2024 ChenYuan Hao ChenJun GuaFengLaoZhai: Classic GuaFengZhai

This 2024 ChenYuan Hao ChenJun GuaFengLaoZhai (approx $248.00 for 200g cake or $1.24/g) is the leaf picked from the old part of the town/area.  In my experience in tasting other puerh that were differentiated with “Lao” in their title is that they tend to show more classic characteristics of the area but aren’t necessarily the “best” of the area. 

 Dry leaves have a sweet fruity almost peachy melon.  Nice upfront fruity sweetness.

Rinsed leaf has a more melon forestry but very piercingly heavier sweet odour.

Fist infusion has a watery smooth peachy pear upfront taste creamy smooth fruity sweet with soft mouthfeel some pungent forest develops minutes later on the breath in the mid upper throat.  Feel high spaced out and feeling behind eyes.  The high comes early here. Fruity up front sweet with long sweetness that vilifies with pungent forest. 

Second infusion has a pop of fruity peachy pear sweetness oily juicy and clear upfront fruit.  Cooled down it has a strong pear sweet taste with a woody forest pungent potato taste creamy.  Soft slight silty mouthfeel. Strong basic high spacy feeling focused energy and chest heat beats.

Third infusion has a potato creamy pear with an oily saliva producing mouthfeel sticky fine sandy roof of mouth with deep throat saliva gobs the hold the pear fruity taste deep in the throat.  Lingering sweet oily juicy creamy pear sweetness faint potato and forest.  Spacy high with energy and chest beats… not complex as sone Gua Feng Zhai but the power and feeling is nice. The cooled down infusion has a creamy rich pear very sweet onset.  With long lingering sweet taste with depth coming later so as not to impede on the thick sweet fruity taste.

Fourth has a creamy peach pear juicy viscus onset.  Cooled down it is a creamy pear sweet with a cooling pungent forest that comes out sooner in the profile.  Long creamy sweet taste with chalky mouthfeeling.  High energy spacy feeling with a chesty qi sensation.  Good decent happy high.

Fifth infusion has a creamy pear fruity sweet taste.  Some buttercup floral juicy viscus taste.  Mouthwatering as saliva gobs in the upper throat.  Slight sour sweetness with chalky mouthfeel under viscus with some mild throat stimulation.

Sixth infusion has a creamy sweet fruity sweet onset with a slight grains woody taste emerging.  Sweet long finish with soft chalky mouth feeling. Spacy high feeling. Classic strong characteristic Gua Feng Zhai taste and Qi make this one pretty enjoyable! Left to cool it is very juicy fruity pear with some forest woody mid profile and long sweet fade out finish.  Chalky mouthfeel is never harsh or strong but present and substantial.

Seventh infusion has a potato pear fruity onset with an oily viscus texture and woody finish over a chalky almost sandy mouthfeel. Pop of retuning fruit. With soft sweet finish.  Spacy but energetic big chest opening feeling.

Eighth infusion left to cool is sweet fruity woody more woody taste with a bit of sour taste.  Slight drying sticky feeling.  Some melon, forest, potato wood.  Spacy feeling with big chest feeling and energetic charged up.

 

The long mug infusion of spent leaves is a sweet fruity creamy onset with a dry slight bitter woody finish with tight slight dry mouth.  Big chest qi and energy with spacy mind.  Slight sour and forest taste in there. Days long infusion is a bit spicy bitter woody slight oily wood ashy taste.  Slight dry pucker.

Vs 2024 ChenYuan Hao GuoYouLin GuaFengZhai- this one is lighter with much less sweetness and classic GuaFengZhai taste and feel (Alex highlights that the GuoYouLin is much less sweet also).  The GuoYouLin has a bit more ethereal forest lighter complexity to it but its stamina is a bit weaker.  I like the classic straightforward characteristc GuaFengZhaiLao better myself… call me classic!  But I can deeply appreciate the more ethereal forest feeling of the GuoYouLin.

Alex’s Tea Notes

Peace

2024 ChenYuan Hao GuoYouLin Gua FengZhai: Qi Comes Quickly!

This 2024 ChenYuan Hao GuoYouLin GuaFengZhai goes for approx $298.00 for 100g cake or $2.98/g.  I’m always a lover of the GuaFengZhai can’t wait to try …

Dry leaves have a sweet forest pungent vegital odour.

Rinsed leaves a a sugary sweet almost melon odour with is really mouthwatering….

First infusion has a sweet sugar pop burst with a wet oily fade out like sugar melting over the mouth and tongue so delicious… feel a bubbling chest Qi and. Mind lift.  Sort of like melon ghostly in the background almost roasted not really mainly a strong sugar melt in the mouth.  Strong Spacy happy uplift with a building chesty Qi feeling face sensations.

Second infusion has a sweet sugar melon forest pop of vibrant sweetness.   There is a bit of roasted hay grains and sticky chalky feeling with deep throat opening and simulation with some saliva producing. Big Qi hits with a spacy happy it cones like a wave overtaking you and finishes happy with some mild face sensations and big chesty feeling building up.  Rejuvenating feelings.  Strong qi.

Third infusion has a creamy melon potato pop of vibrant taste with a bit of faint pucker that follows and throat stimulation a lime melon finish with chalky sticky feeling faint bubble gum tries to breath through in the aftertaste with a somewhat pucker finish,  overall sweet melon mild pucker.l almost floral.   Spacy strong high with limbs light face sensations big opening expanding chest.  Face sweats.

Fouth infusion has a floral soapy sweet taste oily with a melon floral potato forest finish. Sweet through with a lingering light pure sugar taste and sone first finish.  Slight pucker.  Strong spaced out Qi with face sensations.  Airy limbs and big opening chest feeling.

Fifth infusion has a sour sweet melon lime onset there is a forest slight pucker to it more watery and less sweet.  Long cool breath with lingering almost sugar sweetness on breath but a dry mild woodiness develops.  Space out with warming face.

Sixth has a wet watery melon sugar not as sweet taste.  Lingering melon sugar aftertaste with soft silty mouthfeel.  Qi has also dropped off a bit with a mild spacy high and warming face.  Silty fine sandy feeling.

Seventh has a woody watery less sweet sort of bland woody bitterness sandy mouthfeel. Warming face and bit spacy with warming chest.  This has much less stamina especially compared to the two different 2024 ChenYuan Hao ChaWangShu options.  Big Qi comes quickly with flavours but fades early. 

I put the spent leaves into a long mug infusion and it has a bland woody almost floral taste in a sandy mouthfeel.  As it cools it’s more of a melon sugar bitter woody taste. Days infusion is a sweet pop of taste sweet with an oily slight woody pungent forest taste.  There is a bit more deeper forest taste in here in this long infusion than I would have thought….

Alex’s Tasting Notes

Peace 

2024 ChenYuan Hao ChaWangShu: Characteristic ChaWangShu && Warming Qi!

 

Last year I declared the 2023 ChenYuan Hao Chawangshu as “top tier Chawangshu”!  I tried this 2024 ChenYuan Hao ChaWangShu which goes for $220.00 for 100g cake or $2.20/g after sampling the 2024 ChenYuan Hao HuangShan Chawangshu of the same price. I will compare this and the 2024 Essence of Tea following the notes.

Dry leaves have a cooling pungent almost evergreen forest odour under sweet creamy forest odours.

Rinsed leaves have a bready sweet pungent odour.

First infusion has a watery creamy melon oily viscous feeling and long cool breath with return of almost candy sweet melon.  Lots of candy sweet finish!

Second infusion is a bitter sweet pop of sweet melon with a forest cooling long taste.  Strong cooling pungent with a return of melon candy.  Mouthfeel is faintly puckering/ gripping.  Oily viscus feeling with sweet candy coming out.  Open unraveling chest feeling warm chest expansion with done face tingling and stronger heavy spacy a bit slowing.

Third infusion is a pungent spice woody onset with bitter sweet and slight pucker griping mouth.  Heavy and slowing in the body also quite warming in the face and chest.  Astringent pucker is building early with candy melon finish and cooling throat. Long sweet candy in the cooled off cup.

Fourth has a butter cup creamy sweet onset the cooled down cup is really smooth melon creamy sweet buttercup. Oily viscous mouthfeel cooling breath and finish and heavy slowing qi.  Sweet almost lime melon candy finish.  Warming Qi. Smooth visuals sweet cohesiveness.

Fifth has a watery creamy buttercup.  There is a melon creamy sweetness throughout with a mouthwatering candy melon finish.  Heavy spaced out feeling.  Slight dry sticky roof of mouth.  Chest heart beats with warming chest and face.

Sixth has a creamy buttercup woody melon viscus sweet taste.  Slight sour melon with cooling breath and throat.  Creamy smooth melon candy with slowing warming heavy qi feeling.

Seventh is a sweet melon sour creamy candy mouthwatering feeling sticky roof but not dry or gripping.  Cooling throat and lingering candywoody.  Heavy space out with warming chest opening and face warming.

Eighth is a sweet oily viscus watery feeling… warming qi spacy but loosing power.  Woodsy melon sweetness still cool breath. Candy melon creamy fade out in the cooled cup .  Warming face and chest spacy feeling slight mild high.

I put the spent leaf into a long mug infusion and it comes out like bland woody with slight tight mouthfeel and faint lingering sweet taste in mouth. As it cools it mainly turns into bitter wood. Overnight it is more viscous faint sweet melon woody. 

Vs 2024 ChenYuan Hao HuangShan Chawangshu-  the Huangshan has more complex and opposing features of taste and Qi.  The HuangShan has much better stamina but it could indicate a wider blend.  I enjoyed the strength and complexity of the HuangShan more.  The Chawangshu featured here is more of a classic Chawangshu taste and feel with the unique feature being its strong warming energy which I really enjoyed!  

Vs 2024 Essence of Tea Chawangshu - My favourite of the bunch might actually be 2024 Essence of Tea ChaWangShu - like this 2023 ChenYuan Hao Chawangshu it has a very classic taste and feel of Chawangshu but it’s Qi is very strongly euphoric! I enjoyed the 2024 ChenYuan HuangShan Almost as much.  All of these Chawangshu are actually of very high quality but it depends what you are looking for.  I believe from this sampling that the 2024 Chawangshu growing season is better than the 2023. So amazing!!!!

Peace

Tops! 2024 ChenYuan Hao HuangShan Cha Wang Shu

This is the first sample I tried from the complimentary 2024 Yuan Chen Hao samples I recently received!  I sampled the 2023 version of this one last year.  The 2023 ChenYuan Hao HuangShan ChaWangShu came a bit later than the initial group of 2023 ChenYuan Hao samples I did end up sampling it but unfortunately I lost the notes and didn’t post it on the blog.  I remember it was similar to but enjoyed it maybe a bit more than the 2023 ChenYuan Hao ChaWangShu which I had sampled months earlier.  

This 2024 ChenYuan Hao HuangShan ChaWangShu goes for $220.00 for 100g cake or $2.20/g.  So far it is my favourite out of the 2024 ChenYuan Hao samples I’ve tried this week…

Dry leaves are very sweet creamy melon potato… mouthwatering delicious.  Vs the 2024 ChenYuan Hao ChaWangShu which is more pungent sweet the HuangShan is more sweet smelling and less pungent.

Rinsed leaves have a sweet forest pungent odour.

First infusion has a clear watery sweet onset with a pungent forest almost woody faint gamey taste.  Sweet faint long return.  Cooling faint sweeet breath.  Relaxing peace. Some shoulder lightness.

Second infusion has a banana creamy sweet onset with oily mouthwatering feeling in mouth.  Lots of deep throat opening with salivating return of sweet taste.  Chest opening feeling with light shoulders and jaw.  Peaceful spacy feeling with some head bobbling and mind floating away.

3rd has a mild bitter sweet onset with a lingering banana melon woody taste. Slight dry roof of mouth less oily texture.  Deep throat opening.  Jaw and face numb with shoulders light.  Open bubbly chest feeling.  Energetic calm with mind focused but slight spacy floating.

4th has a quick bitter sweetness with a floral soapy melon potato taste.  Pop of complex sweet floral tastes with a sandy mouthfeel and deep throat opening.  Sticky sandy mouthfeeling. Spacy focusing floating feeling with jaw, shoulders light and chest opening.  Spacy tingling feeling while body buzz!

5th juicy fruity burst with mild bitter sweetness.  Oily texture with sticky sand underneath.  Oliy sweet juicy pop then sandy sticky coating left behind.  Spacy coating mind with sharp focusing energy is contrasting but works the effect is a strong qi experience.  Melon sweet taste is left on the breath.  The body is tingling and airy with limbs and shoulders face and jaw open chest feeling. Vibrating feeling!

6th has a bitter sweet woody oily potato melon type of sweet taste the sticky almost dry sandy feeling really coats the mouth and is exposed after the oily sweetness recedes.   chest expanding and bubbling is strong with energetic spacy focus. Body and face tingling with airy floating libs and lots of shoulder things. Buzzy calm is contradictory 

7th has a sweet dry woody potato melon onset.  Strong spacy energetic high.  Body vibration and light softness airy limbs and big expanding chest opening.  Spaced out with strong focusing.  Strong contradicting Qi in body and mind is not disorienting but rather adds to a deeper Qi experience.  The oily/ dry sticky sand mouthfeel and bitter/ sweetness deepens the contrasting feeling that some how works well and adds complexity to this puerh.

8th has a watery woody onset with oily melon sweet return fine sandy mouthfeel.  Sweetness fades as mouth becomes slowly sandy.  Spacy energetic high with all the body things happening!  Tingling high art floating hyper space out.

9th has a sweet buttercup floral with slight melon finish.  Nice floral sweet balance oily.  The compounded qi feeling sends me up, up, and away….  Big chest feeling grounds me in my tingly body.

10th infusion is a melon woody floral oily mouthwatering thing. Cool breath and deep throat faint opening with mild saliva build up there.  Spacy high.  Mouthwatering floral sweet freshness with cooling finish.  Spaced out high with energy!

11th watery woody floral oily sweet with sticky lips.  Mouthwatering deep throat saliva build up.  Great transition through the session and stamina! Very enjoyable mid session to later session!  Very high feeling!  Good stamina in this one!

The long mug infusion of spent leaf is pungent spice and layered sweetness with an oily chalky texture and sticky roof of mouth.  Long deep sweetness sort of floral purfume in throat and breath,  ends in a candy melon taste.

This is an excellent ChaWangShu with complex opposing features and qualities of taste and Qi that make this a treasure to explore in its depths… it has great stamina as well! I liked this one a lot! As it cools it is more floral maybe with a sort of tingling mouthfeel.

Peace

 

2024 ChenYuan Hao Release!!!

 Okay, here we go!!!! Paolo of Puerh.uk facilitated a sampling of the fresh 2023 ChenYuan Hao line up last year and was it ever a treat… so many very high quality Gushu productions for so many of the famous areas in Yiwu.  It offered me a glimpse into what high end boutique Gushu scene was like these days.

I thought the samples for review was a one off thing to launch the new English ChenYuan Hao site… I was surprised that Paolo offered me the 2024 lineup for review again!

I look forward to sampling some that I had missed in 2023 also to compare with Alex’s Tea Notes as he has already started to post some of his….

Peace

2020 Fu Shun Gao Legacy (The Beast): Blended Bulang Beats!

I received this 2020 Fu Shun Gao Legacy “the Beast” (approx $670.00 for 357g cake or $1.88/g) as a free sample with my last purchase from Puerh.uk.  It is another high quality blend of 2015 aged maocha from the same producer as the 2016 Puerh.uk Ethereal which I sampled back-to-back days. 

Dry leaves are a smoky bitter smelling thing…. Very delicious too me!

Rinsed leaves have a very subtle bbq smoke that someone could miss.

First infusion has a watery woody creamy bittersweet.  There is a vegital woody taste.  Creamy sweet no fruity tastes here. Maybe orange peel?  Soft creamy orange finish.  Strong heart beats developing.

Second infusion has a vegital bitter creamy sugar bittersweetness.  Oily mouthwatering with fluffy soft mouthfeeling.  Almost sugar candy hard to grasp sweet return.  Sweetness is left in the mouth. Strong chest beats with spacy mind. Subtle bbq some that is barely there.

Third infusion has a watery creamy sugar sweetness.  There is a vegital woody bitterness with creamy finish.  Spacy mind happy feeling.  This tastes and feels like Bulang material to me.  Fluffy mouthfeel with some bitterness gripping.  Happy strong heart beats and sighs and spaced out feeling.  Energizing boost!

Fourth infusion has a watery melon vegital bitter sweetnes! Chest expanding creamy chalky sweet finish.  Long creamy sweet finish return subtle smoke bbq and vegital bitterness with strong energetic feeling building with strong chest beats and overwhelming strength building.  There is done melon taste in there.  It’s Bulang material here. Vegital bitterness is left in the mouth minutes later.

5th is left to cool and is a slight smoke melon fruity but mainly sweet creamy mild bitter vegital taste.  Faint smoke sweetness very faint smoke with more melon creamy sugar sweet than smoke.  Spacy relaxing feeling now. Rises leaves have that bitter smoke Bulang odour.  Either a Bulang blend or wider blend maybe but not very Lao Ban Zhang even though you can imagine some in here.

6th has a sweet melon creamy sweet taste with a mild bitter finish.  Oily mouthfeel with a slight almost banana returning.  Big chest beats but Turing relaxing.  Sweet mouth finish with not really much smoke.

7th has a sweet oily woody bitter vegital is mild and bitter woody with some cool and creamy sweet return.  Spacy with relaxing feeling now.

8th has a oily fruity sweet with a vegetal bitter taste.  Sweet slight faint smoke.  Very much Bulang but more refined than rugged!

The long mug steeping… has a smoke bitter vegetal with an oily mouthfeeling.  Some woody smoke with underlying sweetness and cool breath.  Spacy relaxing floating vibes with chesty Qi feeling and some jaw tingling.

Overnight infusion of spent leaf is a vegital bitter with oily sweet bright fruity undertones.  Big chest opening energies with deep sighs and energetic feeling.

Big deep energetics with great Qi sensations again!  This source from Puerh.uk is my favourite after ChenYuan Hao and Old Man/ Daniel… of course these two samples were both expensive examples (pictured top is the 2020 Beast, bottom is 2016 Ethereal).

Alex’s Tea Notesb

Peace

2016 Puerh.uk Ethereal: Harmonious, Deep, Complex,

I got this 2016 Puerh.uk Ethereal (approx 464.00 for 357 g cake or $1.30/g) this as a complimentary sample with purchase a year or so ago.  This is sourced from the same producer as the 2020 Fu Shun Gao (Legacy) “The Beast” (and another I like the 2014 Puerh.uk Green Mark Meng Sa) which I will drank back to back and will post next.  I use the term ethereal a fair bit when describing very subtle but complex gentle puerh and I wonder if this namesake will resemble my own concept of what makes a puerh an “ethereal” puerh.  I really enjoyed Alex’s review of this puerh especially his commentary on the nerdy aspects of puerh appreciation… he gets into “ethereal” a bit there.

Dry leaves smell of sweet raisin fresh plum woody.

Rinsed leaves have a sweet plum/ raisin odour.

First infusion has a watery clear taste with sweet icing sugar custard taste with a distant woody bitterness. Sticky mouthfeel.  Long lingering cool pure sugar.  

Second has a plum raison pungent taste sort of faint woody in background. Cooled down it has a raisin sweet onset with expanding sweet layers of sugar, golden sugar, and custard that build into a long sweet taste.  Chest unraveling feeling.  With gentle ease mind high feeling.  Sticky mouthfeel.  Calm visual acuity focusing.

Third infusion has a brassy sweet plum raison there is a nice return of layered sweet tastes.  Creamy custard, sugar, brown sugar.  Oily mouthfeeling.  Long lingering sweet taste with spacy gentle mind easing with sharp vision engaged.  Calm visual acuity and floating bodyfeeling.  Tastes like possibly Lincang or Manghai area… but not sure exactly…

Fourth infusion has an oily sweet taste of sugar/ custard with the oily mouth feeling getting more substantial with each infusion.  There is some faint background woody with sticky mouthfeel that is becoming subtly dry.  Mind spacy with arms light and airy and chest unraveling bodyfeel with some floating body!  Contemplation mind with stillness and visual acuity sharpening.

Fifth is left to cool and it gives off a sour sweet oily woody taste.  Sweet finish.  Spacy high with some face tingling.  Sugar with some background woody raison/plum.  Taste like Lincang maybe?

Sixth infusion has a woody raisin sugar onset .  Oily chalky mouthfeel with slight sour orange in the distance reminds me a lot of Lincang.  Long gentle sweet taste.  Face tingles and arms airy. Focusing and relaxing.  Chest slight swelling feeling.

Seventh has a sour mild bitter sweet infusion in an oily mouth.  Sweet layer taste more orange peel subtle sour now something I get from Lincang and sometimes Northern Menghai regions.  Slight bitterness woody slight almost but not really coco.  Relaxing focus with heart opening chest feeling is unique and deeply powerful!

8th has an oily sweet onset with woody sour bland slight mild bitterness.  Orange peel woody coco.  Slight with sweet finish.  Relaxing focus with unique chest feeling.  Woody bland almost bitterness left in the mouth.

9th is long mug… is woody oily and a bit bitter… overnight… it’s an oily woody bittersweet with slight bitter orange peel and bitter dry woody.  

Overnight infusion of spent leaves is oily with a sweet sugar taste.  Long bring sweet mild taste.

This one is all about that amazing Qi experience- it’s really good. However I’ve had puerh much more ethereal before….. this one has a wonderful deeper complexity and balance to it that those that I consider more “ethereal” would lack.  Overall, this one is more complex and harmonious and deep than ethereal I guess which is definitely not a bad thing.  I like the session and enjoyed the Qi experience a lot!

Peace