2004 Dayi First China Tea Expo Commemorate Cake Review (Sampletea.com)

 
When I first started drinking puerh, I read somewhere that you do not want to buy any celebratory teas. Those are the teas that are usually sold to commemorate a special event opposed to the usual branded cakes. I do not remember what the exact argument against this was, probably that they use leaf material of lower quality or that the cakes are not as prized as other ones.

Following these instructions I have rarely tasted any fancy celebratory teas. That is why I was pretty doubtful about a sample of this 2004 Menghai tea cake created to commemorate "The First China Tea Expo". Apparently only 12 004 cakes were created.

Well, it turns out I really liked this tea. In fact it is probably the best tea from my latest order from Sampletea.com.

The tea is supposed to be made of high quality spring material, and I can really see that. For example, the fragrance is very aromatic with notes of bitter fruits and a distinct tippy/wheaty scent. Even in the taste that tippy note usually found in white tea is clearly present. Otherwise, the taste is very lively and clear with a strong fruity taste and a smoothly fading bitterness on the edges.

I cannot stress enough the powerful aromatics of this tea. It lasts well for many infusions and has a pleasant strong aftertaste. The tea is probably right at the peak of its semiaged cycle, and if I had the opportunity to buy a whole cake, I probably would.

Link to the product on Sampletea.com

2000 Macau Hua Lian Qing Zhuan Review (Sampletea.com)

 
This is a pleasant semi-aged puerh starting to get some really aged character. It is just a basic aged sheng with balanced properties and nothing fancy, just the way I like it.

The fragrance of the tea has notes of forest foor, toasted nuts, and dried fruits. At times perfumy scents or the comforting aroma of warm wood can be detected.

This Macau brick still has a lot of power in it. The taste has an energetic up-beat vitality that is immediately apparent as soon as one takes a sip. It is followed by a dark, heavy and musty textured mouthfeel, a slight velvety bitterness, and a strong astrigency. It is not often I have noticed bitterness and astrigency to be as clearly separated as here.

All in all, really tasty, and a good drink to have now if you want something powerful and refreshing.

Link to the product at Sampletea.com

2004 Dayi Yiwu Ming Qiang Chun Jian Review (Sampletea.com)

The leaves have a strong scent of round, fresh fruitiness, very characteristic of Yiwu tea, it seems to me.

In the fragrance one can distinguish yothful tippy/wheaty and floral notes as well as some fruit. In the later infusions the tippyness fades and the fragrance focuses on very rich and mature fruity scents with a floral edge.

The taste is very youthful and quite bitter, with a strong tippy flavor which later gives room to more fruity notes. In the following infusions the bitterness tones down and acquires a pleasant citrusy character.

It took a couple of rounds for this cake to reveal its age, and after a couple of infusions, the flavor faded pretty quickly. Those couple of good brews were delicious, but there are better cakes out there also. For a puerh pressed this loosely, the cake was also surprisingly youthful.

Link to the tea on Sampletea.com

2003 Dayi 7212 Yi Pian Ye (301) Review

The tea brews surprisingly dark and clear, looks promising. The fragrance is aromatic, woody and foresty but not earthy. There are notes of dark fruits and brown sugar, later infusions also reveal a classy aromatic profile.

When it comes to taste, the tea wins my heart right from the first sip. The mouthfeel is silky smooth, thick and refreshing with a bit of bitterness to give structure to the taste. Most of the flavor comes from the amazingly long aftertaste and follows the fruity character of the fragrance. At times the aftertaste seems almost flowery.

So far this has been the best tea from my latest order from Sampletea.com. The 7212 is a nice complex semiaged tea with still some youthful bitterness. Really good now and will probably still keep for years.

Link to the product on Sampletea.com

2003 Tian Di Ren Jin Si Dai Lao Banzhang Cha Da Su Review (Sampletea.com)

Pretty much all I know about this tea cake is it was bought from Sampletea.com (link) and shipped from Malaysia. As much as I love the product range and service Sampletea provides, it would be nice to get to know this tea cake a bit better.

The fragrance of the dry leaves is woody, mature, bold and spicy. Fine big leaves with a lot of tips.

The infusion has a nice clear and dark color. However, the aroma is not as semiaged-fruity, as I would have expected. There is a strong tippy scent here, that is to say the wheaty aroma often found in white tea.

The taste seems closed and a bit dissappointing at first. But slowly a perky but not too astrigent bitternes comes through, and gives the taste a certain citrusy character. The tippy white tea flavor is also there, and with subsequent brews some fruity notes develop as well.

This was the first banzhang I have ever tasted. It was interesting and nice, but the white tea taste was a bit distracting for me.

2003 Macau Hua Lian Qing Zhuan Review

The fragrance is dark and semiaged with some soft earthy qualities, but all in all the scent is not too damp and aged, but retains a sweet character. The aroma is powdery and slightly perfumatic, but not as strong as I'd like.

The taste is sweet and velvety soft with notes of warm wood and nuts, maybe almonds. There is only a hint of bitterness left and very little earthy taste. The apparent lack of taste and aroma is proven wrong as a strong aftertaste slowly creeps in after the first couple of sips.

In the second infusion some weird off tastes appear, which might result from using too little leaves and not brewing enough. The taste was distracting enough to make me stop the session there.

All in all the tea was interesting and surprisingly aged (probably because it has been in Malaysia). Not the best I've had, but good nonetheless.

Link to the tea on Sampletea's website

2001 Xiaguan 8653 Iron Cake Review (Yunnan Sourcing)

The fragrance of the rinsed leaves is very generic: hay, warm wood and sun-bathed stone, mushroom broth.

Once the stream of the hot brew first hits the walls of my teacup, it becomes quickly apparent that this is no ordinary tea, howevery. A complex and strong fragrance with notes of vanilla, oak, chocolate, beans, and dark fruit immediately puts me in a reflective mood.

The taste is very clear and lively with a a pleasant amount of bitterness. It does not get too powerful or dry the mouth, but provides a nice frame for all that flavour. A side from this slight bitterness, the mouthfeel is very soft/powdery and clear.

As I sip the tea, new aspects of the flavor and fragrance seem to appear all the time. It is pointless to waste any words on this tea. It is delicious, has a clear, well-defined and lingering character. Just amazing tea, and surely still has miles to go!

For a iron cake of this age and Kunming storage, I feel the cake is surprisingly aged. It does not have any earthy aromas and has not yet entered the third stage of its maturity, but all in all this 2001 Xiaguan 8653 Iron Cake is a very high quality semiaged sheng.

Link to the Yunnan Sourcing product page

2003 Jing Mai Round Cake Tai Lian Tea Factory Review (Yunnan Sourcing)

The initial aroma of the first infusion is definitely nutty, but also grassy and overall quite faint. As the tea cools down a bit, the fragrance concentrates and some notes of bark appear. After my senses become accustomed to the grassy scent, very faint notes of berries prevail.

The taste is slightly bitter with fruity notes instead of a grassy character I dreaded this tea would have. At first the taste seems weak, but as usual, as the tea cools down, the flavours and the mouthfeel concentrate. Here I think I can distinguish the "nutty" profile of Jing Mai tea, which is mainly felt in the back of the tongue and the throath.

The second infusion is denser with deeper flavour and clearer dark fruity notes. Here the intense but shortlived fruity aftertaste is also apparent. Grassy notes are still present, but only in the edges of the taste. Honeylike and fruity notes are in the focus, as is also the smooth nutty mouthfeel.

This tea definitely needs to be brewed strong to get the most out of it. It reveals itself slowly, but once the tea shows its true character, it is worth the wait. Link to the Yunnan Sourcing product site

Daughter of the Forest Dian Hong 2016 (Global Tea Hut)

Area: Ai Lao, Yunnan

Produced by: Ku Chuong Aboriginals

Altitude: ~2500 meters

I have tasted Dian Hong multiple times and of different grades, and honestly I have to say each time it has been a disappointed. Compared to some other gongfu hongcha out there, Dian Hong usually just has this malty and boring taste which I find quite disgusting.

As soon as I smelled the leaves of tthis "Daughter of the Forest", I knew I was in for a treat, however. The fragrance of the leaves is fresh and intensely fruity with almost no maltiness. I suspect this is due to Global Tea Hut members rolling the leaves a bit lighter when they produced the tea themselves. Thus I think this hongcha might be actually closer to 2nd flush Darjeelings than most Dian Hong. Suits me!

Then the fragrance of the first infusion hits me and for a second I think I was gravely mistaken. The maltiness is present as usual, but luckily quite as strong as in those Dian Hong teas I have grown to hate. Rather the aroma is reminiscent of Oriental Beauty, 2nd Flush Darjeelings or certain gongfu hongcha. It is fruity, even floral, and softly malty.

And the greatest thing of all, there is none of that fuzzy maltiness present in the mouthfeel or the taste. The taste is clear and a multitude of fruity/floral flavours rise to to the palate after my first sip. I could very well see myself drinking this kind of Dian Hong more often.

Good job Global Tea Hut friends!

If you do not yet know about the movement called Global Tea Hut, they run free tea centres in Taiwan, publish a cha dao magazine and send it out with some amazing tea samples each mont for those who contribute to the cost of the centre. I highly recommend you to check their website out here: Global Tea Hut

1999 Hua Yuan Jing Brand (Yunnan Sourcing)

There is no mistaking of that musty wo dui aroma, even in puerh that has been only partly fermented. In the dry leaves of Hua Yuan Jing Brand however, I am not taken aback by an immediate aversion towards it though. This is because the wo dui scent is quite weak, and it is enveloped in a more agreeable sweet and rounded freshness.

As soon as I see an almost black stream of tea pour from my teapot, my initial curiousity is all too quickly replaced by a familiar dread. Probably every tea drinker can relate to the traumas left by past misfortunate shu experiences.

The fragrance of the first infusion is not as bad as I feared though. One can hardly compare the slight spicy earthiness of this tea to a full blown shu aroma.

I did not have high expectations regarding the taste, but as soon as I took a sip of the brew, I was amazed. The taste is clear, sweet, well defined, fruity, and in every aspect quite 'sheng-like'. The taste covers the mouth and leaves and aftertaste of old wood, which changes to bubbling and almost minty fruitiness when I inhale.

I seriously hope I could find more aged half fermented tea. I've tasted only two examples of this rather unusual tea category, but both times I have been completely amazed by the fact how much I liked those teas.

Hua Yuan Jing Brand is no doubt a very high quality tea. It feels clean, complex, and characterful. This is of course paired with a strong qi, that lulls me into a sweet tea dream.

Link to Yunnan Sourcing product page

The Reason Why I Love Semi-aged Puerh

Why do I love semi-aged puerh?

Mainly because I have not drank that much aged sheng.

No, but seriously, I do think there are a lot of things to love in semi-aged puerh. By semi-aged I mean sheng that is about 10-15 years old. Wiser tea people say puerh usually develops in rounds of about 5-7 years. I kind of have to agree with this based on my experience.

New, young, sheng puerh is usually very bitter and almost overly aromatic. Personally I don't drink it, because it tends to make my stomach upset, and the taste is just too light, sharp, and thin. After the first cycle of aging, the fragrance tones down a bit and the flavour deepens. This sheng is still too young to drink for me.

After the second cycle the tea reaches the semi-aged stage. The flavour and the body of the tea have deepened considerably, the youthful aroma has toned down to reveal darker aged aromas, and the bitterness has faded a bit, but too much.

Semi-aged sheng is a pleasure to drink, especially when it is approaching the end of the next cycle and you can already notice some aged character emerging. Sampling semi-aged tea is perfect if you are looking for a cake to drink right now.

Personally I do not stash puerh, because I have no guarantee the tea will develop as well as it would in more humid enviroments (I live in Finland, and the winters are very dry). I don't want to get my hopes up and buy stacks of cakes, if they end up not even aging but drying and dying instead!

Lately I have been assured I can age at least oolong myself. I have a reasonably collection of different oolong from 2010-2015, and the oldest ones already show sings of maturing. I keep my tea in a ground cellar with a dirt floor, which keeps the space humid and cool. This could be the ideal environment to age puerh also, but then again what will I do if I have to move to a flat?

Thus I sample, and I sample a lot. I should buy whole cakes, but... I'll do that when I don't have anymore semi-aged or aged sheng to sample.

Note that I have very little experience of truly aged sheng, and even those are only from the early 1990's. Thus my perception of the stages of development of sheng puerh might be rigged.

Tastings from the Cellar: Aged Gao Shan Hung Shui 2010 (Tea Masters)

I bought this tea from Tea Masters in 2010 I think, and back then it was a delicious young little thing, although a bit light on the oxidation and roast.
The dry leaves have a faint scent of aged oolong, but fresh fruitiness is still going strong at the background.

At first the infusion seems to portray only youthful milkyness and some roastedness. It is not until I approach the bottom of the first cup that the fragrance truly comes alive. There is a mild vegetable scent as well as delicious fruity and caramel notes.

This Hung Shui still has a clear and light taste, which does seem a bit deeper than younger High Mountain oolongs, but it does not feel particularly aged. At first the floral aftertaste seems weak and leaves me dissapointed, but as the aftertaste gains strenght, I understand the taste is only now starting to shine. I can distinguish roasted, nutty, and fruity notes.

Luckily this tea does not show signs of sourness or bitterness, but I feel the tea might be going through "difficult times" in terms of its aging process. Even though the second infusion is darker and a little bit more flavourful, it seems to lack mouthfeel, structure, and sweetness. It could be interesting to try and roast this now, maybe it would push the tea forward. But I am too lazy for that right now, so back to the cellar it is, and I will taste it again in a few years.

2002 Yong Pin Hao Red Yi Wu Zheng Shan Review (Yunnan Sourcing)

Moist, fresh fruity aroma in the leaves. Can't wait to taste this one.

The fragrance of the first infusion is very smooth and extremely fruity with a clear apricot note. Later on a delicate floral aroma appears as well. This aroma I always connect to either tea buds or the purple tea variety. It would be interesting to know whether some purple tea is contained in the mix.

The taste of the brew is very lively and clear with no bitterness or off-tastes. The liquor slides down smoothly and immediately leaves a peachy aftertaste. Later on the taste

I would be very interested to try this tea again in 5+ years. As for now, it does seem quite young still. The tea is so good it does not matter though.

This is definitely a delicious high quality sheng to be drank right now. But will it age well? Who knows... If it manages to preserve its character and maybe acquires some interesting new dimensions, why not.

Personally for me the only thing I missed was just that little bit of bitterness and raw power. That just me though.

Link to the tea on Yunnan Sourcing's website

2000 CNNP 7561 Brick Aged Tea Brick Review (Yunnan Sourcing)

The scent of the first infusion is interesting right from the beginning. Dark fruit, lingering smokiness, maybe camphor as well as some woody notes. Soon a smoother honey aroma develops, but the fragrance never loses its complexity.

As for the taste, the tea is still quite bitter! More in the semiaged than aged phase, just as I like my sheng. Fruity notes are pretty clear, and there's a strong smoky and slightly haylike aftertaste that appears as soon as I take a sip.

Wow, what can I say. So far this has definitely been my favorite tea from my latest order, and it's quite cheap also! I should seriously consider purchasing a whole brick.

Well, it's no use to waste any more words on this review. I'm going to focus on the brew instead.

Link to the tea on Yunnan Sourcing website

2000 CNNP Zhang Xiang Bu Lang Review (Yunnan Sourcing)

It is very rare to me to drink puerh from other regions than Yi Wu and Lincang these days. At least that's how it seems to me. Actually I am not sure whether I have ever tasted Bulang puerh before.

There is quite little of that moist freshness in the dry leaves that I have found in most puerhs I've recently drunk. Let's see if that indicates a more aged tea.

After rinsing the leaves the ages character starts to reveal itself. There is strong damp earthiness in the fragrance of the leaves and some dark fruity notes in the background. When I sip the tea the earthy scent fades and faint notes of old wood emerge.

The aroma of the first infusion is undoubtably aged. Not semiaged, but aged. A soft earthiness prevails, but it is enveloped in sweet and thick honeylike and fruity scent.

The taste is soft, a little powdery, and thick. I can distinguish traces of bitterness, which is a pleasant surprise as it gives some edge to the mouthfeel. The taste shows some signs of a semiaged tea, but there are really not that much clearly defined flavors. A fresh grainy aftertaste appears as soon as I sip the tea though.

I quite like the combination of aged and semiaged qualities. I did not have the chance to properly concentrate while drinking this tea, and I had just opened the bag so there was a heavy storage aroma present, so I am eagerly waiting how this tea will taste the next time.

Link to the tea on Yunnan Sourcing's website

2002 Yi Wu Ancient Spirit Review (Yunnan Sourcing)

Got a bunch of new aged sheng samples from 1999-2003 today, thank you Yunnan Sourcing!

I tasted this spring Banna tea from 2002 right away. I know this tea will change a bit when it has aired a bit, but I was too impatient to wait and decided to write a review while I was sipping the tea.

Awesome loose leaves that just beg to be brewed and appreciated. The fragrance of the dry leaves is dusty with moist freshness and bright fruity notes.
In the cup the first scent to come through is the smokiness. It dissipates quickly though, and leaves behind a mellow earthiness.

The sweetness of the tea splashes on the tongue as soon as I take a sip of the tea. The liquor is thick, with a clear and easy mouthfeel and no bitterness present. There are very little earthy notes in the taste, but overall it is hard to describe. There is a soft fruitiness with a slight earthy edge.

While my first infusion was slightly underbrewed, the tea did not change much when pushed further in the second infusion. The taste acquires a hint of bitterness though, which gives it some structure.

Even if I was not overly impressed with the tea, I did get a strong rush from it. It is impossible to tell whether the tea has a strong qi, or whether I was just happy to get new puerh. The drinker and the tea are anyway impossible to separate from each other in the experience, in my opinion.

I could not spot that honeylike thickness in the tea, which I usually find in Yi Wu tea. The character of the tea is softer, lighter, and more floral/fruity than honeylike. Maybe this is the character of Banna tea? I do not know, but I will keep drinking and learning.

2003 Wu Chi Dao Mengku Zheng Shan (Yunnan Sourcing)

I have learned to beware Lincang puerh. The taste is just too sharp and the grassy tea makes my stomach upset. Because I do not want to judge a whole tea area too quickly, I thought I'd give aged Lincang tea a chance to change my mind.

And it did. This sample I bought from Yunnan Sourcing still possesses some of that grassy and vegetable character, but it has mellowed considerably and tamed by softer notes of earth and honey. Next time I would like to taste an aged Lincang, but one that has been stored in a drier environment.

The fragrance of the first infusion is a subtle mixture of earthiness and honey. Underneath this one can almost distinguish the grassy aromas of Lincang tea, but it does not clearly manifest itself. While drinking the tea the earthiness starts to fade and the scent of honey gets stronger.

The taste is clear and refreshing with a bit of aged sweetness. At the very outer layer of the taste there are the slightest remains of bitterness. One can also taste the occasional grassy notes, which do not get too sharp and are not too upsetting to the stomach.

Slowly a faint honeylike and flowery aftertaste rises, which is quite delicious but does not last too long. After a while a different and longer lasting grassy aftertaste appears.

2014 Nan Tou LuGu "Guei Fei" Honey-aroma Oolong, Chin-shin variety (Hou De)

This tea was a part of my latest order for Hou De. I think I have ordered from them once before, but I have no clear picture left of the quality of their tea. I ordered a bunch of oolongs and some red tea.

The dry tea leaves luckily have some traces of freshness and sweetness in them and not that bland sourness, that I was afraid I would find. One can detect notes of fruits and the sunset in the fragrance.

In the first infusion, the aroma shows resemblance to dark caramellized fruits with a slight bitterness in the background. Behind the fruity notes there is a thick and round sweetness, which is not so much milky as in other Taiwanese oolongs, but more like honey.

As soon as I start sipping the tea, the fragrance of the brew transforms. The honeylike scent gets amplified and rises to the surface as the dark fruity notes withdraw to the background. In the second infusion some notes of minerals are added to the mixture, which makes the honey-aroma more compact and clearly defined.

The taste is very lively and splashes readily against the tongue. Clear fruity notes, peach and apricot, become apparent at once, and one can even detect a hint of orange zest. The mouthfeel is soft and rich, but it also has some minute traces of bitterness. As the mouth becomes accustomed to the taste, it rounds up quite a bite, but never loses its freshness and clarity. What is left is a delicious impression of pure honeyed water. Slowly an aftertaste starts to develop, which surpisingly features even stronger notes of flowers than those of fruits.

All in all this tea is a good everyday tea for the office and especially suited for people who like their Taiwanese oolong a bit more oxidized. It is not the most amazing oolong I've ever had, but it is a pleasure to drink nonetheless.

2003 CNNP Yi Wu High Mountain Wild Arbor (Yunnan Sourcing)

I do not know a lot about puerh. However, my daily tea drinking routines have been gravitating from oolong to puerh for many years now. I used to buy samples of cakes which were a little bit more expensive than those I drink nowadays, but I got sick of drinking too young sheng. That stuff literally makes my stomach ache most of the times!

Because of this, and because I still have a lot of undrinkable young sheng as well as some too moist and musty old or wet stored sheng, I usually just make my own blends of older and younger leaves. This allows me to drink puerh everyday and not get bored, but admittedly it also means I rarely get to know my cakes in more detail.

This time I wanted to taste some of my samples by themselves, and I chose one of my latest boughts from Yunnan Sourcing. I also did not brew this tea gongfu style as I usually do, but did two longer infusions with less leaves.

There is a bit of that sweet and thick Yi Wu fruitiness in the fragrance of the dry leaves. Underneath the fruit one can detect some grainy notes, and all of this is enveloped in a moist and rounded freshness.

The rinsed leaves release a finely textured and dry scent of grains and straw.

The aroma of the first infusion is soft and rounded with notes of raisins and dried plums. There is very little earthiness, but there does appear some notes of buds, which to me smell like the concrete after rain in summer. As I sip the tea, the fragrance comes truly alive with notes of smoke, warm wood, and the characteristic honey-like aroma of Yi Wu puerhs. In the beginning of the second infusion the smokiness is so strong it reminds me of Lapsang Souchong.


There is welcome bitterness in the taste, but at the same time I fear I might have let the tea steep just a little bit too much. As I continue to drink, the bitterness becomes more apparent, but does not overpower the taste or leave a dry mouth. Notes of cocoa beans and tar emerge, yum! The second infusion is luckily much more balanced and without bitterness.

The aftertaste is grainy and cereal-like, and it is here that one can find the strongest signs of age and earthiness.

It has been a while since I last drank a Yi Wu puerh this aged, but I like it. These semiaged Yi Wu shengs are definitely my favourite puerh teas at this time, and who would not like Yi Wu cakes? Yi Wu in addition of Lincang is also the only puerh area that I can readily recognize. I would like to get more experience of other areas and factories though!

Tastings from the Cellar: Aged Ali Shan High Mountain 2010

Turning this blog to English in hope to reach more people. Which seems quite impossible in this day, however.

Anyway, today I am tasting an aged Ali Shan High Mountain oolong I bought from Finland in 2010. I have no further information about this tea and I remember thinking the tea was quite uninteresting when I first tasted it.

In 2010 I roasted the tea very slightly over hardwood charcoal. Today there are no signs of the roast in the aroma of the dry leaves. There is a very mild scent of that mustiness I always find in aged oolongs, but behind the aged aroma there are clearly noticeable notes of fresh flowers.

The first brew produces a scent more reminiscent of vegetables than the creamy floweriness one can find from young Taiwanese oolongs. However, in the second cup the vegetables have faded almost completely and a pleasing aroma of warm honey and mild notes of flowers arise.

Regarding the taste, the first brew focuses at first on vegetable notes backed up by a mildly fruity aftertaste. Then slowly darker notes of fruits become apparent. In the second cup the fruitiness and floweriness reach their full potential and the taste becomes very savoury.

At first the body of the brew has some structure, but lacks the weight and thickness I desire. Even though the mouthfeel becomes more clearly defined in the second cup, I still feel it is a bit too light.

I think High Mountain oolongs should be somewhat roasted and of high quality in order to age well.

Fortunately this tea is not sour, and compared to how light and ethereal this tea tasted six years ago, it has aged quite well. The taste and aroma have condensed to an enjoyable semi-aged level. However, as I would like the tea to have a bit more body and a bit darker notes in the taste, I will take this Ali Shan oolong back to the cellar for a couple of years.