2006 Xizihao "Chahuang"

Chawang [Tea King] is clearly out-of-fashion. Just as "wild" was upgraded to "desolate forest", so Sanhetang have promoted their mere provincial Tea King to a suitably more stately Tea Emperor.

When does the use of superlative begin to seem like parody?

Dark, tippy, and showing evidence of good handling, these leaves exhibit a remarkable sweetness, against a rich background of pleasant licorice. The wenxiangbei continues the pronounced sweetness, but the magic happens in the pinmingbei: the soup is excellently thick, and has a fine active quality where it touches the lips and tongue.

There is much to experience in this tea, and it proved a pleasant foil to recent samples that I have been drinking. There is a complexity of sensation about this tea that I miss when I drink less esteemed cakes.

All the way out to the dark sugars from the yunxiang [after-aroma], contrasting well against green notes in the body, and always that buzzing, vibrating, effervescing quality of the soup's activity.

The huigan is fair in duration. I would be happy if there were more low, rich notes to accompany the panoply of high, sweet, sugary experiences on offer - but perhaps this is having one's cake and eating it.

The overall character is sweet, high, grassy, and active. A fine tea, and, apparently, an unavailable tea.

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Addendum
15 October, 2008

One year on, and this tea has become empty and flat. Despite using lots of leaves, it is surprisingly quiet and seems to have run out of steam. What little flavour is to be had is high and sweet, as before.

The leaves are clearly of good quality, because the texture is very thick and it is a fizzy, active tea. Some fruity notes are evident in the background, testament to a cheeky blending in of fruity, oxidised leaves which can be seen to form part of the mix in the pot. The proportion is kept low, however, so as not to dominate the tea.

Too weak, sadly. Definitely not a Tea Emperor.

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Addendum
March, 2014

The year after I first tried this, six years ago, the tea had "gone quiet".  Six years later, it is much improved.  The body is thick and, best of all, there is a long aftertaste of sweetness.  It has settled into a dense, sweet little thing, with the clean feeling of storage that is not immensely wet.  It lasts well, and has returned from quietness - perhaps fed by the Oxford humidity.

2006 Nanjian Wuliang

(Another archive post.)

This is a xiaobing [small cake], again recommended by Scott of Yunnan Sourcing. The Nanjian Factory, one of the elders (founded 1983) started making bingcha in 1998, following a history of Tuocha manufacture, being located in Xiaguan territory.

The tea is apparently a mixture of 40% Wuliangshan leaves, and 60% Mengku-region Lincang, which the factory mentions is due to the lighter flavours of the small-leaf Wuliang. It is claimed that this is the traditional manner of making Nanjian cakes.

Dry leaf:
Dark, broken, and small - this is particularly green leaf, with a decent aroma of mushroom - it's attractive, though clearly a mixture.

The soup starts out particularly cloudy, and this isn't a clean tea. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but reminds me of Chen Guang-He Tang cakes.

This tea has a considerable quantity of ku, presumably delivered by the larger Lincang leaves. The sweet, low aroma corresponds with the generally thin set of low "tea" flavours.

Later infusions become truly, absurdly sweet - is this Wuliang terroire? It is not a leaf with which I have much familiarity. What initial complexity existed courtesy of the low, bass flavours soon recedes to a simple "green" quality - with that correspondingly acerbic quality in the throat that one might expect.

Wet leaves:
Tiny, chopped, and exceedingly green.

Overall:
This tea is neither particularly friendly nor particularly noteworthy, except for its highly active ku. I remember considering this "aggressive" in my original tasting, and I stand by that observation.

Rather uninspiring, unfortunately enough. At a trifling $6, at least it makes no claims to high status.

2006 Haiwan Yushou

Recommended by Scott, the gentleman behind Yunnan Sourcing, this shengpu was $15/bing.

Haiwan factory itself was set up by a retired manager from Menghai Factory, one Zhou Bingliang, in 1999. Scott mentioned that he sited the nascent Haiwan Factory in his town of Anning, due to its famous water quality and hot springs. Scott also cites his experience that the Haiwan Factory is the cleanest that he has visited. I've a fairly clear idea of the general level of hygiene in tea factories...

This claims to be an early spring tea from, as Fate would have it, 700-year-old tea trees. Quelle surprise!

Dry leaf:
Dark and small (clearly picked in spring), yet whole, the leaves are easily separated, and look rather appealing. The aroma is very quiet, however, being merely sweet.

A consequently high, sweet aroma is followed by a stable, enjoyable mushroom flavour. It has a somewhat melon-like fruity edge, without being so much as to cause me suspicion over its production.

There is a fair quantity of light tea-oil on the lips and tongue, which I find often helps to point to good leaf quality, with a strong ku. The potency of the ku somewhat obscures a base of low, tobacco flavour.

However, by the third infusion, the tea becomes much more simple, and tends towards a gentle sweet-straw character. The huigan is not pronounced, but at least present.

Wet leaves:
Healthy and small, they are quite well-treated by Haiwan.

Overall:
Refreshing, light, but somewhat simple. It isn't worth going out of the way for this tea, but is pleasant nonetheless. Not one of the classics.

If anyone has any information at all on Yushou Mountain, I am all ears - I cannot find mention of it.