2003 CNNP Yi Wu High Mountain Wild Arbor

14/05/2011, posted by Cha in tea

It has been a while since my last blog post. Life kept me busy, but I never stopped drinking tea. In fact,  almost every morning starts with a tea session.

This is a tea sample I got from one of my readers, which probably has it from Yunnan Sourcing. As soon as I saw the tea i knew I will like it.  I really enjoy Yi Wu sheng  teas . In my case, they  produce a particular sensation when brewed with care.

I have found that I  almost never remember the taste of the teas I enjoy, but I do remember the sensations.  I brew and choose teas according to what  sensation or effect I require.   I never brew special teas to guests because I want to maximize that effect, and I never brew a tea that I haven’t tried to guests. This is because I don’t want to make a tea look bad because of my inability.  This is the same reason for keeping some samples until my brewing ability reaches a certain point.

Now back to this puerh. I have found that I prefer to help the cake loosen, especially if it is loose pressed.  That is why the leaves in the pic look like they are not pressed.  After that, I don’t pour directly on the leaves and i rinse it once. The tea releases much faster than I do it this way.

2003 Yiwu Raw Puerh

28/09/2010, posted by Cha in tea

This tea goes in the “I shouldn’t drink this tea alone” category.  The taste was wonderful from the first infusion, when the leaves weren’t even unfolded completely. It had a somehow fruity taste and in effect it was chilling. I can still feel the aftertaste even now after 1 hour since my last cup.  It was one of the teas that go on the back of the mouth by itself.   Stéphane has a better description here ( You can also acquire it on his blog ) . I had only one sample, but I  am considering to save some money so that I can acquire a full cake  .

This post also has two little side stories.

The three photos depicting tea  are from the same infusion.  The main reason why I posted them is to show the effect of cup color on tea color.  You may not believe it immediately, but besides the color, the taste also gets affected. Keep in mind that the cups are made of same material and have the same dimensions. Only the color differs.  The green cup had a somehow ‘fresh’ feeling while the brown one made the tea ‘stronger’ and some (forest-autumn ) notes were distinctive .  Interesting.

The teapot was initially intended to be used for green tea ( gasp) . I have read that many successfully use yixing teapots  to brew green tea (with extra care), but I failed. I was not satisfied, the results did not compare to a gaiwan. Now , this teapot is used for raw puerh.

Sheng Puerh, 2003

30/08/2010, posted by Cha in tea

I wonder why my best teas have no provenience information.  I know only the age of this cake, and that is not sure either. What is sure however is that this tea is great. More than great.

It was pretty expensive and I have been told it is a ‘family cake’, meaning that a certain family somewhere in China builds these kind of cakes using local tea trees.  Also, the cake was manufactured using traditional methods. I don’t know if that is true.  And I don’t care. I am glad to have this tea.

This tea actually has a fruity smell as soon as you add water over the leaves.  It’s taste is similar to green apple. But turns sweet after several infusions.  However brewed, it remains transparent and feels ‘alive’ .  I don’t know if this is the correct description (alive), but I can’t find any other relevant word to describe that feeling.

In the main picture the tea was brewed using a yixing teapot.  In the main gallery, with a gaiwan (as you can see). Notice the leaves, they look really really nice.

brewing tea in a bowl

13/07/2010, posted by Cha in tea

I think this is the most basic form of brewing tea. Even if you don’t have   gongfu teaware, you can obtain very nice results using this method.

I knew tea was brewed like this in the old days, but I haven’t tried it until I stumbled upon an article on The Leaf . Brewing tea this way is truly rewarding and the taste you get is different from the one you would obtain using a yixing teapot. For a young sheng puerh , this has become my preferred method.  No bitterness, and a taste that gradually changes.   Brewing this way is also visually rewarding, because the leaves unfold directly in front of you.

I have brewed in this way using different bowls, and no result was the same. The tea bowl in the pictures bellow has the best results. This bowl is made in Japan, and supposedly, it’s much older than me.

P.S. :  I  don’t like to pour the water directly on the leaves. Instead, I slowly pour it on the bowl , using a circular motion.

2000 Yong Pin Hao “Yi Wu Zheng Shan”

05/07/2010, posted by Cha in tea

This is a ten year old sheng puerh that  I have acquired from Yunnan Sourcing.  I asked Scott (business owner) to help  me  choose, since he knows better what he has.   I have it  for a year or so, but I’m still learning about it.

I must say,  brewing  this tea is difficult (for me) . I don’t know it yet, and it’s been a while since I first started to brew from it.   Lately, each time i brew it, I find my self saying : “This is the way to do it!” . I obtained a lot of great results, but not a consistent experience.  I brewed it in more than one  vessel, in various places, with different quantities.  Once, I roasted it for several minutes and I have boiled it for  8 minutes.  I enjoyed the result , which was a red liquor, very different from what I usually get from this tea.

The picture above is from the first time I brewed it. Definitely the wrong teapot (which will have it’s own post at some point) . The result was far from what I expected and made me question certain things. After  some experimentation with different teaware and quantities, I got better results.    In time,  I also brewed it using my dragon egg  (which is used for shu puerh ) and settled down to the teapot depicted in the gallery bellow.  This cake made me realize  how important a teapot is. It’s not about a  small improvement, but a huge one.

I imagine that a teamaster would bring out the best of this tea, but I am no teamaster and I have no reference of ‘best of’. I keep getting many good results, but different. I can’t decide on the ‘best of’ part.  ( I also think being able to obtain different kind of brews from the same tea is something to be wanted and it’s context dependent. )

Recently,  I brewed this puerh in a gaiwan,  with a little amount of tea.  The result (again) was very different from what I have expected.  In taste and effect, it was like a different tea, with little resemblance to what I usually get by using  a teapot.  And finally, the latest experience will be described as part of a separate post.

It seems like it has it’s own personality and own mood. Perhaps,  a reflection of my tea knowledge.

Vendor description

This tea cake is pressed from naturally growing (wild arbor) trees that are 100 to 200 years of age. The tea is entirely first flush of Spring 2000 (end of March), the kill-green process (sha qing) was done in woks (small batch) and is stone-pressed with a heavy stone press. After compression the tea was dried naturally without baking to preserve its natural state.

The brewed tea is thick and sweet, the liquor color is a deep gold color. An excellent hand-processed Yi Wu tea from a natural setting! This is one of Yong Pin Hao’s first productions and is arguably the best tasting Yi Wu tea I have ever sold! The leaves are solid and heavy, mostly whole leaf/bud sets. The aroma is incredibly complex and aromatic. The flavor is thick and satisfying with so many different levels to it and a sweet finish.

A moderately pricey cake but if you figure 7 grams per session (using 100ml pot or gaiwan), you could get 57 sessions out of this cake. Well worth it for lovers of high quality aged Yi Wu.

Net Weight: 380 grams per cake

Ingredients: Yi Wu Mountain (Mengla) sun-dried Yunnan Large Leaf varietal tea Produced by Yong Pin Hao Tea Factory.

A raw pu’erh

04/06/2009, posted by Cha in journal,tea

I’ve waited  all day long for  this tea. After a long day , pu’erh teas act like a good companion.   Each infusion of pu’erh teas are slightly different , and they can be infused from 10 to 30 times , depending on it’s quality and age. In other words , they comfort you , just like an old friend.

This tea is not very old , it was produced in spring last year , but I enjoy it tough. The same tea , aged 6 years ( produced in 2003) has a different taste  and can go up to twenty  infusions at least . The aged one reminds me of apples , somehow. I am always amazed how good tea remind me of fruits or flowers without actually being blended.

I’ve played a bit with my camera , here are some picture. Just enjoy them like I did with the tea.

This post will be updated later , as well as my css .