Yee On Tea Co.

So much wasted potential. This cake wasn’t really a let down given how infamous it is, but I was still hoping it would be a little better than it was. I got this cake to compare with the Rye stored version that LP sells and I’ll just start by saying I don’t see any reason to get this over the rye one. This cake needs something to help balance itself out. I’m going to hang on to it for a while, but I might end up breaking it up and mixing it with some cheap smokey puerh and see if I can get a better balance going.

This cake is wet and sour. It has so much of this bitter grassy taste that I’d expect from a young cake, but this thing has spent 14 years in storage. YOT shipped it loose in a box without a mylar or bag, so maybe mine got a little abused on it’s trip here. I let it sit for a month with a boveda before trying it and noted that it still felt dry. I left it for a few more months and it improved, but I still wouldn’t recommend it. The price is the only thing keeping my rating this high.

6g – 100ml – 15+ seconds – 100C
Smell: Wet, Sour, Less than expected
Taste: Grassy, Bitter, Wet, Earthy, Almost Charred like taste

I picked up this tea while YeeOn was doing their site-wide sale earlier this year. I saw this cake pop up in a few reviews and lots of folks recommended it as a good wet stored daily drinker. I have to say, it is perfect for that. As far as value goes, you can’t really beat this price.

I’m going to recommend this tea, but you need to like the wet storage to appreciate it. It is so smooth, thick, and a little dank. The storage flavor comes off as ever so slightly smokey and acidic. It has some sweetness and a nice herbal, camphor flavor that is really apparent when smelling the moist leaves.

As it warms up and my apartment gets humid, I set up a daily drinker rack next to my tea setup. Right now, my Camphory Shou slot is held by Camphornaught, but I think this cake will replace it the next time I run out.

6g – 100ml – 25+ seconds – 100C
Smell: Wet, Sour, Tangy, Camphor
Taste: Smooth, Wet Funk, Sweet, Herbal Camphor
Similar Teas: W2T – Camphornaught (No dank), CL – 2022 Imperial Grade Shou (No dank), LP – 2010 Bulang (Not as herbal), LP – Ginseng Shou

Another sample from my recent YOT order. This one is just okay. Probably the least HK type flavor out of all YOT’s teas I’ve tried. The flavor and look are also both lighter/younger than I expected given the storage.

Some sweetness in the huigan, but none in the primary flavors. Hui gan lasts 3-4 mins. Up front flavors have almost no camphor/cooling notes. Lasts 10+ infusions. Very light color brews.

Flavors: Camphor, sweet, wood

Well this is from a new order from YOT. I had to give some of their other teas a chance when I heard how much the taste of HK was disliked by some people and considered an “off batch.” This shou is first up and I’m very glad I caked this because it is quite good for the price ($0.09/g). Overwhelming scent, but the taste is much more muted.

Mild sweetness, medium-thick mouthfeel. Lasts 12-15 infusions. Some of this cake literally looks like clumps of clay haha. I know it’s note, but pretty wild how different it looks due to the HK storage.

Dry leaf: Camphor
Wet leaf: Camphor
Taste: Camphor, wet earth, forest floor, wet wood, sweet

So THIS is camphor. Never smelled camphor before, but this MUST be it. A very cooling vibe in the back of the throat. Hmmmm. Not at all what I was expecting. After trying the HK stored 1985 maocha from LP and loving it, I wanted to try other examples of HK storage. Naturally, I was led to Yee On Tea. Caked this tea because it was so cheap. Hard for me to put a number to it at this point. I need to sit through a couple more sessions with it as I’m really just trying to work through this camphor thing in my mind.

Sweet, absolutely no bitterness or astringency. Tolerated boiling water perfectly well. Would last 15+ infusions I’m sure, but I stopped early.

Dry leaf: Cardboard
Wet leaf: Cardboard, camphor
Flavor: Camphor, wood chips, sweet, cooling, thin.

Is that a smoky note I detect? Hmm it really does remind me of a lightly burning campfire with a heavy note on menthol and eucalyptus and maybe even a bit of camphor. I was expecting more fishy notes. Oh… I’m thinking of a sheng. This is a shou. Dewrp. This will be a unique tasting for sure. Oh wow. Yes. Definitely smoke on that initial rinse. Also 1800s house. I’d say old house but people have different views of what is old. Heck, my 20-year high school reunion was the other day. Granted the friends I made were all from the year after and I’m still friends with a few of them now. Anyway! ^^; The initial steep at about 30 seconds to a minute is reminiscent of noodle water, charred cedar wood, with a bit of menthol. Now onto the second steep with a few minutes added. Heavier on the woody notes. Deep woods, heavily damp after rain with campfire notes mixed in. The liquor color becomes so intense, like coffee. Oh my. At uhh 6 minutes. It’s a little much for the tummy. I could get tea drunk off of this tea.

Edit: A few hours later. It’s a bit toasty outside so I am doing a cold steep. And as I sit here the smell of the tea is almost overwhelming. Wet stone, wet ground, wet piled leaves. Petrichor.

Strong mold taste for me. Tried 4 steeps and I think I discovered I don’t like Hong Kong storage.

5.1g, 90mL gaiwan. brita filtered tap. boiling.

wet leaf: natural HK/geosmin. light smoke. dry woody, sort of vegetal.

1. good texture, but taste is like salty beets, with a smoky hint. edge of floral. cold feeling. focus

2. uniquely vegetal bitterness. throaty sweetness in same floral HK trad stored vein, but almost edging on jasmine. tingling and cold in legs. slight sweat on forehead.

3. bitter, almost aspirin like. woody backdrop, with more bitter in aftertaste. mushroom after bitter recedes.

4. lightly bitter, mushroom and slight florals in aftertaste.

5. oversteeped. short lingering bitterness and cold sharp floral bitter taste.

6. fruity aspirin.

stopped taking notes past this, but was not terribly exciting. Storage seems to be lighter than the usual Yee On. drank this since I was considering caking during their 30% off the TFC line sale until the 30th of this month, but I think I’ll pass on this one. Taste is interesting enough, but I don’t have any experience with how body effects age over time and I don’t want to bet on it for now.

6.8g, 100mL duanni. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but I really should do a side-by-side of the Yee-ons at some point, bc as it stands, I really doubt I could distinguish most of these from each other.

6.2g, 100 mL duanni. 2 rinses, some time in between. boiling, Brita water. It just tastes like shou puer. I broke up some chunks and it’s been sitting with some other puer. Not sure how much that contributed, but this is easy drinking and pretty clean. When warm: Slightly sweet + slight bitterness and storage taste, pretty nice. When cold: more bitter and earthy, not as nice. Why am I drinking cold tea?? I sometimes forget about it and the cup cools. Cold tea notes are rarely intentional for me.

Hard to find anything wrong with it, especially considering it was just a bit over .09c/g after factoring in shipping. Big caffeine kick from this one, so nice daily.

in sum: do I regret jumping on the Yee-on hype train? No.

But could I distinguish between the budget Yee-on shous in a line-up? …not really. Maybe time to air out a bit will help.

don’t have detailed notes, but I did 2x 20s rinses. Definitely smells HK cellar stored, and has some white frost. It had the same overall grainy date taste as the ‘04 8582 sample that Yee On put in the order. I’m not sure if this profile is just the house taste or what, but I like it. Overall, slightly less sweet, less thick, but almost the same in every other way, which is kind of baffling since one is an aged shou and the other is an aged sheng. Anyway, this ripe is 16c/g vs. the 8582’s 36c/g so under half the price for basically what I perceive to be more or less the same thing. Given the tuo form and compactness, lots of dust, but that’s to be expected more or less. Maybe slightly less longevity, but similar slight comforting, warm profile. Really wish I’d grabbed the 06 tuo so I could compare, but as of right now I wouldn’t hesitate to stock up on this. I prefer this taste profile significantly over the Vesper Chan Camphor flavor shou that I bought a cake of from LP (19c/g).

Got another of the same sample from YOT, which has been resting for a month. Not sure if this was too dry or what, but much less enjoyable. Same parameters as last time, except this was brewed in a 100 mL duanni pot. Didn’t take specific notes, having learned from last time that this isn’t a very dynamic tea. Something cheesy persisting about the wet leaf aroma, and somewhat in taste too during the intial steeps, but not in a pleasant way. My sample this time was less frosted and had less specks than last time, so I’m not altogether sure why this is. At any rate, more woody, slightly pepper-y, and bitter-edged today, rather than the aged, comforting, and dried date profile of last time. Has slight hint of the date, or else it’d taste the same as one of the random shous I’ve been gifted before. Meh.

2004 CNNP (?) 8582
Yee-on Tea
7.4g, 100mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap, boiling
This came as a free sample with my order from Yee-on. Like everyone else, I also received a sample with a fair amount of white frost lol. I would’ve waited for it to rest, and rehydrated
or whatever, but I didn’t want any chance of having anything spread to my other samples so I let it sit a few days with the bag open to air out and brewed today, so we’ll see if
that’s affected anything.

Dry leaf smelled strongly of basement storage when I got it but the dryness/low RH here seems to have taken it out. Not much dry leaf aroma left
2x 15s rinse, with 1 min. wait in btwn
Wet leaf has a woody camphorous (maybe?) aroma. Slight spice and pepper in a cooling way
10s: lightly woody and grainy (in a way reminiscent of glutinous rice) with slight sweet undertones. Something about it feels sticky, though texture is not thickened too much
(though given my water source, good texture is rather rare and most teas turn out pretty thin)
12s: similar but sweeter. Very easy drinking
20s: smelled the wet leaves. Yee-on notes dates in the aroma and I’m inclined to agree, though again this is something I wouldn’t have necessarily picked up on myself.
It’s somewhat subtle, mixed in with the woodier base, but definitely present. Taste is basically same as before, sort of muted, but comforting.
2x 30s, 35s, 45s, 1 min., 1 min. 30s, 2 min., 3 min., 4 min., 5
min., 10 min.: woody medicinal and dates. Dates is no longer subtle like before. I’d probably have eventually picked up on it, or so I tell myself. Still the grainy glutinous rice taste as well. Very comforting. HK storage seems to have tamped it into something that’s not changing much from steep to steep (woodiness fades into background more and more as date-tinged sweetness comes forth), but is very easy drinking. Moved to thermos after lightening.
Overall: Not sure on qi. Maybe slight calming? Probably not something that will knock your socks off with excitement, but comforting in that old friend, hug in a mug sort of way. I enjoyed this sample, but am unlikely to purchase a cake. It’s not super expensive necessarily (but also just above what I’d consider daily drinker level cheap, especially as I’ve started to leaf heavier), and someone has to pay the HK rent prices, alas, but there’s shou below this price point that brings me a similar level of joy or utility or whatever