Yiwu 2012 Autumn

Out of all the puerh that I have this is only the second Autumnal cake that I own. I tend to steer clear of Autumnal puerh mainly because I have generally been pretty disappointed with what I have tried in the past. This cake, courtesy of pu-erh.sk, really intrigued me when I saw it on the website. It had a minimal description, and was quite a bit cheaper than the other cakes Peter had to offer. I am always interested in finding decent quality Yiwu, so I thought that 53 euros for a 250 gram cake was a decent deal if I enjoyed it. In short this autumnal cake does not disappoint. Here are my notes…

Picking apart this cake is fairly straightforward as it is not that tightly compressed. The dry leaves smell lovely…very, very sweet. I take a 7 gram sample and prepare my 130ml yixing with a short 5 second rinse. The wet leaves aroma is beautiful, again loads of sweetness with fresh fruity overtones.

I do my first proper steep at about 8 seconds. The yellow/gold colour looks really inviting. I take my first sip; Massive Yiwu sweetness, dense, rich, buttery mouthfeel, slightly fruity texture in the background. Clean, crisp, pure. Very long sweet finish at the back of the throat. This is lovely stuff.

Second steep and I am getting more of the same, however the fruity overtones are becoming a little more present in the taste. I am still getting that massive Yiwu sweetness. Damn, I love Yiwu…it has that “warmth” that emits feelings of comfort that you don’t find in most puerhs.

Third steep and the balance of fruity tones and sweetness are now perfectly in synch and are singing together in harmony. I am still getting the rich, buttery mouthfeel. The sweetness at the back of the throat is still there and will not go away. My body feels positive and calm…the Yiwu warmth has charmed me.

I push this puerh up to about 8 steeps and I bring my session to an end. The bottom line is that this is an excellent example of a young Autumnal Yiwu. I have no idea how a Spring Yiwu of the same year would taste, however I could not see it being any better than this. As I have said before in my reviews I tend to prefer bitter over sweet, however in Winter time I make an exception to this rule. For me in Winter there is nothing better than sipping a good quality Yiwu or shu.

Today I went onto the pu-erh.sk website and this Yiwu is still for sale at 53 euros. I cannot believe it has not sold out. Which reminds me, I only have half a cake left of this lovely puerh so I think it is time to get another one. If you enjoy your puerh sweet, with that typical Yiwu warmth and character then I think you should at least get a sample of this to try. As Autumnal puerh goes, this is the better, if not the best one that I have tried. Many thanks again to Peter at pu-erh.sk for another great puerh expereince.