The Shou/Ripened/Cooked Puerh process was originally created as an attempt to imitate the effect of long aging on Raw Puerh tea cakes. While, instead, they mostly created the new class of Puerh, Ripe.
With Riparian White2Tea has returned to those roots of attempting to imitate the character of long aged Puerh with an experimental blend of semi-aged raw puerh and lighter ferment ripe puerh. Still very freshly pressed, it's already almost convincing in the color and early steeps. Later steeps are a bit thin, but It will be interesting to see what shape Riparian settles into in a year or two.
Xiaguan 2003 Cang'er raw puerh. I would call this a pretty typical upper middle Xiaguan aged raw puerh. Rock-like compression, light smoke, umami, and forest floor; well integrated flavors. Via Liquid Proust, I don't remember any details they might have provided about storage, but seems dry-ish considering age.
Got this this 2015 Hojo Ma An Shan from liquidproust a few years back. Hojo is a Japanese tea company that sources teas from various places, including Yunnan, China. The Ma An Shan is an unusual raw Puerh, almost tastes like an oolong, fruity and very sweet, but with a raw Puerh backbone. One of those, "a tea that seems a little different every time I try it and I wish I had more than this one sample," kind of things...
Been meaning to get this Thai raw puerh style tea out and try again. 2006 "Hong Tai Chang" 8503 from Tea-Side.com. Plus, I gotta break some off and send some to a tea friend. Seems less smoky-burly than I remember.
2005 Green Mark Meng Ku raw puerh sample from Puerh.uk received with an order. A little bitter in the early steeps and slight but not unpleasant storage flavor. Nice head based energy. Good durability and length.
2003 Yiwu. About this Raw Puerh, White2Tea says, "...I hope it will be helpful as a way to orient your compass for what good, cleanly aged (Raw Puerh) tea is...If you tried this tea blind and were unimpressed, that is perhaps the best possible scenario for your financial future..."
Coincidentally White2Tea also included a couple aged raw puerh in a recent tea club. This one, 2002 LC Brick, is the more unverifiable of the two, material might be from the Lincang area and may have been produced around 2002. Clean storage taste, mellow tea energy, low bitterness. Not great durability/length, but quite reasonable for its (alleged) age.
Fifth Puerh sample from Pu-erh.sk's Taiwan tea adventure, a raw puerh tuocha of indeterminate age, "Jingua Gongcha Jixing". Looser pack for a tuocha. Super clean storage character, perfume/incense, slight smoke, light bitterness. Very nice.
A second raw puerh found by Peter of pu-erh.sk in a Taiwanese tea house. This one was a Xiaguan Tuo of indeterminate age. Xiaguan is known for tightly compressed discus shaped "iron cakes" and "tuo", which are mushroom top or bowl shaped tea cakes. The first challenge of these sorts of tea cakes, thankfully handled by Peter, is breaking them up. The second is being patient enough to let them steam a bit or soak before getting to the brewing proper.
Peter from Pu-Erh.sk recently took a trip to Taiwan. This tea is from an assortment of Raw Puerhs he had at a particular shop. He shared them all, semi blind, as a way of sharing the tea shop experience. The "trick" is to identify the one he definitely wouldn't sell. First up, "Baoyan Mugu Tuocha".
Moving backwards in time to the last dragon year, the 2012 Bulang Arbor King (via TeaPal club) is starting to show some storage character in the scent of dry tea and body of the soup. However character is very clean, I think their Chengdu storage is on the hot-dry side.
Moving backwards 4 years from 2018 to 2014, we find Bulang Arbor King raw puerh in a quiet mood. Youthful vigor has faded, but aged character is just beginning to show.
Second tea of the Bulang Arbor King vertical, moving backwards two years in MyTeaPal's Chengdu storage, trying the 2018. You can see from the leaves and soup color, it is already darker. Overall, this is a much more enjoyable tea to drink than the 2020. It is settling down.
Harlequin 2023 charcoal roasted raw puerh from White2Tea. This is the third charcoal roasted raw puerh I've tried from White2Tea and I think it might be my favorite. Not so much for the flavor, (which is fine, but pretty typical of traditional young raw puerh, a bit vegetal and astringent,) but for the very pleasant chest/throat energy. Whee!