Yunnan Sourcing

Received a couple of these “coins” as a free sample with my recent order. I am happy that this was sent as a sample, because I often shy away from organic teas because I have heard that they are often inferior. This is the first ripe pu-erh that wowed me. Has the familiar sandalwood notes like other ripes I have tried, and a touch of rose florals (a favorite of mine – I like rose florals). But what clinches it for me is there is a little something extra – a nice twist of licorice-like flavor to make things really interesting. Unusual for Yunnan Sourcing in that there are no dates of production listed for this tea, so not sure how new/old it is. It was listed on the website only pretty recently, I believe, so might be kind of new. No off/fishy tastes here in my opinion, and this is ready to drink right now. Definitely want to pick up some of these on my next order, and best thing is not a very high price!

Devon Bartholomew Advent Day 14

I haven’t had many white tea cakes, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from this one. I steeped it Western-style and got distracted, so steeped it longer than planned. But it’s still smooth and sweet without the slightest hint of bitterness or astringency! It’s definitely more full-bodied than other white teas I’ve tried with a rich, creamy mouthfeel. The flavor is quite sweet and cake-like with notes of vanilla. Really enjoying this one and hoping I can get another steep out of it!

I bought these cute mini cakes of ripe pu’erh about 2 1/2 years ago and was initially unimpressed. However, true to the promise of YS, they have improved with age! No fishiness or foul odors, but a cool fragrance of forest floor during a light snowfall on an early-winter morning. the flavor has intensified since purchase. I snapped the 8g cake in half and gave the 4g piece a 10s wash in boiling water, which loosened the compression a bit. The first steep was a minute in 8 ounces boiling alpine spring water, and 6 further infusions varied from 15s to 3 min at the end. Flavors were inoffensive, and reminiscent of freshly-sawn lumber, and assamic black tea with slight earthiness. I enjoyed every steeping, which ranged from a thick, near-black soup, to a medium brown in color. The coin-sized, wrapped cakes are convenient to carry on a journey and the leaf particles were generally over 1 cm in size, making simple decanting with a spoon or improvised gaiwan feasible. And if one is truly sturdy, the tea could be drunk grandpa style, though I would definitely suggest using only a partial cake, perhaps a fourth of one. But again, that makes them handy for travel. Still available from YS, and reasonably priced.

This is pretty nice. For a sinensis black tea this is remarkably dark, strong and malty, and very likeable for a dianhong lover like me. Thick, fruity, caramelly.

The unique part of this tea is this floral/fruit/dill note that dance and shift randomly. One sip I get floral, the other I get fruit, and the last I get dill.

The dry aroma is super strong, something like sweet flowers or even fruit punch. Then when infused, the smell just magnifies. It’s like fragrant flowers infused into watermelon juice, and amongst the flowers there are some pine needles.

Simply, the taste is very close to how it smells, except toned down and with less pine and dill notes. It’s certainly very juicy and velvety, with maybe a tinge of astringency.

Well, now, I’ve had this Changtai raw/sheng for a couple years in my dark tea cabinet at 62 %RH, making it now 18 yrs old. Let’s see how it tastes today! The leaf in this cake is in large pieces, 1-2 inches long, and not too tightly compressed, so it was easy to pick off 5 g.

Gave it a quick rinse of 5s under hot tap water, then 5s more with boiling spring water. Successive infusions in 3 oz boiling alpine spring water:
15s- Golden orange soup, withered tea on the nose. Slightly tannic in the first sip, with notes of wood and malt coating the tongue and mouth.
20s- Same, but a little smoother.
30s- The tea leaf flavor is picking up here.
45s- Same golden orange soup, but the tannic notes are declining, to reveal some astringency and a longer smooth finish. No defects, but no other flavor notes either.
—[paused an hour, boiled more water and continued infusing]—
30s- Same golden orange soup, tea, wood, hint of chamomile taste.
90s- Same golden orange soup, returning astringency while other flavors decline.
2min- Ditto.
3min- Ditto.
Overall, while this isn’t a bad tea, it is a disappointment. Going back into storage for a few more years. I have better tea to drink.

A dark and comforting tea. Easy to drink, with a decent amount of sweetness and very little bitterness. Works well for me brewed western style, and I typically brew it for 3 or 4 steeps (starting at 2 minutes and working up to 5 minutes after an initial 30-second rinse). Might even have a few more good steeps, but that is too much for me. Not sure what the difference between sandalwood and oak would be, but I guess if sandalwood is on the softer side with more floral and spice tones, I can see that. I’m not feeling any root beer or cinnamon here. Vanilla and cherry notes for sure. No really strong earthy or funky tones – smooth is the name of the game here. Not super complex, really, but very pleasant. I’m not a total shu-poo-head yet, but after trying this tea I might be on my way.

This 2019 Ba Da Mountain ripe Puer from YS is an “older brother” to the 2020 material which I previously reviewed. It is very similar to the 2020, but not quite as complex in its flavors. YS’s description is pretty accurate. I really like it (which is good since I have a full cake of it).

I gongfu’d this session across 12 steepings of 30 seconds each, in succession, using hot alpine spring water well-off the boil (measured at 85°C), poured on 5g leaf in 3 ounce porcelain espresso cups (pre rinsed in the same water for 10 sec), using a stainless steel infusion basket. The earliest infusions were very dark brown liquors, lightening as I proceeded. See them all in the attached photo, going diagonally from left to right. You can see that a few jumped in intensity, because the wet leaf rested a minute between steepings as I heated more water (#6) and fetched more cups (#9). The flavor and aroma were remarkably consistent across all 12 infusions.

It is possible that additional flavors and slight bitterness might have been noticible had I used boiling water, as usual for Pu’erhs, but I was wanting to try and achieve a higher level of smoothness in this session. And I think it was successful in that! In the future I’ll go back to western-style steeping because the effort of all this just isn’t justified by the result (nevermind all the washing-up!)

Brewed and noted on 23 Sept. ‘24. This was a 25g bag I’d bought last year from YS, and I’d forgotten about it until looking over the comments from my review 2 yr ago of the 2020 Yunnan Sourcing “Ba Da Mountain” Ripe Pu-erh Tea Cake and seeing that user looseTman had asked about it back then. I must have brewed it previously and not reported because 5g is missing.

Anyway, I did my version of a gongfu session, using 5g tea, a stainless infusion basket, 3 ounce espresso cups, and alpine spring water at 90°C. Started with 10 sec wash, discarded, then six infusions of 15 sec each, then an hours’ pause, and six more infusions, again 15 sec each. I suspect I could have done a third set for a total of 18 decent cups, but stopped. The first two of each set were very strong and could have been yet briefer. The attached photos show the dozen infusions, from right to left. The weakest ones were #11 & #12.

I was not thrilled with this tea, as I have been with my other recent ripe puer tastings of late. There was still a bit of wet-pile humidity odor and taste in the first four infusions that masked any more subtle flavors. Not astringent, not fishy, not creamy either. No bitterness. It is a decent, solid tea, and I was pleased by the camphor arising in #5 & #6, and later by the lingering finish with notes of hazelnut in 10, 11, & 12. I didn’t get any notes of cocoa or fruit or leather. Next time, I’ll cut down the leaf by half, and try to control the early infusions to produce a less inky brew. YMMV. I’m also going to transfer the remaining tea from its mylar pouch to a filter-paper-covered jelly jar in my darkened tea cabinet for 6 months, so that the wet-pile notes can dissipate before my next session with it.

Full cakes are still for sale on YS and YS.us, and I’ll leave them for others who prefer potent shou.

Spring 2024: It’s okay. Not bad for the price, I guess. Not much lingering flavor, and not nearly as much of the nice fruity/floral/minty/etc notes you can get from white teas sourced from other areas. This one kind of has softer floral notes and more of a vanilla flavor going on. Some nice hoppy notes. Doesn’t linger too much. Kind of simple and boring.

I wasn’t a particularly big fan of this tea. I tried it using a bunch of different changes to the parameters over the course of several sessions, and I wasn’t able to get much more than a light cereal milk-tasting soup. The bark is certainly more present than its bite, and that disappoints me quite a bit given my general appreciation of the Jin Xian cultivar.

SIpdown. This was nothing special and no need to pick it up again. not a bad cup but literally nothing different imo from just picking up LB “regular”