2016 Yunnan Sourcing "Big Snow Mountain" Wild Arbor Raw Pu-erh Tea

Had a sample of this in my stash for 1.5 – 2 years in pretty lazy storage so very young. Gaiwan, 1g:15ml. Did 8 solid steeps, then one where I forgot about it for 15min or so.

Big aroma throughout: citrus zest – grapefruit?, dampened dried wild grasses & flowers, slightly woody like hardwood in the later steeps. Reminded me of late summer nights when the damp night air rehydrates the dried grasses and flowers and it’s got that heady floral quality.

Flavor was pretty solidly young sheng: crisp greens, artichoke, toasted grasses, and some fruitiness. Not a total gut bomb, definitely still bitter and astringent but manageable. Good sweet aftertaste. I could drink this, but I wouldn’t pick it often.

The last “wildcard” 15min steep was a real winner, big stonefruit/apricot aroma and flavor, hardly bitter. Was very light though, not sure the tea had much more to give.

I’m not really familiar enough with (young) sheng to really confidently evaluate it or how it might age, just trying to write more tea notes.

Again, sampling a sample as part of a birth year tea selection. Being a young parent is such a strain!

The smell from opening the vacuum foil is a light (as in, not heavy / heady) raisins and cognac. After the second brew the leaves hint of nitrate, which is funny for wild trees. Maybe it is just me expecting the smell. Preceding and subsequent wafts distinctly and consistently yield endives. Endives and green tea — might make a good alternative Christmas menu recipe.

If I do very short and light steeps I can leave most of the bitter in the pot and yield a vegetal, warming green tea. Cha qi is a solid, calming buzz. Very present!

I can definitely see this one develop with time. There is still a lot of bitterness to be transformed, but it is not as coarse as some that I know. Overall, I think of it like a prodigy in puberty: certainly promising, already more refined than its peers but not yet fully formed.

Recommend? Yes, for aging. Is this the birth year tea to stock? Undecided, because I need an excuse to order more samples soon :)

The rating is about present drinking pleasure only.

I will inevitably be comparing this to the 2017 version of this tea, which I reviewed recently (and which seems to be sold out now).

The smell is sweeter and more fruity, but overall slightly weaker and less memorable than the 2017 one. It has some notes of roast meat and after late steeps also sauna. In the empty cup, I get a strong beeswax aroma, just like with the 2017 tea.

The taste is quite vegetal and bitter, but not astringent. I think it’s slightly less sweet than the 2017 version, but there is a strong honey flavour to it. I do also get pine note again, but it’s kind of general conifer like, maybe also reminiscent of spruce? Aftertaste is not so exciting, there is some dry grass flavour, as well as a general bitter and slightly sweet feel. It seems to be dying out somewhat fast, before some sweetness returns again.

Body is medium, and the mouthfeel I would mostly characterize as sticky, buttery and on the thicker side (considering the price). It induces a tingling sensation on the tongue. I feel that the cha qi might be stronger than from the 2017 version, although that’s very hard to tell, as I have only done a few sessions with each.

The price at the moment is 0.1$/g, which seems adequate to me. I don’t think I will be getting a cake, but it’s a decent tea without any obvious flaws overall.

I have just started my “sheng samples trying week” with this tea and im kinda suprised. I have started safely – first brewings were rinse, flash, flash, 10 secs; i was expecting much more bitterness (not that im a huge lover of that taste, just considering it as young tea i would expect a punch in my throat) while i have found very enjoyable bitterness that was transforming into sweetness. Magic happens im telling you. Nice golden liquor, very fresh and enjoyable smell, like sunflowers and hay i used to lay on at summer, plus some freshness – hard to describe for me, like breath of fresh air. Totaly relaxing tea.
Update: after somewhere arround 6th infusion it has changed – bitterness apeared quite intense, few more infusions later the hay notes and sweetness apeared intensively again but overall taste and smell was fading out.

Started with 209F water rinse expecting to get an astringency bomb like some of the other wild arbor YS raws but this rinse water is pleasant. I’ll keep the water at this temp for a couple steeps and see if it stays tolerable. 1st steep (flash) astringency is still low, good sign. Some of the wild arbor YS samples I just haven’t been able to taste anything past the astringency. Nice mineral and root vegetable flavor, more sweetness than I usually get this early on in a raw. If it keeps tasting like this I’m in for a treat! 2nd steep (flash) is getting brighter and astringency is rising a bit. It’s a bit grassier but still has that nice root veggie umami. 3rd steep (flash) is about the same. 4th as well. 5th steep I went up to like 10-15s and it’s getting a bit too astringent. Still tastes nice, decently complex and wide. 6th+ the flavor doesn’t change too much but it’s still good.

I’ll for sure be buying a cake of this!