Yiwu Mountain Ecological Arbor

I too received this nice little tea in my mail box in middle of January, not as fast as Half-Dipper link or T link. But much appreciated Alan Woon from sampletea.

I will agree with whats has been posted that the cake was stone pressed and that it probably made for  gifts because its not for sale or if you look at the hole in the middle of the cake it's off centered. I was kinda excited to noticed the off centered hole, I told Emmet because it was specially made from a batch of his liking? Now to the tasting notes first rinse smells sweet can't put my finger on it?  Fist infusion the liquor is yellow hue, feels thick and fills the mouth with tastes of young Yiwu, fresh air? nice puerh taste with a touch of sweetness of? Second infusion more of the same taste but little bit of sweetness echo in back of your tongue. The rest of the infusions were the same but consistent with the flavor not letting up, I pushed this tea up to ten infusions! I also wonder how this tea will be in years to come (T), I wish I could get more! The Yiwus, I tried this year only gave me a good five infusions and kinda went flat, this one by far was pretty good!

The leaves after the many infusions were pretty sizable with stems and all.
hope everybody had a good Chinese NEW Year!

2001 Golden Melon Tribute Tea

Today I retried a 2001 Golden Melon Tribute Tea from Fine puer, which  received  before the holidays but like I said before, I got that crazy flu so I couldn't report on it until now. I could of sworn that somebody else commented on this tea just as it was on transit but I can't remember who. The reason I bring it up is because we had different tasting notes which comes to show you that everybody tastes are different (Emmit commented on this tea with more complexity then I did). Well back to the tasting notes: when I first opened the melon, I didn't get no smell to it until I did the first rinse, which was sweet sugar cane? I do got add this note when buying this tea the vender warned me that the melon was highly compressed (true!) but I told laughing not for my pick which you see! 
First infusion I get faint maple syrup flavor. The color is orange 

 Orange which is consistent to an age puerh of this age is good sign! With my camera its hard to see, the cup is the second infusion but the flash makes it look lighter.

 Second infusion you get smells of sweet sugar cane and maple syrup with a hint of camphor. The third and fourth infusion was smooth but with a more of camphor taste in the soup. By the fifth cup, I started feeling tea dunkness which was pretty good! The sixth infusion and on you have nice smooth taste with maple syrup echo in  back of you throat mmmmm. I push this beyond ten infusion and lost count. Over all, not bad for a 2001 tea and the price not bad either! compared to buying a new one for the same price but probably wouldn't last as many brews!

As for the leaves a lot of different sizes and chopped up leaves but it didn't effect the flavor at all in the end.



I leave with these pictures, I took in Chinatown in October of some murals of dragons which are my favorite.

2011 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Dian Hong"

Like everybody else, I been out of because of the crazy Flu and sore throat to add. I should of been drinking ginger tea like Jakub for a sore throat. So just until recently, I been slowly getting back into my tea drinking routine. I just tried 2011 Yunnan Sourcing "Yi Dian Hong"












Leaves look small, it has no smell to it.  The interesting part of this cake is that"Fermentation level is medium" which if you look on website cause it loose it "fermentation "dui wei". Which when tasting it for the first time, I didn't taste that fermentation at all. 

First infusion tasted lite sweetness on the tongue. 

Second infuction thicker sweet taste and smooth. 

Third and forth a bit stronger lite on sweetness, until I got to the fifth and on the flaver got smoother and sweet. 

Over all the tea was smooth and I didn't tatse any earthy taste or fermentation. For the price $4.00 a hundred grams, its not bad for every day tea!

I leave you with a tree I worked on for a client,  which is a ficus with roots over rock.

What do you see?