue throughout without ever becoming astringent or signalling that you’ve reached that immaturity point.  It seems in fact, that the cinnamon becomes even more pronounced in later stages along with the Juicy Fruit.  There is “that veggie note” of ripes that is obvious in broth but thankfully it doesn’t carry over into into the huigan.  I really like how it feels in the chest.  The overall personality is cheerful and even expansive.  Even made me stretch my back a few times.

Beijing Olympics is a good time.  The material is clearly mostly eastern Lincang from the Bangdong area.

 

Ox, 6FTM Follow Up

Posted on by Yang-chu
14 Aug

Ox, 6FTM Follow Up finds the Puerh Junky serving it up for a visitor impressed by the neifei image posted on Instagram.  If you’re asking yourself, “What?!!! Ox, 6FKNTM again?!!”  Don’t worry.  This post won’t be long.

Huge neifei

Just two days ago, the official Puerh Junky Visits Report (PJVR) noted a few things that make the Ox different from the past.  These were sweetness, flawless clarity, and no qi of note.  Hmmm.  Hold the presses.  After two or three days of sitting out of storage, all three of these variables changed.  Still, 5.5g in slow-pour zisha, 150ml.

The rinse.  Sparkling clarity and lively taste.  Light liquor colour.  I took one cup and saved the rest to cool, splitting it when the guest arrived.  She didn’t taste much, but I could sense the qi already.

The next infusion went strait to my head and our visitor poured sweat: head, arms, and legs.  “I feel like I’m in Miami,” she said.  I hand her the box of kleenex.  She’s not impressed with the taste which she feels is mottled compared to say the BZ Peacock (coffee) or the Fujin Green.  To me it’s great and the huigan is bangin’.  Clear broth, about a four out of five.

About 3.5 clarity

Next infusion is more intense and she warms up to the taste.  All infusions are “flashed” but again, it’s the slow-pour pot.  The huigan excels.  Mouth full of roses.  The ole Fengqing attribute stands out as it has customarily.  There is zero sweetness to speak of.  Clarity about the same.  The qi is working full force in my head, though it is sedating the guest.

The next infusion is a catastrophe in terms of clarity, a one.  Guest appreciates the building intensity, but her eyes are starting to roll to the back of her head.  I’m holding my head very still to keep by brains from rattling in the noggin.  Again zero sweetness but explosive huigan that those craving tippy productions seek.

Tap out.

The difference two days out of storage makes. . .   Puerh Junky preferred the experience earlier in the week, but the contrast is quite instructive.  On this 13 Aug ’22, it tasted every bit its age, whereas earlier it tasted about seven years older.

Puerh Junky Visits Ox, 6FTM

Posted on by Yang-chu
12 Aug

Puerh Junky Visits Ox, 6FTM forms part of an on-going saga.  Perhaps the Ox has occupied more digital space than any of the other 6FTM Lunar Series offerings.  It made a quick cameo in a recent post on leaves, occasioning this update.  It’s included in the Six Famous Tea Mountain sample set of Sampler U and is also one of the few samples available from the 6FTM Lunar Series.  Enough with the preliminaries. . .

Flash Rinse

A total of 5.5g were placed in my 150ml slow-pour zisha teapot reserved for floral productions.  Compared with previous experiences, the Ox appears to have turned the corner in two regards: humidity and sweetness.  The humidity has now taken a significant backstage.  Even though one can detect the humidity, it is obvious that the microbial vibe is significantly less than what it was previously.  This concept is known as tuicang, though no intentional effort was made to retreat the humidity.  This is just the product of normal LA storage, no tinning or nuthin’ was involved.

Infusions 10 and 11? One minute soak.

Concomitant with humidity’s retreat arises sweetness heretofore absent.  It’s quite interesting how the sharper attributes have all softened with the emergence of the sweetness.  It’s not sugary sweet but it is sweet and mellow with a subtlety and character of a production that has been carefully aged.  Elegant and refined.

The huigan is stellar, evoking a sense of a sweet flower like honeysuckle.  If you know what you’re tasting for, you’ll find an interesting expression of the Fengqing terroir which was much more noticeable at an earlier stage and tends to be the overriding character with the Pig and Rat.  Most all Yunnan black teas (hongcha) hail from Fengqing.  That’s the note.  Now this note is much more inconspicuous, more in harmony with the Hekai and Jingmai material.

 

Two different angles of light demonstrate the marked differences in the same production at the same time of day.

The Ox presently at an early old stage, where most of the youth has aged out while the sweetness has emerged.  More intense brewing will give a bit of astringency on the tongue but the real gem is the floral huigan.  More intense brewing also magnifies the huigan.  Perhaps the qi to this is relaxing.  It certainly didn’t inhibit sleep as it was drink right before bed.  It’s fair to say that the Guangdong storage has taken a bit from the qi side of the production.

Heavier stored productions that leave a taste of the tea and not the effects of storage are very highly regarded by the Puerh Junky.  Needless to say that the transparency ranks highly as well.

 

Puerh Junky Studies Leaves

Posted on by Yang-chu
10 Aug

Puerh Junky Studies Leaves continues an on-going discussion regarding the task of determining age of certain productions.  A recent entry compared leaves spanning 10 years in age difference but seemed may just a few.  A similar format of mainly pictures will be employed here involving a ’96 raw brick acquired spring ’22 and a ’98 7542 acquired in May of ’18  included among the Bazhong in Sampler U.

Here’s the first image taken.

Side-by-side

Don’t forget one of the nifty features of wordpress is that you can click the images for close ups.  Both have been dry-stored and you get to guess which is which.

Old productions such as these often require some type of preparation.  The ’98 received no preparation but it literally took more than five years to come into form.  All the while, I sat skeptical about the production’s actual age and drinking potential because the three other cakes from that vendor had all shown considerably more life after a year in LA. Upon tasting of the ’96, I immediately broke about half for storage in porcelain because I didn’t want to wait years before it would become enjoyable.

Side-by-side flipped

So there’s a difference in hue depending on where they are.

Side-by-side original

Something younger but more humidly stored, the ’03 Yiwu Princess. . .

Yiwu Princess 2020 foto

I immediately noticed a redder red.  Let’s look at the cups:

’96 ZC Brick

Now for the cake:

’98 Bazhong Cake

There’s a fair measure of light that factors.  Several shots in as similar a light as possible.

Revolutionary Suspect 8972

I conservatively guessed the Revolutionary Suspect to be about the late aughts, but it was pure speculation.  From among the four, it is clear that the Yiwu Princess is the darkest.  It is also the most humidly stored.  Yes, the RS 8972 certainly got something like wet storage but a year after receipt in ’14-5, it got bone dry indoor storage in clay for six years.  Given all the redness, it appears that the RS got a good deal of heat at one point. . .  or dryness?  I’m beginning to think that red indicates something other than age, maybe heat or dry heat but not age.

’09 Ox, 6FTM Guangdong storage 2022 foto

Are you getting the picture?  Determining age by looking at the leaves appears to be a challenging task.  I recall sometime back reading the comment section of a vendor in the UK.  The post alleged that the vendor was pawning young tea for old.  I immediately thought, “given the range in storage conditions how does he know that?”  Of course the accuser offered no basis for the allegation.  It’s pretty easy to get “caught up” in aspects of the puerh game that are ancillary to puerh drinking itself.  Aging variable vary widely and when it boils down to it, each production must be evaluated on its own terms.

The more I drink puerh, which is now a decade, the more I learn.  The more productions acquired in the early days age, the more I learn about how a production was conceived and crafted.  In the end, it seems that a gander at the leaves says more about how a production was stored than it does about actual leaf age.  Leaves will always be just a relative indicator, along with the specifics of storage itself.  I’m now at the stage where I doubt the years of productions less and less because I simply have no way of knowing and have witnessed some of my own long-stored items actually get lighter, at least in terms of liquor, over the years.  So, we’re back to evaluating productions on their own terms in light of years of drinking experience.

Puerh Junky Visits: Fujin Green

Posted on by Yang-chu
08 Aug

Puerh Junky Visits: Fujin Green is an update post regarding the ’09 offering from Fujin.  Puerh Junky has issued at least two missives about both this production in particular and the factory in general.   It’s hard to not roll one’s eyes when it comes to the expense of some of these boutique offerings, but so it is.  At the height of summer and humidity-plus storage, the thought occurred “why not dust off the ole PJRS for a serious evaluation.”

Fujin Green prompted a bit of thinking about the seasonality involved with natural storage.  Performance ebbs and flows in accordance with the seasons.  Right now, FG is at its best.  The aura surrounding Fujin factory becomes somewhat understandable upon opening the wrapper: strong waft of fruity and floral notes fill the nostrils.  The Henan storage gives the impression that the production is still young, five-years old at the most.  This youthfulness is evident throughout and there is a particular green note that is, putting it diplomatically, highly unusual in puerhs and certainly puerhs processed through traditional methods.  Fujin productions are processed by Xinghai factory so there’s little cause for suspicion about shiesty processing.

Infusion #1

At this age and given the general conditions, puerhs should have a bit of ferment to them.  This is not the case with the Fujin Green, also highly anomalous.  It fair to guess that it will go through such a stage but is still off by a year or two.  At its current stage in Aug ’22, it is the closest expression to a two-year-old puerh in the collection. . . ostensibly.  One of the features possibly distinguishing it from a young production, however, is that it drinks all the way through.  In other words, it never reaches a raw stage where it bottoms out indicating that it needs more curing time.  This happened in previous sessions.

Brewing

I decided on using 6.5g in my 150ml workhorse zisha pot.  The pot pours quickly and doesn’t clog easily.  Older and more tightly compressed cakes may take as much as eight grams, but that’s rare.  The usual amount is 7g for this pot, but judging from the smell, 7g seemed excessive.  I don’t like overleafing because it smashes the notes.  In retrospect, even 6.5g may have been too much.  Fujin Green overall pushes to the very edge of being too much.  Stunt drinkers, of which there seems no short supply, will definitely delight in drinking this.  I administered no rinse and flash infused each round.

Rating

After three rounds the total was as follows:

  • Aroma          13
  • Clarity          11
  • Sweetness   15
  • Viscosity      13
  • Astringency  14
  • Huigan         15
  • Qi                 15

Reflections on Fujin Green

Fujin Green is intense.  It lives up to the reputation of the factory.  Each infusion differs a mite.  The character is certifiably Bulang/Banzhang, with an unapologetic bitterness.  The first infusion releases a high floral aroma, which could be easily associated with Jingmai material.  The taste in the the first infusion begins with citrus at the front of the tongue, then proceeds to vanilla mid tongue before finishing with vetiver.  For those unfamiliar with vetiver, it is a dark resinous essential oil with strong baby powder notes.

Infusion #2

The second infusion is much more intense and complex with prevailing notes of grapefruit seed and vanilla.  The liquor coats the mouth leaving the huigan of citrus, then vanilla, and finally that eau de Lick-a-Stix taste.  Pronounced piercing perfume (not vetiver but much higher) and vegetal green notes make their presence known, both quite hideous by the Puerh Junky’s reckoning.  The citrus fruit sourness and a balanced sweetness, offset those figurative flaws.

Second infusion was totally murky.  Both the first and third infusions were crystal clear. By the second infusion the ferocity of the qi became an issue.  The first pot went strait to the head but the second stirred raucously in the chest.

The citrus vibe continues into the third infusion, with the dreaded dry-sheet note making its presence known in the huigan.  Throughout each session the vaunted houyun resounds.  In other words, it’s throaty.  By this round, I was ready to tap out.  The qi has a character not altogether dissimilar from the BZ Peacock, despite being in totally different classes, FG being Floral Class and BZP being Tobacco Class.

Infusion #3

I also had suspicions about FG being a gut buster, which proved to be true.  I served up infusions 4-6 to a visitor who, drenched in sweat from the power, complained of this, stating that such was her experience with tea most of the time.  It was the first among our many sessions.  Gut-busting adds to the stunt-tea appeal. <<ahem>>

Conclusions

Fujin Green is an intense raw puerh most appropriate for the stunt tea drinker seeking young expression in a puerh well over 10 years old.  The huigan and qi are exceptional, and the sweetness is perfectly balanced in the context of the overall treasure itself.  It’s an outstanding production that lives up to the reputation that the factory projects.

96/105 A