2014 Autumn Qing Mei Shan Old Arbor Puerh Tea

An Ode to Tea, Q entry! (I am missing a tea for Q, but figured this was close enough…)

I am notably not a big puerh fan so I don’t pull them out often. I also very rarely ever have time for gong fu sessions — the only time I can sit down and drink tea in that style is on my days off of work, which severely limits when I can drink certain types of tea. So I’m finally fitting a session in today, on my weekend off…

This was a sample I grabbed from the final Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, so thanks to all that contributed to that box and tea-sipper for organizing it! I had 3.4g of leaf so I did steeps using only 70ml of water in my little pumpkin pot.

70ml mini pot | 3.4g | 205F | Rinse/10s/13s/16s/19s/22s/25s/28s/31s/34s/37s/40s/43s/46s

My only experience with sheng so far (I think?!) was a very unpleasant one; it was extremely smoky and bitter/sour. The aroma from my first steep had me thinking this would also be really bitter because it had a strong bitter melon/sour plum sort of scent. But it actually was surprisingly smooth, with a stonefruit fruity taste (plum?), with just a slight mineral note at the end of the sip and in the aftertaste. Around the 3rd and 4th steeps a muscatel note joined the plum, but the tea lost its smoothness, gaining a slight bite to it. The fifth steep was an unpleasant anomoly; it tasted how I’m used to sheng pu’erh tasting, with a strong “swamp marsh” taste of wet earth, rocks, and vegetation, with a bitter medicinal taste late in the sip and in the aftertaste. The bitterness went away after that, though, and while the marshy notes remained for a few more steeps, it smoothed out, and an anise-like licoricey note crept into the aftertaste, which I found quite pleasant. The marshiness continued to mellow and some notes of cucumber and melon rind came forth, until it eventually smoothed into a very nice petrichor taste. Late in the session, the tea turned very sweet, and some of the stonefruit came back (more of a light apricot this time), as well as some florality and garden peas. I pretty much never carry a tea through this many steeps, but I was really enjoying this one. I’m left feeling very tea-full though, and am feeling extremely relaxed.

Is this the first pu’erh I’ve really enjoyed?!

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Seven- Tea #32
A decent enough sheng, but I’m always at a lack for what they taste like. Sweet and pleasant enough. Better than this tasting note. Just want to make note that I tried it, I guess.

My tour of Yunnan is heading north for a change of taste – er, pace.

Region 2/4: Lincang. Location 1/2: Yong De (Qing Mei Shan)

Wow. What a great experience. Complex flavors throughout, but they all play nice with each other. Dynamic session that offers a different experience with every cup.

The flavors were great – I couldn’t pin down individual notes because they all came through like a musical chord – harmonious and inseparable. How’s that for a pretentious metaphor! Seriously though, things like “apple butter”, “fruitcake”, “Dragon Well” all described the experience much better than “nutty”, “apple”, etc.

This will be purchased (whole cake) again, guaranteed. Unique and solid session.
*
Dry leaf: sweet, notes of citrus, honeysuckle, wildflower honey, apricot, mint, dewy grass. In preheated vessel: fruity and sweet, apricot and strawberry preserves, some candy grape notes

Smell: floral, woody, baked apple, apple butter (cooked apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves), sweet nuttiness like green tea (Bi Luo Chun)

Taste: sweet/savory base similar to green tea (Bi Luo Chun and Dragon Well), fruity and rich notes like apple butter and fruitcake. Other notes include clove, muted mint notes, apricot preserves, chestnut, and hints of maraschino cherry. Some tingly sensations akin to clove, mint, and menthol. Long-lasting aftertaste – some white pepper notes.

From Puerh TTB

I was unable to pick out the notes for a few steeps in. However, after alternating the amount of water to leaf, the tea became noticeable. This tea has a sweet floral and a hint mushroom in the taste. At first, I hadn’t tasted much. The tea had subtle notes of something, but I was unable to claim the flavors.

I will note that even after the session is completed, the mushroom notes are still lingering behind. Definitely an unusual tea, but I think I can drink this again.

So, I decided to have this while waiting for Hillary’s concession speech to start, and apparently I didn’t realize that I already had a sample of this that I got from LP, so I have already tasted this. I guess this will just be a revisiting!

The dry leaves smell faintly sweet. When wet, they smell smoky and earthy, and the first steep produces a light golden liquor with the slightest hint of a red tint.

The first infusion is very smooth in texture with a smoky, earthy taste. The second remains light in color and introduces that characteristic thickness, with a stronger smokiness. It has a floral taste that is mostly apparent in the nose, and I am starting to feel some qi.

Over my headphones, I hear applause, so it sounds like the Clintons are finally in the building. The third infusion is lighter in color, and some bitterness starts to come forth, while the flavor itself remains fairly consistent. Tim Kaine comes on stage, so it looks like this thing is about to get started!

Lunch time approaches near the end of Hillary’s speech, and I have another tea planned to have with the SO, so I set aside these leaves to finish up with later. When I get back to it, I end up emptying my kettle into the gaiwan before I realize I didn’t have enough water left in it, so I made sure to keep this steep short. The liquor came out very strong, of course, piney, thick and floral, with some sweetness starting to come through. A very nice, sweet aroma clings to the cup.

The fifth steep continues to deliver, and on the sixth steep, things start to mellow out. The mouthfeel gets thicker. The flavor gets a bit more gentle, but it continues to linger. This has carried me through the day, so I’ll keep steeping it out until it’s time for me to go.

From Puerh TTB! This one was alright – I wasn’t the biggest fan of the flavor profile. Started out kind of mushroomy with a bit of nuttiness and very slight sweetness, getting smoother and more balanced through the first 6 steeps. The mushroomy flavor started to get more savory – like those weird mushrooms you find in your Ramen Noodles (that taste awful to me by themselves) – shiitake? After that, I started getting a bit of a weird off note in the finish – like it was getting a little too savory and a bit funky. A floral note also started to develop on the front, along with a slight sugarcane note, though this tea was never super sweet or anything.

I did feel a bit of a buzzing qi mid-session, interesting as I was using my small gaiwan, so not imbibing too much tea overall. Decently powerful tea. More about that than flavor for me.

I either drank this one of the more expensive one. Regardless, whatever I just drank yesterday was amazing but also not ready for me. This brewed up one beautiful cup. Most noticeable thing about this was the 20+ minute lingering taste. I know this for a fact because I watched an episode of anime before brewing another steep and I still had a thickness to my saliva with the taste in my mouth. A nice body and mouth feel throughout the session. While all of that was nice, there is still a bitterness to it that causes that sweetness to suffer; however I know it is in there.
Probably in a few years this tea will be sweet and thick with a long lasting session each and every time… aka, if I ever store tea, I’ll end up with a few of these for sure. You just can’t ignore a teas thickness if it was legit.