Visiting Bulang Organic
Just a quick update after visiting Bulang Organic, a KMTF offering from ’13. Initial impression is that this is the best brewing experience with it so far. It is still incredibly young, but it is finally starting to express some sweetness. The first couple infusions are murky and there is a surprising amount of bitterness in an exceptionally thick broth.
Infusion Three
I flashed brewed the first five infusions. That archetypical Bulang bitterness is quite evident in the first two infusions and particularly when the brew cools. Ten seconds were administered vis gaiwan in the sixth infusion. All infusions were gaiwan. The colour was much darker, no evident sweetness to speak of and displeasingly bitter. I tapped out. This ain’t no bitter turning to sweetness and it’s not any more astringent than usual.
Spring ’16
Jan ’21
I’m working on the same cake from back in ’16 when I got this.
<<pause>>
So, I came back a couple hours later and my impression of this production has changed entirely. Infusions seven and eight were remarkably sweet, with elements of roast apparent in the aroma and a bit of fruitiness in the taste. The thickness remains. I gave number eight a good slow ten counts and some agitation at the end. Zero bitterness. It seems like it could go for at least another five rounds.
Infusion 7, 8 is darker
The Puerh Junky has still yet to get his head around the concept of “shengtai” (生态). It seems to straddle the line between organic, wild, and young, trees maybe around 50 yrs growing kinda wild. Many wild and shengtai productions have an unapologetic bitterness reflecting a rough character that some find pleasing. Clearly, what’s interesting here is that that bitterness washed away after six infusions and two hours to reveal an altogether different character of the tea that could not be attributed to its fading because it’s still very thick and quite sweet. And um. . . no sencha notes.
