Sunday, March 10, 2024

2011 Jin Dayi: Top Modern Dayi!


This is the second part (first part was the 2017) of the 2017/2011 Jin Dayi comparison sample set from Liquid Proust that goes for approx $57.00…. This 2011 Jin (Gold) Dayi is quite famous and expensive but it really blew my mind.  They still have a few of these sets left and I recommend it to try this one…

 Dry leaves are a faint plum smoke hay.

Rinsed leaf has a subtle smoke and tobacco and faint banana odour.

First infusion is smooth oily lubricating mouthwatering feeling with a subtle smoke and creamy custard banana nuance.  Creamy oily mouthfeel.  Taste stays in the saliva. Spacy relaxing Qi can feel it low in the abdomen.

Second has a sweet creamy oily caramel toffee taste with a very nice oily creamy texture.  Some woody and smoke in the background and long sweet returning minutes later there are candy pops of taste.  Long sweetness that evolves from caramel to icing sugar to plum to banana to candy long inbedded into saliva with mouthwatering deliciousness.  Nice lower abdomen and mid abdominal mild warming with spacy qi feeling.

Third infusion has a very sweet caramel oily full sweetness with resin woody slight background smoke and long evolving sweet taste with lots of oily salivating and nice mouthwatering.  Peaceful calm Qi distills the mind.  Low abdominal feeling with face and jaw light and some cjhezt beats and spacy feeling.  Candy finish minutes later trapped within the saliva. Its got the whole package here!  Cooled down it has a resin woody creamy fresh pungent creamy oily sweet taste. Long evolving sweet taste and long candy finish in chalky full mouthfeel.



Fourth has a creamy woody oily onset with resin woody taste and some faint pungent faint almost camphor taste.  Oily texture and mouthfeel is a bit less here but still full faint candy on the breath minutes later.  Chest abdominal feeling with light face and jaw and calm peace still feeling but also energetic with heart beats.

Fifth infusion is left to cool it is quite resinous and sweet woody incense.  Long sweet taste the mouthfeel and texture is fading infusion-to-infusion now. Still nice sweet taste and faint candy minutes later. Abdominal Qi face and jaw light. Peaceful pause.

Sixth infusion is left to cool and gives off a caramel resin sweet woody incense onset some fresher fruits taste with nice peaceful qi.  Less long sweetness now.  Abdominal feelings with light face and jaw.

Seventh infusion has a resin woody onset with some more distant sweetness chalky silty mouthfeeling with some stimulating feeling at the back of the tongue and throat.  Nice peaceful Qi with some chest beats both energizing and peaceful.  Face and abdomen sensations.  Not much returning sweet but done creamy silty oily sweetness with resin taste in the finish.

Eighth is woody resin with a sandy mouthfeeling back of tongue and throat gentle stimulation.  Not much sweet taste left but more resin woody.  Nice peaceful Qi feeling. Watery sensation smokey background.

9th is a long mug infusion and is resinous woody with a creamy sweet and silty oily texture. Strong heart beats. Slight bitter with full gripping mouth but still oily with salivating.

The overnight infusion of spent leaves gives off a creamy oily candy sweet taste with lots of salivating and mouthwatering.  



It’s got delicious aroma and long complex evolving layered taste complexity in the mouthfeel with some gripping that causes salivating and thick oily texture.  Qi imparts a strong effect on the mind and in some steeps both energizing and with distilling peacefull feeling.  It also has great bodyfeeling strong Heart beasts but also comforting face and abdominal sensations…

Top 5 of the modern Dayi that I have tried- excellent!!!!

Comparison: The 2017 resembles the 2011 enough to know that they are similar blends especially in their abdominal sensations bodyfeeling and lingering sweetness oily texture but will never have the greatness of the 2011- it doesn’t have the long evolving sweet layer taste, its mouthfeel is narrow with a tendency to dryness, its qi is not as complex.  Still pretty enjoyable though.

Top is the 2017 Jin Dayi bottom 2011 Jin Dayi.

Paul’s (Two Dog Tea Blog) Tasting Notes

Hobbes (The Half-Dipper) Tastimg Notes

Peace

Saturday, March 9, 2024

2017 “Jin Dayi”

This sample comes from a comparison testing sample set from Liquid Proust which goes for approx $57.00 for the 2017/2011 Dayi Jin Sample set.  I sampled the quite amazing 2011 the following day in the next post.

 Dry leaves have a very tobacco wet smoke tobbacco odour.  

Rinsed leaf is superisingly sweet amongst strong wet dark cherry tobacco notes.

First infusion has a watery Smokey metallic mild chalky sweetness.  Nice sweet returning taste almost melon that builds in the aftertaste with some salivating.  Feel it in the chest. A bit of acidity left behind in the mouth.

Second infusion has smoke and tobacco with some bitterness over a dry roof mouthfeel and upper throat opening.  A sweet pop that has nice return. You van feel the bitterness buildup in the stomach- haven’t tried Dayi this fresh in a long long while. Strong chest feel with beats and energy rising.

Third infusion has a woody smoke oily texture with a creamy sweet oily creamy finish.  Smooth mouthfeel with lots of oily feeling and slight dry roof of mouth.  Nice sweet finish fades to slight dry smoke wood.



Fourth infusion is left to cool and gives off sweet oily taste with woody smoke finish.  The sweetness sort of fades into the smoke.  There is a mouth salivating with return sweetness which is almost fruity.  Strong deep uplift with chesty feeling not much bitter.  Fruity taste faintly lingering in saliva.  Spacey feeling.



Fifth infusion has a fruity faint smoke oily woody taste. Tobacco leaf base.  Mainly this sweet oily almost fruity that fades into a dryer tongue and roof stimulating effect.  Lingering fruity in mouth.  Spacy feeling

6th has some faint caramel, metalic and floral edges to it and has that oily smoke onset and fading sweetness.  There is a bit of bitterness that you can feel in the stomach.  Spacy qi feeling with feeling in lower abdomen.

7th is left to cool has a Smokey sweet hay almost fruity taste with tobacco leaf base.  

8th has a sweet oily hay tobacco leaf with a returning almost floral sweet almost fruit taste.  Thee is a chalky faint fruit returning with some mild mouthwatering.  Spacy Qi.  Fruity taste lingers in the saliva minutes later.

9th has a chalky talc woody slight bitter initial taste that has a cereal hay sweet taste with some mild mouth drying on roof and gums and tongue.

10th has a woody smoke ashy taste not that sweet anymore.  Spacy Qi.

11th is left in the cup overnight and gives off a sweet oily slight smokey wood taste with sweet vegital woody finish.  Lingering sweetness left in saliva.

Long mug steeping is a dry grippng mouthfeel with bitter wood and smoke taste.



The overnight mug steeping of spent leaves is a sweet woody almost fruit with a bitter almost but not really milk chocolate taste.  Silty mouthfeel with some chesty Qi and moderate energetic feel.

Peace

 

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Happy New Year of the Dragon!

 


Hi there readers and Happy Yew Year!!!  I hope this foray into this Year of the Dragon is as powerful for you as it is for me!

There have been lots of life changes for me this past year - all very good but which has made it difficult to evaluate and post on puerh.  I have gone very long stretches months of having no evaluation drinking. I still have no proper work gongfu and am ashamedly evaluating using flash steps in a thermos.  With that being said I had some great logical chunks of posts! 

 I posted a bunch of BaoHongYinJi reviews in March - I am happy about getting to know the brand.  Then I did a full review of complimentary samples of the 2023 Tea Encounter line up and most of the 2023 Chenyuan Hao which was really fun!  I also got some blind sampling in with some dragon balls from Puerist.  I am content with how I did and enjoy keeping up my skill- mainly it is super fun for me.

After a year or two of purchasing restraint I really let loose this past year and you can see some of that in my full cake posting in November and December last year. Lots of cakes from TeasWeLike and some from Puerh.uk as well. They are my two favourites!  There is more to come in that regard over the next month here. I just recently lost a bunch of unpublished notes on these but like I said they are cakes so I am just in the process of writing new notes.  

My home drinking has changed a bit.  I’m back onto smaller but still largish yixing pots!  My tea consumption is also down as a result which is always a plus for someone who consumes way too much puerh.  Still drinking good puerh though right now 2007 Zhi Xi Hao Diangu is in one pot and 2004 YangQing Hao Dingji Yesheng is in the other… life is good!  

Also just last week I started drinking tins Hoshino Yame matcha!  The weather has been really springlike or maybe just not that wintery at all with the La NiƱa this year.  I have been getting my matcha fix from Cultivate Tea in Vancouver they got Yame Honshino.  This Hoshino Seiju grade , second highest in their line, which I’ve been drinking is a real treat with nice texture with a clear fresh taste but not as smoke bitter or vegital or umami just clear sweet greens.  I can’t remember trying this one in the past.

In a homage to Hobbes of the Half-Dipper I finally got my first tea pet!  Back in the day I was never fond of them nor am I today… I wonder if that’s still a trend or how many people do that?  I was fond of one actually it was from amazing Korean female ceramicist Seung Jin Eh- these beautiful ceramic pagodas.  Never did buy one though… then one day one of my older kids comes home with a Grogu.  My youngest is showing interest in my tea set but she has a tendency for throwing things.  She is totally terrified of that little Grugu so as a test I put him on my tea table and sure enough he is little a cute little scarecrow…. Hahaha

Ok this Dragon Year is a time of big change so as I was going back to edit this post I realized that I need to do two things to make my tea experience better here and of course it’s not buying more tea…. Hahaha…. 

First thing is I need to improve my technology and change how I record notes so I don’t loose them like I have done a few times over the last two years!  If I can spend the money I do on tea then surely I can afford an upgrade.  I went out purchased something- it’s got a great macro feature so as an added bonus expect better photos too!

Second thing is I really got to set up my tea table at work… so I did… it’s not ideal and the table is up a bit higher than I like no drainage system set up yet but it feels good to use again after being in a box for 9 months.  Going forward my reviews will be at that table no more of that crazy thermos flash steepings for any of the puerh reviews going forward…

Peace

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Comparing Four Famous Early Yiwu Autumn Gushu Productions

 I got to thinking about the early Autumn Gushu productions produced in the earlier Gushu era by the big Taiwanese Boutique producers.  Before 2005 they didn’t market Autumal puerh.  These were also the very early days of the Gushu movement.  And with the puerh demand increasing and the bubble ready to pop there was all of a sudden a bunch of Botique puerh producers quite interested in good Autumal material. So, as a result we start to see these high quality Yiwu Autumal Gushu productions around this time.


I tried my first back then which was a blind sampling of a fresh impressive 2007 Autumn Xi Zhi Hao Pu Zhang (not even Yiwu area) thanks to Thomas of Tuo Cha Tea who acquired it from Houde.  Xi Zhi Hao had a few good Autumnal puerh this year.  I have not tried any of these earlier Autumn Xi Zhi Hao productions since- to expensive for my tastes back then.  But there are earlier ones from other Boutique producers.  Four of which I have tried recently and will speak to in this post…

The 2007 Chenyuan Hao Autumn Yiwu Cang Shu is maybe the most famous of these earlier Autumnal Yiwu Gushus.  Certainly it’s the most delicious of the bunch and is super subtle but deep yet delicate. Some mild nice body feeling and qi but mainly just really delicious and easy to drink.  Has a bit of the choking throaty feeling which I found to be a negative.

The 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang is winning the speed test at my house the last two months.  I cant resist its perfectly smoky taste and odours and its deep complex power.  It’s got that long Yiwu sweetness but that Guafengzhai qi.  Has still strong bitter base and needs pushing.  Same hot and dry storage as the above 2007 Chenyuan Hao Autumal Yiwu Cang Shu which along with its tighter rolled leaves makes it pretty good.  The clear sweet pure delicious taste of the Cang  Shu reigns supreme.

2005 Yang Qing Hao Cang Liu this is an Yiwu Autumn blended with Spring materials and other 6 famous mountains areas.  I just retried this and it’s really getting better with age since I last tried it.  Nice complex puerh sweet spacious tastes and notable bodyfeeling.  Tastes are delicious like the Cang Shu not as delicious but many better and more complex body feelings. After sampling I got to order a cake which I last saw at $205.00 for 500g cake.  I hoped to pit it against the 2006 Qixiang in a speed test but it’s all sold out!

2006 Yang Qing Hao BaiSuiXiang- this is an Autumn 6 famous mountains blend.  Retrying it is a bit more washed out than I remember with a more typical woody Autumal profile.  It has a deeper richer woodier profile mellow Qi with heavy bodyfeeling.  Not bad but doesn’t compare to above.

Peace 

Saturday, December 30, 2023

2023 ChenYuan Hao Shanzhong Chuanqi Dragonball: Fresh Subtle Spacey Gushu





This free sample came complimentary from my last purchase from Puerh.uk.  It’s not yet listed on either Puerh.uk site or the ChenYuan Hao site yet.  A bit different than the other 2023 ChenYuan Hao I sampled a few months ago as it is in a dragonball shape not sample from cake, and it is a blend.  You can’t help but wonder if this has any resemblance to the famous 2005 Chen Yuan Hao Shanzhong Chuanqi when it was fresh off the press?


Dry leaf smells mildly woody pungent sweet.

30 second rinse the rinsed leaves smell really spicy and pungent with a really sweet mouthwatering berries floral odour.

First infusion is a 30 second infusion still quite watery but also sweet sugar and melon with a mouthwatering base and cool throat and breath.

Second infusion is left to cool and is a sugary sweet watery onset with a cool woody mid profile and bland sweet finish.  

Third infusion has a sweet vegital onset with a slight drying sandy mouth feel, slight gripping.   Bland sweet aftertaste.  Slight spacy slowing feeling.



Fourth infusion has a sweet faint sugar almost melon with a mild bitter.  There is more mouth puckering.  Slight spacy feeling.  Salivating.  Overall a bland mild vegital taste with lots of space and faint sweetness.  This one tastes more green and fresh than the other 2023 in this tightly compressed Dragonball.

Fifth is a bland mild sweet floral taste there is mainly this low level bland vegital taste but pops of sweet tastes melon, faint sugar.  It’s faintly bitter and astringent- very mild with this sandy mild pucker mouthfeel and long cool breath.  Building spacy Qi feeling.

Six infusion has a watery bland initial taste with a mild bitter gripping.  There is subtle woods, vegital, and almost floral.  Lots of empty space and mild tastes.  Strongest part is a spacy Qi sensation that is keeping me a little high today.

7th has a woody watery bland taste.  Faint distant sugar sweetness and some mouthwatering wet mouthfeeling.  Spacy Qi.  Cool breath with hints of sweetness.

8th is put into a long thermos infusion and is a bitter sweet clear sugar and bland woody almost coco makes the mouthwater.  Stronger chesty high with spacy and energetic feeling..,

The tight compression of this Dragonball has made this one taste over the top fresh.  It’s really has lots of space in its flavour lots of really light subtle tastes but obviously Gushu material.  The strongest aspect is its space out Qi.  There is a bit of movement throughout the session with the Qi as well to keep it a bit interesting.  The mouthfeel is also mild but gripping and at sometimes sandy and puckering but all very mild.  There is a nice cooling and mild sweet return.  Still too early for this one… 

The next day I pour out the thermos it has a slight oily buttercup floral sweetness Forest green taste.  Almost bitter.  Flat sticky faint lips and mouth dryness.  Subtle sugar sweet aftertaste.  Some spacey relaxing.


Hard to imagine that the famous 2005 Chen Yuan Hao Shanzhong Chuanqi had this type of material and processing but this is a nice rare fresh Gushu blend… 

Peace

Thursday, December 28, 2023

2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Spring!Yiwu Chawang: Aged Etherial Yiwu Gushu!

 


This is a rather expensive cake apparently- it’s the spring version of the famous Autumn 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang.  Paolo Of Puerh.uk has some if you are looking to sample it…


The dry leaves smell of a sweet fruity odour no smoke at all.

The wet rinsed leaves have a woody sweet almost mesquite almost barnyard pungent odour.

First infusion has a bright sweet taste with clear watery feeling.  Fuzzy/ mossy mouthfeel.  

Second infusion has a light clear woody sweet taste.  With a mossy slight dry gripping salivating mouthfeel.  Peaceful Qi feeling.  

Third infusion has an oily sweet woody taste with some mossy dry slight gripping mouthfeel.  Clear taste profile with some qi felt in the arms relaxing Qi feeling. Slight sweet watery tropical fruit returning taste.  


Fourth infusion has a watery woody almost creamy sweet pure taste with a slight cooling breath and creamy sweet slight fruity returning sweetness over a mossy slight dry with some lips and roof drying feeling.  Chest expansion and calm Qi feeling with feeling in arms and shoulders.

Fifth infusion has a watery woody sweet creamy chalky taste.  There is a mossy slight stick mouthfeel very clear pure tastes.  Slight creamy slight cool aftertaste.  Peaceful calming Qi.

Sixth infusion is a watery pure and clear watery woody in a mossy mouthfeel.  Some faint cooling breath with slight sweetness.  No bitterness or astringency.  Peaceful calm.

Seventh infusion is a bit grains with wood clear pure watery ethereal feeling puerh this is.  Mainly just woody tasting with dry gums, teeth and lips. Some chest beats and slight warming face.  Relaxing and calm and peaceful.

The eighth infusion I put this into an hours long mug infusion… it’s comes out pretty woody with a bland woody not that sweet at all.  There is a dry sandy mouth feeling cool breath and deeply relaxing qi.  There is some bready warming spice root cola cooling medicinal woody sweet complex taste in there but underneath a strong dry woodiness bitter base taste.  Had to push it pretty hard to get it out of these leaves.  There is some bitterness and mouth puckering dry mouth.  Stronger face warming qi with spacy relaxing tranquilizer feeling.  I finish up the cup and give it another long steep…. This one has more of a watery not that sweet woody taste.

One of the best examples of a clean pure ethereal Gushu puerh from the early GuShu era of puerh production.  It has good stamina and subtle complexity and depth when pushed.  I would have guessed this a few years older if sampled blind.


Vs 2006 Autumn Guang Chen-He Tang Yiwu Chawang-  The Spring production is much smoother and ethereal tasting and feeling.  The spring is much more delicate and it’s Qi really peaceful with more pronounced bodyfeeling.  When pushed a bit harder you also get more complex subtle tastes.  The Spring tastes like a few years older.  The Autumn can be a bit bitter.  The Autumn has stronger Qi, Smoke, more old school feeling but a balance between that an Gushu nuance.

Peace

Sunday, December 24, 2023

Famous Puerh in the West: 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang

 






As stated in the comments here, this puerh is sort of historical in the West.  Like many puerh that have become popularized in Western puerh lore, it had an early fresh off the press release from Houde.  I remember when it was first released and the stir that it created with the early online puerh community.  As I stated in the comments of an introductory post on this puerh, 


There are two main sources that you can still access that give you an idea of the initial response to this 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang (Autumn) Yiwu Chawang.  One is from the famous Hobbes of the Half-Dipper Blog.  Hobbes and Marshal’N, the most old school drinkers/ Bloggers at this time, really dig their heals in and you can see the resistance to this new way of puerh in the comments.  Also you can see that Hobbes does give this one a 7/10.  The main criticism of this one is the price which was $80.00 for a whole cake which was at the higher price bracket at this time, unheard of just a few years before.  Globally, this was at the very peak of the puerh bubble before it crashed so there were many discussions about if a certain puerh was actually worth its price.

The other way hype was spread for this 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang was through a comparison tasting of another 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Yiwu also released at Houde- the 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yecha.  The comparison tasting was organized on Puerh Live Journal by the grandfather himself Marshal’N with famous puerh people Phil Sheng and Davelcorp with detailed contributions among others.  The Yecha is a wild tea and was selling for much less and was not as well received as the Chawang.  If fact, the Yecha is still available for purchase at Houde.

The good soul that he is, Hobbes of the Half-Dipper, sent me some unsolicited leftover Chen Guang-He Tang Houde samples around a year later.  One of these was the 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Yecha.  However, I never did try the Chawang… at the time I thought the prices of the puerh at Houde was mad.  I was spending my money on $20-40 cakes.

As far as I understand from these early reviews this tea had good potential.  It sounds like it had fairly good processing with tightly rolled leaves, a nice somewhat bitter backbone, strong Qi, and some old school smoke.  Then take that knowledge with a preferred storage option coming from Daniel (aka Old Man, a source from Puerh.uk which I have a handful of puerh) and the offer to get exclusive access to such things seem pretty hard for me to resist.  This 2006 Chen Guang-He Autumn Yiwu Chawang sold out at $375.00 for 357g cake or $1.05/g but 25g samples of these cakes are now on offer at Puerh.uk for those who are interested in a bit of puerh history…


Dry leaves smell of delicious mouthwatering sweet tobbacco leaves.  It’s a sweet smelling smoke that a lot of Yiwu would smell like from around this era… I like it.

First infusion has a fruity sweet watery smoke woody with a long cool breath.  The sweet taste see is almost banana and melon and there is a slight mesquite BBQ taste.  Nice mouthwatering mouthfeel with subtle sandy roof of mouth.  Instant deep sigh relaxing and notacable head floating spaciness.

Second infusion has a fruity sweet onset with a woody smoke BBQ finish.  There is a mouthwatering effect along with some sticky roof of mouth and cool breath.  Strong sigh relaxing Qi with arms light and chest sensations.

Third infusion has a sweet melon potato mild watery onset with mouthwatering mouthfeeling underlying BBQ mesquite.  There is a sticky sandy mouthfeel with done deep throat simulation and long cool throat.  Stronger spacy relaxing qi with light limbs and chest.


Fourth infusion has an oily fruity melon woody sweet taste. There is a long cooling breath and faint smoke now with sticky squeaky gums and roof.  Bready melon sweet aftertaste gives a slow returning taste.  Really clear flavours.  Strong spacy Qi with chest radiating and energy down arms.  There is a deep throat sensation where the after taste of bread and sweet melon lingers minutes later.  Strong Qi is nice- the chest has deep but strong beats and the mind is clear and relaxed spaced out some body floating.  Slight warming energy.

Fifth infusion has a somewhat oily mouthwatering sweet melon bready woody onset with faint smoke underneath.  The mouthfeel is becoming slight drying lips dry with roof and gums sandy squeaky.  Strong complex Qi- energized but spacy limbs light chest radiant and warming. Cool breath. Long deep aftertaste minutes later of sweet woody bready melon.  

Sixth infusion has a watery woody onset with subtle incense smoke some warming spice faintly bitter.  None to little sweet onset now with a sticky dry mouthfeeling and deep throat feeling.  There still is that returning sweetness but much less mainly sweet woody bready now.  Strong complex Qi.  

Seventh is a long thermos steeping… I take a sip a few hours later and it has a bitterness and woody taste up front with a sweetness underneath.  There is a deep throat stimulation with a long blueberry/Strawberry jam like sweetness that lingers.

The next morning the taste is a light sugary almost melon sweetness with saliva gobs and returning creamy chalky sweet taste there is some sandy sticky mouthfeeling with deep throat stimulation and solid lingering returning sweetness.  There is a creamy sweet almost berries after taste which lingers on the chalky tough coating and into the deep throat.  Full feeling and sweet in this overnight infusion of spent leaves.  Aftertaste lingers minutes later in the throat and saliva.

Did this puerh turn out to be amazing after such a long wait?!??!? I’m not sure about that but it is pretty good and has some great qualities that I look forward to in puerh- old school sweet Yiwu, smoke clear Gua Feng Zhai character long sweet taste, nice strong transforming Qi and bodyfeeling.


Vs 2006 Yang Qing Hao Chawangshu-  I dragged this one years ago mainly because I was quite disappointed with what Yang’s processing and storage did to this one.  The 2006 Chen Guang-He Tang Autumn Yiwu Chawang has much better storage and processing.  It shows of the Gua Feng Zhai profile nicely especially in the first infusions also is bitter which the Yang Qing Hao is not.  The Qi of the Yang Qing Hao is so so much better though and the reason I have already drank through a cake- strong euphoria and body feeling.  


Peace