2007 Xizihao "Huangshanlin"

One of the more pleasant aspects of the new house is that it's close to Magdalen College [pictured, pronounced "maudlin"].

One of the less pleasant aspects of the new house is that it's close to Magdalen College. Every quarter-of-an-hour, the famous old tower booms out it's greeting - commencing at 6 a.m.

So, I'm up early these days. On the plus side, this gives me time for a tea session before leaving for my office. Today - the other of the expensive pair of Xizihao teas from Yunnan Sourcing.

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Step forward, "Huangshanlin" - as noted for the Xizihao Yuanshilin, this means "desolate" or "abandoned", which sounds very much like a poetic yesheng [wild] claim, and I treat it as such. The leaves are from the Dahuangya [Big Yellow Tips] area of south Menghai County. Again, like the Yuanshilin, this is deeply expensive tea.

Having said that, with the price of these Xizihao teas on my mind, my curiousity was piqued as I committed the unthinkable crime of stepping into a Whittards shop (i.e., one of 6 x 10^23 Whittards shops in Oxford). They will, with a rosy smile, sell you 400g of rough, anonymous wulong for the cost of two of these 400g Xizihao bing. This rather puts the cost of pu'er into context, expensive though it undoubtedly is compared to the Mainland price of most bingcha.

Brita-filtered water @ 100C in 12cl shengpu; ~8-9g leaf; 1 rinse

Dry leaf:
Silky tips of a good size and shape, this looks like the antibing of the previous Yuanshilin. There are plenty of silver tips and a fresh aroma of mushrooms. First impressions are favourable, no alarm bells are ringing (yet).

3s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 12s, 18s, 30s, 40s, 60s, 80s, 100s, >2m, >3m, >3m, >5m:

"Gadzooks", I hear you cry, "Verily, look at those infusion times!" And well you would exclaim, as they are mighty indeed.

If the Yuanshilin was deep orange from the outset (with the "dark fruit" character), this is a more pleasing classical yellow. A long, sour beidixiang turns into a sugary lengxiang. We are on firm, familiar ground, and I breathe a quiet sigh of relief (just as the Magdalen Tower rends the morning air with another brutally pleasant intonement).

This tea has a straight, unprocessed ku, which (you are undoubtedly tired of hearing) is something that I rather look for in a young shengpu. It runs throughout the centre of the tea like an iron rod, providing a good support from which are suspended a decent set of chunky mushroom flavours with a sweet, citrus appeal. "Rich, with a sweet and pleasant finish." The yunxiang is very mushroom, which is very definitely to my personal preference.

Marching on, and on, and on, this tea becomes simpler, and massively sweet, but never cracks. These are good leaves, and the quality is obvious. The huigan is excessively sweet, and remains for several minutes in the throat. "The taste is still there - this is proper tea."

We pause for our day's work in the middle, and resume the tea session at dusk.

Twilight birds
Returning to twilight nests
And the warmth of tea

Wet leaves:
Sincerely erotic. Some 6-7cm whole, healthy leaves, with some fulsome tip-and-bud systems. Lovely stuff.

Overall:
There is a temptation to approach Xizihao cakes with a strong bias formed solely from their price. I enjoyed this tea. It felt a little hollow "underneath", being a very high and sweet leaf, but the quality seems undeniable - the longevity is prodigious, the flavours are robust and rich.

In conjunction with a decent, clean, untreated ku, I look for rich flavour and endurance - the hallmarks of good leaf. The flavours here, as I just mentioned, are not entirely complete (they are high and sweet, with not much bass), but they are very full. Fine stuff, and probably the best 2007 I've had so far. Infinitely more appealing than the Yuanshilin. I look forward to a re-run of this session in future.

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Cf., Tea Logic's notes on the same. I find it hard to reconcile the immense sweetness of the tea we consumed with the "not overly sweet" comment therein - VL, do please let's discuss this tea in more detail!