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Thanks to R2 for the sample via Hou De!

2005 Yang Qing Hao Yiwu Cha Wang

7.2g, 90 mL gaiwan, 212f Brita filtered tap

Seems to be one of the less popular YQHs, so curious to see how it is.

Dry: a sour woodiness, maybe some leather and mushroom

In prewarmed gaiwan: stronger sour mushroom note

15s rinse

Wet: smoky, woody, slight sweet

8s: sour and bitter, resolving into mushroom initially and then light minty sweetness in throat, w/ slightly floral aspect. Reminding me of the jincha aftertaste from my session with that a while back. Slight heady feeling. Good texture.

8s: similar, stronger bitterness in an almost aspirin-like way. Stronger sourness stuck on tongue like the time I tried the 06 Double Lion, but neither as lasting nor as gripping. Aftertaste is the floral minty, but doesn’t hit throat as much.

16s: still good texture, woodier in taste. Bitterness initially like aspirin, but also like oversteeped jasmine tea. Very mushroomy in taste, slightly in aftertaste with the lighter floral backdrop

45s: pretty bitter in aged medicinal way + mushroom, w/ slight floral aftertaste. Not as good on texture.

1 min: dying off it seems. Drinkable, but not notable, classic aged sheng taste.

1 min.: definitely weaker

Thermos’d the rest. Was admittedly very tired and fairly distracted during today’s session with it being midterms and all, but this was disappointing and felt weak even though I went in with low expectations knowing that it’s one of the least liked YQHs. At any rate, current price from YQH price list of $340 for 500g is totally baffling given how it performs more or less like the jincha.

Thermos overnight: quite bitter, undertones of the sweet floral and mushroom, but very much caffeinated w jitters in effect

Thanks to R2 for the sample!

7.0g, 100 mL duanni, Brita filtered tap.

Dry smell very clean, a sweet wood and bread-y aspect.
2×15s rinse (maybe overkill?).

Initially very clean slight bitter medicinal, with slight spiced black pepper note in taste. Really good mouthfeel, bit of cooling + sweetness in aftertaste.

2nd steep had some throatfeel, not as complex in taste, but slightly more creamy.

Occasionally a sweet metallic or caramel hint. Afterwards is consistent, mostly a sweet soft woody base, and the dried jujube profile sometimes in taste and aftertaste. Some salivating effect. Very comforting, even though didn’t seem terribly warming.

Steeps of varying times, but did 8 steeps before moving to thermos since it was getting late. Really enjoyed this, and would consider picking up a few from Sandy of SThirtyTea if I had extra space and cash. At S30’s .65/g price (keep in mind: pre-currency exchange fees, etc. though, because I tend to forget about those and get blindsided last minute by how ridiculous PayPal rates are), I think it’s a fair enough deal given the age. It does not appear to be a steal, and I’m not really inclined to run to buy it. I also have not tried enough aged shou to judge value well, but based on this session, I would be unwilling to pay the Jade Leaf price of ~.95/g or Camellia Sinensis’ ~$1.17/g (not sure if this one is different material though since loose leaf?) for this.

2/18/22: same thermos parameters, but suffered from some sourness today. A little disappointing. Lightly plummy, a little dry, slightly minty on aftertaste.

2/22/22: did 2.0g overnight and much more mellow brew overall. Some smokiness. Not particularly a standout in taste, but more warming as I remembered the first session being.

Had a last session with this. 4.4g, 60mL YS gaiwan. Serviceable, but extremely unlikely to repurchase. Not sure if I’d just want a stronger roast version, since this session had some harsher vegetal edge than usual. Leaves were fairly green, but I’m not sure if I’m just getting used to seeing heavier roasted material lately.

finished up my sample of this today.

4.5g, 100mL duanni, Brita filtered tap, boiling, 2 rinses as before.

think it’s been dehydrated since the last time, as the ziploc bag plastic zipper broke, but anyways not too bad. Realizing now that dehydration of ripe samples was why they all initially tasted more or less the same to me when i started drinking puer (even given that ripes generally have less complexity than raws). Sure, dehydrated ripe does better than dry sheng, but the notion that RH isn’t an important consideration for ripes is really a disservice to beginners who don’t know better.

Stronger bitterness the first steep. Generally good texture, and more of the slight sweet milkiness I noted last time in second steep. There was a bit of a caramel-like note as well in that steep. Other than that, not very exciting, similar to last time.

Verdict: Nice daily drinker level ripe.

Thanks to Tykal for the sample!

6.3g, 100ml duanni, boiling, filtered Brita tap. 2 quick rinses with a few minutes in between. Mixed steep times. Some nice milky aftertaste that disappeared after the 2nd steep, which I had with second rate vodka sauce pizza during lunch, which may or may not be pertinent, perhaps a confounding variable. Dunno. Nice caffeine kick for today, basic woody shou aspects, slight medicinal notes and bitterness at some points. Nothing else really stuck out to me about it. Not a tea to call home about (and to be fair, rarely will a tea to call home about be shou puer), but a decent daily drinker for the price, were it still available.

edit: Hm. The overnight thermos of was more on the boring flat end of the spectrum.

TShop Old Bush Shui Xian

Read last night that higher end of acceptable TDS (~100) works better for oolong so testing that on a pretty pricey sample… Yancha is a rich man’s game.

My Brita filter needs to be replaced, but TDS readings at about 96 last night when I checked. I would normally brew pricier things with Poland Spring just because I don’t like the tap here, but thought this might be interesting. Also, Nestle is an awful corporation to support, but PS is very affordable for cheap, decent water relative to the other options at the store.

212f, YS 60 mL gaiwan (45 mL functional volume (i.e. volume in cup) normally with ~2.5g of puer), 4.2g

Dry leaf has nice roasted hint and similar in warmed gaiwan. Maybe slight hazelnut chocolate-y aspect. Something bready, maybe creamy about it as well. Or maybe my nose is off since a lot of things have seemed like that lately. Wet leaf is pretty standard for roast, not as sweet as gaiwan lid
Steeps varied; didn’t time

First steep is a sugary taste, as well as the minty/soapy aftertaste that I’ve been associating with these teas, and transitions into something vaguely reminding me of celery sticks, if there was a certain floral aspect tagged on as well. Guess those must be the mineral taste mentioned in the descriptor
2nd: roast is very upfront, mixed aftertaste after like before from celery to crisp sugar to sometimes crushed mint. Decent texture. Something very floral, osmanthus reminiscent tinged medicinal slight bitter in taste. Sweetness in aftertaste lingers on tongue and in throat, with slight floral aspect. If this is an aspect of yanyun, I think this hits it.
3rd: roast less upfront. More obvious floral and slight bitter medicinal aspect. Aftertaste still has the soapy/mint aspect. Slight floral and sweetness in throat, less strong than before, but still lingers.
4th: some roast, a broad sweet floral taste. Lighter aftertaste.
5th: slight sharpness to roast. Sweet taste. Celery and soapy aspect to aftertaste
6th: sweet floral.
7th: longer steep brings out slight sourness and astringency before turning into a minty aftertaste. Stopped here. Will thermos remainder
Cold cup from part of first cup cooled: tastes like chocolate. Not particularly strong in any aspect of aftertaste, only slight crushed mint

Onto Poland spring water. 46 TDS today. Same gaiwan and parameters, maybe .1g less? Scale has been moody lately.

First steep: roast taste only. Aftertaste is strong sugar, then the crushed mint that I’ve come to be familiar with.

Second steep: also strong roast taste, some sour aspect. This is pathetic. Some of the crushed mint aspect lingers, combining with the roast on the front of the tongue, but nothing like what it was before. Some harsh, acrid aspect.

3rd: Harsh and sharp, flat. Crushed mint dominant on aftertaste. Will stop here and thermos the rest for another day.

I wasn’t able to finish the second session, being thrown off by the extreme difference. This was also more than enough caffeine today, considering that I have to finish up a thermos of yesterday’s shou too. Aside from that, finding that the PS almost completely hollowed out the tea, leaving mainly the roast and a sour ish aspect and crushed mint in aftertaste, with none of the complexity from the tap. This also explains why almost every oolong I’ve taken notes on appears to shift within the same narrow profile (I’ve been using PS for every oolong and most “nicer” teas I took notes for, just to keep things consistent) and also why my notes on some appear to differ from ones I’ve seen people post online for teas from say TXS and ORT. I’m distraught at all the roasted oolongs that I feel like I’ve wasted now… Another lesson to take tasting notes with a grain of salt I guess. Knowing myself, I can almost certainly guarantee that I would’ve grumbled here about this being $2.25/g for the sample if I’d brewed it the way I normally do. Sad, yet lesson learned.

edit: thermos with the partly used leaves from PS water and the spent ones with filtered water. It had a slight sharp bitterness from the roast, reminding me of something like coffee. Some of the aftertaste was intact, though slight. Aroma was nice. So not too much of an exception here; I find that only aged oolongs do well thermos’d.

1.7g, 16oz Zojirushi thermos, boiling, Brita filtered tap. Faded roasted note integrates with slight plum here to give an aroma and taste of gingerbread cookies! Unexpected, but not complaining. Wonder if storing in the same container I used for the 1976 BaoZhong did something to it. Not as warming as before (ratio in effect?), but slightly relaxing. Muted mint in aftertaste. Finding that I enjoy these aged oolongs more at a lighter ratio, for the most part. Less of the medicinal character and more straightforward sweetness, so less complexity than before, but still interesting enough to keep it enjoyable.

Probably not going to write detailed notes for this one again since I did it once and lost them. That was my first time trying YQH, and it was a sample from LP. I was quite enamored by that inital session and caked it not too long after. Having tried it again yesterday, I definitely would not have made the same decision if I could go back in time. It’s not that I think this is tuition tea. This is enjoyable for its own reasons (qi is pretty pleasant, not as intense as I remember some other YQHs being), but downsides are the relative lack of complexity and change from steep to steep and needs pushing a few steeps in. Forced (I.e. pushed long steeps) bitterness doesn’t resolve to be as sweet as I’d like, but this is also in the context of some particularly sweet non-puer lately. I’ve been trying not to look at teas always in terms of cost and moreso context, but I really cannot wholly divorce the two. Taste and preference are subjective of course, but I really think there are better options at this price point. I would 100% not pay what I paid for it again, and I’m not sure I can recommend caking this even at the current sale price from LP, which brings it to about 50c/g. Agree with a tea friend that this is a very pretty cake though!

Now that I’ve sold everyone on this with my lukewarm review, if anyone ever finds themself interested in buying half a cake, I’m happy to split mine. LOL

According to XZH yearbook pics online, the material for this cake was a blend of LBZ (“老班章古茶園”), Yiwu (“易武正山”), and Guang Bie Lao Zhai (“廣別老寨古茶園”). No idea what the last one is, but BabelCarp says it’s “a small puercha growing village in the Hekai [tea mountain]”.

6.4g, 90 mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, boiling, 15s rinse.

Was going to write out notes for this, but I don’t think I’ll bother. Dominant medicinal flavor and warming effect, no grogginess. Needs some pushing a few steeps in. I can’t describe the medicinal taste well, but it’s another one of the TCM ailment cures that I remember having often as a kid. Okay aftertaste, sometimes particularly sweet. Some mushroominess. I can’t account for whether it’s placebo or not, but the LBZ may have contributed to a focusing effect. Who knows.

Purchased from some forum for something like $200 a while back for a mostly intact cake. The wrapper is extremely bug bitten and tea oil stained, but seems to have had milder storage overall. I have not seen any other English reviews on this tea, so possibly an underwhelming and overlooked production. Name translated into English would be something along the lines of “Choice formula/prescription”.

Liquour is a clean orange-yellow; rinse had quite a bit of saponins. Not too shabby a purchase considering Tony Chen’s stupidly high price annual price raises, but this wasn’t terribly enjoyable of a session. Will toss this back into Mylar and see what happens. Have heard mostly mixed reviews re: long-term XZH ageability, but this wasn’t enjoyable enough for me to want to try it again, much less finish it in the short-term.