1997 Hen Li Chang Bulang

Cold days call for warm tea. Thus, when I returned from -15° forest, where I was struck by a panic attack, I felt in need of good tea. The other day, friends were supposed to come to taste some of more aged tea from Essence of tea, so I thought we'd start with this one.

I did not take any photos in both tastings I did, concentrating on the tea solely. This may seem as some kind of weird wannabe zen, but it is not, it just came naturally. Photos may be found at http://www.essenceoftea.co.uk/tea/puerh-tea/aged-puerh/1997-henglichang.html

First time brewing it with the other two teachums, I probably used too much leaves. First brews were strong, sweet, aged, but very bitter - the bitterness did not transform or go away. I'd dare to call the first brews unpleasant. After five or so brews, the bitterness gradually vanished and was replaced by a pleasant, rather aged taste. Having good stamina, the tea has produced another 10 brews, so we parted as friends.

More about the second tasting, which was better: I used less leaves and it payed an immediate dividend. The taste was pleasant right away. Although it smells, looks and tastes aged already, that good "sweet bulang granary" taste may be still caught. I'm very glad for that, I wanted to see where good Bulang may get and was a bit afraid this one would be so aged that the retracing of taste development would be impossible. My worries were unjustified and, ultimately, uprooted.

After drinking more and more aged tea, my appreciation of them shifts from taste (which is mostly rather similar) to general feeling they give and their mouthfeel. If one would drink aged tea for taste, he could be easily disappointed. A month ago, I did a side-by-side tasting of 92 Da Ye maocha from essence of tea and 2007 Lincang Te Ji shupu. The taste was sort of similar indeed. The mouthfeel was what clearly distinguished these two teas from each other.

I do think that tastes can be described by words, to an extent. I lack words to describe the whole spectrum of feelings a tea's energy does though. I can say that this Bulang is calming, yet vibrant on the tongue - but I can say that about most aged teas too.

Getting lost in words here, I'll finish this tasting note by saying this is a very nice and worthwhile tea for a price which does not murder one's wallet.

Further reading:
Half-Dipper
Wu Xing Cloud
the_skua steeps

2007 Haiwan Purple Bud

Purple tea all on my tongue
The purple taste lingers  so long
Actin' funny, but I don't know why 
'Scuse me while I kiss the sky

Or somehow like that it went...

        Note that the number of petals is, as in most flowers, a Fibonacci number...

These are purple days in purple haze, me throwing purple gaze on purple cakes. The day before yesterday, I've had YS Purple tea, yesterday, it was the 2007 Haiwan Purple bud about which I'll be writing now. Today, it's YS Purple tea 2010.

Some people say that in human beauty competitions, the asian girls always are the most beautiful (well, people say many things, others say the same about brazilian girls, european, etc.). In the world of tea, I fell in love with purple cakes (at least visually, though, to a degree, in the way of taste too). 

I tend to rather like Haiwan - not that they would always do great (or even good) stuff, but there are some nice cakes from them to be encountered. When I first opened the sample bag with the 2007 Haiwan Purple bud a year ago, the first thought was "Wow, Biff Tannen would loathe this tea...". You may remember him saying "I hate manure" on several occasions. The tea smelled absolutely like sweet, cow manure. I have tasted it three times from then, always feeling that this is an interesting cake, although never feeling like loving the tea really.

The dry leaves: 

The aroma of wet leaves is very thick, sweet, smokey-manure-fruity. 
I feel like saying "Impressive, most impressive" in the way here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVjOH7WeEKk&feature=related

The liquor is already orange, certain aged characteristics appear in the taste and the aroma. This cake is aging nicely so far.

The taste is, as the aroma is, sweet, smokey, manure (not nearly as unpleasant as one might think) and fruit. This is rather unusual (at least in my experience) - to have smokiness and heavier fruitiness in a single tea, I thought they XORed each other. The smokines was not as pronounced last year. Even now, it is not too powerful (as if the airplane carrying the sample has briefly flown over Guoyan TF) - however, I'd prefer if it was not present at all. 

The taste is harmonic, thick - just as I like it. The aftertaste is good. The smokiness is unnecessary, but it may be that it is from a sample which did not get a very good aging conditions. I actually quite enjoy the manure taste (which merges nicely with the purple-iness and fruitiness) - it is a normal taste, after all - often found in wine too. 

I enjoy this cake as it is rather unique and although I never felt like being absolutely in love with it, I'll be buying several cakes. I have felt the compulsion to drink it several times, being limited by its low quantity. Such a specific character for $22? Why not. When I get whole cakes, I'll add more photos here, as well as the report on the smokiness.

One more exam to go...back to backpropagation networks and the likes of them :) 

5000 milestone reached!

Dear readers,
today is the day when the number of page loads has reached the number of 5000. I did not expect that only a half a year after starting this little tea notebook, there would be so many readers! And that I would discover so many other blogs which gave me such enjoyment when I read through them.

When reading posts like this one, I've often noticed that the writer thanks his readers. I thought - why? They come at their own will, it is not a service to the writer. However, now, when writing this, I feel a compulsion to thank you. So... thank you!

Even without readers, writing notes on teas would prove helpful to myself. Nevertheless, knowing that several more people are reading them makes writing them even more interesting.

I know that many things can be improved about my notes. I hope the improvement will come naturally. That's the way things go when one enjoys what he is doing. Learning by doing and all that... Anyway, if you still felt like you wanted to give me a hint what to improve, please, do so!

Right ho, the lake of sentiment has dried out, let's go to statistics!

Where are my readers from?
About 40% from Czech Republic, then USA, Russia (quite a surprise to me) and Slovenia. Generally, it is 50% Czechoslovakia, 50% rest of the world. The trend is that more and more foreign readers are joining.

From the other end - thank you, readers from Lithuania, Singapore, Poland and Sweden, I hold you in great esteem too!

What is the dominant OS?
Windows clearly in the lead (78%), followed by Macintosh with 14%. Linux has 2%, most of the linux users come from Czech Republic.

Even though I come from computer science area myself, I am a rather proud-ish Windows user, thinking that even though being criticized, it is still a very fine piece of software and Windows 7 show that Microsoft is learning from its mistakes. Powershell is pretty good thing, isn't it?

What is the dominant browser?
Firefox leads clearly, having 31%. Internet Explorer has 21%, Google Chrome has 18%, Opera has 14%, Safari 12%. The trend clearly shows that Chrome is on its rise. In the last month, it has reached 27%, which is mighty rise.

On the other side of the field - there are browsers named Maxthon, Gran Paradiso or Iron I've never heard before. Iron sounds like the browser for women...

I myself used to like Firefox too, then got annoyed with it being such a memory hog and realizing that I am not using any of gadgets I added to it. Now, google Chrome is my instrument of choice. Generally, browsers are becoming better and better - whenever I had to work with any of the three leading browsers, I felt no trouble (even with the ever-hated IE! - most of its critics I've met still point to bugs of IE6, which is a bit out of date).

What has been the most read article?
Jinuoshan You Le 2004
And well deserved that is!

Thanks, good night! See you again at 25000.
Jakub

Not impressed 1

Just as negative advertisement is an advertisement, negative experience is also an experience.

After finishing the mighty excellent 2005 Fu Cha Ju Jingmai with tea flowers, I started drinking through the rest of my samples which did not captivate me and thought I'd give them a few lines here. This article will be updated periodically, when it is too large, another Not impressed thread will be created.

2009 Guan Zi Zai Zao Chun Yi Wu
The aroma of the liquor was appaling, rather than appealing, being quite hard. However, the taste was pleasant for first three brews. A variant of generic good Yi Wu, a pleasant change from my usual Purple Yi Wu orgies. The problem occured with fourth brew and the brews  that followed it. The taste took an invisibility (or rather intastibility) cloak probably. This happened to me on all three tasting occasions. First three brews are pleasant, strong enough - maybe nothing to write home about, but at $20, it would be a decent tea. However, the disappearance of the taste in further brews prevents me from saying this tea is good. Maybe it will gain some strength in further years... In the plethora of cakes which are no "maybe", not good enough.

2010 Hai Lang Hao Qi Lin Jun Xiu 
This felt rather too roasted to my taste. The orange liquor raised my suspicion, confirmed by the roastiness in the first three brews. The tea gradually changed into something nice, fruity, Yi-Wu thing, it is not bad for immediate drinking (on the other hand, it is a bit expensive for what it provides). I am not sure how it is going to age though. I guess we'll have to wait some years before we see where the pre-oxidized cakes head. The stamina of this one was not exceptional, rather low I dare say.

2011 YS Ba Da
The tea is rather faithful to the description on Yunnan sourcing website. Indeed, hints of tobacco and pines are present. It is notably grassy, even more than I'm used to in young sheng. It is generally lighter in profile, gently sweet. I believe that that is the reason why I enjoyed it. I'm not really into tobacco shengpu, I prefer fruitier things; this cake had little to offer in this way. Still, although this is not exactly my cup of tea, a nice production still.

2005 Fu Cha Ju Jing Mai with tea flowers

The happy part of you may have met this cake when it was available at Yunnan Sourcing about two years ago. It has long since disappeared (as well as the rest of Fu Cha Ju things :( ). However, it has appeared in Chawangshop. It is one of their most expensive pieces, costing $46; on the other hand, when one looks at the cost of premium new cakes...

To the tea purists who want to murder anyone who would dare to put tea flowers (blossoms) into tea, ruining it: Don't murder anyone. I have tasted 2005 Fu Cha Ju Jingmai with and without the tea flowers and the experience was basically the same. Both cakes are predominantly flowery, fruity and honey-like, the one with flowers has these features even more powerfully developed, but the difference is not large.

Dry leaves are whole, clean, shiny, looking healthy. 

The aroma of wet leaves is crazily pleasant - when had the tea yesterday, I sniffed it for several minutes, warming the pot from time to time. Very complex and fruity. When smelling (and drinking) this tea, one wonders how nature does these things...

Wet leaves are mighty thick, fleshy, looking great.

The tea liquor is also very nice, the color is proper, it is clear and pure as the mirror of Galadriel.

And the taste is definitely yummy. It is powerful, flowery and fruity (apples, peaches, nuts? Feels like stuff from our garden generally...) riding on honey sweetness. Very complex and harmonized. Also noticeably darker than when I had it in 2010 for the first time. The aftertaste is long and good, hui gan plentiful.

This tea reminds me that I'm getting older... When mind-wandering, I thought "hmm, it is dark, considering it is only two or three years old". When I realized that the time has advanced a bit since I started drinking more of puerh...is it really so many years? Now, this cake is seven years old, which puts naturally where I felt it was. 

It is a strong tea, packed with taste. This is, of course, a very positive feature (I was regularily making 15-20 brews of it), however it is easy to oversteep this tea. I was surprised when it first happened - I wondered what happened to that sweet, harmonic, easy-going tea when I got thick nostrum bitter as hell. Or two hells rather. 

Nevertheless, when brewed all right, it is just so good and pleasant. One of the best cakes I've encountered.

This is the last I have of it...

1992 Da Ye loose leaf sheng

This is the first of samples from Essence of tea I'd like to write about. As I succeeded in the exam from computational complexity theory yesterday, I decided I'd taste it again today and write about it to reward myself.

I quite like the descriptions on Essence of tea website... not boasting, letting one form his opinion himself. I guess that the owner knows that when one is good in what he does, he does not have to boast.

Interesting tea deserves good water, a unit of charcoal was mustered. Will have to buy more soon...

Now, dry leaves...

I find them quite beautiful, healthy. Big (one would expect that of Da Ye, wouldn't he?). They release a pleasant, dry, aged aroma.

The water is boiling, sings the kettle...

Wet leaves in the pot smell rather like shu puerh, more clean and "real" though. Could be just my imagination.

The color of the liquor is similar to aged wine in a way. Older wine is not as red as young, having a sort of brownish tint. Approaching this from the other side, this tea is brown with a reddish tint. 

The taste is clean and pleasant, but hardly surprising or mind-blowing. What came to my mind first was "shupu". It tasted according to what I felt I could feel in it... when I thought of dried apricots, I could sort of find them there. Also, in some brews, very  slight fishiness was present (carp, to be exact).

Having a look at wet leaves clearly shows this is no shu. Actually, the mouthfeel and energy of the tea suggest the same thing. The tea feels thick, cools the mouth and sends small "sparks" around. It may be just my imagination, but it also felt more "natural" than shu. 

As has been said many times before, old tea is not always drank for the taste (it would be crazily expensive for that). The energy of the tea is very important too. This tea has pleasant, quiet cha qi. I generally believe that a lot of calming down and feeling good is caused by calm preparations and enjoyment of tea (furthermore, with older teas, one could have tendency to be wow-ed by the experience of drinking something of such age). I can not say that this tea  would affect me so much more than other sheng from 2001-2004. But it is quieter, no rowdydow bitterness or anything notably powerful is in it. Balance and peace, it is.

The unknown amout of leaves I used (5-8g) lasted more than a litre of water, still being enjoyable.

Wet leaves confirm that leaves probably come from several sources, not being  too homogenous. I liked how firm and healthy they still were, not being disintegrated by being rubbed a bit.

Were this tea sold as the biggest speciality in the world, for crazy money, I would have thought "all right, interesting, but not for me". As it is so cheap, I think it is very nice tea to be had more frequently. Although I do not need the kind of feeling it gives (and younger tea does not) too often, it is very pleasant from time to time.

2003 Yong Pin Hao Yin Hao Tuocha

The detested time of year is closing by: exam time. It means there will be less tea notes as my stomach is quite powerfully upset when  I have exams. Generally, I'm happy enough when I am able to get to school to take the exam, therefore the art of tea is somewhat neglected. It also means that my  mind starts being confused (it is being confused since I was born, to be honest) and when I think that this has been a productive month from point of view of writing, it immediately comes to my mind, whether it was also creative... funny thing these creative and productive sets. Computability theory rocks. Though not as "primitively useful" as mathematical analysis, it is beautiful and makes one understand a lot of things about math and algorithms. 

As most readers probably are not interested in creative and productive sets, let us move to something generally more pleasant: 2003 Yong Pin Hao Tuocha, which may be bought at $11 in the great Yunnan Sourcing store: http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/product.php?id_product=1759

How does it look? Very nice!

It is brown-grey-ish, no signs of green really.

The tuo is rather lightly pressend and feels very dry. It goes apart easily, sometimes breaking almost too much. But breaking this one into pieces is way better than doing the same thing with younger Xiaguan tuos which now reach between 11 and 12 on Mohs scale of hardness.

The aroma of dry leaves is soft, sweet and aged. 

Rinsed leaves are also sweet and aged. Soothing and pleasant. Not overly complex or surprising.

The taste is, as one could expect, sweet and aged :) Actually, in the "main" taste, there is not much beside the agedness. This alone, balanced and good, would make me feel "this is a nice little tuocha". However, in the aftertaste, something like roasted hazelnuts appears, making the aftertaste more interesting and enjoyable.

The energy of the tea does not feel too poweful. It is as it was sleeping.

Probably the lack of characteristic Cha Qi and the overally very smooth and "ordinary", inoffensive taste profile, make me feel that this is a nice drink, but not really mind-blowing all-around. This is not to say I did not enjoy it when I was drinking it - I did enjoy it on all occasions.