2014 Yiwu "Iron Forge" Huang Pian Shou Puerh Tea

Haven’t been on here that much lately which makes me a little sad. :( Been dealing with some mental health stuff but I’m on the mend. Drinking plenty tea just not logging it.

Mellow, lasting shou with calming, restorative energy. Starts off with the sweet, woodsy shou profile I’ve come to expect, then has a subtle zing to it, like peppery umami.

My preferences for shou don’t seem to agree well with this one, despite the praise it has garnered. Its most interesting aspect is the aftertaste with notes like brown sugar, soy sauce, and cloves. Otherwise, I found it to be fairly mediocre. The aroma is mild and woody with a hint of petrichor and gasoline. Taste is also somewhat flat and savoury. The main flavours I noticed were those of nuts, wood and cola. Body is medium at best and the liquor has a creamy, warming mouthfeel. All in all, not a tea I will be looking to purchase more of.

I really enjoy this tea because it’s not a “in your face” kind of tea. Its mellow, its smooth, and it’s just plain easy to drink. The overall taste reminds me of an old farm smell…and not in a bad way! Simple yet unique. Hints of earthiness like dandelion grasses and wet wood come through for me. There is no strong aftertaste of this tea, so it’s a nice daily drinker in my opinion. As we all know, different ways of brewing teas create different outcomes, but in this instance, this is what comes through for me!

At first, I was a bit bored by the opening flavor profile because I’ve had quite a few young yiwu huang pian shous. I was like all right, I guess I’ll finish this so as to not waste it. But it softly chuckles along on a subtle, gradual flavor/sensory progression, and the journey is unexpectedly elaborate. After a few hours of thinking about it, I found a fitting metaphor, but it makes me sound downright batty so I will not share it. However, I will leave you with this. Maybe CLT named this the Iron Forge not because it is the perfect drink for bourbon-swilling blacksmiths, but because of the slow burn of peaceful warmth that emanates from a session.

I cannot believe I didn’t write my tasting notes down for this, but the short of it is that I loved it. Most shou that I’ve had so far has been “high” leaf gradelike gongting, gnwl. This is expressly not that, and felt very different. I see that someone else referred to this as “barbecue chip” scent which isn’t….wrong I suppose but I thought it was interesting. Overall this tasted very savory, rich, umami, almost like tomato paste and almost salty? Good stuff, try some if you ever get the chance. Very clean, not fishy at all, and not sickly sweet like some shou. This is definitely on the savory spectrum.

Very clean shou, I even took a sip of the rinse and it was perfectly drinkable. Tastes of petrichor, mineral, decaying wood, and leather with a little bit of cocoa. Not super complex, but tasty and super clean. Also it got me feeling tea drunk which is unusual for a shou.

From the very first steep, Iron Forge joined the ranks of my favorite ripe pu’ers. The early infusions have a delightful smooth texture and a pleasant hot chocolate thing going, which I haven’t quite encountered in other teas. Unfortunately, this is a shou that peters out quicker than most; after four or five steeps, Iron Forge loses that special character and fades to a thin, unremarkable drink. However, when it’s good, it’s remarkably good, and it’s well worth getting at least a sample to get that experience.

Notes:

Just finished up my first session. The dry leaf is actually pretty unique with a very clean refreshing aroma of petrichor and spearmint. Wet, it loses the spearmint but the petrichor holds strong with additions of brown sugar and clean damp wood deep in the forest. Taste opens up with petrichor, wood, and a mineral vegetal taste (similar to tastes brought out by Jianshui clay). As I get more steepings in the vegetal taste becomes more mineral and then dry wood. Medicinal tastes pop up occasionally and when pushed in later infusions the tea isn’t sweet though still not bitter. The mouthfeel is great – slippery and oily right off the bat with just enough astringency to produce tingling. Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised. The later infusions do lack a bit of complexity but this is a huangpian and the earlier infusions are not lacking in any way.

Between teas like this one and White2Tea’s Brown Sugar, I don’t know why anybody makes Huangpian into sheng. Of course, that’s just my personal taste talking, but I really think it does better as shou than sheng.

Iron Forge is very much a woody shou, with some other “foresty” or petrichor notes going on as well. Longevity was middle of the road for shou, I’d say.

Good tea, but I likely won’t pick up a brick. I seem to slightly prefer w2t’s Brown Sugar in terms of my huangpian shou – though I would by no means be sad if I somehow did end up with a brick of Iron Forge too…

Sipdown

While rummaging through my tea samples from swaps, I found this hidden gem at the bottom of the stash. I threw the remaining leaf (10g) into a 200 ml gaiwan, and made a go of it.

Flavor: I started this late in the evening/early morning before bed. The first notes were cinnamon, earth, & wet rocks. Today, as I kept brewing at longer times, I noticed more of the cinnamon/earth notes throughout. Definitely a smooth, easy tea. I’d recommend it, but it seems that it has all sold out.

I’ll definitely miss this sample, but I’m happy to have tried it while I could. :)