2011 BaDa (Pu-erh.sk)

35 Jing: Proceeding Forward

Things cannot remain forever in great strength.
Thus, after Great Strength, Proceeding Forward follows.

[The complete I Ching by A. Huang, 2010: 293]

Today I Ching tells me to realize that the Sun is rising over the Earth. A simple truth we tend to forget whenever we experience something as present without a chance to see the end. The truth is that everything changes and proceeds forward, after a dark night a new day follows and that's how it is.

Proceeding should be stable, gradual and steady. Without experience we want to proceed but are held back. I see many patterns in my life that correspond with this simple principle. Without experience it is difficult to respond. The advise is to be calm and unhurried. Things cannot remain forever in Great Strength but neither in its weakest position as the change is unstoppable.

Aging puerh is a nice way to discover this simple truth: tastes develop and transform depending on the way it is stored. I wrote about the experience I had when tasting 2011 Chawangpu Yiwu GaoShanZhai and the impact it has had on me considering my new perspective on very young sheng cakes. As I am quite an avid drinker, I am now fully enjoying new interest in 2011 cakes and it seems that these will be on my tasting note list for a while.

I had a chance to taste a sample of 2011 BaDa cake from pu-erh.sk five or six months ago. At that time the leaf was rather young, vegetal in flavour and aroma, freshly bitterish but overall I found it quite promising. The time has come and here I am tasting this lovely piece of BaDaShan old tree leaf again, with optimistic anticipation as at first sight and smell this tea is developing nicely.

BaDaShan, 巴達山, is a mountain in northern Menghai county and this particular cake is made of leaves from a village which is situated in a wonderful nature. 

The tea broth is darker than it was six months ago, it is less green, and more yellow, deeper and thicker in both aroma and flavour. The infusion is sweeter, rounder and more complex. The flavour still keeps its fresh green vegetal tone which is covered in light astringent bitter-sweet coat. Immediately after the first sip there is a nice dynamic harmony of forces dancing on the tongue.

The first infusion brought another nice surprise for me: I detected a sweetish buttery trace that was easy to track again in further infusions.

Later, flowery and fruity tones develop significantly, still coated in bitter-sweet undertone that in fact never disappears fully from the flavour in the cup. It is probably this bitter-sweet dance and the buttery tone that I keep in mind and imagine again when trying to recall today's impression, as well as the aftertaste that is very refreshing and beautifully extends the stage for the concert of tastes. 

If I am lucky, I might have a chance to re-taste this tea again in a few-months time. In the meantime I am going to enjoy this cake with its future treasures hidden in its leaf.

Take care & enjoy spring.