2009 Dayi "Dragon Pole" Shu Pu'er, courtesy of Shah8

The holidays for most Americans have finished, but for many Asian-Americans, they have yet to begin. Lunar New Year, aka Chinese New Year, aka Spring Festival (春节), aka Tet, aka Seollal (설날), begins on January 23 and lasts fifteen days.

The upcoming lunisolar year is a dragon year, specifically water dragon; Dayi's "Dragon Pole" shu, then, is the perfect way to add some water to a dragon and see what this new year might be about. Thanks to Shah8 for leaving a sample with me!



The photo above shows the gongting "tribute" grade leaf. These are very small, tippy buds whose small stature requires a skilled fermentation expert to create and whose potency requires my full attention to not overbrew.

The first few infusions are dark and syrupy thick--heavier fermentation shu. The flavors, though, combine earthiness with an almost roasted character, with flavors of carob and coffee.

Middle infusions, like the one below, have a very soft mouthfeel and more "chinese medicine" kind of notes.



Late infusions become woody and sweet, and it gave out rather quickly.

None of the infusions had much aftertaste to offer, but what flavors remained in the mouth were pleasant and light.

Supposedly Dayi's signature shu pu'er, it impressed me less than the An Xiang shu, but I can't say for sure it wasn't my own brewing inadequacy with leaf this small. Oh, if only I had a whole cake to practice with!



The 2009 version runs about US$21 on Taobao before proxy fees and shipping, $53.99 with shipping from Dragon Tea House (ebay seller based in China).

Dayi 2009 69th Anniversary Cake

After some discussion with MarshalN and his recent blog post ("It’s not about the flavours"), I remembered with humorous self-deprecation the days when my tea reviews focused almost entirely on flavors. At the time, pu'er was new to me and its flavors unlike any I had drunk before: complex and dynamic, changing across infusions, its strange flavors colonizing regions all over the mouth.

Now, as my sensory appreciation of the tea I drink continues hours past when I've finished drinking it, the same question that hung over my hunt for pu'er tea in 2005 continues to haunt me when drinking pu'er in 2011: which teas will make great, ageable pu'er?

Today's contender for the label of "great, ageable pu'er" is Dayi's 69th Anniversary cake, of which I purchased a sample at Yunnan Sourcing. The leaves pictured above and below show some rather broken, probably machine-harvested, low elevation, plantation leaf: pretty typical for the factory (I digress to note that, despite the fact that many Dayi cakes share this same appearance, no two cakes taste exactly alike).

It brewed up yellow and clear, without smokiness, and with a fertile, stemmy fragrance. Flavor-wise, Dayi celebrated their 69th anniversary with buttered biscuits, green olives, and root vegetables. So much time has passed since I last drank a Dayi tea, I'd nearly forgotten what they can taste like. The olive note reminded me of many Lincang teas I've had, and the vendor's description of the cake indicates the blend contains some Bada mountain leaf, which is on the border with Lincang. Coincidence?

Beyond flavor and fragrance, the texture of the brewed tea struck me as neither thick nor thin, though water temperature has an effect, with rapidly boiling water thickening the tea somewhat, and below boiling water thinning it. It sometimes hit the roof of my mouth and soft palate, and at its thickest hovered its flavors and fragrance by the root of my tongue. On the whole, though, it felt weak in the mouth.

Between infusions my tongue felt like a sponge soaked with the aftertaste of this tea: ashen, mildly sour, and bready or yeasty. Writing this blog some 45 minutes after drinking the tea, I still have some olive and ash drifting out of my tongue.

The verdict? It's another Dayi factory tea, solid but unremarkable, not too pricey but not cheap. "Middling" describes most of its qualities, the exception being the aftertaste, which was appreciably lengthy. Ageable? Probably. I should revisit some of my earlier purchases of tea in this style and check up on their aging to get a better answer.

One final note: the tea's sticker says something about how Menghai is located on a volcanic/seismic belt that produces a soil rich in volcanic nutrients and a magnetic field. Not sure what all that means for your tea, but thought it interesting they included the information to market the tea.

2009 Lancang 0081 Shu Bing

Of my most recent order, none of the teas so far had heavy earthiness to them, which is odd for the genre to which they belong, shu pu'er. This tea is the exception.

This tea hails from Lancang region in Pu'er Prefecture (formerly known as Simao (1950-2007), formerly known as Pu'er (1729-1950), formerly known as...?). Lancang is a minority autonomous county inhabited by the tea-growing Lahu, Dai, and Bulang ethnic minorities. It contains the famous Jing Mai tea mountain (Dai minority) and lesser-known Mangjin (Bulang minority).

I couldn't remember the last time I had a purely Simao Pu'er Lancang shu pu'er (Pu'er pu'er sounds too redupicative!), and thus I bought it for variety.

I generally don't like Lancang area sheng pu'er: I find it bland and lacking depth. But in the spirit of "don't knock it until you try it" I kept an open mind.

The leaves are the usual "pretty face, ugly butt" blending trick. If this isn't obvious enough from the pics above, click on the pics below for comparison. I should mention that this review is of leaves from the back of the cake.

Also, the tea was pressed in January 2009, meaning it's likely summer 2008 tea material, maybe with lighter fermented stuff from fall.

The first three brews tasted very earthy, like the smell of loamy soil, so I would suggest rinsing this tea twice to reduce some of that taste if you don't like it. Not fishy or pondy, just muddy. For the large size of the leaves, the tea held out for an impressive 13 infusions, even when pushed for more flavor.

The next infusions were sweet, earthy, woody, finishing rocky. They made me salivate quite a bit, and the "mouthfeel" of the tea was comfortable and oily. Not too much aftertaste, and not too much depth, but enjoyable nonetheless. It took extra long infusions very well. All of this adds up to be a good tea for brewing at work, where I have no one to impress and want passably good tea even if I forget it or otherwise abuse it.

I forgot to take a picture of the brewed leaves and the brewed liquid, but it's all the same with shu pu, no? No? OK, well, the leaves are mostly heavily fermented, with some of the larger leaves looking lighter in color.

A good tea for sitar music, rain, and the smell of baking pumpkin sourdough bread.

(the neifei (far above) and nei piao (immediately above) are both marked "10", whatever for I can't say. Any clues?)

If you have had this tea or any other shu pu from this region, please comment here and give me your thoughts. I'm always curious!

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Update: 25 February 2011

As of today, I am halfway through the Lancang 0081 shu cake. I have been drinking it at work, which is where I drink most of my shu tea. For me, shu is easy to brew, easy to drink, and given it's of decent quality or better, forgiving when brewed in imperfect situations, such as my office.

In my office, a small fabric-lined cardboard tea caddy holds a comfortable half a qi zi bing (approximately 179g).

I dip into the red box about once every four days. I keep to a routine tea schedule at work, alternating between teas daily--usually one or two oolongs and one or two pu'er teas. The benefit of this seemingly obsessive-compulsive habit is that I don't spend unnecessary time pondering what tea I'm in the mood for or want to brew. I stick to the order unless I arrive at work with a strong feeling for what I want to drink.

Enough distraction and onto the tea!

The tea remains smooth, earthy, and rocky, even when brewed in my California stoneware pot using filtered water. It feels less thick in the mouth and tastes less rich, but the rocky aftertaste seems stronger.

I suspect the filtered water, boiled in a metal kettle, causes this thinness and stronger mineral flavor. It's a small complaint to say a good tea could be better unless the price is high. Thus, even at this slightly lower quality, the good value of this cake remains solid. A loose shu at a similar price ($15.90 per pound) would probably taste horrific.

Nan Jian 2009 Tulin Organic Ripe Brick

I rarely stray from my Menghai/Dayi, Xiaguan, and Haiwan factory shu. More truthfully, I feel even those latter two can taste significantly less smooth and interesting than my classic standby Dayi-brand shu.

But after drinking only Menghai/Dayi shu for the past year--and only Menghai lao cha tou for the past 4 months--gourmet wanderlust overcame me when it came time to order more cooked pu'er, and I included two non-Dayi offerings in my lineup.

This post deals with one such purchase, the 2009 Nan Jian Factory, Tulin brand "certified organic" cooked brick. Known mostly as an "also-ran" factory, Nan Jian was at one point a conglomeration of three brands via the partnership of three individuals: Zhai Zi Po, Nan Jian Feng Huang, and Tulin. Something brought Zhai Zi Po out of this partnership, and currently Nan Jian only produces tea under the Feng Huang (phoenix) and Tulin (local forest...?) brands.

The brick is moderately compressed and, as shown above, covered with pretty face leaves that look like grade 1-2 material. One look at the side of the brick, however, shows that underneath the veneer lay less illustrious leafage, and a view underneath the face layer confirms the suspicion.

It also appears to be a darker fermentation, but this too is a trick of blending, though maybe not a purposeful deception, considering that lighter fermented shu pu'er is "of the now" in China...but more on this in the tasting notes.

First sip screams, "Coffee! Or an approximant!" The tea has a roasted quality, almost like instant coffee without the bitterness, insomuch as instant coffee has none of the acidity of fresh brewed coffee. Oddly described (I apologize), but the flavor strikes me as pleasant. Maybe they oven-dried this brick?

The texture is creamy, oily, soft. Stems and big leaves show their presence in the aftertaste, and while tasting I guessed they comprise 30-50% of blend. It dawned on me that this tea is not earthy, and instead the flavors variate "woody": stem in the flavor, sawdust in the aroma. Mulchy is as close to earthy as it gets. A fermented aroma appears in later infusions, not the fishiness of bad shu, but something piquant (read: pickle-y, umami...?).

You can see above that the tea is a blend of heavier fermented stems and leaves, with less fermented small to large leaves in the mix, too.

When it weakened after some 9 good infusions, only the stem flavor and sawdust aroma remained. So, I moved the leaves from the gaiwan to my pitcher, added some tea flowers, and prayed this concoction would counteract any caffeine in the tea.

Verdict: there's a good amount of complexity in this tea, but it tastes very little like the Menghai Factory teas I enjoy, which is appropriate considering the tea is from a region typically unused by Menghai Factory, Lincang. I don't remember much about shu pu'ers I've drunk from Lincang, so this this brick has provided an altogether different experience, thankfully a pleasant one!

Twin Hong Yun - 2008 Dayi Hong Yun & its Liming imitator

Quick disclosure: the Liming Hong Yun was given as a free sample in an order from Puerhshop.com.

In 2008, Menghai Factory released an iron-pressed embossed tea cake called "Hong Yun" aka "Red Flavor/Rhyme". A year later, Liming Factory, Dayi's ever-chasing doppelganger put out its own version, in nearly identical packaging (Dayi on left). Edit: the box looks too much like Chinese cigarette packaging for my taste.




Dayi Face:


Liming Face:


How do they measure up?

2008 Dayi Hong Yun (available here and here)
Although it looks as compressed as plywood, digging my tea knife into the cake surface I managed to scrape chunks off without pulverizing the leaf.

Creamy, loamy flavors and velvety thick texture, my flushing face tells me there's energy in this tea. The Dayi Hong Yun coats the mouth and hits every part with flavor. I swear I can taste it on my soft palate and inner cheek (weird?). The milky flavor is a treat and reminds me of hong kong pearl tea. Sweet for shu, this reminds me of a more refined version of the famous, darkly fermented 7262 recipe.

The negative of this shu lies in its long stretch of similar flavors. From the second infusion until the tea nearly dies, the creaminess takes its time changing into chalk and wood flavors with a side of bittersweet, more like liu bao than shu pu. To that point, Davin walked into my brewing several infusions in, and toward the end had to ask what we were drinking; he said had I told him this was tea other than shu, he would have believed it.

I try to compare small portions, like tuo and mini cakes such as this one, to the price of larger cakes. At $6.45 to $8.45 for 100g, this is the equivalent of a $23 to $30 for a 357g cake, on par with other Dayi greats, the 2007 Golden Needle White Lotus cake, 2007 Yun Xiang, and even some aged shu pu cakes from 2002-2003. I feel that for the quality, this is competitively priced. And only having to invest under $10 to try it, it's easier on the wallet than the slightly better and slightly cheaper per-gram Golden Needle White Lotus.

2009 Liming Hong Yun (available here)
The Liming, once you can pry off a chunk, has dark, earthier flavors. Like the Dayi, the higher grade leaf makes the heavy fermentation release a creaminess, but unlike the Dayi, it offers a hint of unpleasant pondiness. While both teas are velvety in the mouth, the Liming leaves the mouth and throat dry after swallowing, not achieving the olive oil slipperiness of the Dayi. A few other tasting bits: it leaves a rocky/mineral and bark mulch flavor in the mouth, and sometimes has the flavor of baked bread, much in common with your average shu, but a few degrees more interesting.

But darn that fishpond flavor when it sneaks in!

A cardinal rule of reviewing is to review something for what it is, not what it is not (thanks, Aristotle!). The Liming Hong Yun tries hard to be the Dayi Hong Yun, and so I compare them. Standing apart, the Liming is a good value--moreso at its taobao price of 9 Yuan ($1.31; Dayi Hongyun from 2008 sells for $4.40 on taobao)--but even at its price at Puerhshop, considering its durability (8+ good infusions). It's a third the price and over a third as good. At US prices, it costs about 1/2 to 2/3 the price of the Dayi cake, making it a tougher decision if you had to choose between the two.

Still, I wish they had marketed the cake on its own. Why not, Mulch Rhyme (土幂韵)? Or Mineral Spring Rhyme (矿泉韵)?

Dayi Wet Leaf on left, Liming Wet Leaf on right. Notice Liming has larger, less fermented leaves in greater proportion:

Meiguo Hao 0904

I received a surprise sample of Meiguo/American Hao 0904 from Jim, the proprietor of Puerhshop.com, and many days and weeks of moving, unpacking, and procrastinating, Davin and I finally completed our tea room and had someone over for tea. We began our drinking with this sample.



Having misplaced my memories of the good review and cake naming drama over at Hobbes's blog, we were able to approach this tea with pleasurable naïveté. The first two infusions laid thick on the tongue, a bit smoky and meaty, with a sweet aftertaste. The tea maintained its strength through over 10 infusions, and although the never reached any appreciable layer of complexity, we all enjoyed it and felt it had promise for aging.



Another good sign: after drinking a 1999 brick made for export to Mongolia and a bowl of matcha thereafter, the aftertaste of Meiguo Hao 0904 kept its foothold on our tastebuds, renewed after we finished the other teas.

When I saw the provenence--Mahei Village, Yiwu--the tea's characteristics made sense. And at $44, perhaps the tea merits a purchase for those with Yiwu underrepresented in their collections. But for me, with my ridiculous amounts of young pu'er, I couldn't justify buying it. That said, I plan to thoroughly enjoy the rest of my sample.