m2193 Send Message

stomach needed a break from puer…

5.8g, 90 mL ZZZ

dry leaf: sharp in a cleaning solution way…

wet: seaweed, light smoke, woody

rinsed once. Tried to make it quick, but unfortunately only can do so much. I’m sure it would’ve been nice, but also did not feel comfortable drinking the rinse of something older than I am.

1st: thick, a bit smoky, vegetal. sour, bitter, some sweet finish reminding me of chinese bakery sweets. more vegetal than usual graham cracker tinged sweetness of roasted oolongs. Leaf still seemed a bit green in the pot, so wonder if it’s just bc wasn’t as heavily roasted.

2. straightforward woody medicinal

3 +4 : long steeps were pretty light, maybe some core plum

thermos’d the rest for two hours and that was an ok woody semi-plummy cup more in line with the usual aged oo profile. Is it good? I guess. I never feel like these are especially worth the money, since at $2.33/g this session was only a dollar cheaper than my favorite sandwich in Boston. I guess this is my version of starbucks and avocado toast to get flamed for

5.5g, 90 mL ZZZ

wet: fruity, smoke, tart, medicinal

1. smoke, plum, floral, berries, bitter underlying. salivating

2. a bit more green. Slight bitter, but sweet ending. A bit of tartness and aftertaste in throat

3. good texture, gripping. some bitterness and sour.

4. thinner, greenish bitter dull taste w floral edges

5. broadly smoky, some sweet in finish

6-8. leaf-y taste like usual.

I moved my sample to my 30c hotbox and that seems to have enhanced it a bit. I still don’t think this tea speaks to me in particular, but maybe I need to stop hate drinking it expecting it to radically change since it wasn’t cheap…

5.5g, 135 mL zini

wet: medicinal, sweet, nutty

1. sweet, creamy, slight underlying bitter medicinal

2. similar. core warmth

3. slight sour note. Can see why people describe it as plummy

4 + 5: similar

moved to thermos after, since 4 and 5 were long steeps but not extracting much. after a few hours had a nice cup: grainy rice (maybe red bean paste adjacent?) sweetness, plum finish. Filled again and left it overnight but the second cup wasn’t as good.

This is pretty good, and for much cheaper than aged oolongs, scratches the same itch. While the same price as the 90s Baolan, this gives more of a dessert tea vibe. The Baolan is more woody and darker. I like both for different reasons and would be happy to own more of either, assuming the Baolan is restocked.

While fairly gentle upfront, caffeine is definitely still there. I drank around 4 PM and finished the thermos around 9 PM and then couldn’t fall asleep until after 3 AM and didn’t feel too great the next day.

5.6g, 90 ml ZZZ

wet leaf: sweet, toasty, smoke, vegetal, sour

1st: ginger aroma? straw taste, soft bitter. Candy sweet fills the mouth after and sits in throat. Stilling, downing

2nd: ginger, sour, straw again. some warmth

3rd: more bland. mushroom finish.

4th: nice texture still. medicinal, mushroom-y, and floral finish

5: mushroom, some bitter in finish

6. medicinal

7. sweet water

mugged it after and it was still nice tea water.

I think some of the nice texture has to do with water as my Brita filter really needs changing but I’ve been lazy. For whatever reason, teas have a better texture now. Credit where it’s due however— this tea is very engaging, and I don’t say that lightly. Unfortunately, the price point about matches. Hou De posted this as a 400g cake, but I think it’s a 357g, since mine came in at 330g. At any rate, at around the same price/g (~$1.30) as the BYH 04 Yiwu, I much prefer this. Need to try the DTH 04 Yiwu again and see how it stacks up, since none of these are particularly cheap.

Learned from my mistakes brewing the OWT DHP yesterday. Again, used the TWL 70 ml thin gaiwan since it cools almost immediately and this one isn’t roasted enough to do well with a ton of heat.

5.7g, boiling. quick steeps, mostly 5-10s. Got 5 decent steeps before it faded and i moved it to a mug. Some floral notes, cocoa powder, not as vegetal with the decreased heat. Probably the best session with this tea for me so far, but I guess that’s not saying much.

6g in TWL 70 ml thin gaiwan, which was kind of a mistake lol. used boiling water, and steeped for too long. 1st steep was meant to be a rinse, and was nice, medium dark fruity whatever. 2nd was much too bitter, but I still drank it. Decent sweetness in background. Moved to a mug and was happy enough with it.

Edit: updating this. after some digging, I’m pretty sure this is the Jing Chang as the smoky note appears to be unusual across other CYHs, but notable for this one.

5.5g, 90 mL ZZZ, filtered tap

wet leaf: wood, medicinal, retired smoke

overall: wood, smoke, medicinal, bitter, leaf sap, and something like tires. Without a label, I would’ve pegged this for a really nice Xiaguan but less obviously BBQ than XG can be. Again, a nice floral in aftertaste like other CYHs, but bitter lingers a bit too. Caffeinating, some focusing and not particularly uncomfortable compared to last week’s SZCQ but was still pretty hungry after.

This was acquired in a sample swap with a tea friend but I can’t find any mentions of an 05 Jiang Cheng pressing by CYH online. I saw listings for the 05 jing chang hao, and there’s apparently an 07 Jiang Cheng, but then again, CYH pressings aren’t well documented online, at least in english that I could find.

6.1g, 130 mL zini, mixed water

wet: wood, smoke, sour, berries, medicinal

1. bitter upfront. somewhat thinner than expected, maybe ratio too low? bright sweetness in finish. dry wood, medicinal

2. similar. maybe a water issue miscalculating, or ratio is really throwing me off compared to previous times trying. fruity finish in throat and on breath

3. kind of dull. not unpalatably bad, but not terribly attention catching. too many variables switched up: pot, ratio, water. ended up moving to a mug after because I wasn’t too happy with it this time.

Mattcha quips somewhere that shah reviews teas more favorably when he owns them. I hope this is not the case for me, but this is generally a common cognitive bias and I probably have the same issue lol. I don’t think I’ll end up caking this.

5.5g, ZZZ, water mix

KL wong calls this the big bang somewhere so safe to say I went in expecting a lot.

wet leaf: citrus, medicinal, vanilla

1. slight bitter, woody sour, medicinal, sweet floral on finish.

2. similar taste, deeper floral lingers in throat in finish that seems to be common across the CYHs i’ve tried.

3. tastes like earl grey, but with an exceptional floral finish. not sure if the chunk I pried off was just bud heavy or sth

4. similar earl grey. Had to stop here.

The tea could’ve kept going, but somatic effect wise, very much uncomfortable. I had a somewhat lighter lunch than usual so maybe my fault, but tried finishing a circuit workout a few hours later and almost collapsed. The leaves definitely look aged and fairly reddened, and taste is not especially young but the feeling needs a lot more time to settle.

I bought my cake from Jade leaf several months back for $570 or so I think, so not cheap. Not that this has ever been a particularly cheap cake, but generally westerners buying more expensive cakes seem to be looking for things hinging on ready to drink. The description mentions that “This tea has mellowed into a satisfying deep and dark woody profile.” and if it’s the same source, I would caution anyone thinking it’s a drink-now type of tea. I don’t know what TWL’s source now is like either, since I bought a QC a long time ago and now I can’t remember where I left it. Apparently they’ve offered several different ones as well, so sometimes just a roll of the dice.

5.5g, 90 mL ZZZ, water mix
wet leaf: maybe camphor? Have seen some people compare it to tiger balm, but this is the first time I’ve noted this for any tea i think.

Starts w woody, baking spices, earthy notes and subtly sweet finish. Taste overall on the lighter side, but when pushed some soft bitterness. Some grounding feeling.

Overall, I’m inclined to think that there’s no issue with longevity, since for something like the BYH 04 Yiwu, the stewed leaf taste comes through after five or so steeps. Not the case here, taste is just a bit lighter overall, so sample is likely a bit too dried out/sleepy. Was looking forward to this, but fell slightly short of expectations. Given the drastic differences in experience when the liao fu san cha was dried out vs. rehydrated, I will let it rest and hydrate more before re-assessing.