2007 Guoyan "Phoenix of Yi Wu" Raw

So, I was about to write a fairly dismissive review of this tea. I’ve gone through half a cake, and have also designated it as a daily drinker due to its age and its inexpensive price tag. But I never really looked forward to it – it was always a little bland.

But, it needed a fair review, so I sat down, threw a FISTFUL of leaves in a gaiwan, and steeped that sucker hard to get all the flavor I could out of it.

And you know what? It developed a bit more personality. Still on the lighter end of things, but tasty.

It’s still definitely a Yiwu. I know that this is absolutely a budget Yiwu (so you get what you get), but it still just has those light, woody, kind of sweet, kind of floral notes that just are too irritatingly subtle for me. It’s like a mouth full of background flavors that you have to sit and search for, rather than having primary, bold flavors that build on your palate. Such has been my experience with budget and non-budget Yiwu teas alike…

So, if you enjoy a more contemplative cup, this is a good choice. If you are a Yiwu fan, this is certainly a nice budget option. But, if you are just looking for a cheap puerh with some decent age on it, I would recommend YS’s 2007 Bo Nan Mountain “Yun Wu Yuan Cha” or 2007 CNNP “8891 Red Label.” Those have a bit more personality, in my very humble opinion.
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Dry leaf: honey/honeysuckle sweetness, woody, sweet tobacco leaf, dried dark fruit – raisin/prune. In preheated vessel – syrupy prune/raisin sweetness, sweet tobacco

Smell: tobacco leaf, date, raisin, woody

Taste:
Arrival is woody, straw, and hay; some green tobacco leaf.
Development is light woody smokiness and black tea blend. Some pleasant astringency. Body develops with an interesting combo of woodiness and creaminess.
Finish is bland. Get some cardboard-like notes and a palate-clearing astringency.
Aftertaste is very light. Light sweetness – marshmallow, flan; some light floral; some light lemongrass.

2/15/2017 morning gaiwan 8g/212F/4oz? 10-15 second steeps

Another sample from YS that has lived in my tea cabinet for over a year. 1 rinse was all it needed for the chunk to start loosening up, and it was a very clean rinse.

1 – placid sheng sharpness – mellow and non-descript
2 – Calling it mellow pissed it off — intensely bitter and resinous.
3 – lower temp water, 10 second steep – still very sharp. Resinous/herbal – the wet leaf smells of oregano. Suddenly astringent and mouth filling.
4 – full temp water, 5 second steep – less astringent. Tobacco and lemon balm.

Still drinking. Will add further notes later.

The astringency continues – behind it the taste lightened up, and became almost fruit – apricot and pine, and that wet pine forest floor aroma.

This is not a friendly tea, but one that begs exploration, and experimentation – I have to add a few cakes of this to my next YS order — I think it’s going to wicked good in a few more years.

Storage notes – 25g sample from YS, I got it in 2015, and it’s been stored in its loose sample packet in my tea cabinet. Lots of air circulation, drier rather than humid, warm room temperature.

I think it says something about this tea that it makes feel I need to make a note of the storage conditions.

This tea was pretty good. I think it’s the first semi-aged Yiwu I’ve tried. I still got a lot of the softer straw/floral flavors that I seem to get with Yiwu teas, but also a little different, like the flavor was beginning to change. It seemed a little bit woodier to me. Around the 4th and 5th steeps I got an interesting sweetness, sort of reminiscent of brown sugar, but this didn’t last long. In some of the later steeps I started to notice a nice floral-honey sweetness. I think these last steeps may be the highlight of the session. Has a decent body, but I wouldn’t really describe it as creamy, and I didn’t notice much of any qi with this tea. The flavor was not particularly lasting.

This tea seems like it could make a decent daily drinker. It does not fit my tastes well enough to consider buying a cake, but I certainly enjoyed my 25g sample.