2010 Yunnan Sourcing Yi Wu Zheng Shan

If I’d tasted this particular tea a few months ago, I would’ve probably said: what a lovely green tea! It smells wonderful, like a fresh meadow full of blossoming trees, the colour of the tea broth is sparkling yellow with a fresh green undertone. It just smells, looks and even tastes like very good fresh green tea.

Well, these are the qualities I am not usually looking for when buying a sheng sample. Why do I buy samples from 2010 then? Good question. Having tried many samples from previous year I’ve found out that the year is not always the most important deciding factor when considering the potential taste. Even some very young sheng cakes can really surprise you. I would definitely say it about 2010 YS Yiwu Purple cake for example. Yiwu Zheng Shan is, however, not the case.

The smell of dry leaves is fruity, but not very intense and rather citric than sweet. The smell of wet leaves is not sweet either, it even offers a trace of smoky tone but very very tiny. The taste is best described as above mentioned fresh green tea, not bitter though, just slightly astringent. I must admit I did not even find the typical yiwu flavour or aroma in the infusions , despite trying hard to find it..

What I like about this tea is the huigan which comes back powerful, refreshing the mouth and tongue with a sweet mouth-watering effect and stays quite long to give this tea higher credit just in time. It might be simply one of those cakes which is good to be put aside to your tiny tea storeroom (if you happen to have one). Then you can wait a year or two and meanwhile enjoy some other well-ripen treasures.

If you want to read more about this tea session, see my blog entry:
http://teadropping.blogspot.com/2011/10/2010-yunnan-sourcing-yi-wu-zheng-shan.html

Dry leaves smell of stonefruit, prunes and tobacco. Makes you want to sit around with your nose in the bag for a while. Wet leaves smell of tabacco with a hint of prunes or dates.
One 10s rinse for this one.

Steep – Time – Note
1st – 10s – Interesting mouth feel. Sort of tingling on the tongue. Very light, almost white tea like with peach and floral notes. Wow, that mouth feels stays with you for a little while.

2nd – 10s – Had to pause for sleep… I know.. such wasted time that could have been dedicated to more tea. Anyway…. The mouth feel of this tea, wow. I’ve seen people describe a mouthfeel/cha qi as numbing to tingling. Not sure about cha qi yet. Taste is a little more grassy, but the sort of floral not is still there and there’s a bit of sweetness.

3rd – 10s – The huigan, sweetness at the back of the throat, is amazing! There’s a fruity again, but I can’t quite put my finger on what sort. Feel like a use plum or stone fruit too much. My cup just emptied itself without warning or provocation. So, time for another steep.

4th – 20s – Really lovely sweetness at the back of the throat. Still have that interesting tingling/numbing mouth feel going on. Initial aftertaste has a starfruit like tartness. Grassy with a sort of green apple note. Sweet, dry finish. There is a bit of cha qi going on as well, but very gentle and energizing.

5th – 30s – Love the sweetness at the back of the throat. Melon! Sort of honeydew with a tiny bit wheat grass, that’s the fruity note I was trying to pin down earlier. Tingling, numbing mouth feel continues. Based on how quickly my cup keeps emptying I believe there may be a secret hole in it that perhaps opens to another universe… one in which some being is stealing my tea. >:( LOL! _

6th – 60s – Fruity notes are gone and a bit grassy. Mouth feel remains.

7th – 60s – Not much huigan left, just the semi-sweet grassiness with the dry finish. Amazed how the tingling/numbing mouth feel remains even as taste fades. I do feel like pushing the steep time by much more would bring out some bitterness at this point as I am detecting a slightly bitter note when it first hits the tongue. The cha qi should have quit at this point, but it’s too legit and thus has not quit. :P

8th – 90s – Interestingly, kicking up the steep time has renewed the melon flavor and huigan. I’ll push it to two minutes on the next one just out of curiosity. Really feeling the cha qi now which might not be so great since it’s well after midnight now, but I always say that I can sleep through anything. That said, I think this cup just made buying a cake of this tea worthwhile to me… depending on the cost. (Runs over to YS to check price.) $45!? I’ll take two! :) I forgot that the leaves came just outside of MaHei village. That makes sense given some of the flavors in my cup.

9th – 120s – Same as the previous with a more intense mouth feel. I was hoping to finish this session tonight, but looks like I can extend it into the morning a bit.

Next time I try this tea I want to see how hard I can push it. Maybe 20s on the 3rd steep then 30s on the 4th and 5th just to see if it becomes overly astringent. This session leads me to believe that this is unlikely.