2008 Mengku Shuangjiang Bingdao Spring Cake

Here is a chubby cake of pu'er tea:

I am a fan of this factory's teas. This Bingdao cake is a refined affair; beautiful leaves and just the perfect amount of compression.



This is actually my first taste of this particular cake, as it has been sitting in my tea cabinet patiently for a few months. I had samples of it previously, so I was finishing those up before digging into the cake itself. I sampled this today with about 6 grams of leaf in my favorite 100mL Yixing pot. I rinsed the leaves twice before ingesting anything.

1st infusion: very light. Grainy aroma, no bitterness. Sweet, but clearly the leaves haven't given up much.

2nd infusion: malted barley aroma, grassy. A hint of bitterness at the end. More complexity and sweetness.

3rd infusion: Now we are talking. Shiitake mushrooms, grains. Still a light tea, but a lot of subtlety here. Bitterness is picking up, but it is a caress, not a slap. I feel the energy in waves.

4th infusion: More of the same goodness. Long, long huigan. Some cooling sensation in the mouth, but it is light. My head is throbbing - a good sensation.

It soldiers on until I give in, but there is plenty more to be had. I like this tea, though it is quite light. I think it is a good example of a "one step up tea" compared to the plantation teas that are out there. It is refined and honest, with no tweaking to the soup; its charms are one to savor slowly while watching the world go by. Looking at the leaves, it is largely buds and small leaf/bud sets.

A Bing Dao Mystery

A while ago I ordered a bunch of samples from Scott at Yunnan Sourcing, including a couple of samples of teas with leaves (supposedly) from BingDao (Ice Island). I think I was prompted by a post over at the Half Dipper, briefly talking about Bingdao and its (supposed) cooling sensation that the tea imparts in the mouth. I am a fan of minty/menthol/camphor types of tastes in pu'er tea (interestingly, I am not much of a mint guy in foods), so I splurged on a couple. I ordered a 2008 Mengku Shuangjiang Bingdao, and a 2002 CNNP Bingdao.

OK, now it gets interesting. When the teas arrived from China - sparking a bout of eye-rolling from my wife when she had to receive the box from the postperson - the two sample bags were labeled identically, both as the 2008 Mengku. Which was which?

Looking at the tea, they were clearly different. One was a more brownish color, presumably the 2002 tea (you may have to zoom in to see the difference):


As an aside, has anyone noticed that chunks of pu'er tea look just like something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe on a muddy day? Yum.

Tasting them over a few days, it was confirmed again that they were different. The younger looking and tasting tea had notes like this:

6g in 120mL gaiwan at work. Medium compression, somewhat tippy. Aroma is unique - cotton candy, camphor, sweet 'shroom, low-toned and earthy. Quite rich in taste, pungent, long huigan. Lots of energy in this one - my hands are shaking and my head is throbbing a bit. Also, there is a nice cooling sensation in the mouth.

And the second, presumable older tea:

This is a really nice adolescent pu'er. It has picked up enough of that aged character to be interesting; mahogany, leather, old books. No sign of wet mustiness. The flavor is very sweet and there is a decent cooling sensation on the tongue. Quite nice and a reasonable price for a 6 year old tea. The aroma alone is worth the price of admission.

and later:

2002 CNNP Bingdao. There is a bit of a mystery about this tea. I have it as a sample, which was part of a group which were mislabeled. I am almost certain I am drinking this particular tea, but I have another sample for confirmation coming in my next order from China. A couple of folks have cakes of this that they weren't happy with, but this sample is excellent. Rich and oily, with aromas of old books and charred wood. Nice rust color, perfectly clear. The characteristic bingdao cooling sensation is there as well

Based on those tastings, I picked up a cake of the 2008 Mengku. At the same time, there was still a bit of lingering doubt about the tea I thought was the 2002 CNNP, so I asked Scott to throw in another (properly checked and labeled) sample for me to verify things.

Guess what? This tea tasted different yet again. Either I am seeing variation from sample to sample, or the original tea I received was something else entirely. Since it was the tastiest of the bunch, it is a shame that I don't know what it is. I am tempted to pick up a cake of the 2002 CNNP BingDao to assuage my curiousity, but I think I am going to let this mystery stay the way it is.

Let's Talk Tea, and eFriends

Well, the title of this blog refers to coffee and tea, but I have been remiss in discussing anything about tea. Part of that is the fact that there are so many good tea blogs out there, the quintessential one being the Half Dipper, which you can link to from the left side of the page. From there, there are many other links to other blogs. I am not sure I have anything unique to add, and I am such a poor photographer, so I have hesitated to say anything.

That being said, I spend a lot of time drinking and thinking about tea, most particularly pu'er, that unique, Chinese, ageable, funky product that comes in frisbee-sized disks and other unique shapes. For those not familiar with the story of pu'er, WikiCha is a good resource, and David does a great job of discussing these teas as well at the Half Dipper. I think I am going to have some entries around tea and see how it goes, the first one a bit about some Bing Dao teas I have been drinking lately, and a mysterious set of unlabeled samples.

Thinking about tea started me thinking about TeaChums I have who pass around samples of tea to each other, and then into the broader category of what I call eFriends. This is a peculiar development of the internet era. In principle the growth in internet forums and other pastimes would seem to make humans less likely to interact with each other in real life. Everyone hides behind the written word, with facades and made-up attributes; sitting in front of a computer and developing eRelationships that don't exist beyond the electrons flying over the computer wires.

That's not always the case, though. I spend a fair amount of time on internet forums, and I have formed friendships with many people. What is a bit peculiar is that I interact with them in physical ways. I regularly send coffee and teas that I think are interesting to other people I have met on the internet, and have received much in return. One friend has lent me items from his kitchen to try out, others have sent me aftershaves and colognes, and the list goes on. My wife is somewhat leery, and I think a bit jealous. She has become used to packages showing up at the door from people, and now recognizes many of the names by sight. The fact that I have "internet friends" seems entirely natural to me. In some cases, I have gone as far as meeting people in person. It is always fascinating to compare the impression your mind has formed on the basis of the written word to the real thing.

So why do I mention this? I think that it is a small but good sign for the human race. I think that while internet interactions and eFriends are great, I don't think this is the end of the human race, with all of us shut up by ourselves in front of computers, becoming a race of mole-men afraid to come out of our darkened rooms. The real human need of contact, whether face to face, or by the sharing of physical objects, will still shine through. For someone like myself, who expresses himself well enough through the written word, but is an incredibly shy and reserved person in real life, all this becomes an important outlet.

So let's all have some fun, drink some good coffee, tea, or spirits, and talk to each other. This way when the machines take over, we'll be ready with our counter-attack strategy