24 April, 2008

2007 Hailanghao "Bulang"

Many thanks to Nada for this tea, which was bought at Yunnan Sourcing, where it is claimed that this is Spring growth from 60-70 year trees, allegedly limited to 400 Kg. This is a great little tea.

I have tried it several times, and these notes represent the mean average of my observations.



The leaves are small (pictured above), certainly being a Spring growth, which have a classic sweet pu'er aroma. The scent is invigorating, and makes me very interested in the tea. Already, they are handsomely dark.



There is much "in the cup", my new favourite metric. The initial scent is a distinctive, unusual dry-grain. The flavour is correspondingly dark, low, and gently sour, with a rousing huigan.

The mouth waters, the sour character draws me in for many infusions. Plenty of appealing acidity (in good proportion) and a rich, leather-like aftertaste can be found. What a satisfying little creature this is.



Hideously inexpensive, this is very appealing both to my desire for interesting tea, and to my wallet. It represents excellent value (being a humble £15 - the cost of a solid bottle of wine).

4 comments:

Bill said...

Sounds like a delightful creature! The tasting notes are very assertive. Very interesting for a sheng of in this price range.

Hobbes said...

Dear Bill,

Delightful indeed, and cheap to boot. I assert that this tea is mighty fine!


Toodlepip,

Hobbes

Tuo Cha Tea said...

I see that English wine is quite expensive. Last week I attended a wine tasting of one local producer in Czech republic and his quite good wines were from £3 to £5.

Hobbes said...

Dear TA,

It's the tax, plus the fact that we're traditionally used to paying absurdly high prices. During that recent visit to Montana, the Scottish single malts were much, much cheaper than I could get them in England - and I live just a few hours from Scotland!

The "booze cruise" is a popular excursion for English, where we drive a large car or van over to France and pick up our wines for the coming year... :)


Toodlepip,

Hobbes