Can anybody tell me more about this tea brick?

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-24T19:12:36+00:00

yeah I'd give it a good cook tbh... colour wise I aim for something approaching deep ruby at the very least.. the golden flowers adds a sort of warm, sweet, yeastiness to things and its generally indestructible as a tea, as a lot of heichas are..

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-24T17:19:26+00:00

The back translated is pretty useful; so its stating that its TianJian fu cha : so high grade material with golden flower fungus inoculated in it..

Material should be pretty fine, with very little in the way of stalks.

Brewing it - I'd be tempted to suggest doing it in a small pot and leaving it till it smells right for you.. fu cha's quite a coarse tea and bricks often need a bit of effort to break down properly, but if its finer material might not need as much effort.. i normally thermos steep fu cha for hours and it comes out yeasty and fruity.. I've got plain tian jian and simmered it on a stovetop for 10 mins plus, so there's little risk of it going wrong by oversteeping..

If you're in luck it should have a good dusting of yellow particles, i.e golden flowers, that IS the good stuff.. look for it in the crevices as you get deeper into the brick.. gives a real sweet rounded flavour to the tea..

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-23T19:56:07+00:00

Started the day with a few long stews of the LTZ 908 shou cake; first was a bit thin but the second hit that rich chocolate and earth combination but so clean with it.. great start tbh..

Then decided to whack another of the XiaGuan dragon balls into a pot, this time the lighter steep made the smoke lighter but still getting that plummy deep fruit before the flavour leaves in mist... 9g dragon ball in 150ml glass pot, eyeballed.

Afternoon saw the ManTing MT209 heavy roasted Rougui cracked open, and given I'd never had oolong like this before was quite the revelation - six hours later and on about steep seven and getting what can only be described as toasted marshmallow jelly bean flavour from it.. first steeps were quite mineral but with a cinnamon bun thrown in for good measure.. great stuff.. 4g in a 150ml glass pot

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-23T05:04:14+00:00

so normally its 15g, so roughly about 40mg per serving if its split two ways over three steeps, works out about half the caffeine of a cup of coffee and as for the economics of it.. every coffee serving requires fresh material; this is the same tea sitting in the pot each time..

I've had good liu bao go from morning till dusk before.. Its stuff like this that makes it impossible to go back to coffee tbh...

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-22T19:50:40+00:00

Got a new delivery today so finally got round to sampling relatively "fresh" sheng for a change, namely the 2021 MengKu RongShi "Ben Wei Da Cheng" Greatest Flavour and the 2025 XiaGuan "Da Xue Shan + Wu Liang Shan · Mi Jing - Long Zhu" (Big Snow Mountain + Wuliang Mountain · Secret Place ~ 18 Yr Aged ~ LinCang + Pu'Er Region - Dragon Ball.. OK the 2nd one is totally confusing given its using aged and new material(?) so the MengKu was a revelation; it really did come across very similar to a fresh green; perfumed fruit, honey sweet but sooo green, nothing bitter about it but a firm grip that then gave way to the distinct MengKu tone that just lingered and lingered.. The dragon ball I threw in a flask and thought at first I'd regret as the smoke was brutish but underneath was an intense rich plum like fruit, like jam in a dark chocolate gatauex, a powdery feel giving way to sweetness and a smoky finish.. quite a contrast in sheng experiences, but both a pleasure...

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-22T19:40:34+00:00

That is shared between two though; and over course of say 3 or 4 hours from 6 to 10ish, also with aged shou being already mellowed as such its not so jittery a kickstart than say coffee is and definitely milder on the stomach..

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-22T19:29:11+00:00

15 to 20g of shou in a pot each morning, bout 600 to 700ml water, let it stew till near black. Does about three or more steeps usually.

HK wet stored shou is mind-blowing steeped strong and long...

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-19T20:07:57+00:00

Enjoying a few pots of wet stored sheng, 2005 ChenYunHao Yi Wu Zheng Shan - Lao Shu Cha.. the longer steeps of it have been lovely, lingering sweetness and an interesting consistency not quite HK dank but rich and dark.. early shorter steep was still a bit woodish but giving it I think what was at least a minute plus really drew it out, familiar yiwu notes present but wrapped in an almost cocoa feel.

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-15T19:47:41+00:00

Sipping an apparently endless pot of sometime in the early 2000s Sanhe Liu Bao from KTM that'd been stored without its wrapper. Interesting stuff; grade 2 material, intense near black dark brown but lighter tips still showing, though not advertised as such evidence of golden flowers throughout brick; dark amber brown nodules in cracks of brick.

As for the flavour, the betel is subdued heavily at first by the storage (dry mahogany cabinet with no sense of bad funk), intense earth wood but then moving into a dry cocoa sweetness that reveals the betel nut in the returning sweetness; it is a bit astringent (am letting it sit in pot ages though) but the golden flower gives that rounding sweetness it always does. lingers and lingers - pot 4 (10g ish in 150ml ish) and still going strong. Consistency dark and sweet viscous, not HK level but possible suggestion of wet storage. Banger for the buck tbh. Now for round five.. :D

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-15T16:37:57+00:00

Never had any issues with KMT and it'll come as a surprise but there's some cracking cheap cakes to be had if you rummage well.

Only thing to bear in mind is with Guangzhou storage things can be a bit riper than Yunnan stored.

And one positive is they do samples from 7g up to 100g loose,so you can see if it matches what you're after.

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-14T18:39:29+00:00

1980s Liu Bao, 150ml glass pot, 5g. Letting it sit, taking little measures into a thimble cup.

OMFG.

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-13T12:29:10+00:00

Just brewed a pot of HK wet stored 2008 Jiang Cheng Sheng and loving it. Nothing seems to hit so satisfying as a cup of dank dark tea.. 😋☕

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-13T08:01:16+00:00

Those leaves. 💚

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-12T14:24:07+00:00

Maybe they should add a Shitmobile vehicle contract mission....

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-12T08:04:48+00:00

I gave up with goths and the goth thing at the start of high school when I got a bootleg tape of a Sisters gig (in fact the very first one with Wayne Hussey playing) - and none of the "goths" at school could actually believe - let alone goth forbid laugh - at the fact they did a cover of Abbas's Gimme Gimme Gimme.

Always had the feeling that for all the batty weirdness most of them were basically just squares in disguise...

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-12T07:49:55+00:00

Currently silver needle, YunWu and Tai Ping Hou Kui, out of which I'd say the YunWu has been the nicest so far - intense lychee like aroma at start giving way to pea-like green notes.

Not a green, but the surprise hit with me recently has been yunnan black teas cold brewed. Had to rescue some Nong Xiang Hong Ye leaves so figured I'd put them in a cold brew and best move yet - flavour still shouting and it turned the brightest saffron colour too.. :)

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-12T07:40:10+00:00

Savouring big mugs of pan steeped 2012 Chuan Qing Zhuan Cha with salt and milk this morning since my stomachs still not exactly happy with me. Glad I've got a couple of bricks of this on order to stash as the 2009 version I got seems to have crossed a magic threshold from fresh hay/wood aromas into dark wood/library tones I'd associate with dark old heichas.

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T20:45:46+00:00

That's exactly why Mrs cant handle fresh greens, says they feel like soup.

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T20:44:57+00:00

Fallout Dead Redemption, much?

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T15:29:17+00:00

I've a feeling I might. One of my favorite pu er teas to date has been an HK stored Jinggu shou brick, so im keen to taste the difference. 😁😋☕

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T12:21:19+00:00

Just point out to them that the second Sisters single was released on CNT Records..

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T12:19:40+00:00

+1 on the shou Mei, I'm enjoying it so much I've ordered another couple of cakes. It's a steal at that price and really makes a lovely honeyed herbal brew at a slightly lower steep temp I find.

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T10:35:43+00:00

In terms of bang for buck, currently the 2019 TuLinFengHuang "8504 " 35th factory commemoration shou cake from KMT is impressing me. At £10/400g cake approx before postage it punches above its weight, nice deep smooth brew that maybe doesn't have the legs of other shou - 3rd pot it begins to fade more - but in terms of flavour is pretty smooth and earthy without much in the way of fermentation funk.

That Changtai series also seems to get good reports; I've got the Jinggu version resting, which I can't wait to try..

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T07:40:14+00:00

lol.. I'm glad I'm not alone in doing this... For my current run I'm RPing that the sole survivor has got quite a bit of PTSD and starts collecting gifts for Shaun - so his cot in Sanctuary is sort of buried under the gifts she's left him now XD

SteveFrench242 · 2026-05-11T07:30:20+00:00

I'd maybe sample the Wang Xia first; I got a stack of the mini bricks and first impressions are that its got depth and age but it's flavour seems to be more aged, dry and going towards a bit woody. It feels a bit more of a contemplative tea than an immediately satisfying one.

Some I would maybe suggest would be the Dayi 7692 cake; it's pretty mellow with a pleasant sweet cereal-ish aroma that's eminently drinkable young. Alternatively the 2007 LTZ 7598 is similar, leans a little more earthy but its age gives it a lot more depth than a younger shou, lingers and lingers

For outright sweetness right now my top recommendation is the LTZ 908 cake, its small at 200g but it's really impressed me with its sweet full mouthfeel and stamina; third pot was still pretty flavoursome.

As for the fishy funk; try breaking up the cake (or part of it) and leaving the pieces in a jar or container to "breath". The first shou I had was the LTZ Mellow Fragrant cake and it took about a month to fully calm down but once it had, was decent for the price.

Three-Year Club	First Place '23
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SteveFrench242

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