This episode, Denny and I drink a very interesting Heicha from Hunan. The tea is made by Gaojiashan factory and is a golden flower brick, Fuzhuan. The processing is done in a way that creates yellow fungi (Golden Flowers). It’s the sort of tea that sounds a lot more off-putting than it actually is. Worth trying for anyone that has yet to try a Fuzhuan. A very tasty and quite inexpensive tea.
2017 Gao Jia Shan "Hui Gui" Fu Brick Tea from Hunan
It’s no secret that aged pu’erh is scarce out west. The western vendor scene is dominated by vendors traveling to Yunnan bringing back predominantly young tea to sell. For this exercise, I added all of the older teas from western vendors I could think of. Unlike some of my other data compilations, this one didn’t take long at all.. The cutoff for aged pu’erh (both raw and ripe) was set at 18 years (2000 and older). Setting it at 18 years puts it firmly above semi-aged, but also not high enough (25 years) where we would have no teas making the cut. It’s a number that’s probably going to annoy some people off because its too low and others because it isn’t high enough (ask Su what aged tea is!). (more…)
This episode, James brings on a premium ripe pu’erh from Bulang mountain. This tea normally sells in large 1kg bricks. Thanks to Scott for providing the tea!
7.3 rating.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2015-hai-lang-hao-bi-an-xiang-sui-yi-hao-ripe-pu-erh-tea-of-bu-lang-mountain
It’s common in the pu’erh-verse to note the seemingly always rising price of freshly produced tea. Every year more expensive than the last… Even with the limited scope of western-vendor labeled pu’erh, we can take a quick look at the Way Back Machine and glance at what pu’erhs were selling for a few years ago and compare it to 2017/2018 prices.. It’s also an interesting exercise to look at old Half-Dipper reviews and realize that a lot of tea is simply no longer available. It used to be noteworthy when a fresh cake sold for three figures, now it’s commonplace. Those times are gone.. Oh and that cake is probably 200 grams… (more…)
This episode, James brings on a Kunming dry-stored raw pu’erh blend from Yunnan Sourcing, the 2002 Tailian International Pu’erh Tea Expo Raw. Thank you to shah and another tea friend for sending this sample at different points.
6.3 rating.
2002 Tai Lian "International Pu-erh Tea Expo" Anniversary Raw tea Cake
This episode, James reviews a big cake that is a little over a decade old. Sitting at under $0.10/g or $0.10/g on the US website, this is a great value pu’erh.
Thank you to JD for the sample!
2007 CNNP "8891 Red Label" Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake
5.4 Rating.
This episode, James & Denny drink a dark, plummy black tea from Yunnan Sourcing.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/mengku-wild-arbor-assamica-black-tea-spring-2017
This episode, drinks a tea he has been drinking casually recently, the Dayi recipe 7452. Acquired from Yunnan Sourcing.
5.5 Rating.
https://yunnansourcing.com/products/2016-menghai-7452-ripe-pu-erh-tea-cake
The final episode of the blind tasting is a ripe, Scott’s 2017 Rooster King.
This episode, Denny and James complete the raw pu’erh portion of the Yunnan Sourcing blind tasting. Tasting has been coordinated by Matt of http://mattchasblog.blogspot.com/ and Yunnan Sourcing https://yunnansourcing.com/ . Big thank you to Matt and Scott!
The tea covered in this episode are Epsilon & Gamma, which are Yunnan Sourcing’s 2017 Qingmeishan & 2017 Yibang cake.