Tag Archives: Yiwu Puerh

Puerh Storage Take 2020

Posted on by Yang-chu
17 Aug

So on one of these tea pages to which I belong, some dude giving brewing advice confidently offered brewing Yiwus in porcelain. I had started making it a matter of rule to brew all young productions in gaiwan, and his suggestion made sense for that region.

Yiwu Sampler ’03-’05

There are many dogmatists who believe that puerh should only be drunk at such-and-such temp and only after 36 exhalations to the third star of Jupiter and only after a certain age, but my goal is to understand the production and the conditions that will bring the most of what it has to offer at the time being consumed.  For varying reasons this is not always possible. . . which brings us to a confession.

Many of you don’t know, but in certain circles I’m known as The Tea Punisher (TTP for short or Ole Dirty TTP). The productions I hate the most, I subject to the most abuse, leaving them about to weather the harsh chaparral climes of LA proper.

10th infusion of our ’05 puerh gem

I punish them; it gets as cold as 47 sometimes, the humidity down to 30.  It’s not that I like being TTP.  It’s just that I have an ever-growing stash vying for position in finite container space.  Container space must be earned, but I may soon be changing my tune given my eight-year synthesis on the subject, . . .  which I would only consider in the hypothesis phase, . . .  meaning that I am now experienced enough to share findings over a enough time.  For starters, even here in Los Angeles, where I keep the doors open often, indoor storage is not as good as outdoor.

Three Storage Types

I have been running three storage types, roughly associated with how precious I consider the production.

  • Dead Refridgerator (DR)– this is the most climate controlled.
  • Food-grade Rubber Containers (FRC) — medio o en extrema
  • TTP– In the open in the Batcave where the rest are snuggled.

I’ll cut to the chase.  The TTP “stored” tea is undoubtedly superior to the DR and at the very least equal to FRC.  Here’s where we can see a pattern.  DR storage is more like indoor storage.  The verdict is out on whether FRC is superior to TTP.  The former is more controlled in terms of humidity and open air exposure.  Humidity can climb to well above the ambient humidity and the heat can be much higher as well.  On the other hand, wild daily fluctuations in humidity provides a stress of a different nature.

Much attention has been placed on temperature and humidity in terms of storage, but if those were the only variables affecting tea, then Penang, Malaysia theoretically should have the best puerh in the world.  Yet, I didn’t quite come away feeling that way.

The fact is that the TTP method is the absolute inverse of a controlled environment.  My views are ambivalent.  There can be no doubt that the TTP method sacrifices aroma, but for productions void of aroma this is not an issue.  The conditions are safely averaging in the 55-75 range irrespective of season.  In most older productions fragrance plays a smaller role.  Therefore punishment comes at less of a cost.  Smoky productions will similarly be tamed earlier than where it cannot air out.  Tightly pressed cakes should be hardly fazed by the extremes.  In the next post I’ll discuss TTP as it relates to a particular cake that stuck me as noteworthy on a few levels.

 

Puerh Tea Report 2020

Posted on by Yang-chu
12 Mar

As the new puerh tea begins to hit the market, it might be interesting to reflect upon recent developments, so here it is your Puerh Tea Report 2020.  Naturally, items and factories in the Puerh Junky’s stash will be the focus.  Ripe puerh will be given a bit of attention, with the bulk on raws.

Ripe Puers

The year 2019 had the Puerh Junky bidding a fond farewell to the ’06 Boss Tuo, an item that scored highly on every count.  I’m furiously searching for its replacement, something with the same explosive camphor notes and sweetness, along with a the deep tones of humid storage.  It’s larger brother with the same name doesn’t hold a candle to it; storage plays such a critical role in the expression of a production that it is usually impossible to tell that the same material under different conditions are actually the same.

Anyway, Xinghai (XH) and Zhongcha (ZC) have formed the backbone of the ripe stash.  Surprisingly, the Silver Peacock, XH has held relatively stable, with older productions, say before ’14, rising in price rather incrementally compared to ZC’s 7581 brick, which is now about three times the ’16 price.  Interestingly, the Lunar series has averted the frenzy, so constitute a relatively good value.  After years of being virtually overlooked, the ’06 “55” has started an advance.  This is ZC’s (aka CNNP/KMTF’s) best ripe production.  I expect that this will be the last year that it will be available from any vendors on the Chinese side.

Aside from these two factories, another general observation concerns ripe bamboo productions.  To wit: bamboo ripe productions have appreciated considerably more than ripes as a whole.  Puerh Junky has one ripe bamboo offering that is exceptionally clean and bright, with hints of humidity and cinnamon.

Raw Puerhs

The world of raw puerhs has been more dynamic.  Generally, it seems the smaller productions like tuo, bricks, and small cakes have averted the frenzy of cakes.  Since ’16 ZC’s new offerings have been handsomely priced.  One exception has been the Lunar Series but that looks to have come to an end this year, with about an 70% increase in price over last year.  The weird thing is that the older productions, those that can be found, are still priced along earlier lines.

Factories like LME (Lao Man E) and GPE (Gu Puerh) have held steady, so they constitute relative steals.  The only exception is ’07 Hideout, which in just one year appreciated more than 200%.  A more than reasonable alternative to it is the 2008 Gift Puerh, which has the same sweetness and camphory goodness.  Up until this year, there were still quite a number of very good Tulin productions that were plain ole cheap, but not so much anymore.  Oh well.

Though there may be exceptions, the scene with LM (Liming), YPH (Yangpin Hao), and 6FTM (Six Famous Tea Mountains) has been hawt to say the least.  YPH prides itself as a top-tier purveyor of Yiwu productions.  Prices for their older  productions (before ’12) have essentially trebled in the past year and a half.  For those keen on the Yiwu Zen vibe do not seem to have been deterred.  I must confess that much about brand is going into the pricing, as I find productions like the ’07 LME Spring Puerh every bit as tasty if not more so.   Some LM productions have consistently been favoured by collectors, but there are still plenty that are quite tasty priced quite reasonably, in the $55-$75 range.  Newer productions, however, are now in the ZC range.

As for 6FTM, well it isn’t a factory that I pay much heed to, with the exception of their Lunar Series.  This is because I’m not the craziest about Fengqing puerhs.  That said, I did take a liking to the their Lunar Series for their v. fancy wrappers.  Others have been very keen on the big taste and a big qi that’s made believers of even the greatest of qi skeptics.  Anyway, this series has turned out to be of great interest to collectors and as a result even the late productions like the Ram and Snake are now sold at near 10 times their original sale price– if you can find them.  The ‘05 Jingmai “003” is actually on par in terms of ferocity and qi at a fraction of the 6FTM Lunar Series prices.  The factory that makes the “003” specializes in very aggressive productions not altogether dissimilar from LM’s cakes.  However, the raw material seems even better.  The ’10 Tiger, for example, which sold out this year showed remarkable transformation from when it was first acquired.  It ripened from a bright pineapple-like monster into a husky root beer in the first two infusions before gradually fading into its original greenness.

Enough with the nostalgia for now.   Hope you find this missive somewhat helpful as you continue your own puerh tea pursuits.

Cheers,

PJ.

 

Update II: 07 Peacock Puerh Cake

Posted on by Yang-chu
05 Oct

Alas, it seems only a month ago I reviewed the ’07 Peacock, ZC.  I wanted to see how it was doing after the span of the the summer.  You can gander the review here.  The root beer notes that I mentioned have intensified.  This taste isn’t for the initial infusions anymore either.  Root beer has permeated the taste.

Zen Puerhs

The ’07 Peacock puerh used to be a Zen production.  The taste used to be gentle, soft, and evocative of misty clouds with a bit of Wheaties.  It is hard to conceive of how such a taste can transform into what it is now.  There isn’t much astringency.  Even beyond the root beer tastes of roots and vanilla is some bitterness.  There are are even pronounced floral notes which could easily be mistaken for being in the original profile– which couldn’t be further from the truth.  The zing of “puerions” on the tongue indicates top quality material.

Such night-and-day transformation of the raw material usually points to productions hailing from the Yiwu region.  That would be my best guess for the Peacock.  Yiwu puerhs are known to get better with age, a truism that I took to be more folklore than fact.  It is still quite difficult to get my head around how something ever so subtle in taste could change so remarkably only through aging.

Not all Zen puerhs, it should be noted, make this type of transformation.  Not all Yiwu offerings will transform into a zingy, rooty, vanilla melange of sweet with a splash of bitter nectar.  Some rather old YPH productions, for example, only begin to taste old or clean-old.  They never exhibit that particular zing.  One exception is the Glee.    I do not know if this is attributable to processing or terroir.  Others that do not transform is due to less than ideal quality.  This points to both soil quality and tree age.  Older trees have a more extensive root system drawing more minerals from the soil.

Peacock Puerh Photos

Autumn ’19 Infusion 6 and 7

Different Angle of Peacock Puerh

A couple times people have asked a question that suggests that they believe that “Peacock” is a particular puerh type.  It isn’t.  Peacocks are just an icon popular among the puerh producing tribes of Yunnan.

Applicious Yiwu Puerh from ’03

Posted on by Yang-chu
14 Sep

It took five months for the Applicious Yiwu from ’03 to come into form.  Form doesn’t necessary mean Root Beer class, however.  This is decidedly not of the Root Beer class.  It’s more of the Yang Pin Hao vibe: forever Zen.  As I say this, I instantly recall that Glee is turning Root Beer.

I’ve been tasting this since April ’19.  Rare is the instance where a puerh ships and is ready for drinking in short order.  The Applicious Yiwu has had the opportunity to benefit from humidity at least 70% in temps well above 60 these past few weeks.  Sometimes the temps are over 30c but the humidity doesn’t go below 62% and be as high as 85%.  The tea loves this.

The Applicious’ huigan is mac.  Basically everything about it from when I got is is a testament to proper storage on the front and back end.  The dry storage ensures no stinkiness while age sets end; the back end brings out the life in the leaves through humidity and temperature– without the stank!

The Puerh Junky’s Spidey senses didn’t fail him here.  The real gem is its sneaky sourness.  This isn’t orange juice sour.  It’s not in the liquor.  It sneaks up in the huigan giving rise to an amazing cheeky sensation that is closest to the “salivation” sensation so oft mentioned.  It isn’t astringent, just a sneaky sour, surprising and pleasant, a squeeze of lemon so to speak.

Those familiar with Yiwu productions might be surprised.  I’m familiar and certainly surprised.  If you want to understand the quintessence of fruity Zen then try this, but otherwise don’t bother.  Many people like to be smacked with obvious sensations and that’s not the vibe of this production.  It is of exquisite quality and typifies the “gentle” (柔) class of puerhs.  No Root Beer treasure can be considered gentle.

Wet-Stored Zhongcha Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Peacock 9611, CNNP
14 Jan

Two shots of the same production from ’07 brewed in different vessels. It’s been wet stored, so it’s much darker than usual. The gaiwan shot was taken at night, the clay pot shot in day. The latter is much sudsier and sweeter, with some cooling camphor notes that can be felt at the end of each sip.

Night shot

When I first got it I couldn’t drink it, so I stuffed it away for six months, a fairly short spell actually. A friend recently sent me a sample of the Global Tea Hut “tea of the month,” which was a Blue Mark, same factory as below, from 2000, stored in Taiwan for 18yrs. It smelled like it too.

Day shot

Anyway, one wet stored production begets another. This ’07 production is better than the Blue Mark. It’s thicker, sweeter, and more complex, even though both are very much in the Zen vein of puerh, either Lincang or Yiwu material.

The Dark Side of Puerh: Wet Storage

Posted on by Yang-chu
08 Jan

The dark side of puerh refers generally to storage methods associated with Taiwan and HK.  There’s also Malaysia and some outliers in Yunnan itself, but these tend to be quite a bit less common.

I was recently gifted a sample of the 2000 Blue Mark, CNNP, which had been Taiwan stored for 18 years.  It was proudly being offered by The Global Tea Hut, an outfit that takes a decidedly spiritual approach to tea.

Just one whiff of the Blue Mark gave the impression of a pretty darn wet storage.  I was excited to give it a try, since I’ve tasted a few Blue Marks that were younger and Kunming dry stored.  The Blue Mark is the epitome of a Zen production, a reference that means the bulk of the material hails from Yiwu.  Yiwus have a reputation for getting better with age, perhaps more so than others, where the focus tends to be more on the settling of the aggressive notes.  This applies particularly to Menghais and Jingmais.  As far as any of this is concered, we’re talking about plantation puerhs, as the profile of ancient arbors vary greatly.

The storage effects from Taiwan and others are very popular among some puerh enthusiasts.  Heat and humidity expedite the transformation process, while adding a microbial profile that is highly desired and usually absent from KM productions of a similar age.

This microbial profile can vary widely, but it accounts for a bona fide “dirt” taste.  Profoundly wet stored productions not only taste dirty but also possess a dankness or rottenness, sometimes straight up moldiness.  And before one shutters in horror, perhaps bleu cheese might offer some perspective.  Executed well, wet storage can offer an added depth to a production.  That said, seriously wet stored offerings are far from my favourite, as the microbes often distract from the tea itself.

A final point on wet-stored puerh involves a discovery made when storing here in LA a filthy late 80s production.  In short, the filth can be “cooked” out, giving rise to rich cinnamon notes and a complete fusion between the storage and the raw material itself.  “Cooking” here is long term storage under the varying intensity that productions receive here under the LA seasons.

Now to my findings on the 2000 Blue Mark. . .

  • Clean dry dirt with a hint of cinnamon.
  • The liquor is stunningly beautiful, glimmering and crystal clear
  • Full-body qi effect, particularly around the chest, back of neck, and top of head

As far as the effects of Taiwan storage on Yiwu material, I can’t say that it changes it much if at all.  There aren’t any camphor or petrol notes that develop, for example.  It doesn’t appear to be any richer than the younger Blue Marks, though it is likely less astringent.  These changes or lack thereof as the case may be may only be applicable to the Blue Mark itself and not to Yiwus in general.

 

 

 

Puerh and the Progression of Glee

Posted on by Yang-chu
07 Jan

Glee is a production that entered the market in ’15 but was formed and pressed in ’05.  For those 10 years, rest assured it received the most conservative of Kunming storage conditions.  Previous reviews can be found here and here.  I thought I’d make a couple updated observations after having just visited it here in the new year of ’19.

  • Glee is getting sweeter.  It’s not knock-your-socks sweet, but it is pleasantly sweeter nonetheless.  There’s a bit of brown sugar in the aftertaste.  The broth itself has a tame honey sweetness.
  • The astringency is waning.  What used to be a remarkably astringent huigan is beginning to express much more moderately, even when pushed.  This astringency is a common trait among Yiwus, which is whence this production hails in all likelihood.
  • Camphor notes are emerging.  Mid-session, some surprising camphor notes are starting to make themselves known.  They are evocative of the ’07 HK Returns brick, though nowhere near as strong.

Did I mention, still looking quite gorgeous?

12 Wangong and Yiwu Puerh in General

Posted on by Yang-chu

Sitting on this for four years has seen a good deal of transformation.  Autumn tea.  Some light fruitiness.  Typical astringency for Yiwu material.  It really is the case that Yiwu productions do benefit from years of storage.  It’s gotten sweeter sweeter.  The astringency is not as wicked as I recall.  Here’s a shot from ’14:

Shot in ’14

Big difference in terms of color.  There’s no old-taste to it yet.  The fruitiness of the aroma seems to build as the session progresses.  As luck would have it, it’s the third “Zen tea” I’ve visited this week.  By “Zen tea,” we’re essentially talking about the gentle productions that taste like very lightly sweetened water.  There’s no flash and pizzazz.  You’ve got to sit with it a bit and try to figure it out.  Most of the figuring will be around the astringency, which by the 9th infusion really starts churning in the stomach.  I certainly would not drink this in the winter, though it seems fine enough on an empty stomach.

All of the Zen productions reviewed earlier this week are from ’07.  They all possessed some measure of old taste.  The most surprising was definitely the the Prince with a developing berriness that was nowhere detectable earlier.  None possess any bitterness to speak of but the astringency is something to contend with.

Infusion 8ish

Wan Gong material’s price has gone through the roof since ’14.  So far my reaction to Yiwu has been highly variable, even the same production.  I feel that it has been me more than any particular production.  The jury is still out on Wangong.  I feel that this Wangong is getting better, sweeter and less astringent.

Cashed leaves

I’d say about five more years.  I’ve had some of these Yiwus from the late 90s.  Spring tea, even some blend thereof, tends to be the best imho.  These light ones strike me as being extremely challenging in some regards, especially if there aren’t any flowers to offset the subtlety of the autumn material.

Posted on by Yang-chu
14 Jun

Part of a ’16 series from Chamasi depicting the tea-making process. This one is entitled “Wrapping Tea.” After sitting for a year, it has thickened up. Tastes like a thick cloud with some sweetness and a fruity aroma and aftertaste.

Revisiting ’14 Ge Deng Dragon Pearl

Posted on by Yang-chu
21 Apr

The ’14 Gedeng Dragon Pearl is nothing worth writing home about.  Frankly, the taste is rather bland and when pushed, there’s an undesirable measure of bitterness that I can do without.  What stands out in its favour is a squinch of huigan and a building aftertaste that is pleasingly astringent with light honeydew notes.  That effect lasts for the better part of 10 minutes.  There is also a light pleasant aroma that vanishes in an instant. The broth is on the thin side.

Of course, we all have different takes on things.  After about 10 infusions (one that had been pushed) and after finishing up with an acupuncture session, I gave a cup of this Gedeng to a patient, an avid tea lover.  At the first sip she raved.  She had just mentioned something about a disappointing experience at her local tea shop, because the production lacked body and what she liked about this Gedeng was its body and character.  I was rather surprised.  We had three pots and it doesn’t seem anywhere near running out of gas– nor does it bottom out, meaning that it doesn’t start to turn flat or metallic.  The fruitiness is sustained in a demur way.  It’s autumn tea.

Gedeng is one of Six Great Tea Mountains thus designated during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).  This production possesses the classic attributes of Yiwu-region material, genteel and essentially not bitter with an intriguing huigan and aftertaste.  It performs best when brewed at around 200 degrees and infused about 15s.  This 8g Dragon Pearl was brewed in a 150ml ceramic pot.  This is a true easy drinker but one that will not leave much of a lasting impression.  The leaves nevertheless have been carefully picked and crafted.  The price reflects the craft and traditional reputation of the region.  Worthy of sampling for one seeking to learn more about Yiwu or who prefers more zen-like productions.