DEAR COMRADE 2007 SPRING BULANG RAW PUER

Strong with smoky and intense bitterness.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2007-dear-comrade-blt

I could smell the smoke on this one as soon as I opened the sample envelope. Upon tasting it – if this is ten years of mellowing, I can only imagine what this must have been like young. It’s got that peaty smoky flavor, but balanced by a sweetness. Reminds me of sipping scotch. To be sure, not as smoky as a Lapsang or peaty as Laphroaig, but still quite pronounced! The smoke does eventually tame down, and you get tobacco, wood and some lingering sweetness, but you lose the body pretty quickly too. I don’t usually bother to comment on the “Cha qi” but after the first 150ml I could already feel this lifting my spirits, so to speak.

Not bad, but not altogether to my taste either. Glad I got a sample, probably won’t get a cake.

Sample from Matu. Thank you sir!

I was drinking this throughout the day on Christmas, so my notes aren’t as thorough as they might be if I were writing continually throughout the day. However, fortunately enough, I carry a pocket notebook/pen on my person at all times, so I did happen to note that there were subtle notes of leather, smoke, and a dark fruit (plum, I suppose) within the profile. I also noted that the first two steeps were quite astringent, but died down a little after the third; although, I appreciate these notes whilst drinking Bulang/sheng.

This tea could’ve steeped further, but I moved on after 12 steeps.

Blind bought a cake of this because BULAAANG! It’s pretty nice, and a good price for what it is. Leaf smells smoky and a little bit floral. The first two steeps feature a pretty prominent campfire smoky note and a plummy fruitiness. Baking spices mingle with the plum note as well. It is decently thick in body. The flavor becomes sharper and a little astringent in the next few steeps, though the smoke dies down here. The tea produces a very notable throat feeling for a few steeps – like the feeling when you have phlegm in the back of your throat, but you can’t cough it up sorta. These steeps are all intense, punchy, strong in flavor.

Around steep 5 or 6, the fruit note morphs into a cherry flavor and the tea picks up a slight wood note. It also loses a good bit of strength and body, a trend which continues through to the end of the session, around 11 steeps.

9 Years of age has done much to soften what must have been a kick-you-in-the-teeth kind of tea in its youth, but this still has a good bit of bite to it. I attribute this to its Bulang character and the small material. It gets going quickly, brews strong and hard for a half dozen steeps, and then starts to peter out. Good for when you don’t want an epic-length session but want a tea with a bit of age on it. Not regretting the cake purchase at all.

Very subtle tea that doesn’t require much attention. Easy to sip away at, but nothing special. Doesn’t attack your stomach lining. Not as sweet as a fresh Bulang, but I tend to like younger teas to older ones though because I’m odd.

This one can brew for a while, but I suggest sipping it along with something else because I don’t find this to overtake any notes… maybe it’s just me, but I like to sip side by side.

Thank you to the good tea friend who gave me this sample. This is I think one of the better semi aged teas I have tried. It did start out with notes of leather and tobacco. Early on there was a note of cherry too. This note unfortunately did not last long. It developed into something fairly nice once the notes of leather and tobacco were pretty much gone. Not sure what to call that note. It was what I would call comparatively sweet. Not sweet like the apricots of a young sheng but sweet in comparison to how it had started. Overall I liked this tea and a lot of semi aged teas I do not like. I steeped this twelve times and stopped because I was at my caffeine limit but I think this would have gone a number of more steeps. It was a little weaker in the twelfth steep but not incredibly so. I think I certainly could have gotten another four or five steeps out of it. I could save the leaves but tomorrow I will want to drink something else.

I steeped this twelve times in a 100ml Ruyao Teapot with 7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJdXDoED9gP/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea