As many of you may have noticed the tea of the month reports haven’t exactly been on schedule. They’ve often gone longer than expected and I still have countless unfinished samples which I am trying to drink through. First things first.. I’ll be finishing the last two reports at the end of 2015, Taiwanese oolongs to age & the box (aka aged oolongs). While it may seem premature to brainstorm/discuss how to continue these sorts of reports, it often takes a time to get these together without placing extraneous orders. These reports are the most personal tea journeyish projects that I do on TeaDB, but I’d certainly be curious to solicit some feedback.
One Change
I’ll be lifting the month from “tea of the month”. They’ll now simply be tasting reports. Doesn’t mean they’ll end up being longer or shorter just that I’d rather these go as long as necessary rather than cut them arbitrarily at the 30-31 day mark. This will also prevent me from biting off more than I chew. I’ll probably line up a couple at a time and do them at my leisure. This will also give me time to finish off interesting samples, something that I’ve too often neglected.
Topically
One thing I will not do is push my interest level to other tea genres. The days of Japanese green tea reports and random oolong reports (sorry Dancong) are over. I’ll be leaving those to someone else who has a larger passion for these specific genres. For me, it’s not worth the money and not worth the time. I’ve got only so much caffeine that I can drink and I’d rather my energies be spent on my principal interests. Another area I’m feeling temporarily a bit burnt out is all the young pu’erh. My stomach outlasted my own endurance (a good thing!) and this momentary break into Taiwanese oolongs and aged oolongs will represent a nice change of pace.
Repetitions
I feel good about the repeat tea of the months that I’ve done this year for tea of the month. Things like the Menghai report are significant improvements over their predecessors. The Yiwu ones (1,2) were worthy expansions on the original report. It’s also interesting and fun to take a look back and see how my opinions (or the teas) have changed. Thanks to the recommendations and tea sent in, I think the reports encompass more of what those genres of teas can offer. That being said, I’ve also come alot further saturating alot of the western tea market. Tasting absolutely everything is not really a goal that I’m interested in. I also feel I have a decent idea where to place most pu’erh vendors at this point.
2016 Reports
Seasonally it seems most appropriate to do some darker tea in the cooler/wintery months of 2016.. Tentative plan is to do some sort of combination of ripe pu’erh/mature pu’erh/heicha (see below).
Questions:
Would you like to see continued repeats of the area reports (i.e. Yiwu, Menghai County, Simao, Lincang)?
Would people prefer tastings to be done by a specific vendor (i.e. W2T, YS, TU), rather than across regions/areas?
More announcements of the specific teas being tasted so it’s possible to drink and compare notes?
Potential reports (please post what you’d like to see):
- Aged Ripe
- Lincang Ripes
- Menghai County Area RIpes
- Menghai Ripe Recipes
- Mature Pu’erh
- Heicha (probably deserves a regional breakdown)
- Dayi Teas (i.e. mid 2000s Dayi)
- Xiaguan Teas (hunt some better stuff down)
- Stash Report (drink through stuff I’ve got stored. Might be better in 2017)
- Vendor Reports (i.e. a vendor’s 2015 line)
Potential Pu’erh Areas:
- Yiwu
- Menghai County
- Lincang
- Jingmai
- Jinggu
- Elsewhere?
Any other feedback is also much appreciated. Please comment!
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