I picked up a sample of this puerh this Summer which I’ve
never tried before and that has a rather long history in the Western world. Scott of Yunnan Sourcing has stocked this one
possibly since its release. It goes for $145.00for 357g cake or $0.40/g at Yunnan Sourcing and can be found at various other
sites as well if you really look around. Shah8 has recommended
this one as a solid aged Kunming dry storage drinker forever. Since pretty early on there has always been a
bit of chatter about this one that occupied chat rooms and facebook groups as well. Let’s finally check it out…
Dry leaves smell of very pristine Kunming dry storage with
pretty tight compression. The odour is
soft and mild but has notes of layered honey, wildflower, currents, and faint
smoke. Lots of nice smells going on
here.
The first infusion has an onset of mild smoke and
honey. There are mild fruity notes that
languish over a slight sandy mouthfeeling.
The mild pungency is long and has notes of dry raison and oak woods with
slight nuance of dried sweet fruits. The
aftertaste is long and elegant with an oak taste of sweetnesses almost leather
and faint underlying pungency.
The second infusion starts off with mild smoke then to oak
woody sweetness. The mouthfeeling is
really nice- sandy and full. The throat
has an opening feeling to the mid to deeper level. There is a long lasting faint dry fruitiness
to this puerh that spans the profile. It
is nicely layer with mild smoke, sweetness and dry fruits, mild pungency and
oak woods. The Qi is reasonably strong
and I can feel my head floating.
The third starts with a juicy fruitiness that pushes the
saliva into the throat and tongue. The
oak taste lingers underneath with smokey oak barrel taste that is really mild
and supportive like a scotch whiskey.
There are vanilla notes and raisin notes layered in there with some
leather but the tastes are not heavy they are mild and layered. A lingering cool pungent is left with
sweetness and oak on the tongue.
The fourth infusion has a fruity slight smokey oak taste- it
mainly has a sweet almost date and dried papya nuance to it. Raison, oaky sweetness in the
aftertaste. This one has many layers
that has a satisfying effect. There is
that lingering pungency that lingers with different dry nuances popping up like
leather, oak cask, smoked dates. The
mouthfeel has a thicker viscus feeling developing. The Qi is heady and spacy and the face and
shoulders feel a bit numb. There is a
faint lingering candy suggestion under all of this.
The fifth is more viscus and thicker. There is a layered oaky sweetness with
layered prunes and date with an emphasis on honey sweetness. The mouthfeeling has a sticky’ sandy coating
and the throat has a vacuous opening feeling to the mid to deeper level. The Qi has a mild to moderate body feeling of
tingling numb face and shoulders and a nice heady feeling in the relaxed mind.
The sixth infusion has a smokey oak barrel with raspberry
nuance that turns into honey. The
mouthfeel is thick and viscus now with a malty barley syrup sweetness to
it. The long underlying cooling tosses up
higher notes in the aftertaste of faint candy floss as well as more honey and
oak and almost raison and old grape. The
Qi is real nice heady with a bit of body feeling. I love the subtle smokiness of this puerh.
The seventh has a dense honey like presentation in mild
smoke. There are nuances of date, dried
apricot, oak, dried flowers, then a mild cresting pungency hits fine high notes
are revealed such as faint candy over distant oak and raisin.
The eighth is much the same of note is the syrupy sweet
taste up front and the high noted sweet taste at the end. Qi is nice.
Ninth infusion was lots of deep sweetness and smokey oak
barrel. The taste was woodier here,
differnet layered woods. The Qi is nice subtle energy with a focus on the head
and relaxing.
The 10th starts to develop a caramel layering
with honey sweetness and mild smokey oak barrel. The Qi is nice.
The 11th has a more juicy fruity edge then oak
barrel then a freshness attempts to push through. Layers of honey and wood. The woodiness is becoming more apparent
now. Qi starts to beat the heart more
strongly. The mouthfeel is sandier now
and the throat doesn’t open as deeply.
12th I visit the next day and get something more
floral and pungent something layered with honey and leather and less wood. There is still a rolling cooling in the
distance.
13th has a leathery woody almost fruity onset
with very light smoke. There is a
underlying fruit that can’t quite break through. There is some powdery almost fruity
aftertastes.
14th has a smokey honey onset this one is a bit
dry and more smokey oat barrel. The
sweet tastes struggle to emerge.
Nice puerh. Very
unique to have an old school feeling cake but with an unusual maybe Northern material
mixed in. Don’t have experience with an
18 years aged cake that has character and feel of Northern Yunnan. Back in the day there wasn’t much of that
around, at least in Korea so my experience with this specific area and blend is
limited. Not too many aged nicely dry
stored cakes like this are so easily accessible so I think it has a uniqueness
to it. This storage is really nice
natural Kunming dry storage. Decent Qi
and complexity. I don’t have anything close to this in my drinker repertoire. I have been looking for a smokey aged dry
stored cake that is not harsh- this might be the one. I would like to put just one cake in the speed
test with some other daily drinkers and see how it fares… but I just don’t
think I can pull the trigger on this at a time when I’m really trying to cut
back on purchases…
Not too many cakes around of such low price and nice dry
storage with this type of taste profile.
However, I think this puerh has always suffered from being priced not
overly cheap nor overly expensive but always occupying some weird middle price
range where it can easily get over looked for other excellent puerh priced just
above it and better bargains priced just below it. Its price seems to always inch up before it
really seems like you are getting great value from it. Anyways this is always what I’ve thought
about buying one of these and probably a reason I just have not gotten around to
try it all these years. This has to be one of Scott’s
oldest offereings on his site, I would bet.
Peace
No comments:
Post a Comment