Saturday, May 31, 2014

2008 Menghai Qizibing Pu-erh

From puerhshop.com $17 for 357 g cake

The brews are a bit cloudy with particulates for my preference. A mediocre tea that I should be able to finish the cake of this slowly mixing it in the rotation for something different.


2010 Charming Menghai Pu-erh Tea Cake

From puerhshop.com $17 for a 357 g cake

The search for a ripe puerh to stock up on continues. This is the first from an order I recently placed with puerhshop.com. This seems a reasonable well rounded tea. Surprisingly nothing really stands out to me to form much of an opinion, good or bad. This might make for a nice daily tea, which is what I am looking for.




Tuesday, May 13, 2014

The Ripe Puerh Showdown

I am moving to where I presume getting good tea will be costlier. Therefore, I plan on stockpiling some tea now to last me the next few years. I have placed a larger than normal order of samples of mostly ripe pu-erh since that's what I drink most of on a day to day basis. Here is my recap of the brewings in relatively short order of brewing two to four a day for ease of reference and not having to remember too much for too long. Below are a few notes about each.

2006 Menghai Sonji Cooked Puerh 601
Smells nice somewhat malty. Taste is a bit flat

2008 Menghai "7672" Ripe Puerh
Something reminiscent of a cooked puerh that I am familiar with. Very faint fishy aroma, which is surprisingly not offputting.

2007 Menghai "Jade Dew" Ripe Puerh
Similar to the tea just above but worse all around

2005 Menghai "Ba Ji Pu Bing" Ripe Puerh
Good aroma and flavor, slight hint of sweetness.

2005 Hai Lang Hao "Jin Hai Lang" Ripe Puerh
This is a competitor for the worst tea I have had.

2000 CNNP "Lincang" Ripe Puerh
Slightly smoky aroma. Strange metallic taste.

2005 Mengku Gong Ting Mini Ripe Cake
This seems like an oversized single use ripe puerh with mostly particulate tea, leaves are non existent.

2012 Xiaguan "7663 Classic Ripe Cake"
Mediocre all around, not bad but not great. The one cake of this is drinkable.

2012 Nan Jian 703 Organic Ripe Puerh
Aroma is mediocre, slightly strange. Fairly bland body. This is a step in the right direction for organic teau. My experiences with organic tea have all been not good for now.

2013 Yunnan Sourcing Yong De Blue
Reasonable aroma and smooth flavor profile. A decent pressing.

The contenders for what I will get are:
2008 Menghai "7672" Ripe Puerh
2005 Menghai "Ba Ji Pu Bing" Ripe Puerh
with 2006 Menghai Sonji Cooked Puerh 601 as a far outside chance.

Monday, May 5, 2014

2012 Yunnan Sourcing "Nan Nuo Duo Yi Zhai" Ancient Arbor Raw Pu-erh

From Yunnan Sourcing $80 for a 400 g cake

This tea seems rather average with most of the flavors and aromas limited to the "bite" when the you are drinking the tea. There is not much left after that. There is a faint something that lingers around but it seems rather shallow. Maybe I am missing something but it seems a bit on the high end for what it is. I probably wouldn't get this even if reasonable priced, but I could see how some people might like this.