Puerh Junky Inventory 2021
The Puerh Junky Inventory 2021 is the unfolding of a continuous saga of a puerh nerd referring to himself in the third person, yet the facade must continue.
These past couple weeks have witnessed a cataloging of the Collection, items for sale, and the Stash, those not for sale. The inventory project involved evaluating current productions in light of their aging trajectory here in the climes of Los Angeles. The Puerh Junky hardly drank everything, only the things piquing his curiosity, understanding that every production has its own personality requiring evaluation on its own terms. Brewing and preparatory measures can greatly affect how a tea performs in light of judging a production Blog entries posted by the Puerh Junky largely detail these nuances.
There is much that goes into a fantastic puerh, not the least being time. In this regard, the ’12 Gentleman deserves mention. At its current stage it is spectacular. Previously, it was nice for the wrapper and intriguing, not exactly bad but not spectacular or even showing such signs.Gentleman sold out a few years ago. A spectacular performance involves great taste over numerous infusions, at least 10. Gentleman now fits the bill because it has the staying power that it previously lacked, not due to any fault of its own but because it’s been processed to blossom over time. That time has come and is consistent with experiences with other productions that in the first five years of possession were not up to snuff but later turned out to be far better than average.
I delisted the ’05 Gushu, YPH sometime in the last two years. It’s not affordable anymore and people would think I was crazy for posting. Pricing goes by somewhere between purchase price and market demand. The enthusiasm around this production has not flagged. This production is a real superstar and not just by reputation. Yes root beer.
Here’s where an aside should be made for Xiaguan, which is the splendid decision for wintry weather. Their ’08 Dali Tuo is a very nice tobacco production. It’s not overly smoky and has a good deal of sugary roundness. It’s a great everyday drinker. XG should not be overlooked for making extremely strong performers, with both classical and flashy presentation and great pricing for the quality.
Dali Tuo Wrapper
I might have made a mention of LME’s Quincy recently. I’m basically stunned. I’m consistently impressed by LME’s productions. Quincy has evolved into an exceptional production. The weird taste of Raid has morphed into complex fruit and camphor expression that is altogether a delight. LME is an operation that seems quite proven in its native areas. The jury is still out on their Yiwu offerings.
Cashed leaves from ’19
Junkified attentions to Bazhong productions have involved gauging rehabilitation efforts of expensive offerings erroneously stored in cardboard and the year’s transformation. Quite recently I gained a new insight into “fakes.” It has to do with vendors trusting you recognize rappers while their verbiage says nothing of the sort to evade bots. The vendor of the ’03 Marquis sells real productions but employs the bot-evading technique, for example. The instance of the Marquis has nothing to do with fakery as such. After all, the vendor is totally transparent about factory origins, but in other cases, as with the Yiwu Prince, it is intentionally misnamed. They practice the same sleight-of-hand with the Green Mark A stamped, which my wife remarked was possibly the best puerh she’s ever had.
As far as I’m concerned any purchase of Bazhong involves fakery. This matter requires some understanding of how the market has evolved, how branding was alien to most producers until about ’05, and how smaller factories fed into the overall production of the big three, particularly Menghai TF. In some regards fakes are the most fascinating aspect of mid-aged puerh. That said, there are certain hard lines that I have and date faking is an unforgivable party foul.
Back to the Yiwu Prince, which hails from he factory of the year, Jinglong. When the rainy weather started to get to me, the Yiwu Prince showed all his impeccability. In terms of smoothness, texture, and root beeriness, it’s comparable to Zhen Silong with more camphor. Regarding the latter, I notice a clear difference in the rapidity of transformation from the ’05 and ’11 treasures I have. The ’11 is far more expressed and reminds me of the ’10 Tiger, MKRS in terms of early maturation.
Yiwu Prince
I guess that enough for now. There’s only so many amateurish fotos that one can stomach in one sitting anyway.
