Wedding Gift Roasted Tikuanyin part two

Emmett and I have been wanted to solve the mystery of the white little bags of Tikuanyin. This tin of Oolong was given to my mother in-law when my sister in-law was married in 2005. I thought at first this Oolong was just high roasted and had no idea it was aged. Emmett and I think this Oolong is about 10 plus years, may be older. I took pictures of the tin but could not find a date :o( . When it was purchased though my mother was told it was already age for some time?

 Now for the tasting notes. After the first rise you get honey, nectarine and smokey smell. The color of the liquor is dark yellow. First infusion tastes like honey and spicy. When I tasted this Oolong for the first time I though it tasted like a Rock Wu Yi but different (probably from the high roasting) .

I must have gotten more than ten infusions and the leaves as you can see still have not fully unrolled yet . If you want to read more check out Cha & Kung Fu:

Wedding Gift Roasted Tikuanyin 

One thing if you seen this age Oolong let me know please.

"Honey I shrunk the tea!"

I really did not shrink the tea, even though I wish I could do the opposite when I run low on tea I love or the vintage they don't sell any more. The taste of tiny tuo-chas are the best when am running to work or sometime, I am going to class like today. Tuo-chas come in all different sizes from your regular 100 grams (or greater) and as small as 3- 5 grams. They also come in different flavors (rose, chrysanthemum est..) and they come in raw too! The reason I'm writing this is because I was reading Emmett's blog the other day and he likes Xiaguan tuo-chas (regular size) over the cakes even though the quality of the leaf is not the best. The quality of the leaf do not always mean good or bad tea. I just drink what taste good to me and in these case tiny tuo-chas!

 The reason I  like tiny tuo-chas is because its  fast, convenient and tiny as you can see. Like I said before when I'm in a hurry, I like to throw in  a little 3-5 gram tuo-cha into my mug, infuse it for about a minute and then I'm ready to go!  I'll just take the little strainer with me to work  and infuse it 2 more times in my mug and I got my Cha fix at work. Or if I don't want to reach into my cabinet for my cakes, I'll just grab a little tuo-cha too and throw it in my pot and instant tea! Another idea from one of the venders from China town is to bring your favorite tuo-cha and drink it when your dinning out in China town or dinning some where else if they let you just buy the hot water (cup). 

 One more note, infusions aren't as long and the grade of leaves isn't the best (like I said before) but if you have been drinking tea as long as I have, you might notice by now it doesn't matter, as long as the tea tastes good to you (some of the good ones are made from lower grade tea like Emmett's preferring Xaiguan (big ones) tuo-chas over cakes )  enjoy!

Pu-erh.sk "Bang Pen 2011"

 Emmit the other day gave me a sample of Bang Pen 2011 from Pu-erh.sk(http://pu-erh.sk/fotogaleria?album=1&gallery=68 check out these pictures on how they collected this tea!). I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I hear that he has some tasty cake to try!

  Looks like stone compressed nice young smell and color! What I was told that it might have some wet storage taste for the first two infusions. Let see for our self's, I have been letting it air dry but not by choice. I have a two year that keeps me busy! 

The first infusion has a nice yellow hue and smells like young Puerth with a little bit of citrus. When you drink it though, their is no citrus taste but has a nice, not to strong and over power taste of young puerth with mild chi feeling.

After a few infusions you get a sweetness in the back of your throat.

Oh yeah!

Every cup coats the mouth with young puerth taste. I did not get the wet storage taste though but that probably because I had small chunk exposed to air. Sometime I notice when you get a new cake it has a smell that you don't like (wet storage maybe) dirt kid you not!!! but after a got it out of the package and let it air out it for a week it smelled like normal puerh.

I told Emmit that, I thought the cake, I bought the other day was bad or a fake!

Has that ever happen to you? Got a weird smell when you opened a new cake for the first time? 

The leaves looks like a spring pick and you have A bud with two leaves (nice small leafs). The over is good!

 Getting down to my last cup and I love teas that give you that sweet taste in back of you throat an "echo" is what tea drinkers say is good tea!