2013 Yunnan Sourcing "San He Zhai" Raw Pu-erh tea cake * 400 grams

4g in Gaiwan.
Dry leaf: Concentrated herbyness; loose compression: the chunks pry apart by hand. They are colourful.
Wet leaf: Immersed in tobacco smoke; concentrated herbyness; fruit.
Summary: Someone call the fire brigade. There is some apricot. Even a glass of water is not enough to put the fire out.
Advisory: I recommend drinking water along with this tea, as it is quite strong.
As the description says, this is one powerful tea. Also something about it being intended for longer term aging…
5s – I feel the weight of the soft apricot, amongst foreground smoke, push down into my abdomen. The smoke, which is considerably thick, and some of the fruit, remains in the mouth after the swallow. Dramatic.
10s – Apricots and stone fruits. The smoke swells in the mouth, at the back of the throat, after the swallow, that it seems sensible to open the mouth to let it escape.
15s – This tea is interesting in that it is in between a mild floral and a heavy/bold tea. Post note: The subtle fruit gets swamped by the smoke.
20s – The fruit and the smoke are inseparable and the thick smoke is relentless.
25s – Even a glass of water is not enough to put the fire out.

I don’t know what has got into me lately. Tried to be a good girl and drink my peaceful and contemplative premium 2014 longjing. After all, it is delicious and so pure. Must be the alcoholic side of the family coming out, because this longjing is like lite beer and I just wanted a damn drink. Mind you, I don’t drink alcohol, I drink tea. It is this puerh collection of mine that has me hanging over the bar with my tongue hanging out. Ruining me for anything else. So bad that I more or less dissed a super fine gyokuro yesterday.

Somebody give me a drink. Right. Found this in my pile of samples from Scott. 8 grams into the Yixing with 90 ml of water, not messing or wussing around. First rinse cloudy, ditto second rinse. The third I drank, some yellow-white powdery sediment at the bottom which clouds when disturbed. By the fifth steep I didn’t care. Tongue hanging out.

Got the nectar and smoke, this is surprisingly cooling on the tongue, not just the throat. Green tea taste underneath, slight bitter but not much, just enough to get the saliva going. Dug around in the pot and the Baggie to find the source of the sediment. Seems like a few white tippies got their hairs a little crushed in the bag, is all. White tips and orange leaves mixed in.

I like it. I feel good. I could buy a tong. I really shouldn’t. Not when tea drunk. I feel so much better though. I can actually think about eating right about now, all salivated up.

This was kindly sent to me by a fellow Steepster that saw it in my wish list.
I got out 9 grams of this in the Gaiwan and gave a 5 second rinse. The wet leaf was a mix of asparagus and green beans with a little snow pea in there. It brewed up very light almost like a white tea with a very pale green to it. This is juicy, slightly bitter and a kind of caramel hit with a little smoke touch in there. it has a very nice aroma to it and is very easy to drink. After a failure with another tea earlier today this has been a welcome cup. It goes on the shopping list for sure. A very nice blend of teas.

Free sample with the order – thank you Yunnan Sourcing
5g 100ml gaiwan 195F
Rinse/3/3/3/5/5/10/10 sec to be cont
With my later steeps I increased the temp to 200F
I’m pleasantly surprised that I didn’t detect any harsh bitterness or astringency . It’s smooth tea with nice sweet aftertaste lingering in my mouth. Some warmth inside of me. I don’t feel super energetic or sluggish. Very nice feeling overall. I may pick up this sheng in a future.