Tag Archives: puerh tea

Puerh Battle: Auspicious Dragon vs Fruit Monster

Posted on by Yang-chu
16 May

In this Tobacco Puerh Side-by-Side we’ll be comparing the ’11 Fruit Monster with ’07 Auspicious Dragon, WD.  The two fell into the tobacco class of puerh tastes and were similarly associated in terms of one another.  Hear they are:

’07 Auspicious Dragon

11 Fruit Monster, GPE

Both item have a tobacco nature that could easily be associated with Xiaguan.  The Fruit Monster comes from the Simao region.  The Auspicious Dragon hails from Jinggu, a region more renowned for its black and white teas.

Both items have been stored better than two years here in Los Angles.  I brewed the Auspicious Dragon in my workhorse clay pot and the Fruit Monster in porcelain, adjusting for the age difference.  The mouthfeel of the Fruit Monster was considerably thicker.  I think some of that thickness must be attributed to brewing in porcelain.  When pushed, it bottoms out into unpleasant bitterness and astringency that scorches the tongue.  Otherwise, its a wholly pleasant fruit and spice type that is far less smoky as when first acquired.

Auspicious Dragon Front Fruit Monster Back, different infusions.

Auspicious Dragon is getting fruitier than when first arriving.  The petrol and tobacco and starting to fade into allspice, black pepper and slightly petrol soaked jackfruit with a citron overtones.  Despite being four years older than the Monster, it’s still sharp in some places.  Both are moderately dry stored.

The Auspicious Dragon seems to be in it for the long haul as far as storage goes.  The Fruit Monster is in for considerably easier drinking with nice vanilla notes for enjoying now.

 

 

Puerh Vessel Variants: Imperial Roots

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Apr

Lately, I’ve been on a gaiwan kick, essentially testing my puerh vessel hypothesis.  It goes something like this: raw puerhs younger than ten years old are generally better in a gaiwan and those older are generally better in clay.  The hypothesis has generally held true for puerhs younger than ten, but I needed to test those older.  Hence, Puerh Vessel Variant: Imperial Roots.

Imperial Roots has been newly christened.  Formerly called  “Gift Box,” such a drab name did this ’08 XG production more than a bit of a disservice.  I started with the gaiwan:  disappointingly flat.  I’ve been drinking this puerh since ’16.  It started out very pepperminty and now has advanced to the vaunted . . . well, it the gaiwan actually there no “vaunt” of any sort.  This was quite surprising because I’d never had a bad session with it.  This was why I knew it was the brewing vessel and not the puerh production itself.

Brewing Imperial Roots in my bell pepper blue clay pot rendered the perfect puerh experience.  Those just starting out might feel that the attention given to teaware is kind of a put on, but it isn’t.  There’s a mysterious alchemy that occurs between leaf and clay.  For some reason, this commingling detracts from young puerh but for old it has the opposite effect.

Bell Pepper Pot with the ’01 GM Puerh

One thing, clay adds volume.  Think of hair mousse.  With young productions, volume isn’t an issue because as with anything young you know it lacks experience.  You’re generally looking for vivaciousness and and purity.  When something you know to be older lacks depth, the experience quickly falls flat because you’re looking for the complexity.  The gaiwan will generally do a poor job of unveiling this complexity.

A treasure like Imperial Roots needs brewing in clay.  It’s not optional.  It doesn’t have to be the fanciest clay by a long shot, but it is essential.  All of the attributes that make it a pleasure only come out in clay.  We’re talking about the sweetness, thickness, mineral notes, the camphor, and yes the vaunted vanilla and root beer.  I cringe at the prospects of someone brewing it in a gaiwan– positive sacrilege!

Just some additional observations about Imperial Roots puerh here in April 2020.  All of the peppermint candy of previous years is gone.  All of the notes are a good octave lower than what they used to be.  This production is trending in an unmistakably desirous direction.

Latest 19年 中秋: Puerh Hoarding

Posted on by Yang-chu
04 Sep

Many people write upon “puerh hoarding.”  Let me join the fray.  Most of these items will be available eventually, but they’ll have to sit for a year or so and by then I’ll have pretty much forgotten about them.  Thence, this is more or less a logging the reason for Chinese characters in the title.

Today I got three Du Qiong-zhi’s ’03 7542 from a different vendor from the first.  At first blush, I don’t like the storage as much.  I’m apprehensive, as the other, Guandong, was offensive but in the right wet storage way.  This one not so much.  I don’t think after the dank wears off that it will have as much life to the leaves.  I have a Mengku Rongshi Daxue Shan from ’06 that strikes me as being quite similar.  A Simao ’03 7542 struck me as being quite similar, but seems to have been fearsome enough to overcome its storage.  The Du Qiong-zhi is definitely fierce.

Since I try to keep attuned with ripes, I was curious whether the ’06 Langhe Tuo of 250g was as good as the 100g offering of the same name but the latter with the magnificent peacock and an individually packaged round box.  As an admission, the peacock box offering was under Guandong conditions.  The 250g offering has been under Kunming conditions.  There’s little comparison at this juncture.  Time will tell, but for the record the peacock box is one of the best finds in the stash.   I will say, however, that there’s still the crystal clarity and beauty in the 250g.  Look for updates.

I had the ’09 Gongting for fully two years before I could make a pronouncement about it’s value.  When I could, I tracked it down.  I got it when I was in Kunming back in ’17.  These have been dry and very tidily stored.  I’m impressed.  I know it will be repulsive now, but at least not because of its storage.  Besides, I already know what it is and its damn good.

I have a vendor whose taste and storage I trust, so I bought a tong of an Yiwu from ’03.  They have a high regard for the gentility of YPH and I broke my cherry on the Dahongyin from ’99 or so with them.  I’m still sitting on that.  When I first got it, it was mellow enough.  Now it has some manner of explosive dankness, even under moderate storage.  I’m thinking.  The Yiwu changed in a matter of four days, from good enough to a lively, minerally, humid-stored promise.  I’ve got their ’03 YPH 200g tuo, which is exquisite.  The YPH mo is decidedly Zen and floral.  They’re not as evasive as Manzhuan productions but close.

Yesterday, I gave a patient a 7g sample of the ’11 Fruit Monster by GPH.  I sampled it as well on my own.  It’s not nearly as smoky and the fruit notes didn’t jump either.  However, the patient reported to me that she noticed the fruit notes, entirely unsolicited.  GPH is short for GuPuer, which is the new name for the Simao TF, one of the classic numbered factories.  Let’s say #5, maybe #7.  It’s one of the factories that I find interesting enough to follow.  Their ’05 Organic Brick is capturing my fancy presently.  Shared it today with a patient who like it over a ripe that I was quite enamoured with.

Made my first Haiwan/Laotongzhi purchase.  I got it because it has the tea master’s signature on it, Zou Bing-liang.  It’s also purported to have the cinnamon vibe.  I’ve tasted it a couple times.  It’s from ’06 and still needs a spell, no particularly negative views, rather fruity.  I only have one of these avail.  Storage is inoffensive, on the dry side.  I’ve no cause to be anything other than optimistic, though it is mighty dry.

The octagonally shaped ’10 Nanzhao by Xiaguan is stupid good, but it takes much punishment to get there.  It has this horrible dank that makes it undrinkable before its ready.  Many XG productions have this.  It’s not smoky like others, just putrid.  Then it blossoms into its extravagance.  I’m not selling this not because I’m hoarding, but because storage is crucial to proper appreciation. The ’08 Gift Box has the same name.  I don’t think they’re the exact same.  In any case, I’ve been cooking in LA storage since ’16.

Puerh Study, Not Hoarding

Though there is a tendency among some to hoard, puerh seems more to be a study.  Given its variability, the study requires suspending judgement to, as someone else noted, “understand the leaves on their own terms.”  Once those terms are understood and appreciated, it makes sense to want to acquire more.  That seems more like collecting than hoarding, the latter being indiscriminate in nature.

 

’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.

’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.

2014 Hekai Dragon Pearl Photos

Posted on by Yang-chu
16 Jul

Here’s some shots of the 2014 Hekai Dragon Pearl puerh taken over the course of three separate years.  Hekai is a Bulang village.  It is often the chief component of mater constituting “Bulang” productions.  Here’s a chance to taste the pure Hekai taste.

2014 Hekai 2015 Shot

 

2014 Hekai Dragon Pearl 2018 Shot

 

2014 Hekai Dragon Pearl 2019 Shot

Let the pictures speak for themselves.  Brewed in porcelain, this puerh is a sweet and satisfying summer beverage.  The cashed leaves would be excellent for a cold brew.

 

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.