Thursday, November 7, 2019

2019 Tea Encounter Bai Yin Shan Yesheng: Wild Yesheng Qi


I was most excited about this wild tea from Tea Encounter brand puerh’s first pressing.  I have experience with Lincang area wild tea/ yisheng from 2008.  There is actually not much of this that makes it to western tea vendors, so this is a treat for me.  Congratulations on taking the plunge and pressing your very own brand of puerh tea!

Dry leaves smell delicious of strawberry sweetness with layered rainforest and evergreen forest odours.

First is a very spicy pungent foresty rubbery wild tea profile.  The pungency here is interesting with the flat sweetness and minutes long returning slight sweet strawberry.  The mouthfeel is silky in the mouth and the throat feel is immediately opening mid to deeply.

The second infusion taste like eating an evergreen forest, mixed with Yunnan rainforest, there is a pungency then that vacuous ye sheng space then rubbery, forest, almost sweet gum and cantaloupe taste.  The Qi is starting to sedate the mind.  The chest feels like its opening softly and warmly.  The Qi is yesheng/ wild tea type of strong.

The third infusion starts off with a strong forest taste then is kind of muddled rubbery funk typical of young wild tea like this.  There is a forest taste in the aftertaste with suggestion of cantaloupe and strawberry trying to push through.  The mouthfeel is a watery almost oily consistency.  Throat has a moderate opening.  The qi is really sedating.  The heart beats slowly in the chest.  Head feels like floating away.  Bigger Qi sensation that the average wild.

The fourth infusion starts off deeper forest then leads into a pungent almost parsnip type of pungency then a long mildly cooling rubbery forest blank taste.  There is tastes of layered forest and even mineral with less sweetness this infusion.  There is a faint cantaloupe sweetness, a salty melon taste, which tries to make itself known.

The fifth infusion has a layered foresty onset.  There is a touch of sweetness lingering underneath- its almost a juicy like sweetness.  It comes out barely minutes later.  The main base taste of this wild tea is its layered foresty tastes.  It has some rubbery turbid yesheng type note in the aftertaste.  The Qi is really spacing me out.  I find my eye muscles twitching… and heart beating and chest opening…

The sixth infusion is has that same foresty layered taste, there is little in the way of sweetnesses but rubbery, different layered yesheng forest-like tastes.  The Qi is big in the head.

The seventh, eighth, ninth infusions are fruity, forest layers, barely pungent, yeshengy taste with big Qi in head and heart.

My day gets the best of me and, unfortunately, my tea session is less of a focused session.  The later infusions are more of a mild sweet watery taste.  The sweetness comes out more and the foresty taste less.  The Big Qi sensation in the head, a stoner Qi sensation for sure, remains consistently strong.

Even the next morning I steep this and there is a nice soft sweet taste in a watery almost foresty broth.  The Qi sensation is strong even now and makes me feel a bit dizzy and loopy.  I long steep it and its pulls out nutty sweet notes.

Overall, this yesheng has more Qi than the average wild tea, for sure.  I like this. Its flavor is such that it seems simple but has a nice evolution throughout the session from initial to late session.  The returning sweet breath aftertaste that is famous with yesheng is less distinct with this one.  There is a clean crisp feel to this yesheng which seems very green processed to me. 

Another thing about this 2019 Tea Encounter Bai Yin Shan Yesheng is that it is currently discounted 53% from $161.63 to $114.49 ( $0.32/g).  I’m not sure I would pay the full price but these days a 2019 wild tea goes for that much- it is what it is.  So it is nice that this one is priced at something more attainable, less in line with its actual market value.

Peace

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