A Tea Addict's Journal

Zhizheng 2005 Xiangzi

August 19, 2009 · 3 Comments

Zhizheng is an outfit I’ve discussed before once.  I found that tea to be very good, though expensive.  In fact, nothing on that site is cheap, but are they all as good?  I bought three samples, and I tried another one out…

All green cakes look the same when you have it in small chunks, so leaves themselves don’t really tell much of a story.  This is the Xiangzhi cake that they have, 357g for a somewhat pricey $240 or thereabouts, especially considering that this is tea that is less than five years old.

I used my usual young puerh pot, and brewed this thing up, consuming much of the sample I got.  I must say that this tea is actually quite pleasant.  It’s soft but strong, without the intense bitterness that the Hongyue has.  It’s a bit sweeter than that.  The tea definitely shows its age of a few years, and it wasn’t stored in a very dry climate either.  It’s also quite thick, and you can see the bubbles on the surface of the tea – these things do a pretty good job of approximating the thickness of a tea.  It has legs, and will keep brewing.  All in all, a well rounded, well made, well stored puerh.  If only I can say the same about the price.  I personally find it hard to shell out that kind of money for a cake of tea.  I’m sure others will disagree and gladly gobble it up.  After all, somebody must be buying this to keep them in business.

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3 responses so far ↓

  • HobbesOxon // August 20, 2009 at 2:12 am | Reply

    By odd coincidence, I was going through my browser’s “tea” bookmarks just a few hours ago, and came across “Zhi Zheng”. What’s this? Where did it come from? Then, I saw the Hongyue cake and remembered your article, which explains why I have this vendor bookmarked. Then, another article from you – perfect timing. 🙂

    Toodlepip,

    Hobbes

    P.s. 167 euro = $237 is somewhat exploitative to say the least!

    P.p.s. I humbly disagree with your comment about dry leaves – their aroma and appearance can correlate qutie well with certain characteristics in the cup, no?

  • MarshalN // August 20, 2009 at 10:18 am | Reply

    Certainly, but you can’t smell the leaves through the web (wish we can!). If it’s only a small chunk, and if it’s a picture, then there are all kinds of problems — lack of scale, random selection biases, etc, that render the picture relatively meaningless.

    Whole cakes or at least large pieces is a different story — in those cases I think you can say a lot about a cake.

  • jasonwitt // August 21, 2009 at 7:33 am | Reply

    It’s good to hear about a Puer that has aged well in just five years. In this case the vendors know what it’s worth and charge accordingly. That’s why they also wanted this tea reviewed here–they knew it would be praised. I’d be interested in it myself. However, I can’t afford hundreds of dollars for a lb of tea either. I guess it’s just going to be sensible to try tiny samples of teas like this. –Spirituality of Tea

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