Yunnan Sourcing's 2006 Nan Jian Wu Liang Mountain Raw Puerh

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
This is purely first flush of spring 2006 tea leaves from the Wu Liang mountains in Jing Dong county of Simao.  High altitude tea leaves were plucked and processed in the traditional manner and then pressed into these lovely 200 gram tea cakes.

My thoughts
My puerh stash is pretty heavily skewed towards the ripe end of the puerh spectrum. Not that I dislike raw puerh, but I find that many of them are fairly plain until they get some age behind them, and the more age the have behind them, the more the cost prohibits me from buying them. This one was an exception: a 200g cake will run you just over $20. That price point for a cake that's about 9 years old, plus the bonus of being from Wu Liang Mountain, means that I already know this is going to be a great tea.

The leaves in this cake are from Wu Liang Mountain in northern Pu'er prefecture, but the cake was pressed by Nan Jian Tea Factory in southern Dali prefecture, about 100 miles north of the source.

Dry leaves - The cake has a bronze-green sheen with plenty of lighter tips mixed in. The aroma has a nice florality on top of the green pungency of a sheng, but it definitely has an aged feel to it. The vegetal bite is mostly gone and replaced with a pleasant sweet aroma. This one is pretty tightly packed, so it will take a bit of work to separate the leaves from the rest of the cake.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 2 x 10s rinse, <5s steeps at first, increase as necessary.

Steeps 1 and 2: As with any sheng, the first couple steeps are still a bit rough as it calms down. There is a fair amount of bitterness and astringency right off the bat, but the flavors underneath promise that this will be a good one indeed.

Steeps 3-6: The dryness and bitterness fade away quickly, leaving me with a smooth, sweet, floral tea. It's more of a general floral taste as I can't really pick out any specific aromas or tastes from the broth. There is a definite aged flavor to this one as well, not a prominent aged feel yet, but it's certainly there. A nice pleasant kuwei bitterness has taken hold as well, and gives the flavors a bit of depth.

Steeps 7-10: The tea really hits its peak here. The smoothness is striking, almost buttery, and the florality is just wonderful. The soup has steadily increased in sweetness with each steep, and has really brought out the floral flavors with each successive brew.

Steeps 11-15: While most puerhs have faded by this point, this one is still going strong. The sweet aged floral tones are fantastic, and it only continues to get smoother as time goes on. The aroma is almost like a dried spring bouquet.

This is a great budget sheng, and certainly worth your money. It's a good tea to drink now, but I think this one will really hit its prime in another 5-10 years or so, after it's had a bit longer to mellow out.

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.

Yunnan Sourcing's 2013 YS "Jing Mai Mountain" Wild Arbor Raw Puerh

Yunnan Sourcing's Description
Entirely hand-picked and processed at every stage makes this an awesome tea with perfect profile and aging possibilities.  Tea trees are between 80 and 150 years old growing naturally without the use of artificial fertilizers or pesticides!

My thoughts
Continuing on the puerh binge I've been on lately. I received a sample of this sheng in an earlier monthly plan from Yunnan Sourcing. I love when tea vendors offer a varied selection in the monthly tea clubs because oftentimes it ends up being a tea you would never have tried otherwise. Case in point, this gem. This is YS's own brand of puerh, which I have found can quite easily stand up to anything the big Chinese tea manufacturers make.

These leaves originate from Mangjing village at the foothills of Jingmai Mountain in southwestern Yunnan.

Dry leaves - It looks pretty much like you'd expect from a sheng with a bit of age behind it: more of a brownish-greyish-green than the bright silvery green of a new sheng. The aroma though is what sets this apart. Amidst the typical green pungency, there is the almost unmistakable smell of cherry blossoms. It's a very light floral stonefruity aroma, definitely none of that nasty cherry cough syrup smell.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 2 x 10s rinses, then <5s steeps at first, adjusting time as needed.

Tasting notes - Smooth, cherry blossom, kuwei bitterness, white grapes, mild astringency

Steeps 1-3: This sheng starts off not nearly as pungent as I expected. Wild-growing leaves can have a pretty wicked vegetal bite to them, but this is much mellower. The sweet cherry blossom aspect carries over nicely to the broth, and permeates the taste from start to finish. There is a very slight astringency that hangs around after the sip, but again it's not as strong as I expected from wild leaves.

Steeps 4-7: The astringency is gone already, leaving me with a smooth, sweet, cherry-infused soup. The mild bitterness is a little more prevalent here, but it's certainly not overwhelming; it's balanced very nicely with the sweetness. A bit more fruitiness is starting to crop up here, but I can't really place what it is yet.

Steeps 8-11: White grapes! That's what that fruitiness is. The grape component is quite a bit more prominent here, but sweet cherries are still the primary flavor. The broth is quite sweet now, overpowering the bitterness and is extremely smooth, with an almost lubricating mouthfeel.

Steeps 12+: Most of the individual flavors have faded by this point, but it's still a very sweet, smooth tea. I stopped at 15 steeps, but I'm confident I could have pulled at least another 5 from these before they gave out completely.

For only being two years old, this is a great tea. I could see this aging into something really special a few years down the line, and would certainly be a great addition to anyone's raw puerh collection.

You can buy this tea from Yunnan Sourcing here and here.

What-Cha's Laos 2014 Chawangpu Ban Payasi Raw Dark Tea

What-Cha's Description
A "puerh-like" raw dark tea from Ban Payasi Village in the Laos region of Phongsaly which borders Yiwu in Yunnan. The tea possesses a floral quality with lemon notes and has a bitter-sweet quality.

My thoughts
While this is a sheng puerh, it can't officially be called a puerh due to regional issues. According to What-Cha, Phongsaly province in Laos was once part of China, but was given to Laos with a treaty in 1895. Since any post-fermented tea must originate in Yunnan in order to be called a puerh, and this one doesn't, it cannot be called a puerh. Hence, it is a "raw dark tea".

I honestly wasn't real sure what to expect from this tea. I've had all kinds of young shengs, but with this one being from outside of China, I didn't know if it would be just another sheng, or something entirely different. But hey, the surprise of new teas is half the fun.

Dry leaves - The leaves smell much like I expect from a raw dark tea, with a vegetal pungency being the primary aroma, but there is a definite lemony component here that sets this apart from a typical sheng. The leaves are not pressed tightly and break apart quite easily.

Brewing parameters - 212F, 10s rinse, <10s steeps at first, adjust accordingly as needed.

Tasting notes - Smooth, sweet, kuwei bitterness, lemon peel, lemon blossom

Steeps 1-4: The very first thing I noticed about this tea is how incredibly smooth it is. With young shengs, I've come to expect a fairly aggressive astringency, but there is no trace of dryness at all here. The lemony aspect of the aroma has carried over nicely to the broth, with a sweet lemon peel flavor taking the lead, followed by a mild kuwei bitterness and a wonderful lingering lemon blossom floral finish. This is a much less belligerent tea than I expected. These steeps were all very quick, mostly under 5 seconds.

Steeps 5-8: If it was possible for this tea to get smoother, then it definitely has. With each sip, the smoothness really throws me off. I mean, it smells like a young sheng, but there is really no detectable astringency. The soup has gotten even sweeter than it was earlier, and the lemony flavors are quite noticeable. It still has a mild bitterness about it, but it's mostly a sweet lemony tea. I'm not always a fan of citrusy teas, but this one works very well. These steeps were between 10-30 seconds.

Steeps 9-10: The bitterness is entirely gone now, and it almost tastes like a sweetened lemonade. The floral aspect has faded somewhat as well, leaving me with a smooth, sweet lemon-flavored brew. I could have pulled several more steeps from these leaves, but I had to go to sleep. These steeps were 30-90 seconds)

If you want a raw "puerh" that is good to drink now, this is a winner for you. This probably wouldn't be the best candidate for aging though. In my experience, if a young sheng slaps you in the face and punches you in the nads now, it'll be a much calmer, more delicious tea a few years down the road. Since this tea is a gentle lover right now, I'm guessing it probably will lose most of the good stuff in a few years. This is only speculation of course. I would love for someone 10 years down the road to prove me wrong.

You can buy this tea from What-Cha here: http://what-cha.com/dark-tea/laos-2014-chawangpu-ban-payasi-raw-dark-tea/