This episode, I drink a tea named after the most famous dog in the western pu’erh scene, Lucy. The tea itself is a blend of Menghai and Lincang which gives it a pretty varied and interesting character. It’s clean, woody, with hints of fruit, and a nice rich character. Good tea, great canine.
Another solid product by YS.
Rating: 6.1
This episode, Denny and I drink a Taiwanese oolong from a vendor, predominantly known for their pottery/teaware. This tea is grown in Nantou county in Taiwan and is made by the Hsieh Jiang Lin Tea Company.
If you stick around the western pu’erh scene long enough, you’ll hear about people setting up a variety of different storage setups. Unfortunately there is only a light track record for us to draw on. A handful of 10-15 year old western stored pu’erh has been lightly circulated but this isn’t exactly a quick feedback loop. While some folks flirt with fairly complex systems of storage, most people end up settling on something relatively simple. Why is that?
Continue readingThis episode, Denny and I drink an aged Shoumei (an aged white tea) from new vendor Distant Teas. The tea is very clean, with clearly good base material. An interesting tea from an interesting new vendor.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DistantTeas
In this episode, I talk about three older Menghai Tea Factory teas that are all around 20 years old. While I don’t drink them on camera, I share my thoughts on each and my overarching impression and how I think they fit into my own understanding of Menghai Tea Factory Tea.
Relevant article published on these teas.
The samples were purchased from: http://taishunhe.com/.
NOTE: I’m not too satisfied with how the video turned out with me reading from a script I pre-wrote. I think it wasn’t particularly well-executed and I’d do it differently if I were to do it again. Nevertheless I think the concept of the episode and what is portrayed still works so I decided to release the video anyways.
Sorry for the incorrect title card.
This episode, Denny and I drink a stellar Hongcha from Cindy at WuyiOrigin. Thank you Cindy. This tea is subtle, nuanced, with a lot of complexity and highly enjoyable.
I’ve had the opportunity to participate and host a number of group sessions since I got into tea. The context varies.. Some have been with a couple people unfamiliar with tea, others are with regular tea friends. This article on a couple approaches to choosing what to brew sequentially in a group setting and a few more of my thoughts that I thought I’d share.
Continue readingThis episode, I answer a series of questions sent in about pu’erh storage. This is one of the more hot button topics in the west.
Over the course of the episode, I give some context on how pu’erh storage has been stored in east Asia, and talk about what I find to be acceptable parameters. Also talked about are how my teas have been aging in the 5 years I’ve stored them here in Seattle. Many more questions answered as well.
Thank you for those who sent in questions!
Mentioned:
Marco’s Hotbox, https://mgualt.com/tealog/2018/08/04/temp-control-experiment-w2t-bosch/ and https://mgualt.com/tealog/2019/07/20/storage-experiment-2016-w2t-bosch-two-years-in/
Washington Progress Report and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9oflRNrCOM
This episode, Denny and I drink a green, very fresh, and friendly Baozhong from Everlasting Teas. Sammy over at Everlasting has kindly sent us tea for the past few years and the fresh Baozhong (one of their regular teas) is always a favorite.
This episode, James drinks an old tea of the month club tea from W2T, a 2008 Liubao brick. This tea is nutty, smoothish, and woody. It’s not quite as rich as ripe, but still plenty drinkable and a decent change of pace.
Rating: 5.0
