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“Gongfu! This is definitely one of those teas that I feel is so exemplary of all the classic characteristics of sheng produced from this region and, looking back on it, I think is probably one of...” Read full tasting note
“Got a sample of this in the fall and was like meh…and let the rest sit in a closet til yesterday. Brewed a pot and was pleasantly surprised at how good it became…especially for a tea this cheap....” Read full tasting note
“I’m sipping through a pile of samples from Bitterleaf, trying to decide if they will be the source of my big birthday order. So far, the results are mixed. I almost ordered a cake of this unseen,...” Read full tasting note
Our 2017 Rooster Yiwu is the follow up to our best-selling tea of 2016. Made from the same material as our Year of the Monkey cake, this tea embodies typical Yiwu character that punches well above its class.
Overall this tea has a honey-like sweetness and enjoyable mineral fragrance. It’s light and gentle enough for beginners, but also has more than enough depth and character for experienced drinkers, particularly fans of Yiwu, to enjoy. Having known this farmer for over 10 years, we have been sampling cakes of this exact tea dating back to 2010 in storage and can confidently say it performs well over the years.
As we noted in the previous year, this tea is made from fangyang/放养 material, which literally means “left to grow”. In many cases tea like this is erroneously labelled as “wild/yesheng“. The trees were originally terrace/plantation teas, but over the last decade have been left to grow naturally without human intervention. This means no pruning, no pesticides, no synthetic fertilizer, no weed killer (weeding is completed by hand over the course of a month, once a year), and no picking outside of the spring harvest.
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2017 Year of the Rooster
white2tea2017 Naka Year of the Rooster
NanqiYear of the Dog 2018 Yiwu Raw Puer
Bitterleaf TeasYear of the Tiger 2022 Yiwu Raw Puer
Bitterleaf TeasYear of the Monkey 2016 Spring Yiwu Raw Puer
Bitterleaf TeasYear of the Bull 2021 Yiwu Raw Puer
Bitterleaf TeasGongfu!
This is definitely one of those teas that I feel is so exemplary of all the classic characteristics of sheng produced from this region and, looking back on it, I think is probably one of the teas that really cemented my deep love of Yiwu pu’erh. The liquor is so soft in texture with a supple fruity sweetness throughout, with playful notes of floral honeysuckle and airy whipped honey. Time has brought some of the subtle mineral notes to more of the forefront, but not at the expense of these treasured sweet flavours and pleasant mouthfeel. It’s impressive how such a gentle tea can command so much attention and almost give an authoritative feeling of calm to a session. I don’t know if that will make sense to anyone else, but it’s certainly what I’m feeling in this moment…
Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cb5wOPyuvCl/
Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIcKL2cIEsc&ab_channel=Moses-Topic
Got a sample of this in the fall and was like meh…and let the rest sit in a closet til yesterday. Brewed a pot and was pleasantly surprised at how good it became…especially for a tea this cheap. Nice floral and honey notes. Nothing mind blowing but very pleasant flavors and mellow qi. It’s not a brain zap, exploding flavor gushu but at 5% of the cost, who’s complaining?
I’m sipping through a pile of samples from Bitterleaf, trying to decide if they will be the source of my big birthday order. So far, the results are mixed. I almost ordered a cake of this unseen, since I really enjoyed the 2017 Year of the Monkey Yiwu. I’m glad I didn’t because I didn’t like this one nearly as much.
The first cup was very sweet and viscous in the mouth. Not much taste other than the sweetness. 2nd steep had a bit more flavor, but nothing to write home about. Reminds me a bit of a silver needle puerh but without the floral character. Later steeps were disappointing. Not much there. Glad I didn’t buy a cake.
This isn’t a bad tea and might not be a bad way for someone to ease into puerh, but it just didn’t have enough character for me to want to buy more.
I have a hard time with Yiwu and JingMai a lot of times myself.
I am sort of feeling the same way about this one so far, but often tend to find myself underwhelmed by young Yiwu material, though there are some mountains I really enjoy the material of. Interestingly enough, my early steeps of this one were almost tasteless, but it became more interesting later in the session. Hoping to see this one develop into something more over time.
Like Inkay said, I find Yiwu teas tend to take a few months to a year to spread their wings, so to speak. Of course there there are exceptions, but this one is probably in the former category. We have stock of this tea for every year going back to 2009 though and it’s fairly consistent, in my incredibly biased opinion. If you have the Year of the Monkey from last year then it should be a relatively good indication of where this is going, although neither this nor last year were typical weather-wise. Time will be the final judge!
