2023 Yunnan Sourcing "You Le Shan" Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake

I topped off my sample of this cake on Christmas Day, and was sore about doing so. I believe in drinking my teas (which is why I’m limiting myself to no more than 3 tea purchases in 2025, aside from the monthly tea clubs, to get through some samples that are one session away from completion), so that’s what I’m working on doing! Ha-ha. I felt that 2024 was a good year of my getting back onto the Steepster train, which greatly improved my push through the sipdown pile! I was able to explore new and revisit older teas that have sat in my collection for ages. With some upcoming changes to my life in the coming months, I’ve become quite self aware of spending more time with the teas I have. I can’t bare to avoid any tea hauls, so I’ll save them for birthday, anniversary, and Christmas. :)

I must admit that are many teas I’ve enjoyed, yet there are some, such as this You Le Shan, that bring forth a rush of surprise in finding yet another really good tea. This tea isn’t layered with tasting notes that are complex, but the tea hits in the thickness of the broth and the heavy hit in the qi. I felt jollier than normal on Christmas.

Purchased a bunch of younger raw puerh tea (mostly samples) from Yunnan Sourcing USA, to explore my idea that this style of tea might be something I could really like.

So far, I have done one session each with a 2022 Xiaguan Te Ji Tuo, YS USA’s 2023 Ai Lao “Secret Garden” raw puerh, and this “You Le Shan” tea. All of these teas I stubbornly brew using my “western style” technique. Initially I am using 185° water w/a 30 sec rinse, 1-min first steep, 2-min second steep, and 3-min third steep for each tea. As I get a feel for each tea, I can adjust the brewing parameters a bit, but this initial technique has worked out well for each tea so far.

The first tea which inspired me to write a review is this one, because of the remarkably sweet and unusual scent of the dry leaves in the sample pouch. Very cotton candy sweet-like, fruity, and floral scent pops out from the pouch, which I love.

This tea and and the other YS USA tea made me feel a bit “tea drunk,” a sensation which I have not yet noticed from the Xiaguan tea. Also, both YS USA teas are a noticeably smoother ride than the Xiaguan, while clearly sharing a similar character.

This is where I am stuck, now, however, as perhaps due to my inexperienced raw puerh taste buds I have some difficulty distinguishing the nuances in taste between these different varieties of raw puerh. They all seem to have pleasant fruity/floral characters with some touch of a bitter edge, but not overwhelmingly so. Kind of a dried apricot fruitiness, with some indistinct (to me) florals, and some hay/grassy notes. All-in-all pretty enjoyable. The Xiaguan did have a minty aspect to it that I don’t find in the YS USA teas, so there is that as far as a difference. I’ll tentatively give this tea a score of “80,” but definitely need to explore it a bit more to try and better understand its character.

Update: After a little more time with this tea, I’ll dial my initial “80” rating down to a 75. The tea is really smooth with some slight woody notes, but mostly in a fruity zone with notes of persimmons, having also a bit of a vegetal bite to it. And the faintest glimmers of spice, mainly cinnamon/anise notes but way in the background.

I can tell that it is a quality tea, and certainly interesting, but probably will not be a repurchase for me. I suppose this might be where aging comes into play, and perhaps this tea may evolve more interesting flavors over the years, etc. But I really don’t have much of an appetite for heavier/redder teas that are closer to a ripe in flavor. Once in a while I might enjoy these types of teas, but I would usually prefer great teas that are on the greener side.