Two teas from late 90'- Red Mark and Fuhai

 There is so many teas I would be happy to share with you. Not only to write here about my experiences, but rather to prepare water and steep leaves for you. Light charcoal, clean cups, pick up some leaves from my new cabinet. Sit down please, and have a cup of tea.

If you can listen to music when you read this, you can try put on this version of Sting's Shape of my heart.  I like it.

▶ ReMuse: Shape of my heart - YouTube

Yesterday, my morning was about sheng puehr cha from 1997, today then from 1998. I am not drinking them in line to make a competion. I just celebrate and enjoy days after our last firing of this year. When it comes to celebration, then aged tea is more then welcome here.

Two cakes were made under big factories some sixteen years ago...

First sample, the 1997 Big Red Mark, I have bought at Chawangshop, second then, The 1998 Fuhai, from TeaUrchin. 

Both teas have several similarities, like faces of two guys from far away country. They can look the same at first. Not just that they are both almost of the same age and similar in pricing (in both cases is close to 170$). They were also stored in humid areas, both in warehouses. Leaves of both cakes will be probably mixtures from different places and qualities. And I can tell, it was joy to drink both of them.

Big Red Mark 97

Fuhai 98

Big Red Mark is the calmer brother here. It starts with lighter smell of dry leaves and ends with more settled qi performance at the end. Even when I was not drinking those tea side by side, slight but, clear differences were obvious. The Red mark is more "done". Forest aroma of wet leaves, resin and woody aftertaste with some nice bitterness from second to fourth infusion. Many brews, patient leaves. Meditative and medicinal tea. For those who look for colorful fragrances it might be letdown. Not for me.

I dont know were the purchasing officers from newly seperated Fuhai factory spent their 1998 spring. But I would guess: leaves for this cake grown in Yiwu. This tea is stronger, more distinct. Forest honey and heavier colored flowers go though my nose, my mouth, my throat and become part of me. Energy is vibrant, and the tea shows live and still a bit of rush. There is still some spece to grow, to age.

When I can not advice to buy any of those cakes blindly, I would recomment to sample them when you get a chance. Those are good examples of wet stored, aged teas, without moldy/muddy look, smell or taste. When 170$ can sound like expensive, it is (unfortunatelly) not over the roof these days. One way or another, if one like age puehr, it is easier to seek for teas with some age and quality then to dream about aging fresh cakes on our own. It is fun too, I still put aside some fresh leaves every year, but we have to admit...there is too much but and maybes.

spent leaves from 1997

spent leaves from 1998

Thank you for reading!

2002 Yibang cake

 I got a package from Chawangshop a week ago. There was more then five kilos of tea- autumn greens, aged oolongs some shu touchas but mostly shengs. And many samples of course...The tea I am going to talk about today, is not my favorite from that package but definitely worth to mention. It is Yibang Cha Wang Yuan cake from 2002.

I had sample of this tea few months back. The reason why I have decided to go for whole cake is what we can call "stage of aging". The seller claims that the cake was stored in humid Banna for first few years. It has created something in the tea profile what I miss in many cakes of similar age. Or maybe, it is just harder to find it for a reasonable price here, on west.

You can see even from pictures, that the cake is not fancy or perfect. Yes, there are stems and older yellow leaves. And yes, there is mixture of different leaves, shapes and sizes. But all this give a natural look to it and I think that "not looking fancy" does't mean poor tea. Probably also those impefections are involved in its price- 38usd for more then ten years old tea is (unfortunately) very cheap these days.

To see single mountain Yibang tea of this age is also very rare, at least for west audience. I am not sure if testing such example can give you any idea how your fresh Yibangs are going to age. This one is not distinct in any common way- not strongly sweet, smoky, fruity, bitter, floral. But rather there are all those aspects, mellowed by age. I wouldn't label it as overwhelming and really powerful tea, but I enjoy it. For me it is like forest in rain - calming and pleasant experience.

As you can see on wet leaves - it is still quite green. It is interesting thing about the color and aging. I have made side by side testing of this tea and Hong Kong stored 7542 from 2003. The HK tea was much darker in both leaves and liquer. But taste and aroma of the Yibang was more "aged". 7542 is probably better tea with potential and future, this Yibang on other hand is very nice to drink right now, but I am not sure about its potencial for long term aging.

You can find surprisingly big leaves in this cake-  Yibang should have small leaves as Jingmai, shouldn't have?

I will tag this cake as "ready to drink now" anyway. There is some aged quality I like and profile, which is different from what I have. Next time, when a vendor is going to warn me that a tea was stored in humid place in its early live, I will sit up and notice. It is worth to try.

Testing new kettle...

Thank you for reading!

2006 ZhangPing Shui Xian

This morning I opened two new bags - first with tea I got some time ago from Chawangshop. Second one arrived yesterday - new charcoal as food for my "water heated on charcoal" project. Both tea as well as charcoal would deserve more space than this short post. I can promise that as my experiences with charcoal will grow I will happy to share with you more.

Zhangping Shui Xian is rather rare oolong tea. Maybe I was not looking dutifully but I know only about Life in Teacup where you can purchase such tea on the "west". Reading description on Chawangshop and going thru posts on blog of Life in Teacup you can come to know about origin of this interesting oolong. I have not tried it yet so I was exited to see what is inside the very nice package.

just wet fingers and ink is smudged...

I cut this five years old small square brick in half, and put it in to my 90ml teapot. It was maybe too much tea for it. I don't mind to drink strong tea. But as I was enjoing it in my cup I was aware that behind its full body there are covered fragrances. So next time, the second half of the "brick" will be cut again in to the half.

Although brews were strong, let's say powerful, there ware still many flowery and sweet, fruity scents. Roast of this tea is not so strong like with traditional Wui ShuiXian but you can still feel it. Probably those five years of age, created it the tea heavier hints of plums and dry apricots, which this tea has left in my mouth.

If I would like to sound romantic I could say that this tea reminds me "taste of old China". From its package, thru look of dry leaves to sweet aftertaste. But this is just my personal impression - what do I know about it? But it was pleasant mixture of misty, quiet morning and tea leaves what made my day. Hot water in my kettle was slowly gurgling - just one step to happiness. It is decent and interesting tea worth to try. The seller says that "this tea is very good for long term storage". Who knows? But even now there are signs of (semi)aged oolongs and that is good thing.
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For those who are interested in to my new charcoal experience I have, for now, just few words and couple of pictures. I have tried few different charcoals and, till today, as the best work coconut briquettes. Today morning I used "single kind", high quality, Czech oak charcoal. Ok, producer labeled it as "high quality". But truth is that there are rather bigger, nice pieces and chunks. Charcoal is clean and without dust, which makes smoke and smells during burning.

For lighting it up I used gas burner. I leave charcoal in original, bigger pieces and I was afraid how it will work. After five minute on gas and another ten, waiting, if " the light up" was sufficient, I have my first cup in fifteen - twenty minutes. It was faster then I was hoping for!

 Having still enough hot water I have enjoyed six infusion for another forty five minutes. Everyone who uses charcoal for heating water for tea, talks about impact on quality of the tea itself. I like how it works! But I have to make the whole process of preparing charcoal, heating water and brewing tea more calm and get routine. Then I will be more free to see and feel how it improves my tea. For now I can say: It is way worth to be started.

Thank you for reading.


Note: To everyone who would like to learn about heating water by using charcoal fire I can recomment to read and stay tune to Mattcha's blog.

Moving...

In one of my older posts I have already writen here about tea samples from ChawangShop. One of the samples I have enjoyed was 06 LiuAn basket tea. And 250g bamboo basket of this tea was also in the package which arrived to our place a couple of weeks ago. The fact that I have ordered whole basket bespeak about my impressions from the sample. But sometime it is very difficult for me to judge a tea from 5-10g sample. So I was really curious what is inside those bamboo leaves...I am going to share my finding about this tea in one of my later posts. For now, I just would like to show you the new "home" of the tea. And its moving there...

 When I was about to break in to the basket I have found out one "complication". The leaves of bamboo are fragile and after few "openings" they are going to be too broken. Tea leaves are going to crumble around and I will have to put it in to a paper back anyway. So it will be probably much more practical to keep it in the stoneware jar which I hold for myself from the last firing.

The jar is unglazed inside. I hope it will have a good impact on the tea stored there. At least I think that the porous material can create affable microclimate for aging of the LiuAn.

Leaves of the LiuAn are not so pressed as pu- ehr cakes but still- I find the Pu-needle helpful also in this case.

I am not sure if in this case (the Anhui HeiCha- not Pu ehr tea) is the Nei Fei the proper name. But this piece of paper pressed inside of the tea was very nice finding indeed.

Traditionally the LiuAn is prepared with small piece of bamboo leave in the teapot. So I have putted several leaves from the original basket to the storage jar. It will be not only my supply of bamboo for entirety of my LiuAn teas. It will be also the right environment for those tea leaves themselves. I mean for aging-storing of the tea.

The jar itself has a decoration created by white slip (clay) on the rough body. During the top stage of the firing it was partly covered by charcoal- I like those marks and footprints, colors and irregularity which this process creates.

Thank you for reading

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tea testing

A couple of weeks ago, my friends arrived from their "tea education" trip to China. As guides and companions on this trip they were happy to have owners of the quite new eshop based in Kunming- Cha wang shop. So I have taken an advantage of it and asked my friends to bring me some tea. Every time I look at menu of any new teashop I am tempted to buy some new tea. But especially, when the offer looks honest and interesting it is not easy to choose. So I appreciated the opportunity offered by ChaWangShop to get samples. I asked for few and have got double of it! 

So what should I try like a first? I was feeling if I do not hold back I will open them all at once. At the end I try few readily. But can I choose from 10g of leaves if I should go for whole cake or basket? It can be tricky but I enjoyed the adventure...


First tea I have tried from this selection hit me by label - 98 Maocha from Lincang pressed in to the 400g cake in 2006. That does sounds interesting, doesn't it?  I approached to this tea without any additional informatio.

It was not easy to take picture of those leaves - dark, shiny with moderate pressing.

 

What is it? What is going on? If you were present on my tea section that day you would probably hear these questions several times. When I sniffed from the bag for a first time - dry plume aroma reminds me aged oolongs. But later I realized that there are rather raisins and walnuts. Shiny, dark leaves which crepitate between my fingers. Only from those dry leaves I knew - this is going to be something new in my cup.

 

 rom first sip of the tea I was sure this is not Puer as I know it. I cut the sample in half  - first I prepared it in porcelain wood fired teapot with less leaves and then the second part in small Ixing with less water and shorter brews. For the first time it reminded me a fancy red tea from Georgia I had years ago. Then in smaller pot I find more similarities with some oolongs. Liquor is sweet in both aroma and taste. Raisins and walnuts join herb flowers and scents of flowered devilwood. It will be nearly true that leaves were oxidized, with low or without roasting and then dry stored for many years.  


It will be nearly true that leaves were oxidized, with low or without roasting and then dry stored for many years.  
Looking at leftover leaves you don't find many buds or superfine leaves. Rather larger broken leaves with some stems. None the less I enjoyed five -six good infusions.

 And I was becoming quite sure – This tea is going to be quite difrent/exiting with  more leaves! This tea was not what I asked for and going thru ChawangShop I have not find this cake. So I send my questions to Honza (owner of the shop) and got my answers. "The Maocha is from Lincang-Burma borders and tea businessmen from Kunming found it around 2004. But "material" itself - honestly I don't know and even those discoverers don't know. For sure the tea is old, dry stored and unsorted quality. It reminds me some HeiCha. I have few samples of very expensive, old Sichuan heicha with similar character. On the other hand it is also similar to pressed Formosa TieGuaYin from 1995 I had before. I still work on to get  this tea for eshop. The price should not be too high (around 30-35usd for 400g cake)" 

And I have to say I look forward to it!