2015 Yunnan Sourcing Qing Mei Shan Old Arbor Pu'er Tea

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Astringent, Biting, Bitter, Bread, Broth, Butter, Candy, Cinnamon, Drying, Fish Broth, Flowers, Ginger, Grain, Lavender, Leather, Marshmallow, Mud, Peach, Plant Stems, Sour, Sweet, Tannic, Thyme, Vegetal, Wood, Floral, Nutty, Spicy, Bark, Beetroot, Bittersweet, Burnt Food, Cannabis, Chocolate, Clay, Coffee, Cut Grass, Decayed Wood, Gooseberry, Mushrooms, Onion, Smoke, Smooth, Thick, Umami, Green Wood, Pine, Resin, Sugarcane, White Grapes, Apricot, Stonefruit
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 3 oz / 85 ml

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

2 Want it Want it

6 Own it Own it

7 Tasting Notes View all

  • “In the last year, this tea hasn’t changed much. It is still quite astringent with a complex profile of the vegetal and woody kind above all else. There is also a strong, almost quinine-like...” Read full tasting note
    87
  • “Brews a light gold, noticeably less green in smell and taste than the 2016 shengs I’ve been drinking. The taste is moderately sweet and the mouthfeel is moderately thick, slight bitterness. Flavors...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “This is a fairly tasty raw puerh tea. It did have a sour note at first, I’d say for only one maybe two steeps. Overall it was pretty good. It was sweet with little bitterness. Don’t know if the...” Read full tasting note
    79
  • “The more tea from Scott’s 2015 pressing I try the more I want to make an order. This one is no exception. Good qi, great mouthfeel, and easy to drink. The flavors aren’t overpowering in one...” Read full tasting note
    84

From Yunnan Sourcing

2015 Yunnan Sourcing Qing Mei Shan Old Arbor Raw Pu-erh tea

Qing Mei Shan is a remote mountain area in Yong De county of Lincang. The tea trees here are 100-300 years old and have been growing wild for centuries. It’s a very pure tea with buttery thick mouthfeel, pungent floral can sugarcane aroma with an ass-kicking cha qi that betrays it’s wildness.

An amazing tea with strength and balance. Will be enjoyable to drink now and every day into the future.

Early April 2015 Harvest

400 grams per cake (7 cakes per bamboo tong)

This tea has been tested in certified laboratory and has passed the MRL limits for pesticide residues as established by the EU Food and Safety commission. For more information about MRL testing and the EU Food and Safety commission click on this link.

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

Company description not available.

7 Tasting Notes

87
984 tasting notes

In the last year, this tea hasn’t changed much. It is still quite astringent with a complex profile of the vegetal and woody kind above all else. There is also a strong, almost quinine-like bitterness, nutty and grainy aspects, as well as a cinnamon spiciness.

Today, I compared it with a sample of a 2014 vintage. Interestingly, that one is a tiny bit greener in leaf colour and has a slightly lighter liquor colour, which might be either due to processing or storage (or both). Recently, I have actually moved the 2015 cake into my semi-aged sheng pumidor (for reasons of space rather than anything else), which could account for the quite different and more funky aroma.

Regardless though, the main difference I found was that the 2014 vintage has a sweeter and less complex aroma, and a more pungent taste with a heavy sweetness that dominates the aftertaste. In comparison, the aftertaste of the 2015 tea is more flowery, cooling and airy. The former has a slightly thicker body in early infusions, but the bulk of the session presents almost indistinguishable mouthfeel.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Cinnamon, Floral, Grain, Nutty, Spicy, Sweet, Vegetal, Wood

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 4 g 2 OZ / 60 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

90
318 tasting notes

Brews a light gold, noticeably less green in smell and taste than the 2016 shengs I’ve been drinking.

The taste is moderately sweet and the mouthfeel is moderately thick, slight bitterness. Flavors of sugarcane, green wood, white grapes, pine, heart of palm, and a mild peachyness. Overall pretty nice, though not my favorite from YS’s collection.

Flavors: Green Wood, Peach, Pine, Resin, Sugarcane, White Grapes

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 90 ML
apefuzz

Love the Qing Mei Shan. What would you put up as your favorite YS production?

tperez

I liked it quite a bit too! Hard to pick a favorite, but I think I’d go with the 2016 Shan Hou… that one really did it for me.

tanluwils

The 2014 QMS is almost an entirely different tea.

tperez

Interesting, I’ll have to try it

tanluwils

The 2015 one is evolving for sure. It’s becoming more fruity with that dry white wine grape-y-ness.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

79
1758 tasting notes

This is a fairly tasty raw puerh tea. It did have a sour note at first, I’d say for only one maybe two steeps. Overall it was pretty good. It was sweet with little bitterness. Don’t know if the lack of bitterness means it won’t age well. I have heard that bitter teas age better. I don’t know if it’s true. This one was fairly typical for a young sheng with notes of apricots and stonefruits. If it hadn’t been for that sour note it would rate in the 90s.

I steeped this tea 12 times in a 70ml teapot with 5.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The leaves were not done but I figured I’d had enough caffeine.

Flavors: Apricot, Sour, Stonefruit, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 5 g 2 OZ / 70 ML
JC

:( One of my favs. Let it air out if you haven’t already hopefully that sour note won’t be there. This one to me has floral complexity and nice body.

boychik

I love this one. Thinking of buying another cake or maybe i should wait for the 2016 version

tanluwils

Tea-tasting is highly subjective, but I agree with JC that airing it out will improve the tea. I haven’t touched my 2015 QMS for months due to our dry winters here, and only just revisited it yesterday. I noticed increased kuwei hidden in between the layers of intense floral notes. Some may interpret this as spice. I think the cha qi became more prominent as well. It’s definitely more interesting now than when it arrived in June last year.

JC

@boychik go for it, I would buy both honestly. you can try and both side by side as you age them! :D One went through a harsher winter, so I’m expecting a heavier note on this one. Should be fun to try them.
@tanluwils yeah this winter has been harsh, I think we officially skipped spring this year, is either hot or very cold lol.

tanluwils

It would be interesting to see down the road how harsh winters effect such young teas. I’m finding the Huang Shan Gu Shu and 2014 YS Mang Fei are quite sensitive to dry air thanks to the automated heating in my bldg. After upping the humidity for a few days the Huang Shan at least is performing as it should.

Boychik, I also recommend grabbing a cake (or two) of 2015 Qing Mei Shan before the price goes up again. I keep finding more in there I like as it progresses.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

84
32 tasting notes

The more tea from Scott’s 2015 pressing I try the more I want to make an order. This one is no exception. Good qi, great mouthfeel, and easy to drink.

The flavors aren’t overpowering in one direction or the other. This is more like a well-rounded, consistently smooth, drink. Mild astringency, mild floral notes, and mild bitterness. These traits compile to make a very drinkable and friendly liquor each steep.

After about 8 steeps this one turns bittersweet and is refreshingly consistent.

Preparation
Boiling
tanluwils

I actually really like this one for it’s superb mouthfeel, gentle buttery texture, subtle floral sweetness, and gradual-but-strong energy. I find it performs best in my Yixing—becoming sweeter and more textured.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

91
145 tasting notes

I tried the 2013 autumn version of this tea and was highly impressed. I think that’s a good indication of where this spring tea is headed. Without even opening the plastic seal of this cake I was met with a pungent aroma of well-ripened apricots. I was very excited to try this cake, but my experience tells me that waiting a day or so improves the flavor of any recently acquired tea that’s just been opened. Actually, with sheng pu’er, a couple of weeks is even better.

I mentioned in my last note for the 2013 version the importance of water quality. Since I’m brewing this at my parents’ house, I know their water differs based on having brewed the same teas with the same brewing vessels both here and at my place. I’m boiling water with special rocks I brought back from China called maifanshi (麦饭石) which I’ve been using for many years. Obviously, a Brita or Pur water filter works just fine. In fact, the rocks aren’t totally necessary, but they definitely make your water taste like natural spring water and bring out the natural sweetness and aroma from the tea.

Back to this tea: I’ve placed the dried leaves in a porcelain gaiwan. The leaves are well intact and the brewed leaves maintain that apricot aroma, albeit less pungent and accompanied by sweet flowery fragrances. Tea soup has a vibrant gold hue. The first steep (that I brewed too quickly) is very pure and has a simple sweetness, but wonderfully buttery texture and aftertaste that only get sweeter as it lingers in the mouth (huigan).

The second and third infusions are very clean, have more pronounced flavor notes of ripe apricot, sugar cane, and flowers, while accompanied by that smooth buttery mouth feel and extended huigan. That wonderful mouth feel and strong yet gentle aftertaste is what brought me back to this tea. I tend to prefer sharp spring flavors to mellow sweetness, but this one is an exception.

On the sixth and seventh steeps, the apricot sweetness is replaced by more flowery notes and a refreshing astringency that’s expected with new tea. The pure taste and powerful huigan are consistent, but the huigan has intensified and is very enjoyable. I plan to return to this tea next year.

Addendum:

This tea just keeps getting sweeter and fuller in the mouth. I’m not sure why teadb rated the Qing Mei Shan as underwhelming. It’s my one of my favorites from Scott’s 2015 line. This is a perfect example of how subjective tea tasting can be.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
mrmopar

I agree completely with letting the tea wake up for a while.

tanluwils

Yes, and the reason I think sheng pu’er teas requires longer periods to wake up, or a resting period, is due to the microbial activity of enzymes. I’m still figuring it out, but I’ve had good results simply leaving sheng pu’er cakes in ziplock bags.

JC

I need to get a few of those rocks to try myself. I’ve been busy so I haven’t even started looking yet.

Brian

i havent noticed where TeaDB reviewed this tea. can you point me in the right direction?

tanluwils

Yeah, they don’t cover many good teas, actually. However, the young shengs they have covered from YS are some of my favorites. It’s impossible for anyone to accurately assess so many teas back to back. Especially young shengs.

I think YS’s sheng cakes from Qing Mei Shan, Mang Fei and the Wu Liang are the best ways to get genuine gu shu while on a budget. All are excellently processed and still very affordable. Unless you tend to avoid sweetness, it’s hard to dislike Qing Mei Shan and Wu Liang teas. I would order a few samples.

gongpoo

Great review! I gotta try this :) Question- when you say you leave young raws out after receiving them, do you unwrap the nei fei and just leave it sitting for a bit? do you do this with samples or just with cakes? Just wondering what you personally do

tanluwils

Sheng pu’er is quite different from any other tea because it needs some humidity to develop and for flavors to shine. Proper storage is a must – create a controlled environment, but that environment must be relatively warm and relatively humid. No extremes. I live in the northeast US, so I keep my young raw pu’er in a clear, closed plastic bin and have a hygrometer that tells me the relative humidity (RH) level inside the box. Generally speaking, 60 is the minimum RH you want to age your tea. Any lower than 55 will dry the tea, which results in stale, flat flavors. Cakes or opened samples inside the box usually need to acclimate (or rest) before they can be brewed. This can cake anywhere between a week to a year. I usually let the teas acclimate for a couple of weeks as a rule of thumb, but that’s very short for some folks. This is not the case if you’re opening the tea in a climate that’s warm and humid – favorable conditions for pu’er development. Hope that helps.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.