I recently ordered some sheng pu'er, and one version of shu, from Chawang Shop. I've had good luck with experiencing interesting results and decent quality from low cost versions from them before. The one trade-off has been how dry most of the tea versions were stored; they didn't transition so much, in relation to the ages. Some people would see that as a deal-breaker, and others would move on to claim that dry storage robs a tea of its true potential, not just changing slower but in less optimum ways. But I don't really see it that way, to the extent I even have a developed opinion.
It's too much to try to sort out that whole story here. I couldn't properly factor in the starting point character and quality level of everything I've tried from them, or get far with explaining how changes over the few years following buying those teas has changed them in relation to the prior aging. I've only been mostly drinking sheng pu'er for 3 or 4 years, so I'm not far along an experience curve. I first started writing here about trying sample sets more like five or six years ago, but that's different. As chance has it I just reached out to an old tea contact, one of those original better-reference type people, and we had been discussing this transition issue, and good references to read up on those themes, with those old messages dated back in 2014. I probably bought my first two cakes of sheng right around then, probably typically enough both bad choices. In ten more years from now I might have all this better sorted out.
I also considered saying more about buying inexpensive sheng versions, how that goes, what degree of gambling is involved, or which trade-offs come up. That would include reference to middle-age versus buying older or younger tea versions, and of course focus on value and cost, with the tea region origin theme a bit much to summarize tied to any of that scope.
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hard to judge much from dry cake color, related to fermentation level |
For this version being 17 years old "middle-aged" might not apply, right? Tied back to the theme of slower transition patterns occurring in dryer storage it still does. At the end I could guess about how I would expect this to have changed differently in other environments, but I probably won't do much with that. I'm most familiar with how teas tend to transition in Bangkok, where I live, where it's often quite humid and warm, or really never not those things, compared to many other places. It's a nice cool and breezy day out now and it's 90 F, 32 C. Humidity is quite low now, 47%; no wonder it feels cool.
2005 Nannuoshan TF Menghai Raw Puerh Cake 357g
This is a classic Menghai spring blended cake from Nannuoshan Tea Factory which was renamed as Menghai Banzhang Tea Factory from 2005. 2005 spring material from Menghai area, dry storage.
This tea is strong, full and clean, floral aromas with a soft fruity taste. Perfect puerh cake for long term storage. This cake is different with another similar wrapper cake we also offer (click here) . The "7549" have thin wrapper and number "7549" on bamboo tongs, the taste is stronger and bitter.
Manufacturer : Nannuoshan Tea Factory
Production date : 2005
Weight : 357g
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lifting a chunk from a somewhat loose cake is simple enough |
Review:
First infusion: nice! I would hope for it to be like this. It's a little muted, related to this being the first round, and the cake really needing a few more weeks to settle in, since I'm trying it less than a week after getting it, but in a month the full infusion cycle for this should be nice and pleasant, at a guess. A pine pitch or turpentine like sappiness stands out the most at this point, which probably doesn't sound like direct support of what I'm claiming. Let's do more of a flavor and character listing next round that should be clearer.
Second infusion: intensity is nice in this, and the clean range, and the way it all carries over as an extended aftertaste effect. Beyond describing experienced aspects placing just how fermented this is, and the form that took related to storage conditions, are all three parts of the main story of this tea. Those things inform how it might change over the next half a dozen years. I'll start with the aspects.
It does taste like pine pitch or turpentine, but that's a warm, sweet, complex range that's not really fairly summarized by citing that main flavor range. Someone else could see that as wood tone, maybe aromatic like cedar, with supporting mineral input and spice range, with extra fragrant incense spice added. I think the feel edge influences my interpretation of the flavor, the way the texture has a sappy dryness to it, at same time that it causes a salivation effect. It stays with your mouth as both flavor and feel after you drink it, coating it.
Pleasant sweetness helps it balance. Flavor depth is part of what really works, how this could be interpreted in different ways, because the experience is that complex. It's a bit towards fig or date too. Maybe both; that dried fruit range isn't necessarily primary but it covers a lot of depth.
On to fermentation level: this is quite moderate for this age. I've recently tried 2005 and 2007 from Moychay (both Chinese teas, not their own in-house versions) that were much more fermented than this. Stored wetter, for sure, it really couldn't have been anything else. So to an extent I'm claiming that this experienced relatively dry storage for being moderately fermented after 17 years. As I had mentioned next a lot of people would see that as a bad thing, to not just place the low level of fermentation as negative but also to connect the form of the transition to a less positive change than might have occurred. I think people tend to gain a conditions bias as a result of a number of factors that seem to mix: level of fermentation, preference for certain input types and starting points transitioned in certain ways, and a lack of exposure to different patterns. It all combines with other inherited online bias: some influential people say that drier storage is universally bad, as many claim that wet storage pushing the boundary is negative. That last part is easier to confirm, the direct experience of musty or heavy earthy flavor range, or damp basement taste, etc.
Let's return to this theme along with other tasting notes input. I'm going to venture further into guesswork than I typically do, about aging outcome inputs, but I'll try to be clear on where less grounded guesses enter in, and why I'm proposing those.
Third infusion: the wood tone vegetal range in this shifted, off the warmer spice range to a limited extent, more into a greener wood theme. At the same time the related spice just shifted, it didn't drop out. To be clear this transition wasn't to seeming more positive, but it's still early to judge the whole round. And I never will be able to guess which faded out flavors will ramp back up over the next month of this transitioning from shipping impact. I always thought teas would shift less due to that for the trip from China or neighboring countries being relatively short but it always does mute them for the first few weeks.
Fourth infusion: not so different a varied description is required; the minor changes I can describe better next round.
Fifth infusion: those last descriptions still work, but it doesn't come across like a list probably sounds. Now green wood and turpentine stand out, towards pine resin if that's hard to imagine, with deeper warmer flavors supporting that, along the lines of dried fruit and integrated spice. I think this tea is not all that age transitioned though, that it resembles a tea that has experienced half that time of storage if it were kept here in Bangkok instead. I just tried a 2016 Dayi Jia Ji tuocha that seems to make the point; it was essentially at the exact same fermentation level, even sharing a lot of the flavor range characteristics. I liked that tea at that point, it was pleasant to experience to me, but it was clear how what most people would see as the higher potential of the tea would come later, after warmer tones set in more.
The astringency edge in this isn't problematic; it's not that. It's just more pronounced than it would normally be at this age. And flavor range is completely different, much "greener." In this case I can expect some degree of transition and boost over the next month, but beyond that it will take years for it to change significantly, just not that many, maybe 3 or 4 to be relatively different. Stored here, at least.
Sixth infusion: a warm mineral edge starts to pick up; interesting. Using a slightly longer infusion time probably partly caused that. I think some of the other warmer tones also start to recede, and a brighter honey like taste starts to turn up. Related only to how I'm experiencing this right now I think a lot of sheng drinkers might not "get it." I guess how much someone likes a 6-8 year old Dayi Jia Ji tuocha might inform that, if they could relate to that theme or not. I wouldn't want to only drink sheng just like this, and I'm partial to the lighter, sweeter, approachable when young styles, and get the appeal of the broad range of age-transitioned versions. But as an experience to combine with others, to have on days when I feel like it, this works.
The real appeal is where it might go though; I think even within a year that direction will be clear enough, and in 2 or 3 it will really show up in the experience, not really reaching the full potential of the transition for another 6 or 8. I didn't buy this to be a mostly aged daily drinker though, this is what I expected, that I would see it continue to change.
Seventh infusion: pine or green wood is really hanging in there. Astringency and intensity dropped off enough that they're still notable contributions to the experience but not in that upper limit kind of form. Astringency is a strange factor in this, for it being right in between one character and another, not young and not yet into real aged range. It's hard to factor in how that's adjusting flavor range too, how much will change further and when. Again the warmth of the honey sweetness helps this stay more pleasant for the warm dried fruit declining.
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leaves matching character, not very darkened |
Eighth infusion (tried a bit light): this works brewed fast too, with sweetness and the honey theme remaining in place more than the green wood. It's not about brewing around astringency, for this tea, but aspects shift in relation to infusion strength, and it's nice that it can support being brewed light, that the intensity allows for that.
Conclusions:
I left off there, on to do something else that morning. This was supposed to only be one third of the story of this tea anyway, with more to say about how it seems after another few weeks of rest, then with the longer conclusion how it changes over the next half dozen years. That relatively dominant pine / turpentine / green wood range could either be an aspect range that had been much more pronounced when this was younger or a pattern related to age transition. At a guess it's the second, and this was more floral, bitter, and astringent earlier on, with mineral tones standing out more.
I probably never will know for sure if this tea is still on a relatively optimum path for age transitioning, just a slow version of it, or if the dry storage has robbed it of its true potential. I'll know how it works out in the end, but that's it. Seeing a lot of other teas experience a lot of other patterns would fill in a better guess than I have now, but that only truly works if you can try them earlier in the process and then also 15 years later, ideally in the form of "divided at birth" examples, with two stored in different places. "Marshall N" has written at least a couple of posts about that theme.
To me seeking out optimum experience seems like a strange goal. I get it how people with a lot of time and resources to spare would explore in much different forms, but to me tea experience only works out as almost entirely positive if it's organic, trying what seems best to try next, without focusing on constraints and later steps instead of actual experience and potential. If you part from that approach and try to explore "the best," or at some assumption-defined pace, then the lack of what you are getting to would stand out as much as what you actually experience. That would really never change, because the goal line would keep shifting, at least until it all became tiresome. Or at least that's how I see it.
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