Xiaguan Tea Factory

I had a little side-by-side of the paper tong and bamboo tong versions of this cake. Paper tong carries more easy sweetness, pastry or dough qualities, and brightness. Hoo, that bamboo tong… I know it’s supposed to be the less desirable, but I loved it. More earthy, it tasted of wetter storage (not sure how much of that can be pawned off on the tong material versus actual storage), thicker tobacco, fuller mouthfeel. Paper tong felt like I was tasting the clean tea notes; bamboo felt like opening the door to the beauty of processing and all the layers each decision and year can add to an already gorgeous bunch of leaves.

My paper tong sample was the last little nugget I had from derk (thank you again!). The compression was quite tight compared to the bamboo tong chunks from LP. I’m looking forward to finally digging into my paper tong cake and having another sit down with these two.

First session with a sample from derk. Thank you for sharing this incredibly-much-yapped-about little bugger.

I have to first admit that LP did a big ol’ drop a couple days ago, and I blind-bought a cake of this. I’m not sure how I feel about that decision now, though I think overall I’m looking forward to having more time to explore it.

After doing some digging, I understand it’s a blend (so each chunk is a bit unpredictable); I understand both bamboo and (preferable) paper tongs were produced; I understand that different storages via different vendors are already having a pronounced effect on these cakes. I feel lucky that mine will be a paper tong from Taiwan storage.

The big takeaway is supposedly medicinal cherry, and I honestly picked up none of that during my session. I got apricot, I got crisp astringency. It actually reminded me a LOT of the little Teavivre sample I had yesterday — though I (ironically?) got cherry right off the bat from that one.

Qi, eh. I was post-workout and feeling kind of buzzy/relaxed anyway, so I’ll reserve judgment there.

Since I knew I had more of this coming, I just wanted to sort of sit and get a general feel for the thing. I am of a mixed mind at the moment; I probably would not have sprung for the cake based on this sesh, but the universe has funny ways of bringing us what we need, so. I’m going with it.

Accidentally wiped my notes from this one while I was writing it…

Anyway I started at 205DEGF

1st infusion – 12 Sec
Light, a little woody, loam and slight mushroom. Drying, cooling, and mildly sweet on the second half of a sip. It tasted like walking through a forest after the rain and sitting down on a fallen tree covered in mushrooms. The complexity was nice.

2nd Infusion – 20 Sec @211DEGF
More body, more complexity. The same notes are shining through but with a solid woody base, the drying sensation stays and leaves a pleasant astringency in the mouthfeel. Somewhere between these two brews would be a natural balance. Overall it’s really nice to drink. There is some shengy tang on the nose but the medium amber liquor has smoothed out into a sweet talker.

3rd Infusion – 30 Sec @ 206DEGF
Smooth, viscous, lightly astringent. The body has remained much the same. It feels like this is what sheng should taste like. When aged properly and mellowed out.

4+ Infusions
Really shining in later infusions, good balance of flavors and a smooth but strong finish.

I can see why this would be an iconic sheng.

from TWL.

wet leaf: BBQ, smoke (wow! quite a hit), barnyard, receding to a darker fruit smell. woody, fruity. touch of medicinal bitterness. BBQ/vegetal notes, along with something bright and banana like. was okay at low ratio of 3.7/90. Initially warming, and then had some chills after. Might need a bit more age, or just not to continue steeping past a few cups.

6.2g, ~135 mL pot. 神曲/medicated leaven taste, as well as a grassy sort of matcha like taste. bizarre. later was a straightforward lighter xiaguan, with bitter, medicinal, honey, smokey and sweet notes. Leaf material wasn’t super broken up, but longevity was poor.

5.9g, 100 mL roc Zini pot. 212f. 2 rinses. Not as strong medicinal taste as before, smoothed out a bit and somewhat sweeter. Better texture today, not sure if water (Brita filtered tap, per usual) or pot. Nice floral in aftertaste at one point, but fleeting. Still can hit the floral grassy note to some degree. Still not sold on this one. It’s pretty mediocre and seems to die off quickly. Not sure if it’s a pot thing, water, or my brewing, but pots seem to make teas die off quicker for me. Maybe it’s just also that I’ve burned myself one too many times so I’ve developed the habit of spending less time focused in response (let the pot sit on gongdaobei usually to pour) and that makes the time seem to fly by too.

Ordered from LP as part of XG Kunming vs. TW storage comparison. This note is for the Kunming stored.

5.2g, 90mL gaiwan. Brita tap. Quick rinse. can’t remember dry leaf, but nothing standout. I’ve also been under the weather a bit lately, so a bit stuffy every morning.

wet leaf: BBQ smoke, hay, dark slight medicinal, mushroom. aged sheng taste, slight minty bright taste. Finish was also somewhat mushroomy and grassy initially, but then was more slight bitterness and sweetness on subsequent steeps. Can hit the medicated leaven TCM taste on longer steeps. soup is on the thin side, but not sure if this is a water thing. Not sure what the whole “rock flavor” thing is about.

Thanks to R2 for the sample!

7.0g, 100 mL duanni, Brita filtered tap.

Dry smell very clean, a sweet wood and bread-y aspect.
2×15s rinse (maybe overkill?).

Initially very clean slight bitter medicinal, with slight spiced black pepper note in taste. Really good mouthfeel, bit of cooling + sweetness in aftertaste.

2nd steep had some throatfeel, not as complex in taste, but slightly more creamy.

Occasionally a sweet metallic or caramel hint. Afterwards is consistent, mostly a sweet soft woody base, and the dried jujube profile sometimes in taste and aftertaste. Some salivating effect. Very comforting, even though didn’t seem terribly warming.

Steeps of varying times, but did 8 steeps before moving to thermos since it was getting late. Really enjoyed this, and would consider picking up a few from Sandy of SThirtyTea if I had extra space and cash. At S30’s .65/g price (keep in mind: pre-currency exchange fees, etc. though, because I tend to forget about those and get blindsided last minute by how ridiculous PayPal rates are), I think it’s a fair enough deal given the age. It does not appear to be a steal, and I’m not really inclined to run to buy it. I also have not tried enough aged shou to judge value well, but based on this session, I would be unwilling to pay the Jade Leaf price of ~.95/g or Camellia Sinensis’ ~$1.17/g (not sure if this one is different material though since loose leaf?) for this.

Thanks to R2 for the sample!

2017 Xiaguan Jingmai “Gushu” shou

7.0g, 90 mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, boiling

Dry leaf is pretty standard shou smell, slightly sweet and slight fishiness

18s rinse

Wet leaf is smoky sweet fishiness initially and later more of a woody honeyed smell

9s: nice mouthfeel. A woody medicinal slight bitter sweetness. Slight cooling on tongue after.

12s: similarly nice mouthfeel. Tastes more medicinal than before, but also the slight sweetness is stronger in this cup. Same cooling on tongue, but lingering more than before.

12s: similar, but less sweet and less cooling afterwards.

12s: a muted woody taste with a light bready-sweetness

12s: generic woody shou taste. Shook up the gaiwan to break up the chunks that were stick stuck together, which I later regret doing. The tiny particles that usually filter in the strainer must’ve broken down too much because they ended up repeatedly clogging the strainer after, and I had to wait for the tea to drip through every steep at an aggravating pace despite clearing it out each time.

12s: A medicinal slight sweetness though not much else of note

20s: forgot to take notes, but not memorable

1 min. 20s: light sweetness amidst generic shou background.

Will thermos the rest since it’s not interesting enough to me to continue from here

Overall: I can see why LP mentions a floral likeness, though I would not have described it that way myself. At .24/g, I’m not expecting anything earth shattering, and this tea, specifically in its initial steeps, punches above its weight considering price. It was nice to try this since I’ve been tempted to blind cake this before and I’m glad I didn’t since I prefer sweeter shous.

2003 Xiaguan Jiaji tuo

Purchased from Liquid Proust
HK natural stored

6.0g, 100 mL gaiwan, 212f, Brita filtered tap

This was a pain to break apart and I ended up with a fair amount of dust and holes in my puer tray… the 6.0g here is all chunks though, so should be an okay session. Have never tried any XG tuos, so this should be an interesting reference tea session

20s rinse

Dry leaf smells slightly sweet, but nothing else of note. Not very aromatic, but I’ve also been noticing that some of my Bovedas need to be rehydrated so this might be dried out. I’m not sure.

Wet leaf smells just like aged sheng slightly mushroomy. But also none of the chunks have really come apart. Let it sit in the gaiwan for a bit before continuing.

8s: a light sweet mushroomy aged sheng taste, very slight menthol. Light sweet aftertaste. A warming feeling

10s: good aged light mushroomy woody taste, a hint of what might’ve been bitterness in its youth. A vegetal/minty and slight sweet aftertaste.

10s: slight sour medicinal aged mushroomy taste. Slight sweet aftertaste. Nothing special here but this is really easy drinking. If not for the pain of breaking up a tuo (some sessions probably will be majority fannings…) and slight annoyance at the rising cost, I would love to stock up on these for years to come.

10s: slight smoky bitterness atop the general aged taste. Cooling minty aftertaste with a nice bit of sweetness. Slight aroma mouth and upper throat.

12s: stronger sweet medicinal along with the usual sour mushroomy aged taste. Slight menthol and cooling aftertaste

12s: a slight sour rubbery taste. Leaves a drying feeling on tongue. Slight crushed mint aspect to it.

10s: light, nothing exciting

15s: light, mushroomy slight sour, but also slight sweetness. Tinge of astringency.

18s: generic aged sheng taste, very light medicinal bitterness. Slight cooling minty sweetness in aftertaste.

30s: color is still decent, but taste is pretty light, probably owing to the nature of a choppy factory blend. Will probably cap this session and thermos soon.

1 min.: surprisingly sweet woodiness. Slight hint of bitterness. Some drying, but fades pretty quickly.

1 min: light in taste, drying on tongue, but sweet aftertaste that turns into an almost wood chip like character. Sort of odd, not sure what to make of it.

2 min. 10s: Light taste, but still decently sweet aftertaste

2 min. 30s: similar

3 min. 10s: light herbal aged taste

5 min.: pretty light and not evolving much at this point. Will thermos remainder

Overall: some warming on the first steep, but slight warming comes and goes with the rest.

I like this far more than I expected. Also this steeped out for much longer than I expected from the other Xiaguans I’ve tried. ’03 must have been a good year.
Anyway, 36c/g isn’t terribly far fetched for a sheng in a nice spot with nearly 18 years of aging since this was produced back in December of ’03, but it’s painful knowing how cheap these were even a few years back. Someone has to pay for the prime HK real estate, I guess.

A Taiwan stored version that had some traditional storage on it. There are hints of the strorage in the first cup. Very small touch of bitter hardly there. A little drying that goes fairly to sweet quickly. Second cup brings more of the bitter note that rounds the corner with some camphor and mintiness hiding in there as well.
I don’t get the thickess as I do with some teas but this coats the mouth and feels a bit slippery for a few seconds on the tongue. Some mintiness but the Camphor on this is really nice. Good to find a tea that has some storage that doesn’t wash it out completely. I am probably getting the bitter as a harder hit since I was brewing the scraps of a few cakes up. Def a good one if you want to explore puerh a bit more. Some of the older factory cakes are way better and less pricey than most of the new factory stuff.

2013 Xiaguan Love Forever, Paper Tong, TW stored
Liquid Proust Teas
7.3g, 80mL shuiping, 212f Poland spring water

Curious to see what the hype is all about…

Dry leaf smells pretty dried fruity, but has been stored with my other samples, so that could be it too

10s rinse

Wet leaf is a dark smoky herbal medicinal with a touch of fruit, so essentially all the good aged sheng hallmarks. Something about is reminiscent of gasoline but not quite there

8s: bitter citrus tinged medicinal in the vein of the TCM stomach pain medicine my parents would make me drink as a kid. Aftertaste has a slight mint hint on the edges of sweetness.

12s: similar, but with a deeper medicinal bitterness. Leaves mouth and teeth a little dry, with a crisp sugary aftertaste, but is very fleeting.

18s: Bitterness in the TCM medicine aspect is very strong. Not much aftertaste, still drying.

22s: similar vein but a touch of fruitiness to complement what was there. Not much in the way of aftertaste… given that I leafed on heavier side and am left w abt 60-65mL per steep after accounting for leaf displacement, I can’t say I’m super impressed with this so far. I did probably set my expectations too high given how much hype is around LFPT though. As of this steeping, I would not purchase a cake (the lame cheesy wrapper is so tempting though I gotta say… all my other cake wrappers are on the boring side), though I’m curious to see how this will change over time and if the bitterness and drying will fade any. Granted, the maocha is from 2003, so it’s already aged quite a bit. Am feeling some jitters from caffeine, but also some calming effect. Not much in the way of warming or other effects that I might’ve been expecting from the qi, so pretty light in this one

30s: in between steeps I read through Shah8 and Oolong Owl’s notes. I smelled the leaves and I agree that there is a plummy aspect, though light. This aspect is something I’ve smelled before in aged sheng leaves but I’ve never noted it because it’s fairly subtle to me (probably would’ve just noted a slight woody fruity and left it there) and I wouldn’t have been able to distinctly point it out without reading other’s notes on it. It’s one of those things that you can’t unsee I suppose. I guess I am still sort of dense when it comes to this type of thing because the only time I’ve noted plums is when I was bowled over with the association from aged oolongs.
Taste is still medicinal, though less bitter and more of a forward fruity aspect. Something slightly crisp sugar and floral in the brief aftertaste.

40s: lightened, though with crisper aftertaste

1 min. 30s: still steeps a nice color but not much taste to it except a fruity bitterness

4 min.: something about this smell reminds me of tart apple skin. Still a light taste like before. Will do one more steep and thermos remainder

10 min.: quite bitter again. into the thermos this goes

Overall: Good texture overall, though this is something that is usually hard to evaluate for me due to usually using tap and getting thinner brews. I’m glad I never blind bought a cake, since the number of times I’ve felt tempted to is far greater than I care to admit. The bitter medicinal draws up more or less not too pleasant of connotations for me, and it was definitely the most drying tea I’ve had in quite a while, which was none too pleasant. Perhaps I would’ve been more generous if I hadn’t come in with such high expectations but that’s the downside of reading too many favorable reviews beforehand

2011 XG Huang Jin Yun 下关黄金韵 (simplified) or 下關黃金韻 (traditional)
From LiquidProustTeas, ordered as part of golden Xiaguan sampler
212f, Brita filtered tap, 6.6g, 100 mL gaiwan
Dry leaf has a light mushroomy smell
10s rinse
wet leaf has something of a burnt wood, campfire-y smell. Dark, but not nearly as forward or as crisp as a lapsang souchong might be.
7s: herbaceous and cooling, leaving a slight minty edge on the tongue. Lightly woody and mushroomy
11s: definitely brisk as LP’s description said. A bitter note appears that fades into the same herbaceous, cooling, and mushroomy profile overall
15s: less bitter, more rounded. More cooling with the mint edge sort of way, but less herbaceous and mushroomy.
25s: bitter woody mushroom. The minty edge is much lightened and takes on an almost sweet aspect
31s: losing steam. A bit drying.
1 min: woody water with an edge. Tossing into thermos.
Overall: Glad I finally got around to trying this one. Need to get better at sample organization, as I have unintentionally built up a sample backlog that probably rivals my actual tea collection, which is a little sad for me. slight caffeine buzz. Would recommend to leaf heavier on this one. A very affordable aged tea (pressed from 2003 maocha) if you like this profile, and probably hard to beat for the price + age + HK storage (from what I can tell anyway, and I believe LP sourced from Cloud’s Teahouse iirc). Not a personal favorite, but I can’t say I particularly dislike it either.

7.2g, 100 mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, 212f or just off the boil

5s rinse

dry aroma is a bit earthy

wet aroma just like a sheng, not much else I could pick up. tea smell has a bit of mushroom and age, but that could just be my cha hai starting to accumulate aged smells (oops)

5s: slightly dried fruity in the aftertaste. initial taste is a bit peppery, then slight sweet in taste and aftertaste.

3s: mildly sweet

5s: brew darkened. darker medicinal notes creep in, with hint of astringency and cool lingering feel.

10s: same as before. less sweet, more of a peppery bite in slight medicinal undertones

12s: bitterness is slight, but present.

20s: bitter

did some more steepings, but this one was iffy for me, as the bitterness was a bit much. Even the thermos brew overnight didn’t remove bitterness, but merely lightened it and thickened brew w/ slight bit of grainyness/peanut-y of thermos sheng. Probably needs more aging to take off more of the harsh edges.

I’ve got and love the 2006 version of this. So I’m comparing the age really at this point. I purchased these from King Tea Mall and they appear to be fairly ‘dry stored’.

Still pretty raw and bitter, this doesn’t have the ‘baked goods’ flavours present in the older cakes. I haven’t let this ‘air out’ either. I just couldn’t resist chipping off a chunk to brew up.

The compression isn’t rock hard, but it’s tight and you can see some nice silver haired buds present throughout the cake. No green remains.

I’m steeping it today in a little 90ml porcelain gaiwan and I used 4.5g of leaves. Boiling spring water with a quick 5-sec rinse.

The initial steepings are mild grassy and floral. The scent from the lid is strongly one of honey or honeysuckle flowers. The leaf smell is musty and sweet but without any fermentation whiff. Very clean.

Somewhat typical XG flavours are exhibited, but it is initially mildly sweet, hay-grassy and floral. After steep 4 it starts turning more sour and leathery and is very reminiscent of stuffed vine leaves with the mild and pleasant astringency of olive stones.

These later leaf smells remind me of stables and a wet spring day.

The vine-leaf and olives would lend themselves well to a good Mediterranean meal.

The body on this isn’t thick at all but is smooth and the broth is clear and a glowing orange/amber.

I’ll stick to drinking my way through my 2006 stack (for a few years). But this is a favourite ‘daily drinker’ class from XiaGuan and I’m happy that I have a stack ageing. If you like the more savoury and bitter notes this would be a winner.

4 out of 5 for me.

A quick review on this. I possess just one of these ‘premium’ 250g tuo and I should have ordered more. I just noticed the price double, don’t you hate when that happens? It’s mildly irritating.

It’s made of decent early spring material from 2007 and has aged very nicely.

I tested it in both Duan’ni and Zhu’ni pots – the Duan’ni polishes off any edge, but this tea has hardly any of that.

I’m looking, in my glass, at what resembles a thick-robed brandy.

Silky and full-bodied, with a soft in the mouthfeel.

The flavour begins with hints of straw and leather but gets more starchy and progresses toward a mild-sweetness very reminiscent of stewed pears (or maybe softened peaches or apricots) with a little demerara sprinkled on top.

Mildly fruity, but without any tartness or sign of sourness. Possibly a bit of an almond-skin or walnut astringency in the later steeps.

It also just keeps going… I’m on brew 12 now? I lost count after 9.

This really is very drinkable and would be a classy every day tea.

It isn’t punchy at all, Though not ‘thick’, it’s definitely full in body and plenty of this silky body holds through all of the brews which is fairly rare. In my experience (so far) this usually fades away far more noticeably.

I’ve added this to the list for future buys and I’m on my first brew, so I’d call this a very positive first impression. (I’ll edit this if I get bored of it or change my mind).

4 to 5-star tea and a solid ‘would recommend’.

This is quite nice. It has the typical Xiaguan sweet and smoky profile. It seems a little less pungent and a little easier on the palate than the 2006 Te Ji that is my main Xiaguan reference. Very cheap and great value.

I’m on a bit of a ‘tuo’ bender…

This is a very fine example. It’s like honey and baked sweet pastry on the after-breath. Not a typical smokey and leathery Xiaguan tuo. Most similar to the ‘golden ribbon’ but this is sweeter.

10 to 12 decent infusions.

5-star tea. It’s so good in fact, that I immediately bought more.

Ooooh, yeah!
This tea is still pungent and fragrant and has a lot of punch to it, yet it is made from already aged material (from 2008 if I recall correctly). The tea is very tightly compressed, which may explain why it still tastes quite ‘young’. This cake is so tightly packed you could probably send this to the moon and back.
This tea smells beautifully, I mean when you open the wrapper, the smell of nice sheng literally fills the room.
A litlle goes a long way with this fella, though you need to wait till the leaves open up. So maybe a flash steep just to get things going, and then you’re in for a very nice experience (6+ steeps).
Taste is 100% Xia guan to me: a little bitter, a very long aftertaste, round, balanced, yet with quite a lot of punch. Slightly raspy in the throat. So you would probably better start with a smallish leaves/water ratio (like around 4 g. for a 70 ml gaiwan).
Buy it while you can: this will probably age beautifully in an adequate setting. But you can definitely drink this now.

Interesting this tea was listed but not reviewed; at any rate I just tried it. I liked it. It starts in with a bit of smoke, which ramps up on the second infusion and then tapers back off later. That transitions to a sort of char effect as a primary aspect, sort of similar to a heavily roasted oolong (common to really cooked TGY and Wuyi Yancha, just the char part), in late rounds not unlike French Roast coffee, all over a warm, heavy mineral base range. So why did I like that so much, being mainly smoke and char effect? Somehow it was clean and balanced in spite of that, with good complexity and sweetness that compensated, with a promising nice feel and aftertaste effect. I don’t think it’s aged as ready to drink just yet, or at least far from its peak in the version I tried, which probably aged a bit slower for being from Kunming, sold through the Chawang Shop. But I’d still enjoy it just as it is now, and expect it to change quite a bit over the next 3 to 5 years, to finish off transitioning in a nice way. A much longer review version, compared with a Tulin T868 tuocha version:

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.com/2019/05/2011-xiaguan-ft-sheng-cake-and-2007.html