So here it is folks, the much talked about Shou that kept being skipped over, poor thing! I think timing will work where this post can go up in the morning and the other at night. Tempted to do that anyway but I think too much of my rambling might make you all sick of me, and that would be sad! Here is UniversOtea’s 2003 Yibang Big Tree Langhe Tea Company, a Shou or Ripe Puerh from Yibang Mountain, and produced by the Langhe Tea Company, one of the factories of Menghai. I do not know much about this tea, it was sent to me along with several other samples of Shou from the Langhe Tea Co, as a way to get a feel for their storage and tastes, so I picked this one totally at random from the samples. So, time to get crackin!
The aroma of the richly dark and nicely compressed leaves, well it smells like it looks. A blend of peat and loam, wet wood, and leather. It always amuses me how Shou looks like it was cut from a peat bog, and sometimes if you get lucky it has that slightly sharp edge to the loamy notes, much like a peat bog. There is also a slight mustiness, like an old wooden steamer trunk, but not quite musty like an old basement, which is for the best. The finishing notes are a touch of molasses sweetness and a bit of clean soil.
Into the much neglected as of late elephant pot the shou goes! Whoa, the aroma went heavy into the molasses department after steeping! The wet leaves also have notes of pine needle loam, oak wood loam…it just smells like a forest floor with a variety of different tree types, blending sweetness and sharpness of the different forms of wet wood and leaf loam. The liquid has the aroma of wet wood primarily, with a bit of soil, and a confounding note of dry beans. Not at all unpleasant, just, well, it was a new and unexpected note.
The taste of the first steep is surprisingly light, even by first steep standards, with a light taste and mouthfeel. It starts with a delicate sweet molasses and pine loam note that is quickly overshadowed by wet wood and oak loam. The finish is a bit of a cedar trunk, a touch of mustiness, but not unpleasantly so. I actually find that aroma and taste very nostalgic, I spent a lot of time as a kid playing in my old steamer trunk.
Onward to the second steeping, the aroma is quite sweet and woody, no dry beans this time, but definitely soil and molasses, with a finish of wet wood. The taste has more body this steep, as expected, in both texture and actual taste. Starting off with sweet pine wood loam and sap and moving on to a general mixed wood forest floor. The finish is sweet molasses and a lingering woodiness.
The third steep and so forth, up until steep six, when I called it a night (I was starting to slosh, it is why I need a smaller shou pot, no offense elephant!) really didn’t change much, it got a bit richer and woodier towards the middle and then sweeter towards the end. I look forward to seeing more from this factory, I like its mellow quality.
For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/06/universotea-2003-yibang-big-tree-langhe.html
