2003 Songpin Imperial Puerh King (ToM)

Another from the "Taste of Mellowness" set of Puerhshop.com, now sold out.

2003 Songpin Imperial Puerh King


This roughly gongting grade shu pu'er received some good reviews from the folks at teachat, becoming popular enough that it's recommended to pu'er newcomers. It's got a hefty pricetag for a non-Menghai shu, some $33 for a 357g cake, supposedly hand-pressed and supposedly made in Yiwu. A closeup:



The leaf grade is very high. These little golden buds don't hide any unsavory leaves underneath; the grade remains consistent throughout the cake. I brewed this tea 4 times in a yixing pot and once in a gaiwan, my notes are as follows:

The brewed leaf in the pot smells strongly of spearmint, then trails off to a (good) cooked meat smell. Using very little leaf, this tea packs a punch, evidence of its grade. Soft, round, a little spicy at times, a little blandly woody and grainy at others, the tea is balanced and benefits from long steeps after the third steep or so.

I caught some unpleasant pondiness in every session, except when brewing at home using softer water. Less leaf also seemed to leech out out more pond. Still, at its best and with softer water, the tea is rich, and its only fault is that it doesn't last more than 5 good steeps.



Pros: balanced and round, very rich
Cons: occasional pond, not tenacious
Cost: expensive, but this grade normally is. Perhaps a decent buy considering its age and that it needs less leaf to perform well.
Verdict: interesting flavors, high grade, and a few years age make this a good tea and a good tea for beginners...if they don't mind throwing down $33.

2003 Xiaguan Shu Tuo (ToM)

2003 Xiaguan Shu Tuo

The appearance of this tea caused me to have reservations about its authenticity. At first glance, the tea appears fine:



But the interior leaves are all huangpian:



While many, many manufacturers hide ugly leaves under pretty leaves, this is not something Xiaguan has been known to do, not even for the Xiao Fa (French Export) Tuo, which this tea is. While some of the faces do not match the back of the cakes on blended cakes like the (T)86## series, I've never seen Xiaguan practice this level of deception. Xiaguan teas being faked all the time, I went to see if I could find this tea on Taobao, the Chinese version of eBay. I found only one 2003 Xiaguan tuo matching the wrapper--another Xiao Fa Tuo--but it has no picture of the leaves. Also, it sells for all of 36RMB, the equivalent of roughly $5 (*grumble*). In comparison:



Worse, it tastes and smells terrible. My first attempt yielded a chemical smelling wet leaf and a perfumey, thin liquor tasting of straw and no earthiness. It even made my stomach upset. I stopped after three infusions.

Today, I brewed the tea again using more leaf. The chemical smell was still there, but the tea was improved. Smoother in texture, it still tasted more like fucha: all dry grass and little earth. The qi was whack, upsetting my stomach and making me woozy. The 3rd, 4th, 5th infusions were the most pleasant, coupling earthiness and grass. After this, it regressed to harsher chemically hay flavors.



The "deception" and low quality leaf combined with poor flavor makes me wonder if this is really a Xiaguan tea. I'm no authority, but I've never seen Xiaguan do this and have never tasted Xiaguan shu pu'er that I disliked. A closeup of the brewed leaves below shows the leathery huangpian. I'd love to blame the huangpian alone, but I've had huangpian shu before without complaining as much.



Pros: no pond
Cons: artificial/chemical aroma and flavors, needs a heap of leaf to get good flavors, ends poorly
Cost: $16/250g. 35 gongfu sessions at approx. $0.45 per gongfu. $0.09 per cup. Low quality damages its value.
Verdict: Low quality leaf deceptively hidden. Poor flavor. Finicky brewing. Not very good. Going to try this again with just the face leaf and update this post later.

2006 Yunmei "Yue Chen Yue Xiang" Shu Pu'er (ToM)

The peeps at TeaChat decided to go on a sampler review rampage, specifically with the new sampler packs offered by US vendor Puerhshop.com. I've ordered the "Taste of Mellowness" (shu) and "Spirit of Yiwu" (sheng) samplers, as well as some individual samplers.


Mmmm...pu! This is just one of many sizeable chunks in the Yunmei sample.

Jim Liu, the proprietor, stuffed my box full of this tea plus a few extras. Thank you to Jim for providing the biggest samples around at a fair price. I bought very little tea from Puerhshop before this, but Jim has certainly worked hard to attract more of the marketplace to his site.

2006 Yunmei "Yue Chen Yue Xiang" Shu Pu'er


The bumpy underside. Beneath the surface of the Yunmei cake lies a rougher inner truth!

Gongting grade on the outside, average grade on the inside, the Yunmei "Yue Chen Yue Xiang" (lit., "The older, the more fragrant") looked and smelled appealing. I'm still learning how to brew gongting shu consistently tasty from brew to brew, so the discovery of that the Yunmei cake's blend charmed me. Still, I had some issues brewing the sample. The first time too much leaf in the pot made the brew too strong. The second time I overcompensated for my previous mistake and used too little leaf, making the tea flat. The third time was just right...maybe.



The hot wet leaf in the pot evaporated grain/barley notes and dried cherry or jujube. No muddy texture or flavor, just lots of clean wet bark/forest floor flavor. No pondiness/fishiness to speak of, and barley did appear in the flavor in the first infusions. Subsequent infusions were perfumed with rose and talc, finishing with sweetness and lumber, with no negative traits to speak of, getting progressively "cleaner" in taste. It began to die at infusion 5, totally dead in infusion 6, tasting only of mineral water.



Summary
In sum, I enjoyed this tea once I adjusted myself to its techniques. Thankfully, the sample size is large enough that, now adjusted, I can probably enjoy this tea another 8 brewing sessions, maybe even update this post with new discoveries.

Pros: clean, no pond, interesting aromas
Cons: died quickly, a bit finicky about leaf:water ratio
Cost: If you buy a cake of this (US$16.50 or so), you're getting decent shu. Considering that buys you some 50+ gongfu sessions, you're looking at approx. $0.33 per gongfu. At 5 good infusions, that's about $0.07 per cup. Cheap.
Verdict: If I bought this cake, I'd not be disappointed. At its price and its lack of negative flavors, it makes for good everyday tea. I rarely stray away from major factory (Menghai, Xiaguan, Fengqing, Haiwan) shu pu'er, but this is an example of properly made shu. I'm looking forward to finishing it off.