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Tuo Cha vs Cake

By now some of you may be aware that I recently purchased my first Tuo Cha, - "Late 70's Lang Cang Silver Tip semi-cooked tuo cha' from Hou De. (Thanks for the help decrypting the label folks).

Brewed this using multiple short steeps (as I would my cooked cakes) and I found a most interesting character. First sips I noticed the typical cooked pu'er richness and aroma, woody, soft earthy notes etc. A few seconds in, after the brew had 'rolled' around my mouth, there arose a most distinct sweetness - as if one would melt a single raw sugar crystal on the tongue. This sweetness combined with the typical pu'er characters made, for me, a very pleasant and enjoyable experience. My wife and I were blown away.

Is this typical of the leaf/process used in most tuo cha or would this sweetness be attributed to the silver tips used in the tea ?

Alas, Hou De seemed to be out of this particular tuo cha and I can't seem to be able to find another vendor who still has stock (I can't believe I bought the very last piece in existence), so if anybody knows of someone who may be able to supply some more of this wonderful tea, I'd appreciate any pointers.

Reply to
Mal from Oz
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No, I was the one, who bought the last one tuo-cha from Guang :-)

But If I could reccomend, try his 80 menghai brick. Beautiful leaves, bold, strong tea with great taste and even is cheaper ! (the 70s tuo was 55 USDD for 100 g, this menghai is 115 USD for 250g, mean 46 USD for 100 g)

You can find the brick here

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Reply to
Balt

Thanks for the recommendation, I will definitely look into it. Have you tasted the 70's Tuo Cha yet ? If so did you experience the sweetness I described ?

Reply to
Mal from Oz

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I find that most "silver tips" touchas and cakes tend too be "sweeter", gentler that most. Shop around. I just got a lovely silver tips from Scott at yunnansourcing and some inexpensive ($5.60 - Six Famous Mountain 2005) touchas from touchatea.com. Hou De has a couple of newer "silver tips" touchas, as well. I also have a small bag of loose silver tips from Camillia in Canada that is very tasty. Shen Shen

Reply to
Shen

I like Golden Bud shou in the form of a melon. Lew was right it will probably be the first shu you will like. I don't think you can go wrong with any puer if it has the word Bud in it. Also look for the word GongTing. That also is indicative of premium leaf.

Jim

On Apr 11, 8:32 am, "Shen" wrote: ...

Reply to
Space Cowboy

Mal wrote: "...By now some of you may be aware that I recently purchased my first Tuo Cha, - "Late 70's Lang Cang Silver Tip semi-cooked tuo cha' from Hou De. (Thanks for the help decrypting the label folks)..."

Hi Mal, just a little pedantic thingy...I think it is Lin Cang, not Lang Cang.

The time period also seemed a little questionable...there were some discussion elsewhere on the time period for this tuocha.

Taiwanese vendors and collectors. Professor Deng Shihai (his professorship is not tea, or agriculture related), may be the first to set the age of this tuo at 1970's. Pictorial books published by Taiwanese later also put it at 1970's.

Mr Zou Jiaju, who has worked in pu'er business for 30 years and researched extensively into the background of pu'er, disputed the claim. He claimed that up till 1984-86, the state governed the working of the tea business in Yunnan - Lin Cang Tea Factory was in charged of producing black (red) tea, and was one of the several purchaser and collection centre of pu'er maocha for the bigger factories, such as Xiaguan and Menghai Tea Factories. To corner the market on tuocha, no other factories were allowed to produce tuocha except Xiaguan and later, Menghai Tea Factories.

In 1984, the state no longer govern the tea business in Yunnan, and the running of the factories were managed by individual factories. This was when Lin Cang Tea Factory began its productions of tuochas.

Chapter 5 of the Yunnan Province Tea Import & Export Corporation Annals 1938-1990 appeared to have confirmed what Mr Zou argued. Professor Zhou Hongjie in his book Yunnan Pu'er also set the time period for the Lin Cang Sheng Silver Tip tuocha at 1982, and the shou tuocha at 1986.

Who is right and wrong is still in dispute, what is more important is the tea itself, and as long as it was not ridiculously priced and that you like it. Beyond that, it is just an unimportant piece of information...

My shou Lin Cang Silver Tip has a slight medicinal note to it, it is more pronounced on the 1st to the 4th round, then it receded to let a vanilla sweetness take centre-stage. It is a very satisfying tea, one to idle away a long afternoon...

Danny

Reply to
westwoode

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Reply to
Balt

Danny, Yes, this was cleared up previously - thanks - I was just quoting what the tea was advertised as on Hou De. Ridiculously priced ?? US$54 is what I paid. Probably a little high in retrospect if, as you noted, the tea is not quite as old as advertised.

But also as you said, I find this particular tuo cha very pleasing to drink and I have put it up there amongst my favourites to date. I'd actually buy more if I could find it.

Whilst age of tea is sometimes open for dispute I also find that the mysteries and myths relating to a tea's provenance to be part of the fascination of the pursuit of tea.

Cheers Mal Oz

Reply to
Mal from Oz

It is indeed the interesting part - and also the frustrating part, especially when you love and pay for a tea at a price befitting that of an older age but found it should be much cheaper - it's like paying the price of an Audi for a Honda - now that will really peeved me.

Forgot to mention that at the time of the production, there was no such thing as 30% raw 70% shou for this tuocha. It was either raw or shou.

Danny

Reply to
westwoode

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