Kunming storage has never been my preferred storage. In the scheme of pu’erh drinkers I’ve always been friendlier towards the danker side of storage.. As a result there are very few teas I own that have actually undergone a significant amount of Kunming storage. I wanted to revisit my long standing bias so I emailed the west’s most well known purveyor of Kunming stored teas, Scott (Yunnan Sourcing) for his recommendations.
Goals
Determine my current opinions of Kunming storage and if I need to revise my previous storage preference. While I don’t own cakes of any of these teas I have tried five of the seven before.
See how it compares with western storage, specifically my own. One reason I own so little Kunming is that I suspect my storage operates similarly and given my storage preferences it would take a very long time for a Kunming + Seattle combination to age.
Tied with 2. But in the XG Masochist report I used a multiplier to determine relative biological age based off of where it was stored. Seattle was valued as half of Taiwan/Guangdong. The third goal is to evaluate and revise this.
Scott’s recommendations leaned northern. A secondary goal is to see if my opinions on northern tea, which I tend to avoid, have changed now that they’ve gotten older.
Notes
2012 YS Nanpozhai
This starts out quite tasty, but very green tasting. Honey, acorn, nuts. It is also sturdy and oily. The bitterness does build and starts to take over the session. Some of it resolves nicely into a sweet aftertaste, while other parts linger. It is all still quite young tasting. I have had the 2013 before, and comparatively this is less floral but the notes line up generally, with just the very top notes being chopped off. There’s clearly good material here but the slower storage prevents makes it harder to tell what semi-aged profile it will eventually have.
2012 YS Xin Banzhang
Doesn’t start out too punchy, but steadily builds up steam. Acorn nuts, sugarcane. Nice strength and protracted mouthfeel. Bitterness crescendos in the middle steeps but does properly fade. It is thick, oily. Not changed or mellowed enough for my tastes but seems intact, without bitterness taking over. The notes sort of line up with those from 11 years back. It does not have a fruity sort of sweetness so I think it has aged a little.
2012 HLH 16th Anniversary
Seems less aged than even the YS Xin Banzhang. It starts out with quite a bit of activity before getting fairly bitter. The bitterness is rewarded with a protracted mouthfeel and some returning sweetness. It does have a nice oiliness to it and some mouthcooling that indicates quality material. The bitterness only partly resolves in this case, and it does tend to linger and builds up a bit as the session goes on in a way I don’t really enjoy. A subsequent session makes this pretty obvious.
2011 YS Mushu
This has more aged notes than the Nanpo and seems to have moved along further and better, mostly in the sense that it has darkened and deepened. Leather, darker, fruits, more of a wood base. Good oiliness, mouthcool. Some honey, while also having a sturdy bitterness. Here I can see the semi-aged profile developing. Not bad.
2005 HLH Lincang Impression
This is very green for something that is 20 years old. BBQ smoke, burly, honey, woody. Also oily, still quite green. Taste old school in a nice way. Tastes younger than alternate storage, but decent density and strength. The bitterness is there but not overwhelming and it resolves mostly.
2002 Tailian International
Oily, smoky, some density but also narrow. Don’t love the bitterness that doesn’t really resolve veryquickly. Does have good strength and some density, but it is thinner than I tend to prefer and while there’s some mouthcoating it’s kind of moderate. I had a more positive impression of this tea previously, perhaps because I’d had shah’s back in 2018 (his southern US storage had aged the tea a bit). The storage here is slower and to me results in a less pleasing tea.
2000 Bulang Mushroom
Nice old school pu’erh. Reminds me of some of the mid 2000s Nanqiao Bulang-centric products. This is aging properly and perhaps would be around the 8-10 year mark of some moderate Taiwan or southern Chinese storage. Dense, oily, less sweetness. Old school pu’erh in a good way. Still too green for me to really love, but it is heading in a decent direction. Just slowly.
Do I Enjoy These Teas?
A few of them, but they’re also kind of tiring and not something I’d reach for. I think this sort of storage may actually be decent for some of the more delicate Taiwan boutiques or Yiwus, teas I did not try in this report. I think about teas like the 2010 Xiangming TF Manzhuan which are similarly dry stored and are aged enough to at least somewhat enjoy.
Kunming Storage
This drink-through has not really changed my prior opinions. I still do not love Kunming storage and do not think I will be seeking it out. It has however been interesting to drink them with more experience and through a slightly different lens. The teas I’d tried before definitely resemble what they were about a decade ago. None have really thinned out, and many are still impressively oily and thick. I also suspect my storage may be advancing the tea a little faster than some of the teas in this report. Furthermore, I also think the multiplier I applied in the Xiaguan report of 2 (my storage ages teas at approximately half the rate of GD/TW/MY) was set too low. Now I’d estimate it around perhaps a third of the speed of those hotter locations. So a 21 year old tea stored in Seattle, is the very rough equivalent to 7 years in Guangdong. This is obviously a simplified way of looking at it, as the actual result is not the same but I find it a useful rubric to look at smoothness and drinkability. I would probably set the multiplier similar for Kunming storage.
Perhaps my palate has been shaped too much by the tea I drink, but think I will stick to my Xishuangbanna heavy diet of pu’erh.
The pu’erh scene has dramatically changed over the 11 years since I started my pu’erh journey (documented with the Yiwu Pu’erh Report and a flurry of Yunnan Sourcing and White2Tea teas). Unlike say Xiaguan I’ve always liked Yiwu teas and they remain a substantial chunk of tea I consume. The availability of Yiwu tea has changed and fluctuated since that time period. In 2014, the TW boutiques previously sold by Houde in the mid 2000s were not easily acquirable so the bulk of teas were youngish pu’erh under western vendor’s own labels. In 2015 I did a semi-aged Yiwu report filtering out most of the western boutiques, which had a particularly unimpressive roster of teas that were available at the time. Later that year, Emmett started doing group buys for Yangqing Hao which would eventually cascade into a variety of availability for a handful of Taiwanese boutiques that continues til today. Flash forward a decade and we have quite a few boutique Yiwus with varying degrees of age and a robust selection of $/g+ Six Famous Mountains Teas. Some of these are from western labels like YS and W2T that were still young in 2014, while others are from Taiwan and mainland producers. So in the spirit of my original tea of the month reports, I ordered a bunch of samples and called upon the teas already in my stash.
My Own Evolution As A Drinker & Yangqing Hao
One of the first brands that I really connected with was Yangqing Hao. They were originally introduced to me via Origin Tea, who sold the Zhencang Chawang, Qizhong, and Jincha. I was only just getting into pu’erh towards the end of Origin’s existence and bought a 50 gram sample of the Jincha as Origin was shutting down. Meanwhile things like the Qizhong were getting more than solid reviews and recommendations from places like TwoDog (W2T). This small 50 gram purchase ended with me (over)buying quite a bit of YQH, a result of a starving semi-aged market as well as appealing bulk prices. In the end this was not a significant mistake, as I can easily sell these at a profit. But I think the sudden availability of multiple YQH teas in a relatively short amount of time ended with my palate being overindexed on a certain type of soft, smooth, and gentler pu’erh. I liked their storage (still do), liked Yiwu (still do) and became acclimated with the sort of Yiwu tea they were making in the mid 2000s and most importantly leaned too heavily towards this combinatino as a marker of quality. I think this can be chalked up to my inexperience and the lack of other reference points (competing boutiques, MHTF Yiwus) that were available at the time. XZH started to become more available a little later, but it was very unclear at the time if the Taiwan boutique pipeline would close up and shut down at any moment. Instead the opposite happened (YQH/XZH are still very much around) and other brands like CYH, BYH, and DTH (HK Boutique) would become available around 2017/2018, two years after YQH, largely thanks to TWL.
One example of my over-Yanged palette is when I tried Dragon Tea House for the first time in 2017. The taste was very different from my benchmarks of YQH teas and I found their tea challenging to evaluate and appreciate.
Will These Age? & Windows & Single Origin
This is one of the more important thing I’m looking out for in this drink through. My overall opinion on boutiques aging well long-term has trended down throughout the years. Unlike say a very strong, densely packed factory tea, a lot of Yiwu tea has a less obvious aging trajectory. Some of this is that boutique processing can be tweaked to create approachable young pu’erh (allowing the leaves to oxidize, less rolling). It is also partly related to the terroir of Yiwu which tends to produce on average less aggressive teas than western Xishuangbanna. Even though these are more drinkable than young factory tea, I still prefer these teas with some degree of age. It is nice and a very helpful data point that we can drink many examples with more age than 10 years back.
Another way to think about aging is in windows. Thanks to Seo on Discord this sort of thinking has started to become more prominent. The window concept is straightforward, a tea will hit a peak at some point and should be consumed within a window of time. At a certain point, the tea will start to thin out, potentially losing strength and become less interesting. Due to my slow western storage, there’s not a ton of teas that have really thinned out on me. And I may indeed be the last person to know, so the samples of more aged teas from others might offer valuable hints.
A second concern is the materials that are used and how blended they are. Yiwu products sold are dominated by boutiques. These boutique outfits have frequently veered into more specific villages and batches, resulting in smaller and smaller runs with less blended materials. Since I am not interested in consuming pu’erh when it’s young, I am most curious about how well these are aging. A concern is that these can age in particularly uninteresting ways despite having good material.
Storage Match
I think unlike Xiaguan where you want a certain degree of humidity, it is less necessary and in many cases preferred for these teas to have had drier storage. The powerful blunt instrument of HK traditional storage would not be my first choice for most of these teas.
How these teas are stored will also impact their drinking window and when they could be termed as ready. While I still prefer these teas with a bit more aging from a hot and humid place (I like darker teas) I think if the tea is good enough, it can still be fairly drinkable given enough time. One good example is the 2010 XMTF Manzhuan, a tea that has been solidly dry stored and is very drinkable now
Goals
Stash check. Having a new family member has been a soft reset on a lot of things, my tea hobby included. Unlike many of the Xiaguan teas pulled out of deep storage I do drink these regularly but there are some that have fallen out of favor. There are also others that are now old enough to try.
Establish an average tea (VOATO, Value of Average Tea Owned) to benchmark against. As stated in my reflections I’ve previously overindexed on a YQH profile, so I want to have additional measuring sticks to compare teas.
Crank out my thoughts on a ton of teas in a helpful way for myself and hopefully for a few others. Like the XG Masochists Report you are getting more than a year’s videos worth of thoughts in one report. There are over 100 (!!) teas listed in this report.
Ratings/Tiers
I did not want too much mental gymnastics in grading the tea, so I am rating purely on my own appreciation of the tea at the moment I drank it. Some folks (Rex) suggested I switch to a tier system and I do think that makes sense. While I don’t wish to be memed, I do find rating to be an effective way of capturing my own thoughts at the time of drinking. So with the risk of making a fool of myself, I will include them. They are purely a reflection of how I enjoy the tea at this moment and not of a tea’s potential.
Chenyuan Hao
Chenyuan Hao is one of the most famous of the Taiwanese boutiques and has made quite a lot of tea in the last 25 years. While they’ve never been my favorite boutique, I’ve generally enjoyed their older productions. They do not make up a very large part of my collection but the few I do own have some undeniable qualities. They also have a number of teas that have gone in and out of availability. Unlike a YQH or XZH, you can also find Malaysian and Taiwanese stored CYH which adds another layer to explore.
2020 CYH Mansong (A)
I fully expected to be disappointed by this but it is actually a very pleasant drink, albeit nothing I’d buy (that price!). The taste profile is familiar and not unusual (sugarcane, florals, fruit, light bitterness). The broth isn’t super thick but the tea’s activity in the first five or six steeps is very enjoyable. It thickens up in the throat and has a great deal of sweetness in the back of the mouth and the throat. Pushed it has a mild bitterness. Feel-wise it also left me feeling great. Doesn’t last forever, not totally sure how this will age, it’s very expensive but it is a very enjoyable tea.
I recently had a much cheaper “Mansong” from a different boutique and it was a pale imitation. It takes quite a bit for a young tea to grip me, but this one did.
2016 CYH Yiwu Calligraphy (B)
Had this sent in from Tuna. Thank you!
TW Natural storage. This is a hard one to rate. It is quite tasty and easy to drink now but IMO does not have a ton of strength to develop beyond where the storage has moved it. Very sweet, woody, and herbal. Decently thick. It has clearly seen some temperature/humidity, but is reasonably clean for my taste.
2013 CYH Gedeng (C)
From Emilio, Taiwan stored. I’ve had good sessions with this and some worst ones. Unfortunately when I did this report it wasn’t satisfying. Herbal, wood, dates. A bit thinner and more bitter. Curiously not too sweet. To me this one lacks the depth of the better CYH offerings.
2013 CYH Youle (B/C)
Thanks to tea related putrefaction for sending in the Cang series. A similar profile to their older Mansa. Dark fruit sweetness, raisins. I think overall its decent, but basically has less depth and penetration than the 2003 CYH Youle.
2010 CYH Yibang (B)
Fruity. Nice protracted mouthcoating and texture. Overall this is much preferred over my encounter with the 2013 Cangle series. For a somewhat inexpensive 6FM tea this is sturdy and decent. Pretty easily the favorite of what I’ve tried from the Cang series.
2007 CYH Mansa (B)
From LP, Taiwan stored. This is an enjoyable Yiwuish tea. Sweet hay, raisins, a nice aftertaste. It isn’t super strong or thick, but overall pleasing. This would be a good buy for a daily drinking Yiwu if it pops up again. Not too heavy but will get bitter when pushed.
2007 CYH Yiwu Zhengshan (B)
From LP, Malaysian stored.
Has that nice thick spicy Malaysian stored feel. In the end, this is a bit simple for my taste and I wish that it was blended more, but it is undeniably nice. Big thick, wood, incense, with some nice sugarcane sweetness.
2007 CYH Yiwu Ziwang (A/B)
MY stored and been in Seattle for like 8 years. Most of the time this is a really nice Yiwu tea. It is thick, sweet, resinous, satisfying, with great depth. The tea is firmly semi-aged still maintaining some more youthful characteristics. Pushed it still has a fairly healthy amount of bitterness.
I’d heard this has some hong-ish characteristics, which did not show up in most of my sessions with it and I was ready to write that off. However, on a few more recent sessions those hongcha aspects really showed up and dominated the session, both in terms of texture and its sweetness. It was very nice hongcha, but difficult to overlook. I will keep sessioning this tea to see how it does but I’ve had to downgrade my rating a couple grades as a result.
2005 CYH Shanzhong Chuanqi (A)
A six famous mountain blend. Had this four or five times within the past couple months. It can really vary depending on what parts of the blend you get.. Some sessions present a lot more like an Yiwu tea, with that sweet throat aftertaste while others have a bit more fruit and body. It is almost always enjoyable, sometimes more than others but I do wish it produced a more consistent experience.
Not super thick, but thick enough. Good strength and backbone to this tea. More fruit and less throatfeel than a conventional Yiwu. Despite being a bit less sweet in the throat the tea has decent depth and there’s sweetness that lingers in a nice way. Changes quite a bit throughout the session. I would guess the material is a fair bit worst than the Dashu, but the blending helps make it a bit more engaging.
2003 CYH Dashu aka 2003 CYH Gushu (A)
MY stored. I have gone up and down on this tea a bit. It is clearly very good quality material but for my tastes a bit simple. Thick, oily, smooth, strong aftertaste, with good depth. It has some nice body feel, that feels generally relaxing and downwards. Tastewise, menthol, wood, and lots of sweetness. On the downside I think I prefer something like the SZCQ which offers significantly more dynamism at the expense of better material. To me, this is ready to drink and while I don’t think it’s going to thin out soon I don’t see a huge point in aging it for another decade.
2003 CYH Yiwu (B)
A very agreeable Yiwu production. The storage is a little muddier than the Malaysian storage of the Dashu but overall good enough. Soft, silky texture. Has a nice mouthcoat. It is overall thinner, but a bit more layered than the Dashu. Pretty sure this is expensive, but as a tea this is a very easygoing one that I would not mind having often if it were cheap enough.
2003 CYH Mansa (A/B)
Darker, fruity, sweet tastes. It is a bit narrower than the Yiwu and a bit more cleanly stored. It leans towards woods and muscatel/plum notes. I am a fan of these darker Mengla County profiles and this one hits the spot provided expectations aren’t sky high.
2003 CYH Manzhuan (A)
I like this a touch more than the other 2003 CYH mountains. A bit brighter but also less active than other Manzhuans I’ve had from the same era. It has a pleasing oily, raisin-like sweetness. A calming profile that goes down very easy. There’s a pleasant mouthcoating sweetness. Like a few other of these, there’s not a huge amount of bite. Although the taste profile itself is a bit light and subtle it reaches quite deep and warms me in the core. I like this a good deal, but I do think it suffers from comparison with other teas that are out in the surrounding years. To me this does not match the expansive oilinessmof the 2004 BYH product, which is a profile I tend to prefer. Still I would not begrudge anyone that picks this tea.
2003 CYH Youle (B)
This is a good tea but also my least favorite of the 2003 CYH I’ve tried. This has a sturdy and decent profile but lacks a bit more of the depth from the other 6 famous mountains focused teas CYH made. Tastewise it is more upfront, with acidic apple, wood, and herbal flavor note. Nice mouthfeel. More or less ready to drink as there’s not much bitterness or astringency when pushed. It is interesting that Chen elected to make the SZCQ blend a few years later. This is a nice enough tea, but I think I might prefer it blended.
2003 CYH TQH (S)
My favorite of the 2003s that are more available. This feels like a good combination of a more traditional profile, with a more rustic profile heavier on wood and resin, with some fruit in the background. Wood, fruit, good salivation. The depth of the tea stands out especially when put into contrast with the Youle consumed the previous day. The longevity isn’t the highest, but I’ll almost always take 10 steeps of quality than 20 steeps of less quality.
Having compared with others who aren’t as big of fans I still think quite highly of this tea, although the flavors are in general not as surface level appealing. I also think this has a decent amount of room to continue aging. Unfortunately did not have access to the 2004 SPH reproduction.
2003 CYH Yiwu Yesheng (S)
Perhaps my favorite of the report? Throat balling almost immediately off the bat. A bit light up front but has loads of depth and downward feeling. Strong, resinous profile. Protracted mouthcoat. A very strong, impactful Yiwu tea. Interestingly the less blended nature of the tea does not bother me as much as other ones perhaps due to the sheer impact of it. Seems like it has the fuel to age as well. Thanks to Peter for allowing me to acquire some.
Yangqing Hao
Summary of my current views on YQH.
YQH is not my favorite Taiwanese boutique.
I still enjoy drinking YQH teas.
For the price I paid for YQH, they’re my best cost performing boutique and my most consumed.
These prices are no longer available.
Their top teas sold in the 2004-2006 range (Dingji Yesheng, Teji, etc.) have flaws and nits to pick and are not really on the same level of the top teas from other Taiwanese makers (CYH Repros, BYH MZ/Yiwu).
I do not know the post 2007 teas well.
2007 YQH Qizhong (A/B)
I finished a cake of this around 2021 and waited to open another. So I opened a cake for this occasion. It is very much the tea of my memory. I am immediately greeted by the distinctive notes from what has been described as Yang’s Tainan sweatbox. Very sweet and heavy menthol notes, but when pushed gets astringent and drying. Some of the notes early do resemble Hongcha, which is a bit concerning but it quickly dissipates after the initial two steeps. The heavyish astringency is very quick to convert and leaves a great throat coat. The original mouthfeel is a little thin, but it thickens up over time. The longevity is also very good.
Fortunately or unfortunately this tea is not too different from my memory of it in 2015. It has not developed or turned the corner into its next phase. However, it hasn’t faded. Perhaps due to its hype Qizhong has always been a polarizing tea, but as one can tell from my rating and the fact I’ve drank a decent amount of it and am on the pro-Qizhong side of things. To my tastes this remains a solidly strong and enjoyable YQH. This still sells for a reasonable price IMO.
2007 YQH Lingya (A/B)
The calmed down Yiwu version of the Qizhong. It is soft and not nearly as active, but it is a very ideal daily drinker with similar notes (heavy menthol/toothpaste) that is smooth and goes down real easy. I’ve heard some concern that this is going downhill quickly, but after several sessions with it this year I feel its doing just fine in my storage. It is not strong tea, but a perfectly fine daily brew. At one point I decided I liked this more than Qizhong and it is a little smoother to drink, but I think the Qizhong is the more engaging and interesting tea to drink.
2007 YQH Tuo (D)
Was given this as a gift from Yang (I think?) when I visited in 2016. Didn’t know much about it then and apparently it is from Yibang?
Unfortunately this is pretty uninteresting. The tea is thin and not strong enough. It does offer a little bit of raisin-like sweetness, some floral noets, and a nice texture but lacks the oomph to make much of an impression.
I went back for a second session, the tea this time is fairly sour/sweet. It has a nice aroma, but fails to impress again. I had the 2007 YQH Jincha after to confirm my own impressions, which I found to be far more satisfying.
2007 YQH Jincha (B)
I’ve always liked this tea ever since I first tried it in 2015 when it kicked off my YQH enjoyer era. The tea remains quite enjoyable but has one fatal flaw that has prevented me from polishing off several, it’s damn compression. This tea is compressed like Yang found a Xiaguan tuo and thought it was pressed too lose.. Similar to other heavily compressed teas it takes some experience and patience to get it to open up and brew evenly. It is easy for the initial brews to be too watery, or too strong (if you’re brewing dust) but I’ve become accustomed to it.
It is a dark Yiwu (a fast way to my heart) and is mentholy, woody, leathery, resinous, with a nice texture and a sweetness that reaches far back. Oddly enough in notes, it echoes a lot of the XG 8653 notes, but in a more Taiwanese boutique way. Reaches to the back of mouth and top of throat. The price and quality are beginner friendly, but the compression is not.
2006 YQH Qixiang (B)
This is a YQH that never quite lives up to the potential for me and I like it a fair bit less than the CYH SZCQ (it is decidedly better than the 2005 YQH CL). Overripe fruit and wood profile. Oily, medium body. While it does have some decent depth and does go down easy (like most of YQH) I mostly prefer the 2007 Yang profile or something like the Chawangshu.
2006 YQH Chawangshu (A/B)
In the last few years I drink this one frequently with my buddy Garrett on Zoom, but otherwise hardly at all. Oddly it feels like I know this less than others. It is a simple, but broadly appealing tea. In some ways this is like the inversion of the YSSL, which has some strong characteristics but feels thin in others.
Camphor, menthol, some mouthcooling early on. It has an oily medium body. Lots of sweetness early on. Pushed it maintains the same menthol/wood profile and picks up a bit of bitterness. There is some bodyfeel, that does not penetrate as deeply as some of the older YQH products, although this one always has a generic, reasonably appealing profile. Probably one of the more middle of the road YQH in terms of distinct Yang-y characteristics. I kinda feel about this like I do over some CYH teas like the Dashu, nice tea, but a bit duller than the material should be and wish it was blended for a bit more dynamism.
2005 YQH Yuanshi Senlin Huangshan YSSL (A)
Otherwise known as long name. This tea is a bit different from 2006 or 2007 Yangs and I bought it a bit later. While the YSSL has some familiar Yang notes, I do believe it has a distinct profile from other YQH in the 2004-2007 range. This tea first caught my attention when I met and interviewed Yang in 2016 and I noticed the deep energy of this tea sinking down on me. This was otherwise in a context, when I would likely not notice (I was trying to focus on the interview). In my conversation with a close tea friend, we remarked that this is kind of the opposite side of the Yang’s that are relaxed and go down easy (Teji/Lingya), it’s more challenging and takes a bit of attentive brewing to tame. Likely the YQH in this report with the most potential for the future.
When I was first brewing it I found it to be erratic, but with increased familiarity I have a much better feel of when to push in and out with a tea. Much moreso than the 2004 teas (pretty easy to brew) this can get over brewed and quite strong. The flavor notes are typical Yang, menthol, mint, wood, fairly sweet but the presentation is different. The tea starts out narrow. The body is thin, especially at the start but it has a good huigan reaching deep into the throat. I also get significant deeper depth and body feel from this tea that is on the sedating side of things.
I also had the YSSL with Bev and while decent, it fared a bit worst when compared with the admittedly steep competition (other Yiwus brewed were the 2007 CYH Ziwang and 2005 BYH Yiwu). As a result this is a bit tricky to rate. On the downside I think it’s weaker and less well rounded than some of the other brands top hitters of this era. It is especially a bit thinner in the mouth. That being said, it is still reasonably strong with good, penetrating aftertaste and deep feelings.
2004 YQH Dingji Yesheng (A)
DJYS is deep, dark, heavy and gives me a fairly stoned feeling. Tastewise it has a bit of that Yang menthol, dark wood action, thick oily mouthfeel. I’ve been brewing a bit closer to the core so it has a bit of a pungent green resin to it. Buzzy mouthfeel.
The traits this tea has are uncommon and quite rare which makes it tempting to rank high. However.. I think there are other teas that are more of the complete package which stop me. Not something I can drink often, but one of the nice things of getting experience with a tea is knowing exactly when you want to have it, especially for funky niche teas like this. There’s been some talk about this tea dying, but it feels more or less the same as it did in 2015. Weird and atypical. Strong in very specific ways and weak in others. I’d definitely pick the top-end CYH/BYH of this era over it, but I still am happy to have this around.
This is a bit of a controversial tea with pretty varied opinions. In the end, I come down close to where Marco and Matt.
2004 YQH Teji (A/B)
I revisited my notes of this about 10 years ago and if you want to make a case that some YQH cakes are fading this would probably be one of the pieces of evidence, behind the Yiwu Chawang and Cangliu (not reviewed). It however, still has many enjoyable qualities. Tastewise it is medicinal, herbal, woody, fairly sweet. Oily with some textured mouthfeel. It is not nearly as dark as the Dingji. The tea has very little astringency or bitterness to it, so I’ve come to prefer it with about 7-8 steeps pushed quite hard. Brewed this way it has a great sweetness that coats the throat and it generally feels nice and goes down easily. Unlike the Dingji which is more stoning this is uplifting and easier to take in. Good depth overall although not as much as the Dingji.
One of the concerning aspects is the lower longevity overall. If you read my notes from the 2015 report where Grill comments on the very impressive longevity and I comment on the density of the tea and then compare them with Matt’s as well as my own current one, it’s not a tea that is getting stronger and might indeed be fading.
Biyun Hao
Less well known than CYH, YQH, and XZH in Taiwan. I still think the early Biyun Hao run of teas in 2004-2005, is my favorite of the boutiques I’ve tried. Major credit to Pedro, Teaswelike and The Jade Leaf for providing access to BYH. I’m a bit less familiar with the later teas, but have generally found them to be quite agreeable, especially their Manzhuan. Many of their products are either from Manzhuan and Yiwu. Both can be excellent, but I tend to gravitate towards their Manzhuans.
2023 BYH Mansa (B/C)
Decent young tea. Lots of mouthcooling, reasonable thickness, fairly sweet. This is the sort of tea I’m not great to judge as I drink so little. The mouthcooling more than anything indicates the quality leaves here.
2018 BYH Walong (A/B)
Late addition thanks to Emilio. This is amongst my favorite of the teas in the last decade. Nice protracted mouthfeel, some mouthcooling. A decently strong bitterness when pushed. Some grape/muscatel and has aged a bit already. Has that nice Yiwu-ish aftertaste that coats the back of the mouth.
2015 BYH Pure Mahei (B)
Thank you to Emilio for the sample!
This is a really good classic Yiwu. Good thickness, wood, sugarcane, light fruit, light but present bitterness. The profile reminds me a little of a more developed Last Thoughts.. Some of the time a lot of these Yiwus will lack the density or punch. Not the case here. While it is undoubtedly a TW boutique Yiwu it packs good strength and density.
2015 BYH Lishan Gongcha (B)
A nice blend. Some mouthcooling early and some sugarcane. Due to being a blend there’s a lot more dynamism than something like the Pure Mahei. Can get a bit herbal, some decent bitterness, hay. Like a lot of BYH has a nice concentrated, dense feeling to its core.
2009 BYH Xiao Mannai (B)
Concentrated, sugarcane, plum. Back of the mouth sweetness. Fairly classic Yiwu profile.
2006 BYH Manzhuan (A)
I tried this originally in the 2017-2018 range when BYH was just starting to get western exposure but did not remember it well. Starts out really nice with a darker, brassy, pleasing sweet plum profile. The depth and feeling is quite good. Flaw-wise most of it comes down to not being quite on the same level as the 2004. The body is only slightly oily and it leans a bit sour without the depth of the 2004.. The sourness lingers a bit even though it mostly does resolve into sweetness. Perhaps it will be better in a few years. Comparing it with the 2004 is a very high bar and this is a perfectly good Manzhuan in its own right.
2005 BYH Yiwu (S)
A very good classic Yiwu. Wood, plum, thick. Lots of sweetness and mouthcoating. In the end I do find this doesn’t quite have the extra depth and does not quite zonk me in the way that I love about the Manzhuan. It is also interesting that most of the BYH have not gone in the camphor direction. It is nevertheless a very pleasant and nice Yiwu. Feels nice and goes down real easy. I would happily drink this very often.
2004 BYH Manzhuan (S)
Even more of a personal favorite than the Yiwu. Thick, woody, oily, with some mouth cooling. I do like the overall taste profile which is nicely concentrated, but the tea is particularly impressive in its heavy deepness. Definitely a tea that gets me zonked most times I have it.
Still a bit of resin, and a nice dark sweetness that I find very appealing. I prefer this over the more broadly appealing BYH Yiwu (2004/05), but would not begrudge anyone who has the opposite preference.
2004 BYH Yiwu (S/A)
A very solid Yiwu that I almost like as much as the 2004. It is a bit more wood-focused and less fruit. Less of the BYH classic taste, with only faint plums in the background. There’s a pleasing herbal taste and this is both easy to drink and easy going down. It is a little less dense than some of the other ones which makes the difference between this and a higher rating.
Wisteria/Baohongyinji
Zhou Yu is the tea maker with perhaps the most varied output that spans across a decade but in a non-continuous way. I’m lumping in BHYJ here as Zhou has worked with them on a handful of products even though I don’t think he has anything to do with something like their Bohetang.
Mr. Yu’s Wistaria products I think come with some of the highest approval ratings. While I can’t blame anyone for balking at tea prices, if someone told me they flat didn’t like Wisteria, I would have questions.
2014 Baohongyinji Bohetang (B)
(not a ZY tea) Thank you to Peter for the sample. This is more expensive than the CYH Mansong and while undoubtedly decent it isn’t remotely worth the cost. Nice sweetness, some light mint and brown sugar. It is medium thickness and does coat the mouth nicely. It does have some nice throatiness but it isn’t as intense as I would’ve hoped. Feel-wise I found this to be OK, but not to the level of the Mansong. It is overall a perfectly decent Yiwu bound to both attract and let people down due to its name.
2013 Baohongyinji Yuema Wangong (C)
I figured I’d tried this once when I got it 6 or 7 years ago but had not apparently even touched this cake. The tea is in what I hope is an awkward stage. It is woody, floral, and has this dry potpourri aroma. Overall the taste is not that great. It however, does have a decent thickness and pretty good depth. It is a subtle tea, especially right now. It hints at a sugarcane and being a bit more bold but it doesn’t really happen.
From the persistent lingering sweetness you can tell there is good stuff here, but it feels pretty far from its potential. This is a harsh rating, but I think this tea will hopefully wake up in a few years. This is going back into storage for now.
2013 Baohongyinji Zhenren Yufeng Spring (A)
Made by Zhou Yu. I acquired this right before TWL and Quiche released it, thanks to Stein for the hookup! Somehow I never had this until recently, and it’s in a much better state than the Yuema Wangong right now.
It is satisfying right now but also unusually hard to pin down. It lacks distinct up front flavors but has a ton of secondary intangible qualities, nice texture, good body, huge sugarcane like sweetness, resin, and lots of throatfeel. It tastes pretty different from most semi-aged Yiwu of the same age and very different from the Wistaria’s 2003 run. The tea hasn’t filled in like others have at this point and I really don’t know how it will continue to evolve. Not to say it will be bad, I simply don’t know.
I had this in a session with Skylarke on Discord, and the tea got outshown by the BYH Zhengjialiangzi by quite a wide margin. To me that session showcases how context shapes impressions, and if you want a flavor-lite tea like this to show well, you’ll need to carefully consider what you are brewing around it.
2007 Wisteria Hongyin (A)
This is a tea that has gone up in my estimation a lot. It is honey sweet, woody, incense, reasonable thickness. Very good depth, coats the threat. The longevity isn’t the longest, but it is very good while it lasts. I wish I bought way more of this.
2006 Wisteria Longpa Youle (A/B)
Might be overrating this, but it’s actually quite good and rarely talked about. It is a fair bit greener than the 2003s but is definitely further along than I recall. It has a more broadly decent pu’erh sort of appeal, with good strength and pungency. Some mouthcooling early on. A bit of an acidic sweetness, not incredible depth but good enough with a nice throat coating effect. Like a lot of Wisteria this is a solid drinker. I think once it is a little more aged I’d move it into tier A.
2005 Wisteria Zipin (A/B)
This tea lingers in my memory a bit worse than it actually is, mostly because the 2003 is such a classic. It is a good tea and in a vacuum a decent imitator of the classic 2003. Nice textured powder, great Yiwu sweetness and depth. The sort of tea that easily passes the speed test, feels good and goes down easy.
2003 Wisteria Zipin (S/A)
22 years strong. Not much to say about this tea that hasn’t been said already. Thicker in throat with more depth than the 2005. Very satisfying tea, neither too heavy nor too light and one that manages to still grow in my estimation. It’s one I’d grade lower but I never complain about drinking it, so I end up with a very high rating.
2003 Wisteria Ziyin You (B)
Originally bought on accident from Wisteria a decade ago when I intended to pickup the Zipin. Like a cousin to the Zipin. It is more straightforward in taste and has a nice body, but suffers in comparison with the Zipin. Less depth and a bit drying. This is a good Youle tea but I prefer the 2006 (suspect I’m in the minority here).
Yuanyuan Tang
I did a blind of these in 2023, but don’t really have a strong understanding of the brand. Peter who runs a restaurant in New Jersey was kind to send over 10 YYT samples over. In the end, I don’t love all their teas but they did have a few stand out.
2013 YYT Yiwu Chahuang (B)
After a couple of fairly mild YYT that were just not quite cutting it for me, this tip heavy tea did the trick. It is potent and decently thick. A bit fruity up front with an expansive mouthfeel and texture. Pushed it does get a little sour.
2013 YYT Luoshuidong/Sifang (C)
Grouping these two teas together. Vaguely sweet, hay. These are either in a bit of an awkward phase or too mild for my tastes.
2012 YYT Bannaqing (A/B)
A blend of allegedly LBZ and Tongqinghe. This is a pretty solid tea and IMO a successful blend. It is easier to tell where this is going than the TU Miles Birthday. I think it’s possible I’d rank it higher upon subsequent tastings. It is thick, coats the mouth and offers some interesting mouthcooling, a bit herbal. It is not a brutal tea but one that strikes an interesting balance between the two terroirs.
2012 YYT Jingchanghe (B)
This is I think in a bit of an awkward phase but I think the material is decent enough. The storage seems dryish, with a lot of stale floral notes at the beginning. It does however have some nice sugar-like sweetness and depth. The aftertaste goes decently far back.
2010 YYT Tianmenshan (A/B)
This one caught me a bit off guard. A lot of mouth cooling. As much as I’ve experienced with a tea. I thought it started a bit thin, but it thickens up. Good throatfeel as well. Nice texture and sweetness lingering. In the end this is a fairly straightforward tea, but a satisfying one.
2010 YYT Luoshuidong (B/C)
Decent tea, that seems a little bit oxidized. Nonetheless it is decent material. It is very fruity, juicy, leathery. Easy going down and a generally pleasing tea.
2007 YYT Lengshuihe Guafengzhai (B)
Decent quality Yiwu tea. Presents lighter initially but darkens and thickens up quickly. It is thick with some light mouth cooling early on. Flavorwise moving into darker fruits from sugarcane and hay.
2005 YYT SZCQ (B/C)
Like a lot of the six famous mountains which were popular during the mid 2000s, this one might be prone to inconsistency. It is quite different from the more Yiwu focused teas I had around this time. There is more fruit, a richwoodiness and a bit of depth that lightly touches the back of the throat. It does however get a bit sour. I think there’s probably some better sessions in here.
Western Boutiques
This used to be the main place where people scrapped and tried teas they had higher hopes for. Now a lot of these are older and we can see how they are doing.
2023 W2T Last Thoughts (B)
Solid Yiwu but not on the level of the 2014 one. It has many of the same characteristics as that tea, but amped down by 20-30%, enough to feel the difference. The tea is very thick, floral, and has a very nice aftertaste that is good but not quite as expansive as the 2014. Qi-wise I find it doesn’t do nearly as much as the 2014. It is overall a very decent Yiwu (Wangong-ish) profile that leaves me reasonably satisfied.
2016 W2T Diving Duck (D)
This tea smells good but is unfortunately not in a very appealing place right now. It smells like dark berries, hay, wood. Unfortunately it is still very grassy and not that sweet. It has a fairly sturdy base to it but does not give much aftertaste either. Feels a bit like the Tea Urchin Zhangjiawan. Quite possibly not aging well (green tea pu’erh?) or optimistically in an awkward phase.
2014 White2Tea Last Thoughts (A)
The thought is that this is a Wangong tea. For better or worst, my very slow Seattle storage is good at maintaining a tea’s character. As a result this very much fits my memory of it (consumed 9-10 years ago?). The tea is thick with a sweet sugarcane note. Maybe a touch of fruit, light dry wood, but mostly still fairly floral. Not terribly dark (by base material or by storage). Good throatfeel. The tea stands out in particular with its impressive aftertaste and overall feeling. Relaxing and enjoyable. Back into storage.
2013 YS Xiangming (B)
This hit the upper bound of modest expectations. Good, thick sweet, base. Moving into this raisin like sweetness. Despite some attention towards these early YS Yiwu productions, I think this is aging as expected.
2012 YS Purple (C/D)
Had this right after the Xiangming and it comes off a lot weaker. The tea has a grape-like sweetness but comes off fairly thin and needs to be pushed. Eventually moves to a dry, floral profile. It’s not awful, but the tea is not convincingly strong, something that probably should’ve been clear when I tried this in 2014.
2012 TU Zhangjiawan (C)
Dark, leathery and sweet, but a bit lacking in substance. Reminds me of some of the Mansa teas with a raisin like sweetness. While it does have some mild bitterness and has a darker Yiwu profile I gravitate towards. I have just a cake of this and may just play around with it and see how it develops. Not too nice to drink now.
2012 TU Miles Birthday Blend (C)
80% GFZ and 20% something else (LBZ?). Good thickness and a strong aftertaste. The bitterness weaves in and out. At times it is quite persistent, at others a bit more manageable. It’s not too dark, but coats the mouth nicely. The thick mouthfeel reminds me a bit of the Last Thoughts.
I think this could be interesting in the future as there’s some nice material in here but right now it’s pretty muddled.
2011 TU Gaoshanzhai (B)
From my buddy Garrett. Good body, back of the mouth sweetness. Some astringency but accompanied with a good aftertaste. Moves into a dry, floral profile. Fairly standard but aging normally and decent enough.
2010 YS Yibang (B)
I had this immediately after the YQH Yibang Tuo and had become a bit concerned this may’ve gone a similar path. After all it is small leaf varietal and autumn material. However, the tea while not too far along is quite enjoyable and offers quite a bit more than the Tuo. This has a honey, brown sugar, raisin profile that is loaded with sweetness. Can be pushed pretty aggressively and while it does still have a bit of astringency there’s a nice richness here. Good protracted sweetness that coats the mouth.
It raises some interesting questions about dry western storage for these. With a similar storage path to Yang’s Tuo, would this be equally weak and uninteresting? I’m not sure, but the combo works well enough here even if you’re unlikely to ever get that deeper, darker aged profile with western dry storage. The tea also does not seem to be green tea pu’erh as it doesn’t have an overwhelming bitterness that does not resolve.
Other Boutiques
2015 Zhensilong Walong (B)
Very sturdy Manzhuan, that is strong and dense. Not too sweet in that raisin/brassy way that MZ often develops into. Still fairly floral and grassy. This is not quite ready but has nice density and strength.
2013 DTH Yiwu (A/B)
Thanks to my tea friend Dennis for making me a sample of this!
This is a nice tea. Like the 2012 it is very sturdy. It has a bit of that camphor and mouthcool starting to set into the tea. Dense, woody, pungent mouthfeel. Like the 2012 these are quite strong right now, and I’d probably prefer to wait to drink it..
2012 DTH Yiwu (A/B)
Since I was introduced to this brand I’ve always liked but not totally fallen in love with DTH products. Their traditional processing and leaf selection results in material that is very different from most other boutique Yiwu productions. In a blind tasting in 2024, I ranked their 2006 product last behind teas from BYH, CYH, and YQH. This resulted in me buying a cake of the 2012 determined to study and learn from it more.
For those unfamiliar, the storage is dry and not remotely HK trad-like (they are a HK based operation). Up front it is still a bit green. But it does have a good strong mouthfeel, good thickness, a long deep aftertaste. It has what I think developing camphor. Despite the considerable overall strength and staying power, I don’t find the level of depth that I would on my favorite Yiwu productions. It really defies the expectation of what Yiwu should be. Overall, the stiffer parts bring a different sort of appeal than other, predominantly Taiwanese boutiques, which tend towards softer, far sweeter profiles. I appreciate TWL and Marshaln for bringing it over. I will continue to drink and study this tea. In the end, this tea very well may justify its price. It has uncommonly strong bones and I have no doubts it is well made, the rating is sheerly based on my own enjoyment of the tea right now.
2017 & 2015 XMTF Yibang (A)
Very nice Yibang productions. Good sturdiness and density and very nice feeling to them. They coat the mouth. I don’t really have complaints other than they’re still young (age+storage), which isn’t my exact preference. Great longevity, all around solid teas. I think Yibang enthusiasts will in particular really love these.
There’s probably some differences between these, but would need to be focused on that to parse them out. I had them both a few times but not enough to confidently prefer one over the other.
2010 XMTF Manzhuan Arbor (A)
Pretty solid Manzhuan that is now available via TWL. Good, thick. Decent depth. The storage is definitely on the drier side of things, which doesn’t bother me too much in this case. Pretty drinkable now.
2008/2009 XMTF Manzhuan (S/A)
Thick satisfying Manzhuan teas. They have that brassy taste, moving towards plum. Good depth. The Yibangs offer more fireworks but I’d be more likely to pursue something like this. Still somewhat green due to the slower storage. In a side by side I preferred the 2009, but in individual sessions they’re both pretty satisfying teas.
2007 XMTF Manlin (S/A)
This is a very good Manzhuan tea that has been slowly raising in my estimations I almost prefer to my favorite MZs from BYH. My own preferences towards darker tea prevent me from doing that, but it is close. Rich (plum, light smoke), textured, thick, deep into the core. This is in my opinion better than the 2008 and 2009 but not enough to move it up.
I had this tea in a nine Yiwu-ish tea session with a tea friend and this may’ve been the overall winner, despite heavy hitters from CYH/YQH. Perhaps I should side by side this with some of those BYH MZs.
2007 CGHT Yiwu Chawang (A)
I picked up three of these in 2015 for about $85 each and have had it aging away. I have a decent memory of my sample of it as a quality darker Yiwu. These darker Yiwus tend to hit my soft spots so I was looking forward to revisiting this a decade later.
The tea very much fits into my memory. Decently thick, oily, darker wood, grain. There is a nice chestiness and good flow to this and the tea feels good. Florals come out in later brews. The longevity is decent, but not as good as some of the top teas in this report. Just a very nice enjoyable tea. A good example of my aging, only slow moving, but not degrading the tea. Yay for C- debatably adequate storage!
Exceeds modest expectations. Nothing crazy but it definitely has turned a corner. Pushed it a bit and it’s still pretty drinkable. Not super potent but pleasant as a daily drinker. Wood, plum, light throat sweetness. Longevity not great but perfectly acceptable for something like this.
Rewatched my episode from 2016. And the tea is considerably less astringent than it used to be. Probably too weak to really age a ton more, but it is easy to drink.
2003 CGHT Yiwu (B)
I don’t remember how exactly I ended up with a sample of this. It is a classic Yiwu. Woody, hay, straw, nice sweetness at the back of the mouth. A little bit of interest with the texture but mostly routinely enjoyable.
2012 JXJS Senlin Yun Forest Allure (B)
A late addition thanks to Emilio. A weird tea, perhaps due to being a product of being Yishanmo. It has some nice intangibles and is already pretty smooth. I had this after the 2018 BYH Walong and I do feel it suffers in comparison from more conventional Yiwu type teas.
2008 JXJS Guafengzhai (B)
My favorite of the JXJS which really reminds me of Taiwanese boutique brands. Has the same soft, spicy, woodiness going on but a bit more distinct character. Camphor, menthol. Similar to the others it is quite green but maintains a bit more bite when pushed.
2007 JXJS Dingjiazhai (B)
Spiced wood, soft sweet raisin-sweetness, decent depth. Raisins. I think this is a good enough Yiwu with good storage.
2007 JXJS Daqishu (C)
Similar to the Dingjiazhai. Waves of sweetness, spicy, woody. It doesn’t have much bite back and is OK enough tea to drink now. Not much room to grow.
2007 XZH Yiwu Chahuang (D)
Sent in by Emilio I believe. Thank you! Smells rich and nice of fruit and wood. In the end it is flavor forward but lacks depth. It gets a bit sour. Maybe messed up by its storage or its processing or a combination of both.
2006 XZH Youle (B)
A challenging tea to rate. The material seems good, but the storage or processing has done this tea a disservice. I originally saw this as more of a standard, naturally dark tea, but after several years in my storage it hasn’t really changed much. Menthol, camphor, cream, wood. The quality of the material presents itself with a strong mouthfeel and mouthcoat. It doesn’t have as deep of an aftertaste as an Yiwu tea but you can still feel the strength of the material. I do get some greater depth for it, but I find its easily overshadowed by above average teas I drink regularly. For instance, one day I had aged oolong after this that completely blew the tea out of the water, despite it being considerably less expensive. I don’t think the cake I have will ever live up to its full potential but it’s not a bad brew.
In some ways this is an interesting comparison to the Dingji, which has similarly dark bassy tones that are caused by some combination of processing and storage. I’d take the YQH over this tea 9 times out of 10 though.
2007 Sunsing Mangzhi (C)
From LP. A bit more dankly stored than I expected. Camphor, menthol, woody, chocolatey smooth. Not too much more to it, but it is a smooth daily drink, provided you like the profile.
2003 Sunsing Manzhuan (C)
From LP. Basically the same deal as the Mangzhi. Very big leaves. Smooth, thick, camphor, easy to drink. Not too exciting. Sunsing teas have never been a favorite and this hasn’t changed my opinion.
2004 Jujun Hao Ruiron Manzhuan (B)
A bit less humidly stored than the Sunsing teas but again serving the same purpose. Petrichor. Maintains a bit more mouth activity, not as thick, nice sweetness. A little more activity but not by too much.
Kyarazen Yiwu (C)
Thanks to Grill for the tea. This has a couple good characteristics but isn’t very enjoyable. The aroma is quite strong and a bit weird. Perhaps perfumey? Taste-wise it is still very young tasting. I actually don’t know how old the tea is, and it eventually moves into a fairly sour profile that I just don’t care for. On the positive side, it has a nice enough mouthfeel, body.
Other
2012 CSH Yiwu (D)
Had this tea twice and it failed to standout. It is very sweet, nutty, floral, smooth and sugary. It is watery and weak and takes too much to coax something out of the leaves.
2006 Fuyuanchang Mangzhi (C)
From LP, natural HK storage. A bit spicy, woody, hay. Old school Yiwu with some HK storage. Has a floral, potpourri thing going on. To me it’s not terribly interesting.
2005 Purple Yisheng (A/B)
Picked these up via Marshaln a while back. Satisfying Yiwu tea. Hasn’t changed a whole lot in my storage. Has that characteristic Yiwu sweetness, decent body, perfumey, nice texture. A good regular performer that does well on the speed test.
2003 XMTF Manzhuan (B)
Sold by TShop NY. Decent, comfortable daily drink. There’s some depth, it’s a touch brighter and a bit more mouthfeel than the YPH. Mostly an easy drinking comfort tea.
2002 Shunshixing?? Yiwu (B)
My memory is not great for how or why I ended up with these about 7 or 8 years ago, but they were inexpensive and it turns out fine for casual drinking. Quite possibly a fake or a different batch. It does not feel too similar to the naked Yiwu or ZCYH knock offs I’ve had.
The tea seems to be mostly dry stored. While it is definitely aged it still has strong notes of hay and straw. It is also not super strong but more potent than I expected with a nice protracted mouthfeel that coats the back of the mouth with sweetness. Can definitely still get properly bitter and astringent. Like the 2006 CGHT Yiwu Yecha, some of these Yiwu teas I do not mind the drier storage as much as I would a factory tea.
2002 Songpin Hao (A/B)
Pretty good, semi-wet stored Yiwu. Huge leaves, good mouthcooling early. It is fairly straightforward in taste, wood but it has decent thickness and is quite comfortable. I would easily take it over the 2001 YPH.
2001 Yichanghao Yiwu (A)
From Yee On, traditionally stored. Trust tea from the storage specialists! This tea is very nice. It is woody, herbal and has some of that Yiwu aftertaste in the back of the mouth and throat. It is also decently strong still. Good body. I’d take this anyday over the Sunsing teas. Too bad it is quite expensive.
2001 Green Sun (A/B)
Also featured in the XG Masochists Report. From Yang’s storage (thanks Emmett). Very different than the Xiaguan productions he made of the same year and feels more like a predecessor to the Yiwu cakes that would come out plentifully a half decade later. Pleasant, soft, sweet, potpourri, resin, wood. More “Yiwuish” and boutique-like than the Xiaguans. Has a nice throat sweetness.. I am a sucker for these teas, even if this has relatively short longevity.
2001 Xiaguan Yiwu Chawang Huangyin (A)
Just a solid all around tea. Camphor really developing. Good depth. Lingering sweetness. Not mind blowing, but solid all around. Wish this style of factory Yiwu was still possible without being extremely costly.
2001 Yangpin Hao (B)
Big leaves. A little humidly stored. Woody, a little creamy sweetness. Fine and comfortable to drink but not ultimately that interesting.
2001 Spring Buds (trad. Stored) (A)
The sort of tea/storage combination that is hard to find but makes tea that is agreeable. Very smooth, and mellowed but still maintains a lot of brightness. It has that Yiwu throat/back of the mouth sweetness that I love but is still unmistakably raw. Wish I could buy more..
2000 Zhenchunyahao (A) (Chen Huaiyuan)
From Alex of Taiwan Tea Odyssey. This is I believe an unauthorized production by Chen Huaiyuan (CYH). Very interesting to try, as it is a very early production from a Taiwanese producer, besides the earlier Zhenchunyahao’s made by Lv Lizhen.
I like this tea quite a lot. The tea is mellow but has good thickness and is still fairly active. Tastewise it’s quite woody with some good sweetness. Nice aftertaste. Very relaxing and easy to drink. Pushed, the tea only has a bit of bitterness but does reward with a thicker mouthfeel.
2000 Zhenchunyahao (B) (from JP)
From JP, thank you! He knew this was a fake, but a decent tea. Thought it’d still be interesting to try it in comparison with what it is faking. This tastes quite a bit younger and much sweeter. There’s some decent depth, but it loses out in thickness and depth to the Chen Huaiyuan tea. It feels a lot more modern boutique-like and less rustic as well. My guess is this is younger than the purported age. A decent tea in my opinion, but it doesn’t match up well against the Chen Huaiyuan tea.
2000 Naked Yiwu (C)
I’ve always had mixed feelings about this tea. It has some nice characteristics but has always been a bit rough for my tastes. Unfortunately my slow storage hasn’t changed it enough. Still too green for me to enjoy and comparing it with the “ZCYH”s from 2000 further emphasizes this. The taste is floral, hay and a bit drying. I can believe that this will be pretty good one day. But not yet. I ended up putting this back into deeper storage.
2000 Yiwu Brick (C)
Picked a couple of these up about a decade ago in Taipei. The material is just OK. It has a nice Lychee like sweetness and woodier. Definitely more of a daily drink, but fine for what it is.
1998 Yiwu Brick (B)
Also picked up from Taiwan about 10 years back. I believe this was lightly traditionally stored. Earthier, darker and fuller than the 2000s.
This feels neither extremely dense and concentrated nor very rustic or modern in its processing. Lots of characteristic Yiwu sweetness focused on the back of the mouth. It’s not super active but does have a little astringency when pushed but is mostly ready to go. Not a ton more upside but a reliable brew.
Semi-Aged Budget Teas Cr. YS
Wanted to include some cheaper things to compare. Also interesting to try them in comparison with the older
2008 CNNP Blue Mark Yiwu via YS (D)
Not a huge fan of this one, it has a nice body but is otherwise too soft for my preference. It also gets a bit sour at different points. The price point is perfectly reasonable but for me this would not pass the speed test.
2008 Yiwu Zhengshan Tongxing Laozi Hao (B)
My favorite of the YS samples. Good body, strength, still very clean. Has a bit of menthol and camphor. Overall it has enough sweetness to be enjoyable now but maintains enough intensity to keep me interested. Still a fair bit of astringency and can get drying. This is a good buy if you’re looking for one of those elusive cheapish semi-aged Yiwus.
2006 Chang Da Hao Yiwu Zhengshan (C)
Decent overall tea. Taste is more on wood and earth but is still overall clean. A bit chocolatey and has enough oomph to it. I prefer the Tongxing over this but this isn’t bad at all.
2005 Youle Old Tree (C)
Medium body, clean. Earthy, soft, wood. Decent mouthfeel and relatively smooth. Compared to an Yiwu this is a bit more straightforward with a bit less depth.
2004 CNNP Qiaomu Laoshu Yiwu (C)
This is the easiest of the YS to drink and has some pleasing aged notes. Menthol, camphor. Very soft and smooth. The body isn’t heavy but strong enough. There’s not a ton of fuel left in the tank here, but for a 20+ year old Yiwu for daily drinking this is nice.
2003 Yiwu Chunzhengpin (C)
This is a decent tea but not really my style. It is greener than most of the other YS sourced ones. Sugarcane, florals. The age has smoothed it and the tea is apppealingly sweet but the overall greeness of taste is not for me.
2011 Baohexiang Autumn Yiwu (B/C)
A decent daily drinking Yiwu. Has huge leaves, a sturdy base and some nice floral notes, some acidity, apple. Doesn’t have huge sweetness in the back of the mouth or depth but is perfectly fine. Reminds me a bit of the 2006 CGHT Autumn Yiwu Yecha when it was younger.
2006 Zhongcha Yiwu Zhengshan (C)
Sold by Quiche/TSH. Denny gave me a sample of this one. Mellow, sweet, maybe a bit of apple. A good starter Yiwu but not very exciting. For the price it is nice and I think if you are just getting started this is a good entry point.
How I Feel About My Yiwu/6FM & VOATO
One of the changes I’ve made in my drinking is a conscientious effort to drink teas I really enjoy that I own. So as a structured thinker/drinker, once per week I do the torturous task of drinking one of:
2003 Wistaria Qingteng
2004 Biyun Hao Manzhuan
2005 Biyun Hao Yiwu
2004 Yangqing Hao Dingji Yesheng
2005 Yangqing Hao YSSL
2003 Chenyuan Hao Tongqing Repro
2007 Chenyuan Hao Yiwu Ziwang
As you can tell from that list, only Qingteng is outside of the scope of this report, meaning I gravitate towards Yiwu and 6FM teas. While I enjoy my factory teas, there’s not many I own that I would put on the same level of enjoyment as these teas.
My average quality tea is probably something like the 2007 YQH Qizhong or 2005 Purple Yisheng, both teas I enjoy drinking. All of the teas I bought as more daily consumers are still more or less fine and I will continue to drink them without any evictions. In comparison my average Xiaguan baseline would be a tier B/C tea like the XG Jiaji. Because the average Yiwu in my collection is enjoyable I will lean towards higher-end teas for any future pickups. My favorite run of the Taiwanese brands is early BYH, 2004-2005 range, and I bought a bit of 2005 BYH Yiwu at the end of 2024.
Recommendations
For those shopping regardless of prices, I think the ones I rate in the S and A tier speak for themselves. In terms of value recommendations the Jincha remains a decent buy at $0.40/g and the 2008 Yiwu Zhengshan Tongxing Laozi Hao at about $0.25/g is well priced for the quality.
A Few Observations On Yiwu/6FM
Western boutique teas need to be judged case by case. The 2012 YS Purple Yiwu does not seem to be heading in a good direction (maybe avoid NSV if you want standard outcomes) but others seem to be on a pretty typical path. Nothing I am super excited for, but nothing alarming either. I did hear recently of a few teas that are green tea pu’erh, but I don’t think the limited amount of teas I’ve had here qualify. After Marshaln’s post I did retry several and have found a couple such as the Bosch which was quite awful on a retry. Reading my notes the Diving Duck may have gone on a similar path.
What is missing? Despite a huge range of tea it is very boutique centric. I wish I had more access to things like early 2000s Yiwu products made by factories like Dayi.
The $0.25/g-ish mid-range selection I did a report on years ago feels more thinned out than 10 years ago without a ton of value friendly options even accounting for some degree of inflation.
Higher-end, $/g+ tea. This was a pretty pricy report with a number of cakes hovering over the $/g mark. A decade ago, these would’ve been the highlight of the report. The availability of high $ Yiwu/6FM has never been higher, provided you have $$ to burn. 10 years ago you could’ve bought $/gish young Yiwu like Last Thoughts, but nothing like the selection now. You could argue that 7 or 8 years ago you could find stuff like the CYH Shanzhong Chuanqi for quite a bit less. Yes, but only if you had the right connections. These were not teas that were available to go onto a site and buy like they are now. I think we can largely thank Teas We Like for introducing many of the boutiques that are now sold multiple places and for filling in this range for people to enjoy and learn from.
And with that. Yiwu teas, I’m out! See you again in 10 years, maybe..
High-end ripe was an afterthought when I started drinking tea in the early 2010s. There wasn’t easily accessible fancy ripe to do a tea drinking report and ripe was mostly a cheap thing for daily drinking. When White2Tea released Pretty Girls in 2015, I remember a grumpy murmur from the tea community for having the gall to sell $0.20/g ripe. Absurd! But in the past 10 years these sorts of productions have become normal and part of a larger trend towards higher-end ripe. The $0.20/g ripe looks quaint compared to some of the $/g ripe W2T puts out now.. These teas still get less attention than raw, but as evidenced by the large increase in productions there’s clearly a market for higher priced ripe productions made by boutique brands. We now have several years of products done by the usual suspects, enough to have a drink through. The goal of this report is to sample and get a better feel for the landscape of these higher-end ripes made by boutiques. I’ve dabbled and sampled a few but overall this hasn’t been a major area of focus for my own drinking/sampling. Drinking in close succession allows me to place them more accurately and try to understand the different profiles.
I am well aware that boutique ripe existed before 2015. My assertion is that the boutique ripe movement has picked up quite a bit more steam in the last 10-15 years. As usual with a tea of the month report this grew in scope. I originally only wanted 10 teas, but ended up with nearly 20.
I did most of the drinking in February before BFZC ripes showed up at LPs. Next time.
The Two Profiles
In drinking through these, I feel they generally fall into two different categories.
The Asskicker. More bitter, highly punchy material. This ranges from different punchy Bulang sorts with Bitter material that easily persists through the ripening process (think Lao Man E). I think the concept is that these are highly dense, thick and substantive teas that get partly smoothed out through the ripening and will further smooth out over time.
Refined tea.. These could come from wherever but tend to focus more on texture and aftertaste and lack the bitterness of the more asskicking type.
Of course these categories aren’t perfect and a vendor like W2T who does heavy, somewhat experimental blending, has some that are more challenging to place. Even for more conventional blending there is a spectrum as there are teas that will have a smaller touch of the asskicking material and balance it with more typical material.
Both types will generally have much better base material than you wouldn’t normally see in a ripe production.. Most vendors also seem to prefer to keep their boutique ripe on the lighter fermented side of things, although there are some exceptions (W2T Reading Room). The lighter fermentation gives a bit more room for the tea to evolve and change than it would under a more standard fermentation. You can also taste the base profile a bit more clearly. The lighter fermentation also means teas that have a few more years under their belt have softened and evolved a bit.
Small Pot/Gaiwan Gong-Fu Brewing
These teas uniformly do not pass the speed test. I brew a lot of ripe, but most of it fits into cheap stuff for daily drinking. My usual ripe brewing is not well suited for this month. As followers of my inbetweenisodes know, I usually have my ripe in my big blue pot in the morning with my wife. This works fine as most ripe is a forgiving and easy brew that does not require an especially meticulous hand. But for this report I mostly brewed gong-fu. Why? For the asskicker types, this makes it much easier to have a good session as the long pour time can lead to extreme overbrewing and some frankly nasty brews. That could be adjusted, but I’d rather just do gong-fu where it’s easier to respond to the tea than hear my wife complain about the bitter tea she’s drinking in the morning. For a few of the more refined ripe I did brew them in both fashions, to see if there was any performance difference. But even in these cases I defaulted to the gong-fu type brewing.
The Teas
White2tea
For the past decade, White2tea has gotten a lot of attention for their “outrageously” priced ripe. I admire the experimental nature of many of these and do enjoy trying them. They are especially well suited for regular TeaDB episode material with Denny, where we can admire the dynamic, engaging nature of the teas together. White2tea’s teas are probably the most complex and interesting to analyze of the lot.
On the flip-side none pass the speed test for myself. The teas aren’t casual or cheap enough for daily drinking and I’d usually rather drink a Liubao or a raw with some age, even with less dynamism. That all being said, from a sheer let’s talk about tea the fancy W2T teas are fun and interesting..
2024 W2T Machine of Loving Grace (6.6)
Decent, but unexciting tea. Rich, creamy, with some bitterness. It reminds me of a fancier Bawang with a bit more texture to enjoy. Hints at some citrus. It’s kind of stuck in no man’s land, where it is expensive for what it is but not as interesting as W2T’s more expensive ripes.
2023 W2T Reading Room (7.5)
Interesting in the sense that this is far more fully fermented than a lot of the other high-end W2T ripes. As a result, this feels a bit more settled and is indeed quite tasty. Rich, full flavors. Perhaps some sort of Menghai/Bulang blend made of good strong robust material. It feels like a very good version of classical ripe. Rich, vanilla cream. Throat leaves a good aftertaste. There’s a lot of fun complexities to this but this is ultimately an easy tea to understand and enjoy.
2022 W2T Lich Tears (8)
Probably the most interesting W2T ripe and definitely an asskicker. Very complex. It is quite tasty now, but also should get even better. Unlike Reading Room, this is clearly a lighter fermented ripe. It has a very active protracted mouthfeel and small amount of silk texture. Flavor is coco, rich, vanilla cream. A lot has been made about this tea’s bitterness and it definitely has a sturdy vein of pill bitterness flowing through it, but I don’t find it overwhelms the other flavors. It’s definitely not the most bitter tea of the month. The bitterness is most pronounced in steeps 3-5, before fading away. It is also accompanied with some nice sweetness. Very hard to rank as it clearly hasn’t hit its potential.
2021 W2T Reckless Daughter (7.8)
This was the surprise hit of the W2T batch for me. Had it once and liked it a good amount and subsequent sessions cemented it as a very solid and promising ripe.
Reckless Daughter is clearly lighter fermented, but feels cut from a different cloth than W2T’s other ripes. Lighter leaf and brews a dark red hue. It is more regal and refined than the more rambunctious asskicker types. There is bitterness but it’s not the pill sort. Very dynamic, thick, satisfying. Good aftertaste. Set aside a session for Denny later. This is good stuff and different from something like Lich.
2020 W2T The Nameless One (7.2)
Vanilla cream, some bitterness. Coco. This seems to fall in the fancy Bulang (Lao Man E/Banzhang) blend. I initially liked this a bit more, but in the context of other high-end ripes it stands out less. It is still complex and a very good tea, just not as gripping as I originally thought when I recorded an inbetweenisode a few years ago. I would personally pick Lich Tears or Reckless Daughter over this.
Yunnan Sourcing (& Hailang Hao)
Compared to W2T, Yunnan Sourcing and Hailang Hao lean a bit more conventional with their fancy ripe cakes. They aren’t as wildly blended or as dynamic, but have more straightforward easier to understand profiles. Generally speaking, this is my preference even if it might not generate the Thinking Denny memes quite as effectively. They also generally fit neatly into the two popular boutique ripe profiles, asskicker (Lao Man E, Xin Banzhang) and refined (Yibang).. I’d also say, that YS current year or last two year cakes are easily the better value (the HLH cakes get expensive quickly!).
2024 YS Lao Man E Old Tree (7.1)
This fits exactly the image I have of Lao Man E ripe. Pill-like bitterness. Thick vanilla cream. A bit of citrus. Gradually it gets even more bitter before it tapers off. I braced for this profile and found it thick and satisfying. Sometimes tea is helped by certain expectations. That is the case here. If I expected a more conventional ripe, I would hate this. Bracing for the bitter, allows me to appreciate this quite a bit more.
I think this is just a little too bitter for my tastes currently but I do get the appeal. Probably would brew way too strong in my big blue pot (did not attempt).
2024 YS Xin Banzhang Offering (6.8)
One of the less expensive teas of the month. Basically the budget ass kicker profile. Has a nice bittersweet profile, its bitterness is definitely a bit more balanced with other material. Decent amount of tips. My memory of the 2023 is that it got a bit more bitter.
Second session with this had it performing a bit more like a slightly less bitter version of the YS LME/Chawang. Sturdy profile, expansive mouth feel, pill-like bitterness. It’s not overly strong but has a clear and if you’re ready for it pleasing profile. Probably the lowest cost way to get this sort of profile of the teas featured .
2023 YS Lao Man E Old Tree (6.7)
I think I may’ve had a slightly off session. The session lacked the clarity of the 2024 or the Chawang which I’d had the day before. Definitely hints at the profile of the 2024 or 2023 Chawang, but feels a bit different in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. Gets a bit bitter, but not to the level of the 2024 or the Chawang.
2023 YS Chawang (7.5)
Basically should be treated like a LME ripe-base. Greener nose than expected. Hints at fruit, but is sturdily bitter. Definitely of the pill sort. Light wood, vanilla cream. Strong, thick mouthfeel. I knew it was coming and I very much enjoyed it. In my limited experience, this is my favorite of the YS asskickers.
2021 YS 5 Villages Bingdao (6.6)
The charms of Bingdao and northern tea are somewhat lost on me. I’ve yet to be enchanted by many raw tea from there. Sadly this ripe falls into the same camp. It is decent enough and essentially presents as a very clean and decent ripe with nice texture and some mouth cooling. Compared to the asskickers it isn’t particularly potent and its charms don’t live up to my more preferred refined tea.
Hailang Hao
2019 HLH Lao Banzhang (7.5)
Fits very neatly into the asskicker category. It is a very solid and sturdily made tea. Not quite as bitter as the Chawang or some of the LME. Thick, vanilla cream, protracted mouthfeel, very potent brew. It also lasts for quite a while.
2018 HLH Gaoshanzhai (7.4)
I probably enjoy this equally to the HLH LBZ. Caramel, brown sugar, antique wood, nice throat aftertaste. It is also sufficiently thick and oily. After getting through quite a few high-end ripes, this one still managed to stand out. It’s not as textured as the Dragon Brick, but has a greater depth that is very appealing.
Despite being more in the refined category the GSZ is notably lightly fermented. In a mug in my normal morning parameters it packed more of a punch than I anticipated. If we compare this with other of the more refined teas there’s a sharper edge to it than something like the 2012 Xizi Hao Dragon Brick which was likely lightly fermented but aged longer and partly in Taiwan.
2017 HLH Junai (7.2)
Rich, sugary aroma. Vanilla cream, decently heavy pill bitterness. Solid, clear profile. Nothing too dynamic and wild.
I like this just a touch less than the LBZ. The longevity isn’t as good and it feels a bit less thick. Still if you want to get the gist of that tea, I think this is a reasonable substitute and doesn’t cost over $1,000!
Other
2024 CSH Lao Banzhang (6)
Smells of Wo Dui. Thinner and watery compared to the other teas. It does thicken up. I am definitely drinking this too young, and overall it’s OK, but it is fairly disappointing for such an expensive ripe.
I had this as a big mug brew the next day and unfortunately it still didn’t impress. Perhaps it needs to settle. I gave the rest of my sample to Denny who said it was fantastic. Tea is inconsistent sometimes.
2016 Denong Commemorative (6.4)
This is an OK enough tea, but a disappointment as a higher-end ripe. I find this to be perfectly decent, but kind of dull. I don’t doubt there’s quality material here but it doesn’t seem to have a clear purpose or the cohesion like the better teas.
Tastewise it is lighter fermented, has a slight silk texture and a decent body. Otherwise a fairly standard ripe profile. Brewed in the big blue pot it more or less confirms what my gong-fu session. Maybe a bit cooler than a standard ripe. I would guess, likely not Menghai County material..
2012 Xizi Hao Dragon Brick (7.3)
Brighter nose. Complex, antique wood. Very nice texture. Not super thick. Definitely a more refined sort of tea despite having that familiar vanilla cream taste. I’ve heard that some people think this is small leaf varietal, which is believable for me. Compared to something like the HLH Gaoshan Zhai this offers more texture and a bit less depth.
Overall pretty enjoyable and assuming the 2013 is similar, one of the better value buys.
2007/2008? Chenyuan Hao (6.4)
Only had a sessions worth left. Sweet, has a nice antique wood aroma and a moderately oily body. It’s not watery like the CSH, but doesn’t really stand out that much when put against other fancy ripes. We liked this quite a bit when we had this for an episode, so maybe I just got a lesser session at the bottom of the sample bag.
2008 Xizi Hao Xishangjiaxi (8)
A late addition as I had forgotten about its existence, but I own two mini-cakes of it which I discovered while clearing out my old shu cabinet. In my memory this was a good tea, but didn’t remember much else.
In the end, it’s amongst my favorite brews of the month. Definitely in the refined category of shu. Far more of an aged taste than anything else this month, with menthol, antique wood notes. Coats mouth and throat very well and has better depth than most other teas here. In my previous sessions I had noted berries, which have aged out. Flaw-wise it is not ultra thick, but that is nitpicking as this was a perfectly satisfying session.
CYH/XZH must’ve been pretty early on these special products. I haven’t seen many more as early as this.
2007 Dayi Anxiang (8)
We got a big factory RINGER!!??? What’s a ripe report without some Dayi! Bought a cake recently from taobao. The cakes from the Dayi store came drier stored than I had expected. For the raw this was not exactly what I hoped, but for this cake I think it’s pretty ideal as it maintains a good deal of complexity.
Complex, thick, light mouthcool, antique wood. Coats the mouth nicely. Moderate thickness. It’s tip heavy and falls off a bit fast. This is great stuff. It confuses me how this is still relatively affordable! Perhaps there’s just not too many pu-heads into more serious ripe and the ripe drinkers would never spend this amount on a cake? Either way, this is worth a buy if you are a ripe drinker who wants the good stuff.
Recommendations
If you really want value for your buck. I think the older teas are better. The serious tea world has never seemed to take ripe as seriously as raw, and the prices haven’t risen as fast as raw has. I am surprised at how cheap you can find things like the Anxiang (I bought mine for around $100, $0.25/g). Similarly the XZH Dragon Brick is also a good ripe and can be bought in the US domestically from Liquid Proust for $0.40/g ($400/1000g). This is also a very good price when you put it up against anything made in the last few years.
I haven’t really had any asskicking type ripe older than the 2017 HLH Junai so it’s harder to find this type for less. This is too bad as I think these probably significantly improve with age. For those on a budget the 2024 YS Xin Banzhang offers the basic profile without being too expensive. Probably the best bet here is something like the 2023 YS Chawang, which I preferred over YS LME products and I find to be reasonably close to the more expensive HLH products.
In terms of overall recommendations, I think Reckless Daughter and Lich Tears represent their respective categories of modern boutique ripe very well. They are markedly pricier than the value recommendations but if value is less important I think they’re worth checking out.
Buying these is of not the only way to buy pricy ripe. You could also buy older factory tea from the 2000s or 1990s. These teas are often thought of as superior to their more modern cousins, mostly due to the factories having access to better material.
Value Recs:
2012 Xizi Hao Dragon Brick
2007 Dayi Anxiang
2024 YS Xin Banzhang
2023 YS Chawang (not really cheap, but significantly less than HLH/W2T)
Other Recs:
2021 W2T Reckless Daughter
2022 W2T Lich Tears
Takeaways
It is nice to drink pu’erh without considerations about processing and aging. Drinking ripe tea is more straightforward compared with the vigorous debate about which raw teas are better and will age. Perhaps it’s because all the oxygen is sucked up during those debates, or there’s just less to discuss on the more gradual transformation of ripe.
Is there space in my tea diet for these teas? Frankly I’m not sure. In the past, I’ve historically reached for something older or traditionally stored when I want something in a darker, fermented profile. That being said, the selection we have available now is better than it has been in the past. I do indeed like most of the teas here. So perhaps I’ll report back in a couple years. At worst, for the more refined types I can drink them up in the big blue pot in the morning as an overpriced casual brew.
Ripe narrows the bandwidth of teas compared with raw. In typing up these notes I realized how similar each tea sounds to one another. Even teas that are fairly divergent from one another like the HLH LBZ vs. HLH GSZ will have a fair bit of crossover on notes. I also think I’d burn out of these faster if I drank too many of them. Now… Before I type vanilla cream for the 155th time and am forced to add Masochist to another tea report, I will move on.
There is a film studio in Japan called Toei. They’re not the most well known Japanese studio but they’re reasonably large and have been around for 75 years. In the 60s and 70s they specialized in making B-Movies and were heavily associated with the Jitsuroku era of Yakuza films (most famously Kinji Fukasaku’s Battles Without Honor or Humanity). These are abrasive, subversive films filled with anti-heroes who replaced the classical, heroic yakuza from a few years before. These Jitsuroku films are composed of angry tattooed men berating and beating other angry tattooed men, filmed in a hyper-kinetic hand held style. There’s some legitimately great ones, but also a lot of chaff. It can take sorting through a few of these to find the hidden gems. Fans of these films (myself included) sometimes call themselves Toei Masochists, presumably due to the hard hitting nature of the films and the labored process of looking for gems..
Drinking through my fair share of Xiaguan over the last 10 years, I wonder if masochism isn’t an appropriate term for us tea drinkers that can’t quite quit the crane. Xiaguan fans in the west lovingly call themselves the Crane Gang after the famous crane logo that Xiaguan uses. Even though I’ve drank a lot of the stuff I am still filled with mixed feelings about Xiaguan. Sure I’ve had some good enough teas from them, but I’ve also endured a good deal of crane-induced punishment. Maybe I should be more aptly referred to as a Xiaguan Masochist. After all even in 2024, one of my first ideas for a tea of the month report was yet another Xiaguan report. And as a glutton for punishment here are several thousand words (the longest report yet).
One of my goals after my daughter displaced my tea room has been taking stock of what I do have, get organized, and clean out unwanted samples and cakes. I’ve drank through Xiaguan in three previous tea of the month reports in 2015 to 2017 with mixed results. In the initial report I took a photo of the crane on my toilet and compared it with their logo, summing up the lackluster teas.
In the process of clearing out cakes, Xiaguan also probably represents the most evicted tea brand of 2024/25. It’s an easy brand to accumulate due to their appealing prices and 100 gram tuos.
Here are approximately 40 reviews of Xiaguan or Xiaguan related teas all in one place (a full year of inbetweenisodes).
In the 2016 report, I mentioned a few rules for making calculated gambles that still apply. These were largely implemented after the toilet bowl Xiaguan drinkfest.
Buy sufficiently old. I used to think 10 years was enough, but now I think 15 years and ideally 20. 15 year old Xiaguan really isn’t very expensive and an extra 5 years of storage will significantly hepl the tea.
Select humidly stored tea from: southern China, Taiwan, Malaysia. If you follow (1) and (2) properly, there won’t be an overwhelming amount of smoke in the teas.
Travel well-trodden paths and don’t cheap out. There’s a lot of teas and batches. Your rate of success will be much higher if you use other’s recommendations rather than selecting randomly. Spending up is usually good. $80 vs $60 isn’t that big a difference in the end. My batting average got much better when I started corresponding with Toby, who is a true Xiaguan man and had lots of recommendations. Thanks sir!
I also have a very loose calculation scale, which I use to estimate ~biological age of teas. It’s not hyper accurate on a case by case basis, but I find it useful to estimate how far along a tea has been without the need for subjective judgements.
Formula: AGE SCORE = 2x(years of aging in humid place) + 1x(years of aging in non-humid place)
The formula implies that two years in a more humid place like Taiwan or Guangdong is worth 2 years in Kunming or Seattle. Is this accurate? In some cases maybe, in others maybe not – but I’m using it as a quick approximation to compare biological maturation. I would guess that these teas probably need about 35 in terms of an age score to start to become drinkable for my tastes. I used AGE SCORE to filter out a couple dozen teas that I have around to make life easier on myself.
Goals:
Stash check and updating the review archives! Determine how Xiaguan is doing in my storage. As I’ve gotten back into a tea rhythm, I’ve been surprised how useful old TeaDB content on teas has been for myself. The videos can be useful, but the reports in particular are interesting as time capsules and to see my own history with these teas.
Establish an average Xiaguan to benchmark against. And an average factory tea.
Composting things and giving them away when appropriate.
Finish off whatever else I have laying around.
A couple teas I did not get around to including (a) a few pre-reform teas I ordered from Shunfeng that did not arrive in time. (b) what has been described as the 2011 Xiaguan Budget Bangers.. Xiaguan Jinse Yinxiang, 2011 Xiaguan Jinse Chuanqi, 2011 Xiaguan Huangjin Yun, and 2011 Xiaguan 8113 Spring Bulang.
These Teas Require Good Storage
Xiaguan is a tea that needs good storage and time. I am judging the tea I am having under its current conditions, not the tea production overall. The storage conditions play very heavily into my own enjoyment and ultimately rating of these teas. For instance I ended up preferring the 2005 T8653 January Thick Paper from southern China over the 2003 T8653 presumably stored in Taiwan. It’s very possible that the 2003 has better material, but its still abrasive, leading me to prefer the 2005. The 2005 XG FT8653-5 vs. 2006 XG TFT8653-6 is another case where the 9 years of storage in Seattle for the FT5 haven’t done it any favors. Given a storage reversal, I may end up preferring the opposite tea. So why not judge the base material of the tea? Frankly, it’s too much mental gymnastics and I’d rather judge what is in my cup and use the presumed storage history to add a small amount of context rather than apply some theoretical base material ranking. Adding to the storage confusion, even though Xiaguan is best stored in a hot and humid climate it is still possible to be too wet. There are a few teas this report that have had their potential muted by over-storage.
This is a category of tea where most of the teas I’ve acquired have been from the mainland and not Taiwan or Malaysia. A huge chunk were purchased through MX Tea, a taobao XG specialist, whose storage generally agrees with me. Selecting storage is also a big reason to use stores like TWL that curate their teas heavily. This will prevent potential errors like storage and batches even if the price you pay is a bit higher your batting average with these teas will also be pretty good.
The Teas
A quick note on ratings… I’ve tried to update my system to allow a bit more of a spectrum rather than grouping up everything together. So the rating update will not line up 100% with past ratings.
12/23/24 Schedule…. Tuos: The Day of the Crane
If there’s anything that typifies my feelings as a Xiaguan Masochist, it was a morning designed and dedicated to drinking through a pile of tuos. Why spend a torturous week drinking one a day when you can power through a bunch at once!? I ended up successfully getting through 8 and I feel pretty good about my judgements despite being pretty burnt out by lunchtime.. Here’s the rough schedule I had sketched out.
6:30AM Wake. Drink mediocre XG ripe pu’erh. 8AM Wife goes to work. 9AM Daughter takes nap. 9:02AM Operation Crane begins. 10:20AM Daughter wakes and dropped off at daycare. Temporary pause of Operation Crane. 10:45AM Operation Crane resumes. 11:47AM Runoff Crazy Crane Body Qi (just lots of caffeine) 12:42PM Eat pizza to restore body to equilibrium.
I used my bag of tricks to get through these… Double rinse, and being quick to dump cups once I get an assessment. This is limiting in some ways, but I do feel like I get reasonably good judgements without drinking too much caffeine.. The end result, two ended up in the give away bin. Here are the tuos in quick succession.
2004 Xiaguan Jiaji (6.4)
Pretty much all acquired from MX Tea. I didn’t feel the need to subject myself to all the Jiajis I have. The 2003, 2004, and 2005 are all pretty similar with a slight quality improvement by going back in years. I did that comparison before (see below).
Started with this as a reference tea. This is solid as far as Xiaguan goes. I don’t want to drink it that often, but it is satisfactory for a 20 year old factory tea. I wanted to start with the Jiaji to use it as a reference. It is thick, dense, and woody. Little sweetness. A bit of retired smoke. Sturdy little thing.
2004 Xiaguan FT T004 (4.8)
I bought a few sleeves of this from MX on a 11/11 deal in 2018. Supposedly an acclaimed tuo. I hadn’t had this in years and was hoping it’d be ready to drink. Unfortunately it’s not that great right now.. Sad, slow Seattle storage hasn’t moved it much. It does have a couple nice things going for it: the texture and smoothness. Although it has some density, it is thinner than the Jiaji from the same year. Both teas have an age score of 35, but this tastes relatively greener than the Jiaji. I suspect this has had lighter storage despite both coming from MX. Sometimes 20 years isn’t enough.. Back into storage..
2004 Xiaguan Canger FT (5.4)
This is much fruitier than the other tuos and is probably at about a 1:1 fruit to wood ratio. Depending on how you brew it, it can be somewhat sweet or quite astringent. It has a cohesive but simple profile. It doesn’t really hit my spots, but it’s alright if you like this profile (fruit forward). I’d give this away, but I think it’s OK as a reference since it’s quite different from the Jiaji.
2004 Xiaguan Songhe (3.2)
One of the least impressive teas of this run. Very thin, astringent and just really not much there. EVICTED!
I had assumed this was MX but found out later this was Kunming stored, makes sense..
2006 Xiaguan Purple Box Fangcha FT (5.5)
Muscatel and wood nose. Higher notes and more refined than the burly Jiaji in general. Body is a bit tangy but mixes in sweetness, wood and a bit of fruit (although not as much as the Canger). This is OK, but if it doesn’t meet my standards and I have enough similar stuff that I don’t really want it around. EVICTED!
This tea was one of the better teas in the original Xiaguan report. Sad!
2006 Xiaguan Gold Ribbon FT (6.6)
This was a Toby rec and I’ve always liked these mid 2000s gold box productions. They feel like an attempt at a slightly fancier product that doesn’t require the heavier storage hand others do. Interesting to have this back to back with the Purple Box. They both have a similar muscatel-wood profile. The Jinsi (Gold Ribbon), however, is more enjoyable. Nice silky texture, smoother, and good balance of sweetness. The density is still nice and it feels more substantial than the Purple Box. This is not an amazing tea, but is one of the highest rated tuo of the report. It’s good and solid provided expectations aren’t too high. I think the Nanzhao fits into this same niche, but even one more step in the refined direction.
2008 Xiaguan Xizi FT (5.7)
This is higher noted with more florals and brown sugar. Probably a byproduct of not having undergone as much southern Chinese storage. Similar to other FT products it is a bit sweeter with a bit of retired smoke. It’s OK.
2005 Xiaguan Yincang (6.4)
After all those tuos, I was in the mood to evict this but it ended up winning me over. Wood, resin, nice texture. Maybe the tea most similar to the Jiaji, in the sense that it leans heavily towards a woody and not particularly sweet profile. There’s decent density here too. The main reason to go for the Jiaji over this is the fact that it is such a standard reference.
After enduring all eight of these in a single morning, I felt about as alert and sickened as I would if a tatted up yakuza were shouting at me.
Other Tuos
2010 Xiaguan DX Tuo (5.2)
Recommended to me by Toby. This has an annoyingly bulky box that makes the Jiaji box look reasonable (sleeves are the best).
Definitely somewhat different from a standard Xiaguan tuo. Maybe a second cousin from out of town. The age score is a lot lower (25) than anything else this month and it really does show. It has two standout features that set it apart, (a) a more refined silk texture and (b) decent mouth coating sweetness. It is intriguing, but too green to drink now. Also on the downside it’s body isn’t as dense or as substantial as other Xiaguans that rank higher in this report which is a bit concerning long term. Scott sells a 2010 brick from DX that might be interesting as an easier purchasing channel.
2004 Xiaguan FT Nanzhao (6.7)
A last minute addition picked up from LP’s January releases. I’d always had this one on my radar as it’s a well known tea and while you can technically get it cheaper on Taobao, I was also curious about the Malaysian storage. This production specifically (2004) may or may not have Banzhang material in it. My previous notes with it a decade ago had it as a tea of note, coming across as a highly atypical Xiaguan. This is the first year of this special production which makes it more sought after. First year productions are also sometimes a bit better than the same product a few years later.
Redrinking it 10 years later my notes line up closely. Even more than the XG gold ribbon the Nanzhao really doesn’t taste like normal Xiaguan or for that matter Banzhang. It does however have some nice throatiness, texture, and a good aftertaste. It is lightly oily, not particularly dense, leaning more towards a refined profile. Taste profile is antique wood, herbal with some light raisin sweeetness. This is one of the nicer tuos of the month, but it just doesn’t really feel as dense and packed like more standard Crane Brand. Firmly represents the softer side of Xiaguan.
2011 Xiaguan FT Nanzhao (5.6)
Sent by Emilio at The Jade Leaf as a sample, conveniently making this a nice comparison. Like the 2004, the 2011 has a softer profile and is much more drinkable than you’d think given its relative youth. They both feel like cousins to the Gold Ribbon Tuos. Nice sweetness, texture, smoke in a pleasant way. Mostly woody with a touch of fruit. Lacks the density and strength you’d expect from a more typical Xiaguan, but this is cheap and cheerful if you want something inexpensive and softer than 90% of Xiaguan teas.
2003 Xiaguan FT 7623 (5.5)
This one was from Chawangshop back in the day. It’s ultimately very baseline. Starts out with a bit of fruit to accompany the standard wood Xiaguan taste. It is not bad but if I haven’t drank it in the 10 years of having it and does not show anything intriguing in this session that would change that. It’s just not interesting enough to keep around. Evicted!
2003 Xiaguan Jiaji (5.8) via SF
Tried blind from Phobos after another blind sample. Thanks! Very woody. Has undergone some lightish traditional storage or gotten a bit wet. The tuo is very woody, and creamy, a bit milky. It’s not bad, but I don’t find it to be very satisfying. Having this after the superior 2003 Xiaguan 8653 does the tea no favors.
I was somewhat surprised as the tea does not resemble the 2003 XG Jiaji I have from MX at all. The tea could’ve masqueraded as even older and it would not have shocked me. Storage for Xiaguan can be too light, but also overdone as is the case here. Storage is king!
2002 Xiaguan Teji (6.0)
This one is not from MX, but from a Shenzhen vendor that kept his tea on the dry-side of things. Unfortunately this is a tea that could’ve used more of a push and similar to the T004 is a disappointment despite its age score being relatively high (42). It crosses me as a classical wood, retired smoke, lightly sweet Xiaguan that was stored dry and isn’t as juicy or as substantial as you would hope for a 23 year old tuo. It is a similar level to the Jiaji but I enjoy it less, likely due to the storage. This one will go back into storage.
FT Tuos – sweeter, softer, a bit more texture, a little better?
Having all these teas in a short succession has some definite advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is it’s a pretty unenjoyable way to drink and appreciate tea. Teas I enjoy like the Gold Ribbon or even the Jiaji were used as more of a measuring stick rather than something to appreciate and enjoy.
One advantage is that you can more clearly see possible patterns. FT seems to have a reputation for being a bit less brash than vanilla XG. In the tuos I found FT were on average more textured, a bit sweeter, slightly softer, with improved longevity. I’d probably describe them as a little better, but it depends a lot on the individual production and year. I also wouldn’t make any hard rules like always buy FT or never buy regular XG products.
Note: I wouldn’t describe the difference in XG vs. XG FT cakes the same way, although (IMO) the FT Pink #4’s most notable attribute is its texture.
Cakes
2013 Xiaguan FT Love Forever Paper Tong (7.1)
Really a XINO (Xiaguan in name only). For those unfamiliar with the alleged origin story… The tea is made of aged maocha that was supposedly leftover from famous Dayi productions (Jin Dayi) in 2003. Sure! Whatever you say FT..
It is hard to know what to believe but the profile is far more Menghai-ish and aged than a typical 2013 production. The tea used to be quite burly and bitter, but turned the corner shortly after I got gifted a tong for my wedding in 2017. The tea is very tasty now with a fruit-wood profile. Good thickness and while it can certainly get bitter its sharper edges have softened a lot. Others have noted a cherry like note to this, and while I wouldn’t quite describe it that way it has some brightness to it that vaguely resembles a cherry note. This has also always been a cake that people complain about inconsistencies, but since I’m experienced with the material (I’ve finished a cake) I’ve learned to lean in or out of the tea and don’t really get bad sessions with it.
One small tip on this one: don’t be stingy and brew up lots of dust. This is probably good advice in general, but especially true for something that is punchy and sensitive to a heavy hand like LFPT.
2009 Xiaguan DX 7223 (6.5)
Picked one up from MX at the end of last year on a whim. Like Love Forever this uses aged maocha and is a special production, made by Dehexin who supposedly had their hand in the Double Lions along with the Malaysian teahouse. This is a Bulang blend from 2005-2007 and the less expensive production they made this year. The more costly production allegedly has Banzhang.
The tea is overall pretty good, but not as big a hit as I had hoped. Certainly not a home run or even a double.. Maybe a single. It has a nice fruit sweetness that coats the throat. A bit woody. Mostly it is not as big as I hoped, feeling a bit narrow and not too much Bulang bitter. Some retired smoke. Still a bit resinous and has some room to improve. Overall I prefer the stronger Xiaguan LFPT, but I could easily see an alternate universe where this tea garners a similar level of popularity to LFPT. Not a bad one to seek out if a relatively affordable ($50ish) aged Bulang blend sounds appealing.
2006 Xiaguan FT Pink #4 (6.2)
Recommended to me by Toby ages ago. I was surprised by this one as it was better than my memory. Nice aroma and this tea hints at smoke more than other teas in this report. Woody, reasonably thick, and some residual sweetness. I do think the ceiling is limited for such teas. It is mostly just decent and expectations have to be tempered. But it has solid density and the texture does stand out. You can still track this one down easily for a pretty reasonable price. Compared to my previous notes it is considerably improved. I pulled my cake into rotation where we’ll see how it does on the speed test.
2004 Xiaguan FT 8653-3+1 (7.4)
Turned onto this by Toby and Emilio of The Jade Leaf in 2017/2018? I had the TW stored version which I believe Emilio sells. This is an interesting tea.. It is extremely pungent, resinous, oily, menthol-heavy and woody. It also feels substantial with good strength and density. After a challenging Christmas Day, this tea was particularly satisfying. I think this tea is worth checking out even if you’ve had the conventional T8653. I quite enjoy it and it crosses me as significantly different from the 2005 T8653 Thick Paper or the 2003 T8653 which are much more similar to one another. I do think the FT8653-3+1 is very likely to be polarizing due to its very pungent characteristics. This is one that isn’t talked about that much, but perhaps should be.
I did manage to re-try this before the end of the report and indeed still like it, even as it wasn’t as pungent and intense as my Christmas Day session. The notes aren’t that different from normal Xiaguan 8653, but it presents very differently in ways that are obvious if you have them side by side.
I unexpectedly had the opportunity to pickup a few cakes of this for an attractive 2000NTD, so did end up buying 3 more cakes. Thanks Quiche!
2005 Xiaguan FT 8653-5 (6.6)
Bought a cake from MX back in 2015. This is decent and serviceable and basically a more palatable version of the 2004. Unfortunately it does suffer a bit in comparison with the 3+1 and falls on the wrong side of boring at times. The base flavor profile is the same: menthol, wood, some oiliness but it does not feel as substantial. It is unclear to me how much is the original material vs. the storage, the experience it offers is a significant step down from the 3+1. Consumed against the thick paper later and it holds up reasonably well. The thickness and oiliness is impressive but it is also a bit hollow in comparison with the standard Iron Thick January.
2006 Xiaguan FT T8653-6 (6.8)
Perhaps due to being an iron cake, this is a bit different than the 2004 and 2005 FT I have. Some smoke that seems like it is on the way out. I think the extra time in a humid climate (the 2005 FT has been in Seattle for nearly a decade) has benefited it. Profile is a mix of wood, pine, menthol which sounds similar to normal T8653, but does present itself a bit different than standard Xiaguan. Consistent with some of the other FT products it has a pleasing, refined texture. Still powdery and can use more time but definitely heading in the right direction. Not as satisfying as the 2004 FT 8653, but more than the 2005.
2003 Xiaguan Xiaofei 8653 (7.2) SF
Blind from Phobos. Smells like 8653, menthol wood, oily, mouthcooling. Herbal, nice texture, a bit of depth to the back of the mouth. After having this revealed, it’s nice to know that non iron 8653 can follow a similar cake trajectory as iron cake 8653 provided it has the right storage.
This is pretty close to my ideal storage for Xiaguan. Interestingly it comes from Shunfeng who is all over the map on storage, some too wet and others like this pretty good.
2006 Xiaguan XY BGT (6.3)
From a part of a blind sampling a few years ago. Made by XY.
This is technically a decent tea just generic and boring (to me). It is also very un-Xiaguan like. It has decent thickness, plum sweetness, wood. It’s fine and has nice clarity with its profile just pretty dull. I’ve had the 2012 and had similar feelings.
2001 Xiaguan XY 8853 (7)
Stored by a Shenzhen dealer who keeps his teas drier (same as Teji). Also made by XY.
Similar to the 2006 Xiaguan BGT, this has a very clear profile that is a bit different than XG. It is also technically a decent tea, but I find it dull for its pricepoint. Rather than the classic wood-pine-methol, this is far more wood dominant. It is oily but a lot less than a T8653. Also a bit more retired smoke than those teas. Good mouth sweetness and thickness.
I’ve heard there’s a few versions of the 2001 8853, so that could perhaps account for some of the difference here.
2001 Xiaguan XY Green Chawang (7.4)
These two Chawangs were generously supplied by Emmett, thank you! They both have the Yang storage, but neither one really tastes like his warehouse.
The storage has moved this to a much better place than the 8853. Ye Binghuai (the maker) says this is an Yiwu and while I don’t have a firm opinion, I do not find that completely unbelievable. Although the processing is obviously far more in a factory style, the tea reaches deeper and has a stronger throat feel than almost all the other Xiaguans in this report. Soft, woody, silky texture. It is not an overly complex tea but it is a satisfying one with a good lingering sweetness.. I finish the session feeling quite nice.
2001 Xiaguan XY Yellow Chawang (7.4)
Also from the Yang warehouse. Thanks Emmett! This is roughly the same caliber tea as the Green with a few differences (keeping in mind I’m judging from just a couple sessions).
It feels like it is also turning the corner, and is perhaps a few years behind the Green. It has a greener fragrance, more resin and retired smoke. The tea is also a bit more flavor-forward with wood, muscatel sweetness, and a light tang. Texture is a bit more syrup rather than silk. Overall, I’d say this is more complex with an interesting mouthfeel and a bit more active than the Green but with less depth and throat feel. I liked my session with the Green more but this is also a satisfying tea.
2001 Green Sun (7.4)
Not a Xiaguan, but made by Ye Binghuai as well. And also supposedly an Yiwu.. Also from Yang’s storage (thanks again Emmett). Very different than the Xiaguan productions he made of the same year and feels more like a predecessor to the Yiwu cakes that would come. Pleasant, soft, sweet, potpourri, resin, wood. More “Yiwuish” than the Xiaguans. Has a nice throat sweetness.. I am a sucker for these teas, even if this has relatively short longevity.
Iron Cakes (non FT)
2005 Xiaguan T8653 Thick Paper January (7.2)
Bought four of these in 2021 from MX with no regrets. It’s one of my reference cakes and I’ve drank quite a bit of a cake. The profile is a familiar one if you’ve drank any Xiaguan iron cake 8653 from this period. Oily, thick, menthol, heavy wood and pine profile. No smoke. Longevity is just OK but it is very satisfying. In this case, the batch is clearly good and the storage helps to complete the tea (MX is a Xiaguan specialist). Very nice all around and easily passes the speed test.
For those that are curious about the thin version or non Iron I’ve recorded a video on the Thick vs. Thin vs. a non-Iron. I’d heartily recommend a well-stored thick paper version (January/February/March).
2005 Xiaguan Grade A Iron Cake February (6.8)
I bought this back in 2020 for reasons I no longer remember. Someone said it was sort of like 8653 and MX didn’t have any at the time? This is the first batch and while it doesn’t quite live up to the T8653 it is good and enjoyable. Oily, menthol, wood. Resinous.. Just a little thin compared to the iron cake, but overall satisfying. Decent aftertaste.
2004 Xiaguan? 8653?? Iron from Malaysia (6.9)
This was picked up by a local tea buddy on his trip back home to Malaysia. Thanks Meng! Meng, Garrett, and I split four cakes three ways as a fun way to sample some of the local offerings. It was supposedly T8653 like or going for something similar. They were mostly around $50-60 and all were good for the money. This ended up being my favorite of the batch. I was curious to see how this tea would match up with all the other iron cakes being consumed.
It stacks up pretty well! It is thick and very oily, with the familiar heavy pine/wood/resin. It is very believably Xiaguan like. Doesn’t brew out forever but it has a likable 8653-ish profile. Even my wife who normally does not enjoy non-trad sheng, didn’t mind a couple cups I gave her.
2003 Xiaguan T8653 (6.6)
From a sample a couple years ago. Xiaguan is one type of tea where I don’t own many TW-stored stuff. This was an interesting session, partly because it was (surprisingly to me) a bit less satisfying than the MX Xiaguans. In this era, you’d expect earlier productions to be a bit better, so this ran counter to my own expectations.
I think it boils down to storage. In the case of the others, they were stored in Malaysia (2004 XG Iron) or by MX (a XG specialist in Guangdong). This tea while not poorly stored has not yet ironed out the more rough acrid edges that make it an inferior experience, despite what is possibly superior material.
A bit tart, acrid, and bitter. Gets very oily with a nice mouthcoat. Familiar wood, menthol. Hints at more retired smoke than other iron cakes. Above average longevity.
2001 Xiaguan T8653 Da Hongfei (6)
This is a Kunming stored Da Hongfei version from Yunnan Sourcing. Supposedly the Heifei has more potent material. Info on the different 2001 versions (Thanks Phobos).
This is quite slow to get going, and does start out smoother than one might expect. It does eventually get heavier, very resinous with some bitterness. While it isn’t particularly thick this is quite green. Storage is king when it comes to Xiaguan. It hints but doesn’t quite get to the menthol, wood note that the wetter stored teas have. You can get a thicker brew, but are hit with a potent bitterness.
1999 Xiaguan T8653 (7) Shenzhen Vendor
From the Shenzhen vendor who keeps his teas dry. This is both one of the better teas of the month and also a disappointment.
On its own it is an enjoyable enough brew, but I do not find this meaningfully more enjoyable compared with the 2005 T8653. It gets very oily and extremely woody. Curiously missing the menthol note, but otherwise fits into the nice pine wood profile. Overall pretty simple and I think it’d be pretty satisfying if I could set my expectations more appropriately. Similar to the 2001, I’m left wondering what an MX stored version of this would be like.
1999 Xiaguan T8653 (7) Shunfeng
From Shunfeng on Taobao. Same rating as the one from Shenzhen, but very different drinks.
While the Shenzhen vendor keeps his teas drier than my preferences, this one unfortunately swings too far the other way. This seems to have gotten some traditional storage early on and has aged beyond that menthol, wood phase. It still resembles a Xiaguan cake and it certainly isn’t Yee On level of traditional storage, but the storage is not ideal. It is a pleasing easy drinker, oily, woody, and in the end quite a simple tea. Slightly younger 8653 give a hint at what might’ve been. Interestingly, neither 1999 T8653 had that cooling menthol note that I get in the 2000s XG Iron Cakes. Until I try a more ideally stored one I will chalk that up to storage.
Iron Cakes > Tuos
After all the tuos these iron cakes were a refreshing change and on average much better than the tuos. I am noting to myself that iron cakes stored in popular hot and humid hotspots are starting to get into a very nice place at around 20 years.
Brewing these is a bit different than normal caked pu’erh. I used a gaiwan, which I found effective because of the fuller feedback you get. You can easily see the liquor color and leaves unfurling very easily. This allows you to modulate the brews more easily than in a pot. In my case, I believe it outweighed the positive of extra heat retention and allowed me to brew more evenly. I also got into a good rhythm with them as I brewed them relatively regularly for this report.
For Comparison’s Sake
One thing I like to do towards the end of these themed drinkings is brew something that would make a good comparison. In this case, big factory raw from the mid 2000s from other factories, Dayi and Mengku Rongshi.
2006 Dayi 8582 (7.2)
This is probably my favorite Dayi recipe, and I’ve always found it does better on the speed test than 7542. Nice big, broad body, woody, coats the mouth in sweetness. This one is ready to be consumed: thick, reasonably smooth, with a pleasing texture. Similar to the 2005 T8653, very satisfying and refreshing after mediocre Xiaguan. This beats most of the teas from this month. Sorry Crane Gang, but Big Benefits > Shimonseki.
2004 Mengku Rongshi Qizibing (7)
Similar to the 8582, this one fits as a comparison point. An aged factory production from the mid 2000s. It was also probably one of the best value buys I ever did, costing something like $25. In some ways I prefer it to the more esteemed YYX from an earlier year. This has the added benefit of being northern as well.
The tea is nothing crazy, but a solid workhouse. A clear profile that isn’t very dynamic but simple and enjoyable. It’s the sort of tea you drink a bunch when you’re more settled in your taste, provided you like the profile. This easily passes the speed test in my case. Wood, coco, mid-level thickness. Brews out for a while with a generally warming and not cold profile. Compared to Xiaguan teas in this report, it is very different. Basically goes for very different profiles with none of that menthol, pine, wood, resin activity that dominates the 8653 and other XGs. Interesting to try but not especially informative in this context.
2000 Mengtong Jiaji (6.4)
An off-brand tuo sold by YS. It’s decent and drinkable. Relatively on par with Jiaji. It has ideal storage that has moved the tea along but not too wet. Lots of retired smoke that hints heavily at a previous life as a smoke heavy tea. Otherwise, woody, burly, with some sweetness.
Trad. Stored & Old Ripes
These don’t really fit with the other teas but are fun easy drinkers made by Xiaguan.
2001 Xiaguan Pine Crane Jiaji Tuo (8)
Sold and stored by Yee On.
A pretty ideal traditionally stored tea. Oily, rich, wood. Has a heavy earthy, beetroot sweetness. A bit of syrup texture. Makes me wish there were more well done traditional stored XG available. You could add a bunch of notes that are synonyms to earth, but it’s mostly just a richer, nicer traditionally stored pu’erh.
1994 Xiaguan Tuo Ripe (7.5)
Another one sold by Yee On.
This is not a complex tea, but a simple profile that is very satisfying. Rich, creamy, ginseng, beetroot. Fairly thick and lightly sweet. For me this is chuggable tea. If you are someone that thinks they just like raw and have avoided traditionally stored ripe, please consider trying some of this and the cheaper Yee offerings.
1990s Xiaguan Brick (6.6), friend
Picked up by a tea friend in the last couple years. Fairly low grade material (as one would expect), and possibly traditionally stored early on. It is an easy to drink, smooth brew. It has a nice silk texture. Nothing crazy but an interesting time capsule towards the humble tea blue-collar big factories were cranking out in the 1990s.
1990s Xiaguan Brick (6.7), Houde
A sample bought from Houde. This is more or less as expected. Solid, medium-thick, wood, hints of dates (feels like a cousin of 7581). One reason I like traditionally stored ripe is it adds an interesting herbal+ginseng element to it. This is a perfectly functional drinker that while solid is also kind of dull. I do think teas of this caliber will depend a lot on the individual preferences. There is certainly some enjoyable characteristics. It is a tea that knows what it is and offers a clear, defined profile. I rank this a slight bit higher than the other brick as the base material crosses me as a bit better and it offers a thicker, denser brew.
VOATO: What is the Average Factory Tea? What is the Average Xiaguan?
One of the goals here was establishing the ATO (Average Tea Owned) in this category (Xiaguan). The average is probably the 2004/05 Jiaji, a relatively ordinary tea that can still be bought for under $0.20/g. If single tuos or cakes are worse than that, they should probably be removed unless they can bring something else to the table. The 2005 T8653 January Thick Paper is better than the average but is probably the better benchmark particularly for the cakes.
If I were to extrapolate this out to factory tea I own, I think the Jiaji would fall a little below average.
These Teas are Inexpensive
Many of these teas have not appreciated that much in price. The tuos in particular are good budget buys provided you like their profile. On the day of the crane, those 40 grams of ~20 year old tea probably set me back something like $3. Hard to beat.
The cakes and iron cakes are a bit more, and probably also where most people should start as the quality is on average higher. The January Thick Paper can be acquired for very reasonable $/g prices, the challenge is finding good storage. The TWL is pricier than other sources, but they do a good job vetting so it’s one I’d likely recommend if you don’t want to shop around too much.
For Your Consideration: $15 2004 Jiaji vs. $10 2005 Jiaji
Consider this case. The $15 2004 Jiaji and the $10 2005 Jiaji.. These teas sold for approximately these price from MX not long ago. They have a similar profile but the 2004 clearly has better material if you side by side them. The 2004 cost $5 or 50% more. Is the tea 50% better? Definitely not.. Perhaps 15-20%? But the $5 additional cost is spread across several sessions. A 5g session, costs a measly $0.25 extra per session. In my opinion a worthwhile tradeoff if your budget isn’t super tight.. Consider spending up for better quality even if it isn’t value optimization.
Why Own These Teas? What is the Upside of These Teas?
I am dubious of these teas aging into anything great. Things like the 2006 Xiaguan Pink, which improved a bit, are unlikely to be anything beyond a solid daily drink.
I bought a lot of the Xiaguan as a low-risk way to get diversity into my stash inexpensively. The positive case is that some of them, especially the ones I own in some quantity, should be decent workhorse teas. And since workhorse teas are the majority of teas I drink, there is a distinct and clear purpose. That all being said, even this more positive case isn’t that exciting. All those cakes of pink do take up space that could be something else.
What do I Actually Own? & Would I Do it Again?
I own quite a bit of:
2013 FT LFPT (no regrets)
2010 XG DX Tuo (minor regrets)
2006 FT Pink #4 (minor regrets)
2006 Jinsi Gold Ribbon (no regrets)
2005 T8653 January Thick Paper (no regrets)
2004/05 Jiaji (no regrets)
2004 FT T004 (minor regrets)
If I were to do this over I’d buy more 2005 Thick paper and avoid the T004 and Pink. I’d probably also get some 2004 Xiaguan FT8653-3+1. The T004 and Pink aren’t huge mistakes as they’re OK and inexpensive. The main thing they take up is space. Their price also hasn’t gone up much, so I would’ve been better off buying them after they’d gotten a few more years of superior storage. I’m still curious to see where they’ll go even if I would not buy them again. The DX Tuo is kind of annoying due to its huge box size but it’s still too young to decide if it’s a dud, although I probably should’ve waited 5-10 years before buying that too.
Storage matters a lot and makes a big impact on your cup. I cannot give these teas accelerated aging, so buying something that is already in a decent place is important. It makes sense to be very particular and fussy about storage in the same way that we are with boutique tea. If you have a hotbox or are in SE Asia, the calculation might be different. But for those of us with an unheated pumidor I think its a good reminder to be very choosy about the storage on teas we buy for later.
Recommendations
Buy these teas:
2005 Xiaguan Thick Paper Jan/Feb T8653 (Stored Somewhere Hot+Humid)
2004/05 Xiaguan Jiaji Tuo (Stored Somewhere Hot+Humid)
2004/06 Xiaguan Gold Ribbon Tuo or 2004/2005 Xiaguan Nanzhao Tuo (Stored Somewhere Hot+Humid)
Why the T8653? A good version represents the appeal of the Xiaguan very well. I am very happy with the cakes I own. There are of course other Xiaguan recipes but I’ve been relatively unenthusiastic about my experience with the 8613 and 8673 (episodes are out for both). The Jiaji iron is decent enough, but I think the January Iron 8653 is the better bet.
As for the Jiaji tuo. There are other tuos I prefer to this, and I like it significantly less than the iron cake but its decent and representative of a certain Xiaguan profile. The profile is also pretty different from the T8653. MX still has this in stock as of early 2025.
The Gold Ribbon and Nanzhao occupy the softer, more approachable Xiaguan niche, something that hasn’t been well covered in the west but should be. Both are nice blends, smoother, and less abrasive. I recommend everyone check them out as they are ready to drink much sooner than conventional Xiaguan.
If you want to try more:
2004 Xiaguan FT8653-3+1 – Unique character that sounds similar but is different from the standard T8653.
2013 Xiaguan Love Forever Paper Tong – Highly atypical XG with some inconsistencies, but a decent Menghai-ish blend. I would not spend over $100 on this personally, but if you can get it for the right price.
Back to Their Cheap & Cheerful Qualities… Xiaguan Budget Propaganda
There’s a lot of tea besides Xiaguan. Heck there’s a lot of northern tea that hardly ever gets talked about or sold to the west, like Baichatang. But.. If you were stuck in Xiaguan jail with $ per day to spend ~$365 and you drink 10 grams a day, what would you buy?
Here’s one proposal. Disregarding shipping.
$120ish – 357 grams 1x 2004 T8653-3+1
$100ish- 357 grams 1x 2005 T8653 Thick Paper
$39 – 600 grams 6x 2007 Gold Ribbon (48RMB for 1 on SF)
$68 – 1000 grams 10x 2005 Jiaji (248RMB for 5 on MX)
$30 – 1428 grams 4x 2019 T8633 Ripe (55RMB on MX)
$357 – 3,742 grams.
And there you have two pretty good Xiaguans and a lot of daily drinking teas that are 18-20 years of age. The rest is filled in with a decent amount of ripe filler from a reliable Xiaguan recipe. I would not be excited about drinking this for a full year, but that’s not bad for a modest budget and a decent tea appetite of 10 grams a day.
Will I Buy More?
My buying has slowed down and I tend to only buy multiple cakes of things a few times a year. I also do not care about value like I used to, so the inexpensive nature of these cakes has more limited appeal than it did to me in 2016. That being said I am still likely to acquire two teas in the future. More T8653 (likely from 2005 or earlier) and the FT8653-3+1 (which I have since acquired). Despite both carrying the 8653 banner and being just a year apart they offer different experiences. The T8653 2005 January is a solid tea and a good reference point. I own 5 cakes already, but I think this is one I can drink for a long time. There are a number of similarish cakes to this here, but this production does standout for its quality and price.
As for the FT 8653-3+1 when I made an instagram post on it, Emilio of the The Jade Leaf commented that the pungency of this tea was compared to the phermones emitted by mature women in a popular Taiwanese blog. A suitable description to a highlight tea in the Xiaguan Masochist report.
I’ve stored tea for around six years now in Seattle and while I’ve fussed a bit over a few small things, the methodology has been overall consistent. The pu’erh has been stored in an enclosed container with Boveda packs to ramp up the humidity to around 65RH. Airflow is low. Most people would call this a pumidor. Every year I look at my spreadsheet and decide on pulling a few teas to retry.
The most interesting storage experiment in the west is a heated cooler filled with mylar bags of pu’erh in Toronto. This is of course Marco’s hotbox experiment where cakes are conditioned to generate 63-69RH and then stored at fixed temperatures. I was lucky enough to get two five gram samples of tea from Marco that were stored in the box for two years. One was stored at both 23C (~73-74F) and the other at 32C (~89-90F) sent by Marco.
Thanks to Nug, I had the opportunity to sample a few older and thereby quite expensive Menghai TF teas. I no longer sample as often as I used to, and try to be focused on very interesting teas when I do. These teas were sold to us by Taizhong based vendor Wang JF who will sell samples of some of his more expensive teas. The teas were naturally stored in Taiwan, and while I do suspect there were some differences in the storage of these teas early on, I think they all fit easily into the TW-natural storage category.
This is an extremely overdue tea drinking report. It was conceived for two reasons. (1) I recently reconfigured my storage into a larger setup. (2) I have a yearly tradition of picking some teas out of deep storage to retry and note their progression (or lack thereof). The latter allows me to get a better feel for my storage and pick out anything going wrong with the teas. This year I picked eight teas from my own storage as well as a couple extras from tea friends, all of which have been stored for a significant chunk of their lifespan in Washington state.(more…)
I picked up this tea from a vendor in Taiwan in 2017. Generally speaking, I lean skeptical of age and even moreso extreme claims of this extent. But I spent considerable time with this vendor and trust them more than most. Call me a chump, but I mainly believe it in this case. Finding tea this old is not common and I wanted to document the experience since I have not encountered many oolongs that I reliably consider this old and doubt I ever will.
About this Tea
This tea was picked in Pinglin which isn’t too far outside of Taipei and was one of the primary growing regions in Taiwan during that period. Like other teas, the processing of Baozhong has changed substantially over the years. I had the opportunity to try a (young) Baozhong produced in an older style when Origin Tea was still in business and it fit firmly into the category of a darker, roasted oolong. Today, the tea is typically processed very green and is usually considered one of the greenest oolongs on the market.(more…)
In our small little westerm tea community, there was quite a stir over YQH in 2015 and 2016. I’ll personally admit to being caught up in both the dialog and purchasing of these teas. YQH remains available via Emmett, the most important figure in making these teas accessible). And while YQH as a conversation piece in the tea community has faded, I thought I’d share some thoughts on YQH, looking back with some perspective.(more…)
