Details of the various Pu-erh teas, are in some inaccessible memory file, 12 in total at 3 shops, all with one thing in common .. none worth purchasing, that is until lucky number 13.
Today, with Shawn and Paulo, we visited my friend Mr. Yang Yong Le:
楊 (Yang- poplar tree -family name) 永 (Yong – Forever) 樂 (Le – happy/cheerful)
at the: Jin Yuan Chun Ming Cha shop in Da Lang town. (Golden Head Water Spring Tea.)
The plan; taste and record comments on 3 Shengpu samples for a Tea Tasting, set up by Half-Dipper and Dragon Tea House. (findings/results included at end of post)Yong Le and Shawn ....
We inspect and evaluate all three samples, dry leaves first.
First infusion, first sample (the RED)
The Blue and Green samples wait in line:
Despite cell phone picture .. not much colour
Wet leaves look good, fair size, good composition.
All three have been infused until exhausted.
That done we moved on to Tikuanyin (one of the many pinyin variants) 鐵觀音 Tie guan yin. When buying Oolongs, only buy by taste. These teas are bought for consumption, sooner the better. The variations, season to season, year to year, are such that you must taste, reputation, even “high grade leaves" are no guarantee of “good taste” That said I picked the stores #2 ranked tea (my #1 by taste) and had 500gms packaged into small individual serving sized bags.Then it was back to Pu-erh.
We sampled a young Shenpu, age wise on a par with the 3 Dragon House teas, but much smoother with a deeper texture and taste.
Then a 5 year old CNNP, this was purchased from a Private collector and the storage condition were first rate. If any one can locate more of this .. contact me or Yong Le at +86 13794971833 .. reward offered.
This was lucky sample #13 . I purchased one cake to try .. if it still works after a couple of weeks .. I know where there a few more just like it.
Reward offered, only if tea is genuine...
Can you spot the wrapper printing/post printing difference?
Speaking of: 鐵觀音 Tie guan yinXie Xie ni (thank you) Da Xia.Early this month I visited: Shan Yuan Cha Ye ... Mountain Original Tea Leaf, tea shop in Wuxi.
My friend Da Xia’s dad had just returned with a very high quality Tieguanyin that he personally hand roasted at their Fujian tea plantation.
Again you must taste, before you buy. That day we sampled 4 different teas. I bought 4kg and made presentation packages for friends that I was on my way to meet. I also got a bunch of sample packets.
Back to the hand roasted I mentioned earlier … I just brewed what is simply the BEST TGY I have tasted. .. Not a one timer .. on 3 separate days this tea has come up Aces …. Time to call Da Xia, secure more of this batch, with some luck we can capture the “recipe” and replicate. It will be fun to see if the taste can be replicated with next seasons crop.
Tea Samples: Red, Green, Blue
Sunday, 9/2, myself and a couple of friends set out to review the Dragon tea House samples.
The three samples were dispatched into 3 matching trays for dry leaf inspection.
Red: overall most promising of the 3, pleasing mix of colours. Generally good size leaf. No foreign matter in the mix.
Blue: Compression appeared to be the densest of the 3. Colour is dull. A few stems/twigs in the mix along with a hair sample. (stuff happens) Leaf size is small with loose chop. No redeeming characteristics.
Green: About same colour as Blue but with cleaner tones. Leafs were a miss mach with a high twig count. Strangely I am most interesting to see how it will taste.
We set up for serial infusions, using three matching Gaiwan’s. Allowing the wet leaves to be viewed and compared, in situ so to speak.
Sample Red.
One infusion to clean .. 6 infusions .. 7th infusion exhausted the leaves
Soup; strong yellow/green, but, dull & lifeless colour.
Initial aroma was a citrus that gave way to a sour “cabbage” smell, unpleasant.
Taste: slightly bitter, too young to provide any meaningful indicators. An almost immediate drying of the mouth, with no taste on the tongue.
Wet Leaves: good size and composition well formed, nice green luster, no negative indicators.
Sample Blue.
One infusion to clean .. 5 infusions .. 6th infusion close to exhausting the leaves
Soup colour; slightly less saturated than RED, but showing signs of life.
No distinguishing aroma(s) had to work to pull anything worthy of note.
Taste: smooth and even. too young to provide any meaningful indicators.
Wet Leaves: mixed bag, no distinguishing leaf type. Nice overall colour, with a few dark/brown in the mix.
Sample Green.
One infusion to clean .. 7 infusions .. infusions 8 and 9 failed to yield a drinkable brew.
Soup colour; good, considering young age, with a pleasant translucence.
Pleasing initial aroma, but not lasting.
Taste: again young, but there was a distinctive earthy taste coming through. Strongest of the three, pleasant tongue taste, slight sweetness, with hint of liquorish.
Wet Leaves: some well formed full sized leaves, mostly partial/cut leaves.
Monday, 9/3, with enough tea to support a 2nd round of testing. I set up and ran the gambit of testing … solo in my hotel .. not as much fun as with friends, not to mention the restriction of hardware. All of what we discovered on Sunday, held up on round two.
My ranking:
#1Green, #2 Red, #3 Blue, this to buy for longer term storage.
Dry Leaf grading, #1Red, #2 Green, #3 Blue
Taste: #1 Green, #2 Red, #3 Blue
Wet leaf, #1 Red, #2 Green #3 Blue
As to matching samples with factory of origin .. I lack the comparative data to make a deductive assessment, so a SWAG: RED is Menghai, Blue-Mengyang, Green-Mengku
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