2002 Yong Pin Hao "Red Yi Wu Zheng Shan" Raw Pu-erh

Wow, best Sheng ivé tried so far.
I did a comparisonbrewing in hopes of finding a suitable tea that works well with Zini yixingpot.
Shu seems to work well, and is the only type of tea that ive tried sofar that taste better in a Zinipot (brownish purple) then a neutral vessel. (darjeeling, yunnan, japanese, green, white, young sheng)
But however.
5g / 90ml celeadon gaiwan @ 100C
5g / 100ml Zini Yixingpot @ 100C

wash/5s/5s/10/10s/15s/20s added 5-10s per following steeping to about 12 :)
First steeping was bland, this tea obviously needs to be washed twice.

Second steeping surprised me. It was kind of intense, very little of the earthy tones i expected. More ripe fruit and a very noticable charred taste. Probably from the panfrying.
This subsided after a few infusions. But it kept it´s vigor to the end. 12 infusions is quite enough with dual brewing….

This older sheng worked somewhat better in the Zini but it didn´t improve the taste, more like it was equal to the gaiwan. Perhaps abit stronger aftertaste.

Will order a few samples from older sheng to try them out. I must say i miss that dry astringency from younger sheng, but the intensity was very nice! When i find that combination i will get a cake right away :)

Since im relatively new to pu-erh, i´d welcome some pointers.

8 grams.
Dry leaf: dusty dried stone fruits
Soup: cloudy straw
Wet nose: smoke and jam and mustiness even after 2 rinses
Taste: bland and smoky and sweet and fruity and old but not mature all at once.

I would not seek out this tea unless I was a fan of clove cigarettes and those sandwich cookies with a thin layer of jam in the middle

song pairing: gradur – rari

This was a pretty nice tea – I pulled a small sample out of the TTB last time I had it. The dry leaf smelled sweet and woody with a bit of a dry chocolate note to it.

I didn’t find the flavor particularly exciting, but it was certainly good. Smooth and sweet throughout. Nice texture. It was softly woody, with a bit of nuttiness. For some steeps, there was a sweet, creamy finish. The tea didn’t taste fully aged for sure. There was a bit of a “raw” note to the flavor still, which sort of tasted like a fruity flavor, but not the juicy fruit notes you can get from really young sheng. Sort of presented itself as a bit of an unripe fruit note, though…not particularly sharp either. Hard to describe. Maybe fruit rind. I didn’t pick up on any qi from this session.

I looked the tea up on YS after this session, and was surprised to see it coming in at $260/cake. Based upon this session alone, I would absolutely not spend that kind of money on this tea. That said, it’s rather unlikely I tried this tea at its best. I only had a small sample, so I just had this one session with my 60mL gaiwan. I don’t know the storage of whoever put it in the TTB or how long it was riding around in the TTB. Then it sat in my little sample bag for a few months before I got to it. That still doesn’t mean I want to go out and buy a cake, but it’s perhaps excusing this tea for not being anything more than “good” this time ’round.

I was tasting this tea today 5 grams in my 80ml Novak teapot. Honey sweet and abricot style of good age puerh. So far I prefer more stonefruit profile than the apricot style but yeah this tea has a powerfull thickness, a little sour but in a good balance with the sweet.

Summary: Apricot-honey pudding hiding in teacup, but never feels like tea

Prep: 60cc gaiwan, 3-4g, boiling water, steeps starting at 10s and going up to about 3 min
Sessions with this tea: 3

Taste: As others have mentioned correctly, apricot honey dominates. Starts out with some astringency turning into sweetness, which then fades and is just mild sweet. A tiny bit floral and mildly mineral. Good aftertaste, lasts several hours. Is pleasant but kinda bland.

Body: Very thick mouthfeel. I don’t get much energy from this tea at all though. Or really any body feeling. If there hadn’t been hot water in my mouth I wouldn’t have known I was drinking tea.

Moderate, pleasant but will probably not buy a larger quantity of this one.

Honey & apricot aroma from the steeped leaf in my smaller gaiwan, have been recently enjoying using this slightly smaller size compared to my 100ml ones. Not sure how smaller it is, I need to check it.

Anyway, after a 10 minute rest the first two steeps were quick, <5 secs & the taste was sour sweet apricot, but somehow encased in a rounded soft yiwu milk-body. Tongue tingles, there seemed to be two kinds of sour taste, a very pleasant soft main body sour & a slightly sharp finish. Its one of those lively tastes that overload my tastebuds a bit.

Energy is pretty instant, by the third steep i felt it hit me, a pretty strong vibe. Perhaps even a little too strong for me.

Subsequent steeps centred around this sour flavour, its slightly aged leafy without being dominant. I taste & feel it slightly milky but others have called this rounded, i guess milk is a bit rounded, I actually see this as milk though. Whatevs.

I had to stop this for a bit because too much tea in a short space of time but by the later steeps this soft round sourness was still prevailing, along with the liveliness on my tongue. Once it got to a few minute steeps I had to stop due to a bit too much caffeine.

A nice tea for fans of the yiwu thing, definitely pleasantly sour. Was never too fruity or leafy or sour or woodsy or aged, but with a lively tongue & rounded body. Less of the stonefruit sweetness, i didnt get so much of a cooling huigan that others did.

This is a sheng tobe sipped slowly and savoured rather than gulp it down. Very high quality tea. Completely transparent liquor.

The aroma of this tea, dry and wet leaves is sweet with the liquor of honey colour. Very dense tea reminds me of a lightly viscous honey.

Flavours (I am inexperienced): honey, creme brulee.

Short steepings of 5-7 seconds with 90 degrees C filtered water.

Jan-2014
7 grams in a Gaiwan this time.

Consistancy is thick; flavour is well rounded prunes. There is a sweeter flavour that goes under the tongue. The finish lingers with prunes on the back of the throat. This tea is good.

15/12/2014
7g used.
Note#1: The chlorine in later observed in later steeps may have been due to my tap water.
Note#2: This is a subtle tea; it does not have the concentrated herbyness. However; it has a good delivery and form, and I will score it highly for that. The cha qi also contributes to the score.

Dry leaf is colourful with medium compression.
Wet leaf is subdued fruit, complex herbyness and slightly mysterious with some cloudy smoke. This sounds promising.
5s – Interesting. Makes me feel a bit light headed. It’s mild, lightly plummy with no astringency. Super smooth.
10s – Liquor is dark yellow. It has raisins / apricot and they really stand out. Thick fruit with raisins, especially on the swallow. Contrasting bitterness on the swallow. The flavour arrives smoothly, lingers, then fades away; it does not drop off early. This tea is strangely commanding in a subtle way.
15s – Liquor is darkish orange. It is well balanced: the arrival to the finish and the flavour profile are very pleasing throughout. If it were music I’d say it was in the high range and sounding very good.
20s – Apricot, bright plums and raisins in one explosion, then after swallowing the flavour remains before fading away.
25s – Some chlorine, some astringency. I think this would taste better after it cools.
25s – I will have to let this one cool, as it tastes like water from a swimming pool… Still fruity, raisins, getting more astringent.

25g: $17.50 / £11.41
Score considering price = 75

I’ve had this cake since last spring, and sort of forgot about it. Though it has been trying real hard to get my attention because it is extremely fragrant and I realize it has been one of the stronger smelling cakes in my tea fridge.

Brewed up 9 grams in 125 ml water, got a very thick orange syrup with the usual Yiwu floral, grape and vegetal notes. This tea is definitely one of the thickest shengs I’ve had to date. I’m not sure if the cake just turned over the summer, but reading DigniTea’s note on this from 5 months ago, am noting a honey yellow brew in DigniTea’s session. Mine is definitely orange with a red ring around the outside. At 12 years though, a cake is due to finish up the faster part of its fermentation and then slow down for a number of years afterward. Maybe the cake is just at that stage.

It’s a good tea, and I’m glad to have it. More middle of the road for Yiwu, better than the low end, but not long steeping like white2tea’s 1998 Yiwu or 2014 Last Thoughts that steep out past 30. I’m long brewing at 10 steeps with this Yong Pin Hao. Or maybe I’m just getting to that stage of puerh addiction where I just need more and more tea to get that tea buzz going. Four cups of this and I’m not there yet.

Seems like the 2003 Yong Pin Hao 100 gram tuos comprised of Yiwu tea bits for $6.50 might be a better way to go for regular drinking. The Yiwus I have now are special occasion teas. I don’t have the time for that kind of thinking. Drink it up!

I did post a photo of the first steep on my blog if people want to see the color of the brew that I got from this one.

http://deathbytea.blogspot.com

Revisiting this one after a few months well stored with humidity monitored.
Entirely first flush of Spring 2002. Traditional hand-processing used with these leaves. Heavy stone presses to form the cake from naturally growing (wild arbor) trees that are 100 to 200 years of age. After compression the tea was dried naturally without baking to preserve its natural state.
Nice leaves – many whole leaf/bud sets but also a number of broken pieces including stems. The dry leaves have the typical Yiwu fruity smell. The brewed tea is thick and sweet with a bronze liquor (quickly became a bit darker and more orange-like as the steepings increased which I have also found in other teas with a little age on them). The aroma is aromatic and honey sweet. Good mouth action – penetrating in the mouth and throat, bringing a bit of salivation. The sip is thick and satisfying with good texture. A broad taste profile (apricot, plum, spice, wood) and a pleasant sweet finish. The wet leaves are solid and heavy. No bitterness at all – a very clean taste. While not my favorite YiWu, overall I find this tea rather enjoyable – smooth and sweet with good character.