Wild Tree Purple Varietal Black Tea of Dehong

Welcome to day 30 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!
Yup, my month long festival of sipdown is coming to a close! I’m actually glad, because I have new teas to drink, special teas that I miss drinking, etc. Tomorrow will be the final day of clearing my shelves of anything old, small, or just unloved.
I’ve been working on updating the database, & as I’ve said before, I’ll probably end the month with more tea than I started with, haha. I started with 401, & although I didn’t set any actual goal, I think I’ve been kind of aiming for 250.

This is a really interesting tea, & if you let it warm up in a hot cup, the aroma of plums is outstanding! I could sit around just huffing this, & I did for a few minutes. Something nice to wake up to. Going with short steeps, the tea itself build through layers of Congee rice, sweet plum, a little tartness, & an amazing chaqi. Some of the steeps make me think of Plum Sake, even though I’ve never had anything like that, LOL.
It also really reminds me of a sweeter sister to Master Han’s Wild Picked Yunnan. It has a very similar energy, & a rustic wild quality to it, but coupled with a lovely sweet aftertaste of plums.
It’s silly for me to count this as a sipdown, as I have a new shipment en route, but the newer version is from Spring 2014, so there you go. It’s legit.
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Trying to get through at least tasting the last round of teas from our BBBBox before the next round gets here. I brewed this western style because i can’t manage two gonfu at once haha. This is a really juicy tea..there’s a hint of a taste that i’m not familiar with coming through…sort of yunnan ish but not quite. Over all this is really tasty, though i for sure need to try this gong fu style next!

This tea is one of Terri’s contributions to the BBBB. I had no expectations, good or bad for this as it’s a totally new kind of tea. I brewed it up gongfu style as Terri mentioned in her note that she wanted to try it that way. This is a great gongfu tea. Each steeping is decidedly different than the previous. The first was very sweet with a hint of the basic Yunnan flavors. The second was savory, almost like herb chicken (I know, wacky). The third so far is very strong honey and Yunnan again. This is a fun tea! Kind of like tea roulette! Never know what the next flavor is going to be! I’m curious how this brews up western style. I’ll try that next time, but I think this is probably best as gongfu. Thanks Terri!

Man this is good! Taking a break before getting back to the finals grind.

This tea is warm and hearty like a Taiwanese black, but clean and refreshing like young sheng. There’s also some pretty interesting flavors here that I haven’t tasted elsewhere, and I really like it.

One of my favorite things about tea is the endless variety. I love trying new things, and I sort of hate to buy the same thing twice (even if I love it), and so far I haven’t bought a second batch of any tea, but I think this is one I’ll need to keep stocked in my cupboard.

But then again there IS the light roast version of this tea… :P

This is another tea that Sil sent me, and so far I’ve been liking the Yunnan Sourcing blacks. (I’m a little concerned about avoiding a Yunnan Sourcing order before I get my stash under control.)
This is a little strange to me, but strange in a good way. It’s really sweet and a bit earthy – not pu’erh earthy, but heading in that direction. It’s really smooth, no astringency (even with sporadic steep times at work). This is a good tea. I really like it, and would be more than happy to have more of it in my cupboard.

[Spring 2019 harvest]

I am big fan of black teas made from the ye sheng varietal, and this one won’t change that. I slightly prefer the light roast version, but both are good.

The aroma of dry leaves presents no surprises – it is sweet and leathery with a roasted meat note in the background. Wet leaf scent also has the expected notes of tobacco and oak wood, but is more floral and earthy than I would have thought.

Taste is pretty savoury and bitter, with a tart backbone and an earthy finish, which reminds me a bit of an aged loose leaf shou. There are flavours of burnt food, fireplace, and curry leaves. Liquor texture is fairly thick and bubbly, but also somewhat coarse and astringent. The highlight of the session is the long-lasting aftertaste which starts off with a sort of umami character, but eventually molasses sweetness arrives to take hold.

[Spring 2012 harvest]

Along with the 2019 version, I also bought one from 2012 as a chance to do an interesting aged black tea comparison. The main takeaway is that the aged tea is slightly sweeter, quite a bit smoother, and less pungent than the fresh one. It also has a softer, more coating texture.

The aromas are generally a bit more muted and subtle here, but possess an intriguing complexity. Before the rinse I can smell notes of strawberries and forest, while afterwards it is a more woody scent.

The taste is also more woody than the 2019 version, and has some notes of black pepper, cranberry, cinnamon, and eucalyptus that I did not detect in the other one. There is a noticeable throat-cooling sensation that really distinguishes the aftertaste of the two.

All in all, I don’t have a favourite among the two, but the aged one is a very elegant tea. It is reminiscent of aged whites and tian jian.

Spring 2019 Harvest

(This is the general excerpt from my tea blog, which includes photos of each steep https://jadeoolong.blogspot.com/2021/02/comparing-tea-to-itself-wild-tree.html)

NOTE: I also wrote a log for the 2012 Harvest two years ago.

Brew info: 6.13 grams of tea | 100 ml water | Porcelain gaiwan | Gong fu style (see steep information below)

Leaf Aroma:
*The high notes of the wet leaves are sweet, but slightly sour
*The low notes from the wet leaves are of light smoke and cacao powder
*The leaves open somewhat quickly. They seem to open up 7-10% with each steep. I think this tea will go on for a while.

Tea Broth / Soup:
*The color of the tea soup is a lovely orange amber

The flavor starts off with a mild sourness followed by a sweetness and sugary aftertaste. It’s fairly well balanced with no flavor overpowering the other. It has a fairly medium finish with a tongue juiciness that lingers with sugar crystals.The sourness is not as dominating, as Laoshan Red teas. It’s just a nice balance of sweet & sour.

I don’t detect the more fruity notes from my 2012 tasting, which could be just the harvest year or my looking at tea differently.

Brewing specs by steep:

Well, here we have a purple tea. To be honest, I am not the biggest fan of purple teas for the same reason that I am not a fan of scented or flavored teas – the “purple tea” flavors (the funky fruitiness it seems to have) is so strong that it overrides any other flavors. Don’t get me wrong, the funky fruit purple tea flavors are awesome, but they can start to get a little tiresome for me.

That said, Yunnan Sourcing has a great selection of purple teas to explore – different varietals, different styles (including green, oolong, white, black, pu’erh…). Personally, I have had a couple of purple pu’erhs, the moonlight white, and this. I’ll have to revisit the pu’erhs again, but I will say that I think this black tea is a more successful vehicle for the purple tea flavors than the white tea.

The black tea just has more body and stronger flavors that can compete with the in-your-face fruitiness. There is a strong caramel note that cuts through the fruit, and just enough bitterness that keeps things from being cloyingly sweet and one-note.

Finally, there were some really interesting spice notes that reminded me of the spiced oatmeal/streusel topping you would put on cobbler. Really nice.
*
Dry leaf – fruit (melon, papaya, peach), notes of malt, caramel, hint of milk chocolate, mint. In preheated vessel – funky fruitiness gets stronger, berry cobbler, spiced oatmeal, pecan nuttiness

Smell – berry cobbler, spiced oatmeal, melon, papaya, peach, bitter caramel

Taste – slightly burnt caramel, raw almond, funky fruit (cobbler, papaya, peach). Fruit flavors develop in aftertaste, but are tempered by malt and caramel undertones. Hints of cola as aftertaste develops.

This is a funky and unusual tea with a complex array of enduring flavors; tart plum, mint, earthiness, dark coffee. There is a pungent sharpness to it and a slightly bitter backbone, as well as a smooth and reasonably thick body. The mouthfeel is highly dynamic and an absolute star here. Quite an experience altogether, and one that may require multiple sessions to fully appreciate.

2013 spring.

This is a fermented purple, but no description of the fermentation process. It tastes to me a bit like Hei cha. Ive gongfu’d this a few different ways & I much prefer it with kid gloves, slight less heat & flash steeps, if I brew hotter & longer a malty taste comes out & it tastes more like a normal black tea & a bit mushed together.

The bag & leaf smell of a sweet/candy I cant place, really lovely aroma. The taste has a thickness like dense water, with the ever-present sour note of purple leaf there.

All the flavours & aromas are hard to place really! Id love a course where you smell every aroma, im not good at this part. It is plant-y like a sheng but has other flavour-colours going on.

I do really prefer my purples with a roast, from my experience with them. I think the char compliments the sour very nicely (zi hong pao for example – I havent tried the light roast version) But this is still nice. Its a bit like the sourness of plum but softer. cool stuff