Tag Archives: aged puer

’07 Thai Country Tuo, Raw Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
29 Jul

The ’07 Thai Country Tuo has a remarkable box.  It is also quite good.  It’s in the petrol, pencil shavings class.  Sufficiently sweet and complex.  The factory whence it hails is vastly underrated.

I’d say that it is comparable to the ’08 Dali Tuo but the ’07 Thai Country has more petrol and less tobacco.  In terms of complexity and richness they’re on the same page.

I don’t drink this one much, because I’m of the opinion that it’s going to age into something extremely interesting.

Brutal Ripe Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Jul

Langhe is one of the factories I follow, primarily for ripes.  Their fermentation style in producing ripe puerhs is lighter, ostensibly making them better for long-term storage and little rankness.  In 2013 I acquired acquired their ’06 Peacock Tribute cake.   At that time, it was brutal.  It still is.  Too dry.  Fairly astringent.

’06 Peacock Tribute

Maybe over the years some of the astringency has dissipated, but not much.  True to the Langhe fermentation style, there isn’t any wet pile taste.  It’s just the taste that it does have bears a closer relationship with your typical Indian black Assam.  The aftertaste is much like baker’s chocolate, especially the astringency, not a good taste on the tongue.  They’ve got 25g samples over at YS if interested.

Speaking of YS, they’ve got a bone dry offering that I’ve been punishing since ’12 to no avail.  It’s the ’05 Jin Se Zhen Ming.  This one is gorgeous in color but so astringent, it could easily be confused for a black tea.  It’s been processed in small batches, which is supposed to up its overall profile.  It is a most exceptional production… exceptionally brutal.  None of the seven years of storage have done anything to round this bugger out.

’06 East is Red

The ’06 East is Red, also by Langhe, is a decidedly superior production that started out a bit dry but is now pleasingly sweet with a pleasantly gentle camphor finish.  Its aroma is stronger than most ripes, giving off some faint peachy notes, like the Dianxiu.  There’s some astringency there, goes all the way down the throat.  The finish is quite similar to the 55, but 55 has a coffee character whereas the East is Red is a rare ripe Zen production.  Both had that baby powder quality.

Infusion #1 East is Red

It’s interesting to notice the variations that a factory can produce.  The sweetness and camphor of the East is Red, for example, reaches another level with the Boss Tuo from the same year.  Being humid stored, the Boss Tuo possesses some lower notes.  Instead of Zen, it is medicinal, if peppermint candy can be considered medicine.  That one has never been brutal.

 

Another Zhongcha Peacock Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
23 Jul

There are two excellent Peacock productions from ’07 Zhongcha, otherwise the Kunming Tea Factory #1.  Today I had the one that reminds me of a perfected Xia Guan offering that I’ve never quite had.

This production isn’t for sale; just thought I’d share that today three people other than myself all remarked positively.  It’s damn good.  Sweet and minerally.  Clean stones and camphor, with a mellowness of age.  It’s too damn tasty to be Zen, yet it possesses that Zhongcha Zen.

One perspective was that it was floral.  She admitted to lacking the vocabulary for tea.  She also noted that it had tastes that she most associated with white tea, but was surprised by what she  thought were black tea characteristics later.  Astringency.  One day I shall write a treatise.

It might be classed as a medicinal root beer.  It is herbal without being the least bit herbaceous.  Its certitude expresses with each infusion, revealing a darker liquor from decent storage.

Let’s get to the serious matter, however.  The wrapper…

 

Zhongcha’s ’07 Peacock Bada

 

If you can’t dig this wrapper, then I can’t help you.  Then again, maybe I can…

 

Anyway, I mentioned that this is like the Xia Guan that never was. This brings us to the ’09 Gift Puerh. Much bosser in cover…

The Gift Box is an enticing Xia Guang production that has morphed from a peppermint pitch to mid-note medicinal camphor.  Both the Bada and the Gift Box are sticky sweet.  Very not Zen.  But in the Gift Box there is a slight thread of dank.  It’s at such a subtle level that the dank lover won’t notice it, but the dank hater will eventually detect.  This one kinda snuck up on me to my indignance.  That seems to be a trait among this production because it was evident to a putrid level in the ’10 Small Gift Box, which I tortured till it became a most root beer manufacture. . . sans the dank.

Dank is not necessarily humid.  There is a measure of humidity in the Bada, evident in the smell, what one patient noted in the taste.  Minerals suggest good humidity.  It also suggests a level of liveliness in the leaves, in addition to how they’ve been cared for.  These all rank highly here.

I happened upon a vendor of a Blue Mark engaged in a bit of puffery but nonetheless a good price, so I gambled.  It’s ridiculous how powerful the qi is on that one, light years better than any Blue Mark I’ve had.  Vanilla, mostly.  There’s vanilla in the Bada as well.  The Bada is delicious but the qi of the “Blue Mark” blows it outta da water.  You just never know.

Cheers folks.

 

 

’11 Rich-n-Mellow Puerh: Cherry-Vanilla Coke

Posted on by Yang-chu
19 Jul

The ’11 Rich-n-Mellow Puerh lays to rest the assertion that age doesn’t factor into ripe puerhs.

You can smell the minerals and cherries in the lid of the clay pot.  It still stinks out of the wrapper.  I got this because the wrapper was sufficiently curious.  Dry in the pot, there’s the light smell of cherries along with something that I can’t place: the sea, old coffee, feet?  As it cools, different notes become apparent while others fade.  The target moves so quickly that one is afforded no measure of certainty, though such mysteriousness grows upon this sniffer with each sniff.

Cashed Leaves

Rich-n-Mellow’s minerality is present in the aroma of the broth too.  The cherry taste, also in the broth, fades to vanilla.  In the rinse, gorgeous I might add, there’s a bit of sourness, along with incense and talc in the huigan.  Immensely interesting.  The huigan with this puerh potion is real.  The fading of the liquor down the throat is followed by a sweet and dynamic coating that stimulates saliva.

By the third infusion, it becomes apparent that this ripe puerh cake isn’t exactly “ready.”  Oh yes, by then the sweetness, the cherries-fading-to-vanilla, and the Coke fizz on the tongue and throat are all there, but it’s not the taste.  It’s the clarity or the lack thereof to be precise.  This should clear up in a few years.  I’m moving the remainder of this cake to more intense conditions to see if it can get there in 18 mths or so.  Otherwise, a rough guess is that it’ll be there in three years.

Rich-n-Mellow 6th Infusion

The Rich-n-Mellow is surprisingly tasty, seemingly perfect for summer.  It’s qi is warming in the belly and tingly in the upper shoulders and back.  This Kunming Tea Factory offering differs from the standard bearing 7581 formula in its lightness, cherry-vanilla, and Coke fizz.  It’s taken all of eight years and four here in Los Angeles for it to take on a character befitting its name.  I down to my last cake and will probably retire it by months (Jul ’19) end because restocking this is impossible and it’s turning out to be a hidden treasure.

Revisiting ’07 Tippy Tuo Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
12 Jun

The ’07 Tippy Tuo Puerh bears no relation to the ’06 production bearing the same name.  Here in June of 2019 this little offering has transformed from the high-pitched notes of young flowers to a floral honey character with elements of humidity and pencil shavings emerging.

The dry smell is rich and inviting.  Wet, it emits a pleasing sweet honey floral aroma.  The ’07 Tippy Tuo bears a close resemblance to the ’06 XG Gold Ribbon production.  In both perhaps the most striking attribute is the sweet floral aftertaste.  It would be interesting to try these side-by-side.  Although the XG productions tend to be smoky, I don’t recall so much smoke with that particular production.  Similarly the Tippy Tuo is not smoky in the least.

First Infusion

Deeper infusions get aggressively astringent.  A subtle humidity lingers in the background.  Camphor cooling tingles the lips and zings in the mouth.  At the same time the sweetness of the broth wanes.  As the pictures note, the brew is quite murky.  This point is merely aesthetic, as I’ve never been able to discern anything from viewing the liquor that translates into taste, as far as raws are concerned.

Fourth Infusion

After the sixth round I tapped out.  Aftertaste is nice enough but the lack of sweetness made me lose interest.

Cashed leaves

Wax to Sandalwood: KMTF’s Beijing Olympics in 2019

Posted on by Yang-chu
31 May

This morning I had a fascinating session with the ’07 Beijing Olympics by KMTF, the overlooked factory among the “big three.”  I was in Beijing in the early ’90s when China first made an Olympic bid, so I wanted to capture a bit of this moment actualized in ’08.  What better way than a commemorative puerh cake, not counting the t-shirt my buddy gifted me?

I’ve had the ’07 Beijing Olympics since ’14,  having drunk only one cake episodically amidst the rest in the stash.  Other postings on Beijing Olympics have noted just how compressed this production is.  I had to use my chisel to wrest a couple chunks from the area comprising the hole weighing 8.2g, about two grams more than what I usually use in my newly anointed “Tasting Gaiwan.”

Dry in the warm wan, its incense aroma evoked the ’10 Tiger Tuo of two years ago.  Breaking with all convention, I brewed the first cup for about 5m in water initially at 208.  It was in no way excessive.  The same sandalwood aroma was evident in the taste.  Enigmatic.  The next three rounds were brewed similarly with the colour of the liquor generally lighter than infusions in clay given about half the infusion time.  Whether attributable to the being part of the cake core or the gaiwan, I cannot attest.

Altogether, I cashed out after 14 infusions of varying times and sharing with a 10:30 patient and an 8:00pm wife.  This cake has always captivated me (and probably always will).  Though I haven’t found it to be the best tasting ever, I’ve always found it to be one of the most intriguing.  Now that there’s this sandalwood, I’m positively stoked.  The ’10 Tiger Tuo mellowed through a number of stages but from the ferocious end of the spectrum.  Conversely, Beijing Olympics is quintessentially KMTF.  They don’t do “kick-yer-arse” taste.  I’ve tasted KMTF productions from the turn of the century that however old they tasted did not venture beyond Zen. Therefore, the presence of sandalwood notes suggests that it might transform into the dark richness that the best brash or Zen productions fade into.

Cashed leaves

Deeper infusions of the Beijing Olympics (5 < ) were fruity and minerally Zen.  I also detected back notes of talcum powder with tinges of ash, not in any smoky sense.  Talcum powder is a recurrent trait of KMTF and YPH craftsmanship.  There is sweetness, and the astringency is not noteworthy.  It is their characteristic Lincang/Menghai combo, with the ratio strongly in favour of Lincang.  What I don’t get is how this cake hasn’t appreciated compared to similar productions.

The Beijing Olympics puerh cake, mercilessly chopped and even more oppressively compressed, probably was not conceived as a political metaphor.  Besides, some of the best productions I’ve had have been unsightly or super compact.  I think we all know good productions when we know them.  Then there are those we endeavor to get our heads around within the capsule of storage temperature and age.  Now I’m stupid curious.

In the past year, I’ve had the fortune to taste both young Blue and Red Marks from the turn of the century.  None of ’em make me go wow like the Tulin productions seven year’s younger.  I’ve been waiting for some of the Zen ones in the collection to turn root beer on me.  This hasn’t hit that mark but I’ve good reason to believe that it will given these sandalwood notes.

 

Visiting Zhongcha’s ’55 Ripe Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
28 Apr

Since the request was something with camphor and chocolate, I gave my wife the option of either the Langhe Ripe Tuo or Zhongcha’s ’55 both from ’06.  She chose the latter.  The ZC ’55 is in its 13th year.  It has transformed from surprising astringency to velvety smooth, especially in the first infusion.  The first infusion, about a minute, is definitely the best.  Deep medium note camphor permeates the broth.  It’s my guess that it would perform even better grampa style.

Altogether, there were four infusions from the session.  As the camphor and thickness wanes, black tea tannins come through.  For the first time I noticed a hint of dried cherries.  By the last infusion, about four minutes, much of the viscosity vanishes, despite remaining a dark caste.  I also picked up some vegetal notes, which aren’t my favourite.

Infusion #2, 10s

The ZC ’55 is an exceptional ripe puerh.  Its strongest attribute is how it has been transforming.  The tannins continue to mellow, making the brew richer.  The camphor is much more evident now.  The chocolate appears more evident when the brew temp lowers.  Two pots in, the qi kicks in.  It warms the chest.  A slight sweat broke out on the brow.  It also stimulates the appetite.  Again, it’s not advisable to have on an empty stomach.

It’s Alive! ’08 Dali Tuo, XG

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Apr

I recently posted on the ’08 Dali Tuo, XG, expressing disappointment with how it was aging.  It’s been warmer and more humid here recently so I thought I’d pay it a visit to see if my views had changed.  As the title suggests, they have.  My opinion aligns much more with my initial enthusiasm.

Let’s start with the aftertaste.  Intimidatingly astringent, the ’08 Dali Tuo simultaneously expresses sweet florality that lingers for better than ten minutes.  It permeates the mouth and reaches deep down the throat.  There’s a captivating balance between aggressiveness and gentility.  It is more floral than I remember, so I chalking this up to the quality of the raw material itself, part of its transformation.  I previously noted how harsh it was.  It still is quite edgy but the sweetness and richness have returned giving it a balanced quality that makes for a pleasing session.

The liquor starts out thick but thins out quickly.  There’s that trademark Xiaguan smoke and tobacco present.  After a bit of savory dumplings, the same sweetness in the aftertaste is noticeable in the broth.  Upon the sixth infusion, a healthy measure of bitterness emerges.  I might be able to push it for an infusion or two but won’t.

A sweet perfume characterizes the aroma.  It’s not a cheap perfume or a perfume you find in detergent; rather, it is classy and inviting.  In hs, I had a friend who used to wear expensive perfumes that conjured a sense of the Near East. Ones that were not mixed with alcohol, and possessed an alchemical awareness of all the humors.  Such is the ’08 Dali Tuo’s aroma.

Finally, the qi of this production is decidedly in the gut.  It definitely made me hungry.  There may be a slight body feel, but it’s the gut where I feel it most.  It doesn’t seem like a gut buster.  I would have noticed that by now.  However, my intestines are rumbling away.

I’ve been quite fond of the ’08 Dali Tuo and am pleased to find out that it hasn’t flaked out on me.  It’s sweetness and floral character expressed, particularly in the aftertaste, provide a satisfying tea session.  XG productions are notoriously smoky, yet here we find only a hint of smoke.  The ash that I previously noticed is nowhere to be found.  The floral notes are easily an octave lower than certain young spring productions.  Still, the astringency is formidable, and it tops out rather quickly.  Overall, I’m looking forward to how this floral character will develop over the coming warm and humid months.

Visiting ’07 Thick Zen Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
26 Apr

The review I gave on the ’07 Thick Zen puerh is accurate.  Since offering it, I’ve had it many times.  It’s most striking attribute is how rich the leaves look.  Excellent storage, glistening in its black brownish splendor.  The liquor produces a decent thickness and there is little astringency to speak of… or sweetness… or flavor… or qi.

I was hoping the a little time would bring out some interesting flavours, but it doesn’t.  It is very much in the vein of the Blue Mark.  It can be brewed as heavy-handed as you wish and it will never get bitter.  There’s no bottoming out either.  That is to say, there’s no point at which Thick Zen looses its initial character or turns undrinkable.

Depending upon what you have it with or your habit for sweets, you may be able to detect some apricot sweetness.  I’ve definitely found the peacock more pleasing in warm weather.  If it had more qi, I’d classify it as an amazing production… possibly.  It’s lack of transforming into a more complex expression makes it a larger leaf, autumn Blue Mark: quintessentially Zen, quintessentially Lincang.  I find the 9611 Gold Ribbon more interesting.

 

 

 

Bummer! ’08 Dali Tuo, XG

Posted on by Yang-chu
27 Mar

Aww man!  The ’08 Dali Tuo used to be so good, one of my favs.  Now it shaping up, or should I say “shaping out”, into being a potential major bummer.  It is turning out to being neither as rich nor as tasty as it once was.  “DLT, what went wrong?”

This is not a good sign and no, it’s not the storage.  Other productions like the LM Square puerh and Tippy Puerh Tuo have been aged in the same container to spectacular results.  It’s not Xia Guan per se.  The Nanzhao productions, both tuo and cake, have been stored differently but they are getting better.

I’ve recently sampled this production on three separate occasions with different vessels, so I’m not making the proverbial “hot take.” I don’t know what’s become of the sweetness.  Furthermore, a certain savory quality it once possess seems to be getting pushed out by hair-raising astringency.

’08 Dali Tuo 8th Infusion

One thing I noticed is that the brew isn’t particularly frothy.  I generally take froth as a sign of nutrient density, which is reflected in the richness of taste.  What I originally liked about this production was its richness.

’08 Dalituo Soup Soup Shot from ’16

Even though this shot is likely from an earlier infusion, it’s interesting to note just how much the production seems to have not changed.  Here’s another angle from a most recent shot, 26 Mar ’19.

’08 Dali Tuo Puerh 26 Mar ’19

The color is quite inviting, but it seems to be clearly fading as it ages.  This is not a good sign.