2015 Bosch by TwoDog (white2tea)

First - I didn't expect that if I post something about tea again, that there would be people reading it again - seems I was wrong, so thanks for staying, dear readers! It's always difficult to see how many people actually care when most blog readers are fairly silent. I used to think that there would be lively discussions over teas at blogs, but it seems the drinkership is fairly fragmented and the shared experience might not be that large. Well, anyway, the more teas we drink/write about, the higher the likelihood of an interesting discussion, is it not?

Now, to the tea at hand (actually, "at a teapot" is more appropriate). Today's tea comes from TwoDog of White2tea and it is called simply "Bosch". I wonder why - when I hear Bosch, I think of the maker of vacuum cleaners. Anyone expecting such thing in a teapot would be sorely disappointed - this tea does not suck at all! Rather, I seem to have sucked the nicely sized sample out quicker than I'd like. Or maybe Bosch stands for the painter?

Apologies for the fact that only smaller leaves and fannings are shown below - the main chunk I've got was, of course, proper big fat puerh leaves. Unfortunately, the light, in combination with my work schedule, didn't permit me to take better pictures of the chunk before I drank it.

When it's nice and sunny, but 5°C only, you appreciate the tea is actually a hot drink.

And this is how the colour is in the 1st and 3rd steepings respectively:

I find it really interesting how the White2tea website says that the tea has light flavor and fragrance - maybe it has developed a lot from when the description was pressed. Light flavo[u]r? Anything but now.

Especially when using a reasonable amount of leaves, I found the tea bursting with flavours. It has a very rich, solid base of honey and sweet barley (remarkable in such a young tea - and it's not an over-accelerated processing), which are fairly obvious even when little amount of leaves is used. When more leaves are present, we get strong fruitiness (peaches, ripe grapes) and a sort of nice fragrant woodiness. Also, the tea makes you feel its bitterness, which can be really brutal and citrusy (very much Man'E type). The taste tends to hold very, very long in the mouth and keeps its main components; it's not transforming wildly (which is good, given how great it tastes). I feel that in initial steepings, the tea feels more Menghai and later, it gets more Yiwu-like, with the dark, dense dark green floweriness.

Irrespectively on whether this one is steeped light or heavier, it's got a very powerful mouthfeel - it numbs the tongue and leaves the whole oral cavity buzzing - fantastic and very clear (I'd recommend this as a tea that consistently shows such features for those who want to experience them).

The force is strong with this one... you do feel that it's not just an ordinary drink. I found it energising and helping me to focus and calm down. It's that feeling when the countless thoughts swirling around your head go down and hide in the soil and you're left with a single thing to concentrate on. I find it extremely interesting how different teas have "energy", but how it can be very different - from the one as Bosch has, via completely stoning and mind-numbing, to activating and sensation-sharpening ones (and the observations were made using different initial conditions, I think there indeed is an influence of the teas themselves, not just the feeling I have when I start drinking).

I felt the tea was similar to Xizihao's Golden Brick in several aspects, it will be interesting to observe them over time.

Overall, all the sessions I had with this tea were simply supercalifragilisticexpialidocius - I heartily recommend this to each and every one. It might not be the cheapest tea ever ($119 per 200g or $16 per 25g), but I think it was definitely worth it and I was more than fully satisfied. It's fantastic, really.

Cwyn has written about this tea recently too, I recommend the article! http://deathbytea.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/2015-bosch-white2tea.html

2015 Dark Forest from Tea Urchin

Hello again, dear readers. I've got some good green stuff from Tea Urchin and TwoDog recently, so let's have a look at some of them, shall we?

Today's tea is the Dark Forest from Tea Urchin, a small production from a small region in Yiwu, near Wangong.

Before the actual tea, thank you, Tea Urchin, for the lovely wood-fired cup you've sent me!

It's actually a really nice cup, especially for roasted oolongs. Surprisingly, it seem to work well with young puerh too - I thought porcelain would be better, but the difference did not seem to be a major one to me when I did a side-to-side comparison.

Now, the tea:

We can draw two main conclusions here. First, the tea is as furry as a cat in winter - nice. Second, there is sometimes sun in Oxford. Especially the latter might come as a surprise to some, but it's true.

The first impression that struck me when drinking the Dark Forest was that it's fairly mature-feeling, given it's a 2015. You don't get that "fresh off the press" aroma/sourness from it, rather, it's clear it's nice and high-qualityYiwu right from the start.

The taste is indeed a lot like Dark Forest, I though this especially when brewing it competition-style. There is ample "dark green Yiwu" - the usual mixture of floral tastes, with an interesting component of apricots, which isn't that frequent in Yiwu teas. The most characteristic property of the taste would be the deep, powerful sweetness. Combined with the present astringency, I feel a bit as if somebody lined my mouth with super-fine sandpaper, where the crystals are of cane sugar.

While being fairly astringent, the tea is not very bitter. Slight sourness is to be found in the later phase of the aftertaste, but it's not off-putting.

The taste and aftertaste casually transform into coolness and buzz - it's cool indeed!

I thought the Dark Forest to be a fairly calming tea when you're inclined to be calmed; gaiwaning it along work did not give it enough justice, it's not like some teas that just take your attention no matter what. On the other hand, sitting in a sofa, listening to soothing sound of violoncello, warm amp valves being the only light in the room, I enjoyed Dark Forest immensely. Or, taking it outside, watching small bugs moving around in the grass and sipping DF, its close-to-nature character harmonised with the experience perfectly too.

I consider this to be a very fine tea, both in the quality being refined, as well as somewhat gentle and requiring attention to be fully appreciated. It's not a "I've got to get this" tea, as it's not cheap, but it is very, very good.

2011 Ba Xian, 2001 Private order 7542, 2015 Chawangpu Hekai, 2015 Chawangpu Laoyu, 2015 Chawangpu Mengsong, 2005/15 Chawangpu Bulang \endofline

Hello all, my tea friends. The times of long musings about one tea are gone (it happens in my head only and it's too internally connected to be easy enough to write down), but that does not prevent me from sharing what I drink and what's my overall opinion.

All of today's teas come from Chawangshop.

First, let's start with an oolong - 2011 Ba Xian
With Dan Cong, my knowledge does not extend far beyond Mi Lan and too-green-for-me-to-like Dan Congs, so I was curious to try the Ba Xian. And I am not disappointed - the pouch with it is almost gone now, unfortunately. It is a really thick tea with good rocky character, not unlike Wuyi teas. It's less fragrant/orchid/lychee than good Mi Lans, but it's perhaps more compact and rounded, a great mixture of rock, fire, peaches and lychee. The fire feeling seems surprising after four years since the making, but there it is.

When oversteeped, it packs a fairly brutal bitterness and astringency - but what is crucial, it is free of these when done right (unlike low-grade Dan Congs that seem to be invariably somewhat harsh). I loved this Ba Xian - it's thick, luxurious and ballsy.

2001 Private order 7542
I'm sipping this again and it brought me to writing this post actually, as I just wanted to share how lovely this tea is. Dry storage done right it is (China + Malaysia storage), at the same time, it's not sour or thin, so it should not offend any non-extremist in the ways of storage. I might not have the best experience with "private orders from affiliated factories", but this is a pleasant exception.

What I find most striking is the great feeling of presence and camphory cooling in mouth, that I haven't felt for a long time - it's indeed very powerful and good. Also, the tea is deeply calming (sort of stoning to be honest) and feels rich and complex, with all sorts of tastes from various woods, longan, camphor, slight aged earthiness, ending in a strong and clear huigan. It is actually a lot like "classical" 7542, except (heresy altert) even nicer in some aspects.

It is very smooth, sweet and warm. A good tea. $200 was a lot years back, but not anymore - it's a really good price.

2015 Chawangpu Hekai
"Hekai", when pronounced in Czech means "they pant" or "they moan". My stomach sure did moan a bit after this one - it's brutal. Old school, bitter, strong, unforgiving - but clean, smoke-free and fairly sweet as well. This is like when you sip a bit of en primeur Bordeaux, astringency curls up your face and when the spasms subside, you say "aye, plenty of potential in this one".

2015 Chawangpu Laoyu
This is a great Bada recipe, made for three consecutive years. It is strong, cheap and very good. When fresh, the Laoyus tend to be slightly smoky, but this goes away after a couple of months and you're rewarded with "proper puerh" - not a mellow thing for a namby-pamby esoterist, but a well-transforming strong clean tea - with all three vintages of Laoyu, I felt that the tea is harder than I usually like perhaps, but I always liked them a lot, without necessarily being able to tell why exactly.

Drinking the 2013 one fairly often, I feel it ages really well (unlike the easygoing branch of Bada teas that ages towards something also pleasant, but not really a classical puerh I'd say), it's really sweet and starts to develop slight earthy taste; yum.

2015 Chawangpu Mengsong
Super-hyper-sweet. Actually, this one is so sweet that it feels almost unnatural. It's undoubtedly an interesting tea (and too young to be judged), but even though I enjoyed the sessions with it, it did not captivate me.

2005/2015 Chawangpu Bulang
You probably know the story of loose-aged teas, being pressed in recent years and sold quite cheap. My experience was that they're mostly hollow and no good - the omnipresent feeling of underwhelming when drinking them made me ignore them despite the low price and sometimes nice aspects of taste.

This one is different - it's not hollow, actually, it's a really nice semi-aged Bulang. It might not blow you through the roof with happiness, but it's really rather good. It's sweet, rich, earthy, with some honey in the taste. At $32/200g, I think you get more than you pay for.

I hope to write again soon, I need to get some more tea though!

Reggae tea: 2004 Dehong brick

Heavy, dark, soothing, and stimulating - things that reggae/dub I like shares with this tea. And this isn't just a high-pitched run-of-the-mill voice singing about Jah. It's more like Prince Far I - deep, raspy and rolling forward so that there's no stopping to it... or Congo Natty if we go for recent records.

When you open a bag of this 2004 brick (available for puny $40 per 500g at Chawangshop), you might think that a wizard has teleported your nose into a subterrean cave where you're enclosed by the aroma of earth and water dripping from the ceiling. In other words, the aroma is pretty damp and earthy. I did not have the best of experience with similarly smelling teas from Teaclassico, which not only smelled like clay, but also tasted like that with the added bonus of the fine-sand feeling in mouth that I imagine you might get when chewing clay - it was not a normal level of astringency to be sure.

Here, things get better after (possibly dual) rinse - we're left with a tea that is a real pleasure to drink now. It's properly aging example of originally a no doubt very strong tea. At this really low price, I'd expect a lot of flaws - wateriness, smokines, too strong dampness, or sourness... but no, these things just don't happen. It is instead healthily earthy/woody and fairly sweet, with swift and strong huigan. If you go too generous on leaves (the compression is quite tight so it's easy to do), you'll be reminded that even 11 years old teas that were aged in appropriately humid environment actually can be bitter. Fortunately, if you get a bit lighter on leaves, the tea just becomes more balanced and sweet, without getting weak. Also, the underlying bitterness would have me believe that there is more aging goodness to this tea.

The strength also manifests in the number of steepings that is way above average - 15-20 steepings are absolutely doable (with ca. 7-8g per ca. 150ml teapot) and tasty.

I don't get as much whole-body comforting feeling from this as when I drink nice teas from 90s, but I think that is something that often comes with more age. This is also not to say that this tea is not comforting - it is, exceedingly so! It's just that some teas can go much further.

In aged tea, one pays something for the original material and something for the storage; this is not only the rent for a storehouse, but also the risk of things going wrong. And things can go wrong very easily - too much dryness, too much wetness, unfortunate choice of material, processing problem, etc. - all these things can run an aging tea straight to hell. A good aging process is worth its weight in gold...uh...processes probably don't have weight... Well, you know what I mean. This tea is really cheap - $40 per 500g is not going to get much goodness in the way of young teas now. And imagine the cost of storage and risks of 11 years... no, I really don't think that teas like this one are likely to be available in near future. And what's better - this tea is not just cheap, really. With some teas, I feel that they're probably good for the price, but despite being really cheap, they're not good enough to be fully enjoyable, and I think you don't want to drink teas that are not pleasing you, right? This tea pleases me 100% - I like it independently on the price; when you take the price into account, I can't feel like this is a tea-treasure-seeker's heaven.

David and Goliath of hongcha (and a third one as well)

After a long sample drought, I finally got more new tea. I'm drinking through them now and with a couple of them, I collected enough samples to finally write.

So, I might not be the biggest hongcha fan, but sometimes I like to have it as well and besides, all of three today's hongchas are somewhat unusual).

First one is 2014 Autumn Mengsong Old Tree Organic
Red tea from an established puerh region of Mengsong? Count me in, I thought when I saw it listed. This is a real Goliath of hongcha - the leaves are bigger than anything I've ever seen in this type of tea - it is actually quite fun to see leaves shaped like puerh leaves (no wonder, with Mengsong), but with so different color and texture.

And it is a (gentle) Goliath in mouth too - taste-wise, it is like a high grade rose-like tasting Diang Hong, except:
a) Thicker. Much thicker - and therefore fuller, better, etc. (and my stomach does not complain at all).
b) Way longer tasting - and with a pronounced lingering sweetness on top. No sourness at all. The duration of intense taste and sweetness puts most teas to shame.
c) Better mouthfeel.

Thinking of it, this is probably one of the best red teas I ever had ($7.50 per 100g!) - not that you'll find me drinking it too often as it's not a family of tastes that would be super-close to me,  but I do appreciate its qualities nevertheless. It's like when you prefer brunettes above all - you can still find a blonde attractive, even though she might not make you fly to the moon with excitement...

Uh, glad I'm not working for BBC, for my blog would be probably deleted after this remark...

A second tea is a David, for its leaves are really small, yet it hits hard: It's 2014 Wuyi Jin Jun Mei
The dry leaves do not smell that interesting, it looks like yet another allright small leaved tea... but it's a lot better actually. It might not be as sweet as the previous tea, but the tastes are more to my liking - deep chocolate, nuts, a bit of the Wuyi rocky taste, and some honey sweetness. It's not massively awesome tea, but it is still pretty good - and different enough from other red teas I had to provide me with fun when I drink it.

I guess that if the 2014 Mengsong hongcha is an example of subgenre that I do not like so much, but is great at doing that, I find the 2014 Wuyi hongcha to be a style I like a lot more, but I do not linger on its qualities for as long... if you can't see which one I prefer, then let me assure you that neither do I.

A third hongcha is 2012 Fujian Waishan Xiaozhong, i.e., a Lapsang Souchong that does not come from the original area, but from the region nearby. Well, this tea is a bit of a hit to the myth of "original is best" - it's probably better than most Zhengshan Xiaozhongs I remember having - and this includes the 2013 one also from Chawangshop that's a bit more expensive.

This Lapsang is just so pleasant - after the years, there is almost no smoke, but you get plenty of the dried apricots and generic mixture of dried fruit, riding on a tide of broad sweetness. If you had the 2004 Shui Xian from Essence of Tea, it's this style of taste to a degree.

All in all, this is a really good tea which is likely to please just about any drinker, from casual to hardened puerh veteran.

200? Ailao and 1998 8582 Red Mark comissioned

200? Ailao
This is one of the teas that TwoDog has sent me the ones I've actually ordered. Unlike most other ones, I find this fairly nice. Maybe it's the prior (Ailao) which made me expect something band, smoky, and aggressive. The first impression from the aroma was just that - smoky and aggressive. Fortunately, after that, things did improve. The cigarette-style smoke is more clear in aroma than it is in taste and the taste itself is ok - light, fruity (sort of similar to Chawangpu's purple Baoshan cake), somewhat bitter and astringent. There is not that much going on otherwise though, which is what I suspect to be one of reasons why this tea did not make it among the teas sold by Paul.

1998 8582 Red Mark comissioned
It is slightly unfortunate that after having the 1998 tuocha from teaclassico, that I quite liked, I can't seem to enjoy the rest of the teas I got from them - they seem strangely stored and have off tastes. Such as this 8582. I mean, I never got excited over a 8582, but this one is not only not that interesting, but it feels really strange. The aroma of rinsed leaves seems to be ok at one moment and is intimidating the other moment. The tea is not really rich, nor deep in its character - it's very clay-y and really really astringent (it leaves a smooth sandpaper feeling for minutes). I like a bit of earthiness in my puerh, but this tea does not feel right to me...

One thing can't be denied - the huigan is good though.

2002 Little yellow mark (White2tea)

What is this LYM? Little yellow mark or Little yellow miracle - both are equally valid I'd say.

This is one of the teas you can't really fault. First, it is fairly thick and sweet, in a very "well defined" fashion (imagine the sound reproduction of double bass - it can be either all-over-the-place-boom, or a well focused, if bassy, sound - the sweetness is like the latter in the LYM). At the same time, there is a lot of taste: gentle, but clear. I taste wood (a hint of sourness in it), camphor, but also garden fruit and meadow flowers. It has got a very balanced, smooth, and elegant character indeed. It feels fairly northern to me, perhaps there's a good deal of leaves from Mengku?

Some teas hit hard with a single trait; this LYM takes a different approach, providing many subtler traits that are superbly added together, producing one of the most pleasing teas I had recently. Looking at prices of teas over the internet (ugh!), I find it quite underpriced at $149.

Still alive (with more teas from Chawangshop)

Hello again! Long time no see I guess... I have decided to transform this blog, as I no longer have the compulsion to dissect teas, photograph every piece of sparkling fur on the leaves and such things. I am not living in an interesting region tea-wise, nor do I possess noteworthy knowledge (such as MarshalN) of which to write - so I won't write as much, rather than to inflate my posts with meaningless words.

I still drink tea (lots and lots), but I enjoy it more simply now - I just enjoy it and that's it. So my opinions will be shorter now - we'll see if they're still of some use to some people.

What captured my attention recently? Teas below came in a box from Chawangshop

2014 spring Te Ji Huilong
One cannot resists when his beloved wife asks for some more green tea for work-time-drinking, to provide a change from the ubiquitous puerh. I picked this one hearing good things about Huilong and it certainly did not disappoint us. Due to its processing style and innate strength, even though it's early 2015, this 2014 Huilong is still powerful and good. It's tasting very fruity, not much flowery, full and quite sweet, with a bit of honey taste. There is plenty of bitterness should one want so, but it can be also steeped to be almost bitterness-free. It's also got that "puerhy" kick in mouth - it feels vibrant and alive. For $7.5 per 100g, this is great stuff.

1998 Fengqing green in green
This is the second tea with fairly dryish storage that I like (the second one is 2002 Little yellow mark from TwoDog). The aroma of dry leaves is fairly boring - I was afraid it would be another messy overdried cake, but it's not. The taste is very balanced, there is a little bit of clay, some ripe fruitiness,  plums, spice, a bit of camphor and generic woodiness; the aftertaste is long and has the pleasant component of slightly unripe fruit, which is refreshing. It is quite active and buzzing in mouth. Despite being fairly dry, it has an overall harmonising effect on me.

There is detectable dry-storage-sourness, but it's quite controlled and does not negatively interfere with the main stream. Also, it can feel a bit like hongcha-tasting at times, but in a puerhy-style, no problem either.

$218 is not cheap though... I guess that the bargain-ness really depends on preference for a style. While I find it much better price than most tea from this time with similar (or drier) storage, I'd still prefer the 90s red mark (bought for $160 a year or so ago) readily.

Heichatime...
2011 Hunan Zhu Xiang Ji
This brick (with website description indeed suggesting a fancy product) was again something quite new to me. It's got the strength of puerh, aged taste of bamboo-stored heicha (not overpoweringly so, though, it tastes a lot more dark woody/earthy than bamboo-y) - but at the same, it's got the taste of dried raisins/plums you can find in aged oolong! Together, the two types of taste mingle wonderfully to create a really lovable tea.

It's perhaps not as deep now, feeling-wise, but I suspect that aging process can help with that. Tasting this tea was a great experience to me.

2011 CNNP Hei Jing Zhuan
For me, this tea is much less prepared for drinking compared to the one above and needs a lot more storage (or using a low amount of leaves). This is really a brutal tea, that can get quite sour and impossibly bitter when oversteeped. When treated better, it is fairly sweet and herbal heicha, pretty decent. I wonder how it will transform with aging - there is surely ample strength for that.

1996 Sichuan Yibin tuocha
This is one of more puerh-like heichas I've had. On top of somewhat generic (but very nice) good-heicha-aged-taste, the main taste is of honey, which I really enjoy. Rich, mellow and good is this tea.

2011 Shaanxi Shouzhu Jingwei Fu Zhuan
This is one of better Fu bricks around... Unfortunately still not as great as the 2007 CNNP one, but very good nevertheless. It does not feel hollow/dried out, has plenty fruitiness and spicy taste and it is an overall super-pleasant easy drink...


Otherwise, I get a lot of pleasure from Haiwan 2006 Pasha - it is aging very nicely. And another good one is Yunnan Sourcing's 2010 Purple Yiwu (gosh, is it five years? I feel old...) - it has awoken from its slumber and developed into a really nice and honey-tasting mellow (not weak!) Yiwu...

Next time, I'll write about teas by TwoDog and Teaclassico... See you soon, dear readers!