Puerh Report: Tin Water Blues

Posted on by Yang-chu
04 Jun

Puerh Report: Tin Water Blues is part of an on-going look at the development of various tinned puerhs.  Here “tinned” is broadly construed to include raw puerhs stored in clay and porcelain as well.  Tin Water Blues is the Water Blue Mark stored about six weeks in a big fancy porcelain vessel with a tight-fitting porcelain lid having a foil underside.

I tested the Water Blue Mark as many as three times in that period, with a stint where the lid was left ajar.  It didn’t gain anything from porcelain.  A case for the blues if I’ve ever heard one.  It seemed to get airier when what it needs is to continue to cook through some of the smoke while letting the more complex spices and fruits develop.

I moved it to a kraft bag seal pouch, which I use for posting larger samples.  I’ve had some success with these storing a few items.  I consider their storage different from clay and perhaps porcelain in that it is sealing in flavor as opposed to seasoning it with a great deal more air exchange through clay.  Porcelain may not do this and might be best for stuff you want to keep as fresh as possible.  Porcelain aside, this vessel is so impossibly large that it might be best for sancha.

One must consider the change in season and variances in brewing vessels and brewing amounts.  The Puerh Junky using a scale much less lately with raws.  A scale still finds use with ripes more interested in testing performance relative others in the collection.  With raws I’m paying more attention to compression and eye-balling.

The most recent eye-balled session with the WBM stored in the kraft bag for around 10 days is a success.  Altogether eight infusions were had on day one.  At the eighth, which got a minute, an interesting thing happened. . . it got sweeter, while the smoke toned down.  Rocks and sugar.  Infusions the following morning were both sweet and savory.  The production has taken on a more serious tone, savory along with petrol, in the vein of the 6FTM Tuo and other considerably pricier items.  By the 12th infusion it got boring, but the shift at eight bodes well for what WBM is becoming.

I guess not all blues has a sad ending.  I’m at a stage now where I’m much more willing to make quick calls in my six-ring circus of storage.  It’s largely a matter of fine tuning given the variations I have at my disposal and what the tea prefers.  Volume and density is a major axis along which storage hinges.  Right now WBM is in a density phase.  We want more depth and richness to cook the fruit and spices not air them.

Puerh Junky Visits Thick Zen

Posted on by Yang-chu
03 Jun

Puerh Junky Visits Thick Zen is one of a catalog of encounters mental and digital with the steal of ’07 and possibly the aughts overall.  We’re talking about Kunming TF’s Thick Zen, a clean and lively Yiwu sensation without the Yiwu price.

Thick Zen called its name for an introduction to someone who has drunk puerh a limited amount and is not altogether clear on the differences between raw and ripe.  With a whiff among the two options, she chose the raw.  Overall, it has good sweetness, thickness, and complexity.  A faint fruity note has fully blossomed.  It lies along the backdrop of root beer with a few bitter notes early.

It got pushed at the sixth infusion holding up very well, a nice brown thickness and sweetness and no bitter.  The next five infusions continued to surprise in that it had more to give.  It is considerably more durable than even a year ago.

This brings up Poison, which is at 18 with as many as five more infusions to go.  It’s still quite round, sweet, and smoky, some surprising minerality that often comes with smokier productions.  The minerality seems to replace the root beer.  Similarly, the fruity note of Thick Zen seems to be creeping in on the root beer but it is hard to say at this point since the fruit seems to be developing independent from the root beer.  Is Thick Zen at its root beer peak?

Puerh Junky’s Three

Posted on by Yang-chu
01 Jun

The Puerh Junky’s Three is pretty much like any other story.  There’s good guys and bad guys and the bad guys turn good and the good bad and everyone has a drink to just forget about it all.  Choose you heroes carefully.  You might get snakebitten.  Here I take a foray into three 6FTM productions.

Step right up, I got your snakes here. The ’13 Snake is the tenth edition of the Lunar Series and is relatively young.  The production struck me as a sweet Riesling, with clear taste of honeydew and a sweet aroma.  The experience was short lived, as it starts to wane precipitously after the fifth infusion, but those are all very good infusions.

I decided to follow such a young production with the 07 Tinned Pig, which was tinned probably mid February 2021.  This 6FTM production is more resolutely pressed, but it’s been broken down to chunks.  Here the production didn’t really start to hit its stride till about the fifth infusion.  I switched from clay to gaiwan, as a noticed a hint of metal that I think the red clay was bringing out.  I got an additional four infusions and when pushed it didn’t bottom out, remaining sweet and textured.  Overall, it expressed a colour and nature that could be mistaken for a very good production from around ’15.  No doubt compression accounts for much of this youth.  At the same time, it is very round and smooth.

Finally, I went with another production from ’07, Poison. This production is in an altogether different class.  By the third infusion and drinking w/ my wife, we both tapped out.  The brewing  was perfect, with each round a bit darker than the previous.  It’s open from the first infusion and just wows with each subsequent infusion, but it’s a lot to process.  So you tap out.

June 2021 will be around one year LA storage for this raw puerh cake.  In that year it has continued to wow me.  The camphor is starting to make a turn toward down right medicinal beyond root beer.  There’s also an interesting sour that affects the salivary senses.  Something about the woody productions that go beyond the leafiness of the Tobacco class, a Spirits class if you will.  It evokes senses of whiskey and tequila, digestive liqueurs, with spices like clove and star anise.  Vanilla, sarsaparilla, but with an edge evocative of spirits aged in oak and mesquite.  Oh, and smoked bubble gum, even locquat.  It is anchored by some serious bitterness and sweetness.  You tap out again at the 9th-infusion.

In terms of Spirits class productions, Glee comes to mind.  The Jade Rabbit and the 6FTM Tuo both exhibit spirit attributes as well.  They’re all good studies in excellent productions.

One Good Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
31 May

One Good Puerh deserves another.  hahahaha. Yesterday’s experience with the Bada had me promptly decide to check on the ’12 Dragon, CMS.  There’s a whole five-year difference between the two.  Still, they bear some similar qualities, referenced in the missive linked above.  Amidst the welter of the past year, the Puerh Junky seems to recall that the Dragon has been in his possession for a year now, perhaps slightly less.

I guess One Good Puerh is about being able to make calls about where a production is going as much as where it is.  At 500g the Dragon is a decent value provided one’s in storing and aging.  It’s certainly getting better, thicker and sweeter.  It’s lasting longer too.  Over the three days, there are moments where vanilla is starting to express.  It maintains its sweetness even as it pushes into more astringent territory.  The storage on it is very good with no detracting notes to be detected.

Then there’s that grapefruit.  It’s a certifiable Yiwu sensation, but Bada is Menghai so it’s not confined to Yiwu.  Furthermore, certainly not all Yiwu is grapefruit, thank God.  I went to the Dragon because the Bada started going grapefruit in later infusions.  I wanted to compare the two.  It’s an interesting comparison, not off mark.  There are clear differences of course.  These may be mostly attributable to age, but there’s not even a hint of copper in the Dragon.  Furthermore, the Dragon is pure Zen whereas the Bada Peacock expresses an aged Zen like a vanilla confection.

The Dragon has bling factor.  It comes from a bling factory.  In some sense I reckon it to be in league with YPH.  They’re both highly regarded Yiwu factories.  This is not contradicted in my own findings.  The best production that I’ve ever tasted is CMS. That tea is perfection, though the thought of it turns my stomach.  It’s just plain weird and perfection.  A horrible aroma, not wet-stored.  It smells as it would taste horrible, but it doesn’t.  I digress. .  .

I’m quite pleased with the development of the Dragon, CMS at its one-year mark and posted in Feb of 2021.  It certainly lives up to the brand reputation.  Now that the sweetness is really starting to express, it is drinkable now.  At such a huge size, you can also stash a good amount for aging.  Those serious about Yiwu should give this serious consideration.

 

Puerh Update: Bada Peacock

Posted on by Yang-chu
29 May

Kunming TF’s Bada Peacock is rounding into form.  Thought you might like to know.  It has nice sweetness and serious durability.  In previous sessions the Puerh Junky had noted some coppery attributes but these were not noticeable in yesterday’s session.  Could it be the gaiwan?  Time to put it to the test with the workhorse pot.

Not exactly my workhorse pot but quite similar

Dry in the the pot the Bada Peacock smells sweet and camphory.  It’s hard to place the sweetness. . . sugar, honey?  The finish on the sweetness in the taste is definitely sugary.  The camphor does not influence the taste of the broth but does make its presence known in the huigan for a brief interlude before the theme of sugary slickness and vanilla take over.

If this puerh had another name at this phase it would be Vienna Fingers.  That cookie, at least the old-school version, was the bees knees, sweet yet understated.  There are some understated notes that stand out in the huigan long after most all the others fade.  I’ve caught wind that a few have been committed to psychiatric hospitals trying to figure out exactly what those notes are.  I even heard that in a weird time warp twist that could only be attributed to the Mandela effect that Phil Collins had originally written the song as Bada and only changed it to Mama upon the pleading of his producers.  Take a listen and see if you don’t hear him really saying Bada, particularly at the evil cackle part.

Let’s leave ole Phil to his own devices and pick up at the sixth infusion where a bit of grapefruit seed bitterness along with some throatiness emerges.  It maintains a noteworthy thickness.  The minerality picks up too.  The light taste of pennies and grapefruit characterizes the huigan, along with sweetness and coppery astringency.

The sweet grapefruit taste gains steam in the next couple infusions.  Vienna Fingers become but a memory as evocations of a creatively named ’04 Yiwu Arbor from the Gratitude TF in the stash and the ’12 Dragon, CMS come to mind.  The copper notes never express as in yore, whereas the grapefruit seems entirely new.

The Bada Peacock doesn’t fall into either the Tobacco or Floral classes of raw puerh, so that makes it a Zen Class creation by default, unless we’re talking Fruity.  Zen seems about right, though fruity is a possibility.  Zen is a greater possibility, however, as there’s no fruit sensation with the the Bada, only sweetness.

Bowling Puerh

Posted on by Yang-chu
24 May

Bowling Puerh takes on the topic of puerh vessels.  It’s an important point for discussion because the cruddy experiences you may be having with a few of your tobacco class puerhs may not be due just to a heavy hand, aging, storage, or even the weather.  Yes, some productions are decidedly more sensitive than others and just as some offerings must be served gongfu style, others are going to be much better served grampa style or if you’re particularly mack, in a bowl.


For the record, the Puerh Junky very rarely bowls his puerh.  However, the Puerh Junky isn’t calling the shots.  It’s the tea itself that determines whether it should be bowled and you’ll know when varying attempts at brewing gaiwan or pot prove fruitless. If you’re finding that your treasure is not getting sweeter with a few years of storage, then it might be a good candidate for bowling. I’ve found this to be the case with a couple productions, particularly Beijing Olympics and Prince of Vanilla.

Bowling has it virtues.  First, it completely takes the intricacies usually required with brewing raws out of the equation.  A bowled puerh stands up well to protracted soaking in water in other words.  Second, bowling means fewer occasions reloading water.  The quantity is obviously greater than even customary pot size.  It’s a considerably more casual drinking engagement.  Third, it turns liabilities into assets.  The mild sweetness that fails to build with years of storage isn’t an issue when bowling. The touch of sweetness with tobacco seems particularly satisfying from a bowl.  The Puerh Junky has only bowled tobacco class productions, though it’s possible that it might work with other classes.

The first time the Puerh Junky saw drinking from a bowl was in the movie Betty Blue, a French film seen as a university freshman.  Besides the heroine being clearly off kilter, the main thing I remember is those Frenchies drinking coffee from bowls.  I can’t drink from a bowl now without thinking of that movie.  Before seeing that movie, the though of drinking from a bowl never crossed my mind.

So bowling puerh increases the ole savoir faire quotient, something the Puerh Junky desperately needs.  One of the most surprising discoveries from bowling has been an  appreciation for the qi of productions that I couldn’t enjoy for their subpar taste.  Both Beijing Olympics and Prince of Vanilla have heady qi expressions which previously were not noticed because they weren’t bowled. . . must be some ancient trade secret that the French aren’t letting on to.

The idea behind any brewing of puerh is to do as the tea instructs.  Some productions are quite versatile in terms of brewing times and vessels but some are not.  I imagine that there are many in the tobacco class that would lend themselves to bowling.  Just as some productions must be gongfu in clay for the best experience, the same applies in the case of bowling.

 

 

 

Puerh Junky Harassment!

Posted on by Yang-chu
23 May

Seems Puerh Junky Harassment is omnipresent these days.  Your Puerh Junkyness can’t go anywhere without being hectored by the rabble about my tinning developments.  “Yo PJ!  What’s up with the ’06 Fohai you still haven’t posted?” shouts the bedraggled woman with the big nose and colourful shawl covering her greying hair.  “PJ, hey PJ!  Are you ignoring my texts?  What the word with the Lucky 7542, DQZ you’ve had in clay well nigh two months already?  Why you ghosting me?” read the email from someone in some place called “Topeka.”  Some dude with his eyebrows tattooed, one reading “Puerh” and the other “Junky,” in a pink Dodgers baseball cap in a big red Dodge Ram rolls down his window at a stop light asking, “Hey man, you still got the Water Blue Mark in porcelain?”  How did he know that?!!

I tell ya, it’s getting hectic out there, a real cramp to my Puerh Junky anonymity.

As luck would have it, there is word on a few productions that I can share.  Speaking of luck, lets start with the aforementioned Lucky 7542, DQZ, which has been in zisha since late Feb/early Mar 2021.  If you’ve had occasion to gander this production, you’ll know that there are two storage options avail, wet and proper.  Yes.  If it’s called wet, the storage is the opposite of proper, so the objective of claying it was to do something about the detestable dank oppression.  Findings are highly favourable.

There’s zero dank in the first five infusions.  There’s a nice balance, thickness, and sweetness that didn’t previously exist because the garbage taste was too loud.  It’s about half way seasoned presently, part of the age and nature of 7542 also factoring.  It was set aside for the next day, which produced even more sweetness and pleasantness for an additional 6-8 infusions.  Clay seems to be the very best way to season wet-stored puerhs where they can actually become drinkable.  At six weeks storage give or take, the effects are quite pleasing, sufficient to make it a top-shelf offering for puerh drinkers with fairly high standards.

Since we’re on the topic of clay, it’s worth noting that the ’01 Yiwu Huangpian has received similar treatment but for different reasons.  If I were to guess, it was subjected to a period of heavy wet storage and then a very long period of dry storage.  Upon taste, the Yiwu Huangpian receives high marks for storage and taste but some finishing touches never hurt.  Claying in this case provides volume that takes a good production to the next level.

Oh yeah, the Fohai, 6FTM.  It’s coming along in the tin.  The first couple weeks it was bright, ebullient even in the vein of the Fu or the Bulang Business, which I delisted, as somehow I’m only down to one left.  Anyway, about two weeks I checked in on the Fohai, which is the old name for Menghai, and it’s changed dramatically.  There’s much more petrol, the taste is much more serious in a scotch kinda way, even though I hate scotch and find the petrol vibe far more interesting.  Findings for the Pig, 6FTM have been similarly positive.

Fohai’s Tin

I’ve been letting those productions just have their way in the tins.  I’m not taking pains to manage air exposure, for example.  I am wondering how such measures will influence their root beer potential.  The ’04 Monkey, for example, is in full root beer glory.  It’s never been broken up and all dalliances with it have only involved moving it from one ring of the storage circus to the other– and out from the cursed cardboard, sometime relatively late in the game.   The Monkey has hardcore compression, as do all the 6FTM offerings up til 2010.  The ’11 Rabbit is shockingly agey, with a petrol expression that emerges much later in its tightly pressed predecessors.

I’ve referenced a few unlisted items here. Just touch base if you’re interested in any samples.

Puerh Junky: Feels Ox

Posted on by Yang-chu
19 May

So yesterday, the Puerh Junky settled upon the Ox Tuo after considerable hemming and hawing.  It is the Year of the Ox after all, and any real quandaries should conceivably be resolved though the ox itself.  If, for example, you in your life are having difficulty in making decisions, keeping proper records, or doing the dishes, chances are you’re suffering from Ox deficiency.  Water buffalo or yak won’t do, it’s gotta be ox.  Of course, ox puerh will do. In fact, it’s probably the best antidote for a number of 2021 conundrums.

So, the Puerh Junky unwilling to tempt the fates went for the Ox tuo, something mentioned earlier, but worth reminding you of.  As far as remembering goes, I was reminded of just how doggone tightly pressed this tuo is.  Tuo are notoriously hard pressed.  They’re meant to be chunked.  For cryin’ out loud (as my 6th teacher would say) don’t fleck your tuo.  Your drinking experience will be horrible.  Just get some chunks that are about right, precision here is not the key, and throw them into your brewing vessel.

This is exactly what I, the Puerh Junky, did.  The brewing vessel was porcelain.  A couple sizeable chunks and whatever crumbs all went in.  It seemed like a lot, which it may have been but remember hard-pressed tuo are going to brew differently from your wispy Yiwus.  They’re supposed to.  Do you think when you’re out on the range with the deer and the antelope that you can afford to bother with all the knickknacks and paddy wacks of a fancy cake?  Nyet!

2010 Tiger Tuo Closeup ’19

Similarly, the time given to waking (called rinsing the tea, which is a topic in itself) the puerh is also considerably longer than it is for loosely compressed offerings.  This should be fairly obvious.  Along the same lines, the amount of time that the chunks should rest after the rinse should be long as well.  Ten minutes is a good place to start.

Inspect your leaves to gain a since of how long you’ll want your first infusion to be.  If the chunks show signs of opening then brew shorter than if they don’t.  Recognize that the intensity will build and it’s supposed to.  The formula of 10s, 10s, 20s, 30s is all wrong but is especially wrong when it comes to tight compression.  You’ll want to start out with a longer brew time, then shorten it up as the chunks open.  Don’t EVER use some wrote formula for brewing your puerh; there are too many variables to account for to use a wrote prescription.  Look at the leaves and make a call based on what the first infusion is like.  Too bitter, shorten the time, so on.

These calls all became crystal clear should you use the Ox as your guide.  Luke has the force, the Puerh Junky has the Ox.  The first infusion was naturally quite perfect.  I had a drinking vict… er partner and without any fanfare just served it up.  Upon the first sip she said rather stunned, “This is good.”  She was right.

The Ox is getting sweeter.  It starts out light in colour but as you dig deeper a darker hue emerges reflective of its true age.  It’s thick and round, fully Zen in the broth but a psychotically floral huigan that screams qualidad.  Infusions very quickly turned to flashes as the monster started to emerge.  Just a splash water calmed it.  Altogether four infusions were had to full satisfaction.  Then came the call from house music gods themselves in the qi.

 

Puerh Junky’s Glee

Posted on by Yang-chu
18 May

No, Puerh Junky’s Glee is not about schadenfreude nor is it about how well the Ox performed this morning.  It’s about Yangpinhao’s 200g raw tuo entitled Glee.  This offering was purchased in early ’16 or late ’15 back when I kept lousy records, records that I’ll have you know are probably just as lousy but which I’d like to think are far improved.

A perusal through the annals of the Puerh Junky’s Log will reveal a few meditations on this monstrosity.  Yes.  It’s become a monstrosity, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Let’s first give a tale of the tape.

Glee is a tuo that came onto the market in ’15, when it was pressed from ’05 material.  In contrast to the tuo that YPH released in ’05, Glee has visually always been much darker.  It has also been much more Zen and astringent.  As late as ’18, it was still powerfully Zen while at the same time powerfully astringent, wickedly so.  None of the YPH offerings in the Puerh Junky’s stash or collection exhibited such overbearing and uncharacteristic astringency.

Glee‘s Zen was prototypically YPH but it didn’t seem to come with much else, till ’19 when incipient signs of root beer started to emerge.  Glee seemed to be fronting as one of those luxury productions in name only, a challenger that you drink and just tell yourself, “It’s not you, it’s me.”

It’s not you; it’s me.

Fast forward to the present, mid-May 2021.  The bad news is that Glee never turned into root beer.  The good news is that the astringency has all but vanished.  However, there’s even better news– it’s stfu noteworthy.  Not in the least Zen anymore, it’s inconceivable how material that had very little pizazz could morph into such a complex and deeply petrolated creation.

The name Glee evokes a sense of playful and fruity puerh, a ha-ha school-kid charm, easily forgotten.  That’s not where it is now by a long shot.  There’s not an ounce of joy to it now.  It’s a grizzled old mechanic with snaggled teeth in greasy gray overalls.

Puerh Junky Report: Jinglong TF

Posted on by Yang-chu
17 May

Jinglong TF is a doozy of a puerh outfit specializing in Yiwu productions.  They started production in ’95 under another name, settling upon Jinglong in 2000.  Their quizzicality can be attributed to their marketing posture, which can only be characterized as all over the place.  They offer some really cheap ripe and no-name raw bricks directly on Amazon, while having some more intriguing offerings sold by puerh specialty vendors.

Jinglong came onto the Puerh Junky’s radar because a preferred vendor featured one of their offerings.  Hey! they didn’t go wrong with either the Yiwu Princess or the Marquis du Greenmark, why should I get cold feet now?  After noticing the brand, it started coming from the woodwork everywhere, various productions mostly from ’05-’06 but a few from ’08-’09 as well, all at wildly different prices.

The Puerh Junky has now tasted three of their productions since Jul ’20, and they’re all quite tasty.  For the enthusiast of Yiwu Zen, they’re definitely worth sampling.  Their offerings share some similar traits in terms of big leaves with alluringly long stems, rock sugar sweetness, and durability.  They’re ready for drinking now with next no astringency, possessing aged trajectories of either medicine or root beer.  Need I really say more?  They aim to please.