雲南 (purchased from Yunnan Sourcing)
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It’s been a while since I’ve had this one.
It’s a bit more sour than last I remembered— I recall previously tasting something fruity, like persimmons, with a sweet smokiness in the aftertaste. It seems about the same now, except with a hint of sourness/tartness and a slightly thinner mouthfeel. I don’t know if it’s because it’s allergy season and my tastebuds are unhappy or if it’s the result of a year and a half of poor storage on my end— my shu setup is much worse than my sheng since I only have one minifridge/hygrometer (used for the sheng, which seems to be going along reasonably well) so it’s been sitting alongside a small dish of water in a giant plastic storage box that I occasionally pull the lid off for several hours to allow for some ventilation and airflow. I’ll have to check some of the older shus I have in there later. Hopefully I figure out what’s going on.
I’ve had gong fu sessions with this tea twice now, and I just don’t think it’s my kinda Shou. I’m thinking the age is a factor. Age should make it better, right? Instead, it’s got this musty flavor I’m not fond of. Maybe I just don’t like aged Shou? For the second session, I thought maybe I needed to rinse it more to get the musty flavor out. Kinda helped, but not really. In later steepings, it started to get sweeter, but by then I was tired of it. I still have more to play with, so if anyone has suggestions, let me know!
I prefer the younger ones too. You could try 10/10/15/20/25 and discard all. Then start drinking after that. I can never drink more than 3 cups of the same tea. I get tired of it too. I find the pu’erh just gets better after that but I drink mostly sheng so I don’t know if it would work the same with shou.
Thanks, I’ll have to try that. I only discarded 3 rinses. That would be five!
This is a comforting & mildly sweet brew, perfect for a cool & dreary Fall day. For me, it brings to mind roasted winter squash, chestnuts, pepitas, persimmon, & whole grain bread crust. Add a soothing vanilla smoothness & a little camphor, & I think I’m in love.
Craving a shou today, I decided to steep a bit of this tea. Excellent shou in my opinion. No fermentation smell – as expected from a 14 year old shou. Nice body with a woody sweetness that lingers in the mouth. This is definitely a lightly fermented cake – my preference. Nice stuff, 84/100.
Preparation
I would echo the description of this tea stated in its intro. It is a mellow, full flavored, earthy tea that is quite harmonious. Color is quite attractive, deep red-orange, with an earthy aroma. I like it, and it is available for a reasonable price. My tea was from a sample provided by YunnanSourcing.
Your storage might be fine, and in fact woke up the tea to continue fermenting those fruity lighter leaves. Older CNNP shou is rather coveted and in fact has an excellent reputation. Maybe just needs more storage from the drier Kunming years.
That’s what I’m hoping. I have the laziest pu’er storage system ever, just a sturdy weatherproof plastic storage box, a bit of water or a well wrung paper towel for occasional moisture (mostly during arid winters), and semiregular airing during humid summer months. I tried out another (slightly older and I think more fermented) shu from the box that I’ve also had for about a year and it seems to have stayed relatively stable, which I think is a good sign.