Tag Archives: 7542

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.

 

 

Puerh Junky Inventory 2021

Posted on by Yang-chu
10 Feb

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.

 

Puerh Clay Storage

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Mar

Yesterday one of my chief drinking buddies came by for a shesh.  We had some leftovers, a ’18 Bingdao and ’07 Yiwu both huangpian.  He was very myeh regarding the latter, saying, “I’ve had it with the fruity and floral and want more like your ’98 Red Mark.”  What’s a proper Puerh Junky to do?

Yeah, I have a few late 90s raw puerhs in the stash.  One is a “Red Mark.”  It is one of those aged raws that have been punished with a good deal of heat and a dash of humidity imparting that detestable dry old-book newspaper vibe.  That bugger has been placed in the detention container with the rest of the cardboard-stored creations that have lost their pizazz due to my own dunderheadedness.  That Red Mark, however, was none of my doing.  The hope is that I can work a little PJ magic on it and something jucier and complex can emerge.  Of course, the reader knows that that taste is highly regarded in some circles but in the eyes of the Puerh Junky such storage is deeply flawed.  But I digress. . .

I was talking about my tea compadre’s request for that humid aged taste.  What better chance to try out the recently “tinned” Lucky 7542  DQZ, but minding my junky etiquette I gave him an option.  “Well, I have a wet-stored ’06 Mengku that is aggressive and floral or we can try the wet-stored 7542 from tea meistra Du Qiong-zhi.”

Lucky 4524, DQZ

“Oh, 7542?  I’ll definitely take that,” trying to restrain his enthusiasm.  “Now, you do know that this isn’t a Menghai TF?  It’s from someone who worked her self through the ranks of Menghai TF before breaking out on her own in the late 90s during the restructuring,” I warned.  “I’ll have that,” he assured me.

The Lucky 7542 got transferred to a clay caddy around mid-Feb 2021 as part of the tinning project initiated after the fabulous findings from Fu.  Whereas most of the productions thus transferred reside in metal, the Lucky got clay.  Since I had previously moved a hideously wet late 80s Tulin tuo to a clay caddy with a glazed exterior to great result, Lucky’s humidity informed placing it in clay.

Now the Puerh Junky could regale you with all the details about that ’89 Tulin tuo, but the focus here is regarding the findings from Lucky after only three weeks.  For starters, the wet storage smell is evident in the clay itself.  My compadre upon one whiff went into a reverie about his childhood, memories of his grandfather.  I personally detected a note of cinnamon which is a very good sign in light of storage and age.

Recently, the floral-designated pot (150ml) has been getting quite the work out.  It pours slowly, so I only used 4.5g.  Far be it from the Puerh Junky to be at a loss for words, but suffice it to say that a production that I found unsatisfactorily stored is now close to perfect.  The layers of complexity to the tea are now much more evident.  Even the floral notes are more precise.  The overall effect results in what tastes like the ideal 7542, the archetypical 7542.  Are there better 7542?  Well duh, but this captures everything that the 7542 is supposed to be including the humidity.

The Puerh Junky’s wife is keen on the humid productions and just happened upon the scene of the crime to join us right when the first pot was being poured.  Both mi amigo and mi wife remarked upon the sweetness.  What stood out for moi was the volume in terms of breadth imparted by the clay storage.  Imagine Miss Brown Eyes Blue Crystal Gale and her long strait locks getting a good dose of 80s hair mousse. Pour some sugar on me, baby. . . sans the spandex.  The interplay between flowers, minerals, and humidity could not be detected in previous sessions with Lucky but with clay storage, I detected such complexity causing me to completely revise my assessment of the material’s underlying quality.