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I’ve been reviewing so many raw pu’ers lately it’s time for another ripe. At around forty cents per gram, this tea is crazy expensive for a shu. I ordered two five gram sample packs and after weighing them my scale displayed eleven grams. I used all of it in my 160ml Jianshui clay teapot and also drank the tea from a Jianshui clay teacup. I rinsed the tea for slightly under ten seconds and let the leaves rest and wake up for five minutes before I began brewing. I did seven steeps, the timing for these being 12s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 60s and 2 min.

Since my sample was already broken up into smaller pieces, I got a dark color right from the first brew. The liquor was exceptionally clear for such a young tea. The taste was sweet, with a little bit of the young shu vibe going on, but it was really minor. There was a darker note as well that was not quite chocolate nor coffee. The body was pretty average for the time being, could have been a bit better.

While the second infusion brewed perhaps even a bit darker, there was actually a little less body now than before. The taste was dominated by a generic unidentified darker note. While the tea started off less sweet than before, it got sweeter over time, developing into a cherry or cola type of sweetness. While it was not bitter, it was leaning a bit in that direction.

In the third steep the body got back closer to the first steep or maybe even a bit thicker. The taste was sweet, increasingly sweet. I could taste maybe a touch of vanilla or fudge, or maybe vanilla fudge. Yes, I would say the tea had a caramel vibe to it. As the tea cooled, I could catch a hint of dark chocolate in it. I was beginning to feel the tea in my body.

The body dropped again in the next steep. The taste was slightly sweet, quite generic. There weren’t really any distinct flavors for me to pick out. Maybe a bit of weak nougat if I really push it, but not much else. I was feeling the tea a little more now. While the tea continued brewing a dark color in the fifth infusion, there was almost no taste at all now. Maybe some generic sweetness, but not much else. There was a very distinct void of flavor. There was the most absolute basic ripe pu’er base, but nothing else. I was continuing to feel the qi, but the energy in this tea is one that caused a slightly unsettled feeling and a throbbing sensation in me, which was not something I enjoyed.

For the next infusion I decided to push the tea a little and brewed it for a full minute. The results were similar to before, only now there was an added note of a non-bitter bitterness. The flavors felt really stretched out, like the very late steeps of a tea. The tea actually reminded me of the taste of paper, and once I got that image in my head I could not get rid of it. I’m all for being adventurous when it comes to tea, but sorry I’m just not interested in drinking something that tastes like paper. The body was passable, but fairly thin for such an extended steep. The tea tasted absolutely hideous once it cooled down.

I brewed the seventh steep for full two minutes in an attempt to force out some sort of flavors of interest. I ended up over-brewing the tea as expected. Not much changed, however. The tea was still dominated by the dry paper taste and I decided to call it there. At this point I was so not into this tea that I didn’t have the fortitude try to do the science and see what else there was to see.

While this tea started out okay, maybe somewhat above entry-level ripes, from the fifth infusion onward I was not able to extract much from it besides color of which there was plenty. For a shu that costs forty cents per gram, four steeps is abysmal. That is poor for any kind of pu’er. While fairly easy and straightforward to drink in the early steeps, I honestly couldn’t recommend this tea even if price wasn’t a factor. There are simply so much better alternatives out there. If you want to experience a true high-end ripe, try one of Hai Lang Hao’s many excellent offerings or something by one of the vendors specializing in pu’er like Crimson Lotus Tea or Bitterleaf Teas. Also a personal favorite of mine similar to this one in flavor is the Menghai/Dayi “Xin Hai Bai Nian” which comes highly recommended.

My first huang pian. Possibly also my first slightly more humidly stored tea. My sample consisted of big chunks from the cake made up of large, intact leaves. It is possible to smell some of the humid storage, but it’s not dank in the same way as more humidly stored teas. I used twelve grams in a 180ml teapot made from clay from Dehua. I rinsed the leaves for about ten seconds and let them rest for five minutes before proceeding with the brewing. I did a total of twelve steeps, the timing for these being 8s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min., 4 min. and 6 min.

The first infusion was sweet, mineral and woody. It was possible to taste some of the humid storage in some of the sips, but it was fairly minor overall. For the time being the mineral fizz was the most prominent characteristic. Over time the tea did get a bit sweeter as it cooled down and I began tasting some fruit in the finish, perhaps peach. At this stage the strength/boldness and body were fairly standard for some types of tea, but below average for pu’er.

The next steep was similar. There was a bit more flavor and also more body, albeit the soup still wasn’t necessarily thick. The tea was less fizzy, with some sweetness and perhaps some dried fruit. Overall it was drier than before (dry, not drying). It suddenly hit me that these type of semi-aged teas actually remind of a lot of a hot version of an iced tea.

While the body still remained fairly light, the mouthfeel improved in the third steep. The minerality was still prominently present along with some sort of really bright acidity or tartness. In a few of the sips I actually got just a hint of bitterness in the finish, which is a plus for me. I also tasted some vanilla, which I could smell in the liquor as well. I guess you could call this infusion fairly complex overall. Each sip tasted a bit different each time. There was both a certain juiciness as well as a slight dryness to the tea which complemented one another cyclically.

After everything the third steep had had to offer, the fourth one felt incredibly simple in comparison. While the body was now pretty okay, the tea was mainly just sweet, mineraly and somewhat dry. Steep five was similar, albeit slightly woody and now most of the sweetness came from the huigan, not up front.

The body continued to improve in the sixth infusion. I was actually starting to feel the tea at the entrance to my throat and to some extent along my esophagus. The taste itself was sweet, fruity and mineral. I was definitely feeling the qi now. The tea was getting pretty heady. I could feel it in my chest, upper back muscles and to some extent in my head. There was definitely some heat as well. This was actually one of the better infusions so far, and not just because of the cha qi.

Steep seven was the point where the tea began simplifying and entering its late steeps. The flavors were familiar; sweet, mineral, maybe a touch woody. The soup started losing body in the following infusion. The sweetness was diminishing as well. The absence of sweetness was actually leaving a bit of a void in its wake with just the minerals and dryness there.

While there was some dryness lingering in the background, the tea got juicier in the ninth steep and easier to drink as a result. The taste was slightly sweet, slightly mineral, and there was some huigan as well. The body was still holding up being either light+ or a light medium. The tea was pleasing to drink and this was actually also one of the better steeps in this session. Despite being easier to drink, the qi was starting to hit my motor control pretty hard, making me slow down as a result. As I was preparing the next brew, I began swaying from side to side and we weren’t too far off from the qi taking me down.

The last three steeps I did were all quite similar. They had virtually no sweetness and had an apricot note that made them taste like apricot jam without added sugar. There were also a lot of minerals present in these steeps. The twelfth steep is where I began losing some flavor for the first time. While the leaves would have likely had more to give with extended steeps, I decided to call it there since the tea had stayed virtually the same for the last few infusions.

While my experience with aged teas is still quite limited, this was the first one that I actually enjoyed. I think a lot of it has to do with the base material being higher quality than the other teas I’ve had, even if it’s huang pian. This tea actually reminded me a lot of the 2017 WMD which I just reviewed. Given that the two come from quite close proximity to one another, that’s not a huge surprise. Strictly speaking the flavor profile of WMD is more citric or acidic while Hidden Gem is dominated more by a fizzy mineraliness, but both are quite bright in their overall presentation and share some similarities.

Cha qi is of course always very personal and situational, but this tea got me fairly tea drunk. My muscles were aching for the rest of the day, so if you consider yourself sensitive to cha qi, you might want to use some caution and take things slow. As you’d expect from an aged tea, the longevity is good and this tea seems quite forgiving in terms of how you brew it. Not that I really stress-tested it but anyway.

While I enjoyed Hidden Gem, it is not a tea I would seek to purchase. It’s one of those many teas that are fun to try and very educational, but not something I’d be looking to revisit. While somewhat dry, the dryness wasn’t a complete turnoff for me in the same way as in a lot of other semi-aged teas I’ve tried. The excessive mineraliness, however, while not something I totally disliked taste-wise, caused such a strong fizzy/prickly sensation on the tongue that it was quite taxing on the long run, ultimately leaving my tongue tired and worn out for the rest of the day.

For those seeking a cheaper alternative to WMD or wanting a glimpse into how that tea or Alter Ego might taste a decade from now, Hidden Gem could very well be what you’re looking for. A good candidate for further aging as well.

A cake of this was actually my first ever Bitterleaf purchase. I’ve also had a sample of it sitting in my pumidor for a couple months now for the purpose of reviewing it without having to break into the precious little bing. With a sample of the 2018 harvest on its way to me, this seems like a good time to finally give this one a try.

The sample I received consisted primarily of one large chunk from the cake. The appearance stands out as the leaves have a shine to them because of the small hairs on the surface. I measured nine grams in a 130ml gaiwan and gave the leaves a brief five second rinse followed by a five minute rest while I sipped the wash. The rinse was soft, sweet and aromatic. I proceeded to do eleven infusions, the timing for these being 6s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3.5 min.

The tea started off sweet and mineral. I am hesitant on labeling it fruity. Since I was using a single large chunk and just a few individual leaves, the texture was still on the lighter side as the leaves were coming apart. This was already improved upon in the next steep which produced more body. The tea was also bolder, but retained the overall soft feel, which speaks for the quality of the material. The taste remained sweet, mineral, maybe a bit leafy.

It took a few sips for the strength of the third steep to become evident. It was quite strong relative to the first two. The taste itself was something new to me. It was some sort of bright citric or acidic taste with perhaps an aspect of leafiness to it. The aftertaste was strong and long-lasting. The next infusion was similar. Strong, bright, citric. Not particularly thick, but the mouthfeel was pretty good. After pondering the matter for a bit, I arrived at that the citric taste in this tea or this infusion at least reminds me of these hard lemon drop candies I’ve had at some point growing up.

In the fifth steep the texture became more juicier as I often refer to it. The liquor continued to flow well as in all of the steeps up to this point. The taste was bright, fresh and citric. There was now some sweetness as well. Steeps six and seven continued brewing along the lines of bright and citric, but were now starting to become more mineral.

The eighth infusion is where some of the flavors started dropping off while some astringency was simultaneously being introduced into the mix. This wasn’t a bad thing, as the astringency stimulated the back of my tongue in a very pleasing and addictive way. The body remained decent still and the tea was perhaps a tad oily. While the steep that followed was similarly simple in terms of flavors, the flavors themselves were really well defined. The overall taste was bright with some citric tartness.

In the last two infusions that I did, the flavors were beginning to become more faint and rather basic. The last one did introduce a small amount of harshness which to me seemed to signal a good place to end it.

Overall WMD was very approachable and easy to drink. The quality of the material is high and looking at the brewed leaves at the end of the session leaf integrity seems to have been preserved well as well. The leaves possess a good amount of strength and the tea tastes ultra clean overall, conveying the environment it grew up in. Unlike some other high-end teas I’ve had, I found it more focused on flavor than the sensory side of things, which some might prefer and others not. Besides maybe a slightly more energized state, I didn’t notice all that much cha qi, although there were a couple of points where I felt this tea might get me tea drunk, but ultimately that never happened. If not for the price, this tea would be a safe choice for someone just getting acquainted with young raw pu’er, as it lacks almost any kind of harshness (this is probably where the huang pian version comes in).

While I liked this tea, I didn’t necessarily love it. I’ve had the privilege of sessioning some really good teas recently that wowed me more than this one. Had I sessioned it six months ago, I would probably have been very impressed by it, but for the time being the bar is set pretty high right now. Regardless, it is a very good tea with a price tag to match. The quality of the base material is high and seeing how it will develop with age will be interesting. I am probably going to give the 2018 iteration some time to settle before trying it out, but comparing the two will be interesting.

Bitterleaf just released a ton of new teas, this one included. I received a free sample of it with a recent order before the tea was officially released and was confused because the bag only read Spring 2017 “Sterling”. I’m glad to finally know what it is.

I used my fairly standard nine grams in a 130ml gaiwan. Boiling water as always. A brief 5s rinse, followed by a five minute rest to let the chunks soften up a little to help me break them apart a bit. I did ten steeps, timing for them being 8s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s and 2 min.

Sterling started out quite powerful right out of the gate. While the flavors themselves were light, the strength was good. The taste was clean, vegetal, mineral, earthy. The mouthfeel was nice. The second steep was similar. Strong, earthy, mineral. The mouthfeel continued to be very nice and the tea had a strong, floral aftertaste. I try not to be influenced by product descriptions and other reviews when drinking and reviewing teas, but I think Bitterleaf’s use of the word “dense” in describing the taste and texture of this tea is spot on.

In the next infusion the tea was beginning to get sweeter. The soup was still really dense, but not overly strong. The taste was similar to before: earthy, mineral, vegetal. Those who have had Mengku/Lincang teas before would likely recognize the basic taste. While still dense, the tea lost a bit of body in the fourth steep. The taste was vegetal, maybe a bit creamy, and for the first time there were small hints of some bitterness and astringency.

While the texture continued getting thinner in the next infusion, the mouthfeel remained quite nice. The tea was strong, earthy and bitter, with a vegetal finish. There was also a sort of vanilla flavor when you breathed out through your nose. The flavor in general in this steep was quite rich. Steep six remedied the body issue by being big and full in the mouth. The mouthfeel was quite good and there was even some throat feel. The taste was mainly earthy and vegetal and there was some sweetness and bitterness as well.

The seventh steep had the right balance of sweet, bitter and astringent. The overall tone leaned toward dark. The sweetness had a density to it that made it almost syrupy. Even now the tea continued brewing up strong and dense and the flavors themselves were really full and long-lasting. The next steep was cleaner and clearer. There was almost a sudden void of flavor up front, but the huigan was fast and noticeable. The resulting sweetness was strong and long-lasting. The broth continued to feel big in the mouth.

The second-to-last steep presented yet another experience that differed from before. The tea was soft. The feeling of it extended all the way to the back of the mouth. The flavors were light, gentle. Mainly sweet and mineral. This infusion was more about the feeling than flavor. The feeling that was left in your mouth was great. In the last steep the flavors were starting to taper off. The body was good, but the taste was starting to be reminiscent of mineral water. The mineral taste itself though was very rich and I could taste them all around my mouth. I decided to call the session there just to be on the safe side.

I will say that I am a fan of this tea. You tend to run into a lot of hyperbole when it comes to tea, especially pu’er, but what Bitterleaf says about this being high-quality material without a high-end price tag is not wrong. While this might not be the most aesthetically pleasing tea, the material itself is clearly very high quality. As long as you are fine with young teas and are not averse to possible small levels of bitterness and astringency, this is a great tea to drink right now. For someone relatively new to raw pu’er, this could be a great introduction to higher end material at a very friendly price. At the same time the tea has enough to satisfy more seasoned drinkers as well. Despite the tea having my personal recommendation, I am likely not going to be purchasing it for myself, although I could see myself giving it as a gift to someone at some point. I already have so many teas in my rotation along with countless samples to go through, that I’m not really looking to add another drink-now tea to the mix.

If you haven’t compiled your latest Bitterleaf order yet, I recommend throwing one of these in there! You can thank me later (actually thank the fine folks at Bitterleaf).

I loved the Hai Lang Hao Yi Shan Mo ripe pu’er enough to purchase a whole brick of it, so I was very curious to try out what a traditional raw pu’er offering from this village would be like. The ten gram sample I received was all broken up leaves with even some twigs mixed in. After my last ten gram sample from Yunnan Sourcing turned out to be closer to twelve grams, I probably really should have weighed this one, but let’s pretend it was ten grams. I dumped it all in my preheated 140ml gaiwan and what I could smell was almost like mocha. Really interesting. I gave the leaves a brief five second rinse and sipped what little the leaves hadn’t absorbed while I let the moisture soak in even deeper for five minutes or so. What I tasted was cream and plum. Fairly strong too. Plum is a new one for me.

I did eleven steeps. The timing for these was interesting: 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s and 20s. Yes, flash steeps until steep seven! Pretty much what you’d expect from a dancong brewed Chaozhou style. The first infusion tasted pretty much identical to the wash, expect slightly more diluted because of the larger volume of water. The body was fairly medium. The cha qi on the other hand was HEAVY. I felt the tea so strongly in my body, it forced me to slow down.

The second and third steep brewed up REALLY, REALLY strong, but the flavors themselves were less discernible now. There were some echoes of the earlier taste along with some greenness. I found the tea really overpowering, both in strength and its effects. Steep four produced a slightly bigger, creamier body. The taste was still somewhat plummy while I also got some astringency and sweetness.

The increase in body was lost in the fifth infusion while the profile started to become cleaner. The strength and effects of the tea were still as strong as ever. The next two steeps introduced an increasing amount of bitterness and steep seven was also when the strength finally started to drop for the first time.

Starting with the eighth infusion the flavors also began simplifying. Some of the tea’s underlying basic taste could still be found in the background while there was some bitterness and astringency present as well. The tea was still going strong in the ninth steep, but it was less intense now and easier to drink as a result. The taste was fruity, not just plummy like before. The fruits were still present in the next steep, but now in a drier form and together with the lack of sweetness the two were making the tea less enjoyable. The last steep still had strength, but the flavors were starting to taper off, so I thought this a good place to end the session. The increasing dryness also wasn’t doing the tea any favors.

This was the most intense tea I’ve ever drunk. I am a fan of strong tea (loved Hai Lang’s Lao Man’e sheng), but even for me this tea was simply too overpowering. If there’s ever been a tea I felt needed time to mellow out, it’s this one. This tea did not get me tea drunk, the effects were from the neck down, but the burden it placed on the body was immense. I started the session around noon and finished a couple hours later. Even when going to bed that night, I could still feel the effects of the tea. Underestimate Yi Shan Mo at your own peril.

Clearly this is top-notch material, but as stated, for me the tea is simply too intense. While the plum notes are interesting, another thing I would hold against the tea is that it doesn’t really vary very much in terms of flavor. Perhaps it’s due to the stage it’s right now in its development, but the base taste of cream and plums is present in some form through most of the steeps, making the tea feel a bit monotonous. Obviously a great candidate for aging, but fortunately another expensive tea I don’t feel compelled to invest in.

When you see a Lincang tea that’s forty cents per gram and then realize it’s an autumn harvest, that’s sure to pique your interest. At barely past six months, this tea is still very young, but Yunnan Sourcing is having a sale on raw pu’er right now, which is code for people to start breaking out their samples. In the past I haven’t bothered weighing Yunnan Sourcing’s ten gram sample packs as I’ve always just tossed it all in, but for this session I only had access to a 130ml gaiwan, so unsure if ten grams was too much, I decided to at least weigh the sample. I’m glad I did, because my scale showed 11.8g. Mind that I’ve never calibrated the scale, but I doubt it’s off by more than a few tenths of a gram at most. I do like strong tea, but for young raw pu’er I think twelve grams would have been overdoing it even for me. Instead I weighed nine grams and set the rest of the sample aside.

I received a small piece of the cake, with the rest of the sample consisting of large, intact leaves. Just looking at the sample the leaf integrity looked good. I did my customary 5s rinse followed by a five minute rest while I sipped the wash to get a feel for the tea. The rinse was light, fruity and sweet with no signs of unpleasantness whatsoever. I could already feel some heat and a light throbbing in my head. I proceeded to do twelve infusions, the timing for these being 5s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min. and 5 min.

Di Jie started off soft and smooth. The mouthfeel was about as friendly as a tea can get. It made you slow down and savor it. The flavors were still light, fruity and sweet. They were however very present and long-lasting. The second infusion continued brewing up soft, light and pleasant. There was perhaps the tiniest whisper of an underlying harsher character.

In the third steep the tea got brighter and somewhat sharper in flavor. It caused the sides of your tongue to tingle. There was a non-harsh harshness to it that was fused with sweetness. Even though the tea was stronger and bolder than in the previous two steeps which was evident from the color as well, this was more of an active than a flavorful brew. I found the broth somewhat warming and both my breathing and heartbeat became faster.

The body started to get lighter in the fourth steep, but at the same time the tea became really easy to drink texture-wise. While light in nature, the flavors were very present and forward. The tea was bright, almost bordering on metallic. It was sweet, somewhat mineral, but also a bit drying, leaving your tongue sandpapery. This was the tea at its youngest. After finishing my cup, I could feel some tightness/throbbing/pounding in my chest.

The texture continued getting even lighter in the next steep. The slight fruitiness was back and the tea became increasingly sweet over time. At this point there was no harshness to be found in the tea. After pouring the sixth steep, I found the leaves smelling very fruity. While the tea had gained some body, it seemed to have lost some flavor at the same time. There were no well defined flavors in this steep, but it was an interesting blanket of notes nonetheless. There was something comforting about the soup while it was also a bit drying as well.

The tea got super mineral in the seventh steep – bad kind of mineral. This was also the first time I detected a small amount of bitterness. The bitterness increased in the next infusion while the tea gained some sweetness as well. The tea was aromatic in the mouth and there was a lot more body now. Steep nine was extra bitter, but the bitterness quickly turned into sweetness. In the past these three steeps would have been around the point where I would have normally ended the session, but over the course of the past few months I’ve learned a lot more about both the bitterness and sweetness in pu’er and thus I carried on.

Steep ten was massive in terms of body thanks to the extended brewing time. The sweetness had now overtaken the bitterness. The next infusion was even sweeter, with only small amounts of bitterness and astringency. The final steep was still quite sweet, but I was starting to taste some nastiness in it as well and decided this was a good place to call it.

For such a young tea, the Di Jie performed well. You may want to give it another six or twelve months to properly judge it, but already it delivers very well in relation to the price, with the potential to far exceed it. The quality is very high and not something you’d easily get in a spring tea without paying big money. However this is not necessarily a tea you’d want to session more than once or twice before tucking it away to age. To me it comes across as something you’d likely be looking to age rather than drink young.

Compared to the very similarly priced YS 2017 Mu Shu Cha I reviewed previously, I think the Di Jie offers higher quality at only slightly higher price, but for the purposes of drinking it young, I would pick the Mu Shu Cha over the Di Jie. For aging purposes it’s anyone’s guess how these two will develop and ultimately down to personal preference which one one would prefer.

While I thought it was very high quality, the Di Jie didn’t necessarily make me fall in love with it. Were it pressed into smaller cakes, I’d likely pick up a bing, but I think 400g is far too much tea for me. I’d rather save the space in my pumidor for a cake that feels even more special and resonates with me more. Nevertheless this tea definitely comes recommended.

I ordered a 10g sample of this. What I received were all individual leaves, no intact pieces of the cake. The foil the sample came in smelled amazing. I used all ten grams in a 140ml gaiwan. A brief 5s rinse, followed by a five minute rest while I sipped the wash. It was sharp, pungent – very strong. Oily, with maybe sort of a rare clay type of taste. I proceeded to do twelve steepings, the timing for these being 6s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min., 3 min. and 5 min.

The first brew was full, creamy, oily and active in the mouth. I could feel it all the way at the back of my mouth and in my throat. It was strong, perhaps slightly astringent in taste. There was something familiar about it, perhaps some sort of citric taste, but I’m not quite sure. Since I was leafing slightly harder than I normally would and because it was all in loose form, I was dreading the tea would get incredibly strong in the second brew, but to my pleasant surprise it was not overpowering at all. Instead it was very smooth and steady. There was a pleasant astringency and the tea was somewhat cooling in the body.

The third steep was full and oily. There was more bitterness and some astringency. To me it felt like I could taste hints of something very similar to toffee. The next infusion was mainly bitter and astringent, maybe a bit fruity. The tea continued being very full and active in the mouth.

Steep five gave even more bitterness. In the finish I could also taste some green, leafy toffee notes. The tea became increasingly sweet over time, but nothing overly sweet. If you can believe it, the sixth steep was even more bitter. However, the bitterness was only there for the first sip and then it was gone. In its stead I got sweetness that continued building and building over time. To me the sweetness was that of toffee/browned sugar. The tea was very satisfying, with a sort of elastic texture to it.

Steep seven brewed strong, sweet and syrupy. After this the tea began simplifying. It continued brewing up strong and sweet, with astringency in steeps eight and nine, but after this it dropped off and was replaced by a slight burning sensation at the back of my mouth, which is something in get with some shengs (especially Jingmai teas) but not all. The strength and color started dropping off a little in the last steep, but this could have been remedied with a longer brewing time. The leaves would have probably had at least one or two extended steepings in them, but I opted to call it there.

This tea was excellent. Albeit not cheap, I think it performs beyond its price point. Compared to the Tea Urching 2017 Lao Ban Zhang I just reviewed, I much prefer this tea. That is not to say it is necessarily better, ten years down the line the two would probably develop in very different directions, but for drinking them young, I would pick the Mu Shu Cha any day of the week. I also prefer this tea to some of Yunnan Sourcing’s other offerings I’ve tried from around this area like the 2016 Bing Dao Lao Zhai or the 2017 Nuo Wu, which I drank recently but didn’t find worth reviewing. Again, this is purely from a standpoint of drinking them young.

Given how potent this tea is and how my sample was really chopped up with virtually no intact leaves, I expected it to brew much stronger and even more bitter, but instead it performed very evenly and never became harsh under conditions where lower teas would have punished you severely. You have to be a fan of bitter and astringent teas, but if you are, this is a tea that’s perfectly enjoyable right now. Given the quality, it would no doubt age very gracefully as well, but if you can’t find something to enjoy in the tea in its current young state, I very much doubt it would suddenly transform into something you would unless we are literally talking about decades. If you know you can’t stomach Lincang teas, then stay away.

Compared to the two Yunnan Sourcing Yiwu teas – Man Lin and Guo You Lin – which I reviewed recently and enjoyed immensely, I’d peg this tea not on par with the Guo You Lin and maybe a nudge below the Man Lin, although it resembles the Guo You Lin much more. I can’t comment on leaf integrity and such, but what I noted was that the leaves were untypically free of burnt and more oxidized leaves (I literally spotted zero). For me this is a rare sight, even in ridiculously expensive teas. I would consider it a sign of quality.

I got no noticeable cha qi during the session, but for the rest of the day I felt very awake, aware and energized, and I would attribute these things to the tea. My body also felt very cleansed. If you have time for a sheng in the morning, this tea might be great for helping you get through your day. It is also slightly cooling, so it might be great for the summer.

One last thing of note about the tea is that I found it more aromatic than a lot of other young raws. The leaves, gaiwan lid, liquor, empty cups and cha hai all carry different scents that change over the session. Even if not necessarily the most essential thing, it’s a nice plus.

My 50th review! What better way to commemorate this occasion than by drinking some Lao Ban Zhang? My sample consisted of one large intact chunk off of the cake along with a much smaller piece about the size of a large coin and then plenty of loose leaves at the bottom to round off the weight. I ended up using the smaller piece and nearly all of the loose bits to arrive at nine grams for my 130ml gaiwan, not wanting to bother with breaking apart the large chunk. The leaves have a very interesting blueish gray tinge to them when dry. The wet leaves at the end of the session were chiefly intact and the leaves themselves very rugged. The leaf quality is good.

I did my customary five second rinse, sipping the wash while I gave the leaves five minutes to soak up the moisture. Because of the small amount of water and the mostly loose form of the leaves, the rinse was really strong with plenty of body, but I don’t really have anything to say about the taste at this stage. I proceeded to do ten steeps, the timing for these being 5s, 6s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s and 2 min.

The tea started off soft and really oily with a big body. In terms of taste it was light and sweet. While there was slightly more color to the second steep, the tea continued brewing up somewhat cloudy. There wasn’t all that much flavor yet, although a green, astringent edge was starting to introduce itself into the tea.

The texture became quite smooth in the third steep. The flavors continued being very light. There was now clear astringency to the tea which was also accompanied by some bitterness. The fourth steeping actually presented the tea at its cloudiest, although the soup did mostly clear up for the subsequent infusions. By this point the tea had lost most of its body while there was still some oiliness left. It exhibited a clean watery taste with some astringency. A mild, brief huigan could also be observed.

There was finally some more bitterness and astringency in the fifth steep, which transformed into very minor sweetness. The infusion that followed had a soft, smooth, creamy body. The taste was mainly bitter now. This was probably my favorite steep.

The next infusion was a half split between sweet and bitter. I also got an interesting roasted note in this one, along with some cardboard dryness. Steep eight is when LBZ officially entered easy-to-drink mode. The tea was soft and sweet with a satisfying mouthfeel. Interestingly while I did not taste any bitterness upon drinking and swallowing, there was a pleasant bitterness to the aftertaste that I enjoyed. Overall this eighth brew was probably my second favorite. Really nice and something virtually anyone could drink.

The bitterness rejoined the sweetness in the ninth steep in a very pleasing mixture. This along with the prior infusion showcased the tea at its best. The sweetness lingered in a very satisfying way and this was only enhanced by the subtlest of bitterness. Steep ten closed the session. At this point I could clearly notice the tea starting to lose steam and the bitterness had turned from desirable to undesirable, which seemed like a good sign to end the session there.

So how did the King fare? While often pretty good, no Lao Ban Zhang I’ve tried in the past has really been able to hold up to the ridiculous hype and the inflated prices. This tea was no exception. For me the tea didn’t have nearly enough bitterness nor was the sweetness pronounced enough to make up for that. While fairly unremarkable in the early steeps, interestingly the tea was at its best in the late steeps, which I don’t really recall happening with other teas. I expected this tea to brew a lot stronger than it did, especially given the loose form it was in, but instead the strength was very average. Also, whereas the Hai Lang Hao LBZ ripe hit me with a ton of qi, this one did not.

None of this is to say that this is a bad tea. It is still very young, so it may need some more time to start to shine. It could be that these teas are typically preferred to be aged, but I don’t really know what the general consensus is. There are some quality markers that I was able to discern, but overall I’d say that at least for how the tea is right now the price is probably around four times too high. Hardly any tea could live up to the price tag and let’s just say I’ve yet to taste a tea that could.

I have enough tea to revisit this tea again six months from now and again six months after that. I’m curious to see if I’ll notice any development over that span of time. For my tastes it would seem that if I want bitter tea, the neighboring Lao Man’e would serve me better.

Finally on an unrelated note to this tea, I compiled some statistics about the reviews I’ve posted and thought I’d share a couple of quick observations. First off, the split between raw and ripe pu’er is about 2:1, which is where I want it to be. About one third of my reviews are positive recommendations and the distribution is fairly similar for raw and ripe. Again, this is about where I would like it to be. While I didn’t need to look at the statistics to become aware of this, my hit rate with the Yunnan Sourcing brand raw pu’ers is quite good so far, across all price points. Conversely, I’ve yet to encounter a Yunnan Sourcing ripe pu’er pressing that I was particularly impressed with. While the sample size is still too small to say anything definitive, the Crimson Lotus Tea ripe offerings seem to align well with my tastes. Lastly, Hai Lang Hao’s high-end offerings seem generally very good, raw or ripe.

To another fifty reviews!

Time for another Yiwu. Much like the Man Lin I reviewed a week ago, I actually have a cake of this, but it’s aging at the bottom of my pumidor and so I went ahead and ordered a ten gram sample just for this session. The sample I received was pretty much just straight mao cha. The tin foil it came in was covered entirely in tiny hairs off of the leaves.

I brewed the entire sample in a 140ml gaiwan. After a brief sub-five second rinse, I tasted the wash while I let the moisture soak in for five minutes or so. The rinse was shockingly strong and astringent for just the briefest of washes. The tea was also very oily. The rinsed leaves had the smell of a seafood buffet. For the rest of the session this transformed into the scent of soured milk.

I followed the rinse with a total of ten steeps, the timing for these being 5s, 5s, 5s, 7s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s and 75s. The tea opened strong. The body was full and creamy and the taste also a bit creamy, but there was also an interesting sort of roasted note or something of that description. The steep that followed greeted you with a strong initial burst of astringency which however faded in a matter of seconds. The broth continued brewing up strong and oily.

I stuck to a flash brew for the third steep, which turned out to be the right call, because the strength was barely a notch lighter. It displayed the same fleeting astringency from before and coated your mouth and throat with its oiliness. In its wake, the tea left a sensation of softness in your mouth, accompanied by gentle sweetness. I could feel the tea in my throat and at its entrance there was a slight tingling sensation that made you want to keep drinking more.

The tea pushed on strong and oily in the fourth steep. There was now a perhaps more mineral taste that turned to sweetness. In addition there was a wonderful bitterness that titillated your palate in just the right way. The tea could be felt in your throat and chest, reaching all the way down to the end of the esophagus.

Steep five presented a really wonderful mixture of bitterness and astringency which rewarded you with some sweetness. The next infusion continued being really full and oily in the mouth. The tea was thick. Really, really thick. The taste was bright and astringent. In the aftertaste there was very clear vanilla note. I could feel the tea around my jaw and the saliva in my cheeks tasted really sweet.

The seventh steeping was soft and oily and wonderfully sweet. I’m not talking of this steep specifically, but this is the kind of tea you could just keep drinking forever. I could still feel the tea in my jaw. At this point a small heatwave washed over me, which is just par for the course. The steep that followed is where the tea finally started thinning out and simplifying for the first time. The strength was still good and the taste a mixture of sweetness and astringency which both went away within a few seconds.

Infusion nine is where the flavors began to fade while the astringency started creeping up. There were still some hints of oiliness left and the body was decent. Steep ten is the last one I did. The body was thinner and the taste a mixture of sweetness, astringency and bitterness. The tea wasn’t bad, but I wanted to end a good session on a high note so I decided to call it there just to be safe. It’s possible the tea had more left to give, but I didn’t wanna risk it.

In my notes for the 2016 Man Lin, I explained my rocky history with Yiwu teas. After the Man Lin turned out so great, I was sure my luck’d run out and didn’t dare to hold too high expectation for this one. I’m glad I was wrong, because this was flat out one of the best teas I’ve had, perhaps the best. While the first couple initial brews were interesting, at that point it was hard to gauge where the tea was going, but once it got going, it just kept getting better and better and I was sold. Whereas the Man Lin is an excellent tea in its own right and very yummy and approachable, the Guo You Lin is more demanding and challenging. I doubt people new to pu’er would be able to appreciate it to its fullest. While the Man Lin is very tasty, Guo You Lin is more of a complete experience that involves your body and other senses.

All that being said, I drank this tea together with my mother who, although not a tea connoisseur, has been drinking tea with me about once a week for over a year now, and she like me loved the tea and said she could drink this every day. She in particular loved the throat feel and the bitterness and astringency in this tea. You most certainly don’t have to be some sort of master to appreciate this tea, but you should definitely work your way up to teas of this caliber.

The astringency in this tea is interesting. I am familiar with bitterness that quickly transforms into something else, but astringency that does that is a new one for me. The astringency and bitterness in this tea are very enjoyable and never abrasive or persistent. They are also integral to the overall experience. Appreciation of these two things would be recommended before trying to tackle this tea. If you can enjoy teas like Mang Fei, you are golden.

Is this tea worth the price? At $0.52/g this tea is not only worth it but a bargain. In my experience, spring teas of roughly this vintage that offer this level of quality can easily cost close to twice as much. I’m not saying you can’t find really good spring teas around this price point, but if you are trying to match this tea, you are more likely to end up paying more.

So any cons? None that I can think of… I’m not sure if I got any qi, but with a tea this strong and this much body sensation, I’m not really looking for an additional layer of input. This tea is perfectly ready to be drunk and enjoyed now, but the aging potential is also intriguing. I can’t recommend this tea any more highly and the artwork is fantastic.

I don’t know if I’ve just been unlucky and tried the wrong teas, but my track record with Yiwu teas so far has not been very good. I know a lot of people really like them and on paper they sound like something that might be up my alley, but after trying a handful of them so far, my hit rate has been rather poor. Granted, what is commonly referred to as the “greater Yiwu region” is a rather large area which encompasses not only the Yiwu mountain range but the six famous tea mountains and more. One would expect to find plenty of variation within such a large region even if many of the teas might share some similar base characteristics. The small sample size of teas I’ve had doesn’t even begin to cover all the various mountains, villages and price ranges.

With all that out of the way, let’s get to this tea. Like the YS 2016 Bing Dao Lao Zhai that I reviewed recently, I actually have a cake of this, but much like the Bing Dao, it’s at the bottom of my pumidor supporting a couple of stacks. As a smaller, more premium cake that I bought mainly to age and didn’t want to break into just for this session, I went ahead and ordered a 10g sample just for this session. This saves me a lot of hassle and leaves me with more tea. I used all ten grams in a 140ml gaiwan that is the largest one available to me. Smelling the small foil packet the sample came in, you get a wonderful sweet fruity scent that reminds me of pineapple. My sample was a single large piece from the cake along with some smaller loose bits to round out the weight. I decided to not break it up at all by hand, because in my experience Yunnan Sourcing pressing have typically been very loose and come apart on their own after the first couple of infusions, sometimes even just the rinse.

I gave the tea a brief five second rinse and it had about five minutes to soak up the moisture while I tasted the wash. Even these first drops that had graced the leaves carried a wow factor to them. The tea was soft, sweet and oily. The mouthfeel was wonderful and for just the rinse, the briefest of rinses, there was already a surprising amount of flavor. I followed the rinse with twelve more infusions, the timing for these being 6s, 6s, 6s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 2 min. and 4 min.

The first proper infusion was thick, creamy and sweet with plenty of flavor. I could already tell this was going to be an excellent tea. The second steeping was brighter and strong, really strong. I struggle to find the right word to describe the flavor. I think fruity is decent enough, but I’m not sure if it’s quite right. The mouthfeel remained wonderful and the flavor changed considerably once the tea cooled down. This holds true for most steeps in this session and the tea revealed very different facets of it when it was hot, warm and cool, always tasting great.

At this point I noticed that the large chunk I’d tossed in was still intact and decided to give it some encouragement. Following the different layers, I tried to separate it into a couple of much thinner pieces that should have a much easier time coming undone on their own, and while doing this I discovered that the chunk was still completely dry at the very center. I don’t know if this bing is just more compressed than some other Yunnan Sourcing productions, at least their 400g pressings, or if I received a more compressed part toward the center, but I think I actually lucked out, because I fear this tea would have been overwhelmingly strong had I received a less compressed bit or tried to pry it apart earlier. Thanks to how things turned out, my steepings ended up brewing out much more evenly.

Although I was dreading a much harder kick to the face after sorting out the compression issue, thankfully those fears were unfounded and the tea still retained its soft character in the third steep, albeit there was definitely some more edge, some more young raw pu’er backbone to it now. The tea was still quite wonderful, I would actually call it delicious. The raw pu’er edge was only amplified in the next steep, but there was none of the nastiness you can sometimes get in young sheng. The tea continued brewing strong. While there was less body now, the mouthfeel was still quite nice.

Steep five brewed sweet, really sweet. The sweetness was accompanied by a mineral nature and followed by some dry astringency in the finish. The tea was still brewing strong in the sixth steep. It was oily and aromatic with some minor astringency in the finish. Steep seven is the first time I extended the brewing time by full five seconds and the resulting soup was almost too strong. There was much more edge to the tea now, but still no nastiness, although there was now some fleeting bitterness. The tea was very clean, very bright. The texture was getting lighter, but we were entering a stage where the tea is quite easy to drink and similar to juice in a way.

Steep eight was delicious. Super strong. There was a pleasant bitterness to it that disappeared after a few seconds. A small wave of heat washed over me while drinking this steep. The tea continued simplifying and getting thinner in the ninth infusion, but in return it became REALLY easy to drink. It gained a refreshing, slightly mood lifting quality and brewed with really pleasant sweetness and strength that was still incredibly strong. I was really enjoying the tea.

The tenth infusion is where the tea began losing sweetness. The mouthfeel was still decent, but there was hardly that much taste. This was a sign for me to finally start pushing the tea much harder and the eleventh steep was in fact stronger again. The tea soup was nice and refreshing and there was a fleeting bitterness to it that was becoming more prominent. I really appreciated the fact that the bitterness wasn’t persistent as you would have expected with a lot of other teas. The bitterness was even more pronounced in the final infusion, but still nothing abrasive. I thought this was a good place to call it, however. The strength was still very good, and I happily drank all of the tea, but although there may have been more to see, I didn’t want to risk ending a good session with a steep that left a bad taste in my mouth.

Overall this tea was excellent. Really wonderful. This is exactly what I’ve expected from Yiwu teas based on people’s descriptions, but not really what I’ve experienced so far apart from maybe one or two exceptions. Although during the session the Man Lin didn’t seem to exhibit much noticeable qi, later during the day a couple hours later I suddenly noticed I was actually in a very good mood, feeling good and more aware and awake than I normally am. That could just be a coincidence and unrelated to the tea, but it would be a very rare coincidence and as such I’m attributing my state to the tea. I was actually really glad this tea wasn’t one of the teas that feels like you got your face pummeled by a sledgehammer, because the tea itself was already so strong in terms of taste that a potent cha qi that would have made you woozy and put you under the table would have been just too overwhelming. This tea was incredibly yummy with no bad steeps and I really appreciate the very subtle cha qi that makes it a real feel-good tea at least for me.

After a series of lukewarm encounters with Yiwu teas, I found myself wondering why’d I pick up a cake of this blind, but now after having tasted the tea I couldn’t be happier that I did. I actually wasn’t quite in time to pick it up before the price went up for the first time, but I got mine before it recently went up again. I paid $133 which puts it at $0.53/g. At the time of writing this, you pay exactly ten cents more per gram if you pick up a bing. Is the tea worth it? In my opinion, absolutely. This is a genuinely high-end tea, one that you can drink now and fully enjoy, or age and end up with what I have no doubt will be a bomb of a tea. It’s not the highest of the high-end, but in typical Yunnan Sourcing fashion, the quality of the tea is very indicative of the price, if not better. If you want to experience genuine high-quality Yiwu, but the price of a tea like this is simply not something you can justify, I highly recommend you to sample some autumn harvest teas. I know some people are not fans of autumn teas, but what little experience I have with them so far, I haven’t really been able to tell a huge difference between them and spring teas and the price is often half of the spring counterparts if not less.

If you are looking for something truly yummy, even if it’s just a sample, I definitely recommend giving this tea a go!