Although my overall level of happiness with teas from thechineseteashop is reasonably high, there are some teas which did not thrill me too much. Let's give them a few lines here too.
2003 Tung Qing
This tea is exceptionally cheap, given its age. While I enjoy drinking good and not cheap tea, the delight of finding things which are cheap and good at the same time is large.
The dry leaves suggest this tea might be a great find! The aroma is slightly smoky, not too much though, having a nice, sour-ish fruit aroma.
However, that is where the good things end. The aroma of wet leaves is weird, hard and unpleasant. The taste is not much better. The sour-ish fruit, which sometimes means lovely overripe fruit in taste, leads to not that pleasant sourness. The smokiness is quite unpleasant and upsets my stomach. The taste is not brutally unpleasant (only unpleasant), however the lack of anything positive sends this tea to hell. Actually, there is a sort of good mouthfeel. But the long-term aftertaste is not pleasant at all and I eventually have to wash my mouth.
When one does short steepings, this tea is drinkable. But why to drink it when one has kilos of better tea?
The dry leaves suggest this tea might be a great find! The aroma is slightly smoky, not too much though, having a nice, sour-ish fruit aroma.
However, that is where the good things end. The aroma of wet leaves is weird, hard and unpleasant. The taste is not much better. The sour-ish fruit, which sometimes means lovely overripe fruit in taste, leads to not that pleasant sourness. The smokiness is quite unpleasant and upsets my stomach. The taste is not brutally unpleasant (only unpleasant), however the lack of anything positive sends this tea to hell. Actually, there is a sort of good mouthfeel. But the long-term aftertaste is not pleasant at all and I eventually have to wash my mouth.
When one does short steepings, this tea is drinkable. But why to drink it when one has kilos of better tea?
1990s CNNP puerh cake
This tea was interesting from the first moment.
First, it is probably a "diamond grade" - Xiaguan presses golden ribbons into their "premium" tuochas - here, some glittering things are pressed into the cake (these may be seen for example in the middle of the first image).
Second, when does one meet overripe banana in puerh? I did, this time. A mix of rather dry agedness and banana seems promising.
I must admit that I thought the tea to be interesting, definitely, as the banana is in the taste too. However I did not find it to be too pleasant. There is agedness, there is sort of sour overripe banana and plums manifest themselves in the aftertaste. Although all these features are interesting, they do not go that well together, in my opinion. Future aging may improve it though, bringing more harmony to the tea.
First, it is probably a "diamond grade" - Xiaguan presses golden ribbons into their "premium" tuochas - here, some glittering things are pressed into the cake (these may be seen for example in the middle of the first image).
Second, when does one meet overripe banana in puerh? I did, this time. A mix of rather dry agedness and banana seems promising.
I must admit that I thought the tea to be interesting, definitely, as the banana is in the taste too. However I did not find it to be too pleasant. There is agedness, there is sort of sour overripe banana and plums manifest themselves in the aftertaste. Although all these features are interesting, they do not go that well together, in my opinion. Future aging may improve it though, bringing more harmony to the tea.
On the second tasting, the banana was less notable, but the tea still felt slightly "weird".
1995 Fu Zhuan
After the quite lovely 2007 CNNP Fu brick, I eagerly expected this Fu brick. However, it is all-around worse. It feels too dry and powdery - both when dry leaves are considered (they contain a lot of twigs and mess and fall apart), but the dryness and powderiness is in the taste too. There is a pleasant taste of dried fruit, true, but it is not as pronounced as in the 2007 brick. The liquor tastes vapid and sort of hollow, as if the tea was over zenith.
Coming from worse material than the 2007 brick, it is not a surprise that this tea is not as good... Still, I wanted it to be good, wondering how such an half-aged Fu brick would taste. Not bad, to be sure, but not shining either.
I too have had some mixed experience with the teas from the Chinese Tea Shop. I bought a great 1996 menghai orange mark from them, but I see that it is now much more expensive than it was when I purchased it. By far my greatest and most happy surprise from this vendor has been their aged Tie Luo Han. It is a fairly standard, commercial brand of Yan Cha, but age has treated it very well. Great qi, medicinal and herbal notes, and a very fair price. I highly recommend trying, if you ever try oolong.
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