2000 Kai Yuan Purple Stamp

I finally got back to another tea from the Pubertea group buy! I have only tried a couple teas from Essence of Tea, but they’ve been pretty good. This one is I believe the oldest sheng I’ve yet tasted. It’s not too tightly compressed – it looks like it is, but it comes apart pretty readily when subjected to boiled water. The dry leaves have a light, slightly musty aroma. After a rinse, I smelled some woody sweetness, along with a bit of a sour/sweaty note.

The tea started out earthy with a bit of sweetness in the first steep – the tea was really still opening up. The next four steeps were probably my favorite from this tea. They were nice and clean, with a pleasant nutty sweetness – none of the astringency often associated with a nutty flavor. There was still a good bit of earthiness to it, along with some deeper sweetness, almost reminding me of very dark chocolate.

After this, the tea took a rather unwelcome turn, gaining a bit of a sour note which I couldn’t really shake for the rest of the session. There were some really nice and clean wood notes in there as well – not aromatic or spicy wood, but just straight up wood. Unfortunately, there was also a bit of a sour finish, and the tea got a bit drying as well. There was also a bit of a salty note at times.

I brewed this up in my Jianshui pot, which doesn’t have the fastest pour time – I’ll have to save the rest and brew it in a gaiwan to see if keeping infusion times low for longer helps with the sourness. Also to see what differences I might notice in brewing this one in Jianshui vs. Porcelain. Based on this session, I wasn’t a huge fan of this one – it was alright, but not too great.

Knowing that I had a long night on my laptop ahead of me I decided to pull out something from Pubertea. Due to this being old, I went ahead and rinsed the tea twice before letting it sit for about 8 minutes. This is how I start my serious brews with stuff regardless of new/old.
First steep has a nice orange tint to the liquid and a stronger aroma on the musky side. Starts out with a slight sour note and some salty residual taste that comes out in some oolong teas. The depth doesn’t seem to be there and that’s what I am hoping comes out of this or some feels later on. A little mouth dryness towards the back on the very first steep though.
So… I meant to continue to write notes and everything… but, I didn’t.
Now on steep 22 I believe; 6g, 100ml, 95c constant. This tea really smoothed out and the funk is gone. Has a pretty strong medicinal taste at the end similar to menthol. Solid mellow feeling, but no enery or warmth. The taste has gotten what I called darker and deeper so I’m really just diving deeper into it and it hasn’t quite on me yet. I’ll brew the rest out over the night and music, time to see how far this will go.

This puerh was a bit of a strange one for me. I recently added this to the Steepster database with intentions of adding a tasting note, however my tea session just did not go well. I was brewing this in a gaiwan and simply was not feeling the love…I had a hard time controlling some astringency that is still present and for some reason my taste buds just seemed a bit “off”. I thought giving a rating based simply on this one session would be premature and a little unfair.. So I decided to revisit this one tonight. This time around I have used my new 150ml yixing to see if my session would be a different experience. Here are my notes…

A word of warning first. In spite of its 14 years of age this is still a very powerful, robust puerh that still has a lot of youth left in it. I would say further aging is mandatory. Careful monitoring of steep times is also mandatory…brew this too much and the soup comes out too powerful and astringent. I would strongly suggest 7-10 second steeps for at least the first half a dozen steeps, possibly more. If you manage to conquer the steep times you will tame this little beast and end up with a rewarding puerh experience.

I pick away a healthy 8 grams worth of leaves and place them into my 150ml yixing. I decide to do two quick 3 second rinses…soup is already starting to look amber in texture. I smell the wet leaves…hints of smoke, malty richness, robust, deep aromas. Smells pretty potent! First proper steep at 7 seconds. Resulting liquid is dark amber which appears fairly thick in texture. I slowly sip my first steep…strong, very rich and heavy, nice thickness, woody smokiness, fairly complex aged flavours, mild astringency.

Steeping this further up to six steeps and I notice that I am beginning to sweat profusely from my head and also around my moustache/beard lol. Body is beginning to feel fully energised. Smokiness is beginning to die down a bit, replaced by some really excellent camphor notes. Some cooling on the tongue, not that much vibrancy in the mouth but I am experiencing a very long, complex finish. Liquid still remains nice and thick. This session is going a million times better than my previous experience.

I push this further up to about 10 steeps. Still this puerh is delivering on taste, however now I am beginning to notice some sweeter notes further adding to its complexity. This puerh has excellent durability. 10 steeps no problem…I push this past 15 steeps and still it refuses to quit. After 3 hours I finally decide to end my session. I think this powerful puerh has got the better of me…the leaves remain in the yixing for tomorrow.

So, overall this was a pretty special experience. No puerh has made me sweat as much as this one. It is difficult to believe how much power this puerh has. If I had to compare it to another puerh I would say that its tasting profile is fairly similar to white2tea’s 2002 White Whale. I personally think it has a little less smokiness and has more complex aged textures. Don’t quit at 10 steeps…you would be missing out on it’s returning sweetness which was a very pleasant surprise. From a price point I think £105 per cake is a fair price to pay considering how many steeps you will get out of 8 grams. At the moment this is an excellent, complex puerh that in 5+ years may be incredible. I am so glad that I did not write this one off…it deserves patience and full attention, not only with its durability but also those damn steeping times :) If you want to experience a puerh that has a great balance of aged and youth this one is definitely one to consider. Many thanks to EOT for this complex, powerful beast.