2012 Guang Yang Hao Lao Ban Zhang: A Strong Savory Attempt

This free sample I recieved is available in the In Search ofReal Lao Ban Zhang tasting set here.

Dry leaves smell of a salty savory floral… very different odour.

First infusion has a woody almost metallic savory and puckering taste. Not much sweetness.  There is a bit of pungent menthol then some creamy metallic salty sweetness.  Kind of a slight bitter then flat finish.  Unusual tastes for Laobanzhang.  Head stuffiness.

The second infusion has a bitter to not really sweet but more medicinal savoury salty tasting.  This is a really unique savoury taste with a metallic, salty, medicinal, bitter taste.  Super unusual profile which reminds me of some of the salty savoury puerh from Yiwu and Northern areas like Simao but with an obvious Menghai area strong feeling and quick movement from bitter to not that sweet.  Heady feeling Qi.

The third infusion has a salty bitter metallic taste that moves to menthol taste with fluffy candy like finish.  The candy finish has a bitter taste hanging out under it.  The mouthfeeling has a chalky pasty finish.  There is a lingering bitterness on the tongue.  Stuffy heady and spacy Qi feeling overall.

The 4^th infusion has a coppery metallic salty savoury bitter presentation that integrates medicinal menthol tastes and returns with some sweetness underneath kind of creamy custard sweetness but really blanketed by bitterness.  Fuzzy gripping bitter mouthfeeling and tongue pulling sensation.  Qi is pretty spacy and strong in the mind!  This is a strong puerh as the Heart now races and the mind escapes.  Salty and vanilla tastes come out in the finish minutes later.  This is a blended material with most of the blend being of high quality older trees and possibly some LaoBanZhang blended in there?  There is lots going on with it- too much for single origin.

5^th has a salty licorice that turns to bitter woody salty taste there is some sweet creamy candy under the long bitter presentation.  Very savoury tastes, some medicinal, bitter, lesser sweetness.  Not typical Banzhang taste but maybe something underneath.  Relaxing head.

6^th has a menthol honey salty onset with not as much bitter but still quite bitter.  It turns in to a medicinal honey salty almost candy sweet underneath.  Qi beats the chest and spaces me out a bit. 

7^th has a sweet salty licorice almost candy onset with a bitter taste that stays throughout.  There are some grassy and woody notes.  Bitter and salty mainly with some cooling and medicinal tastes as well.  The mouthfeel is a tugging bitterness from teeth to tongue.  Nice spacy Qi with strong heart beats.

8^th is left to cool and gives off a nice sweet malty salty woody medicinal taste.  Still quite bitter.

9^th has a woody almost coco bitter caramel onset with lots of savoury woody layers still.  Nice cooling pungent.  This is is really not that sweet but has a consistent bitterness. Nice clear mind Qi.

10^th has a bitter savory salty onset with a underlying long bitterness and almost no sweetness left.  Lots of interesting woody, grass, weedy, dandelion, taste with bitterness.  Flat tight bitter mouthcoating.

11^th has a bitter creamy almost sweet woody salty weedy taste.  Lots of layers in this savory based blend.  Tastes sweeter in the longer aftertaste like custard sweetness over bitterness.  Flat tugging bitter mouthfeeling.

12^th has a bitter medicinal taste with weeds woody grasses, salty tastes and a long sweet finish on the breath.  The sweetness has been picking up and lingering now minutes later on the breath.  Usually this is when bitterness starts to overtake the sweet but it’s the opposite here… still more savoury and salty and bitter but a long flat sugar sweetness now.

13^th has a weedy bitterness with a chalky thick mouthfeeling, less bitterness allows for a long sugar sweet almost creamy custard finish.  Nice spacy focusing now.  Not much bodyfeeling in this one.

I flash steep this one a few more times before walking away from the pot at the end of the day but it was hard to walk away from… it started to get much sweeter in these later infusions with a custard like sweet taste emerging in long aftertaste that can be felt even 10 minutes later along with a mild spaciness and relaxing effect in these later infusions.  There was still some bitter strength and savoury flavours… this was an interesting experience for me… but I’m not too sure how much LaoBanZhang it contains?

The a long overnight steeping is woody and still savoury with a metallic flat taste and a touch of faint bitterness and a bit of creamy sweetness that is hard to grasp…

The taste profile isn’t really that classic LaoBanzhang taste, it doesn’t even really pretend to be this.  The Qi is strong spacy and Heart beats… pretty nice gushu feeling not quite typical Qi for LaoBanZhang but close.  There is a nice bitter and sweetness thing happening here but under lots of complexity it must seem like a blend but from where… I’m not too sure???

Either way I really like the experience…

Peace

 

2012 Essence of Tea Cloud Watching: Nice Dry Storage Gushu

I purchased a sample of this 2012 Essence of Tea CloudWatching ($298.00 for 357g cake or $0.83/g).  The dry leaves just looked too good to not try.  This find of David and Yingxi was released at the same time as their 2021 Spring release.

Dry leaves smell of faint dry leaves and cardboard.  Not too much here but an obvious clean dryness.

The first infusion has a watery paper, and dry wood bark initial taste with a faint taste of spice and faint cooling on the lips that comes with a faint white sugar edge.

The second infusion has a watery clear warm spicy peppery note initially that drifts into a faint cooling open throat with a retuning faint white sugar not that sweet taste.  The mouthfeeling has a bit of lip drying and very very mild light sandy coating.  Nice relaxing feeling as I sigh.

The third infusion has a viscus mushroom warm spice watery and clear onset with a deep faint cool open throat with some icing sugar finish.  There is a bit of mushroom and forest taste and spice left in the mouth.  The mouthfeeling is a very very faint dry sticky with dry lips- a very soft mouthfeeling.  The taste sort of lingers along.  Relaxing smoothness.

The fourth infusion has a honey mushroom forest taste initially with a bit of background warm spice.  It turns into a mild cooling open throat and a bit of faint sugar.  There is some forest mushroom in the aftertaste.  The mouthfeel is full but thin, slight drying lips, slight sticky tongue.  Relaxing and tranquil feeling… a bit spacy.

The fifth infusion has a chalky woody dry leaf mushroomy taste.  There is a cool throat with a woody dry with a bit of sugar almost camphor aftertaste.  Nice thin full mouthfeeling with a mushroom woody aftertaste.  Deep contemplative relaxing.

The 6^th has a woody mushroom cooling camphor with thin sugar taste.  There is a subtle foresty complexity in the dry leaf, dry woody, mushroomy, forest thing.  Nice full mouthfeeling. 

7^th is left to cool and gives off a camphor cool woody dry leaf mushroom taste that turns into a not that sweet honey-sugar sweetness on the breath.  Thin full moufeeling without any throat involvement.  An open throat with some subtle coolness and brings a returning sweetness of mushrooms and honey and white sugar.  The tastes are really crisp and clean.

8^th infusion is left to cool and has a woody cooling camphor with some faint honey mushroom sugar mild sweetness returning.  There are some bread tastes in there as well.  The mouthfeeling is really full sticky taste.  Nice relaxing Qi.  Strongly puts me at ease.

9^th has a creamy bready woody mushroom forest onset with faint cooling throat and returning sugary mild sweetness, forest-mushroom.  Nice thin full sticky mouthcoating that is a bit dry and grainy and dry lips.  Nice relaxing calm.

10^th has a mushroom almost faint bitter sweet fruit dry wood.  There is a dry woody-mushroom bread creamy very faint sweet taste in the aftertaste.  This infusion starts to get a touch bitter but the others so far had no bitter or astringency.  The mouthfeeling also becomes more gripping here.  Nice spacy relaxed feeling.

11^th is cooled down and has a mushroomy-forest almost fruity-honey sweetness.  There is just edges of bitterness and coolness and wood.  Full dry-sticky mouthfeeling.  Relaxing vibes.

12^th has a bitter mushroom woody taste to it with some throat cooling and faint sweet honey.  The mouthfeeling has become quite gripping with the increase of bitterness honey tastes has also increased but lots of sutlites of taste are lost.

I run out of time in my day and mug steep out the rest but these leaves could easily be steeped at least a few more times.  The mug infusions reveal lots of flavor and complexity over a bitter backbone.  I like the flavours and feeling of what is left in the mug.

Overall, this is a really nicely dry stored Gushu type production.  The Jinghong dry storage really preserves the subtleties nicely. I like the interesting and tasty complex tastes which are at first subtle then dynamic especially the mushroom-honey taste create an interesting balance.  The session slowly builds in intensity as it goes.  In the end the bitterness and the mouthfeeling become stronger but the Qi reminds us that we are, in fact, quite relaxed.

I like this one a lot, maybe not enough to cake for this price, but my assessment is much closer to Alex’s than Shah8’s assessment of this puerh.

Alex’s (Teanotes) Tasting Notes

Shah8’s (B&B) Tasting Notes

Peace

2012 Lao Zhi Qing “Lincang Impression”: Experimental Sweetness

This is the other sample of Mr. Yu’s puerh that is still available at Tea Urchin, the other being this 2011 Che Ma Xuan Pasha which I reviewed last.  Eugene and Bell also had 2012 Che Ma Xuan Naka, 2010 Che Ma Xuan Nannou, and 2009 Che Ma Xuan Jingmai which are now all sold out long ago.  This 2012 Lao Zhi Qing Lincang Impression goes for $94.00 for 357g cake or $0.26/g... a decently cheap price…

Dry decently compressed leaves smell of layered darker honey, layered with dry wood bard, a licorice sweet and subtle almost fruitiness. The overall feel is sweetness with mild rich sweetness depth. 

The first infusion has a pear like onset of sweet tastes which transform into brown sugar tastes and longer into a woody almost medical taste.  There is a nice cooling pungency in the mouth with a returning sweetness of pear, apple, and icing surgar.  The taste is light sweet and decently complex with some deeper woody medicals barely detected after the initial sweetness.  The Sweet delicate aftertaste is long and the throat and tongue have a nice fuzzy feeling to them.

The second infusion starts with more of a brown sugar and pear onset the sweet taste is very clear but layered.  A very faint bitterness, brown sugar, icing sugar, honey, pear, slight dry woodiness, slight medical, coolness, long sweet aftertaste of candy, icing sugar, pear, brown sugar.  The mouthfeeling and throatfeeling are nice and fuzzy, fluffy an almost astringent.  The finish is long candy in the mouth.  The Qi is mildly relaxing here.

The third infusion has a thicker fruitier presentation with pear and peach and deeper honey and slight wood that turns to brown sugar, almost medical, there is that distinct cooling then to almost a syrupy sweetness.  The mouthfeeling and throatfeelig are really nice and full sticky the throat feeling is opening to a mid-deep level.  The Qi feel relaxing and I feel my shoulders lighten and come up by my ears.

The fourth comes on thick with a thick almost syrup fruity presentation that has a bit of mild bitterness now.  There is a medical taste and presentation that come as the cool pungency now collides with the dense fruity syrup and woodiness and faint medical qualities of this puerh.  There is a long cooling aftertaste of fruits, sugar, syrups and icing sugar.  The bitterness is mild and persists throughout.

The fifth infusion presents with a thick viscus fruity peach taste with layered wood and darker honey nuances.  There is a touch of bitterness and as the thick fruity presentation collides with the cool pungency a thick sweet medical notes is release then a long aftertaste of candy, syrup, sweetness.  This tea has that very thick syrupy, almost woody, slightly bitter and almost astringent kind of medicinal licorice Lincang semi-agedness to it.  It does this decently well.  Qi is nice and relaxing, I can kind of feel my face soften a bit. 

The sixth infusion is thick licorice sweet viscus malty oily sweetness with a subtle bitterness and a coolness which collides with this blob of dense syrupy woody medical sweetness.  There are orange peel, tangerine, peach, pear, brown syrgar, honey, woody slight medical taste.  The taste is fairly complex and dense the after taste is mainly sweet. It has a very typical thick Lincang sweetness and lots going on... almost chaotic.  The Qi has a bit of alerting and relaxing with a chest pressure feeling.

The seventh infusion starts with a fruity juicy sweetness with a rich caramel finish, brown surgars, some wood, fruity sweet taste throughout the profile.  Some bitterness appears then cooling then more sweetness.  Woody, crème brulee, slight tart, almost orange, melon, tastes.  The mouthfeeling and throat feeling have a mild taughtness to them a slight astringency.  The Qi is mainly in the head.

The eighth infusion starts with a bitter, astringent fruitiness with a sharper woody layer.  There is more of a sourness that comes out of the mix and a bit of astringent mouth puckering happens.  There is an almond nut note that is new.  This one is still punching at the stomach in the more astringent infusions and we are just at flash infusions here. 

The ninth is nice and syrupy thick onset with pear, orange peel, and dry wood presenting with a round bitterness underneath.  There is less of a coolness now and the returning sweetness is more mild melon.  The woodiness kind of flattens the profile.

The 10^th is fruity and thick with a distinct wood bark middle which interfaces with thick sweetnesses.  The sweetness is dense syrupy woods with a light fruity high notes of peach, melon and ends in a toffee or caramel sweetness. The mouthfeel is sticky and almost slippery astringent now. 

11^th has more caramel and high fruits the caramel taste is pronounced and really nice and tropical fruit nuance returns.  This is a nice infusion with the cup cooling a bit.  The caramel density and layered sweet top notes are really tasty.  This infusion is less bitter, astringent or woody and the array of top notes really are on display in a complex thick profusion of sweetnesses.

12^th has that nice thick dense sweetness to it.  A long caramel and then light fruity sweetness.  The layered sweet profile is really nice here.  There is a bit of spacy Qi in there as well.

The 13^th has a juicy viscus sweetness with a nice caramel finish.  There is a mild coolness then returning sweetness of light high noted tropical under more pronounced brown sugar and toffee.  The mouthfeel is kind of slippery here- a thin type of fullness.

14^th has a sweet syrupy sweetness with some licorice undernotes as well as some tame bitterness and woodiness.  The mild coolness pushes out a toffee sweet taste with some tropical taste on top.  Still feels very full and complex here.

The 15^th has a more bitter wood presentation with some florals in there.  There is a more suppressed thick caramel and tropical fruits which run free when the sweetness returns.  The mouthfeel is slight astringent puckering.  The Qi relaxing and a bit heady.

16^th has a dense fruity presentation of persimmon, melon, maple syrup, brown sugar, woods, slight sour, distinct florals now, peach, melon, slight cooling, even grape like tastes.  Very nice.

17^th thick sweet presentation of layered sweetnesses- tropical fruits, syrups, brown sugars, caramel very nice and densely packed sweetness with a slight edge of woods, bitterness, slight sour.  A cool pungent brings in the high less dense sweet tastes.  This is pretty yummy stuff.

18^th is more tangy tropical fruits, dense syrup, maple sugar, deep honeys, layered and densely sweet with a nice wood and slight bitter astringency underneath.  This one has nice stamina as well.  These later infusions are delicious.  There is some medicinal licorice notes in there as well. 

This is a bit of a chaotic Lincang Blend with an obvious sweet thick Lincang semi-aged character.  Its pretty tasty and strong in flavor and thick presentation.  You could use less than your normal amount of leaves with this stuff for sure.  Overall, the price seems fair for something like this. For some reason there is something too typical Lincang about this even in its complexity for me to purchase.  In some ways it is too sweet and chaotic for me, but very interesting.  There are not too many semi-aged blends of Lincang out there for the Western audience besides maybe white2tea Pin and maybe some Shuangjiang Mengku stuff.  Those that liked pin or Shuangjiang Mengku might want to try this one. 

I guess I would rather go higher and get something more vibrant or lower and something less thick but with more Qi.  For someone who is on a budget and wants to try a solid aged Lincang and who can spend a bit more for more complexity but without paying a fortune might want to try this and see if it fits their tastes.  It’s interesting, that is for sure.

Peace

2012 Yang Qing Hao Ye Gu Wild Tea: A Top Wild Blend

I acquired a free sample of this from Emmitt in my last Yang Qing Hao order and tried to taste it and put my notes out here as soon as possible.  Thanks Emmitt, this is a real treat.  Anyways I’m doing this to alert any readers that Liquid Proust is doing a sampling of this cake that is not currently available to the public right now.  It’s your chance to try a really interesting tea experience, I believe…

The tightly compressed dry leaves are of wild variety and have a very unnaturally deep purple colour.  The leaves look quite small and the dry leaf smell is a vacuous faint barely fruity and almost woody or cardboard.

The first infusion has a watery wood approach and I decide to ignore Emmitt’s warning and put the whole sample in the pot.  This is still probably about 1/3 less leaf than I normally use to evaluate.  Very light with icing sugar suggestions, mainly vacuous in taste because of the tight compression.  There is a solid long breath taste emerging here and vague tastes of faint storage.

The second infusion starts with a watery almost fruity light bitter and mild long cooling and a long almost strawberry and wood breath tastes.  There are very faint sweet black cherry and barely bitter suggestions.  The mouthfeel is like a very very fine sand on the tongue.  Lips are slightly sticky. The wet leaves smell of slightly barnyard.  The Qi comes quickly and I can start feeling a loopy euphoria building and a face releasing sensation and a chest opening sensation.  This Qi will be very strong, I think- it is already stronger than most standard puerh at the peak of the session.

The third infusion has almost strawberry onset quite watery and vacuous still with an icing sugar nuance and a bitterness that emerges more in the mid-profile.  The roof of the mouth is stimulated in a drying way that makes the taste on the roof almost metallic.  The long mild minutes returning very faint fruity taste is expansive in the mouth. The Qi frees the mind and the muscles of the jaw, head and face relax.  I feel very very relaxed and almost like outside my body.  The feeling is not powerful but is liberating and subtle.

The fourth infusion has a vacuous woody subtle sweet has a mild mid profile bitterness which turns to raisin and current returning sweetness a very mild cooling in throat.  There is a bready sweetness in there as well as faint fruity and woody a mineral taste slight metallic on roof slight bitter.  Very Very long and intricate breath taste with many subtle nuances.  I hear the word jam sweetness thrown around a lot.  This has a true jam sweetness in there as well.  Very relaxing.  The slightly cooled cup has an obviously very nutty and creamy sweet disposition more like conventional puerh which might be blended into the wild leaf.  I can obviously see 3 different leaf colours just as Marco observed.  Strong mind unraveling Qi.

The fifth has a moderately bitter, watery, almost grape peel and creamy sweet onset which swells into a raison and current sweet taste as the faint cooling pungent pushes upwards.  It leaves behind a distinctly vanilla note more like the actual spice than the artificial flavor.  There is a minutes long returning woods, slight bitter, almost fruitiness, and barnyard, slight coco, cola, root beer.  The taste is very very complex in the minutes long after taste.  This infusion is crazy delicious.  The bitter with creamy sweetness and coco almost tastes like homemade sarsaparilla.  Very yummy.  This puerh is not really overly bitter just moderate.

The sixth starts creamy woody slight bitter into a raison and current taste over underlying moderate coolness that goes deep into the throat.  The throat feeling is quite deep here.  The cooled cup is quite creamy and sweet.  A cola, root beer, sarsaparilla, woody sweet deep taste a deep but still ethereal taste.  The Chest Qi is substantial.  I realize that the warning Emmitt was giving me was not, in fact, for the bitterness but rather for the rather intense Qi sensation.  My heart races with an intense rancor.

 The 7^th has an almost spicy cinnamon, almost cardamom, onset.  There is a low level almost melon sweetness that comes out stronger in here at the start and mid profile before turning to raison and currents.  There is a more creamy wood returning in the minute’s long breath.  There is a low lying bitterness that rest underneath and slowly expands in the mouth.  The mouthfeel is sticky, the lips even more so.  The throat stimulation is very subtle and deep.  The Qi is starting to push me into a frenzied like giddy happy feeling.  My Chest feels like it will implode energetically.  Minutes later quite obvious blueberry jam like taste comes on which is very very nice.

The 8^th has a soft onset of layered tastes which consists of woody, nutty, creamy sweat, mineral, underlying almost fruitiness.  It turns into a current/ raison taste then into a dark coco taste.  Minutes later as the coco recedes fruit tastes emerge as it converges with a cooling pungent.  Then the mouth becomes almost dry and the bitterness and creamy sweetness is left in there which gives it a dark chocolate feel.

The ninth I get a little bit of a pot clog- about 1/3 the leaves sitting in hot water for a minute or two.  So this steep is going to be a bit more intense… Not bad… a coco sweet creamy and moderate-mild bitterness with a long wild cherry, creamy sweetness over the mild pungency.  Heart races intensely.  The blueberry jam taste is prominent.  Distinct jam like blueberry sweetness in a flat mild bitter base.  This more aggressive steeping more shows up 10 minutes later in a long chocolate berry taste.  The mouthfeeling is fine sand, sticky, deep throat opening.  My heart…. This puerh gives me a hyper alertness and certain clarity.

10^th becomes a woody slight bitter coco onset with a mild pungent a slow emerging coco.  There is a vague berry taste almost chalky and tart initially then disappears into coco and mild bitterness.  The minutes long returning is coco and faint blueberry jam with some mild mineral and even a metallic taste on the roof of the mouth. 

The 11^th has a vanilla nuance again with a wood sweet creaminess.  Once the underlying coolness reaches a point a berry taste emerges as does coco and milk like tastes.  The alertness and intensity of the Qi is turning into relaxing.  The mouthfeeling is full but never strong just like a fine almost slippery sand.  The throat always opens deeply with this one.

The 12^th has a woody, mild bitter, dry woody turning into coco taste.  The teeth become squeaky.  This infusion is leveling into a bitter coco with creamy sweetness slight pungent with the sweet nuances almost gone this strangely tastes like Bulang in later infusions.  Minutes later some fruity tastes come out of the wood works.  There is a malty taste in there as the cup cools.

13^th is woody sweet and slightly astringent bitter now.  The most obvious and dominant note is wood and creamy coco along with a subtle suggestion of sweet fruit and a slow moving coolness underneath.  There are some berries that pop up now minutes later.

14^th starts a bit watery with some woody almost berry like tastes and a thin level bitterness.  The taste is losing steam here a bit and I will push this into longer minutes long infusions for a bit here.

A 15^th that is minutes long tastes of coco bitter and low lying blueberry taste.  The pungent cooling note is more significant here and attempts to push some interesting tastes out in the long breath.  Some other fruits and mineral are found there even a grapefruit taste is noted.

The 16^TH is a few minutes steeping.  It tastes quite mineral, bitterer, coco flat bitterness with a faint lingering floral at the back of the throat which is interesting.  There is some initial fruitiness that disappears almost instantly as bitter comes fast too.  The Qi is now very mellow and tranquil.

The 17^th is another few minutes long steeping which gives off flat bitter coco with some dark fruits pushing faintly underneath.  These longer infusions do more to amp up the pungent coolness which tries really hard to push something out in the breath but not that much comes out this late in the game.

I put this into an overnight steeping.

This is a fantastic wild tea (and possibly conventional puerh blend) I believe.  It’s possible that the three coloured leaves represent 3 different varietals of wild tea or 2 different varietals and conventional puerh.  Overall I think it is mainly wild tea/yesheng as noted by the leaf colour, intense Qi and minute’s long returning taste.  The Qi is really strong and invigorating with some more intense body feeling then strongly relaxing.  Like doing a good cardio workout and the feeling afterwards.  The taste is really really complex for a wild that’s why I think its possible there is some conventional puerh blended in here.

Not at all picking up on the storage tastes like marco did in his tasting notes.  This one may have been dry stored by Emmitt, instead of coming directly from Yang’s storage, I believe.  This is a kind of tea that would be best dry stored, I think.

I also don’t understand how Shah8 cannot see three colours of leaves in this one as marco pointed out.  I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone.  Just look at the photo.  I hope he doesn’t have a fake?  I always get a kick out of how Shah8’s impression of a tea always improves considerably once he has acquired it… hahahahha… Either way I agree with his assessment that this is an extraordinary blend that is hard to come by.

Rating it for a wild tea and just for comparison 9.0.  Wild tea doesn’t really get better than this.  To be honest there are not many blends of wild teas so its hard to kind of compare it to this.

James and Denny’s (TeaDB) Tasting Notes

Shah8’s (Badger and Blade) Tasting Notes

Marco’s (Late Steeps) Tasting Notes

Peace

Edit: The overnight steeping the next day has a tart and bitter fruit taste, slightly creamy sweetness with corn flavor base.  There is still some cooling pungent then into a longer creamy sweet and bitter finish.  The mouthcoating is sticky and slightly drying.  Minutes later a distinct bitterness is left on the tongue with no other flavors to join in. 

2010 Fangmingyuan 0842 “5 Year Anniversary” and Thoughts on Old School Blends

This tea was likely made to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of Fangmingyuan with their own take on the classic 7542.  From the name I wonder if there is aged mao cha in the blend?   This 500g Qing bing goes for $55.22 or $0.11 /g- crazy cheap!

Dry leaves smell of a vibrant pungency and menthol like sugary sweetness.

The first infusion has a muddled initial taste then gives off some hay and mild woods before building into a nice clean menthol sweetness.  It peaks then slowly and strongly transitions to a long creamy sweet aftertaste.

The second infusion again starts kind of muddled and slightly turbid as it slowly transitions to menthol then to a long creamy sweet Nannou like deliciousness.  This tea a very light watery viscosity and is mainly felt on the tongue as a sticky resistance there.

The third infusion starts with a more slightly bitter woody peony odours taste then transitions to a sweet returning menthol with hay.  The long cottony creamy sweetness lingers in the aftertaste.

The fourth infusion starts with a mucky initial taste with a woodiness in there it transitions to a hay menthol taste then to a long creamy sweetness with a decent astringency in the finish now.  The tea viscosity is on the lighter side with some tongue stimulation and a middle deep opening throatiness.

The fifth infusion has an almost fruity suggestion in the initial taste along with mild bitter then taste moves predictably to menthol and woods.  The aftertaste is now slightly smoky before it gives way to creamy sweetness later on.  The qi is a bit of floating distension behind the temples.  A touch euphoric and relaxing stuff too.

The sixth infusion starts off with the aftertaste now and feels much denser in the mouth.  Things coalesce here and taste of a mix of wood, hay, creamy sweetness, barely floral and fruit, and faint smoke.  The Qi is building in the head and the euphoric feeling is backed up in line.

The seventh, eighth, and ninth have a smoky slightly bitter backbone woody nuance and creamy sweet finish.  Mild menthol lingers in the throat.  The mouthfeel becomes slightly gripping on the tongue and the throatfeeling is now more superficial.

The tenth has a distinct fruity melon note initially then goes to hay and wood before a menthol like returning sweetness and mild creamy sweetness.

In the eleventh infusion I notice more grain qualities and woodiness with still a lot of the above attributes.  Little bit of fruit in there as well.

This charming puerh reminds me a bit of the simpler, blended, early-mid 2000 puerh that have enough interesting aspects to them but in an uncomplicated taste and mouthfeel and in an older processing style.  I have a few cakes of puerh like this and really enjoy them for what they are.  Overall, they are blended enough that the tea offers some different qualities in there but the processing of the maocha isn’t always as clean.  When drinking these types of cakes you can kind of tell that the leaves have a certain level of quality to them.  This “5 Year Anniversary” offers a stronger almost Nannou back bone and nicer qi than most in this category.  Very drinkable for that price point.  I can't imagine anything from a Western vendor that is this cheap and still enjoyable, and trust me, I spent a year looking. 

 I like the Qing bing 500g size too!

Peace

 

 

Longest Pending Order for the Best of Yibang: 2012 Tea Urchin Yibang Spring

I have a very interesting and long history with this 2012 Tea Urchin Yi Bang Spring, one of my favorite examples of the Yi Bang area and my favorite production from Tea Urchin from their early productions.…

I actually sampled this tea way back in 2013, five years ago.  I typed up detailed tasting notes for this tea as I usually do.  Actually, I completely forgot that I had done that.  Life got a bit crazy and I didn’t get to posting them.  I tend not to post on teas I am considering for purchase, until I have either ruled out the purchase out or until I actually buy them.  Otherwise, "the Blogger Effect" could leave me empty handed.

Upon my return to tea blogging, I went out to find teas I was interested in purchasing years ago.  I was surprised to find that this tea was still available.  I remember that I had really liked it, especially the qi was of note.  I waited a bit, long enough to piece together an order from Tea Urchin, and watch this tea slowly dwindle in numbers.  I ordered a sample in a recent order from Tea Urchin to see what I thought of this tea with 5 more years of dry Shanghai storage on it.  I had a similar “Wow” moment with this Yibang during the first session.  The second session was less exciting but still very nice.

Then something interesting happened…I accidentally did a search on my PC for something else and came across my original tasting notes on this tea.  This prompted me to search for a saved email conversation I was having with my puerh buddy in Victoria about the potential purchase years before.  I thought it would be interesting to share both my original notes, my email trail about the potential purchase 5 years ago, and my current notes, thoughts, and how I finally came to purchase a cake!

Go back to 2012/2013… I had sampled a lot of puerh tea pressed by western vendors between 2009-2012 but had actually purchased very very little.  This one stood out for me enough to consider a purchase at the time, which says a lot.  Here is my original tasting notes from early 2013, I think:

The dry leaves smell of a pungent, spicy-meat, savory odour with a contrasting undercurrent of creamy sweetness.

The first infusion is a foresty, savory-pungent almost menthol-like odour which pillows in the mouth.  There is a sweet bubble gum edge that lingers underneath and expands in the mouth.  These flavours expand and stay in the mouth even minutes later.  The mouthfeel is soft and creamy.

The second infusion is of layers of creamy pungent, savory-meaty foresty tastes.  The savory notes come first and are propped up by creamy, swelling fruit notes underneath. The mouthfeel is viscus, sticky, and full in the mouth.  The mouth can't help but water.

The third infusion takes more layered savory-foresty notes with that same expansive swelling of sweet tastes in the mouth.  The mouthfeel is full and reaches and opens the upper- and mid- throat.  The finish is a cool-sweet menthol in the mouth.  There is a candy-like sweetness even minutes later.  The qi is mellowing and soothing, it seems very light in the body.

The fourth infusion brings spicy-salty foresty-sweet notes the flavours seem more condensed now with a swell of creamy tastes emerging.  There is a bit of a mushroom taste in the mouth minutes later.

The fifth delivers distinctly sweet, expansive, tastes in the mouth.

In the sixth infusion has a strong, pure, layered sweetness with a light underlying bitterness.  The aftertaste is of sweet unripe plum.  It is long and sticks to the mouth.

The seventh infusion is much the same with heavy layers of sweetness prevailing.

The eight infusion becomes a touch bitter-tangy with a fruit edge but with most of the sweetness now diminished.

The ninth same as above ....

* That's probably why I didn't publish the notes- it looks like my session was preemptively interrupted*

Then here is the email trail between my tea drinking buddy and me as we consider a purchase:

Me- Have you ever tried any of the puerh from Tea Urchin? I have been drinking a sample of this:

http://teaurchin.com/shop-for-tea/puer/yi-bang-2012-spring.html

It is the best puerh from Yi Bang that I have tried and I am thinking about getting a cake? They have a $20 flat rate shipping and was wondering if you are interested a getting anything from them? I might get some samples of their 2013 cakes as well? I'm still uneasy with the $100 price tag of these new puerh... but I guess that is the reality.

Let me know,

 

Tea Buddy- I like Tea Urchin teas...they are high quality. Count me in for two Yibang cakes...I trust your palate!

 

Me- It's a false alarm!

I sampled the Yi bang again and wasn't as enthusiastic about it so I decided to not order, sorry bud.  Haha The benefits of having enough for two pots eh?

I think I am going to hold off on an order.

Of note is my unease with the price of young sheng in 2013.

Recently I had another great session with a sample I ordered in my second order from Tea Urchin in late May 2018.  These notes are 5 years later than the notes above but with a sample that came from Tea Urchin's brilliant dry storage.  These are the notes of a particularily nice session with this tea…

Dry leaves smell of distant fresh floras and fruits with a light wildflower honey sweetness to them.

First infusion starts with a vacuous wood, rice cracker, and almost paper-like and faint wildflower nuance before turns into a very nice clear and crisp nice mentholy honey sweetness.  The cooling builds in the mouth it leaves a slight sticky taste in the mouth.  The stickiness is also felt on the lips and throat.  There is a faint lingering almost fruity and wildflower sweetness throught the whole profile of this tea.  This tea has a very pure essence to its taste.  The sticky mouthfeeling and throat feeling carries these high noted tastes in the mouth minutes later.

The second infusion has more woody initial taste with a more pronounced fruity start then transitions to a strong creamy and notiably menthol sweetness.  There is almost a crisp almost artificial tasting percing spearmint taste in the intial taste as well that is quite nice.  The mouthfeel is quite sticky and enjoyable and drags the flavours on minutes later.  The qi is very relaxing and makes the head feel heavy on the neck- it induces as sweat.  The qi of this tea is quite nice, it induces a strong happy feeling. 

The third infusion starts with a dry woody and spearmint onset.  These two taste create a nice polarity of depth- low and high notes.  The mint turns into a lingering sweet coolness there is a pronounced wildflower taste thoughout the profile.  There are notes of rice and grain but this taste is not a deep cereal taste but rather a light basmati rice or sticky rice taste. 

The fourth infusion delivers a very thick taste of very delicate flavours.  It starts with a thick creamy sticky sweetness with pronounced wood underneath.  The sweetness is a light, fresh floral wild honey.   The sweetness dominates the profile thoughout.  The mouthfeeling and throat feeling is nicely thick, sticky, astringent.   The mouthfeel is really nice here and the taste feel stuck to the lips and tongue and edges of the cheek.  This is very nice qi.

The fifth infusion sends out more pungent, sticky sweetness and lighter undertone of wood right off the bat.  The taste is dense but light.  The sweetness that returns is nuanced cotton and honey and floral.  The taste continues to build with each infusion becoming more structured and deep.  Overall the tastes are actually quite light and gentle.  The qi is strongly relaxing and makes me feel high.

The sixth infusion starts with that sticky sweetness that dominates the profile.  It ducks with wood undertones to rice and then to a long sweet floral honey taste.  The mouthfeel is profoundly sticky as is the throatfeel.

The seventh infusion woody shares with sweet. Sticky in the mouth.  The woody taste seems at an equal place as the sweet floral in this infusion.

The eighth starts with a juicier fruit taste there is a long woody intonation with a mild creamy sweet pungent taste in the aftertaste which crests and flows.  The sticky full mouthfeel remains.

The ninth develops more of a fruit sweetness initially then transitions with faint wood.  The returning sweetness has a berry-cherry taste.  The mouthfeel is less sticky but significantly so.  There is more of a cherry fruit vibe here.

I add 10 more seconds to the flash infusion in this slower pouring pot for the tenth infusion and it pushes the dry wood tastes to dominate the profile now.  The taste becomes more of a tart cherry taste.  The pungent sweetness has diminished now but is pushed to the aftertaste.

The eleventh infusion is much more of the same at 10 seconds added.  Things are less full but the balance is still there, the taste is still there.  The stickiness is more of a drier stickiness now.

The twelfth infusion is steeped for a good 30 seconds nice the flavours and feelings are less but the qi remains strong and the broth vibrant.  A banana, tropical fruit like taste lingers it the aftertaste.  The woodiness manages to give this tea depth throughout the session but never becomes too drying or over bearing.  I really like the qi of this tea- light airy, profound, happy, gentle its all in the head and a bit in the chest, the limbs feel so light.

I drank this one for another few good infusions.

Later that week, I had another session with this tea but, again, was not as impressed.  Could be this tea is just a touchy one.  Can’t believe that happened again.

Conclusion: I decided to add one 357g cake ($173.00 or $0.48/g) of this to my last order of Tea Urchin along with these remaining 2011 Lao Man E Spring samples.  It was a bit hard for me to get over the price of this one.  What sealed the deal was that the price of mediocre 2018 Yi bang will probably cost the same- maybe more.  At the present time there is only one cake left and a handful of samples.  I think its a very unique and interesting marketing strategy to show your inventory these days.  I personally appreciate the transparency.  Anyways, I recommend trying at least a sample of this for anyone who enjoys the Yibang puerh producing area.  It’s always a good idea to have a great example of an area or style for future reference, I think.  The ability for the average puerh drinker to do this is getting harder and harder with every passing year.

Jakub's (T) Tasting Notes

Steepster Tasting Notes

Peace

 

China Chadao Event: Epsilon (2013 Douji "Phoenix Tour")

This was the fifth cake from the China Chadao Event. Okay, so we know right away that this is a shu puerh right?

Its brown-black medium large leaves are contrasted by smaller rusty coloured furry leaves. It smells of a fishy-gamey-meaty stench.... Mmmmm... shu puerh.

The first infusion delivers a flat-smooth taste with very light mineral aftertaste. There is still a bit of very light meaty-gamey tastes in the background. The mouthfeel is very slight and mineral on the tongue. A soft coolness enters the throat.

The second infusion is still quite smooth with slight mineral taste but much more of a strong cool sensation in the throat. The gamey tastes have disappeared leaving a very vibrant cool menthol in the throat to be enjoyed.

The third infusion delivers with a slippery, mineral mouthfeel that is mainly on the tongue. It has a deep clean-meaty taste with a lingering cool throat feel. The qi of this tea is strong and induces palpitations, and darting rushing thoughts. The mind feels free, if not a bit edgy from this tea. Wanting to sleep tonight, this tea is left until tomorrow morning.

The fourth infusion prepared the next morning has a smooth mineral, barely fruity edge to in now. There is a slight barely noticeble creaminess then a very cool finish in the throat.

The fifth infusion is fairly flat and washed out now. It tastes of faint-flat dirt-mineral. Much of the cooling sensation in the mouth has left.

The sixth is flat and tastes of bland metallic earth.

Guess: 2012 "world peace" or "phoenix tour" shu?
Actual: 2012 Phoenix Tour

Peace