A 2004 Feitai production with the classic 8653 recipe. Stored in southern Taiwan, this tea firmly fits into the semi-aged category and is an upgrade over the 2005 XG FT8653-5 that was previously reviewed.
Tea is provided courtesy of Toby (https://www.instagram.com/toby8653/) and Emilio (https://www.instagram.com/thejadeleaf/).
An old ripe tuo stored in Kunming via Yunnan Sourcing.
A special Northern Yunnan production from Xizihao. A very complex, dynamic tea that was fun to session with other pu-heads.
In what is becoming a yearly tradition, I spent too much and bought too much in 2016. An extended trip to Asia didn’t help matters. Unlike 2015 I’m actually pretty happy with what I spent money on. Part of this is just having another a year under my belt to both learn about tea and my own preferences. For instance, 85-90% of the pu’erh I bought comes from 2003-2007. This hits the right mark for me of affordability, quality of base material and storage. I’ve avoided buying young pu’erh, a category I tend to not drink much and have bought too much of in the past. I bought a bit less mature pu’erh than 2015, but that’s more because I’ve found it difficult to match some of the traditionally stored pu’erh I found in Hong Kong during my brief trip there in 2015. (more…)
The W2T Club November tea. A young recently-pressed raw pu’erh from Lincang.
A crisp, fresh, Alishan coming from an unlikely source in Poland.
To commemorate our new location, this episode we drink a high-end sheng from boutique Taiwanese producer, Chenyuan Hao. Dry-stored by a collector in Malaysia, this is a wonderful tea to enjoy with our tea heads.
The tea is made from wild Yiwu leaves.
I covered how to buy from taobao through an agent in the previous post. Knowing how to order is only part of the battle. There is literally an ocean of teas on taobao and samples are not normally offered. While there are decent teas to be found, there’s also an ocean of crap and overpriced teas. Even amongst the vendors that do indeed offer samples, it’s a long process of trying teas and re-ordering. That makes finding and selecting teas very important. (more…)
An extended episode that shows James brewing a light traditionally stored 2003 Brown Changtai in both grandpa style and gong-fu style brewing.
Relevant: http://www.marshaln.com/whats-grandpa-style/
Tea is provided courtesy of Toby (https://www.instagram.com/toby8653/) and Emilio (https://www.instagram.com/thejadeleaf/).
First episode on our new set! A wonderfully aromatic red (black) tea from Emilio over at The Jade Leaf.