This episode features an inexpensive, but flavorful huangpian production. If you like the flavor, this is an excellent value coming in around barely over $0.05/g. Friendly but not weak, this is a solid young sheng to enjoy.
Author: James
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6-Year Aged Gongmei White Tea Yunnan Sourcing [Episode 335]
In this episode, we drink an aged Gongmei white tea from Yunnan Sourcing. The tea is semi-aged and while it retains younger white tea characteristics it’s starting to develop other flavors. I particularly enjoy the later, stronger steeps.
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Sample Upwards! Why You Should Consider Trying Teas You Have No Intention in Buying
When I’m buying cakes of tea I tend to gravitate towards certain price ranges and have a mental ceiling of how much I’m willing to spend on tea. It’s not really based off of anything well reasoned or rationalized and I’ll occasionally break it, but more of an innate psychological barrier. This $/g line ends up being a pretty modest $0.25/g-$0.30/g. Occasionally I’ll spend up but if I look back at the purchases I’ve made in the past few years, the vast majority fall in this range or lower. This to me, seems like natural behavior and I think most folks will have impulses on what they’re willing to spend, especially once they’ve had a couple years of drinking and buying. People’s own price tendencies and intuitions undoubtedly vary person to person. Many have yet to convert to the $/g school so these decisions may manifest itself in $/cake numbers as well. For some, this could be $30 cakes or $100 cakes. For those who think in $/g, this may be $0.50/g or $0.10/g.
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2009 Chensheng Hao Yiwu via Yunnan Sourcing [Episode 334]
In episode 334, Denny and I drink a 2009 raw pu’erh stored in Guangdong. This is from a well-known brand Chensheng Hao and is one of their earlier productions. They’re well known for their Xishuangbanna tea but this tea is from Yiwu. It’s a relatively burly Yiwu production and has good strength that has allowed the more humid storage to create something fairly interesting. Thank you to Meng for providing the tea!
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2017 Yunnan Sourcing Huirun Ripe Pu’erh [Episode 333]
In episode 333, Denny and I drink a high-quality ripe from Scott’s 2017 line. The Huirun has been a blend Scott’s made since 2011. The tea is nuanced, flavorful, and complex with a fuller range of notes than you’d expect from an average ripe.
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Boutique Pu’erh. How Much of a Story Does the Top End of the Western Boutique Pu’erh Market Tell?
If you follow what gets said about prices each year, you would end up with the impression that the average price of tea has gone up. But more specifically the price at the most sought after regions (say Lao Banzhang, Bingdao) have gone completely through the roof. A lot of this narrative is anecdotal. Tales of rich Chinese buying up all the top-end product from X area. Part of it can also be seen when someone in the Sinosphere posts the maocha prices per location. These lists come with all sorts of contextual caveats, but the trend seems real. I don’t see any red flags to really doubt this storyline, but I was curious if it’d show up by looking at some of the data of prices on production by western facing vendors.
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Aging White Teas & Aged Whites w/Char (Oolong Owl) [Inbetweenisode 211]
In this episode, I have a conversation with Char, best known for her popular blog Oolong Owl. This is a longer video and we cover quite a range of material. We begin by talking about the the different types of white tea and their aging trajectories, where the aged white tea has been aged thus far, and finishing by discussing a few of the different school of thoughts on aging white tea and how a hobbyist might decide to do it.
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2018 WuyiOrigin Boutique Rougui (Wuyuan Jian) [Episode 332]
This episode, Denny and I have what I think is one of the best teas I’ve tried from Wuyi Origin. The tea is their boutique Rougui and has a lot of what I enjoy from Wuyi oolongs. The Yanyun, rock taste is prominent, but there’s also a lot of complexity and dynamism that place it well above average. The 2018 version is unfortunately sold out, but keep your eyes out for the 2019 version. The tea was grown in Wuyuan Jian (悟源涧).
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2018 Menghai Tea Factory 7572 Ripe Pu’erh via YS [Inbetweenisode 210]
This episode I review one of the classic and frequently produced Dayi recipes, their 7572. The tea is the definition of reliable and solid. It is essentially what I want in a regular session of ripe tea, when I am typically looking more for a consistent product than something that wows me into submission.
A solid, well-blended tea from a factory known to make good-quality ripe.
Rating: 6.1
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2009 Haoxin Hongcha Red (Black) Tea [Episode 331]
This episode, Denny and I drink a decade old black tea sent by shah. Thank you! We weren’t really sure how to approach this tea, but it was pretty impressive. Strong aromatics, complex taste, highly enjoyable! Tea was originally purchased from Houde Asian Art.