Puerh Junky Visits Yiwu Gratitude

Posted on May 20, 2022 by Yang-chu

20 May

Puerh Junky Visits Yiwu Gratitude should be a a tidy communique about just how tasty this offering is. It is very, very good. It tastes very, very good. The storage on it is spectacular, really the epitome of ideal storage. It comes from a preferred vendor, whence many of the offerings constituting the Puerh Royals sampler hail, who has a keen sense for storage.

Storage of this sort might be characterized as juicy. There’s plenty of humidity and heat but neither excessive, so the underlying character of the puerh is in no way tainted. It only brings out the best that each production has to offer. Storage of this type would understandably be classified as dry because dry storage has no humid notes. However, the range of dry storage is wide. Besides variations in humidity there are variations in temperature. Cool and dry storage obviously transforms quite slowly. Dry and hot storage transforms quickly but at the expense of aroma. Hot and dry storage also accentuates a perfumy-dryer-sheet-type expression that would otherwise transform into wicked camphor explosiveness.

Different cakes under the same conditions may also transform quite differently depending on product compression. There’s also air flow. Juicy storage checks all the boxes in terms of having everything necessary to be perfect. The second even a hint of humidity is detected, it’s no longer juicy but humid, no matter how light that humidity might be. Humidity is clearly a matter of preference with similar gradations. The point here is to just distinguish juicy from humid.

Yiwu Gratitude has juicy storage. It allows for maximum appreciation of what Gratitude TF is throwing down, and what they’re throwing down is every bit as good as the cake looks.

The Yiwu Gratitude Factory opened their doors in 2004. They primarily craft raw cakes from wild material, using traditional of sun drying and stone pressing procedures. The Puerh Junky’s Yiwu Gratitude features a wrapper that’s a cross between two productions listed in the 2007 Pu-erh Yearbook.

This is the exact same production being offered from the following year. Instead of the title including qiaomu as with the PJ offering, it’s included in the the green strip to the right. The block lettering at the bottom is identical to the YWG. The flanking blocks, the right stating raw puerh and the left ten great tea mountains are identical with both cakes.

This ’07 Banwei includes mingqian springtips in green lettering to the far right, whereas this data is included in the green strip with the PJ listing. The Banwei and the YWG have the same neifei, whereas the Yiwu from ’07 is more generic.

Here’s the PJ’s Yiwu Gratitude for comparison’s sake.

The use of traditional to describe their way of doing things, goes beyond just the pressing. They wrap their tong traditionally as well.

The super traditional tong are branded with the name at the top. They don’t go that far, as you can see:

At the bottom of this sticker, the phrase mingqian springtips is included. As mentioned in the original listing, wispy Yiwu effect notwithstanding this is legitimately “springy.” It’s one of the most floral Yiwu productions I’ve tasted. There’s more “spring” to it than the Dragon, which is comparable in terms of the type of floral expression. It could be described as having an apricot cum grapefruit nature. It isn’t lilac, honeysuckle, jasmine or any of those other really loud perfumy florals, which at fifteen years of age aren’t that bad anyway.

But wait! There’s more. That more is the hallowed root beer, which to be honest is much more cream soda here, as there’s no spice to emerge just yet. This type of offering usually doesn’t go the spice route. That’s fine. The creaminess and richness is good enough.

Yiwu Gratitude is sweet and durable. All of the attributes that are evident from the outset last throughout the life of the tea session. That includes the sweetness.

Ox 6FTM Retrospective

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Yang-chu

06 Mar

Let’s take a journey, an Ox 6FTM Retrospective if you will. It’s the ’09 offering in the 6FTM Zodiac/Lunar Series. The Puerh Junky is in possession, covetously I might add, of them all, though some have never been touched. If memory serves, the Ox may have been the first in the series acquired back in ’15.

The Ox is the first year of the series that was moderately pressed. It was also wet-stored. Here’s a shot from 2016.

Here’s a shot from 2020.

That foto includes the pot reserved for floral productions. It’s 150ml. The pour is fairly slow, so I go with less leafage, perhaps about five grams. Here’s a shot from 5 March ’22, evening sesh. It’s actually as dark it looks. I was shocked.

Yeah, it’s a bit blurry. Opening infusions are very smooth. There’s something quite genteel to it in contrast to the Rat and Pig. Here’s a couple shots from the morning, 6 March 2022. The first about 15s and the second a good push of a minute or so.

Nice sparkle, matched in taste.

Light doesn’t catch the same here. Same clarity actually. Not as floral as the evening before with more minerality along with tame humidity. Here’s cashed leaves from ’16.

Here’s the same leaf action in ’22.

There you have it. The ’09 Ox, 6FTM.

Puerh Junky’s Three

Posted on June 1, 2021 by Yang-chu

01 Jun

The Puerh Junky’s Three is pretty much like any other story. There’s good guys and bad guys and the bad guys turn good and the good bad and everyone has a drink to just forget about it all. Choose you heroes carefully. You might get snakebitten. Here I take a foray into three 6FTM productions.

Step right up, I got your snakes here. The ’13 Snake is the tenth edition of the Lunar Series and is relatively young. The production struck me as a sweet Riesling, with clear taste of honeydew and a sweet aroma. The experience was short lived, as it starts to wane precipitously after the fifth infusion, but those are all very good infusions.

I decided to follow such a young production with the 07 Tinned Pig, which was tinned probably mid February 2021. This 6FTM production is more resolutely pressed, but it’s been broken down to chunks. Here the production didn’t really start to hit its stride till about the fifth infusion. I switched from clay to gaiwan, as a noticed a hint of metal that I think the red clay was bringing out. I got an additional four infusions and when pushed it didn’t bottom out, remaining sweet and textured. Overall, it expressed a colour and nature that could be mistaken for a very good production from around ’15. No doubt compression accounts for much of this youth. At the same time, it is very round and smooth.

Finally, I went with another production from ’07, Poison. This production is in an altogether different class. By the third infusion and drinking w/ my wife, we both tapped out. The brewing was perfect, with each round a bit darker than the previous. It’s open from the first infusion and just wows with each subsequent infusion, but it’s a lot to process. So you tap out.

June 2021 will be around one year LA storage for this raw puerh cake. In that year it has continued to wow me. The camphor is starting to make a turn toward down right medicinal beyond root beer. There’s also an interesting sour that affects the salivary senses. Something about the woody productions that go beyond the leafiness of the Tobacco class, a Spirits class if you will. It evokes senses of whiskey and tequila, digestive liqueurs, with spices like clove and star anise. Vanilla, sarsaparilla, but with an edge evocative of spirits aged in oak and mesquite. Oh, and smoked bubble gum, even locquat. It is anchored by some serious bitterness and sweetness. You tap out again at the 9th-infusion.

In terms of Spirits class productions, Glee comes to mind. The Jade Rabbit and the 6FTM Tuo both exhibit spirit attributes as well. They’re all good studies in excellent productions.

Puerh Junkosophy: Camphor

Posted on May 5, 2021May 5, 2021 by Yang-chu

05 May

Some will undoubtedly question whether camphor is truly a subject for Puerh Junkosophy. Such concerns are warranted, but the Puerh Junky has noticed a prevailing confusion about camphor and so some measure of junkosophy is necessary.

There are complex chemo descriptions for camphor that prove utterly elusive to a simple junky like myself. Camphor is simply a sensation. This sensation can appear in the aroma and taste but it is primarily an aromatic sensation. Just as chilies impart a sensation that unifies varying types of chilies by their shape and sensation of heat, so too does camphor unify varying profiles by the sensation of cooling.

When but a lad my mother would rub Vicks Vaporub on my chest when I came down with something. Vicks is camphor. If you don’t know Vicks, then peppermint also qualifies. I know that chemically camphor and menthol differ but the cooling effect is the same. Camphor is also present in freshly ground cardamom. Some others are eucalyptus, tea tree, and pine. Camphor is that fresca, chilly feeling.

Interestingly, in Chinese medicine camphor is considered so hot it’s cold. Technically, the camphor you buy as a bug repellant comes from cinnamon. It’s the crystalized form, a “crackification” of the cinnamon bark. It’s more pure than frankincense, which also possesses some camphor compounds though in a less concentrated form. That faint thrilling aspect of chrysanthemum is also camphor. Now let’s talk about camphor in terms of puerh.

Puerh and Camphor

There’s a book that I caught wind of documenting over 100 camphor attributes in puerh. In sum, every taste or close to it is a type of camphor. However, such a declaration clearly only muddies the water.

First, it should be remarked that certifiable medicinal camphor notes express more resolutely in productions with some years under their belt. This is not to say that camphor is absent in young productions. Tips, for example, tend to be aggressively camphorous but are of a less medicinal and more minty quality. This tippy camphor pop may just be a stage in development. For example, a tinned version of Mangosteen developed an explosive camphor sensation at one stage before transitioning into a creamy, fruity, citric acidy creation.

Mangosteen

Raw camphor notes are familiar to most puerh drinkers. The bright finish of tippy productions is exemplary of floral camphor. The Jingmai “003” is a case in point, so are the Rat tuo and the LME Spring. Here, the camphor is a zing that strikes like a whistle, hands down the most popular variety of puerh.

A more obvious expression of camphor resides further down the register. Here, tastes are often referred to as medicinal, like cough drops. For this to emerge the camphor notes age along the backdrop of the raw material to sound a crystal note. Again, the note is impossible to distinguish from menthol because the effect is essentially the same. The king of medicinal in the Puerh Junky collection is Quincy, the name taken from the TV show.

Incense, pencil shavings, and to a lesser degree wood evocations are shades of camphor less associated with camphor. Incense is made from wood or wood sap. Similarly, incense, petrol, pencil shavings aren’t going to manifest till the raw material gets more woody. More dry-stored puerhs of this variety can take on perfume and talcum properties, while the slightly wetter-stored and older exhibit sandalwood and other bark type fragrances. A nice representation of of the former profile is Grenouille, possessing a light incense expression and the jaw-droppingly precocious Jade Rabbit, which has a lot of gasoline going for it.

Jade Rabbit

Root beer is also a camphor expression, particularly raw puerh. Root beer, the beverage, is a complex recipe containing more than just sasparilla. Vanilla, ginger, even star anise also contribute. This is the melange of nuance in the delightful root beer puerhs. Examples include, Thick Zen, Vanilla Palace, and Poison. These are easily the favs for the Puerh Junky.

Closing Remarks on Puerh and Camphor

Camphor is a familiar sensation that in the context of puerh has two connotations. One is nothing short of minty medicine, like Vick’s Vaporub or the inhaler. The second refers to a broad range of flavor expressions, evident in both raw and ripe puerh. Attention has been directed solely to raws in this communication as the nuances are more stark in raws than ripes. Floral, graphite, petrol, and root beer are all unique camphor profiles, some associated less with camphor than others. On the whole, camphor is as much a sensation as a taste. This sensation and aroma is cooling, refreshing, and expansive. Let the Puerh Junkosophy conclude here.

Puerh Rating: LME Spring

Posted on April 5, 2021October 8, 2024 by Yang-chu

05 Apr

The Puerh Junky Rating System (PJRS) takes on the LME Spring. LME is a factory that started to raise its profile around ’14, but whose older productions had hidden under the radar till 2020. This factory of late has gained attention as the high-profile productions have vanished from the market and the value seekers continue their pursuits.

LME Spring is highly representative of aught productions: generally high quality, traditional processing, and atomic compression. The year ’07 was likely the apex of atomic compression, as a thought occurred that cakes shouldn’t bear the same pressing characteristics of tuo and many bricks.

Compression invariably affect how an offering will brew. The LME Spring brews with fantastic consistency and duration.

After three rounds the total was as follows:

Aroma 14
Clarity 11
Sweetness 10
Viscosity 10
Astringency 9
Huigan 13
Qi 15

Reflections

The LME Spring is an incredibly sophisticated raw puerh cake without the sophistry of water cooler hearsay. Even though the wonderful floral notes are quite obvious, it appears to be a Zen class production heading toward root beer. The flowers come through in the huigan, which is nearly perfect.

Speaking of perfection, the qi score is. There probably aren’t any other productions that score perfect on qi and certainly none at this price. It also possesses a phlegm-cutting attribute. Along with the flowers in taste, there’s serious Malt O’ Meal notes, with some salivary friendly sour notes.

Conclusions

The LME Spring is for those who enjoy the marriage between floral and Zen productions. The durability alone makes this an extraordinary offering, given its qi it’s essentially a steal.

Puerh Rating: LME Spring

82/105 B

Marquis’s Floral Puerh

Posted on January 31, 2021January 31, 2021 by Yang-chu

31 Jan

The Puerh Junky finds most floral productions too ostentatious for this tastes. There’s something about flowery productions that sound an off note. There are some notable exceptions, like the Lily of the Valley, YPH and the Banzhang Organic from ’08, neither of which listed, but you can message if interested.

Liming and MKRS cake productions really push the limits of cordiality as do 6FTM‘s. These are all floral productions in the stash but not ones that ever beckon beyond mostly for purposes of checking in on how they’re possibly toning it down. . . which they’re not, except the Monkey. Then there is the Marquis du Green Mark, quite urbane and agreeable in every regard.

Could the reason for the Puerh Junky’s love for the Marquis have to do with storage? Probably not. The ’09 Ox, 6FTM for example is also more humidly stored but but it doesn’t hit like the the Marquis. No doubt sweetness plays a factor. Many report such productions as Tulin’s T868 or the Lancang Jingmai 003 as sweet, though they strike me as being more like that woman at church who wears loud perfume that oppresses the senses, so much so that the sweetness is muffled. Those two are both very tippy and could be a very telling factor. Let’s continue. . .

There’s something about where most florals strike on the scale that poses a challenge for the Puerh Junky. That place is about two octaves above middle C. The Marquis and Yiwu Princess seem to sound an octave lower, and alas, their leaves are considerably larger, as is also the case with Lily of the Valley and the Banzhang Organic. With the Marquis, perhaps leaf size is also that which provides the overlay of vanilla and undertow of minerals. In other works, there’s something about the leaf size that not only tames the scream of flowers but also provides additional layers of complexity and deliciousness.

Still, Liming and MKRS offerings aren’t always comprised of little leaves though they almost always pack a very serious punch. Here’s where age seems to factor in, at least to some extent, perhaps also terroir and production style. MKRS/Daxue Shan, just isn’t a terroir style suiting the Puerh Junky, though there are always surprises. The MKRS ’10 Tiger was simply fabulous, a creation where the root beer formed very early and throttled the flowers forming a fantastic experience.

The Marquis is not the DXS flower. It isn’t in DXS sharp and the Puerh Junky is just not one to know flowers like that. Yes, with some it’s obvious, Lily of the Valley, Jingmai 003’s honeysuckle, but with many other’s its a toss up. The DXS and Fengqing floral definitely resonates with black tea floral. Low and behold, that’s where much black tea actually hails.