A Tea Addict's Journal

Continuing the parade of 2006 Tasteoff leftovers

This is one of the older teas that was passed around for tasting, and judging from everybody’s comments, including mine, it was not too well received.

I must say I have to revise my statements a bit. I think it has to do with the amount of leaves I used.

I used up the rest of the sample, which must be around 7g of leaves. I brewed… and what I tasted was something that could credibly be a Yiwu. It’s a bit cloudy, it’s a little mellow, but I don’t think it was mellow in a bad way. There’s bitterness in there, if you brew it longer. There’s also some nice floral notes, much sweetness, although not much of the minty flavours I found first time around. I think there’s even some throatiness, although not too much. This is not a great Yiwu, but it probably is one. I must say I liked it, not a lot, but I liked it enough. There might be some less-than-perfectly processed tea in there, as there’s a bit of sourness and a bit of an unsettling taste… but it’s not fatal.

While I wouldn’t say this is a great tea, I don’t think it’s a bad tea. Whether I would buy it or not depends entirely on the price, but it’s not something I’d categorically rule out. I don’t think it’s that bad, and I think it’s turning a corner in its aging process.

The tea does brew a bit cloudy… might be a storage issue, or something.

The leaves are a mixed bag… some large, some small. On the whole it’s a bit on the thin side, and a little limp. Not the greatest leaves, I don’t think, and claims of old trees is a little doubtful — perhaps summer picked?

Whatever it is… it’s at least more enjoyable, I think, than the teas I tried the last two days.

Another dug up sample from the 2006 Tasteoff… this one thanks to BBB.

I brewed it again in my new pot. I am having some adjustment issues with the pot — namely I am putting in far too much leaves. I haven’t been able to gauge how much leaves I am actually putting into the pot versus the volume, and both yesterday and today I think I have basically overstuffed the pot, making it very strong and slightly difficult to swallow at times.

The dry leaves didn’t smell like much of anything, having resided in the plastic bag for the whole year last year. The piece I got was pretty compact, and obviously made of small buds, as the name “First Grade” bing suggest. In Chinese the cake is actually called “Jia Ji”, or better translated as “A grade”. I think it is safe to say that the leaves are not indeed all first grade leaves, but instead a mixture of high grade (i.e. small) leaves.

It brews an orange infusion. No doubt, the high leaves to water ratio has something to do with the saturation….

It was bitter. Quite bitter, but not so bitter as to be entirely unenjoyable. It’s not bitter in the way a green tea puerh is bitter. There is a huigan, albeit a slow one. In fact, this tea tastes rather similar to the tea I had yesterday. The tea I had yesterday was a little mellower, whereas this one’s a little more punchy. Taking into account the age difference and the slightly higher amount of leaves I put in today (as I discovered halfway into the brewing) I think it explains pretty well what’s going on. It does hold up better than the tea yesterday, but that might also have to do with the higher amount of leaves present. It’s not a great tea, I think, but it’s a regular puerh made by Menghai. Retail for this on Taobao is 230 RMB, which translates into something like 30 USD. BBB said he got it for 18.50, but probably won’t buy it again at that price. At $30… it’s not worth it at all.

The leaves, as you can see below, are very small, and quite chopped up

They are mostly small, under 3cm in length. There’s some variety in how they look like when unfolded… but nothing too exciting either way

A factory tea through and through. I think what factory teas do well is consistency… at least before the whole craze really got to them. With enough blending, you can come to expect a certain type of taste from a certain factory. Small producers don’t have that consistency, but that’s part of the fun in trying the differences and to see how different people make them differently. It’s also more of an exploration… whereas I’ve had many Menghai cakes that are very roughly similar (especially the newer productions) with differences that are usually relatively minor. There are exceptions, of course, but by and large, that’s been my experience.

Again going back to the old stash I have here, I dug up a cake of the Fengqing mini cakes that I own. Last time I tried this was before the 2006 Tasteoff, at which point I sent samples of this tea out to various people. It’s time to try it again, a year later, to see if I can find anything I missed. I probably would, because at that point I haven’t tried all the young puerhs that I’ve recently tried in Beijing…

Small cakes always look rather cute.

The liquor seems to be darker than I remember

But then, I added quite a bit of tea today. The taste is mellow, but with a bitter edge. The bitterness dies a bit, but it never quite goes away entirely. There’s a strong initial rush of flavours in the first few infusions, but it drops off a bit after about 5 infusions and then seems to skate on a lower plane of flavours — more subdued, less bitter, colour obviously weaker, but despite its light colour, taste is there. Clearly this is plantation tea, but not horrible, I think. At least I don’t think it’s been weirdly processed. There’s just a hint of age in there, but it’s still pretty raw. It’s got some time to go yet… I think I’ll let it sit some more before trying it again.

Worth mentioning though is also the christening of a new teapot — my friend L gave it to me as a parting gift of sorts. This is a prototype that was made for him to inspect before they make a larger production of the pots, and through him I’m ordering some pots for myself as well as some members of the LA group. He had a few of the prototypes sitting around, so he gave me once since it was going to be the last time I see him for a long time.

Unfortunately, I chipped the pot a little yesterday when I boiled it in water to clean it. I think initially the boiling was a little too vigorous and it bumped the pot I was boiling it in….

Sigh… luckily, it doesn’t really affect the pouring at all. The stream is still rather clean and crisp, and so for that, I’m thankful. It did do something that I haven’t really done before with my own pots though

When I poured I noticed the lid wasn’t really coming off. I suppose that’s a good thing, despite the rather short “legs” the lid has. I do wonder if the tea tasted different given my use of a pot. It probably did — pots seem to soften the teas that are brewed in them. Chances are the tea today would’ve been more stimulating if I brewed it in a gaiwan.

The wet leaves are mostly broken

And tiny

A pretty mediocre tea all around. At least it was cheap. I don’t think I’d buy this again, but it might be ok 20 years down the road…

As I was digging up samples of old things to try, I found the stash of unopened 2006 Tasteoff samples that I have yet to try. I remember I didn’t get around to trying them all because of moving, etc, and now, perhaps, is a good time to go through the rest.

The first one that I plucked out of the samples is the 2005 Nanzhao cake, made by Xiaguan factory. From what I know this is supposed to be better than their regular stuff, such as the usual tuos.

The piece I got was very compressed, as is customary of Xiaguan stuff, plus bits and pieces.

The tea brews a bright orange.

The first two or three infusions were rather bland…. not very interesting, and generally felt a little weak, in fact. Then, the tea became stronger, but also more bitter. Part of this might be because of the tight compression, but I think at least some of it is because Xiaguan teas are mostly baked dry at higher temperatures, and thus behave a little more like a green tea. There’s some huigan to the tea, but not very obvious, and neither is the aroma very pleasing. I’ve tried stuff like this in China, and I didn’t like them. I don’t like the increased bitterness over time in the infusions, nor the way the tea felt weak (but strangely uncomfortable as I drank it — as if my body doesn’t like it).

The wet leaves are very chopped up

Typical, again, of Xiaguan stuff in general. This is definitely a tea that is diffcult to enjoy now. I’m not sure if it’s going to be good in the future… but it somehow lacks that energy and strength that I like, and really doesn’t sit very well with me for some reason. Perhaps this will be great in twenty years, but I think even then, it might require a more humid climate to age in order to show something good. Storing them dry might just not change it enough for long term consumption.

I was digging up old samples today to drink, and found this

The last time I tried this tea was before I went to China, so at least a year ago. It’s been a while. Why not?

The tea is very tightly compressed. I decided to use up the remaining sample I have. I could try to split it into two sessions, but I decided not to.

The last time I tried it I didn’t say much about it. I don’t think I had enough experience with younger puerh at the time to know what I was talking about. Now I think I’m slightly better equipped to deal with this tea.

The short version is — I’m not sure if this is Yiwu, if this is 99, if this is a wild tea, or if this is a Menghai. I don’t think this is a Yiwu because it is too bitter for what it is. It also doesn’t taste very much like a Yiwu that’s aged a few years. In fact, it reminds me most of my 2002 Mengku cakes. The taste profile are very very similar — some bitterness, some astringency, chocolate like flavours, etc. I don’t think this is necessarily 99 because of some of the same reasons, but also because I don’t think I’ve encountered another 1999 Yiwu from Menghai other than Green Big Tree. I can very well be wrong on this. I don’t think this is a wild tea because the tea lacks any sort of throatiness — the flavour stays entirely on the tongue and nowhere else. Huigan is basically nonexistent, especially given the relatively high amount of leaves I’m using. As for Menghai… something about the wrapper (or the little picture of the wrapper) makes me wonder. The very large Menghai words in the bottom looks different than the versions I’ve seen, which have a small font. I’m not saying this is fake, it might not be, but it does look a little funny.

Either way, I don’t think this is a Yiwu, never mind the special reserve designation. Even if it were Yiwu, I don’t think it is a particularly good one. I’ve had better. It lacks the high perfumy notes I’ve encountered in aged-a-bit Yiwus. Instead, it tastes heavy like Mengku tea, which are way cheaper.

Not that this thing is on sale anymore, so it doesn’t really matter anyway. It’s good to know though that I didn’t miss out on a treasure.

Some pictures of the tea and the wet leaves….

The wet leaves are turning brown, but still mostly greenish tinted (not too obvious in this picture). The leaves are very heavily compressed and also quite chopped up.

After almost two weeks of traveling, finally I’m settling down, at least for a little bit before I go again to Taiwan. Now comfortably situated in rural Ohio, I can finally get back to drinking tea that isn’t “100% leaf tea”.

Before I did that though, there’s the issue of water. Ohio’s not known for great drinking water. When I went to college in northeast Ohio, I remember the first sip of water I had there on the first day of having gotten to the school was very memorable — it was nasty. It tasted like swimming pool water. Having arrived from a city where one could get crisp, great tasting water straight from the tap, it was a big change. I eventually got a Brita filter, which served the purpose of getting rid of the foul chlorine taste, but it was still bad water.

I was reminded of the water problem here when I bought a big jug of “White Oak drinking water”. I thought it would at least taste ok, but I forgot to check the source — it’s apparently from an artesian well in northeast Ohio. Drinking it… it was… salty. I got more thirsty drinking the thing. A great way to sell more water, I suppose, but probably not good for me. I eventually ran all that through my Pur filter (which, by the way, I think makes much better tasting water than Brita). It tasted much better… sweet, not salty. We’re ready to brew.

I brewed up the first maocha I bought at Maliandao when I got there last year… sometime in September. I don’t actually remember where the maocha is supposedly from.

From the looks of it, it’s a six mountains maocha, but from the taste, it is not Yiwu or Manzhuan. Whatever it is, it has been sitting in my tea storage unit in Beijing for almost a year now before I took it with me to travel. I drank it on the trains to and from Shanghai, and also on the plane back to the US, each time in a cup with some hot water. It was nice and sweet, with a minty feeling, but I haven’t had it in a gaiwan for a long, long time. It’s time to try that.

The tea, as you will notice, is of a decidedly dark hue when brewed.

Colour wise, it looks very aged. In fact, I’d say that even when drinking it, it feels a bit aged — I think it can easily fake it as a 4-5 years dry stored tea. The taste is sweet, mellow, with some throatiness and not very bitter at all. Bitterness show up if I try to overbrew the tea, but for the most part, it’s very subdued. It’s lost a lot of the very green taste that you’d expect from a very young puerh, and starting to gain something like an aged dry stored puerh. Perhaps this is proof that Beijing storage, so long as it’s not overly dry, can be quite good?

When I overbrew the tea, the colour comes out even darker, with a stronger sense of bitterness, but no roughness. In fact, the tea is smooth throughout, which is a very nice thing. It moves from being a bit minty to being somewhat fruity, but not in the same way that the mystery sample A was fruity. Here you know all along that this is a puerh of some sort, only that the fruity is there in the back when drunk. The tea has good endurance. It yielded many infusions, and when I brewed the last few as hour long brews, they still came out tasting rather good despite the abuse.

The leaves are a bit broken after all the traveling, but still keeping mostly to their original shape and not too chopped up. I must say I’m rather pleased by the tea. I know it didn’t taste like this when I bought it, although I no longer remember what it tasted like. I am now kicking myself for not buying more of it at the time… back then I think a kg of it was maybe half the price of what it would be now. Oh well….