Hello all. I'm drinking some 2005 Xi-Zhi Hao Nan Nuo purple tips that I got as a sample from Hou De. Xi-Zhi Hao (actually Xizi Hao, but who cares, right?) is a newish brand of single-estate pu'er, produced by a Taiwanese company. It's pretty expensive but very high quality, as far as I can tell. I noticed that Sensei Petro recommends the Lao Ban Zhan (actually Laobanzhang, but again, who cares) on his website. I like the LBZ too, but the Nan Nuo really does it for me, for some reason. It's very young, obviously, but really round and complex and has this faint pepper taste that I really like.
So, I have two questions:
One, has anyone else tried the Nan Nuo, and what do you think about it?
Two, generally when you are drinking a new pu'er, what are some clues that it will be a good aged pu'er ten years down the line? In other words, what do you look for in a new pu'er that indicates to you that it will age well?
Thanks, any advice or thoughts would be appreciated.
The problem is that most of us can only relay what we have been told as very few have collected puerh long enough to know for themselves first hand. To find someone who "really" knows you need to find someone who bought a cake thirty years ago, tasted the same cake every year, and kept good notes about his tastings. There are not many of those people around, and the vast majority of them do not speak English.
Collective wisdom based on what I have been "told" is to look for a cake with a certain energy about it, a certain strength, a certain "qi". Mild and mellow cakes that taste good now are allegedly not good candidates for storage. Look for even compression, not too tight, not too loose. Definitely look for cakes that were made from maocha that was sun dried and NOT mechanically dried (ie baked). Storage is probably the strongest influence over the final quality, assuming it was good leaf to begin with. There is also a great deal of luck involved, if people could accurately predict which cakes would be great the entire productions would get snatched up by investors. Even the Masters are only speculating, albeit with much better results than us laowai.
To further complicate matters it appears that 2005-2006 maocha is not of the same quality as maocha from years gone by. China's newly affluent families have created such a demand for puerh that almost any maocha is being used regardless of quality. The standards appear to have been lowered. There is even speculation that the puerh bubble will crash in a year or two. To sum it up, 2005-2006 cakes may not be the best choice for aging.
Most people are now considering tea from 2003 and before to be the stuff that's going to have true value in the upcoming years. The uneduated locals here have bought up pu'er as if it were an oil reserve; I know a guy that bought 300jin of some really low quality qi zi bing from some unknown factory simply because he thought it, "was [is] a good investment". I recently went to market to see if I could find some 2003 aged stuff, and even most of that has been bought up.
[Mike Petro on what to look for in a good storage candidate cake]
some snipping
I rely on you for such information, and thank you for sharing it with us. Meanwhile, another question: Mao Cha comes in any number of "grades" ranging from one to perhaps 20, and also letter codes that indicate qualities better than "1." It is my understanding that those cakes most amenable to good development over time would be cakes that are *not* produced solely from leaf of the highest quality -- according to the scales -- but rather from leaf that mixes "higher" and "lower"quality. (This does not contradict your statement about 2005-2006 leaf, but I think it bears discussion.)
Also, those cakes made from one single certified ancient tree -- please don't run out to try to find one -- would most likely maintain their quality each year, regardless of how the mixed leaf cakes fluxuate, would it not?
Mike, that was very useful. Thanks a lot. Some of the very young pu'ers that I have sampled taste strong and somewhat zingy or peppery, and have a kind of intense energy about them. I'll lay down a few of those and see what happens. It's interesting because the quality that I think you're talking about is exactly what I like best about young pu'er anyway.
As far as the risk of buying bad tea, I don't know. I feel that, while I am certainly not one of these Robert Parker (or Teaparker) types that can tell you what farm on what mountain produced the tea, and what was wrong with the water and pot used to brew it, I can tell good tea from bad, and more importantly, I can tell tea that I like from tea that I don't like. I think the idea of laying down bingchas as an 'investment' (rather than as something for me to drink when I'm retired) is a ridiculous one, all the more so because of the current boom. What are these investors expecting to get as an annual return? And when it comes time to sell the things in twenty years, how are they going to convince the buyer that it's not fake? I would think it's easier to tell fake young pu'er from fake old pu'er, no?
Tea is one of the primary pleasures in my life. I like wine a lot, and I like good tobacco, but I like tea a lot more. And, it's cheap. A single glass of good wine (at least, of the best wine that I ever buy) can cost $12. Hou De is a dependable and good, but certainly not inexpensive, retailer. Their most expensive cake is from the 70's, and costs a (to me) stunning $525. Weighing 350g, I would get about 70 pots out of that (mmm ... 70 pots ... what a nice thought) which breaks down to $7.50 per pot. So each cup would end up costing me less than a dollar!
Tea is cheap. Chinese nouveau riche are just as dumb (if not dumber) as nouveau riche anywhere, and they have tons of money to throw at stupid stuff, but they are going to have to throw a lot of money at pu'er for a long, long time before even the really expensive stuff is out of reach for the average Western consumer. Japanese and Taiwanese buyers drove up the price of first-growth Bordeaux in the 80s, and drank it mixed with Sprite (true story), but that didn't mean that it was impossible for us plebians to get our hands on very good wine at reasonable prices.
Anyway. I like this Nan Nuo very much. It's got a real eye-opening quality to it. I think I'm going to spend another couple months buying and drinking samples before I go spending hundreds of dollars on cakes, but right now, this one is a prime candidate.
At the moment I'm drinking a 1999 Hai Wan raw 7548 that was graciously included in my order as a free sample from Seb and Jing. It's very smooth and tasty but not quite as good as a 2000 Fu Hai that came in the same batch. Thanks again everyone for your thoughtful comments.
Ahhh,yes. The "quality", in the context that I intended it, was in no way related to "grade". Quality has to do with the pedigree of the trees from which the leaf was picked, as well as climate, drying skills, etc; grade is just a classification of leaf size. The Yunnan Large Leaf varietal (Da Ye), from which all "authentic" puerh is made, has some exceptions to traditional grading that encompass the larger than normal, often wild, leaves. Cakes made entirely from small sweet leaves are not good candidates for aging, generally you want a healthy portion of the larger grades in there for the "strength" component which is where you see the biggest transformation over time. Conversely, some cakes made entirely from larger grades of leaf are often quite good when aged. Smaller leaf tends to be sweeter, particularly if it includes the buds. The larger leaves are often bitter when young but, if of good pedigree, become sweet and mellow with age.
A lot of good cakes have a blend of lower grade (ie larger leaf not necessarily lower quality) leaf for strength and character, usually positioned on the inside of the cake, mixed with higher grade (ie smaller leaf not necessarily higher quality) for sweetness. The smaller prettier leaf is often on the surfaces of the cake for appearance reasons. Other "single plantation" cakes can be made of a single grade leaf, particularly if the trees are wild. Just because a cake is from a "single plantation" does not make it good, it still depends on the pedigree of the trees.
Cakes made from "Truly" ancient trees are a bit of an exception; for one thing they are quite rare and very seldom make their way into public distribution. Chinese aristocrats get the bulk of them. When found they are generally VERY expensive. They will always be a good investment as the true aficionados will always treasure them even if the mass-market bubble was to burst. I am not sure that "every" ancient tree yields good leaf, but I have not heard of any that don't. Be very wary though as the terms "ancient" and "wild" are buzz words used extensively for marketing purposes and are often only partially true or not true at all. Many supposedly "wild" cakes only have 10% or less truly wild leaf in them and are blend with leaf from other cultivated trees. Don't expect to get an authentic
100% "wild" or "ancient tree" cake for $20 or less....
Not delving into any greater subjects better covered by others, I'll say that I really like the Nannuo beeng. I don't get pepper, but I get something sweetly herbal out of it, like tarragon or fennel, that I really like.
I am no where near as qualified to answer this question as mike is, but I think I can offer a little insight in the way of one sentence:
In China, any certification can be bought as well as any distinction or award.
"Ancient tree" and "wild", they are indeed buzz words used for marketing purposes. The tea from most of those old trees are not allowed to be touched except by very high ranking officials in China. And, there aren't that many old trees left. Most pu'er is now grown on knee high bushes in huge amounts, thus flooding the market and actuating the situation that Mike has described.
It's just like the Da Hong Pao bushes in Fujian. The local government actually just forbade people from harvesting the tea from these bushes, but you can still find "real" Da Hong Pao in every teashop in China.
While at the wedding rehearsal I got a chance to talk to my new nephew-in-law. A while back I gave him some black puer bricks. He said it is the most amazing growth medium he had seen for making Kombucha. He apparently forgot the fermentation already had a head start. The luncheon was completely organic from the dairy farm he is buying from his parents. I'd clog my arteries on unpasturized milk and butter everyday of the week if I had a chance.
Jim
PS It's almost to the point where the seller is out of stock before it hits the website. On one recent order I got the last 5 from an alotment of 3000 2005 Menghai Dayi 501 100g fang in the box. I tried to order 10. They're gone for this year. I see some around in the
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