Tag: Hou de Asian Art

  • 2009 Haoxin Hongcha Red (Black) Tea [Episode 331]

    This episode, Denny and I drink a decade old black tea sent by shah. Thank you! We weren’t really sure how to approach this tea, but it was pretty impressive. Strong aromatics, complex taste, highly enjoyable! Tea was originally purchased from Houde Asian Art.

  • Storage Deep Dive featuring 2006 CGHT Yiwu Yecha [Inbetweenisode 181]

    This episode is a deep dive into looking at the storage . I recently acquired a duplicate . This is a cake I’ve kept in my own pumidor storage for three years and was previously stored in Houston Texas, a fairly humid place of the US compared with a cake I recently bought from taobao. The tea featured is the 2006 Chenguanghe tang Autumn Yiwu Yecha. It’s an alright tea, but the purpose of this episode is mainly to evaluate and attempt to analyze the storage.

    In the episode I take a look at the humidity generated by the dry leaves of the cake, examine the visual differences of the dry and wet leaf, have a comparison tasting session, and finally drink the tea under more normal conditions. The episode concludes with some of my own takeaways.

    If you are are pu’erh nerd or at all interested in storing pu’erh I think you will enjoy this episode. If you want to learn more about storage conditions, please check out some of our other storage related content.

    Any feedback for this episode is highly appreciated!

    Rating: 5.7.

  • Raw Pu’erh Learning & Basics [Episode 168]

    This episode covers the basics of raw pu’erh and how to brew it and get started on this very diverse category of tea. Teas included are the 2013 Xizihao Xuanxi, 2004 Jianshen Tuo, and 199 Yangqinghao Micang.

  • The Box. Aged Oolong Report

    The aged oolong market in the west leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the time the teas are usually significantly flawed (re-roasted/sour), overpriced, or more often than not both. A couple years ago, I was lucky enough to sample a number of aged oolongs from Tony of Origin Tea that were offered off-shelf. This helped to give me some perspective on aged oolongs, but also move me into the cranky, old curmudgeon category of a drinker who seems constantly dissatisfied and cynical with the online tea scene at least for this tea genre. Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere near an expert but I have gotten a taste of the Taiwanese market to at least know that the idea of aged oolongs being good value teas with consideration to age (true in TW) is not extended to the western market. (more…)

  • 2006 CGHT Autumn Yiwu Yecha [Teas I own] via Houde — TeaDB James InBetweenIsode Episode #63

    First tea in a new sequence of teas for James’ inbetweenisodes. Teas that he owns and drinks regularly.

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  • Time Machine! Pu’erh Snapshot… 2008

    Time Machine! Pu’erh Snapshot… 2008

    If only I got into pu’erh 5 years earlier…
    -Every single pu’erh addict (regardless of when they got into pu’erh).

    The year is 2008. Obama was elected. Lil Wayne was weird but still OK to like. In the midst of the steroids crisis, MLB considered A-Rod the great clean hope. The world economy took a dump… And perhaps most importantly, the commodity known as pu’erh had just busted.. in the autumn of 2007. With the power of hindsight and the way back machine, let’s search the depths of the internet and see what the pu’erh scene looked like in 2008… (more…)

  • 5+ Year Old “Menghai County” Raw Pu’erh [July 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    5+ Year Old “Menghai County” Raw Pu’erh [July 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Shoutouts to Dignitea, Brian (double B), and Hster for providing teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is!

    By now you know the drill. I drink a bunch of teas following a certain theme. Blah, blah, blah. This month is Menghai County. One problem.. Menghai County is big and I have a ton of teas that qualify. So, like the Yiwu reports (1, 2) I’ve split this in two. So why am I doing 5+ year old Menghai County tea first? Simply, I’m more calibrated for these semi-aged teas because I more recently have been tasting through similarly aged “Yiwu” teas. (more…)

  • Wuliang/Ailao Raw Pu’erh [February 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Wuliang/Ailao Raw Pu’erh [February 2015 Tea Drinking Report]

    Big shoutouts to Carolyn & Brian (a different Brian from last month) for providing several of the teas for this month and allowing the content to be what it is! I hope you like long-form content, because this tea of the month report is truly massive.

    In the month of February 2015, the tea of the month was Wuliang/Ailao Pu’erh. During this month, I had Wuliang/Ailao Pu’erh at least once a day (unless totally unfeasible). I’ll still consume other teas, but the primary focus is understanding and building a palate for a specific type/genre/region of tea through repetition. This is the most personal blogging type style of post for TeaDB, and the goal is to stretch my palate as well as give recommendations to interested parties. (more…)

  • Xi Zi Hao’s 2008 Xi Shang Jia Xi via Hou de Asian [Episode 85]

    Denny and James review a ripe pu’erh from the Taiwanese boutique label Xi Zi Hao (Sanhe Tang). Acquired from Hou de Asian. The tea has been lightly ripened and uses better base material than most ripe pu’erh. A very good and interesting tea.