2001 vs 2005 Xiaguan 8653 Iron
It is remarkable how close in taste these teas are; it really shows the ability of Xiaguan to maintain very consistent taste in their recipes. It’s difficult to convey smoke...
2005 Nanqiao Double Lions
5.2g/85ml Hongni/Toronto filtered tap It won’t be much of a surprise to most of my readers that this tea is among my top choices for aging: the power, strength of...
2006 Green Peacock Lao Man’e
5.5g in 90ml, SS kettle, Toronto filtered tap Strong compression, good looking leaf material and colour. A fair amount of fines. The processing looks quite good, let’s see how the...
2016 W2T Tuhao AF, 5 years heated storage
Following up on this storage experiment, this tea has been in 65% RH 32C storage for more than five years now. On the left we have the heated tea, and...
2021 Mattcha blind tasting: Epsilon and Summary
The last of Matt’s samples, epsilon, is a young tea, possibly only one or two years old, and is processed quite green. I’ve had it four times now and I...
2021 Mattcha blind tasting: Delta
Dry leaf is flaky/crispy, quite dark, may be HK stored but with almost no aroma showing it… Wet leaf clearly shows traditional storage, of the mineral and ginseng style, no...
2021 Mattcha blind tasting: Gamma, or “The Bamboo Bullet”
For his Gamma sample, Matt has fired a 200mm round into my gaiwan: This appears to be a form of puerh known as lokcha, packed in the hollow of a...
2021 Mattcha blind tasting: Beta
Following Matt’s Alpha, we have a significantly younger tea. I had to try this one a few times to get a handle on it, it’s a wild animal of a...
2021 Mattcha blind tasting: Alpha
For a bit of fun at the end of the dreary summer of 2021, Matt and I decided to exchange blind samplers and blog about them. Check out his posts,...
2001 Simplified Yun 7542, Dayi Mark
The 2001 Simplified Yun 7542 is widely known as one of the top 7542 recipe productions from the Menghai Tea Factory in the last 25 years. A tea that would...