Beijing Subway I

sun temple

change here for

bridge of flowers

(written between Jinsong and Panjiayuan)

I am Iron Man(zhuan)

Heathen swine among my gentle readership should note carefully that the title refers to the Black Sabbath track, and not the Marvel comic.

The 2005 Zhuiyuantang "Manzhuan Zaochun" by Xiangming Longxing co.

Earlier in the summer, I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. The Dog, proprietor of white2tea and penmaster-general of the twodog teablog.  We drank some tea, started some street-brawls - all of the usual things that one would do when passing through Beijing.

On the way to visit Mr. Dog's charming friends in a teahouse near Guomao, he generously sprang this rather hefty-looking bing on me.  All I had to offer in return was my thanks and the unpleasant aroma of my 24-hour-old travelling clothes, maturing nicely in the baking Beijing sunshine.

Sensors indicate that this 2005 cake is currently, at the time of writing, being sold by Mr. Dog via his white2tea web-site for the sum of 74 American bucks.  I've previously been impressed by his ability to balance tasty beverages with a reasonable price-tag, and so am particularly keen to examine this eight-year-old Manzhuan example.

Manzhuanshan is in the "canonical" puer'cha zone, of Mengla County within 'Banna, and this cake was produced in nearby Xikong, by the Xiangming Longxing Chachang [tea company].  Spannered across the front of the cake are the characters for "Manzhuan Zaochun" [early spring], and the brand name: "Zhuiyuantang".  Everyone's gots to haves their brand name.  It's like Menghai Tea Co. using "Dayi", for example

There are lots of "tang"s in brand names, which is a traditional word for "hall".  Sanhetang is responsible for Xizihao; Chenguanghetang is responsible for thick-necked, rather expensive "premium" cakes; and so on.  "Zhuiyuantang" is, very approximately, "chase-far" hall.  This may or may not be a cultural reference that eludes my laowai sensibilities.

Bookwork aside, let us examine the facts.  This cake looks mighty tasty.  I am currently writing up my notes on this tea from my lab, and the photographs already make me wish I were back at the tea-table, hoovering up some of the loveliness of this dark little beauty.

Our cold little country is, unexpectedly, being warmed by a yellow-orange sphere in the sky which, I am told, is "the sun", and which is entirely complementary to the nature of this large-leafed cake.  How terribly amused I was to be returned from Beijing (temperature: crazy-mad) only to be sat at the tea-table back at home sitting under a blanket and wearing a thick jumper.

Manzhuan can be Good Tea.  It is a reliable place for me to find cakes that appeal.  From the start, this cake brews a solid orange, as pictured below

The wenxiangbei [aroma cup] reveals that this is a dark-molasses cake, but the character in the mouth is immediately suggestive of dry storage: it is crisp and sharp in its sweetness, but has a base of solid molasses.  Its activity is felt throughout the mouth, which indicates that it still has plenty of stamina left in it, and something on which the aging process can act.

This is a mellow cake: it is enjoyable and smooth, without being particularly strong or aggressive.  The white2tea web-site describes this cake as being "easy to drink", which is a conclusion that I have also drawn.  This is relaxed, feet-up-on-the-desk tea, which, while it contains some traditional 'Banna characteristic rich sweetness, does need some pushing.  I found that I was brewing it "long", allowing the next infusion to brew while I was drinking the current infusion, after just a few pots.

I will undoubtedly return to this cake when I am after some "comfort brewing".  As I wrote in my journal at the time, drinking it immediately after my return from China: "This is the taste of returning to my family: warmth, sweetness, and comfort."

As if to emphasise the point, my eldest son ran up to the tea-table, his bottom still bare from a recent trip to the "potty" (he is "in training"), and nabbed a cup.  "Pu'ercha!" he noted, with an approving grin.

Come to Daddy

I used to think that all good tea had to be something like 4'01" into Come to Daddy, a classic track by the Aphex Twin, and a characteristic that, for example, the 2009 Nadacha Bulangshan cake exhibited, among others.  However, tea is much more complex than my naïve assumptions allow, and I am always glad to read that there exist other cakes famous for something other than cardiovascular exertions.

One such beasty is the 2003 Zipinhao [purple-label brand], made by the modernday Duke of Zhou, Mr. Zhou Yu, ultimate teadaddy of the Wisteria Teahouse in Taipei.  His cakes are generally regarded as being "superfly TNT every time my fingers touch brain". 

In the nicest possible way.

The Wisteria Teahouse is named after the plant, which was named after Dr. C. Wistar, but deliberately misspelled by the infamous botanist, T. Nuttall.  That kind of hardcore flagrancy with spelling deserves, rightly, to be immortalised in the name of a botanical species, as it has.  It's up there with "aluminum" in the annals of scientific trolling.  These are the kinds of things that keep me awake at night.

Mr. Zhou gets around this matter by using the Chinese characters for the flower, but, like, that's just, like, your opinion (man).

Now, having written the above, and finding myself totally in the mood for the Big Lebowski, I begin to wonder if this Zipinhao would be the kind of tea that "The Dude" would appreciate.  It has the recumbent feel of pu'ercha that El Duderino would likely enjoy.

EC, a hugely generous teachum from Singapore, took pity on we miserable offenders, and bestowed upon us a stonking great sack of rather attractive samples.  Naturally, this one was the first horse out of the stalls.

The nice thing about drinking a modern-day classic like Zhou's 2003 Zipinhao is that words have already been spilled in abundance.  You may have previously enjoyed, as I have, writings on the subject by (a surprisingly human and most definitely charming) computer scientist named THE JAKUB, and dear old MarshalN.

That's not fair on computer scientists.  They're not all like Data from Star Trek. 

No, some are like IG-88 from Star Wars.

On the Star Wars scale of pu'ercha, I believe that the 2003 Zipinhao is Lando Calrissian, in his "Cloud City" mode in The Empire Strikes Back, rather than in his "Attack on the Deathstar" mode in The Return of the Jedi. I mean that affectionately.  The Zipinhao is cheeky, energetic, and likely to sell you out to Darth Vader at the first opportunity.

If one is going to spend several years frozen in carbonite, then you at least want to be awoken by Princess Leia in her Boushh bounty-hunter outfit. 

Drinking the Zipinhao is exactly like Lando.  It starts off smooth and friendly.  In fact, it is entirely unique: I don't know if Lando had an aroma of flowers, almost like the scent of violets, but I'm guessing from the colour of his cape (in Cloud City) that he probably smelled similarly to the Zipinhao.

Before long, though, perhaps just about as you're entering that dining room where there are no guests, excepting a rather tall Sith lord, you begin to wonder if the Zipinhao has rather a lot going on under the surface.

I wrote in my journal that the Zipinhao is "an entirely unconnected node in my pu'ercha experience".   The caffeine began to grip my unacclimatised body, rather like poor old Han Solo going down into that carbonite-infusion pit, while Boba Fett looks on.  It tightens the mind, as the manner in which one increases the tension in a wire by winding its ends.

Like Lando Calrissian, this tea has energy and vivacity enough for two episodes, and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Zipinhao marching on for an equally long tea-session the day after.  Amid that curious violet aroma is all manner of sharp pine and sweet leather, which makes for a very complex tea experience.

I am a firm believer that, as I appear to have written in my journal, pu'ercha and its enjoyment may be considered to be equitable.

You don't have to spend the Earth to find good tea, but the truly great teas, a genre to which the 2003 Zipinhao is a strong contender, are certainly worth attempting to acquire, at least in sample form.  For that, I have only to offer EC my very great thanks.

Now, my friends, if you will excuse me, I have a matter to discuss with a jetpack-wearing bounty hunter...

---

Addendum
September, 2013

This cake continues to mystify me.  I acquired a cake via Jakub (thanks again!), and am struggling to enjoy it as much as the sample from Singapore, described above.

Drinking tea with friends is a wonderful experience, but the emphasis is often on the conversation, rather than the tea, as is natural (and very enjoyable).  Jakub and his good lady were kind enough to visit me for a welcome-to-Oxford session, where we brewed this in the background.  The tea was fine, but I felt it was a little lacking with respect to the clearly, and abnormally, delicious cake from Singapore.

I fired up the kettle the next day and simply used far more leaves.  The result was much closer to (although still not quite as good as) the fine sample from Elven.  This time, it was dark, humid, and pleasantly sweet with the backbone provided by using more leaves in the brew.  Consequently, it has a more full body, and the more concentrated aroma closely resembles that of the sample provided by Elven.  It has the slightly powdery and floral character that I remember.

It just goes to show, there are differences even between Singaporean and Taiwanese storage - and I rather prefer the former, based on this cake.