Tag Archives: Yiwu Puerh

Spring Ripe Puerh Taste Off V

Posted on by Yang-chu
24 May

The evening prior to Spring Ripe Puerh Taste Off IV major domos (or is that doma) Ruan, Zhang, and Du met up for an evening repast of crawfish hotpot with lots of pea greens and limitless enoki.  The following day featured Mme Zhang’s third or fourth performance, while it would be the first for Mmes Ruan, of 6FTM, and Du.  They chatted some about the old days at Menghai TF but mostly the deliciousness of the enoki, the freshness of the crawfish, and nuance of the Sichuan-style broth.  If Domo Zhang appeared more relaxed than her compatriots, if she found the crawfish just a smidge juicier, then it no doubt could be attributed to her already having Operation Macau advance to championship round earlier in the day.  Day V uncertainties weighted in the minds of Domos Du and Ruan.  Let’s get down to the day’s action.

Spring Ripe Puerh Taste Off IV

  • ’02 Purple Mark, 6FTM
    Light cocoa, Tootsie roll, slight camphor, strong qi, super velvet mouthfeel.
  • ’06 T8371, Zhongcha
    Light oud, balance, hint of red hots, astringency, bitterness, petrichor, big aroma, cocoa, camphor, brut.
  • ’05 Yiwu Commission, Du Qiong-zhi
    Magical aroma in dry pot, bright, buttery, camphor, medium to light body, pine, not so sweet, noticeable qi presence.
  • ’08 Golden Tribute, Xinghai
    Lively dry aroma, bittersweet, cocoa, oreo cookie.

Occupying opposite extremes of dark chocolate bitter punishment are the Purple Mark and Golden Tribute.  Purple Mark is one of the oldest contestants, second only to Drury Lane.  They perform similarly.  Airing considerably improves performance.  Straight from storage, it’s a lot like flat pop, silkiness aside.  Golden Tributes ferocity in no way detracted from it’s performance, contending strongly for the top spot.  It’s currently not listed, only three on hand.

This brings us to the two commissions.  The T8371 holds distinction as being a HK commission.  Judging from the recipe numbers, it’s a slight variant of the classic 7581, key being its light fermentation.  This was T8371‘s heftiest performance, entering a new fermentation stage.  Not to sound like a broken record, but it needed some airing.  The plug-n-playability of productions often depends upon the season.  Each production has it’s own personality.  Every production came straight from storage.  No babying allowed.  It’s more than plausible that results would differ in another season.  The red hots note is new exciting addition to an already excellent performer.

Process of elimination leads to the Yiwu Commission as the winner.  Spring has treated this contestant most generously.  The complexity of flavours with all-enveloping camphor pleased all drinkers.  It held up throughout the day, while the Golden Tribute settled into less distinctive expression.  Through the course of five days of mostly drinking Menghai productions, the buttery Yiwu not formed quite an extravagant contrast.  Major Domo Du will be advancing to the championship round.

 

Ripe Puerh Report Spring 2023

Posted on by Yang-chu
30 Jun

The Ripe Puerh Report Spring 2023 covers ripes in the Puerh Junky Collection.  Just offering some updated notes on ripes listed and unlisted as they evolve.

Let’s start with the ’04 Golden Sail, which is no longer dry and has taken on quite a bit of sweetness and humidity.  The changes after two year’s storage are rewarding, but there are but two of these left.  These tuo were picked up because they represented an interesting Guangdong angle on the marketing of Zhongcha productions.  Golden Sail in particular seems to have circulation in HK and is marketed as an export item similar to their Lucky brand.  This tuo is for the dedicated Zhongcha follower.

The YPH ’10 Sweet Richness lives up to its name.  That said, there is the matter of greater than normal bitterness.  For some, this is a good thing.  It’s quite noticeable.  No tartness.  Yangpinhao is a venture that strikes me as providing an excellent product but struggling for identity.  This situation is in no way remedied by changes of ownership. They do both ripe and raw, but more known for their raws some of which get faked.  Ripes seem to be given to a heavy fermentation style that nevertheless benefits from generous aging.  The blend of tannins with sweetness strike a good balance at this time. . . if you’re in for bitter.  About three fabulous heavy infusions of a dark, dark chocolate like brownies with a bit of baby powder perfume and slate.

Haixintang is the factory providing Grenouille.  This is a factory I’ve known from the early days and their star seems to be rising.  In ’22 the decision to delve a bit deeper had the ole Puerh Junky acquiring a few of their offerings, among them their ’18 Yiwu Ripe.  It captures the essence of Yiwu, smooth, creamy, sweet, banana.  Total extravagance. Nice price stored in nice conditions for a young, ready now offering.  It’s good.  If your conditions will allow for the fermentation zing, then it’ll be better.  Not expensive.  Send an email or hit me on Insta if interested.

The ’06 Langhe Ripe Tuo and I go back a long ways.  The first batch was Guangdong heavily stored and this is also from Guangdong but likely acquired from Kunming.  Right now, this tuo is on the cusp of something unimagined.  Having the fortune to compare the two storage differences provides a fascinating vantagepoint.  Right now, it’s verging toward the ’05 Yiwu Laoshu raw from 6FTM, petrol .  It’s baffling to say the least.  Langhe ripes are stellar but storage and timing is crucial.  Naught-era Langhe provides insight into the a stage of production that strongly oriented to old raw.  Storage factors tremendously.

The ’12 Arbor King, LME is extremely balanced.: sweet fruit, bitterness, moon pie.  I’d call it plush.

Each of these productions offers distinctive ripe puerh profiles.  The most surprising is the Golden Sail because its transformation has been most dramatic.  Second is the Langhe Ripe Tuo.  Its qi is serious and this petrol profile represents something I don’t think I’ve previously had a ripe.

cheers!

 

Puerh Junky Occasions Forever Zen and Ox

Posted on by Yang-chu
18 Apr

Puerh Junky Occasions Forever Zen and Ox is a drive-by missive on two productions from ’09 and ’10 respectively.  We’re now in the spring of ’23 and the tea is beginning to waken from the winter hibernation.  Winter poses quite a challenge for many of the treasures, though it’s not possible to ascertain which.  One solid point of note emerging from winter is that the items receiving oppressive humidity over the warm months improve from the respite.  In fact, the cold gave these brutalized buggers a chance to dry out and brighten up. Such conditions did not apply to either of the abovementioned.  Puerh Junky’s general take is variance in storage is actually a good thing, but it does make for seasonally variablity productions  Thence, when a treasure is imbibed upon will elicit wildly varying results that may not necessarily reflect the intrinc charm.  The challenges of winter in short are a good thing, but must be appreciated within seasonal context.

Forever Zen

An order for the ’09 Forever Zen during the week of April 9th greeted the opportunity to pull a new cake from the Yiwu storage bin, one which is rarely opened.  Clear humidity had settled and panic set in.  Getting Goldilocks storage is the Puerh Junky’s raison detre.  As mentioned previously, the Forever Zen hailed from conservative storage, still quite young but likely to mature relatively quickly.  It’s been in LA better than two years now.  The idea behind the Yiwu storage is beyond just preventing the tea from drying out.  There needs to sufficient humidity to allow for transformation to continue, whereby sweetness and flavour will continue to evolve.  At the same time, the ole Junky doesn’t want humidity to settle into the flavour.

Initial impressions where that that humid aroma was undeniable.  Frantically, I tried the FZ and boy was it ever humid.  Fresh from storage, it was too humid.  Perhaps too hastily a total revamping of storage began, while leaving the lid of the Yiwu container off for a couple days.  The rearranging changed little, but it will necessitate more frequent visits to each container.  The greatest advantage of this approach will be that there will be next to no difference between samples and cakes.  This will come at the cost of sustained humidification.  C’est la vie.

This 16th April Forever Zen received a second visit.  A huge sigh of relief.  The vanilla shines through and the Manzhuan minerality emerges with subsequent infusions.  Sweetness is now deeper and the course of treatment appears rightly Los Angeles.  I regularly see the posts about storing in the States that are wholly perplexing, a kind of view that presumes that storing in Seattle is the same as Olympia, Phoenix, or Augusta.  I don’t get such takes.  There’s a vast difference between Oakland and SF.  What gives with conflating Omaha with Tampa?  Ho-hum.

Forever Zen is for those who know their Yiwu, specifically know their Manzhuan from their Yibang.  FZ is not the product of sheisty processing.  The sugars have emerged in a manner consistent with proper processing.  It’s getting sweeter.  The variegated color of the leaves reflects what appears to be layered transformation.  Uniform aging doesn’t altogether make sense, as the cake itself is layered.

Where the FZ will go is anyone’s guess.  Manzhuan typically do not turn to wood.  They just evolve to ever more aged expressions of Zen.  FZ is now is sweet vanilla with slight minerality.  There is an faint undertow of green, but which could only be detected when tasting side-by-side with the wet-stored Ox.

Cashed leaves.

Ox, 6FTM

The Ox, 6FTM no longer possesses any of the humidity of its early storage conditions.  It’s actually moving into the heicha zone.  An apricot note, heretofore absent, is now front and center.  It’s a surprising development but a tribute to the masterful stages of storage.  A marked difference between heicha and puerh of a certain age is zing, a fizziness.  Heicha never zings, but zing is a trademark of puerh enjoyability.  The Ox is beyond its fizzy stage, particularly because it was previously wet stored.  It’s not flat and the qi is characteristic of the 6FTM Lunar Series of being remarkable, but it doesn’t zing.

None of the other Lunar Series have been humid stored.  It’s plausible that the Ox was a singular year of experimentation by the 6FTM.  All Ox versions purchaed have been humid, caveate being that the Tiger has never been sampled and those before the Year of the Rat have tended toward conservative storage.  Compression from year-to-year has varied in this series; the composition has remained the same.  By ’11 Rabbit, compression had morphed to qualitatively looser.

The pressing of the Ox is not a compressed as its predecessor, Rat.  Given its age and storage, Ox is now more rarefied. None of the humidity presents itself now.  It is clean and fruity, reflecting an offering about ten years older than its age of production.  All of the offerings of the 6FTM Lunar Series represent collectors’ items.  There’s maybe one more Ox left.

Wrap Up

The Forever Zen and the Ox represent two qualitative different puerh productions in terms of terror and in the eyes of the market.  Forever Zen is a Manzhuan, an Yiwu terroir probabably more Zen than an any other.  The condender is Mansa/Yiwu Zhenshan.  With Mansa the transformation is decidedly toward petrol, where Manzhuan maintains its Zen nature.  I have a late 90s Manzhuan that has only transformed into a chrystaline Zen, and this may be the long term for the FZ.

The Ox is a recipe comprised of material from three terroir, Fengqing, Simao, and Menghai.  It is now supercedes any of the other productions in terms of aging.  This has manifest as apricot.  The character is of an aged heicha.  The qi is uplifting and immediately present.  For serious quality aged puerh drinkers, it’s undoubtedly next level.

Both productions have great longevity.

 

Puerh Junky Visits Thick Zen 2022

Posted on by Yang-chu
08 Nov

Puerh Junky Visits Thick Zen 2022 continues the saga surrounding one of the plethora of Zhongcha’s ’07 offerings looked at askance by puerh snobs too smart for their own good.  The Puerh Junky has written about the Thick Zen on numerous occasions and now, alas dear reader, we’re at the point where due to forces beyond his control Thick Zen has outlived its name.

Thick Zen continues to evolve.  Zen is more of an afterthought.  There’s all this tartness in it now, picking up in intensity.  As of Nov 2022, there’s orange spice bitter fusing with its Zen past, not terribly sweet but dreadfully interesting.  The shift with the season is magical.  The  once-lauded Yiwu vibe is about one quarter present, as bitterness and sour take the drinker to the Menghai zone, a nice Menghai not trying to intimidate but at the same time comfortable with being itself.  The qi numbs the entire face, makes you feel as though you had a halo beginning at the shoulder.  I read that the a ’21 production by the same name comes from Lincang, entirely possible with here.

Thick Zen is egregiously undervalued given just how dynamic the material is.  The persistent perception that ’07 productions are bad is gradually starting to lift.  The year ’07 witnessed a speculative blowout and specifically an administrative restructuring at Zhongcha that had zero to do with anything related to tea.  Somehow, word on the street became ’07 offerings could not be drunk.  This absurdity turns out to be a fortune for the value hunter.  Thick Zen is value amidst value, highly representative of the KMTF processing style, and over time far more engaging than most any other puerh.

Puerh Junky Visits Yiwu Gratitude

Posted on 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.

Puerh Perplexity

Posted on by Yang-chu
06 Mar

Can you help a Puerh Junky out?  The Puerh Junky finds himself twisted in knots over what it means when one says “They don’t care for factory productions.”  Does that mean they don’t like recipes?  Maybe it means they like young productions.  Perhaps it means they only go for small factory productions.

As you’ve already discerned, the Puerh Junky is clueless.  He’s read of famous puerh vendors who’ve bought tea here and there, only to take it to be processed at reputable factories.  What does it mean to not be a fan of factory teas?

Factories often have so many selections, styles, and grades.  Even if it means not caring for a particular house style, this still confounds.  House styles vary, so it’s impossible to speak of factory productions as a monolith, unless there is some elusive trait that they all share.  It is true that among the factories emerging on the scene since the late 90s that they overwhelmingly descend from the Menghai TF.  Still, these meistras and masters bring their own touch to productions and are frequently commissioned to oversee special offerings by vendors.  What on earth is “the factory style”?

Maybe it’s the pressing and aesthetics, but pretty much all productions since ’14 have gone the way of Yiwu in making their teas look pretty. . . except for recipes.  This leads back less to factory productions per se than to production styles of a particular era.  Even so, there are plenty of old Yiwu offerings hailing from the factories that are gorgeous.

Maybe it’s the quality, but this is a very tricky matter, especially if one is tasting a five-year old recipe and expecting it to taste like a similarly aged production from some Lincang village.  “Factories” have been offering more and more of these type of selections, and the question begs to what degree these bear the classical factory traits.  As the market has evolved, offerings and production styles have evolved.  Surely, these factors enter into the calculus of one who doesn’t like “factory productions.”

The best bet is that “factory” is shorthand for “recipe.”  Certainly, “8582” doesn’t have the curb appeal of say, Cosmic Bitch Slap or Orgasmic Shortcake both with histories reaching as far back as 2016.  Are these even puerh, really?  And how is it possible to have any reasonable clue about a five-year old recipe?

Now before casting the Puerh Junky as an inveterate curmudgeon, understand that he likes a young production as well.  However, it seems that age is the crux of puerh.  Only factories have productions old enough to determine the spirit of an offering.  Factory productions come from a lineage that is true to either the region or school or both.  What you end up getting then is a factory’s rendering, not dissimilar to the differences in pianists playing Schubert.  Such renderings make it nigh impossible to be categorically dismissive without sounding a smidge inexperienced.

Forever Zen Post Mortem

Posted on by Yang-chu
13 Feb

Just yesterday (12 Feb ’22), Forever Zen made its debut.  A more detailed post mortem is in order.  The ’09 Forever Zen is a dry stored offering from a longstanding vendor of mine, since ’13.  It is from them that I learned of the Banzhang Zhengshan TF, an outfit offering productions both raw and ripe of far superior value.  Remember this?


That’s the Vanilla Prince, the only raw I’ve ever seen associated with “gongting.”  Here’s a very tasty tuo with lemon notes that I’ve not been able to source but was once offered by the same vendor.

Anyway, I really can’t say enough about how much I like what they do, BZZS.  The thing is that being named “Banzhang” suggests their forte is in the region of their origins.  Years ago, Puerh Junky offered samples from a burly Jingmai (Simao) kilo brick that they offered, but this was essentially in keeping with the fuerte vibe to be expected.

Jingmai Kilo

Regions are marked not just by differences in terroir but also differences in processing methods.  That’s a topic for another discussion.  In any event, when a factory strays from their region of origins, there’s reason for caution.  For example, 6FTM’s Yiwus are incongruous with the fundamentals of Yiwu.  Thence, I was skeptical that BZZS could pull the Yiwu bit off successfully.

This skepticism proved unwarranted.  Everything about the Forever Zen is quintessentially Yiwu, in this case Manzhuan.  That’s the blue stamp below specifying Manzhuan along with their literally fire-branded signature.

They went full traditional here opting for the bamboo ties as well.

They’re not monkeying around here.  No flash or glitz.  If I didn’t know this factory, I would have easily moved onto a flashier peacock or commemorative wrapper.  This no frills conception carries over onto the spartan neifei.

I just spent the last month reading though the blog of a prominent blogster who is to bitter and astringent as I am to root beer.  However, the blogster seems to confuse personal preference for tea quality.  This is an egregious tasting flaw.  As noted on more than one occasion, my personal preferences don’t cloud my ability to assay a production’s quality on its own terms.  I certainly do not use bitterness and astringency as a basis for forecasting what a production will become.  Furthermore, I have great reserve regarding any opinion that cannot clearly differentiate between bitter and astringent.  As far as I’m concerned, such a gaff is the equivalent of not knowing the differences between “your” and “you’re.”

As Chinese are wont to do when conveying truths, there’s an aphorism that goes,

  班章为王，易武为后

trans. Banzhang is this the king and Yiwu is the queen

These prefatory statements relate directly to Forever Zen, which is as queeny as you can get.  Here’s the deal, there’s a reason why all the six famous tea mountains are in Yiwu.  When the Qing (1644-1911) envoy, whose name eludes me, was dispatched to the southern tributary of Nanzhao in the late 17th-c to scope out the good stuff, he was looking for productions that jived with the genteel tastes of the Qing court.  Burly Menghai/Bulang/Banzhang offerings wouldn’t make their mark till the late Republican era (1912-1948) and early PRC when the outlook on life was “bitter.”

Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s proceed further to Forever Zen, which hearkens to the age of gentility.

Infusion 10-11

Gentility doesn’t preclude qi.  Day one, in which I got in seven infusions, the experience reminded me of swimming in the farm pond in my backyard in Iowa, where pockets of swirling warmth commingled amidst the cooling waters.  This warming sensation swirled in spots, from the gut, to the skin, followed by a veil of heaviness, then back to a swirl in the gut.

Infusions 12-13, 15s

Despite the lack of any real astringency, it’s both cheeky and throaty.  In particular, the throatiness lasts for better than 15m.

Infusions 14-15, 25s

On day two I gave myself permission to stop after infusions 16-17.  Sure the quality had tapered a bit.  Unfortunately, I don’t recall the mouthfeel, as I was so high, smashed in fact.  Day two was much headier than day one.  By then I was up to 45s.

Best Puerh Surprise 2021

Posted on by Yang-chu
30 Nov

The Best Puerh Surprise of 2021 is the Jinglong Factory.  They’re an Yiwu outfit that seems to have access to some very good Yiwu material and a consistent, if unimaginative, approach to tea production.  The thing is when all you imagine is root beer vanilla and camphor goodness, why deviate?

The Yiwu Prince made its debut this year as the first Jinglong in the Collection.  It’s from a favoured vendor who has excellent storage ensuring a good deal of cooking of the leaves.  This is necessary to get the root beer taste from Yiwus.  This character is completely absent in young productions.   The Yiwu Princess hails from the same vendor and features the same cooking with a greater floral expression.  Jinglong’s offerings avoid the floral trait.  Even though the Yiwu Prince proclaims Yiwu Spring Tips. . . the size of the leaves are altogether too long and thick to be the spring that comes to mind when a wrapper says spring.

The dark brew of the Princess, lest she be jealous.

I hastily sampled a newly arrive Jinglong production creatively named Early Spring from an unfamiliar vendor.  Even though its a great deal cheaper than their Prince, it’s every bit as good: the root beer, vanilla spice, all sweet no bitter, placid on the tongue.  I was surprised being fresh off the boat.

The above is a shot of the ’05 Jinglong Red Ribbon, thus named because it has an embroidered red ribbon in it. But don’t take my word for it; here it is:

Anyway, this production comes from a vendor where I’ve tended to only gander iconic productions.  Amidst a sea of very particular Zhongcha productions with handsome asking prices, this Jinglong rather stood out.  It’s the offering for which I developed the greatest affection, though I’ve only tried it twice.  The ribbon really seals the deal for me, even though some storage factors were dicey at best.  Fortunately, it hasn’t affected taste.

The Best Puerh Surprise of 2021 turned out to be a factory.  Hmm.  Jinglong offerings are remarkably consistent.  They deliver a first-rate Yiwu Zen regardless of price range.  They’re not apricoty and grapefruit seed like CMS.  They’re not grapey, berry, or fruity in any way.  Think of cane juice to which was added all types of very interesting tropical spices, something extremely pleasant like stewed pears in heavy syrup.

Samples of 20g for each is 60g of root beer vanilla goodness.  Hit me up if you’re interested in upping your Jinglong game.

Reflections ’10 Tiger, CMS

Posted on by Yang-chu
28 Nov

The ’10 Tiger, CMS continues to impress me as being the best puerh I’ve ever had.  This is not to be confused for my favourite, which varies on season and mood.  The Tiger simply tastes like no other puerh I’ve ever had.  The leaves in the pot consistently smell like some poisonous herb, strange and offensive, like patchouli and andrographis, something definitely medicinal.  The smell in the pitcher is considerably more intriguing amidst a cloud of butter scotch mixed with a rubber band note, which some call banana or date and usually found in ripes.

The Puerh Junky has been drinking the Tiger since Aug of ’21.  Stunned was my initial impression.  The strange aroma yields a broth that nothing short of moksha.  Put the idea of tasting good out of one’s head and just taste what the tea has to offer.  In the earlier infusions its star anise that is the prevailing taste.  In later infusions the patchouli is more evident.  The first few infusions are quite sweet on day two and the thickness is excellent.  It seems to be around 100yr old trees, there’s still quite a lot of sass in later infusions.

The only other production that even approximates the Tiger is Quincy.  The latter went through quite a spell where its aroma was off-putting.  My last tasting of Quincy started to find an emergent strawberry note on the underside the medicine notes.  The impressions of the Tiger are by contrast much more convoluted given its dynamism.  As session in Oct ’22 yielded a watermelon session, the taste of Jolly Rancher candies.  Other fruit includes cantaloupe, but fruit isn’t its overriding expression.

Even as the taste begins to wane the huigan remains potent, filled with agarwood, clove, and dried ginger.  My wife found it a bit heady qi wise though I only felt a moderate opening in the chest, pleasant and refreshing.  Its effect in stimulating the digestive system was noted even more.

Additionally, the age and quality of material impart durability.  There’s no crash landing while brewing.  Even when pushed toward the end it did not lose character.  The bitter along stride sweetness throughout the second half of the session.  Given that most of these spice notes exist in sweet and savory dishes, the experience is suspenseful.

The Tiger, CMS seems most appropriately placed in the Spirits Class.  It resembles spicy digestives consumed after a meal in the old country.

Getting Orders

Posted on by Yang-chu
05 Oct

The best part about getting orders is that it takes my mind off all the “new” arrivals.  A dragon pearl order had me stumble upon the ’14 Gedeng naked.

Prolly third infusion

Gedeng is one of the six famous tea mountains of Yunnan.  Don’t quote me but all the 6FTM are located in Yiwu.  I’ve had this since ’14 and listed in ’15, essentially.  The pic above is from ’15.

A little comparison in leaves. . .

2015

 

2020

But wait there’s more. . .

2021

Forgive the shoddy portraiture as I capture this Gedeng in its natural setting.  It seems to be a merciless creeper, astringency wise.  Seems to taste like glorified water.  What struck me was that the second and third infusions has a bit of bitterness that completely vanishes thereafter.  I’m about five infusions in and the first got about 3-5m.  It wasn’t overbearing in the least.  The fifth I gave a bit of stirring.  The pic above is infusion number five.

It then goes through a vous ja de aftertaste full of colour but utterly confusing because none of those tastes can be detected in the broth.  The immediate mouthfeel is a low buzz before wicked astringency, from the throat all along the tongue.  I haven’t felt like drinking something to offset that effect for quite a while.  It’s a tea of extremes.  I’m going to test with wife this evening.