2014 Autumn Bing Dao Raw Pu-Erh

Upfront grassy, floral and vegetal. Light notes of apricot, honey and bitterness. There is a mental vibrancy and focus. This is a get stuff done kind of tea with the first couple infusions.

infusions 5-10 naturally mellow out the astringency and you’re left with a playful well rounded cup of stone fruit and lightly sweet finish.

I don’t often drink sheng so I don’t have much means for comparison, but I liked this one. A mild flavor with fruity undertones, tangy but not bitter. Really smooth and easy to drink, reminds me of the smell of rain somehow. A good way to start a chilly morning.

Finished up the last of my sample of this: 9.5g in 200ml water in my Yixing zisha pot.

Rinsed at 95˚C. Wet leaf smells beautiful, floral and clear and crisp, hint of sweetness.

1st infusion (20s): Wet leaf smells like brine. Liquor slight bitterness and a lot of astringency. I don’t get any sweetness. Think I was a bit careless and overbrewed it. I don’t like this dryness.

2nd infusion (18s): Less astringency, nice clarity, but I’m not getting the “nectar-like sweetness” that the YS website is claiming. Tea soup has a thick body and clear briny flavour redolent of fresh oysters, which is a pleasant association. Much better than the 1st infusion, which I clearly messed up.

3rd infusion (20s at 96˚C): Now getting a hint of spiciness in the aroma. Another great infusion.

4th (20s at 96˚C): Clear spring, minerally, flavour too light I didn’t push it hard enough.

5th (25s at 100˚C): Ah, yes I think this is the tea finally calming down and giving me a firm yet mellow flavour. There’s no sweetness or astringency, just I don’t know why but it seems to me that this is the flavour of maturity and wisdom. There is a rounded sweetness in the mouth afterwards. White grape skins. I think I’m finally beginning to ‘get’ this tea. Definitely not one that I’d crave often or call a “favourite”, but I think I can appreciate it for its excellence and durability now.

Note: This tea currently sells for US$132 per cake on YunnanSourcing. It was totally wasted on me a year ago (when I rated it a 45) and is probably still semi-wasted on me now – my nose and palate aren’t refined enough to pick up all the floral and other notes. It’ll be funny to look back on how my tastes have developed if I ever try this tea again.

Rating: 85

My first alleged Bing Dao tea from Mr Wilson. I must always thank him for keeping these leaves in good form while in their sample pack. Leaf breakage DOES impact taste.

The first few steeps provide clear indicators of the tea’s alleged origins. It’s thick in the mouth and clear pale gold in the cup. It has good depth, penetrating cooling, sweet hay, bittersweet, sharp florals, sencha, white pine resin, green apple, chardonnay grape skins, pine wood, and a strong mouthfeel.

Serious huigan. Lingering sharp floral and white grape skin notes leave a slight drying in the mouth followed by a salivating effect. Mid steeps get thicker and the bitterness of wild herbs comes to the fore with more intense huigan. After the 9th steep or so, the tea becomes a lot more floral buttery. The sweet grassy aromas become wild flower fragrance and is very present in the empty cup. This is my kind of tea. I think I found a Nan Po Zhai replacement, as it shares many similarities.

The sample is bit dried out, but not overly so and I know my tupperware bin storage will remedy that within a couple of weeks or so.

2016-09-11
2014 Autumn Bing Dao Raw – ??g in 500mL at 212C

I didn’t have my morning tea before heading to the Dharma Hall for meditation so I decided to put a few leaves in to a 0.5L thermos and bring along a single teacup to sip during the Dharma talk. I was worried that’d maybe I’d put too much leaf and the tea would prove bitter and/or astringent. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Sooooooo effing good! Every last cup! Just enough astringency to make each cup crisps. Sweet and fruity, sort of persimmon like in that the sweetness wasn’t over powering yet had a honey/date like finish, and ever sip you’re just glowing like, sip “Oh that’s good”, sip “Oh so good”, sip “mmmm good”… It’s a 15-20 minute drive to the dharma hall so I have to experiment with this one a bit. Really wish I’d weighed the leaves before hand to know the ratio. I think what’s so amazing is that the treasures that you find and enjoy in the early steeps and in the later steeps are all there in a single cup! Creamy, sweet astringency, fruitiness and just a enough of a hint of bitterness to add delicious complexity. I love that you can fall in love with tea all over again on any given day. This was awesome!

This tea was nothing short of phenomenal. It did not start bitter. It started out with the note of dry white grapes, without the intense sweetness of grapes of course. Not sure how long this note lasted. But it developed into the most widely used notes for young sheng, apricots and stonefruits. I don’t know if this is typical of Bing Dao tea or not. I have little experience with Bing Dao teas. This is the first one I’ve drank that I feel I can confirm is from the Bing Dao area. It is a region where a great many teas not from there claim to be from there. Coming from Yunnan Sourcing I believe this is genuine Bing Dao tea. Whether or not this tea is typical of Bing Dao teas it is the best raw puerh I have drank in some time. I very much recommend this tea. It is not one of Scott’s cheaper teas but it was not too expensive at $71. Moderately expensive I would say. But not expensive for a tea that is this good. This has got to be the smoothest raw puerh I can remember drinking for that matter. There was never a hint of bitterness in this. This is one where I wonder how it will age. I have heard that bitter teas age better so this may be one to drink now, who knows. It was good.

I steeped this twelve times in a 100ml teapot with 7.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The tea was not done but I have reached my caffeine limit. If I didn’t have so much other sheng I would buy a tong of this tea. It is that good.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIaiD_PjpKf/?taken-by=allanckeanepuerhtea

The leaves are dark brown with some green tinges and lots of silver tips and some brown/red sticks/stems present. For the most part they are long and look whole though thin, tightly wrapped and with a high shine. They have a creamy earthen scent with elements of toasted hay, lightly smoked wood and flowers.

Steeping Method: Yixing Teapot 100ml
Leaf: 7g
Water: Boiling
Pre rinse – This was rinsed twice for 20 seconds each time

First Steep – 30 seconds

Colour is yellow with a gentle, creamy yet earthy scent. Flavour is soft and sweet with a creamy after taste. Some bitterness but it transfuses into sweet honey and floral peony like tones.

Second Steep – 40 seconds

Less bitter than the first steep though it is still present. Still plenty of sweet and creamy tones with some added soft smoke and damp wood and hay.

Third Steep – 45 seconds

No bitterness at all which makes it sweet and creamy. Heavenly! It coats the inside of my mouth and lingers in the after taste. Honey, honeysuckle, cream and gentle musk.

Fourth Steep – 55 seconds

Another beautiful steep, the flavour is perfect at this stage. So creamy and sweet but with depth and flavour. The bitterness has returned albeit subtle and short lasting.

Fifth Steep – 1 minute

Now the flavour is starting to reduce in strength. The creaminess dominates though it is not as sweet as the previous steeps. Also little to no bitterness is left, just the cream and a gentle floral after taste.

Sixth Steep – 1 minute 20 seconds

Slowly reduced though still creamy and pleasing. Still no bitterness to speak of, instead it’s very smooth and easy to drink. No smoke or earthy tones remain.

Seventh Steep – 2 minutes

Even lighter though still enough flavour to be pleasing. Cream and flowers is all that remains.

Eighth Steep – 3 minutes

This is certainly the final steep. Though there is still some soft cream notes there is nothing else present.

This was a very beautiful Sheng, with dominant cream tones, soft astringency and a delicate balance of flowers and earth.