2009 XZH Pasha
5.6g/90ml Yixing, Toronto filtered tap water. Fairly tippy, leading to a quite bright taste, with a chalky astringency that coats the front of mouth and lips. Higher compression than average...
2005 vs 2006 Biyun Hao Manzhuan
Very nice looking dry leaf in both cases, though there is a slightly higher proportion of young leaves on the 2006. The 2006 has stronger pungent aroma, but both are...
Mattcha’s Tasting Set Reveal and Commentary
In addition to revealing the identities of the teas I sent Matt this year, I wanted to say a few things about each tea, so I will comment on them...
Dayi 7542-1203, 5 year storage comparison
Two cakes of Dayi’s 7542 from 2012, third batch, one stored for five years at 32C and another stored at room temperature (23C approximately). Toronto filtered tap water in two...
2020 Farmerleaf Gulan
5g/85ml Geneva tap water The dry leaf is a bit darker than I would expect. Small leaf blend. Aroma has some fresh sheng sweetness, with a floral background which I...
2021 Farmerleaf Lao Wu Gushu
5g/85ml porcelain pot, Geneva tap water Two great things about drinking tea in Switzerland: 230V outlets and high quality tap water. I am drinking through some Farmerleaf samples and so...
Storage comparison: 2016 Manlin, 4 yrs, 32C vs 22C
This is a continuation of a series of storage experiments and comparisons. I stored two halves of the 2016 Manlin from the Essence of Tea puerh club in two different...
1990s Guangdong bing 廣東餅 (圓票)
When I read this remarkable post by Matt of Mattcha’s blog I did not expect to ever taste his incredible find of a stack of decades-old Cantonese puerh in a...
Mattcha’s mystery teas B & F
This is the last pair of teas from the blind tasting that I exchanged with Matt. I am glad we did this exercise; I now have a better idea of...
Mattcha’s mystery teas D & E
After a few sessions alternating between D & E, I thought I could review these together. Tea D, shown above, has a very familiar factory pressing style, which could be...