2005 Chenyuan Hao Shanzong Chuanqi
5.6g/95ml Yixing pot, Toronto filtered tap.
Light orange brew, clear liquor, still firmly semi-aged. Tippy characteristics up front, refreshing and with a slight sharpness. Remarkably viscous and thick. Superb empty cup resinous pungent perfume.
Bright orange brew, super viscous and thick. Lots of strength, attacking the mouth. Waves of frisson, and a heaviness as well. Big impact after the second steep. Long lasting heat, in the mouth, face, body.
The high notes quickly give way to heavy savoury and juicy-medium-sweet mid notes. Long lasting aftertaste – it’s more than an aftertaste, it’s more like a numbing-heating sensation all through the surface of mouth and throat. Slowly increase focus and clarity, but not in a quieting way.
The taste and aroma reminds me of a dry apple or pear cider, but the empty cup aroma is more like resinous fragrant wood incense. The taste and aroma are still in the realm of younger puerh. The waves of energy, heat and frisson are quite excellent with this tea. Dynamic. It has a heavy aspect but it also has a quickly moving dynamic aspect. In contrast to the 03 Manzhuan, for example, which has only the heavy gravity aspect.
With a stronger brew (1m) the tea becomes much more concentrated in savoury/umami notes.
After the strong brew, subsequent brews are still very thick, even if less dark in colour. The viscosity is remarkable.
Later steeps – taste is very subtle, but texture is thick and mouth-gripping. Strong heating effect, very enjoyable and dynamic energy.
Late test steep is thick, concentrated taste, strong tea taste.
Excellent looking material, a blend of small and large thick furry leaves with hearty stems and serrations. Despite the years of natural Taiwan storage, it retains a lot of youth, as is clear from the amount of green still in the leaves, but especially in the taste. It’s much more vibrant and dynamic than the CYH 03 teas, which show a lot more aged notes. My guess is that there are a few sharp edges left in some elements of the blend and these will round out over the next few years. My favourite part of this tea is the bold and dynamic frisson+heat energy and strong thickness/mouthfeel. Strong durability, there is interesting bittersweet umami coming out after a couple of 3-4minute steeps after all the above. I think it is my favourite East XSB blended gushu cake. For drinking now, I prefer the 2003 teas, but I have bought a few of the SZCQ for aging. 7.9.
