“Fresh, slightly bitter with a instense, rustic somkiness. Recommended if you like smokey Shengs. Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2014-yunyun-eot” Read full tasting note
“Solid young sheng. I wasn’t wowed, but I also realize that I don’t know what qualities in a young sheng will evolve into something amazing with age. This had a fruity apricot flavor and smoke,...” Read full tasting note
We thought we’d found our teas for this year with the four other cakes we pressed…. then we tasted this. It was collected by a friend of ours from a Lahu village to the north-west of Menghai. He met an elderly lady from there while filling up at a petrol station, began chatting somehow about tea and she invited him to come to the village to see her 400 year old tea trees. The village is very remote, only recently connected to the power grid and isn’t on the list of destinations for the many tea buyers crowding Xishuangbanna. As such, the trees haven’t been overpicked and the quality of the tea is excellent… bright and vibrant.
There is some smoke, from the rudimentary processing equipment (just a wok on a fire!), but this should settle and evolve over the next few years, and isn’t overpowering at the moment. The tea is thick and full in the mouth and throat, fizzing with energy on the tongue. The aftertaste lingers and evolves… still present over half an hour later. For those who like thick, meaty puerh – this is the tea for you.
This tea was grown naturally without pesticides or fertilisers. We confirmed this with a lab test for agrochemical residues by one of the leading laboratories. Two hundred of the most common agrochemicals were tested for & no traces were detected.
This tea was a bit of a gamble for us when we made it back in 2014. It was from a very remote and undeveloped village & the processing was quite rudimentary – giving it a smokey flavour.
Nonetheless, the trees were healthy, old, hadn’t been overpicked and agrochemicals had never been used. The base material of the tea was vibrant and thick & we felt that it would be a tea that would age well.
After 4 years in our Malaysian warehouse, I’m happy to say that our instincts were correct – the smokiness has gone, leaving a tea that is progressing very nicely. It thick and rich, with a long lasting aftertaste and good energy. We’ve decided to release a case of this for sale at the moment and keep the rest to age in Malaysia for future years.
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