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The second ripe in my Denong Tea order. Unlike the New Factory Edition, this one is much more loosely compressed, closer to other boutique label shu productions. The material looks nice, for a ripe. Just like the previous review, I used my 120ml silver teapot again. Since with the New Factory Edition I found that I could have leafed it even a bit harder, I decided to go with 9.7g this time. A ten second rinse, followed by a rest of a few minutes to let the moisture soak in. I did a total of eleven infusions, the timing for these 12s, 10s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min.

I don’t know how much of it has to do with me sticking mostly to fancier ripe productions, but I’m usually the kind of person who has very little issue with drinking freshly pressed shus. Fishy is not a word I would likely use to describe these teas had I not heard others using it, but with this tea I can kind of see where people are coming from. There’s definitely something off about the first couple steeps and I had to discard the first one as the second rinse since I did not find it drinkable.

Overall the tea is very earthy, with touches of muddiness, chalkiness and mineral tones to it. There’s some sweetness in some steeps, but overall the tea is characterized by its distinct lack of sweetness rather than the presence of it. Combined with the disappointingly thin body, these two factors made for a quite unenjoyable session for me. While the tea is quite mellow overall, it is a fair bit stronger than the New Factory Edition and I ended up over-leafing it by some degree. For this amount of leaf the lack of body is a huge disappointment. Even the longer infusions later on don’t really improve this.

The tea does clear up as the steeps progress, developing some texture and notes of dry wood. It most definitely improves from the initial infusions, but I still wouldn’t necessarily say it gets good, just better. Once the tea starts tasting a bit watery, you really need to start pushing it to revitalize it. Eventually it starts tasting a bit like a really woody hong cha. I’m not sure about the longevity as I ended the session at a point where the tea could have possibly kept going, but it would have definitely required extended steeps and continued getting thinner and thinner.

After the positive impression left by the New Factory Edition, Cherishing Destiny was a rather big disappointment. I highly recommend rinsing it at least twice if drinking it young and while it does improve toward the mid steeps, I think for the price what it has to offer is abysmal. There may very well be plenty of room for improvement, but it’s impossible to say really. In its current state at least the tea comes off as very underdeveloped. This is exactly the kind of tea where the fact that Denong doesn’t offer samples for most of their teas really sucks. With ninety grams of my 100g bing left, I really need to hope this one improves if I give it five years.

Denong is a Chinese company specializing in premium and ultra premium pu’er. A couple years back they finally established their US branch. Although I’ve heard them mentioned here and there, there doesn’t seem to be too much buzz surrounding them here in the West. Curious to try their offerings, I finally placed my first order with them. I ended up picking up two of their ripe pu’ers, this being the first one. For many of their teas they don’t seem to be offering samples, the option of picking up a 100g bing instead of a full-sized one being the closest thing to that. That was the case with the two teas I got, this and the Cherishing Destiny ripe.

My bing seems quite tightly compressed, which might result in it aging slower under less humid conditions. I ended up using my 120ml silver teapot, which I may end up using for evaluating ripes from here on just to eliminate the guesswork of having to try to pick the right type of clay to suit the particular tea. Usually it’s Yixing, but I’ve found a few teas complemented better by Jianshui. I went with 9.5g which is pretty close to my normal ratio for shu, probably a little heavier than most people, less than some. Single rinse for ten seconds, followed by a rest of five to ten minutes. I did a total of eleven steeps, the timing for these 10s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min., 5 min. and 8 min.

Sweetness and earthiness are the tea’s two defining characteristics throughout the session. The texture is smooth and the earthy character aside the tea sips very clean from the first brew. While not the darkest tea, the broth develops a deep mahogany hue in the middle steeps. The sweetness grows ever so prominent as the steeps progress, without ever becoming overly so. The combination with very clean notes of dirt is not something I have encountered that often. Other notes you can expect include nuttiness, berries, wood, even savory. I also encountered notes of tobacco in one steep which was interesting for a ripe, along with some mineral metallic notes in another.

I did not encounter much qi, perhaps a slightly calming, grounding effect, which is pretty typical for shu. For me the things that stood out about the tea were the way how it traveled all the way to the back of the mouth just by taking a regular sip and the way how it went down almost effortlessly as you swallowed. For those with less experience with pu’er this might sound weird, but these are truly the hallmarks of a great tea. Combined with the smoothness, this was a tea that was a joy to sip. In terms of taste it’s not overly dynamic, but there’s nuance to be found and the strong long-lasting sweetness is something many fans of pu’er will appreciate. With the extended steeps toward the end the soup grows dense and heavy, showing great longevity. I stopped after the close to ten minute steep as the tea was finally starting to show signs of growing watery, but those wanting to get absolute everything out of their tea could have carried on with progressively long brews.

Overall I enjoyed this tea. As far as premium ripes go, I wasn’t crazy about it, but I enjoyed it and the quality was evident. The problem is comparing it to other ripes around this price point I’m not sure it’s worth its price tag. Crimson Lotus Tea’s Storm Breaker is roughly the same price per gram and it’s a tea I’d likely recommend over this one. There are other examples as well. That being said, fans of smooth shus with astonishing huigan may want to give this one a shot if the price is not an issue. On the merits of its quality and my overall enjoyment I’m going to award it a recommended status as this is a tea I would absolutely recommend were it cheaper. For me the 100g bing is perfect as I do definitely want to revisit this tea later and am curious as to how it will develop, but a full-size bing would be simply too much for me.

This is an aged offering acquired through Teepolku based in Turku, Finland. As the name suggests, this is supposedly from Xi Gui and from older trees no less, but I would always take these things with a grain of salt. The tea is priced rather affordably at €49 for a 357g bing, which would suggest it’s not Xi Gui but from the greater Xi Gui area or perhaps a blend trying to mimic the profile. Nevertheless, at the end of the day origin and authenticity mean very little, at least to me. If a tea’s good, it’s good. If a tea’s bad, it’s bad. Famed areas produce both good and bad tea. Imitations can still be good teas. All information really does is set (often unnecessary) expectations and maybe help in trying to determine the expected trajectory as far as aging goes.

According to the description this tea has seen some humidity, but the specifics aren’t mentioned. At least based on the nose this seems to have been rather mild as my sample at least has hardly any dankness to the aroma. I started with one of the large pieces of cake that was in the sample bag and broke it into smaller pieces along the layers until I had 12g for my 180ml teapot made from clay from Dehua. The compression does not seem tight at all as I needed to apply hardly any pressure at all. Reusing the water I’d used to heat up the teapot, I rinsed the leaves for around ten seconds. After this I gave them a second, shorter five-second rinse with water from the kettle that had already dropped to around 95°C. This was followed by a rest of a few minutes before proceeding with the brewing.

Just rinsing the leaves was enough the fill the room with their fragrance. I smelled root vegetables, my drinking partner licorice. I did a total of seven infusions, the timing for these 12s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s and 75s. Xi Gui Wang started off strong yet gentle in its nature. It was sweet, soft in the mouth with a very nice mouthfeel and body. There was some sourness and a touch of smoke which I assume come from storage and processing. Initially I got some compost/dirt, but this eventually switched to a very distinct taste of peach with its skin on. As the skin brings a sort of earthy character, I’m not sure if this was the same or a different earthiness as the one that came before. The aftertaste was long.

Keeping the steep time the same, the second brew was even stronger. Very sour and quite smoky. The tea retained its softness and nice mouthfeel. I was still getting the fruit, but it was being overshadowed by the sourness. There was also now a licorice/anise taste present with very mild medicinal vibes to it. Very interesting tea.

The next two steeps were similar. Third one even stronger than the second, both still very sour. I was getting some cooling in the mouth now. Licorice and anise were starting to become the defining taste, whereas the sweetness was starting to resemble the kind you’d encounter in root vegetables like rutabaga, sweet potato and others. The overall impression was quite bright, cooling and refreshing.

Steep five was definitely my favorite one. The aroma of the liquor in the cup was simply divine. The sourness was now finally gone and the tea had this… clarity to it. Everything had finally come together. Licorice had come to prevail over the anise and the tea was sweet, so sweet. At this point my tongue started going slightly numb.

In the final two steeps I did the tea started to simplify a lot. Steep six was still strong and sweet, but you could tell the flavors were beginning to grow thin. Sweetness was one of the few things that remained in the final brew, but most of the notes had practically fallen off a cliff and the tea was beginning to taste quite watery. In fear of pushing the tea into nasty territory I decided to call it there.

Some of you may know that I’ve struggled with finding aged raws that I genuinely like. I’m glad to say that this is the first tea I can say that about. As far as my experiences go, it’s a really unique and enjoyable tea. I’m not necessarily the biggest fan of the intense sourness in the first several steeps, but it was also never unpleasant and when it comes to aged teas I’ve come to learn to just roll with most of their idiosyncrasies.

Since I’m far more familiar with young raws, I always find it a challenge trying to evaluate the quality of these aged teas. I’d say this one is above average, but in my experience the average quality of most aged teas is not that high – teas that a regular person can afford anyway. It brews up strong, but the longevity is piss poor, making me very much doubt the claim about older tea trees. I don’t recall the last time a sheng only lasted me seven infusions, and an aged tea at that. That being said, I really enjoyed the tea and I think the price is very good for what you get. Xi Gui or not, the tea does match my limited experience and impression of what to expect: fragrance, softness in the mouth and lasting aftertaste.

This is definitely a tea I can recommend. I won’t be grabbing a bing as I don’t really have the space and don’t think it necessarily that good. A lot of the appeal for me lies in the novelty factor and that’s eventually going to diminish over several sessions. Still, a very enjoyable and unique tea.

7542 is likely the most famous recipe in the realm of pu’er. I’ve never tried the original by Dayi, but this is CNNP’s take on this famous tea. The dry leaf has a very notable scent of tar, reminding me of Bitterleaf’s other aged offering Dear Comrade which is now sadly sold out. I weighed 7.5g in my 110ml Yixing zhuni teapot and gave the leaves a 10s rinse followed by a couple minutes of rest to give the moisture some time to soak in. After the rinse, the wet leaves reveal more of a smoky aroma, but nothing like the bonfire you might get from a Xiaguan for example. I did a total of eleven infusions, the timing for these 15s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 50s, 80s, 2 min., 3 min. and 5 min. respectively. I used both a porcelain cup as well as one made from Yixing zisha. The clay cup is fairly new and I’ve been dedicating it to dry-stored aged sheng, but it hasn’t necessarily had time to properly season yet. I’m still unsure if it’s a good match for sheng and may switch it up later if I find that it would suit some other tea better.

The Red Star opened up sweet, fruity, with some honey and a touch of tar along with a whisper of smoke. Very strong. I was quite impressed, actually. The tea was hinting at bitterness, but it wasn’t quite there yet. Drunk from clay, the tea was much stronger. More dryness and more noticeable hints of bitterness. There was more minerality pushing through and the honey and fruit had been pushed back from the forefront.

The tea maintained its strength well throughout the infusions, peaking around the third one. That is also when bitterness and astringency started creeping in. Denny of Tea DB often describes raw pu’er as being inherently peaty or gasoline-y, but I can’t really associate that with most of my experiences with (mainly young, boutique label) sheng pu’er. If we are talking of the same thing, with teas like this however I often get what he’s talking about. Gasoline isn’t really the right word, but it is an apt enough descriptor for getting the point across. Through most of the steeps, this tea has either some tar, smoke or that peaty, gasoline-y character to it. It’s never really the main focus, however, but always present in some capacity.

Other flavors you’ll find are the ones already mentioned: sweetness, honey, fruit, minerals. Perhaps even some creaminess in the late steeps. Very much what you’d expect from an aged Bulang, even though I assume this is a blend of some sort. The qi is quite strong and caused me some tightness in the chest and buzzing in my head. Again you can think of a typical Bulang tea in that respect. Not necessarily the most aggressive cha qi, but definitely more on the aggressive side than gentle.

In porcelain, the body was nothing to speak of until it started getting better in the last few extended steeps. Here the clay obviously offered considerably more body across the board. The tea was also considerably stronger drunk from the clay cup, with more base notes but less top notes. Not a surprising result. The clay made the tea a smoother and much more balanced experience. It added a mineral taste that was absent in porcelain and sometimes muted the top notes too much. Despite this muting nature, sometimes the clay revealed more depth and nuance to the tea, at the cost of complexity. Whereas when drunk from porcelain, the flavors started tapering off around the eighth infusion, there was no such change apparent in clay until the tenth steep. By the eleventh infusion the tea had become very clean tasting and soft in the mouth, but still possessed strength to go on. I, however, was quite full of tea and decided to call it there.

All in all this was a very good learning experience. Those familiar with my reviews are likely aware than I’m not particularly fond of blends and large factory productions, but it’s interesting to find out what’s the appeal of these teas. While this may have not been the authentic Dayi 7542, I think I have a very good idea of what to expect from a tea like this now. It is very strong, possibly the strongest aged tea I’ve drunk, and in its youth it was likely borderline undrinkable if we can assume that it has mellowed at least to some degree from back then. There is bitterness and astringency to be found – actually more so dryness, especially when drunk from clay – but I have a fairly high tolerance for them compared to most people I imagine, so by my standards they stay quite moderate.

If you like your teas to have a bit of bite to them, this may be drinkable now, but there’s definitely decades’ worth of room to grow in this tea. I don’t think there’s anything particularly impressive about this tea, but it is very solid for the price if you happen to like this profile. It’s not the tea for me, but I’d still regard it one of the better aged teas I’ve tried up to this point – still looking for that first tea I fall in love with. I didn’t find the smokiness excessive at all, but if you are not tolerant of that at all you’ll steer clear of this tea. There’s very little greenness left in the taste, far less than most other dry-stored teas this age that I’ve tried.

If you are curious at all, I’d recommend grabbing a sample when placing your next Bitterleaf order as this tea costs close to nothing. Given the age, the tea might even be worth it at double the price even if the base material itself would have originally been worth the current asking price at most.

My first sheng by Yiwu Mountain Tea. They specialize in generally quite high-end productions, and while not exactly cheap at 50¢/g, this represents more of an entry-level tea in their lineup. Like the 2016 Yiwu Gushu Ripe I reviewed previously, this sample was also acquired through The Tea Guru. More so than the ripe, this tea had quite the dank nose to it when I received it, which is the main reason I let both of these samples sit for close to two months before sessioning them. Upon taking the sample out of my pumidor I must say though that any traces of the humid nose were gone and all I smelled was a perfectly clean aged aroma.

Before writing these notes I actually sessioned the tea twice and finished my 20g sample. For the first session I used 8g in a 120ml silver teapot and the second 12g in a 180ml teapot made from clay from Dehua. The results were interesting, so I will start with the silver. I did a short rinse for under ten seconds followed by a rest of five minutes or so. The aroma of the wet leaf was again clean like the aired out dry leaf. Creamy, woody aroma. I followed up with a total of a dozen steeps, the timing for these 15s, 15s, 12s, 15s, 18s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 50s, 80s, 2 min. and 3 min.

My face grimaced in disgust upon taking my first sip. It is almost ironic that while I seem nearly immune to the wet pile taste in shu pu’er, I have practically an allergy to even the slightest whisper of humid notes in sheng. This tea had a certain sourness in its initial steep that did turn me off. It wasn’t nearly as bad after that first sip, but my first reaction was that of disgust. Getting past the initial reaction, the general taste was sweet, mineral, sour and astringent. Big, creamy body.

The sourness persisted for one more steep, but after that it was more or less gone from the tea. In direct sunlight and a glass cha hai, the color of the liquor appears a gold with an orange tinge to it. In terms of strength the tea seems to brew up slightly bolder than your average Yiwu. Practically all of my steeps in silver came out tasting very mineral, which I’m generally not a fan of and wasn’t a fan of here either. The tea showed hints of developing dry fruit in the background at various stages and had an inherent drying quality to it that kept building to intense levels over the course of the infusions. This is honestly one of the most drying sessions I’ve had. The initial bit of slight sweetness quickly drops out and doesn’t return to the tea until toward the very end. What surprised me actually given the region and storage is that I got some bitterness in the middle steeps. Not terribly much, but it was there and sometimes persisted long after swallowing.

In terms of qi, I did feel the tea for a short while in the early-to-mid steeps and even felt a bit drunk for a bit, but this quickly passed and I didn’t really feel the tea after that aside from some heatwaves later on. My notes have very few mentions about the body and only that it’s medium, so it must not have been particularly noteworthy. I do specifically mention there being nothing noteworthy about the texture. Around the eighth infusion the flavors began tapering off, but at the point where I stopped the tea was still going and I imagine it could have carried on brewing out mainly sweet for at least a few more infusions still.

Moving on to the clay, I gave the tea a slightly longer rinse, maybe fifteen seconds, and while there was still a touch of sourness in the very first cup, it was not something I’d describe as nasty or even something I’d recognize as humidly stored. Very clean overall. This time I only did ten-ish infusions, but I was using a larger vessel and drinking alone as opposed to with company before. I flash steeped the tea a round or two less than with the silver pot, my steep times mirroring more closely how I typically brew tea in my reviews. The tea showed less signs of slowing down at the point which I stopped than in my first session and gave the impression it could have gone for many more rounds.

Brewed in clay, the tea was way more bitter. My surprise at the tea being slightly bitter in silver turned out to be an amusing comment as it turns out there was a lot more where that came from. I found the texture, body and mouthfeel to have significantly improved, while the prevailing mineral taste in silver was nowhere to be found. While still not an overly sweet tea, there was definitely more sweetness to be found this time around and it did a decent job complementing the bitterness. The bitterness did eventually start to decrease in the middle steeps making way for more sweetness and even some aftertaste and huigan, only to start climbing steeply toward the end.

In terms of taste the tea resembled very closely my experiences with most semi-aged teas I’ve tried. It was bitter, sweet, sometimes a touch fruity or woody. Nothing particularly interesting or engaging. In one steeping I did get some tartness and even some actual vanilla in the finish. I did experience some of the bitterness in the late steeps turning to sweetness, as well as some cooling and a slightly medicinal character to these late infusions as well. More interesting than the taste itself is that I would not have been able to tell this apart from a dry-stored tea.

For me the most notable thing about this session was the qi. Compared to my earlier session with silver where the qi kind of fell off after the first few infusions, this time it remained present throughout the session. I first noticed it in the second cup and by the third while still subtle it was starting to become more heady. After this it became more meditative in the mid steeps and really relaxed my muscles. The feeling of calm it offered here was the best thing about it over these two sessions. After this the qi unfortunately turned more aggressive and the relaxing effect turned to pain in my muscles. This was accompanied by heavy perspiration.

While the mouthfeel and body had improved from my first session, neither was still particularly outstanding. In the past I used to put less emphasis on aroma, but recently it’s started to become a more and more important factor of a truly outstanding tea for me. The YMT ripe I reviewed was exceptionally fragrant for a shu and it contributed greatly to its final verdict. This tea on the other hand I found quite lacking in terms of fragrance. Young teas can often get a pass for not being particularly aromatic, because they haven’t necessarily had time to develop it yet, but in a semi-aged tea like this it starts to reflect negatively on my overall impression of it. Perhaps that aroma is still coming, but for now both the empty cup smell and the aromatic compounds perceptible in the mouth and nose are rather underwhelming.

In conclusion, the differences between the two sessions were interesting. Personally I preferred the latter session brewed in clay as the mouthfeel and body were enhanced and there was more qi. The intense dryness was absent as well. Whether these differences are a testament to differences between silver and clay, inconsistency in brewing pu’er, or variance in human perception, is difficult to say. Thing of note is that disregarding the first infusion or two I found this tea virtually indistinguishable from the dry-stored semi-aged teas I’ve had. My understanding is that Philip Lee of Yiwu Mountain Tea has A/C where he stores his tea, so while stored in Guangzhou, the storage is an example of a fairly controlled humid storage. Those adverse to humidly stored teas honestly shouldn’t be too worried as the storage notes can be brewed out of the tea with a slightly longer rinse or maybe two shorter ones.

Other thing I’d like to point out is that I highly doubt I could have pegged this tea down as an Yiwu in a blind tasting. Honestly to me it tastes similar to the vast majority of semi-aged teas I’ve tasted, but admittedly my experience in terms of aged teas is still fairly limited. Perhaps for the same reason I still find it quite hard to gauge the quality of these teas as none of them have particularly impressed me. I think this one still needs more time as it hasn’t really developed any interesting characteristics that make it stand out. Perhaps there’s hidden potential in these leaves, but aside from the capricious cha qi I found it a fairly standard tea — definitely not worth the asking price for me, not that I was buying anyway.

So a bit of a letdown after the spectacular ripe they produced, but I will have to sample a couple of their more premium teas at some point in the future. To me this came across as a step above budget Yiwu productions and I recall even the product description more or less mirroring that sentiment, but the price is more of an upper midrange / lower high-end production which many would likely be unwilling to pay. The controlled humidity has certainly sped up the aging by at least a few years while still retaining most of the original character of the tea, though, and those seeking an authentic Yiwu to age with a bit of a head start but which doesn’t break the bank might find something here.

This is my first time trying one of Yiwu Mountain Tea’s offerings. My sample was acquired through The Tea Guru based in the UK. Perhaps it’s because I knew these have been stored in Guangzhou, but when I received my sample I felt like I was picking up just a touch of dankness in the aroma, so I let the sample sit in my pumidor for close to two months before this session. When I finally took it out and gave it another smell the aroma had totally cleared up. Very clean, no dankness whatsoever.

Thankfully I remembered at the last minute that Philip Lee’s personal recommendation is to leaf this tea heavy — 1g/10ml. I’m often a bit sceptical of brewing parameter recommendations unless I’m very familiar with the producer/vendor and while I personally tend to leaf shu fairly heavy already (~13g/160ml) my experiences with the few times I’ve tried 1g/10ml is that most teas tend to get a bit too much for me. That being said, this being Yiwu and supposedly higher quality material I figured if there’s a tea that can pull it off this would certainly be a candidate for it. Thus I ended up using 12g in my 120ml silver teapot. Regular porcelain cup for this session.

I used a large intact piece of the cake along with some loose bits to round out the weight. I did have to break up the big chunk into smaller ones to fit it in my pot however. The material itself looks very fine and the compression is just about perfect — tight enough to keep everything together but loose enough to break without too much effort. I gave the leaves a slightly longer rinse at fifteen seconds and about five minutes to rest and soak up the moisture before I got to brewing. I did a total of thirteen infusions, the timing for these 14s, 14s, 14s, 12s, 17s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 50s, 80s, 2 min., 3 min. and 5 min. respectively.

From the moment the hot water first hits the leaves, they fill the room with the aroma of cherries and wood. The leaves smell perfectly clean and brew up a beautiful reddish-brown auburn color. Taking my first sip, the nice texture is what immediately captures my attention. Soft and velvety, gliding almost effortlessly down my throat. Body is medium for now. The flavors are very forward but gentle, as you’d expect from an Yiwu. Very clean from the first infusion. There’s a touch of sweetness. Some caramel, berries and nuts. Quite nutty actually. Very elegant, clearly an Yiwu. This is darn good so far. My mouth is left mildly sweet. I can already say based on my first cup that this is one of the best ripes I’ve had, but let’s not be hasty.

The second infusion brews up the same nice auburn color but now deeper and darker. The tea is definitely stronger but still very palatable. There’s a lot more sweetness. The berries have become more prominent. Not sure if they lean more toward red berries or cherry. The body is thickening. Cha qi is quite strong and there’s a strong physical sensation at the back of my mouth. The mouthfeel is incredibly velvety. The aftertaste is sweet, carrying both notes of light, elegant wood and cherry. Incredible tea.

The third steep is a shade darker. I nearly can’t see the bottom of my cup anymore. The strength keeps increasing, but remains palatable. The mouthfeel has improved. That takeaway alone makes me write in my notes that this is a bomb of a tea. The aftertaste is long. One sip is enough, making it there’s no rush to have another since you are still experiencing the tea. Cha qi remains potent but not overpowering. The flavors are cherry, wood and sweet. Maybe a touch of red wine. The mouthfeel is to die for. There’s a very active sensation at the back of my mouth. Virtually no bitterness to this steep or any other steep.

Managing to shave off a couple seconds for the next steep, the tea remains strong, but I’m losing a bit of body and texture as a result. The flavors remain the same: sweet, cherry and wood. This seems like a good point to start experimenting with extending the brewing time a little. As a result steep five is indeed bold, but gentle. The texture has improved, but does not match its prior peak. The body is very substantial, though. Thick, thick broth. Likely the thickest ripe I’ve had. Thick and heavy. The taste is woody and slightly chocolaty. Sweet, so, so sweet. The aroma is also very thick and I can literally taste the tea in my nose when I breathe out through it. This is easily the most aromatic shu I’ve ever come across.

Steep six still brews up strong, still brews up dark. Fast huigan. Crazy thick. I’d say the mouthfeel has improved slightly. The taste is even cleaner now than before. The taste hasn’t evolved terribly much, most steeps have retained the cherry wood vibe, but it remains very enjoyable nonetheless. Just as I say that we see a small watershed moment starting with the seventh infusion. We start losing the base notes now, which in turn reveals a lot more of the top notes — which this tea has — especially those berries and other familiar notes from the very beginning like the caramel and the nuts. This was one of the standout cups of this session. So aromatic, so bright, so delightful. After a brief seeming absence, the familiar wood and cherry notes we’ve come accustomed to reveal their presence in the aftertaste.

The nuttiness is emphasized in the following cup. It is so very nutty now. A really strong cherry aroma permeates in my mouth if I aerate the tea. Such a strong aroma. Crazy. Steep nine still retains the big body and heavy feeling in the mouth. In contrast to before, the taste is now more subtle, mostly present after you swallow. Very elegant and refined. Like drinking liquified diamonds. The texture is sublime right now. Like massaging your tongue. This tea is so good and sensual it’s honestly a bit arousing.

Infusion ten is again back to more immediately flavorful. The tea is predominantly sweet now. For such a late steep it remains substantial, i.e., interesting and rewarding. For the first time I’m picking up some minerality. The familiar wood and cherry notes are still there in the background. I’m possibly picking up a hint of vanilla now as well. The texture changes again in the following infusion. It now feels like a bumpy, textured surface. The aroma has also changed and I’m tasting deeper, darker wood now. Very refined. Like the cherry before, the woody aroma permeates in the mouth. I also notice a catching sensation at the entrance to my throat. Such an incredible tea.

Here I took a long break from the tea as I had to go run some errands. One or two hours later I returned back to the session, but either the tea didn’t like the break, was starting to wind down, or I just wasn’t feeling the session anymore, but the last two infusions I did ended up being kind of lackluster. The color of the liquor did start to fade noticeably, so I don’t think it was just me, but it could be a combination of factors. The second brew after the break did seem to revitalize the tea a bit more, but by this point I’d had enough to draw my conclusions and as stated I simply wasn’t feeling the session anymore. Allegedly this tea steeps into infinity, but I can leave testing that to another session. I seldom take long breaks in the middle of a session. Should I perhaps rinse the leaves briefly to kind of re-prime them before I resume? I vaguely recall some people recommending something like that.

And there you have it. I went into writing these notes thinking I could keep them brief as describing this tea would not be too difficult to boil down to some main points, but it is such a special tea I quickly realized it deserves a more thorough rundown even if I might end up repeating myself in the process. I was very enthusiastic about this tea and my notes reflect that. Going in, I had not read or even seen any reviews for Yiwu Mountain Tea productions, so I honestly did not know what to expect. Their sheng productions are mainly very high-end, I’m talking multiple dollars per gram, but price alone is not a guarantee of anything and on top of that this is their first ever ripe productions so I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Man, was I in for a treat.

This is honestly the best ripe pu’er I’ve had up to this point, surpassing even the Hai Lang Hao 2017 Yi Shan Mo at least in its current state. I expect the Yi Shan Mo to continue to improve with age and years down the line who knows which one will come out on top. The Yiwu Gushu does not only offer superb texture and mouthfeel but is also the most fragrant shu pu’er I’ve ever come across. It displays all the characteristics you’d expect from an Yiwu tea and the material is clearly high quality and processed to perfection. That being said, I can see the charm and quality of this tea being lost on an inexperienced drinker as its qualities are not necessarily apparent. If you are someone who has tried other ultra-premium ripes before and not noticed a significant difference between them and more affordable productions, this tea is not going to convert you. It is the opposite of bold.

Halfway through the session I rushed to place an order for a bing. Thankfully after two months The Tea Guru still had the tea in stock. I have no idea how much he and Philip in China have of this tea in stock, but if you are curious I would order a sample sooner rather than later. I think the recommended ratio is spot on and I would not skimp out on the leaf and use a smaller vessel instead, because you’ll be getting lots of infusions.

Unlike most ripes, which tend to have a more grounding cha qi, I found the Yiwu Gushu more towards slightly energizing but nothing too hyper. It also wasn’t too taxing on the body like some old tree and lighter fermented material can be. Interestingly I also didn’t experience the typical laxative properties of shu pu’er, but that could have always been just a fluke. Too hard to say anything definitive based on just one session.

I honestly couldn’t recommend this tea any higher. At ~35¢/g the price is not just fair but possibly a bargain. There are obviously other premium ripes around this price point so sample all the ones that interest you before making purchase decisions. The aforementioned Yi Shan Mo is sadly sold out (Yunnan Sourcing has only samples left). Another tea I would recommend is Crimson Lotus’s Storm Breaker. That tea is another king in terms of texture, but I recall liking it far less in terms of taste. Yunnan Sourcing’s Yi Wu Rooster is a more budget Yiwu alternative, but at two thirds of the price of the Yiwu Gushu I’m honestly not sure if the small saving is worth it for the huge gap in quality.

But that’s all from me. I do have a sample for one of YMT’s more entry-level sheng offerings, so expect a review on that soon.

Continuing my exploration of dry stored semi-aged teas. My sample consisted of a nice assortment of pieces from the bing along with large, mainly intact loose leaves. The aroma of the dry leaf is quite smoky and the compression quite loose at this point. I used 11g in a 165ml Yixing dahongpao clay teapot. A single rinse for 10s, followed by a rest of five minutes to let the leaves soak up moisture. I did a total of ten infusions, the timing for these 15s, 14s, 16s, 20s, 20s, 28s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min.

Da Bai is a very sweet tea from start to finish and the full breadth of its flavors consisting solely of notes light in nature. The sweetness keeps building toward the middle steeps after which it gradually diminishes toward the late infusions. At no point did I notice any bitterness and only the final steeping was perhaps a tad dry in its finish. Contrary to the initial smoky scent, there is actually very little of that in the cup. I got some nice tobacco notes in the first steep to complement the sweetness (pipe tobacco according to my drinking partner) as well as some tar and an increasing level of smokiness in the finish in the second, but after that the smokiness was gone both from the nose as well as the cup. I don’t know if those notes are a product of processing, storage or aging.

For the majority of the brews the sweetness is a honey type of sweetness. Not the underdeveloped honey notes you often see especially in young Jing Mai and Yiwu teas and that I absolutely can’t stand, nor the totally credible honey notes you can find in really good Dian Hong, but something somewhere in between. While I’m not a fan of overly sweet teas, this is again one of those raws where the sweetness is quite pleasing to me. In later steeps a welcome fruitiness began to emerge to accompany the honey sweetness. I’d say I picked up some peach or apricot notes in particular.

Interestingly the flavors in this session centered mainly on the tongue in the first couple steeps. Gradually the flavors and activity moved further toward the back and in the third steep I experienced a genuine huigan radiating from my throat. From that point on a heavy chest feel kept on growing and the tea began showing its potency. By the end of the session my muscles felt totally numb, like under anesthesia. While I stopped at the tenth infusion, the tea could have likely gone on, but I was quite full of tea and the cha qi was actually potent enough as to make me not want to carry on any further that day.

The tea has a longer aftertaste than many younger teas and a body that is above average, albeit there isn’t anything interesting going on in terms of texture. While it produces a brew that is light yet also fairly rich especially if pushed a little, ultimately Da Bai isn’t a very complex or dynamic tea. That being said, it is definitely higher quality than your standard factory productions and the potent cha qi has to be noted as one of the highlights for this session.

All in all this was an interesting tea to session. My main motivation to try it stems from the fact that I purchased Yunnan Sourcing’s own 2014 “Jing Gu” pressing blind two years back. Both teas come from the same village, so I was curious to catch a glimpse into how the tea might age. While the tea was enjoyable, I think 40¢/g is quite steep for what it has to offer. You are paying a lot for the age and I think this tea might belong more in the 15–20¢/g bracket. I believe I paid $62 for my YS cake, which I admittedly have yet to try as I’m thinking of giving it a couple more years first. If the two teas are in any way comparable, that is a very fair price. The price has gone up by nearly 40% since then, which shows you why I prefer buying teas young and aging them myself, especially given that I enjoy drinking young teas.

A nice tea, but at this price you won’t have trouble finding better value.

This is a tea I’ve been curious to try for a while. I finally ordered a sample recently and here we are. In typical Yunnan Sourcing fashion, my 10g sample weighed in at a hefty 11.8g. Wanting to have a proper, BIG session instead of splitting it into two smaller ones, I busted out my largest gaiwan which would be a 165ml silver lined one. Quick five second wash, followed by a five minute rest while I sipped the rinse. Apart from one small piece of the cake, my sample was in loose form, resulting in a potent brew. It was strong, holy smokes was it strong. Bitter, creamy, plummy.

I followed up with a dozen infusions, the timing for these 6s, 6s, 6s, 6s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 60s and 2 min. respectively. Ba Wang started off thick and creamy. Literally like drinking cream. This tea also has a tendency to produce foam in the mouth if you whisk it quickly. The soup was strong, sweet, bitter, mineral, citric. Really thick, really potent. It retained its thick, creamy texture for the first four brews after which it lost the creaminess but kept the big body for most of the session.

Being a Bulang tea, the tea is definitely bitter but also very sweet. In the early brews the bitterness transforms quickly into sweetness and this can take as little as a second. Bitterness and sweetness take turns being the more prominent force from steep to steep with neither ever becoming too overpowering. While generally not a fan of sweet teas, the sweetness on display here is the kind I like, one that isn’t overly sweet in the same way as sugar or candy. As the infusions progress, the bitterness slowly shifts from upfront more towards a delayed longer lasting bitterness. It never becomes abrasive, however, and at times I found it very enjoyable like a proper Bulang should be.

In terms of the physical sensation of drinking the tea, the Ba Wang was just pure joy. The tea is very active, tongue-numbing, and extremely pleasing in the mouth and upon swallowing. Toward the middle of the session it produced an extremely pleasing sensation in the throat when swallowed. This is about as orgasmic as the experience of drinking tea gets. For me just the mouthfeel and the physical sensation of drinking the tea make it worth it for me. The mouthfeel and texture change slowly over the course of the session, never becoming boring.

I got very little astringency, which is good. I prefer a nice kuwei to astringency any day of the week. While the tea becomes much simpler and not as engaging after ten or so infusions, it remains strong if pushed adequately and I can see this being one of those teas that steeps into infinity. Even though I was drinking this with company, I eventually had to throw in the towel after twelve infusions, because this tea is STRONG and I was getting bloated.

To sum up my thoughts, Ba Wang is one of the best teas I’ve had to date. It is an absolute gem of a tea. I must admit, while I was curious to try this tea, I did not hold high hopes for it. While it is by no means a cheap tea, I was blown away by the quality. Normally to get this level of quality from a spring tea of this vintage, you would expect to pay 50 to 100% more. Thanks to the lack of a premium that comes with a name like Lao Ban Zhang, Lao Man’e and others, this tea is priced more like an ultra high-end autumn tea despite being a spring picking.

I am a big fan of teas like this and immediately ordered a cake after the session. Those who are not into Bulang teas or bitter teas in general should obviously look elsewhere, but that being said, if you are curious to try to understand the appeal of these kinds of teas, I think this would be the perfect candidate to sample. You may think you don’t like bitter teas, but a tea like this might just prove you wrong. It is very hard to try to explain the appeal of these teas to someone, you really just have to experience them for yourself.

This is going to be one of the highlights of my collection, right next to my cake of Lao Man’e.

And another ripe! In the past I used to not drink or review ripes this young because of the stories you hear about young and funky shu, but since then I’ve come to discover that I’m not terribly sensitive to the wet pile taste, so I’m totally fine sampling teas this young. That being said, my sample of this tea has probably the strongest young ripe nose I’ve come across.

For this session I used my trusty 160ml Yixing zini teapot accompanied by a cha hai and teacup made from Jianshui clay. My sample was just over 26 grams, so I ended up using about half of that which would be around 13g or just a hair over. This is about a gram more than I would normally use for this pot, but most ripes can usually take a heavier ratio and my teapot has a fast pour. While the bulk of my sample was made up of a single piece of the cake, the compression was very loose and the parts I gently broke off essentially ended up coming apart in my pot even before water ever hit them. I did a single sub-ten second rinse followed by a rest of about five minutes to let the moisture sink in a little bit and prime the leaves. I followed up with eight infusions, the timing for these being 10s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s and 75s respectively.

The first sip of Golden Bud tasted sweet initially, then turning darker, more bittersweet while still sitting in your mouth. Powderly texture. Strong, hella strong. The body was pretty good already. There was some mouth cooling going on as well and a slight dryness to the finish. There was quite a bit of cocoa bitterness. A noticeable cocoa/raw chocolate taste definitely. The second steep acquired a slightly buttery texture. I did not expect that from a ripe. Despite being much darker – like staring into the abyss – the tea wasn’t nearly as strong as before. While the flavors were very pronounced, there was much less complexity now as well. I got (cocoa?) butter, some sweetness and a growing bitterness which eventually began to dominate everything.

The third infusion started off with what one might call vanilla. While the flavors were still quite pronounced, they were now also somewhat more veiled and less easily discernible. The mouthfeel continued being somewhat buttery and the taste a play between sweet and bittersweet. A touch of berries or perhaps wine was buried somewhere deep beneath everything else. The bitter raw chocolate was still there as well. The following infusion presented a clearer, less dark profile. Slightly sweeter with some of the bitterness still there as well. The texture was less buttery now and something one could call oily or perhaps slightly velvety. Although I was leafing it heavy, the tea was still brewing up quite strong for a shu.

Steep five, sweeter, much sweeter. Too sweet for me, I’d say. I got hints of vanilla, maybe some camphor buried deep underneath. There was some cooling in the mouth, but only a little. The sixth steeping is where the tea finally started losing strength and many of the flavors began falling off. This was reflected in the color as well, which while still dark wasn’t like the abyss anymore. The liquor smelled a bit weird and the taste matched the smell. While the texture was slightly syrupy, the taste was quite funky and weird. Wasn’t a fan of this steep.

Sadly the next two infusions did not improve. Steep seven had a mainly dark mineral taste. Not offensive per se, but not something I was personally into. There was some sweetness, a chalky texture and a touch of dryness in the finish. The final steep hardly had any taste to it despite still having color. There were hints of sweetness and mineral taste if you looked for them, but not much else. While it might have been possible to squeeze out an infusion or two by really pushing the tea, as I hadn’t been really feeling the tea for these last few steeps I decided to call it there.

My takeaways from Golden Bud would be that it is a strong tea. Even if I had not been using so much leaf I’m sure it would have brewed quite strong. While I got a fair amount of bitterness, most of that stems from the amount of leaf. I’m sure there’ll be some even if you leaf lighter than I did, but not so much that it would be a deal-breaker unless you absolutely want none in your ripe. The chocolaty and other dessert-y flavors dominate the tea for the better part of the first half of the session and while this may appeal to many, I personally found very quickly that this particular profile is too safe and bland for me. While I can enjoy the taste of chocolate in a steep or two of a good shu, when overstaying its welcome the tea gets boring pretty quickly.

Reviewing this tea right on the heels of the Cha Nong Hao 2018 Bu Lang Gu Shu really highlights the difference in complexity between the two teas. Whereas the Cha Nong Hao may have even been a bit too complex for me at times, this tea felt far more stripped-down in comparison. Where the Golden Bud tries to make up for that is the boldness of its flavors. One area where I also preferred the YS offering over the Cha Nong Hao is the texture. While not necessarily significant enough to be a selling point and ultimately perhaps more interesting than rewarding, I did enjoy the rare buttery texture in this tea. It is definitely above average and may even improve over time.

As I ended my session somewhat prematurely, I can’t fully speak to the longevity of the tea, but given the rate at which the flavors seemed to be falling off, I’d liken it to many of the gong ting and other small leaf grade ripes out there. I’m personally not into these teas that burn bright but burn out fast, but that’s my own personal preference. As to the awkward final brews that I got, I’m willing to put that on the youth of this tea for now and not judge it too harshly for it. Normally I like to give ripes another chance when I have a somewhat awkward session like this and hold off on reviewing them until revisiting them a few months later, but after running into a few teas selling out before getting back to them, I’d rather review this tea now while it’s still relevant even if the picture I end up painting might be somewhat less flattering than it could be.

Before hitting steep six I was actually considering giving this tea a recommendation despite it not appealing to me personally in terms of its flavor profile. The quality on display here is far beyond what you typically see at around this price point. This tea could easily be priced at 15 or 20¢/g and still be a fair deal. While you could say I don’t generally enjoy the Yunnan Sourcing house taste when it comes to their ripe pressings, I’d say this tea surpasses most of their teas in the 10¢/g price range in terms of quality. Fans of Yunnan Sourcing brand ripes will likely love this tea. Personally I prefer the 2016 Golden Needle, which sadly sold out before I got to order more. If my second session a couple months down the line yields notably different results, I’ll include my thoughts in a comment below, otherwise not.

Finally another ripe for me to review. We’ve been seeing more and more of these high-end shus over the past few years, which is a trend I hope continues. I brewed 12.1g of this in a 160ml Yixing zini teapot. Both the cha hai and the teacup I used are in turn made from Jianshui clay. The way I like to brew ripe pu’er is I do one infusion and immediately pour another one into the cha hai to leverage the heat from the first infusion. This way I need to heat the water less often and by the time I’ve finished the tea in my cup the tea in the cha hai is close to the right temperature for me to drink. The downside of this is that having not tasted the prior infusion I lack knowledge about its strength, which would help in determining by how much to extend the next steep. Even so, an experienced brewer can compensate for that by looking at the color and viscosity of the liquor, smelling the leaves and relying on intuition.

I used a couple of the larger pieces included in my sample and gave them a ten second rinse, followed by a five minute rest during which I managed to get most of the chunks to come undone by prodding them a little. I proceeded to do a total of ten infusions, the timing for these being 10s, 10s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min. The Bulang Gushu started off sweet. Much like berry juice. I find this to be typical of Bulang ripes. There was some slight bitterness at the end of the sip. Also some earthier, muddier components lying underneath. For a tea wet piled only about a year ago, this is very clean tasting already. That being said, I don’t think I’m very sensitive to the wet pile taste. I don’t even know if I’ve ever tasted it or if I have I don’t know how to recognize that flavor. Some shus can taste a bit muddy to me in the early steeps or have a sweetness that feels somewhat “off”, which is pretty much my reference for a how “clean” a tea is.

Because of all the clay used, it was hard for me to judge the color, but while pouring the tea from the cha hai, the second infusion looked markedly darker and thicker than the first brew. This was reflected in the taste as well, with much darker elements present in the tea, while still retaining that berry sweetness. The liquor was more viscous as well, albeit still at the lighter end of the spectrum. It started to seem like I was feeling the tea in my stomach and perhaps my lower back as well. Could be that it had to do with something I ate or how I was sitting, as I’m more used to feeling the tea either in my head or my chest and upper back but not usually below that.

The third infusion produced an immediate cooling sensation in the mouth. I’d say the flavor accompanying it was closest to mint. Really nice. The tea was stronger and more viscous than before. You could probably call the main prevailing characteristic woody. Dry wood I’d say. A touch of fleeting bitterness was still present in the finish and there were other things going on as well. You could probably call this tea fairly complex for a shu.

The fourth brew was quite dark. It also looked fairly viscous while pouring it. The flavors once again reflected this in a much darker profile. There was more bitterness now, roasted notes, chocolaty notes. A much more syrupy texture with the berry juiciness running somewhere beneath everything else. Again, much more complex than your average ripe. I was quite liking this steep. There was a surprising amount of bright notes accompanying the darker base notes. Once the tea cooled down it got fairly bitter, which I always consider a good sign in terms of future aging potential.

Steep five saw the return of some mouth cooling. This time I’d say the accompanying flavor was leaning more toward camphor, which I find the most typical case for shu pu’er. There were still some of the darker elements present, with slight bitterness lingering on top, juiciness buried far underneath. I felt like I was also getting some slight caramel/nougat notes now. Yes, there was definitely some nuttiness. Lightly roasted peanuts perhaps. Once again a fairly complex brew as you can probably gather. Not particularly viscous, but passable.

The next infusion was much more cooling. The body started off fairly light, but got notably more viscous once it cooled a little. I was getting sweetness at the sides of my tongue and there were still plenty of layer to the flavor of the tea. I was having a hard time unraveling the various clusters of darker notes, so I decided to just leave it at that. The tea really ramped up on the camphor in the seventh steep, which still had a fair amount going on even though we were clearly entering the late stages. The strength up to this point had remained about the same throughout and we were now back to that dry, woody taste.

Looking at the color, steep eight was definitely a lot lighter than the prior infusions. Smelling the leaves, I noticed a nice herbaceous note to them now. While the strength was still good, the tea was simplifying a lot now like one would expect. Some of that berry sweetness was back now, accompanied by a lot of camphor still. The taste was perhaps a tad creamy now. This was quite nice for someone looking for something easy to drink. I may have started to feel a bit drunk at this point.

The tea continued to simplify in the next steeping. I was mainly getting camphor and some wood now. There was a whisper of sweetness and some darker notes did eventually reveal themselves once the soup cooled down a little. A touch of creaminess was still present as well. The brew became a much fuller experience the further you got into it, ending on some nice mineral notes at the very end of your cup. Steep ten was mostly taken over by simple sweetness, with the other flavor notes having grown quite thin by this point. The body was still there, but the further I got into my cup the more I started getting this unpleasant sensation at the back of my throat every time I swallowed, followed by dryness in my mouth. As I felt we were approaching risky territory, I decided to call it there.

As you’ve probably been able to gather, the Bulang Gushu was a very good tea. For such a young tea it’s at an excellent stage already. I can’t really think of anything negative to say about it, aside from maybe some somewhat restless qi after the session, which is very typical for Bulang teas though. That being said, I was surprised at the end of the session by how I wasn’t more enthusiastic about it than I was. I definitely liked it, but I wasn’t enamored with it. After some thinking, I came to the conclusion that since I tend to value mouthfeel and texture over taste and aftertaste over finish, finish over upfront flavors, as good as this tea is, since it didn’t particularly shine in terms of mouthfeel and aftertaste at least during this session, it makes sense why I merely liked it and not loved it. The Yi Shan Mo ripe by Hai Lang Hao is a far less complex tea (at least for now) but a beast in terms of texture, hence why I love it.

Speaking of complexity, while I kept mentioning how complex this tea is, while it was something I found impressive, it didn’t necessarily contribute to making the tea a better tea. I would actually say at least for me personally it actually made it harder to properly appreciate the various facets of the tea. While there was a lot going on, I found it difficult at times to focus on individual tasting notes and try to separate them from one another. At the same time they didn’t necessarily form something greater than their sum as a whole. I’m not saying the complexity was a negative thing here, just pointing out that sometimes when people hear “complex” they immediately think “better”, which is not always the case. A tea can be complex and taste horrible. It can also be simple and taste great. Same applies to music and many other things in life.

With that out of the way, my final thoughts on this tea. Would I recommend this tea? Absolutely. Even if I didn’t immediately fall in love with it, the Bulang Gushu is a very good tea belonging in the top 5%, top 1%, or whatever slice these ultra-premium ripes make up of the market. After I was done drinking the tea, recalling that it was $80 for 200g, I found myself thinking that while it’s a very good tea, were it priced at $60 it would be a lot easier to recommend. Then it dawned on me that maybe the price was actually $60 and indeed it is. I think that’s really fair. I ended up ordering a cake and was able to get it essentially 10% off in the sale Yunnan Sourcing has going on, making it an even better value. Looking at the leaves at the end of the session, they are quite light brown in color, far removed from black, indicating the fermentation wasn’t very heavy and there being a lot of room for the tea to grow. With time the texture will hopefully improve. Even if not, this is still a mighty fine shu.

As always, I’d probably recommend a sample before committing to a cake, but if you like what you hear, go for it if you want. For alternate recommendations, at $19 more per cake, I’d consider Storm Breaker by Crimson Lotus to be even higher quality. While it is far less complex, it’s rocking in the texture department. I would consider it a candidate for aging, though. Far less suited for immediate consumption. Another great tea closer to the same price point would be the Hai Lang Hao 2015 Bi An Xiang Sui Yi Hao, another Bulang tea. Nothing too flashy about that tea. Great quality, much stronger than your average ripe and goes many more steeps, very classic Bulang character.