2009 Youle by Douji

The year 2009 was the only year I bought Douji cakes, only single mountain series, this was the year I first time went to Yunnan and I was lucky to meet there twice the CEO of Douji, a very modest and nice man Mr. Chen. I met him once at it's factory and the second time on Lao Banzhang village.

His cakes age very well and catching on high prices lately. I stored this tea the whole time since its production.

The dry leaves, the cake is very aromatic, a good sign, the warm leaves give a dry plum scent, the rinsed cup, the cup after rinsing brews gives also dry plums, I am making a rather weaken evening brew with lower quantity of leaves, about 3 grams per 80 ml of water.

First brew is sweetie, light, almost like a fresh puerh cake but without the green tea taste, which is I like. This Youle cakes were more bitter I would say in 2009.

Second is rather forgotten, I brew it for about 3-4 minutes, the water was not that hot, so the leaves are not that much exhausted this way. The tea soup is darker Ohh, this one is bitter, but the bitterness fades right away and leaves you with this sweetie-bitterish symphony in your mouth. I did not expect this one to kick in this hard way, but the bitterness is an aging potential for the upcoming years. The cup is after dry plumbs, a mix of dry sweet fruits.

Third is bitterish and tough again, I lack the fruityness, this cakes needs to be forgotten for another 4 years at least. So let's see what this will transform into. 

Fourth is a relieve, I had to stop my session here and do something else.

I returned back to this in the morning, just decide to brew it from the previous night and it is good, really good, no showing any deterioration from about 13 hours rest in the teapot. The bitterness is very pleasant now and it is wrapped in sweet tones, even a further brew is very mature and good. Tea leaves still enduring further flow of hot water, giving very good notes of sweetness.

I decided to have this tea again a day after. This happens rarely with me, but today I thought let it drink again. The first brew is a lot of sweet and delicious. I try to make the second just very short steep time. This is not a complex, multilayer, 3D tea but still very good. I managed not to overbrew the second brew, its enough to leave it just for seconds. The next hours I make time to time a new and a new steeps, this is very relaxing.

In overall this tea is not pure, orthodox gushu cake but still very good base for aging and making a superb cake in an age of about 20 years. 

a hard piece

I just had a few seconds to grab some tea from my stock room. Unfolded a paper wraping with a little of dust and a piece of hard stone like tea leaves tightly pressed. I do not send these pieces, mainly the middle of the cake, to customers. I rather drink them as most of the people do not like getting these hard chunks.

I do not even know what I am drinking. What a relieve not to worry about this and that, just drink your cup of tea. These chunks disolve very slowly and in later infusion they give you a full pot of leaves.

First steep is very light. The first means the one after the two rinsing, washing brews.

The second is very delicious, what a nice melow, fine, bitterish taste. Its like a pu-erh aging for about 2-3 years.

The third is a blow, 5 times stronger that the previous. The chunk is opening. Full, dense, spicy like, honey taste, ripe but still fresh not dry plums, with sugary tones.

The fourth. Golden, coppery, orange clear tea soup. Ohh, this is good, really good. The mind is getting high, mindfull and alert. At the same time quietness settles down. It has a typical bitterness that is ranging from mountain to mountain. My friend Chajotaurus was saying that we eat very little bitter food so that we tend to like the bitternes that found in pu-erh. Could be. The aroma of the cup is perfect, I like that sweetie, fruity scent.

The sixth, is buttery, with bitter coating disapearing in caramel like aftertaste. It is really there, the caramel like Toffee like taste. I found this recently in one top grade coffe I tasted in one small coffee roasting shop. The first I had a coffe prepared more like a tea, just driping through a paper sieve.

The seventh is here, more caramel, dryness and thirst for plain water. Uhh, I like water, warm water with clean aftertaste, even the aftertaste has a tendency to change.

Even a left over, hard chunk makes your mind happy and optimistic. Gives you bliss and hope for the upcoming days. Was this Bulang or Youle? It does not matter.

It was Bulang, the aftertaste I recognize a few hours later, so typical for this mountain. I felt it even a day later and I thought I would drink gushu pu-erh only every second day, to appreciate it more and not have a daily aftertaste mixed up with one from the other day. 

Naka, the first, 2013

ezorro tea diary
28.9.2013

Nice weather, my crutches, empty house, I am enjoying the solitude with a little dust of tea. This tea is great I know that. Even it is dusty grade from the bottom of the box, it can make a nice sunny autumn afternoon.

Heavy, sweetie aroma from the aroma cup hits my nose. The saliva is gathering in my mouth. Mellow, bitterish taste with sweetie hints waters my mounth. Cold aroma cup still smells the same. I will give her a second brew to bath. Baked notes with bitter aftertaste. Do not force your tea be something that is not, there is no perfect tea, there is no perfect state. The teapot cup smells of vegetal tones of green tea. This tea is a very young one.

I have made rather three brews at once so that I do not have to be jumping on one leg to have more

hot water. One wrong step makes you many days thinking and bearing with your one leg jumping and with hands clutching your crutches. We do forget about our fragile and aging body we carry. 

The next brew gives you a fine, typicall puerish bitterness, found in most of tea puerh teas, ranging from plantation grades to old tree teas. Wild sharp honey aroma, melow sweetish bitterness, the melownes is the sweetness in it, the ticking of the kitchen clock, occasional street noises. A fear of interuption of this quit afternoon. Why not to relax and leave the things what they are?

Sweetness of the fith brew satisfy my expectation. I have had this tea a several times but still a worthwhile session when one really melts with the tea drinking is missing.

Dryness in my mouth makes me to drink clear water. A warm, clean water gives all the tea tastes the correct frame.

Root vegetables notes, backed up with gushu aftertaste, the fine, refined, bitterness that I like so much. Nutty tones, contraction of the mouth sides, dryness, watery, clear like mountain streams feeling. I have to do another 3 brews that makes up the 12.

Drinking warm clean water is super sweet now. What an aftertaste?

P.S. Even before going to bed, the aftertaste is there, I decide not to brush my teeth and go to be with it.