Tag Archives: smoky puerh

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.

 

 

Smoke, Sugar, and Stone: Puerh Vessels Cont.

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Apr

Smoke, sugar, and stone, that’s the tastes I pick up drinking Cherry Blossom from my cracked-ice celedon cup.  The yellow clay cup gives a considerably rounder effect.  Welcome to puerh vessel comparison continued.  In this foray, we’re taking a closer look at ’12 Cherry Blossom puerh cake with the following cast of characters:

My new clay pot 150cc– the fanciest of my acquisitions so far.  I’m calling it UFO.

Next is this cup, probably my fav, in a shot taken barely over a year ago.


Finally there’s a yellow clay cup, for which I have neither picture nor recollection of how it entered my possession.

The religious reader of these most-episodic posts may be scratching his head, as only in my very last post I had established that productions younger than 10 years old are best in a gaiwan.  I’ve had Cherry Blossom in both even quite recently.  It is a unique raw that I can imagine enjoying any which way.

The UFO pot has a fast pour rate.  This is ideal for taking advantage of the clay chemistry while preventing over brewing.   In the initial infusions, the glazed cup imparts a bit more ashy bite at the end.  By the fifth infusion, the tea must soak for at least 10s and the difference between the two becomes less discernible.  It seems that the celedon cup begins to be just as round but with greater evidence of tobacco and smoke, though I could be making that up.  What I don’t feel I’m making us is how thicker and rounder the experience is with the clay cup.  At a lower temp, vanilla notes are more apparent from it.

From the seventh infusion, brewing time needed to be increased to about 30 s.  At this stage of its development, the Cherry Blossom name seems wholly fitting, as the cherry notes really gain steam especially in the aftertaste.  With longer brewing times at cool temps, some bitterness comes through but not bottoming out bitterness.

Somehow, I feel that the experience with the glazed cup is better because the notes come through purer than with clay.  The tea itself is impressive on many levels from  complexity of taste to durability to its salivation production.

No Fields Found.

Tasting Notes on the ’06 Peacock Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu

The dry wiff of the ’06 Peacock brick is evocative of 7536.  In a heated pot I caught some veggie notes that I associate with some ripes.  I’m going with a little less than 7g in my eggplant pot.  A few minutes sitting, another wiff after the first rinse.  Vanilla and spice.

The first infusion is a bright gold and that vegetal note is quite present.  Water’s at 212, so I gave it only 10s.  Rock sugar sweet, with an instant “gan” effect at the front sides of the tongue.  It’s striking me as being more numbing than astringent.  As it cools some of that vegetal is present.  Just opening up.

First infusion 10s

Smell of wood smoke is immediately evident in the second round.  It initially reminded me of this:

By the third 7s infusion the color is decidedly more solid.  A bit of froth worked up but vanished fairly quickly.  There’s some tiny bubbles now.  I put in two chunks.  It is pressed nicely.  A suitable amount can be either flecked or chunked.  I’m noticing a lot more minerality now.  There’s now no mistaking the taste of camphor.  No real aftertaste to speak of beyond the feint essence of petrol.

The cold pot smells like pencil shavings.  The fifth infusion has more root beer flavour, evocative of the Mengku Tiger.  I think as it cools the root fades to pencil.

Infusion 5 of Peacock Brick

The Mengku Tiger has more spring material: floral and root beer, which I’m not picking up on in the 6th.  It’s lightened up quite a bit in terms of thickness and is on the other side of froth.  “How does a pot of pencil shavings strike you old chap?”  A very complex blend of medicine, bitter, sweet, smoke, and petrol.  Astringency picks up here.

Overall, quite friendly and dynamic.  Not what my sources of dejavoyance said.

 

 

Dejavoyance: ’06 Peacock Brick

Posted on by Yang-chu

I’m going to try something a bit different with the ’06 Peacock Brick puerh.  I’m going to rave about it before I drink it, without cheating by looking at my notes.  My experience with the ’06 LM Square has got me on a bit of a Liming kick that I might explore throughout the rest of the week.

There’s this really weird consistency that I find with Liming boxes– they’re not stamped.  You can tell by the picture that the brick possesses a fair amount of aging.  Of course, looks can be deceiving.  Note the stylish placement of the neifei.

Liming fancies a good deal of smoke in most of their productions.  The ’06 Peacock hasn’t deviated, but I’m wondering now how much that has changed, especially since the LM Square is pressed much more tightly and is much less smoky.

Looks a bit brighter than the LM Square.  I remember a thick, sweet, and smoky experience.  I think the thickness stuck with me most.  The thickness excels in infusions 3-6.  It lasts for the next seven infusions.

 

I’m very interested in what the cashed leaves will look like.  This shot was taken in May ’16.  Comparing this with a Jingmai brick seems easy, so I might do that as well.

Woolen Sweater Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
23 Jun

The ’05 Green Mark has a bit of a petrol and deep forest vibe and is one of the few humid-stored raws in the collection.  Did I say raw?  It isn’t.  It is a raw-ripe blended puerh, so the color is much darker than most raws you’ll encounter this age.

I find myself coming to’05 Green Mark quite often.  The humidity is welcoming.  The after taste is of flowers and petrol, with saccharine and astringent notes.  The flowers aren’t evident in the broth, rather you get smoke, leather, and petrol.  I’m pretty sure that this is what the crew on Ahab’s ship drank when sailing in the North Sea.

The aroma is addictive: camphor, smoke and intermingle giving a woolen-sweater effect.  The camphor dances about with the with the saccharine.  It’s not honey or maple or agave, as right on the edge of sweetness is bitterness.

All of the richness of taste is balanced by a broth that could possibly thicker.  There are some slight vegetal notes that you might be able to pick out and the qi won’t bowl you over.  Still it possesses a notable phlegm cutting quality.

This offering is under CNNP, but it does not come from one of the big three.  This wrapper has wide use in the puerh universe.