A Tea Addict's Journal

After a torrent of younger puerh, I deserve a break from that stomach-killing stuff. So on this very rainy day, I drank more of the Dahongpao from Tea Gallery. Very mellow, and nice. A mellow tea for a mellow mood. I need to buy a pot for my dahongpao.

And my other cat, Sunny, liked some too

I drank the early 90s CNNP sample from Imperial Tea Court today. It was rather interesting, and seems to hold some promise for further aging. The leaves are mostly buds on the cover of the cake, and larger leaves in the middle. Seems like your typical receipe cake, although I have no idea which one. The tea was strong, and flavourful. I didn’t take detailed notes today, so there’s not a lot of detail I can tell you. The tea still tastes youngish — obviously aged but probably not what you’d expect from a 15+ year tea. Is this the San Francisco environment slowing the aging down? It’s hard for me to say.

One thing that didn’t come out so well is that the tea has a slight persistent sourness/astringency that I couldn’t get rid of. Towards the end, around infusion 6, it started going away, so perhaps it is just something that the tea hasn’t shaken off yet because it needs more time. I would think it would’ve gotten rid of it by now, but it hasn’t.

This is not to say I didn’t like it. It’s, I think, better than the 93 tuo, which is less complex in aroma and taste. I guess only time will tell how it will further develop.

A friend from the LJ Puerh Community sent me some samples. According to what he wrote on the little bags, they are:

93 Tuocha from Hou De
99 Dual NeiFei Huanyin, from Hou De
2001 Baoyan mini-bing
99 Menghai Wild Yiwu from Hou De
90 Menghai Region mixed grade brick, maker unknown, from teamasters blog
Early 90s CNNP from Imperial Tea Court

So… lots of tasting to do! Thanks Dave 🙂

I tried the 93 Tuocha today using my gaiwan. Basically, it tastes similar to my brick that I blogged about a while ago. This tuo is supposed to be 13 years old, but doesn’t really taste like it. Instead, it’s a bit on the young side when you drink it. The rawness and greeness of the tuo is still very present, with a strong astringency and smoky (sometimes cigarette like) smell. The leaves are quite broken up as well, just like my brick.

I wonder how long it will be before this is a well aged tea?

I finished off the first bag of the qingxiang tieguanyin I got from Beijing today, two months after my visit. Since I had a bit more than the usual serving left in the bottle, I decided to throw it all into my pot instead of having a little leftover and then mix it with the unopened bag, of which I still have one.

The result was surprisingly good. Since I was consciously aware that there was more tea in the pot, I made sure I was brewing with shorter infusions, and the taste was better than normal. The fragrance was more intense, and the grassy flavour that sometimes was quite dominant in the early infusions was not so obvious, instead taken over by an enveloping flavour that is normal for a decent qingxiang tieguanyin. I think I am going to use a little more leaves when I brew this again!

Now I need to get rid of the rest of my teas…

1996 Zhongcha pai Orange-in-Orange sample from Hou De

More samples from Hou De. I had fun with the last two, so I decided to get more :p. Yes, addict I am.

Dry leaves – the pieces that got to my place are already well broken up, and are fairly loose as puerh goes. There’s a faint smell of raw puerh, but it’s not very pronounced and certainly not that musty. The leaves are a little darker than I expected from a 10 year tea.

First infusion: The leaves smell like a strong camphor smell. The taste is slightly bitter, mellow – not very pronounced sense that this is a young puerh, so the aging has gone farther than I thought. In fact, I think the aging is a little farther than the 8582 cake I had in terms of taste. Then again, the fact that it’s so broken up may be contributing to the way it’s tasting (and the reason why it’s more aged). A sweet lingering taste at the tail end, after everything’s said and done.

Second infusion: Similar, with a stronger taste and the similar mellowness…. Kinda strange, actually. It’s a taste I can’t really describe, but tastes a little different from most puerh I’ve had before. The liquor is very thick. I’m sweaty, but then, it’s also hot today.

Third infusion: hmmm, I perhaps overbrewed this one a little. Slightly bitter, entering the mouth there’s a slight acidity. The rawness of the cake is showing its head a little. I think the first two infusions, as is typical, brings out the more superficial elements first, and now as I dig a little deeper into the tea, some of the other flavours begin to emerge.

Crap – the bag from Hou De is leaking tea!!! (goes puts the bag in a Ziploc)

Fourth infusion: a metallic bitterness is showing up. Hmmm, why is that? Am I messing the brewing up? There’s definitely a “gan” at the back of the mouth, and that is well appreciated, but why is it a little bitter? The colour of the brew is still the same dark brown, very clear and good looking. The dry cup smell is that of camphor/wood. Very nice smell.

Fifth infusion: Waited a bit, since I drank too much too quickly. This brew came out more mellow, the bitterness fading a bit. Colour of the liquor is also lowering. When the tea hits the mouth, there’s a low sense of fragrance/flavour – but the aftertaste is strong, with camphor, medicine, wood… lingering gan is also gone a bit, but the sweetness at the end persists. This is better.

Sixth infusion: Weaker again, but still retaining a strong taste as it goes from your mouth down the throat. It’s odd…. It’s almost flat in the mouth, but as you swallow it shows its tastes. There’s some bitterness, but I think it’s better than the Shui Lan Yin this way. I need to try that again to compare. Their taste profiles are more similar to each other than to the 8582.

The rest: had dinner, then….. just brewed it continuously. Right now I’m on the 9th, still entirely drinkable, and not weak like the Shui Lan Yin. It’s not bad, but I still prefer the bolder 8582.

One of my cats, Smokey, decided to strike a pose in front of my stuff 🙂