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Spring Ripe Puerh Taste Off II

Posted on by Yang-chu
20 May

Spring Ripe Puerh Taste Off II has our contenders standing in the circle ready to strut their stuff.  If you missed Day 1.  Two formidable stables are making their appearance today, Xinghai and LME, with two Xinghai contestants performing.  Banners high and the crowd ready, let’s join the action.

Ripe Taste-Off Day 2

  • ’06 Nannuo, LME
    Sweet, milk chocolate smoothness, slick, slight bitterness.  Outstanding clarity.
  • ’07 Merlot, Xinghai
    Blackberry and raspberry, strong bitterness, moderate sweetness.
  • ’08 Wuliang Longevity, Haixintang
    Roasty fruity, scorched, extremely sweet-slick finish, little stamina.
  • ’07 Silver Peacock, Xinghai
    Petrichor, camphor, exquisite aroma, “turns over”, evocative of Drury Lane, little stamina.

Judges were stuck with settling upon purely preferential bases in deciding upon a winner.  In the end, Silver Peacock won the day by virtue of its “turning over,” a unconventional descriptor deserving some explanation.  A light production of this sort typically has a one-dimensional character unlikely to evolve in the mouth, but Silver Peacock has extraordinary depth despite its limitations in stamina.  The Nannuo ranked second and with a bit of storage intensity may express more than than a milk-chocolate density.  Its lack of astringency or bitterness may leave some drinkers with the impression of flatness rather than silky smoothness.  This leaves the two fruity contenders, which form an interesting contrast.  Merlot is starting to express it Bulang/BZ origins through an unapologetic bitterness, while Wulliang Longevity compliments the fruit with roast.  The choice between the two for Puerh Junky is easily Merlot, but the intensity and sweetness found one drinker taken with WL.  The WL in this drinker’s opinion, however, is highly flawed by a scorched taste that shouldn’t be confused with actual roasting but excessive wet-piling, an index of less than adroit processing technique.  For a production this age, such expression (not wodui aroma itself) is inexcusable.

 

 

Spring Ripe Puerh Taste Off

Posted on by Yang-chu
19 May

In a fictitious land far away, Spring Ripe Taste Off takes place yearly at the time of the May sumo tournament.  This year the taste-off has been configured such that for four consecutive days four different ripe puerhs will be sampled side-by-side.  The winners from each of the four days will advance to the championship round.

Ripe Taste-Off Day 1

  • ’11 Peacock Gold, Fuhai
    Roasty.  Lustrous.  Minerally.  Cacao.  Solid intro to ripe puerh: not funky, not fruity, not requiring thought or effort.  Medium density.
  •  ’06 “55,” Zhongcha
    Camphor ( aka “minty”), petrichor, red-hots, incense, strong qi. Sweet.  Complex.
  • ’05 Haiwan Wild Mt, Haiwan
    Strawberries-n-cream, light body, moderate sweetness, no bitter, splendid clarity.  Nice qi. Neifei coolness.
  • ’14 Puerh Espresso
    Rich, chocolately, dense, heady.

Each pot contained 10.5g tea, but brew times were as seen fit.  No point system or anything, just drinking experience.  The 55 come out on top with two drinkers agreeing that it was best.  We were divided on all the rest.  The density of the Puer Espresso unquestionably was strongest and its qi frankly too extreme.  Haiwan was softest and of lightest body, while the Peacock Gold being most middle of the road.

It worth noting that 55 is a light-ferment production, most evidenced by its slow transformation, lack of sweetness, and wicked astringency, making it more like a black tea.  In many regards, it could be evaluated by the same standards of a raw puerh.  However, after turning 15 it started to show its promise.  The second buying of this production came from a Henan seller who had it stored under rather desiccated conditions.  After some LA lovin’ imparting petrichor depth, this dry layer has transformed to incense, also no doubt aided by the wealth of gold buds.

Did Puerh Junky Mention?

Posted on by Yang-chu
06 Dec

“Did Puerh Junky Mention?” is a bit of a retrospective.  The last puerh order for the year has been placed.  All the Nov acquisitions have been nestled along with the rest of the mounting stash.  None of the orphans are feeling lonely, and some of the “long with” items are excelling.  Let’s start with the excelling, shall we?  There are three offerings that come to mind.

’08 Buddha Impressions is a Jinggu, Simao offering from a local factory.  The pressing is moderate to light.  They didn’t fall sway to modernism or herdism, which seems fairly typical of the Jinggu offerings tracked down.  They have an iconic brick offering and it seems that at one time were part of “the monopoly.”  Anyway, storage conditions here in LA, CA, USA have be very good for it.  The past three years have not been very warm and its cooking has not in anyway been stressed.  At the same time, the zing in the material has increased greatly and the underlying quality shines greatly.  The factory offerings are increasingly difficult to come by and that’s presumably due to pre-orders or connections with exclusive distributors.  It’s worth a sample for those seeking good value from established terroir-specific factories.

’03 Yiwu Princess has always been a fav of Puerh Junky, but its vaulted to another level in the past year due to ideal storage conditions.  Originally of a humid nature, the extremely moderate conditions of LA, CA, USA have allowed all the intrinsic qualities of the the Princess to take the next step.  Most interesting is its evolution from old to young.  It previously had a taste of old chrysanthemum and has subsequently blossomed into a young floral taste along its aged backdrop.  The storage transformation for it has been stellar, exhibiting a lively mouthfeel and depth of high-grade material and superb processing.

The Puerh Junky has a vague recollection of writing upon the ’08 Dali Tuo.  In most of its stages its been pleasant, though there was one juncture where faith was close to loss.  Now, it could be said that its at the stage where one favouring wicker and berry should not hesitate.  Compression is tight.  Complexity is engaging.  Exquisite.  Instagram shots.

Finally, there is James Brown.  It’s an ’02 sinewy offering with funk and depth.  Those keen on wicker and extraordinary value.  The name indicates a funk factor akin to some cheeses.  It’s NOT mouldy or dank.  Rather, some type of cultivation has occurred that is unique to say the least.  Duration is long.  Woody, funky, spice, and deep– potent aroma.  The unexperienced will ask, “Is it really tea?”

 

Puerh Junky Visits Dali Tuo

Posted on by Yang-chu
25 Nov

Puerh Junky Visits Dali Tuo is a deceptively titled journal entry because we find Puerh Junky festively clad sniffing at something in a most indecorous manner.  Aye, he’s at it again, this time confusing Bob Cratchit for Ichabod Crane.  The camera zooms in and there’s something about the dude’s eyes that are certifiably “not right.”  It’s the amulet, yeah the spellbinder he’s pawing and sniffing at that’s got him all in a lather.  No doubt some of it has to do with the incantations scribbled upon the wrapper of the thing, the thing he holds.  The thing they call “a tuo.”

Dun-dun-dun.

There’s the hint of smoke and fresh-pressed cotton clothing in the tuo.  Yes.  It gives off a distinct impression of tobacco, something they no doubt smoked upon the Pequod.  It’s got a warm air about it, dressed impeccably in a fine high-cotton wrapper despite being 15yrs old, in the Puerh Junky‘s clutches for three years, stowed away without the light of day in the PJL, what everyone knows to be the Puerh Junky Lair.

“Seems to have blackened up a bit, it does,” he mutters to himself.

Lid removed, big waft of band-aids in the lid, while berries bubble from the cup.  That’s the five min warm cup warm up.  Wood.  No smoke or sugar jump out.  Still warm, complex, a bit cranky, scruffy.  It all comes together in the aroma of the rinse, perhaps berry predominates but now there’s smoke again.  Or wood.

The taste of the rinse is obscenely delicious.  Super sweet, kerosene and berry.  Smooth.  Slick in fact.  It was a headless move to drink the rinse, but such are the perils of conjuring the spirit of Ichabod Crane.  Besides, it’s a long 15m from the opening to the official first infusion.  The aftertaste is super slick.  Three drinking vessels tried: cracked ice Longquan celedon, porcelain glazed zisha (inner glaze), and glass.  The celedon cup gives an alarmingly sanguine finish.  All the while the wood, kerosene, sweet fester in the aftertaste.  From glass there’s a wicker front, a bit more astringency, which is a bit of a surprise.  The porcelain, wood and spice.

It’s aged extremely well.  The band-aid smell from the first infusion is now oppressive in the cup.  Aroma in pitcher is lighter, more nuanced.  Taste of berries shifts to black pepper in the throat, then to kerosene and band-aids.  Band-aids and berry in the aftertaste, then strawberries.  There’s some elements of the vaunted Forever Love in there, smokier presumably is the Dali Tuo.  There’s a kind of echo of smoke.  The note will bend kerosene or smoke depending on perspective.  Storage still clearly fantastic.

The second infusion has the smoothness and viscosity standout.  It’s more wood and petrol in the taste.  Not as sweet.  Tasting more like it’s done being all fruoux, fruoux.  An image of these dogs sitting about a card table smoking cigars comes to mind.  The Puerh Junky tries to distract himself with nicer thoughts like of Ahab and the Pequod.  There’s a lemon note endeavoring to make itself known, and some vegetal bitterness has definitely made itself known, maybe something like dandelion.  Room temp the sweetness and berry prevail in the porcelain cup.

The Dali Tuo gets more and more serious with each passing year.  It’s in a darker more petrolly place presently.  Maybe a year or two before becoming even more strait berry hard to say.  Instagram fotos.

 

Puerh Junky Visits Making Tea

Posted on by Yang-chu
05 Nov

Puerh Junky Visits Making Tea involves a CMS series by the same name.  I’ve gotten my hands on a few of the series from the year ’16, even posted fotos of on Instagram to make it official.  CMS is technically Yibang CMS and that detail is critical as they possess either material or a processing style that is very Yiwu. . . Yibang being in Yiwu.

The style goes beyond just the stone pressing to encompass the overall softness of taste.  Here, the dry leaves give off a slight smoke and kerosene nose that is mostly candy fruity.  The candy fruity is very similar to the recently listed Jade Mark, a nose of something like Jolly Rancher watermelon.  That kinda fragrance is certainly more Menghai or Lincang.

Making tea Nov 2022

The first real infusion gives off clarity of about 2.5 outta five.  I’ve drunk about 3/4 of this cake and it’s never left any impression.  Based on the intensity and height of the aroma, the ole Junky‘s luck may have changed but while sniffing the cloudy brew the thought to lower the water temp occurs.

Consistent with Yiwus, the taste doesn’t jump out at you.  It’s still too young to have any of the smooth vanilla or thick texture, but the qi comes on powerfully in the head and chest.  Overall, there wasn’t enough to sustain even a modicum of interest.

Several hours later. . .

“It’s good at any temperature,” comments the wife.  The hiatus has helped harness hiding sugars.  There’s a bit of kerosene, ever so slight.  Zero bitterness, even when pushed. Nothing to be said of astringency either.  There’s nothing to sink one’s teeth into.  Zen brutality.

Day two is much of the same.  A thread of freshly mowed grass can be detected in the pitcher, but doesn’t convert into the taste.  Pure rock sugar, a very faint sense of something floral, but all completely fades after taking a piece of buttered bread.  The following taste is of an insipid green tea.  Qi goes to the head in a comprehensive manner, not jagged but with full self-assurance.

Reading through the ’09 comments on an ’08 CMS production that I drank this ’22, one commenter said the tea was “moderately floral and lacking in complexity.”  Thirteen years later, the floral note sounds with great perfection, with nice sweetness and thickness.  The difference is age.  The Puerh Junky assumes Making Tea is in a similar boat.  Realistically its about six years away from hitting a decent stride, optimistically three.

 

 

A Night Visit with BZ Peacock

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Oct

A Night Visit with BZ Peacock finds the Puerh Junky searching for an appropriate night cap, something with more bite and less dirt than the ’01 Yiwu Chashan.  He grabs the caddie about 1/8th full of Buddha Impressions, when he finds the gaiwan of BZ Peacock opened the previous day staring at him.

There’s no doubt that the BZ Peacock is now the best its ever been, this Oct 2022.  The two days of sitting have produced excellent results.  It’s very much on par with Wang Xia’s ’01 Green Mark A, which I’ve mentioned several times by different names.  It tastes like really good leather that’s been cured with the best of tallow and fragrances, like oud, sandalwood, and myrrh.  It’s bitter on the finish with an interesting yet characteristic apple sweetness and sourness of many fancier Xinghai productions.  This time it lurks amidst a a strong layer of smoked hickory.

The Buddha Impressions isn’t this woody, but like Grenouille and Zou Binlang’s Cinnamon, they all are of a similar profile.  Buddha Impression is more peppery and ferment-y, with amaretto notes.  Fuhai’s ’07 7536 can be added to the mix, but its notes are more commonly found in any kitchen cupboard, namely bay leaf and clove.  The ’07 iteration is reported to be unique, to which I can attest to only from an ’04 in the stash, which is decidedly heavier stored and perhaps more in the vein of the 7542.

Certainly, one of the more curious aspects of all these productions is absence of a punctuated camphor note.  Perhaps this will emerge, is only a product of storage, or its absences is particular to these productions.  The ’05 Silver Pekoe, Tulin seems to demonstrate that storage plays a significant role in the camphor note.  Its first iteration received heavy storage, expressing strong sour notes on the back end during the first four years of possession.  The second iteration had that baby powder note but after a year of good heat and humidity transitioned into camphor.  In the first, the camphor deepened, while the sour waned winding up with a dense camphor explosiveness.  The second, has settled into the Grenouille and Buddha Impression neighbourhood.  The second definitely stored under much drier conditions.  In the final assessment, there’s no doubt that explosive camphor is closely correlated with humidity and warmth.

Finally, BZP lasts forever.  It isn’t a quaffer, so a gaiwan is likely to last up to 5 sessions of 450ml each. I’ll relate something from my days in Beijing to this end.  There was a retired Frenchman with whom I drank cognac on a couple occasions.  We only had one teacup’s worth each time, sipping.  Contrast this from the HK context, where they were drinking XO in tumblers as a “classy” sign of extravagance.  Yeah, you can quaff BZP if you like, but it doesn’t feel like that type of tea to the Puerh Junky. . . but what does he really know anyway?

p.s. BZ Peacock sale till Sun.

Puerh Junky Visits Twin Dragons

Posted on by Yang-chu
11 Aug

Puerh Junky Visits Twin Dragons offers a quick review of an ’05 production from a factory listed in the Puerh Yearbook, Jianmin.  This is the first of Jianmin’s productions tried and was offered by a seller from whom I’d been buying since about ’18.  Their pickin’s have grown rather slim now and April ’21 was about the tail end of buying from them.  They tend to favour heavier storage but nothing ever requiring tuicang, 退仓.  Overall, Puerh Junky considers their storage consistently excellent, but definitely on the heavier side.

The feature foto was taken in Jun ’21.  Aug ’22 constitutes my second tasting.  Twin Dragons forms part of the cast included in the Menghai Terroir sampler set over at Sampler U.  It is in the dark register, not altogether dissimilar to the BZ Peacock in taste but even more complex.

Infusion 15?

I cannot recall which infusion that was.  Around 5.3g went into my tiny tomato pot, 90ml.  Each round stacked three infusions, all flashed.  Twin Dragon is durable, in other words.  There’s a bit of camphor that sneaks here and there in the mouth.  The overriding taste is wood, with compliments of incense and pencil shavings.  There’s a hint of bitterness but all the notes hit perfectly.

This is the same infusion along a different backdrop with the tiny pot I used.  Yes.  The clarity on this is excellent between 4 and 5 outta five through every infusion.  The texture is rich and coating.  Many people pick up on a mushroom note when drinking puerhs, which I usually don’t notice.  I’m not sure if it’s the humidity, those microbes, that they’re associating with mushrooms or something else.  In any case, the huigan and moments in the broth are extremely mushroomy.  This is definitely the mushroomiest production ever tasted.  It’s not the humidity either or the humidity is hitting perfectly with the wood.  It’s certainly not a dry production but there aren’t humid notes really jumping out either.  Like previously stated, that seller chooses the very best form of storage, also evident in the Yiwu Princess, Marquis du Green Mark, and Drury Lane.

Infusion 11?

One of the things with these woody productions is that they tend to be on the non-sweet side.  Twin Dragon is pleasantly sweet in such a way to balance the heavier notes.  It’s a really nice touch to such a complex offering.

First-rate clarity. Infusion 11?

I didn’t pick up much on the qi tip but while I type this, I’m still tasting the mushroom, oh yeah and there’s a cinnamon note too.  It’s so next-level complex that it’s actually a relief to not have to deal with the additional burden of a buzz.

Cashed leaves

That it for ’05 Twin Dragons and its fabulous turquois wrapper from Jianmin.

Puerh Junky Reform School

Posted on by Yang-chu
28 Apr

Puerh Junky Reform School is a post that is sure to leave many a puerh enthusiast crestfallen.  No. It’s not about reforming tattoo and piercing hipsters from the notion that that oolong-processed “gu-shu” from ’19 is puerh;  rather it’s about how the Puerh’s Junky continues to get schooled by some real late bloomers.  The reader is left crestfallen because his junkiness deigns to make out like his irascibility has been earned by developing a reservior of knowledge, while it becomes ever clearer that it is simply his posturing.

Those ’07s Turn 15

First of all we should start with those much disparaged Zhongcha ’07s, which turn 15 this year ’22.  Whereas treasures like the Thick Zen and Water Blue Mark blossomed two or three years ago, the same could not be said about the likes of the Pig, the Blue Mark Iron Cake, HK Returns Iron Cake, or Beijing Olympics.  Among these, certainly the the Pig continued to beg the question:  “Why or how could it be possible for the makers to produce such a crappy tea”?

Against my better judgement, I opened the Pig up a few weeks ago.  What a difference!  There’s no need to go into the gory details.  The takeaway is what’s important: that is many flat, boring, or crappy productions are simply not what you think they are and only time will reveal their secrets.  This boils down to processing, a subject that many including myself have discoursed upon a great deal.

’07 Pig, ZC

Whether the the old-school processing methods are better than the new-school ones is going to boil down to preference, intention. . . and disregard for the the time variable.  If one intends to store the newly processed ones, then it’s anyone’s guess what the results will be, compounded by the complexities of storage conditions.

Pig 2016

Pig 2022

I nearly destroyed my silver needle storing it among the raws, and similarly catastrophic results developed with a couple tasty Nahan, Lincang cakes.  It is clear that those puppies require a great deal more air than traditionally processed puerh.  Any fears that air will cause the treasure to lose its aromatic intensity and pizazz should be laid to rest.  The opposite is true.

’18 Nahan

Nahan 2018 Shot

The pinkishness to the hue of that pic is obvious.  Evidently, this is supposed to mean “glory.”  The material is no doubt good, but creatures of this sort are raised in the same pen as the Pig.

As market demand has driven demand for more puerh that can be drunk now increases, it appears that some of the newer methods have creeped into even how Zhongcha is making some of the older productions.  If the Lunar Series serves as any indication, we see that compression at the very least is one of the differences.  This in itself may be sufficient for allowing quicker transformation, but there’s more.

For example, there’s a huge difference in appearance between the of the ’07 Pig and the ’14 Horse.  Wholeness and choppness is going to impact the final result.  Ostensibly the Pig and Horse recipes are the same, comprised of primarily Lincang material with some Menghai thrown in.  However, the sweetness has already started to emerge with the Horse despite being seven years younger than the Pig.  They’ve both been stored here in Los Angeles for about the same amount of time.  It seems unlikely that this difference could be chalked up exclusively to compression, though it is imaginable that both required somewhere around the same amount of storage time under Los Angeles conditions to blossom, seven years.  Still, the Puerh Junky’s hunch is that there’s changes in processing that are driven by the market.

Pig w/ neifei and neipiao modesty

Horse brazenly immodest

The Lincang villages not including Mengku and Fengqing specialize in fruity expressions that are sweet very early.  This is due to processing.  However, old-school Zhongcha productions comprised of Lincang material are no more expressive at a young age than those from Yiwu.  The differences depend not in terroir but upon the ones processing the maocha, just how much they feel they can reasonably cook the tea without losing the intrinsic character.  Obviously, some have assumed a devil-may-care attitude knowing that the drinker hasn’t any inclination to store the production, so they cook the hell out of it. . . or is that into it?

Wrap-up

This confession has gone long enough.  I can think of at least three different productions that have been stored since before ’16 from the ’07ish time period that didn’t blossom till this year, all from different factories with varying measures of market cache.  Some of these productions are still not ready but do benefit from a good deal of cooking.  My experience with some of the Lincangs that have specialized in sweet processing longer than other regions is that they require different care from the old-school productions.  Even here, however, it seems that the craft tends toward more conservative processing the more special the production.  That is to say, real Xigui and Bingdao won’t get the fire of less recognized villages and even they will require some wait of a year or two.  That’s another reform school lesson for another time.  By the way, have you paid your tuition?

 

 

 

Gone Fishing Till Dec

Posted on by Yang-chu

Puerh Junky won’t be able to fill any orders till Dec.  You can still place orders, but they won’t get filled till Dec, as I’m going fishing.

But before going, maybe it’s a good idea to share a few impressions on the Collection since it’s been a while.  First, as everyone knows, the shipping situation from China has grown increasingly perilous.  I’ll leave it at that, as chances are good that you come to the site to forget about “stuff” that otherwise seems almost inescapable.

Perhaps a couple mths ago, I said that I’d do a write-up on the ’12 Dragon, CMS.  Let’s say, I’m excited by recent developments.  In addition to a characteristic apricoty con grapefruit expression, there is now a thin layer of root beer forming.  It washes out after about the first two infusions, but I ‘m expecting this root beer trajectory to deepen.  I’ve essentially put this treasure out of my mind now that I know where it’s going and how good it’s going to get.

Let’s take a moment to revere those mid-aged steals from LME shall we?  The ’07 Hideout is a comfy chair by the fire.  In contrast to the erstwhile Vanilla Palace that navigated its way to the Vanilla Kingdom by way of ferocious Bulang tips, along with two- and three-grade leaves, Hideout has always been a smooth and well polished actor.  These attributes have only deepened, with pleasant sweetness and vanilla tones.  It’s richer now.

The LME Spring offering continues to stand out for possessing both floral attributes indicative of spring offerings and unparalleled smoothness.  It lasts forever and has a heady qi that can easily be discerned by even those immune to the qi sensation.

How now, Horatio?  Let’s not forget about the LME Peacock ripe, a humid-stored production that is sweet and rich, with a bit of a camphor flair.  One taster remarked that it was the best ripe he’d ever had.  It is certainly top-shelf.  The ’06 Nannuo is drier-stored perfection, velvety smooth equally straddling the line between camphor and vanilla, with cocoa overtones.  Here, “drier” is by means of contrast from the Peacock, where the latter has a pronounced geosmin character and the former is much more agreeable to those who wretch upon the presence of humidity.

If soy sauce with a bit of flowers is your thing, then the ’09 Daxueshan, MKRS is worth checking out.  This particular note was something I’d experienced with a Zhengsilong Yiwu production from ’04.  After sitting on it for a couple years and a bit of musical chairs in terms of storage, that production has come into its own, fruity and sweet much more similar to the same production from ’11.  Stay tuned for that offering.  In the meantime, I expect that something similar may evolve with the Daxueshan, but for now it’s in a soy sauce stage.

The Puerh Junky’s impressions toward MKRS’s ’11 Creme Floral are fare more sanguine.  It’s about two years away from holy praises.  Right now, it is highly drinkable but it’s not as sweet and rich as it should be.  This makes sense as it only came into the Puerh Junky’s possession in the early part of this year ’21.

For those keen on Simao burliness with a twist, some mention should be made of the ’08 Buddha Impressions.  This is a very good production that has started to express more sweetness along the backdrop of sandalwood and petrol.  The petrol is a new development.  There’s also a sneaky bitter note and some black pepper.  There’s all this complexity without astringency, which might be partly attributable to the healthy presence of saponins which coat the teeth and tongue.  There’s even the venerated “throat yun” present.  I’d say is a cross between the ’07 Auspicious Dragon (altogether too harsh for my tastes) and ’06 Grenouille (which never disappoints).

Now for a bit on three of the ripes that made their debut this year of ’21: BZ Ripe King, Chameleon, and Drury Lane.  The ‘06 BZ Ripe King has been Guangdong stored and hails from a fancy factory.  Upon the first sip one fellow puerh junky noted its indomitable qi.  It’s certainly the most potent ripe of the collection.  Chameleon has unmistakable banana notes and if you let it sit for a good six hours in warm ambient temps it gets all sparky camphory.  Otherwise, it tastes of banana and dates, sweet, thick, and full of good karma. 😉  I haven’t listed a year with this little bugger because the vendor made the implausible claim of it being from the late 80s.  Nonetheless, it has some years under its belt without expressing any hint of the rather unsavory “old taste” of dusty newspapers.   The ’02 Dury Lane is the bomb.  It easily qualifies as the best ripe of ’21.  Crystal clear and camphory with undertones of sweet vanilla muffins, this treasure is flawless.  I think there’s only two of these left.

No review would be complete without a word or two on a few of the Zhongcha offerings in the Collection.  Let’s start with ’07 Thick Zen, which has taken a turn for the plum.  I noticed that it takes a good three infusions before it thickens up as before.  I was almost crestfallen during those first three rounds.  Previous expectations were that it would turn to a dark forest root beer extravaganza, but instead the root beer has plateaued along with the emergence of a pleasant plum note.  One finicky drinker who had previously found it just ok pronounced it good with the emergence of this fruit element.  If Lincang fruity is up your alley then the Top Notch Tuo is a good option, though it’s important to neither over leaf nor over brew as it can easily become overbearing.  It should be noted that we’re talking about the Zen side of Lincang and not the floral.  A remarkable contrast still exists between the ’07 HK Returns cake and tuo.  The former is still very much in the tobacco class, while the latter is bright and fruity.  Finally, the last of the lot is the Water Blue Mark.  It’s smoky and plumy, sweet and rich.  Earlier in the year, I broke off about 100g and placed in a kraft bag, storing it in my ZC container.  That move has allowed for some of the roughness and smoke to dissipate while allowing more sweetness and plum to come through.  The name Water Blue Mark is definitely a bit of an enigma as there’s no hint of watery Zen in this treasure.

Stay thirsty my fellow puerh junkys.

 

 

Puerh Storage Update Jun 2021

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Jun

Puerh Storage Update is part of an on-going saga involving our villain, the Puerh Junky, and his paltry puerh storage attempts.  Since Feb ’21 he has been engaged in a recovery project: convalescing top-shelf puerh cakes sedulously stored in puerh perfect cardboard boxes, which ended up fiendishly robbing the cakes of flavour and possibly qi, while imparting a cardboard taste.  As our camera zooms in we see the Puerh Junky rifling through his stack of convalescents.

“The 6442 isn’t going to be in here.  It’s not convalescing.  Still, now is a perfect time to balance the ’09 Bluemark, DQZ’s fruitiness, summer sublimeness.” He reaches through and grabs a generic bazhong wrapper, gives it a whiff, is satisfied, and examines what it is.  “Ah-haa!  The 8582 with the sexy aqua blue neifei.”

Aqua Neifei

Later during confession. . .

“I bought this in ’18 under no pretenses that it was real.  It was a ping to the vendor, as well as an opportunity to snatch up a bazhong wrapper with a unique neifei.  It was not up to standard till being stored for one year.  Whereupon it imparted a Zen cum root beer taste with a creepingly wicked qi.  Quickly, I checked to see if any more of that offering was available but it was long gone.

In a puerhitious attempt to baby or otherwise elevate its status, the 8582 was removed from one storage unit, placed in a puerh cardboard box, and stored among the top-shelfers of the Stash.  All the Stash top-shelfers can never become Collection offerings because they’re mostly simply not available.  These can sometimes be sent out as little treats for general edification and to show off some of what I consider top-shelf.

So, from Jun ’19 to Feb ’21 the 8582 lay in that cursed cardboard in my least favourite storage container– the fridge.  Day-after-day, month-after-month, that poor treasure received nothing short of the worst possible treatment.  The worst!  The fridge is essentially suspended animation.  Transformation is slow.  The perfect parameters have not been worked out.  Where things are placed and whether it is in plastic matters.  There are many variables that also depend on where the individual production is and what direction it needs to take.

In the case of the 8582, I was not looking for transformation, just storage.   The fridge is close to ideal for suspension, though it does has some undesired storage effects.   Still, it doesn’t even approach what cardboard does.  Let me say this as emphatically as I possibly can. . . cardboard isn’t ideal.”

By this time the priest is considering calling in for reinforcements.  The Puerh Junky goes on. . .

“Cardboard in the fridge is just a nightmare.  The fridge already does something to make the tea “stuffy” in the first place, and the cardboard worsens matters by bleeding its essence into the tea, while sucking from it as well.

These boxes are Dracula to puerh.!” he expostulates, while the priest reaches for his ultra-tetra-inter-hyper caring science gizmo.  Seemingly oblivious the Puerh Junky goes on. . .

“In ideal conditions perhaps it’s less of an issue.  I nevertheless removed all my tuo from their fancy boxes, despite fantastic storage containerdom.  Most have been stored box free anyway.  The thin box of the Dali Tuo worries me little.  The thin brown paper bags of the same material as cardboard worry me even less.   So, my sleeves of tuo remain in sleeves, much as the rain in Spain, if you catch my drift.

Positively none of the ripes have ever warranted cardboard boxing, but I removed my treasured ripe Monkey from its gift box.  Some Poison is stored in a big gift box and there are a few boxes in which productions arrive that I’ve been storing productions, but not in the fridge.  Some of those have been covered in plastic, as I’ve noticed that can make a big difference.”

Ripe Monkey in Gift Box

Later at the sanitarium in a lecture before no one. . .

“In any event, the subject here is rehab.  Rehab in this case consists of bagging the the treasure in packages that are waxy or plastic lined with the outter covering being white cotton or brown paper bag material, a close relative of cardboard.  I recently placed an order for a bunch of them, which I want to make available.  I think I got the ones that are white cotton.  That’s what the 8582 was placed in, in its original wrapper, unsealed, into the convalescent and archive tomb. ”

At the World Body of Puerh Nihilists, sanctioned and licensed by the world body of sanctioning, we find the Puerh Junky at the sanitarium standing before his gizmo wristwatch, synched with his thoughts through a super-convenient injectable nanobot luciferase care gel in a Zoom lecture.  He’s about to conclude.  . .

Findings

Tomato Shape

Aroma dry and in the heated vessel inviting.  Deep notes of root beer.  Evocations of Imperial Roots and the Tulin tuo that I’ve been tracking for a more affordable price and lost in the water in April.

250g Tulin raw

Overall, its association with Imperial Roots is impossible to avoid.  Hasty conclusions might lead one in the direction of Poison, but the latter is more camphorous whereas the former is peatier.  It’s a bona fide root beer, with more ginseng and less cardamom.

Storage, that’s the focus, determining the results of a four-month rehab for the 8582.  The matter here is not the 8582 itself, but how the findings contrast from before rehab entry. The findings are unequivocally positive, not ebullient but nonetheless unequivocal.

The 8582 is not as stultified as it was before entry.  Beyond that it is now a pleasure to drink.  All the attributes that made this treasure top-shelf are present.  At the same time, it has changed but so have I.  One of my own changes is in finding a more appropriate use for the tomato-shaped pot, which I’d previously believed to be best with tippy teas.  Now I’m thinking the opposite.  Obviously, the 8582 cannot have been changed by its cardboard ordeal.

I’ll keep it in rehab till October when it goes back to the fridge without cardboard (obviously) and in package, probably sealed.