2016 "Lord of the Forest" 1000-year-old trees Myanmar Ye Sheng Pu-erh Tea

Gongfu Sipdown (1470)!

Just wrapping this session right now – thank you Togo for sharing the sample!

This is very unique & pleasant with more syrupy and red fruit forward first steeps that progress into something a little more thick and jammy with undertones of dried chamomile flowers, prunes, parsley & distinct notes of pipe tobacco in the finish. Normally I would likely be turned off by a tea that has such a distinct chamomile note, as it’s not a type of tea I typically enjoy – however I think the really dynamic melange of sweeter fruity notes and that interesting tobacco note are both more than enough to make up for the one flavour I’m picking out of this session that isn’t landing with me.

All in all, I think I got a very solid eight or nine steeps before the flavour decline into spent leaf – most of them stacked two steeps at a time since I was using a pitcher/cup set much bigger than the pot I brewed in. One of the perks to working from home is deskside gongfu sessions, and this was a very splendid one!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTC4tofgNR6/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3mdyIbeXEY

I rarely drink tea that I have troubles finishing a session of, but this one is one of them. It just underscores my experience with Ye Sheng varietals processed into raw pu-erh , which has been lukewarm at best.

The main take-aways for me are that the tea is light bodied and has an overwhelming chamomile character. Since I don’t like chamomile tea (after drinking too much of it one year of my life), the taste profile didn’t sit well with me.

Other than that, there are notes of wood, cucumber, and fermented stonefruits in the dry leaf aroma. After the rinse, on the other hand, the tea smells very sweet, fruity and floral (but not flowery, more like marsh vegetation). The taste a very herbaceous character as I already mentioned. There are also notes of grass, alpine flowers, cucumber, parsnip and white peach.