First package:
Some samples from listening to leaves.
This place is ran by Seo, a pretty reputable person in the western tea world and great sourcer. I also really appreciate his efforts and the more education samplers he puts out.
I got the over time sampler, which is meant to be a vertical comparison of high quality teas from the same garden, processed by the same producer, just spanning over decades. I've always been intrigued to how experienced pu'er drinkers can tell the aging potential of a tea, and the stage a tea is at with regards to aging (awkward middle stage, reached its peak, will age bad, etc). This will be fun to dive into.
The second thing I got was the oolong sampler. I was excited about this as well. I already tried two, the Roasted Tie Guan Yin and the Mi Lan Xiang did not dissappoint at all. Maybe it doesn't convince me to order off TShopNY (where Seo sourced these tea from) instantly, but it is a cool experience for both. Here are some notes I put in the Discord for the Roasted Tie Guan Yin (which I loved):
gawd damn this is good
the roast is integrated unbelievably well with the tea, roasted barley notes into a really nice chocolaty sweet. Florality throughout the whole session on the nose and the aftertaste.
also love how the roasted barley/rice aftertaste just sticks with you
Incredible stuff. The aroma and the empty cup fragrance rivals some good dancongs I have, just in a very different direction. Everything resolves so well with this tea, that's the word I would use, from the roast, the fragrance, the aftertaste, everything. The more intrusive notes you find in trad roast doesn't overstay their welcome and resolves into something beautiful.
Lastly I got some samples of the 90s 7542 comparison set, and the 1996 CNNP Huangyin. I missed out on the old teas sampler from Seo, this is my way of making up for it. Quite expensive, but I need to try a solid solid 1990s pu. Mopar's 1999 7542 (which I own) is good, but the little bit of HK storage dankness has made it too shou for my enjoyment.
Second package:
Really wonderful person over Discord living in Japan helped me forwarded this package from Taiwan (the tariffs suck). I also bought a couple teas from him which he threw in there.
The really, really big playas in this package is the Wisteria teas. Hooooo boy. If you ever end up in Taiwan or Paris please hit up Wisteria Tea House. Absolutely amazing production run by an absolutely amazing tea master. Cakes you might have heard of like the Zhenren Yufeng and the Wangong cake I forgot the fancy name off are all Wisteria cross productions, and are elite. Their house productions if not more so. I'm so pumped to finally order from them direct.
The 2003 Qing Teng has been hyped up to high hell and just taking a sniff of the package I can predict it will not disappoint. Very glad I was able to get my hand on a cake like this.
The other two cakes I got are new releases. A younger sheng and a younger shou. Seo hyped the shit outta the shou so I had to try it. Also these are smaller (200g) cakes so it was less of a monetary commitment. Don't ask me why I turned down the opportunity to split this cake (and the cost) with someone though. I am a chud hoarder and deserve to go broke
In total, I spent QUITE A BITTTTTT of dollars on these two orders alone. You can do the calculation yourself I'm too ashamed to write down the number here. That's just how life is. I really need to buy less tea. But that Roasted Tie Guan Yin.........
Anyways, QT review coming soon?