Comparing 2014 and 2017 Dayi 7542 versions

2017 version left, in all photos

So many of these review posts start with considering why it makes sense to comparison taste teas together.  A new tea friend bought me some of a 2017 7542 (Dayi / Tae Tea sheng pu'er) version when we met at a local Bangkok shop recently (at Sen Xing Fa), so I wanted to write up what it's like.

This also relates to considering what sheng versions are like at different stages of fermentation transition, of different character types and ages.  It's nice checking in with a benchmark version from time to time to help place others.  

7542 versions tend to really need about 20 years of aging to be ready to drink, or 25 to 30 years in drier and cooler storage conditions, so trying 6 and 9 year old versions is a little odd.  It's still interesting see where they are in their transition, and comparing other less intense sheng versions with them at similar transition points can be interesting.

I already owned the rest of a cake of this 2014 version.  I had drank more than really made sense earlier, going a little beyond checking on it every year or so.  I'm not sure what that was about.

Review:

2017:  a little harsh, but surprisingly pleasant in comparison with what I expected.  There's lots of bitterness, coupled with astringency structure, but plenty of warm tones for this being so young.  Of course it's intense.  Some pleasant saddle leather sort of earthier range is present, leaning towards typical Xiaguan range.  I suppose that someone could interpret fruit or spice being present, since this is so complex, but earthiness stands out more, along with that astringency and structure.  Mineral base is a part of all that too.

2014:  this is quite different, relatively speaking.  It's still intense, with lots of complexity, and not in an entirely different character range, but a smooth and rich spice sort of tone really dominates, at least at this round.  9 years is a long time to transition where this tea has been, in Bangkok.  In Kunming storage it would still exhibit a lot of freshness, but this has turned a corner for character form, more onto warmer tones.  It still needs plenty more time to reach its optimum; this is still an in-transition early-form review, a check on transition progress.  

That wood and spice tone is hard to describe.  It's like cedar or redwood, but towards spice from that, with an odd changed character to it, as driftwood takes on.  It's clean in effect; no mustiness.  There is an earthy edge leaning a bit towards leather, or even mushroom, back to that Xiaguan reference, but I think this will clean up in the next couple of rounds, that it might just be an early round transition phase.

I often say that I don't really "get" cha qi, that I barely feel teas, beyond some caffeine input, but I'm feeling these already, on the first round.  I tried to go lighter on amount but probably left off at 6 grams each instead of 8.  I'm brewing these pretty fast (having used a rinse step, for once), but the infusion strength is still going to be high.  Using 4 grams for each would've made more sense.

brewed fast, but you can still see the intensity

2017, 2:  this isn't bad, just as it is now.  It has a green sort of edge to it, which not everyone could relate to, but I've kept re-trying decade old Xiaguan tuos to acclimate.  A rich warm tone is pleasant, along the line of toffee.  There's a challenging feel aspect, for sure, but there is more to appreciate beyond that.  Complexity is good, and in just another half dozen years this may be relatively settled, years ahead of schedule.  Not fully age-transitioned, of course, but just drinkable in a different sense.  These really shouldn't be drank before 20 to 25 years old, to be more optimum.

2014:  a lot of the same applies to this, just related to it being a little further along.  For anyone who hasn't been drinking sheng for a half dozen years this experience would be truly awful, but I'm kind of relating to it.  I think the real story here will be how these mellow out around rounds 7 or 8, what that's like, but of course I can't drink 14 to 16 infusions of these at one time.  And I'm probably not going to do a two-part review either, or discard this tea, or save it for later.  It's all a bit of a shame.  10 cups of these teas is a ton of it but I might get that far, if I brew these light enough.

2017, 3:  There is so much going on but the intensity makes it hard to sort into parts.  Something like leather stands out, then a green wood sort of flavor couples with the challenging intensity, while warm mineral couples with the deeper base, so strong it almost seems to include metal.  Part of the rest is in a spice range, and there may be some dried fruit involved, towards Chinese date or goji berry.  The feel isn't something people would keep coming back to, but it's not completely unpleasant.  If it had a bit more dry edge it really wouldn't work, but as it is this is just basic astringency structure.

2014:  only part of that harsher feel is present in this; it softened a lot in the extra 3 years (not that these were identical to begin with; they may have only been quite similar).  A lot more of the flavor falls into a spice tone range, across both a deeper, smoother root spice range and part like more aromatic incense spice.  There's an odd medicinal quality to it, one that's hard to place.  It seems like sweeter fruit tone is evolving, that it might come to include more of that, but it's secondary to the rest here.  Where the other is like a dried Chinese date or goji berry this is starting towards dried tangerine peel.  The earthiness seems to include some tobacco as well. 

One more round should be enough.  This is a story partly told but it's too much to experience a lot of these.  I drank water in between rounds to moderate the experience a little but lunch and a break will help more.

2017, 4:  it's very gradually becoming more approachable.  By round 7 or 8 this will be easier to appreciate.  The balance works better; feel eases up, and intensity settles across a similar but different aspect range.  Leather effect is more like baseball glove now, not as heavy and earthy as the horse saddle tone earlier.

2014:  that one spice note is interesting and pleasant.  Feel is still a bit much, and intensity is higher than it's easy to appreciate.  In just 3 or 4 years that balance may shift, but again this needs longer.  The wood range tone is still too green, and it's not nearly as harsh as I expected but still kind of rough.

Conclusions:

Both teas were much better in a series of later rounds, at least 4 more, and both are still far from brewed out at the end of the day.  I might've been able to describe another extra aspect or two for both but the main change was the green wood tone and astringency fading, while more positive warmer range emerged more later.  That was plenty for notes anyway, and enough reference for mentally comparing this experience to other middle-aged sheng I run across.

Both were better than I expected, and more transitioned.  I guess I had been drinking that 2014 version as even younger than 6 years old earlier, before I just sat it aside, even though trying it over and over when younger really made no sense.  The main thing that stood out wasn't exactly a surprise, the intensity.  

I hadn't expected the character to have changed that much over three years, but then maybe they didn't start out as relatively identical to begin with.  I doubt that spice tone that really stands out now in the 2014 version was noticeable in that form even 2 or 3 years ago, so who knows, maybe the other will go through a similar flavor range phase in 3 more years.