2016 Yunnan Sourcing "Bai Ni Shui" Old Arbor Raw Pu-erh tea

Probably last tea I haven’t tried, from two boxes I received earlier, from derk. Thank you! I am having another headache. Had a several panic attack earlier this day. I really like to see my brother and his family, but they are so big triggers :(
The tea… I took 5 grams and brewed gongfu; and I still have lots of to try different methods. The chunk is big so I let it absorb the humidity after 10 seconds rinse, which I decided to drink.

Dry aroma should smell like mint and mushrooms and well I think I get it. Bit of forest floor is there too. Anyway, the rinse is thick in taste and somehow without much taste. No astringency though; rather bit on the sweet side.

The chunk dissolved itself. Great!

1st steep; 15 seconds.
I have to agree with derk, in aroma it is rather floral; but in taste it jumps to vegetal, smooth and hints of mint. Not sure about the mushrooms, but to be honest I know mostly Boletus sp. mushrooms and that calls mushroom taste to me. The brew is very thick, which musty mint aftertaste. A bit of osmanthus in this steep too.

2nd steep; 20 seconds.
Yep; some astringency with vegetal and mushroomy notes. Musty somehow, but not a bad thing.

3rd steep; 25 seconds.
That’s not astringency how I would expect it. But not a fan of it. Is it that mushroomy taste? It’s as well quite herbaceous.

4th steep; 30 seconds.
Ah, finally, a taste profile I prefer. Lightly astringent sheng. Herbal and vegetal.

5th steep; 35 seconds.
I am agreeing with tperez now. It gets more honeyed. Not mushroomy. Light astringency.

6th steep; somewhere around 40 seconds.
Honestly, hoped for more forest profile but it didn’t deliver. I wonder if I have different expectation of forest than derk have. Not even my preferred profile today.

Found a few more Jinggu sheng in storage.

The leaf of this is still very yellowish olive green. I noticed the compression of the cake looks a little tighter than others I have tried recently. The leaves also take longer to unfurl, though the tea is full in flavor from the first steep. It’s a very mellow liquor, low-toned in taste and feel. In the mouth, it’s like a gentle mushroom broth with a nutty body and a light honeyed sweetness. Herbal minty cooling, smooth with balanced green woody astringency and bitterness that sits low. It’s surprisingly floral in the nose, bringing a higher pitch to the otherwise savory aroma.

A quality about this tea that stuck to me is the difference in fragrances before brewing. My seasonal allergies were active yesterday after riding my bicycle home from work through invisible clouds of rye grass pollen. When I sat down with this tea, I couldn’t smell the dry leaf at all. When warmed it smelled of rum balls, nuts and faint butterscotch. After the rinse, it was softly vegetal pungent and distinctly reminded me of putting out a backyard campfire in Ohio, like the smell of smokey water running into the thick blades of grass and black, loamy soil surrounding our fire pit. The two entirely different aromas between the warm and rinsed leaf left me perplexed. I would like to come back to this tea once my allergies subside to give it a fair sniff.

Overall, this Jinggu sheng is pleasant and mellow with a very natural forest taste but not currently a preferred profile.

Opening up the little sample pack I get a strong whiff of “green”. I haven’t had much sheng so young in a while.

This one brews up a bright yellow-gold. Prominent mushroom and fresh mint notes with some green wood, dried herbs, and raw winter squash. Moderately thick mouthfeel with just a bit of bitterness and astringency. As I steep on it gets more honeyed and herbaceous and reminds me a bit of the mead that I tried at a restaurant recently. I get some warm, mellow, floaty qi feels. This is a potent tea that goes many brews.

This is a nice and unique young sheng. I’d like a little more bitterness and strength out of it for aging purposes, but it’s nice, mellow, and potent and the mint and mushroom combination is really nice. Depending on how I like the other samples this might be a cake for me.

I tried the 2015 BNS and this one seems a tad more potent. Pretty mid-sized dark olive green leaves are intact and a pleasure to brew in my small-ish gaiwan. There is a fresh forest aroma emitted from the brewed leaves that is floral and savory. Tea soup has a medium thickness, nice clarity, and a darker golden hue.

It’s not complex, but rather unique in it’s flavor profile. At first, I had a difficult time associating “mushroom” with desirable notes in tea, but now I see similarities with the savory sweetness of shiitake mushrooms. As others have described, mint prominent here in both flavor and as a cooling sensation the spreads to the back of the mouth. Andy’s mint thins come to mind, specially in Scott’s 2016 batch where I’ve detected subtle dark chocolate notes together with the mint. Other notes I found were stinging nettles, damp forest moss, and acorn. It’s uniqueness makes for nice break from teas I typically drink.

The cha qi by is noticeable by the 3rd steep. Interesting flavors are consistently present into the 10th or so steeps, becoming even more minty and herbal from steep 5 and 6.