2013 Yunnan Sourcing Da Si Ancient Arbor Raw Puerh Tea of Feng Qing

I dismissed this one a bit quickly after sampling it upon arrival where I got mostly wood notes and hints of what it may have once been. After letting it hang in the pumi for a month or two… I get it now.

The rinse is already a thick soup with a vibrancy that extends to the back of the throat. Lovely mouthfeel from the start.

I may have gotten the center of the cake, as the leaves are taking more than a few steeps to come apart which may have preserved these spring-like and high floral notes. Aromas reflect what’s in the cup. Spring meadows upon meadows of wild flowers and interesting complex wood notes all competing for my attention.

The first few steeps are highly floral(honeysuckle and other northern flowers) with a crisp, vegetal complexity that reminds me of dried radish greens and dried herbs. Nice complex sweet apple wood base. Depth is evident early on. Vibrancy and qi spread throughout the mouth and go down the throat into the solar plexus. Yep, I’m all plugged into this tea. This sensation is also something I picked up in the ’16 Han Gu Di, but the experience is more intense with the Da Si—probably the result of 3 years of settling into itself.

From steep 6 to 9 there’s still more to discover, as the compressed portions have yet to fully expand. It’s got a consistently thick body, but increased levels of qi and a complex sweetness (brown sugar, orchid nectar, and pungent honey) that lingers on the sides of the tongue as webs of crystalized sugar and moves straight towards the back of the throat. I’m relishing this huigan which compliments the waves of qi pulsating from my head as it floats to the ceiling.

These kinds of steeps keep on going past 10, 11, and 12. This is a nice one that all sheng pu heads should try. It’s far from my budget, but I would be most grateful if any magnanimous individuals would like to donate a sample. :)

Note: I moved the tea leaves from the gaiwan to the nixing teapot after steep 6. I suspect this is what brought out more those complex sweet notes and enhanced the mouthfeel. This is one of those mind-clarifying shengs.

I did a no no by checking the price after I started drinking this because it was either one of two things: a cheap tea that is badass and nobody has been talking about or an expensive tea that I have yet to be exposed to.
Turns out it’s at the mid to high spectrum as far as pricing goes: $13 for a 25g sample is still rather cheap when you think about it as 10+ hours of drinking between multiple sessions.

Anyways, I began brewing this knowing nothing about it because I just pick samples up with no thought anymore; when you have 150+ it just seems like the way to go.
This tea brewed a middle level color with a rather easily picked up aroma that I could say is strong but others may not think so. The first sip was when I knew this was going to be one of the ones I will drink for the rest of the day. Head of the tea has a strength to it that kind of fades, but that taste just goes right to the mouth feel. Lots of subtle tingling going on with this tea. Really enjoying the complexity of the taste as it doesn’t go one way or the other, I decided to put a few steps aside to cool down. Results came back once I tasted them, this is one of the few sheng (about 1 in 20 that I drink) that is good cold, luke warm, and hot! Most pu’erh ends up being really unpleasant when it cools down which is why I test them… I find it fun.

I would clearly recommend picking up a sample of this if I was you. With under 30 cakes left, the price will continue to go up. Now these cakes are 400g so that puts it at 35 cents per gram so you would be looking at $2 per session and I can confirm that this will go for hours. One thing to note about this is that this tea is only a few years old at this point which is awesome because there isn’t a mouth bite to it with that tingling; which I should add doesn’t have the mouth dryness that a strong new DHP tends to give.

This is a highly lubricating, cooling tea that promotes intense salivation. Notes of butter and apricot mix with a little smokiness and a more pronounced fruitiness in the later steeps. Not overly sweet with good longevity.

Like Superman in his guise as a mild-mannered reporter, the smoothness and amiable nature of this tea belies its powerful narcotic effects, which are considerable.

A really nice selection.

This is a high quality cake made with material from ancient trees in Lincang. The beautiful whole leaves are “picked” off the cake very easily. Gold colored liquor with a pleasant aroma. The taste is smooth and sweet and full in the mouth; balanced with pleasant bitterness in later infusions making the cup more complex. Decent longevity – I’ve taken if for 8 rounds. This is a very solid production for which the price has risen steadily over the past two years. At this point, it might have risen a bit too high.