1999 Vietnamese shu puerh

10/04/2011, posted by Cha in tea

This shu puerh has a feeling of clarity, but not as intense as for  some others I wrote about. Perhaps the feeling was amplified by the tea setup I have chosen.

This was one of the tea sessions when everything fitted together just nice. The light was nice, the flowers were appropriate. You would never say it was during a harsh winter.

As I drink more and more tea, I find it easier to create setups that create a targeted sensation.    Heat, cold, distant places, everything can be recreated with a tea setup and an appropriate tea.

1999 yiwu shu puerh

26/11/2010, posted by Cha in tea

Definitely a shu I like . I’m writing this post 10 minutes after, and the aftertaste is still pleasant. I can’t define the taste, but some keywords that I can come up with: sharp , clear.    Drinking this tea feels like erasing a  whiteboard, where my head represents the whiteboard.   Without considering the warming effect, I think there are few shu puerh that had such an effect on me , effect that goes beyond taste .

There were more than seven infusions, but this is where I stopped with photos. I had another ’round’ of tea later.  The photos were made in a different tea session. For any tea that I write of, I’m trying to have at least two sessions. One to take the photos and one for the complete experience.

This tea is a sample i received from Canton Tea. Too bad I can’t afford one right now, but If you can, I highly recommend it.

2006 Nan Qiao Factory Cooked Puerh

02/10/2010, posted by Cha in tea

I have received a generous sample of this tea from Canton Tea Co.  I must say, this is one of the teas that shows me just how green I am  when it comes to tea.   This tea is a cooked puerh, but If I wouldn’t knew, I would say it’s a raw puerh. Leaf, liquor , taste, everything is like for a raw puerh. Why is then this tea a cooked puerh?  That will be my research topic in the following  weeks.

I used my  shu puerh teapot to brew this tea and some cups that I usually use for that type of puerh .  In the near future  I will   try to brew this tea again  with another teapot and a different set of cups.

This tea is great, but I found out that If I shower my teapot at the early infusions, the liquor has an accentuated note of bitterness . So in order to avoid that, I used  short infusions, and I showered the teapot only on the last infusions.  Even when the tea had notes of bitterness, I could feel the sweet aftertaste immediately after.

There are eight infusions in the pics, but they were not the only infusions. I left the leaves in the teapot to have a session of tea later.   It was simply to much tea to drink in a single session.   The guys from Canton recommend 10-15 infusions, and I strongly agree. In conclusion, a very nice  (confusing ) tea.

This tea is available for purchasing here .

Update:

Here is a pic with the  wet leaves:

2008 Jing Mai

05/09/2010, posted by Cha in tea

A nice shu puerh from @cantontea .  Following is the description from their site:

An outstanding cooked puerh that already demonstrates the complex notes sought after in a young puerh which indicates it will continue to mellow and improve with age. The raw nutty notes are softened by the dry, ripe fruit hints and the lingering sweet aftertaste.

I have to say,  the tea is very nice.   I believe I will buy one or two cakes ( one for immediate consumption, and one for aging, as Canton Tea recommends ) . It has the look and taste older cakes. The taste is unexpected for a cake this young. However,  it doesn’t have that  yang ”heating’ effect as the older cakes. Perhaps, that develops in time. I’ll double check the next time . Keep in mind that this yang effect I am talking about is a subjective feeling,  related to the energetic effect of the tea.  I may be wrong and it’s certainly not something you would ask  your tea merchant.

Upon investigating the name, I have found that JingMai is short for JingMaiShan ,  which is a Langang County mountain of whose slopes leaves for Puer are harvested ( via Babelcarp).

To brew this kind of tea (shu puerh) I am using my dragon egg.  Unfortunately, my camera batteries went out so I could not take  pics with all the infusions, nor with my new cups.   I’ll present them in another post.    Making pictures for all the infusions take a lot of time and I can only do it when decent light is available. I am thinking to start to reduce the number of photos on my posts, or at least, for some of the teas.

2006 Guang Lin Fu Shu puerh

20/08/2010, posted by Cha in journal,tea

I didn’t investigated too much on Guang Lin and I never had a cake from this factory before. It does share some characteristics with some shu puerh cakes of a similar age so I will not bother you with details regarding its taste (I actually forgot my impressions, I plan to age the cake , I brewed a sample).

I want to talk about other details.  Lately, I studied water, pouring, heating, teaware  and began experimenting with them. I noticed major improvements on most of the teas, so some things, especially related to softness or their effect could be related to that or my awareness and not to the tea itself. In addition,  by using the cups I recently acquired, practically any shu puerh becomes more attractive in an instant.

At some point I will update this post with more information about that factory. Right now it is not important, I am glad I have the opportunity to appreciate tea.  I feel at peace when I match the tea with my mood and sometimes I wonder If I should write about it at all.  I do hope that this information is useful and will help some people, and at a very least, it’s a form of diary to notice my progress.   But most important, what I would like more, is to receive feedback on whatever I can do better from those that are more experienced than me.  I am always thankful to anybody who reads my blog.

Yunnan Chitsu Pingcha

14/06/2010, posted by Cha in tea

A short overview of this cake I acquired on Hong Kong. This cake seemed to be the last out of a 7 disk stack. The seller told me it’s from 1993 . After unpacking it, I saw a short description in English which made me wonder. Since it was from 1993, why should it have a English description?

According to babelcarp,  tha parts from the name can be translated as :

chitsu, qizi (Qi1 Zi3) = compressed hei cha made as a stack of 7 bingcha, each layer 357g so the whole stack comes out to 2.5kg, literally Seven Sons (七子)

pingcha, bingcha (Bing Cha) = Tea, usually Pu’er, compressed into thick disks, literally Cake Tea.

I am wondering about the age still.  Perhaps I should take a photo of the label of the package so that a Chinese speaker friend can translate it to me. Perhaps i will answer to this question in  years from now.

On the other hand, the age doesn’t matter so much. The tea has a great taste, and it is lengthy enough.  It certainly resonates with you when it is brewed at the right moment.  Most important, it  transports me back to Hong Kong each time i drink from it.

Update ( on 18 September 2010):

I have learned that the black color denotes low quality. Not confirmed yet.

Update ( 5 April 2011)

Only the outer part was affected by dust, which resulted in a very dark color for the liquor. After breaking and airing it, it was very very nice.

Wild Puerh

29/03/2010, posted by Cha in tea

I usually acquire this kind of puerh from a local merchant ( the only one decent I may add ) .

I don’t have many informations about it ( the merchant claims it’s 7 years old , but I doubt it) , still , it’s a very good tea. I brew it using a yixing teapot (pic bellow) , which will be detailed in another post.

If you are not sure how to brew puerh, then follow these guidelines (with a small teapot , gongfu ) :

• use boiling water
• preheat  the teapot and the cups
• first infusion , up to 1 minute,  then discard it
• Small infusions of  10-20 seconds ,then gradually increase the time

You can also boil it in a kettle , or leave it in a  larger pot for a longer period and dilute it with watter if the infusion is too strong.

Of course, these are only guidelines. You may want to check this site .