Shu to shu

What a great morning of tea fun and deliciousness!  Maybe a little heretical experimentation too, but I'll get to that soon enough.  First, let me introduce my new tea cup, a yunomi by Colorado artist D. Michael Coffee.  Although he makes beautiful functional ware with a wide vocabulary of glaze work (you can purchase some of his work at his etsy shop here), he also does impressive sculptural pieces and 2-D prints, as well.  His work is well worth seeking out.  I purchased this cup and one other from him.  I'm definitely going to keep an eye on his work.  Good quality with a great eye toward the kind of organic wabi sabi beauty that never ceases pleasing the eye.

I love how the green glaze of the cup echoes the deep wet greens of the NW

Inspired by MattCha's recent post about a delicious shu he sampled, and feeling more in the mood for something smooth and maybe a little sweet, I nosed through my sample packets for some shupu.  I decided to try out something from Hou De's selection, an 80's CNNP Shin Ya loose cooked puerh, from the Guang Dong Factory.  As I poured a little from the package it reminded me a lot of the gong ting I have from New Century Tea Gallery.  Worried that it might also carry the super strong earthy taste of the gong ting I put a little less into the gaiwan than I might have normally.

The initial aroma was reminiscent of that wet storage smell from the thick papered MengKu from my last tea session, although it wasn't quite so strong and was mixed in with plenty of dark sweet earth.  I did a quick 5-second steep, poured the watery espresso-colored liquid and gave it a taste.  I was surprised to find a light sweet sensation bouncing around in my mouth.  But it was very subtle, more "sensation of sweet" than sweet itself.  The color of the liquor was a bit on the light side for what I'd expect from a shu as well, so I decided to add some more leaves to the gaiwan and do a bit longer infusion.

About 12 seconds this time for steeping.  The smell and taste is all dark smooth earth and I'm surprised at a bit of dryness at the back of my tongue.  Not what I would expect from a shu.  The sweet sensation isn't present this time and I wonder if a lighter hand with the infusion time will bring it back, so I brew another 5-second infusion.  Yes, that subtle sweet sensation is back, but it's light and you really need to pay attention to feel it.  The aroma reveals a sweet maltiness at the very edges, but again it's extremely subtle.  For the most part, this tea is all dark smooth earth.  Not particularly complex.  Reminds me a lot of the gong ting except maybe not quite as dark and intense.  I brew a few more infusions of varying length, but I'm not finding myself all that excited or interested in this tea.

Feeling a little bored and unfulfilled I decide to pull out another shupu sample to do a taste comparison.  Linda Louie of Bana Tea Company sent me a few shu samples some time ago and I sort through them to choose.  One is a loose cooked shu with just some handwriting describing it as a 1992 Ripe Puerh.  It looks similar to the 80's CNNP and probably only a few years younger -- a great candidate for a taste-and-compare.

The dry leaves are just a tad bit larger than the CNNP but otherwise look the same.  Load up the gaiwan, do a rinse and it's time for that first whiff.  Wow!!  Big difference!  "Chocolate butter cake" is the first thing to come to mind, but this is no sugary-sweet brew.  It's much more unsweetened cocoa and butter than sticky sweet cake.  Not "sweet" so much as deep yummy richness.  Plenty of coffee and dark wood, as well.  Some distant fruit around the edges.  Wonderfully complex, I can hardly pull myself away from taking in the many fragrances.  A first infusion of 5 seconds -- the liquor pours dark like the CNNP, but is much warmer in tone.  More deep oranges and reds while the CNNP was more in the plain-brown category.  Like the aroma, the taste is pleasant and strong with lots of unsweetened cocoa and coffee, lingering off slowly after each sip.  This is the kind of tea that Seattle-ites could go nuts for.  Dark and rich, like some kind of rare, unique and hard-to-find sustainably-sourced coffee.  With the right packaging and savvy marketing this stuff could become a local legend, I have no doubt.

Another 5-second brew and I'm detecting vanilla notes now as well as high fruity tobacco.  It's got me thinking of mole' sauce, not in the aroma or taste but in how so many flavor notes are present that are normally associated with sweet, yet this is decidedly savory.  Deep roasted coffee, dark cocoa powder, dark spices and tobacco.  So rich and complex.  I'm hugely tempted to try adding a bit of cream to it just to spread and round out the flavors slightly.

(warning: Chinese tea blasphemy, but oh so good)

7-seconds this time, the aroma starts off with more sweet creamy earth this time, then heads into coffee and cocoa.  As the leaves cool a fruitiness arises, like tart coffee berries.  I pour it into two cups this time.  I've got to try out the cream idea!  Tried some 2% milk first.  Interesting but not enough to make me a convert.  Some slight banana notes show up in the taste, interestingly.  With the next infusion I try some plain rice milk instead of cow's milk, thinking the slight sweetness of the rice would be a good thing.  *YES*  This is definitely the way to go (rice milk over cow's milk).  I wouldn't describe it as sweet-tasting, but the natural sweetness of the rice milk complements the tea nicely.  Yum!  There's a bit of tropical fruitiness that's wonderful, too.  But this tea is just as good sans milk.  I spend the next few infusions drinking it both ways.  They're both so good.

Overall, this 1992 Ripe Puerh from Bana is a pure delight.  The kind of tea that makes me lose all sense of time as I get lost in the tastes and aromas and complexity of it.  I don't see it listed on Bana's website, though.  I don't know if this was just something extra they sent me because I tend to buy a lot from them, or if it's yet to appear as one of their ripe puerh selections.  I'd love to have more than just a sample of this one.