2018 Puerist YiBang “Ancient Tree”: Best of the West?

After my very first experience with Puerist puerh turned out to be a very Yibangy like Yiwu and excellent experience, I was left no other option to compared to this 2018 Puerist Yibang “Ancient Tree”  ($196.00ish for 200g or $1.00/g).  This was the only sample that I actually purchased whereas the others were provided free for review for readers of this blog.  So how was it… pretty great!

Dry leaf has a rich velvety grape fruity sweetness with deep mild floralness to it.  The richness of the odour suggests a decently humid, likely Xishuangbanna storage.

First infusion has a pondy and floral and almost grape taste nuance initially to it that finishes a long sweet candy floral finish.  It feels very smooth in the mouth and deep and opening in the throat without being simulating or astringent.  The aftertaste is particularly long and smooth.  There is some significant Xishuangbanana storage on this one but very clean.  This Yibang has a very smooth puerh feeling.  A smooth euphoria already starts inching into my mind.

The second infusion has a spicy, grape, floral popping and full taste feeling upfront that is thick, fulfilling, and flavourful.  The taste elongates following a pungent coolness that brings a sweet bread, grape, and vibrant floral taste out.  The aftertaste is really long and flavorful too.  The liquor is decently oily and the mouthfeel soft and slightly sticky.  More importantly there is a deep throat feeling here.

The third infusion has a thick fruity dense taste upfront- grapes, slight sour, decent fruity sweetness with a nice returning very sweet grape, dense floral and subtle bread sweetness.  The aftertaste is long and the liquor has some oily thickness to it.  The mouthfeeling is soft slippery with just faint edges of barely astringency and deep opening throatfeeling.  This is some delicious Yibang.  The Qi is subtle and slight euphoric.

The fourth infusion has a thick dense taste of floral, grapes, and slight sour peach it crashes into a mild cooling pungent then stretches into a long floral bread like sweet taste with some honey sweetness developing minutes later.  The flavours are really full over a soft almost slippery and not really astringent mouthfeeling.  There is a open deep-mid throatiness now with still some oily liquor.  Nice euphoria Qi is building here slight alerting a nice energy on this sunny early Autumn morning…

The fifth infusion has a bready sweet, slight malty and even sour grape and fermenting dried peachy full taste onset.  The result is some nice salivation with a deep throat and long sweet finish.  The mouthfeeling is becoming less oily and stickier as it pulls more saliva from the throat.  A nice deep throat aftertaste here and subtle but powerful Qi with a nice euphoria.  There are some bodyfeelings developing over the last few infusions which feel like an opening in the chest and expanding Abdomen feeling.

The sixth infusion has a thick fruity peach and grape floral onset.  There is a soft mineral taste developing now as well.  The sweet and sour fruity bready taste is long and expands in the throat after the passing cool pungency.  The strength, depth, and length of the sweet taste is really nice complimented with a deep Qi experience that is both rejuvenating and expansive in the mind and body.

The seventh has a really condensed taste of florals, grapes, and peaches bready sweetnesses with an added mineral almost woody mid taste.   The cool pungency brings a candy like sweetness that moves quickly into a floral fruity sweetness.  The mouthfeeling is a bit astringent.  A spacy loosing track of time feeling is upon me.

The eighth has a salty, briny, sour, sweet grape and fruit taste with a mineral woody base developing.  There is a nice euphoria high developing.  Deep throat and long aftertaste.

The ninth infusion has a salty fruity almost nutty bitter chocolate sweetness here initially.  There is a pungent coolness that dives into the bitter coco taste.  The chocolate develops a chocolate cake finish in the mouth which is really tasty here.  The mouthfeeling is slightly sandier here and the throat retains its depth.  There is a chest and heart opening body feel.

The 10^th infusion has a chocolate fruity bitter sweet rich taste which develops initially.  There is a peachy taste that seems to push through retuning with a chocolate cake taste in the aftertaste.  The mouthfeeling with the bitter chocolate taste over the last few infusions feels stronger and more sandy in the mouth but still with a deeper throat.  There are fruity tastes that manage to push past chocolate cake. 

11^th infusion has a bitter chocolate onset with a fruity strong sweetness under the bitter-sweet coco.  There is some underlying pungency which seems to push more fruity sweet from out under layers of bitter sweet chocolate cake tastes.  There is a subtle woody mineral taste in there as well.  The Qi is more sedating in the mind now.

12^th infusion has an even bitterer onset with chocolate taste being lost in the moderate bitterness and not much fruity sweetness making it out.  There is somewhat of a chocolate finish over a flat sandy sticky mouthcoating.  This infusion also lacks much pungency or deep throat.  A biter sweet coco taste throughout.  Sedating Qi.

13^th infusion has an almost mineral not really woody taste layered into the bitterness and coco.  The pungency is quite mild now without much retuning sweetness but the bitter coco is satisfying enough although quite simple here.

14^th I push for a 15 second beyond flash infusion now which pushes out more grape and fruity tastes over moderate bitter chocolate tastes.  The mouthfeel is now pretty flat and the aftertaste loses its fruitiness and pungency and is just a bitter chocolate taste.  Its actually quite nice in its simplicity.  Qi is really relaxing now.  I can feel my heart race as there is still noticeable effects on the body here.

15^th I push a 20 second infusion out and it gives off a bitter fruity chocolate taste.  The fruitiness comes and goes quickly and there is some mineral and almost pond like taste somewhere in there before a bitter sweet chocolate comes and goes over a flat sandy tongue coating.  Nice relaxing Qi with Chesty sensations now.

16^th 30 seconds has a coco almost foresty pondy taste which is not really sweet anymore over a flat fine sandy mouthcaoting and very little pungency.

17^th is about a minute long steeping… it gives off a bitter barely coco, kind of foresty pondy taste. 

I dump the wet leaf into a mug and steep this over the next few days grandpa style and it still has some decent tastes.  It has great stamina going this far.

Overall, this is a pretty satisfying YiBang!  Great Euphoric Qi, some bodyfeeling. Great taste and engaging mouthfeeling, great stamina.  I like it a lot and wonder if I would have been better to blind buy this one over the Wa Long?  Don’t know yet because haven’t tried the Wa Long but this Yibang is pretty satisfying!  

I wonder if it’s the best Yibang on offer by a Western puerh vendor as well?  I hope to sample Essence of Tea’s 2018 Yibang Gushu (when I get around to an order) and compare the two.  This one is substantially cheaper though, cheaper than the White2Tea Is a Gift productions also.  I should do a comparison with the White2Tea Yibangs but I’ll have to pull them out of deep storage…. Hummm… anyways this Yibang is a real treat might be the best of the West- very nice.

Peace