2021 JingMai MiYun raw puerh. Farmer Leaf's "Daily Drinker" JingMai blend from younger eco farmed trees is a treat that will probably out live me before it reaches it's peak drinkability. So, there is no time like today.
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!
Let it sit open for a couple weeks in the stash and am giving White2Tea's charcoal roasted raw puerh Pink & Blue a second try. Definitely a "burly" Puerh, touch of astringency and bitterness, but I think it has come together with the roast a bit more and settled.
2015 XiaoShu HuaZhu Sheng Puerh from Pu-Erh.sk. For such a young Puerh, this is pleasantly soft, darker green flavors with a minty core, low bitterness, lingering aftertaste, calming energy. Not sure when I got this, it's a 10g sample, probably with another tea or teaware order.
2015 Keyixing Bohetang Old Tree Pu'er Tea via Mud and Leaves. Mud and Leaves is mostly a teaware supplier, but they also sell some Taiwanese tea and Puerh from Taiwanese based companies. This is a rich, soft, enjoyable young Puerh with a chewy soup. They sent this tea as a sample with some other items, so I don't know much more than that.
2011 BGT Yiwu Sheng Puerh (Huangpian) via pu-erh.sk. "BGT" stands for "Big Green Tree" and it refers to an illustration of a green tree on Puerh wrappers. "Hungpian" teas are made from less than perfect looking leaves which are put aside during the production of Puerh tea. The advantage to Huangpian is that, visual imperfections aside, it gives you access to teas at a relatively reasonable price that might otherwise be quite expensive.
Pu-erh.sk sells a 2011 BGT that was a special edition commissioned by Taiwanese Puerh collectors. This is a rock-like lump of the Huangpian from that batch.
2011 BGT (Huangpian) is a powerful tea in every sense of the expression. Slow to open up even after a couple rinses and a bit of time steaming, this gets going around steep 5 or 6. The energy is a lightness in the chest and throat. I felt pretty lightheaded around steep 9. Still feeling and tasting this tea several hours after the last steep.
Like I need another tea company with obscure naming and opaque sourcing, but here I am drinking a sample of 2016 "Oddly Confused" raw puerh from Xizihao Daughter Tea. A clean feeling raw Puerh with soft flavors, mild astringency, little bitterness, and good energy. My general thought is, it's good now, but it would be better after 5-10 more years in their Taiwan storage.
2022 Pink and Blue is another in the charcoal roasted experiments. In this case, a "burly" and intense blend of 2020 and 2021 raw puerh maocha was sent to Fujian to be charcoal roasted before being formed into cakes and wrapped. While I think the Tale Chaser roasted ripe puerh experiment was a true "home run" that's fantastic to drink now, I'm not sure about this one. I'm gonna say both as a puerh blend and an experiment in roasting, it is still settling into its flavor. Gonna put it back in the stash and try it again later.