2013 Chawangpu Hua Zhi Qiao

Let us be glad and rejoice - somebody finally made a cake of Jingmai leaves with tea blossoms. This type of tea has been previously done by Fu Cha Ju - a factory of many experiments (some of which them are good, the others being less good...). I enjoyed both the version of Jingmai with tea blossoms coming from 2005 and 1998. It is not the most mainstream type of puerh, nor the one that I would prefer above all others, but it has two big strengths: First, I enjoy this style of tea tremendously, from time to time. Second, it is an excellent "guest tea" for people coming to visit who are appreciative of tastes in general and are not puerh sages - it is much simpler to appreciate than "old-fashioned" puerh, especially of this age. At the same time, it is still distinctly a puerh tea - it's not really "scented" in a common way. The addition of tea blossoms is a rather subtle change to a tea.

(please pardon the bad light quality of photos, this is England...) 

Looking at the cake shows that the flowers are abundant (yet they do not  overpower leaves)

Rinsed leaves smell intensively fruity and sweet - just as I like it in Jingmai tea.

The taste is quite explosive as well - there is still some floralness of youth, but what seems to dominate is a mixture of fruits (garden fruit, pomelo,...), very fresh (and this freshness tends to degrade after 10 or so years into a certain hongcha-iness, which is why I prefer young-ish Jingmai) and quite delightful. There are starting hints of honey (probably bolstered by the blossoms) which make this tea very promising for next 5 or so years. Even though this tea can be brewed gently (being smooth and sweet), I actually slightly prefer to be less gentle to it, using more leaves than usual. Yes, it gets quite bitter, but in a pleasant, fresh-fruity way - as a bonus to the long and strong taste, the bitterness transform into longer-term aftertaste of sweet peaches - what's there not to like?

You could blame the tea for lack of aged depth, but that would be rather pointless in a young tea, wouldn't it.? It's like telling that a lovely young white wine is not a rich red wine (that said, I do prefer latter) (actually, this tea shares many features with nice white wine).

This tea is not the Tea if you go for significant buzz in mouth, nor a mind-stopping qi attack. It is a well made and very tasty tea which I enjoyed very much (and $30 per 400g is a good price for any decent tea these days, let alone for such a nice one). It is also a good argument why old trees may not be always the best thing to have - well cared for smaller and not-super-old trees such as this tea is made of often produce tea with a stronger and "more penetrating" taste. 

2013 Chawangpu Gao Shan Liu Shui

This is the first tea by Chawangpu of the last year I tasted and I always enjoyed returning to it. It is a blend of Menghai leaves (2012 spring) and Mengku (2013 spring).

The aroma of rinsed leaves is sweet and intoxicatingly floral (magnolia and hyacinth mostly). It rather reminds me of Mengku teas from around Bingdao (that are often sold as Bingdaio), but there is a component of something else as well (I suspect the Menghai component), which gives it more body.

The taste of this tea is predominantly sugary and floral (hyacinth-like - in the "good phase" of its life). It really fits the coming spring - it is fresh indeed, without unpleasant generic greenness which is an annoying aspect of some of the recently made teas. Another positive is how long-lasting this tea is - first, the taste lingers in mouth for a long time, second, it can be squeezed for quite many steepings.

There is no denying that this tea is bitter. There are two buts here: a) The bitterness is rather decent and stays in mouth (with certain types of bitterness, I feel the bitterness feeling spreading through body and aggravating the stomach - this tea is nothing like that); b) it transforms well into a really nice aftertaste. Also, the whole process of enjoying this tea is boosted by pleasant "old tree" tingling. I especially enjoy that this tea, even though very young, does not feel cold and causing discomfort in the body.

The leaves forming the tea are in good shape, thick and firm.

Overall, I think that this is a good tea, strong, with potential for the future, while being quite nice for drinking even now. It perhaps lacks something of a "X factor" for me, but that may very well change in the future. I'd say that the price of $56 per 400g is pretty good given today's usual pricing of tea.

2008 Spring Mangfei Zi Shan Yu Yun & 2012 Lantingchun Yongde Ming Feng

When I had the pleasure of Chawangshop's owner's visit back in Prague, I made a scornful remark on some tea in the way "it's quite bad, probably from Yongde". Honza smiled wisely and said that he'd send me some good, if still cheap tea from there - and so he did, among many other things. I resisted the urge to leap at all the goodies in the big tea box and since I'm still recovering  from an illness, I thought my tastebuds could do well enough with a not-so-super tea. I had three sessions with the leaves over two days, so I'm sort of "full of Yongde" now... Anyway, before getting to actual tea, let me show you two of four new cups that will call this place home:

I dreamed of these for some time - and yes, they are as good as I thought they might be - a very fine and lovely porcelain, a joy to use. They keep heat and aroma well - since I'm not a collector of teaware, cups and pots are more tools than anything else for me - and these cups seem to work very well.

2008 Mangfei

You can think that somebody was a little crazy when packing up samples...

The amount of time that must have been spent writing all the labels to the samples I bought is frankly terrifying... Or maybe not, when you're used to it - but as my own handwriting resembles a drunkard's nightmare, I have a great deal of admiration for people who can write nicely.

The leaves seem quite large to me and are covered in fur. They smell of dry wood mostly.

Rinsed leaves smell very nicely, sweet and fruity (ripe strawberries), with wood and leather. It slightly reminds me of the good 2009 Yongde from Finepuer.

The liquor is surprisingly thick and smooth - not bad at all! It manages to produce a taste as well - strawberries, dry wood and "laundry". Unfortunately, the tea seems to lack in middle taste spectrum (but so did most other Yongde teas I had), but it manages to get to the aftertaste phase with grace and strength. It finishes with very pleasant and strong vibrations on the tongue - that was probably the most pleasant feature I found in the tea.

Overall, it feels good, deep and pleasant. It costs mere $22, which is similar to the other Mangfeis I had (and rather loathed), but it is a much nicer tea. Not great, but it convinces me that Mangfei is not only a supplier of world's deepest torture chambers.

2012 Lantingchun Yongde Ming Feng

Lantingchun factory supplied me with two teas previously - a not too impressive one from 2000 and a not impressive, but decent enough from 2003.

The rinsed leaves smell cold-flowery. Fortunately, no cold ashtray, which in my opinion plagues many Mangfei-like teas.

The liquor smells more classically metallic and harder. The taste is not so hard though, which is good. It resembles mountains, with mist, cold forest (pines), and the mixture of flowers that grow at the forest floor. While I do enjoy such things for hiking, I find it to be a bit too cold and harsh for tea - I prefer warming teas, which these "northern" areas seldom supply.

Again, I did not dislike this tea, but I did not particularly enjoy it either.

Both teas, however, might be interesting for those who enjoy Lincang tea...

1970's Xiang Yang Hua Kwangsi Hong Cha Red Tea Bag

Today's post is about a black tea from 70. Furthermore, this is no ordinary hongcha - it is a tea bag!

What good could an old teabag be, you might ask. I was slightly skeptical towards it - how could fannings that are commonly put into teabags survive 30-40 years? Well, I do not know how, but I know that.

For obvious reasons, I did not rinse the tea bag...

The resulting liquor (dark brown, with slightly strange dark-dark-brown clots in it) was slightly cloudy, but with a good (not really like a teabag) and heavy aroma: earthy-sweet and woody.

And the taste is also surprisingly very strong and multi-layered. It is an "english-style"  black tea rather than hongcha, but is quite exceptional at that - the woodiness is quite strong indeed, but it is accompanied by deep fruitiness and sweet (slightly shupu-like) earthiness. The shupu-likeness is quite a peculiar feature - I wonder how it happened.

The tea numbs the tip of the tongue in a way which is 50% pleasant and 50% slightly strange.

As opposed to today's tea bags, this one gave me two full, strong steepings and one weakish, but decent one nevertheless. Yes, there are more  leaves/dust inside the bag than in today's bags, but still, 2.5 steepings (ca. 400-500 ml - I used a kyusu) are a good thing.

This tea is certainly fun and it's not really that expensive ($2.40 for two bags) - I think that this is one of these interesting teas that are nice for drinking with tea-educated guests who can appreciate its unusuality.

A pity that I could not taste the tea when it was fresh - I wonder what it was like and what changes it underwent.

2007 Wistaria Red Label (or Red Mark or Hongyin)

When ordering a box of goodies from Wistaria, I've been gifted a pouch of 2007 Red Label as well - thanks a lot! In my tester sessions, the tea did not come up as impressive, but when done "normally" (6-8g in a teapot), it was actually very good - here it goes:

The leaves were actually a bit more wholesome; a) I got only a sample, b) this is the very last of it, both of which leads to increased occurrence of leaf fractures.

Right after rinsing, the leaves tell you "this is going to be good". The "Wistaria scent" is actually quite faint and the aroma is nicely sweet, strong and spicy (maybe mushrooms as well...).

The tea is quite rich in saponins, as you can see below:

And the liquor has the color of amber. Its clarity is also not too far from that. Simply put - it looks very nice.

The liquor not only looks pretty, but smells pretty as well! I smell honey, overripe fruit, some clay after rain - very pleasant and harmonic.

Good things happening in the nose get even better in mouth. One thing I could not help thinking was, how coherent this tea was - it has got a single powerful and wide character (if I were a taste-synesthesiac, I'd have called it "brown"). It shares some features (roundness, majestic-ness) with much more aged teas. I'd say the taste spectrum consists of sweet clays, overripe fruit, exotic wood and honey, the clay being strongest in the first steeping, then gradually giving way to the rest. It all works very well together. The Red Label feels quite "sunny", in a way, just darker via aging... The overall pleasantness is accented by a lack of any significant bitterness and astringency.

The aftertaste is long and very nice (I did not find it unlike to 7542 actually).

While I did not feel any particular activity in mouth, I felt a good deal of "qi" in the tea. Drinking it was a most soothing and "to-world-connecting" experience. 

Overall, I really like this Red Label - it is very positive, deep, sweet, harmonic and all that. In a tester, I actually preferred the Blue Mark (which is quite a bit cheaper as well), but after having them in a "full session", I quite prefer the red one... 

It probably isn't cheap now (I guess it could be between $140 and $170), but that's life I'm afraid. Its qualities are undoubtable nevertheless.

EoT's Tasting Chemicals: a guide

Many thanks to Nada for sending me this tasting set: a set of two similar teas, one of which does not contain pesticides and the other does - what better could exist for isolating the feeling/taste of pesticides? Theoretically...

Both the teas have the broad "house style" of young EoT teas - large, pretty and furry leaves with a sharp green aroma.

Rinsing causes leaves to open and release the smell that could be described as an ashtray (especially shortly after rinsing), chestnuts and eventually sweet leather. It is distinctly green, sour-sweet and hardly pleasant to me (some people do like this style of tea though).

Aroma of liquor is surprisingly weak in both teas and not very pleasant.

The nonpesticide tea has slightly cloudier and darker liquor. A sidenote - both teas acquire a rather peculiar grey tint after a while - it looks quite zombie-like and surely not too nice.

How does the nonpesticide tea taste? I unfortunately find it quite disgusting - it seems to be some sort of young brutal Bulang - there's taste of ashtray, chestnuts and generic sourness - without any decent body or sweetness. As a bonus, there is an awful dry and super-persistent bitterness (worse than in normal Laoman'e) at the end of the taste. Actually, this one does taste quite poisonous even without pesticides. On both occasion, I failed to consume more than one large cup of this thing.

The pesticide tea seems slightly younger, is a bit sweeter and maybe more fruity (with a strange soapiness), but also not good. Even though the evil bitterness of its pesticide-free comrade is absent, there is a singularly peculiar astringency and "furry" feeling around teeth, which, I believe, are the features brought to tea by pesticides.

Neither tea is a normal puerh in my opinion - it's like a bad crossover between pu and green tea maybe? Also, it is quite interesting how horrible can such beautifully looking tea be.

However, this tasting set is not about tea itself, but about comparing pesticides to nonpesticides. It rather succeeds in this aim and I think that such a venture is generally very commendable. I have two admonitions concerning the set. First, even the pesticide-free tea tastes very evil and I think that some features could be very well considered unnatural. Second, repeated sessions for reinforcement of your judgement on what are pesticides like are quite difficult to do, because your body will need considerable time to regenerate after the previous one.

Btw. I'm looking for somebody to pass this set to as it is undoubtedly educational, but once you're done with it, there is little point in continuing its consumption. If you chance to come to Oxford and want to have this, drop me a line and we can arrange it.

2011 Jin Dayi and 2012 Yin Dayi

Hello again, dear readers. Due to the fact that we generally need to stay in the place of my studies for most of the day, my tea sessions sort of moved there - which means less time for photos and writing, for which I'm sorry. However, that's just how things are. Besides, I don't have so many new teas these days, so there is not so much to write about. 

Before we descend (or ascend?) to the two teas of today's afternoon, let me share a story with you. Beware of Mexican accent! Not only that stories by two lovely Mexicans studying with us make you believe that Mexicans eat dogs (killing them by breaking their neck/spinning them around, holding the dog's neck!) until it becomes obvious that "dogs" are actually "ducks" - all ten or so people believed the dog version for a considerable while! Today, the Mexican pronunciation striked again - when I gave cups of tea (2013 Dayi Snake cake) to fellow people in the place where we study, the reaction by one (a Mexican friend of ours) was "ah, this tea is junk". One is not used to such a forthright reactions in the UK, especially not towards what is basically a gift and definitely not a bad tea. However, all ended well, when I realized the small peculiarity of Mexican pronunciation, that "y" is pronounced more like "j/g" (i.e., something like "dzh") and "junk" was actually "young". Young it is indeed.

2011 Jin Dayi
This is the "gold" Dayi cake. It may be the same price after a couple of years. Originally costing about $35 per cake, only 10g cost $5 at Sampletea now (and I think they generally are quite reasonable in pricing).

The leaves, even after rinsing, provide quite a hard experience to be honest. It smells of dry forest ground, with some mushrooms. It is basically like a rather ordinary young sheng, except it is stronger than most and free of any "light" features, such as sweetness, fruitiness, or things like that.

The liquor has a pleasant color and clarity.

The taste is essentially somewhat ordinary, but strong - woody-clay-like (with a bit of smokiness in the first few infusions). It bears a remote resemblance to aged teas, but without their depth and elegance. It is also quite bitter and very astringent. On a more positive note, the taste does taste rather long and is full-bodied, which sets this cake apart from similarly hard teas, which, on the top, are thin and plainly bad.

Also, the tea built up a decent mouthfeel with good cooling and by the fourth-fifth steeping, it kind of ameliorated my initial "no way" opinion. Still, I did not feel particularly well/comfortable after drinking it.

I believe that the Jin Dayi is a reasonably good tea, which is just totally not going with the fashion of making young teas easily drinkable. But it certainly has enough strength to get somewhere via aging and  I suspect that the result will be pleasant. Nevertheless, the price, I'm afraid, escaped from some sort of mental home...

2012 Yin Dayi

This "silver" tea smells much more pleasant and approachable than the "gold", when rinsed. It is very sweet and smells of dark fruit and magnolia.

The taste follows the aroma - it is really unusually sweet (even for this cluster of teas), sugary and full-bodied. It does not have a whole lot of other to tell, except faint dark floweriness (might it be Luoshuidong?).

Despite the lack of particular "tastiness", the fullness of body and overall pleasant and calming feeling is very nicely combined with powerful cooling and vibrations in mouth.  This tea feels very positive and soothing (completely unlike the previous tea which attempted to murder me), which is imho a good thing. Whether it does have enough strength to age is another question, but I'm inclined to believe that Dayi people know what they're doing.

Despite this tea's youth, I actually enjoyed drinking it. It is quite a "fancy" thing, in a way of today's single-area expensive cakes. At the same time, I guess the price can be something around $60, which is not too bad...

I.e., today, I believe the saying "Talking is silver, silence is gold" was bolstered. Still, I guess there is a bit of Dayi inflation in the naming (iron and copper might be more suitable). Or, it might be that when the need to have even fancier blends comes, we may yet see mithril, adamantium, or even daedric cakes? The time will tell.