2012 Yunnan Sourcing Impression Raw Pu-Erh Tea

This young sheng has a nicely balanced demeanor, gives strong astringency and a tannic impression with aromas of oat straw, and chlorophyll. It has a strong character to my taste, one which says it will age well. I agree that it has slight smoky notes on its lengthy finish, but do not get the honey notes mentioned. It would be nice to see where this tea goes with time. Right now, I say not outstanding but good.

Having this bing since the start of my pu-erh journey in 2016, this sheng took me at my hand and showed me how a maturation in a rather arid surrounding can be. I had highs and lows with this one as the time in between the green notes left and mature aroma taking over, it wasn’t a really appealing tea. Half a year ago I thought this tea not just mellowed out but got flat and stale. Even though nothing really pungent is left my visit today was pleasing.

With a rather loose pressing this bing comes apart easily and offers beautiful dry leaves. After 15 sec. of washing with boiling water I started the session with ~8g and 90° C.

There is a fine balance in the bittersweet taste with the dark and warming aroma of a semiaged Sheng. Tobacco with a little smoke is the main component now I would say. The bitterness is vegetal (aubergine). Some ripe stonefruit (plums) and even pudding round this tea out. Later on the astringency dries my mouth a bit, but not as strongly anymore. A little cooling menthol I could pick up in the aftertaste.

I am grateful for this journey, even though the end is nigh with and our ways will part soon. Pu-Erh is a nice hobby sometimes pushes me into running my miles faster and sometimes calm me down in the midst of a stressful work day. This YS Impression 2012 is rather calming and focusing for me. I would love to read some revisits from other owners of this tea!

This 2012 Impression is a favorite in my household (well, by me, at least). What I like about it the most is that, although it is seven years old, this tea still knows how to bite.

Right off the bat, I gave it a 5 second rinse, and the flavor wasn’t strong, but it was there. Apricots with a hint of lilac. After the first initial rinse, the remainder of the time results in a mix of a lot of notes, which some are briefly marked in my notebook.

Second Steep, 30 seconds: I had noted that it was too long for the leaf. Bitter, astringent, and sour note at the back of the mouth/throat.
Third Steep, 15 seconds: Leather, still astringent, with a lingering apricot in the back of the mouth/throat.
Fourth steep, 20 seconds: Leathery, floral, and slightly astringent, with a lingering sweetness. Progressed while sipping. Initial intake of the liquid-leathery, with the following astringency. Mid-sip (passing the tongue) floral notes, still astringent. Lingering sweetness.

That’s all I got in before jumping into other things. The point of the notes above is to illustrate why I thoroughly enjoy this session. It is complex and develops in such a way that I’ve not had with many teas. As the session progresses onward, the tea did eventually soften up, all of those leathery/floral notes eventually going away; although, the sweetness doesn’t remain, exactly, it’s not bitter. I like that the leaf brews like a semi-young puerh, but there is definitely a note of some age happening in the leaf. This is one of those teas that get pulled out from time to time, just to check on the progress of the aging. I’ve only tried this Impression cake, but I’ve also heard good things about the 2018 blend, too. Perhaps I’ll snag one down the road. It’s hard to tell. ;)

I had heard mostly good things about this tea and seriously considered blind-tonging the 2018 release based on reputation and price and wrapper design alone. Glad I didn’t! I must just hate this taste profile that includes smoke. Many people love it. To me, it tastes clearly of ashtray. Hot ashtray water. Tried brewing it stronger to see if I can at least feel some of the cha qi. The taste is stronger ashtray water, though. :tears emoji:

I am probably just spoiled, but sorry Yunnan Sourcing. This ain’t it.

Just read the 2018 product description. Seems the blend must have changed since 2012. Maybe the 2018 will therefore be better. Jinggu is a region I’ve liked. But this 2012 is bleccch. Really happy Andrew aka Liquid Proust sent this out as part of the 2019 starter kit so people can sample at low cost before commitment.

Overleafed sipdown!
Used the rest of tea, that said 8 grams per my 85 ml gaiwan.

Not preheated gaiwan, I just made bit longer rinse (around 15 seconds) and drank it. My mother came and asked what I am drinking. She is rather drinker of green or white teas, so she was amazed what is pu-erh like and smelled the leaves, then the cup. I let her take a sip of it and she really liked it! “I would like similar tea”. But it is sold out, unfortunately.

The rinse is vegetal a bit, but tasty. Some stonefruits notes – peach, bit rough on tongue. Little, but nice astringency.

1st steep was again around 15 seconds.
BOOM of floral notes, probably lilac mostly. Then fruit notes. Little and nice astringency.

2nd steep 20 seconds
Again floral, apricot stronger and stronger.

3rd steep 30 seconds
Apricot and resinous. Quite on the sweet side. Still astringent, but without it, it would be boring. Long mouth-feel.

4rd, another 30+ seconds.
More into resin, still fruit notes. I really enjoy the long mouthfeel. To be honest, I don’t mind it is not it’s still somehow same. It’s tasty and that counts. Bit Darjeeling again, floral taste here as well.

5th… around 40 seconds
I am drinking this tea for long… I am doing a lot for school and forgetting the tea.

6th… completely no idea.
Same story like previous steep. Fruity notes.

7th… made really long
Eh, bitter. But still somehow tasty! Bit drying.

And few more promising ones. Sad to see it go, but happy to try it!

Take it from me: Guy Who Has Not Has Much Raw Pu-Erh™, this is a pretty good cake. By now it’s lost nearly all of its astringency and has a fruity, bright character. A good amount of depth and complexity.

Mid afternoon cuppa.

This one came with my last box from Sipsby – I was excited to get something from Yunnan Sourcing as I’ve not explored many of their offerings, though less excited when I saw it was a raw pu’erh rather than a ripe.

I made this one Western, but will eventually try it Gong Fu. I just didn’t want to commit to a whole Gong Fu session with a raw I hadn’t tried yet – I have no clue if this is gonna be up my ally or not. Flavour wise it’s very interesting; there’s a touch of astringency but mostly it’s quite smooth with some interesting flavour notes to it. Sort of a caramelized sugar and sweet smoke note mixture – with just a bit of fruityness to the top notes; almost like a starfruit kind of fruit flavour with aspects of under ripe peach? It’s such a weird mash up; exotic and stone fruits, smoke, and caramelized sugar…

I can’t decide if I’m into it or not – but hey, at least I don’t hate it!

Yikes! Too much for me. Has that sour, vegetal taste like zucchini. It’s bitter and astringent with that shengy kind of flavor that I can’t really describe yet.

I am revisiting this one from about a year ago. When I first tried this tea last year it was mostly bitter and not very interesting to me. I pulled this one out as I am off the Shou Train at the moment and am limited in my Sheng collection (though I am waiting on some W2T fare). I brewed up about 7 grams in 100ml Gaiwan. Two quick rinses and let it rest for about 10-15 min. I steeped in about 205F water for about 10 seconds increasing steep time and temp a bit as it thinned out. First couple of steeps were not that dynamic but had a nice floral and sweet aroma on the out breath that lingered. After the usual astringency in the 3rd and 4th steeps that was not at all unpleasant to me the tea started to show itself. Not a very oily or viscous mouthfeel but not water thin either. The material is not the highest quality out there I am sure but this turned out to be a nice session. Some nice sweet and tart flavors presented themselves into the later steeps as well as the lingering sweet/floral in the nose. Notes of tobacco, hay, flowers, and slight syrup made it pretty damn enjoyable. This is a decent average daily drinker. For the price and the taste I would recommend for sure. It’s not some ancient Gushu fertilized with White Tiger blood and Buddha’s piss that will open your third eye revealing the true nature of The Camellia Gods. But its not bad at all.

One of my old samples of tea I am working on sipping down. I am on my 5th steep (or somewhere around there) and it’s been pretty consistent. This tea hasn’t really been stored properly since it’s a sample so it probably hasn’t aged much.

I found it slightly sweet with a bit of bitterness. There’s also a bit a fruitiness. More in the earlier steeps but still pretty consistent. I haven’t noticed too much caffeine or buzz from it; which is a good thing. I guess it all depends on what you want in a tea; and how you feel at that time of day.