2015 Pin

Yum. I don’t have much to add to all the wonderful flavor notes here, but I enjoyed this gong fu session much-much. I am beginning to feel cozily familiar with the young-to-middle-aged sheng taste of (vaguely) apricot/astringency/hay. There are shengs that hum more and less beautifully in that range, in the way “oolong taste” can leave me waiting at the bus stop or vibrate me right into a heap of pleasure. This is Vibrational Sheng Taste.

Of course: I say vibrational and then go and admit that I didn’t ackshually get much vibey qi outta the thing. Okay by me, though — the flavor profile and steeps-for-days kept me pretty darn happy.

I do kind of wonder what this is, right? I find W2T’s marketing incredibly visually and emotionally appealing, but then equally frustrating from an educational and knowledge-building perspective: What regions and factories do I find delicious? Well, uh…

/points at sexy-lip bing

/shrugs

derk. thank you once again for your generous sharing. <3

Finishing my 10g sample.
The dry leaves smell earthy and slightly fruity. After a quick rinse the aroma gets really strong and vibrant. Dried fruits are the main element. Apricot, raisin, a bit of wood, tobacco. The aroma is one of the most high-pitched and intense I’ve got from a raw puer.

1
Liquor: light camphor, wood, TCM, dried fruits. tobacco, medium body. Pungency. Slight bitterness. Almost exotic fruits.

2
Thicker body. bittersweet, juicy. Pungent.

3
Vanilla. More bite. There’s something in common with Post Truth. Warming feeling and brain massage.

4
Proceeding towards clarity. Bittersweet, thick. Strong body feeling. Not so intense Huigan.

5 and 6
Pungency, perfume, wild herbs. relaxing. slightly more drying.

I think this could be a good tea as an introduction to aged puer. Easy to like.

Pin is a very nice production from W2T for a reasonable price as well. In spite of being about 6 years old (on average), it seems to be aging quite fast and I would definitely place it in the semi-aged category. 

The aroma of the leaves is not too complex or pungent at this stage. Main notes are those of forest, some nuts and fermented apple (which also appears in the taste). However, as the description mentions as well, drinking the tea bring aboard a very heavy fragrance that also dominates a big chunk of the aftertaste. 

The taste profile is mineral, sweet, woody and coppery with notes of hops, cape gooseberry, alpine flowers and rock sugar. The aftertaste is warming with a strong spicy sweetness mixed in with a sort of quinine bitterness and mouthfeel. It is very interesting but also hard to describe in words. With teas like this, it pays off to take breaks and pay attention.

The dark orange liquor has a medium body and a foamy, buttery texture. Astringency is fairly strong, but not in an unpleasant way I’d say. I found the cha qi to be energizing and just slightly mind-numbing.

This is an incredibly potent tea, I wasn’t really prepared for this and used my normal sheng paramaters, resulting in an almost undrinkably bitter first steep (though with intense floral huigan). After adjusting my parameters the tea was all around very enjoyable and complex with tropical fruitiness, wildflower notes and a mentholy mouthfeel. Despite this I wouldn’t recommend the tea simply because of its pricetag. It’s a good tea for sure but I don’t think it’s worth 40 cents a gram.

I have a ton of raw pu’erh to get through. Good thing pu’erh stores well. o.O

The dry leaves smelled of honey, wood, and hay. Different colored dry leaves from silver leaves to medium green to brown leaves. The liquor is aromatic and smelled of honey and leaves, it was a very light amber color. The taste profile began with a slight bitterness, never a put-off type bitterness but one that felt it belonged there. The slight bitterness came with a light, almost tart feeling on the tongue, you could also feel the sides of your tongue react to the light astringency. There were lots of fruit notes, mainly citrus, stonefruits.

As I progress, it morphed into a thick, viscous, almost syrupy honey apricot-peach tea, and then add a little tobacco and smoke. It became less bitter, and sweeter. Lots of mouth action with this tea, super long sweet finish. Towards the end, a wee bit of bitterness would come in for a bit, but again, not in a negative type of way as it remained balanced from the 3rd or 4th infusion but that long sweet finish was ever so present. :)

6g, 110ml, 205F, rinse, 12 steeps: 10s, 13s, 16s, 19s, 22s, 25s, 30s, 35s, 40s, 45s, 1m, 2m

Finished my tiny sample. It still felt like spending a bunch of time with someone who wears many products w/ a subtle synthetic fragrance, strong enough to be noticed but not distinct enough to be identified. The taste and scent are not really my speed, but the energy, as others have noted, is upbeat. Other shengs can make you feel weird or too relaxed. This one will have you feeling like you can go socialize with normal people who spend too much time at the mall. It took about an hour for me to get to steep 11 (after which I set aside the leaves to brew grandpa later).

Absolutely phenomenal, hard-hitting, electrifying qi. This tea was liquid uppers, the kind of uppers that don’t have you standing there smacking your lips all night but make you fucking move. First few steeps had me precariously perching the cup in my fingertips and staring deeply into it as my eyebrows and sinuses vibrated with pleasure.

Before I knew it, I was compelled by the HAND OF DERK to put on music. Hard, electronic music. Started off with Bjork – Pluto and I became electrified, every single hair on my body stood on end and I was simultaneously cool and hothothot, sweat streaming off my scalp. URGENT, URGENT. DERK HAS TO MOVE. Played Vitalic – Stamina for what I didn’t know was going to be a warmup to a 17 minute dance-a-thon featuring the masterpiece Planisphère by Justice. Sorry downstairs neighbor, but if I have to put up with your dog barking all day, you can deal with the ceiling squeaking for 20 minutes. I know you’re home.

So, the other qualities of the tea, right? It’s actually pretty good. I got this as a freebie with my latest White2Tea order. Woot. The sample had a few decent chunks and loose leaf but also a lot of powdery bits. Probably should’ve used a strainer. The warmed leaf smelled strongly of lemon and apricot. The rinsed leaf was very choppy in form and had additions in aroma of wood, powdered sugar, florals, straw and faint smoke. Later on this moved into full on antique store, maybe one that gets a good breeze through it. No mustiness.

The liquor was fragrant and amber-gold in color. It started off light and tart, brothy and smooth with a pleasant astringency in the throat and a complementary bitterness in the back. It went down easily with tastes of minerals and lemon, moving into an apricot-lemon-cream aftertaste. By the third steep of 10s, some herbs, pine and a cooling sensation arrived, with the lemon getting stronger. Toward the end, the aftertaste turned into a light honey. I’d say the main theme of this tea is bright, tart, and lemony but also with a kind of background gravitas.

A few days ago in another review I alluded to the fact that I split with my long-term partner a few weeks ago. Earlier today, I started feeling like myself again. I can’t even put into words how much this tea amplified that feeling for me when I had this session later in the afternoon. A tea that makes me want to move and dance at this point in my life is very much welcome. I think this would be an excellent tea had moments before a strenuous workout or run, or if you just want to dance with yourself.

5.5g in 100ml, 100C.
Early steeps were really thick and syrupy and really pleasant in texture. Doesn’t even roll around the mouth easily because of how thick it is. Immediately had my hair standing on end
There’s some up-front bitterness moving forward and immediate stone fruit huigan, really nice. But…astringency started to set in…
By mid steeps this was really dry and bitter but in an unpleasant way to me. This “formaldehyde” note to me I’m tasting here I’m being told is young “Lincang” character.
Despite that, sticky and pleasant in the mouth. And the qi feels like a tight headband around my head but not in the “tension headache” way.

All in all, I’m actually leaving this one without a score. It is clearly good(dare I say great?) tea, at an affordable price. But, its not something that I want to drink right now, because that formaldehyde note makes me think too much of anatomy lab, and astringency is too high, for my weenie mouth. Pick it up if Lincang is for you!

Been a while since I’ve done one of these…

Opened my humidor to grab some tea before work today, I like taking younger sheng because I “grandpa Style” brew at work and I’d prefer drinking tea leaves that are in tact and not in pieces.

So took of what I thought was a regular amount of leaves for the day. Threw it in and pour boiled water on it (not very careful with metrics for grandpa drinking). First brew was like a few shots of espresso. Second pour was like doing cocaine. Third pour had me killing the game at work. The rest is history.

All this energy and all this flavor. So much leaf, maybe too much. So hot, so cold, so sweaty. All of this, but not without much bitterness you’d find in Menghai type teas. I think I need to get some more of this tea for the simple thrill of Grandpa brews at work. This is a winner and is still sweet and fruity towards the tail end of the brew sesh. All the while, maintaining a steady flow of astringency to coat the pallet for hours on end.

Grandpa Style- Approved
Gong Fu Style- Approved
Helps you relax ‘Style’- Rejected

Backlog/Tea Swap/Sipdown

I must admit that the teas which are “high end” teas like this make me avoid going to a companies website and blowing a hole in my wallet just for a “meh” cup of tea. Overall, it was pretty “basic” and “boring” after a while. Toward the beginning of the session, the tea was without much “oomph” or flavor. I had to increase the temperature to 205 F to get anything from the leaf; which resulted in too much bitterness. I reduced the temperature back to 195 F after a while, but after the 9th steep, it sort of died away. Is this worth the $70/cake? For me, no, but I can see how some people may enjoy this one….I apologize to the person who had swapped this out with me, but I still appreciate the swap, despite my hardness toward the tea…

PS. Regardless of my initial “points” awarded to this or any tea, I will always add 5 points to the tea only when it is swapped and/or gifted as a courtesy to my tea friends!