Concluding Stan's sampler journey.

The final mystery sample from Stan the Man - sample c.

The dry leaf doesn’t have a ton of aroma. I figured it was sleeping but the rinsed leaf isn’t a whole lot more exciting. Mellow tobacco. The rinse is clear and darker than sample b’s rinse.

1st steep, 10s. Nice color out the gate. The gaiwan lid has a little more aroma on it. Mellow tobacco but now with a hint of fruit. It’s green melon I think. Good grief, *definitely green melon* on the sip. It’s in the forefront, no mistaking it. It might come across as cucumber too. Tobacco is in the body, but mellow and not smoky. A gentle pipe tobacco without the aromatics. There’s also an impression of creaminess. No sweetness yet.

2nd steep, 10 seconds. I think this color and profile puts us in the late 2000’s. It feels like a 2007 tea if that makes any sense. Now, there is some sweetness but not much. The tobacco is heavier now and accompanied with astringency. The green melon is there but has taken the back seat. I’m thinking if it’s the melon aspect you’re wanting from this tea, you’ll have to brew it gently. I might make my third steep 10s as well to see if the melon note becomes dominate again. There is some bitterness now too. The huigan hasn’t sorted itself out yet but it’s flirting with a floral identity.

3rd steep, 10seconds. Now the tea has decided to be complex. Or confused? Tobacco yes, melon yes, but we add what feels like bitter chocolate to me. Huigan is … there it is, juicy fruit gum. Now it’s really starting to feel like liming. Is there a hint of mint? I think so.

4th steep, 20s. Doing a third steep at 10s helped tame this a bit to get back to some of those gentler notes. The tobacco is more integrated now, and gives a peppery vibe. Melon and juicy fruit gum very much at play. There’s a hint of camphor. Bitterness is more subdued, as is the astrigency. This comes across as a summery tea to me. A thirst quencher. It’s solid, good even - but not great. Daily drinker material

5th steep, at 30s and this tea is telling me that it has given up a lot of what it had to offer. The body is thinning, and the subtle notes have faded. We are left with tobacco, astrigency that’s a little gruff, and white sugar huigan with a little bit of that juicy fruit note. Maybe orange citrus. We will stop the notes here as I don’t see this tea developing further.

The reveal! Sample A = 07 poison from puerh junky
Sample B = 2012 dragon teahouse yiwu
Sample C = 04 nanqiao bulang

My preferences were b, c, and a. All were good. A was a bit too smoke dominate for me and my preferences. Stan had me guess prices and I was way off base. Everything was quite a bit more expensive than I guessed, and I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me. I don’t have a large frame of reference for cakes that cost more than 100usd. But my guesses, they were all mostly right, so they sadly (or rightly?) confirmed my biases.

I said I didn’t know the first sample - and recognized it as a smoky tea but it didn’t strike me as xiaguan. I thought it might be a smoky peacock from some other factory in the mid 2000’s. Sample b I guessed 2012-13 yiwu, and guessed it was pricy (I was still over one hundred dollars off). And sample c I guessed 2007ish liming bulang. Stan gave me a hint and said it wasn’t liming so I revised my guess to nanqiao.

Sample A and B reviews can be found below:

This was yet again, another very fun sampler. Stan, you picked some great teas and I am grateful you. Will I be blindfolded again for my next entry? I hope not reader, but do stick around to find out.

PBR.