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03 June, 2010

2009 Douji "Jingmai"

It seems as if I've had this pile of 2009 single-mountain Douji cakes forever, and still haven't had the time to enjoy them. Let's try out the Jingmai...


2009 Douji Jingmai
Summer is in the air


This makes an interesting comparison with the 2009 Xizihao "Jingmai".  Both appear to be very decent cakes, from the look of the leaves.


2009 Douji Jingmai
Almost edible


Like the Xizihao, this Jingmai is sweet, yet tart, with a decidedly citric component to it.  Again, like the Xizihao, the yellow soup is highly active, and changes to orange through extended contact with the air.


2009 Douji Jingmai


Unlike the Xizihao, this one becomes really rather sharp after several infusions, and thins out at the same time.  The Xizihao is definitely the better tea, but this one is a very good runner-up, and weighs in at a fraction of the price.  Given the solid, potent character of both, I imagine that they will do rather well over the coming years.  There's certainly plenty of content in these cakes for the maturing process to get to work on.

5 comments:

  1. Evan Meagher3 June 2010 at 05:23

    I love that last photo. The dark cup in conjunction with the dark background really accentuates the color of the tea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hobbes3 June 2010 at 08:02

    Thanks very much, Evan. You know, I didnt say so at the time, but this photograph from last month is one of my favourite teacup shots...


    Toodlepip,

    Hobbes

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown4 June 2010 at 18:19

    Hey Hobbes,

    This blog entry made me realize that I'm always confusing the famous puerh regions. And unfortunately, my palate gets even more confused than my mind does. If you take "requests" for future entries, I'd love to see you breakdown the major puerh regions and highlight what makes them distinctive and what to look for. Aside from the dominant flavors of Bulang and Banzhang, I have a hard time identifying them.

    Cheers,

    Nick

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nick E4 June 2010 at 20:30

    +1 to the above post. I'd love to see you talk about the regions and what makes them special. My pu'er tongue is quite young and I also have problems identifying certain mountains, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hobbes5 June 2010 at 06:39

    Dear Nicks,

    Thanks very much for idea; it's always nice to know what you'd like to read. I've hesitated about producing such an article before simply because of the subjectiveness of the assessment of various locations. However, I could produce a "first draft", just for fun, and readers could, no doubt, offer their corrections and opinions. It's quite easy to spot some regions, for example, as I mentioned in the Xizihao "Jingmai" article recently.


    Toodlepip,

    Hobbes

    P.s. The Half-Dipper has some articles queued for publication (which Blogger handles automatically), and so if you don't see an article within the short term, it just means that it hasn't yet reached the front of Blogger's publication queue.

    ReplyDelete

(and thanks)