Oh, man… I can’t believe that Puerist is really not well
known in Western puerh circles. My
overall, experience was excellent. Mark
Turner of Purist has been involved in the puerh industry of longer than most of
the more well know puerh vendors and really knows his stuff.
So as far as I can tell from the samples and cakes I
purchased and the free samples that came with the order is that Purist offers
very carefully selected single origin, with very clear Xishuangbanna area
profiles, which taste very pure and appear to be dry Xishuangbanna storage, at
prices that as Mark described as “reasonable” (I think they are better value
than reasonable).
Well, I initially thought I would rank the samples I
received for review but after sampling through them all I find it really hard
to do that because they were all such good examples of the regions they
represent and for a price that was less than I expected. I’m not sure if Mark just sent me his best or
if the samples are representative of all the cakes he offers? Either way, they were all really enjoyable
with very little to criticize all likely gushu except the Naka which is great
budget everyday drinker type of thing…
Not ranked…
2013 Puerist Ban Po Lao Zhai (unavailable)- full taste with
interesting and elegant balance of tastes with fading tobacco smoke, very nice
throat feeling and relaxing euphoric Qi.
Nannou gold!
2013 Puerist Ma Li Shu (unavailable)- Euphoric Q powerhouse
typical of Yibang, long candy maple syrup aftertaste lingers deep in the
throat, woody and layer sweet. Very
nice!
2017 Puerist Man Nuo- Strong powerhouse Qi- heart pounding,
ultra-alerting, acuity focusing, yet relaxing wonderful Qi. Nice progression throughout the session-
raison, sweet plum, coco peach. Can be a
bit unreliable infusion to infusion with a throatfeel that sometimes can’t hold
down the nice tastes.
2018 Puerist Hua Zhu Liang Zi- surprised me with very clear
pristine tastes which evolve considerably as the session progresses with vegetal
tastes. The Qi is strong but a happy
feeling that leaves the limbs feeling light.
Is similar to “Mu Shu” mother tree varietal in many ways. Enjoyable experience and good example of this
kind of puerh.
2018 Puerist Yibang Gushu- maybe my favorite of the bunch as
I mused if it is the best Yibang on the Westren market, strong full classic
Yibang tastes with Qi that is typical of this region.
2018 Puerist Wa Long GouYouLin- Picked up a few cakes of these, ethereal long
candy elegance yet strong, first infusions are very elegant yiwu then it starts
to develops strength as the session goes on.
Has strong suggestions of strong sweetness similar to Manzhuang and very
relaxing and clam in the body.
2019 Puerist Naka (Dragonball)- good value drinker that I
tasted blind and thought it was a blend of lesser popular areas (shares
qualities of) Bada, Nannou, and Yiwu which speaks to the complexity of
something for this price. Picked from Middle Aged (Zhongshu) trees. Good budget drinker with a bit of complexity.
2020 Puerist Yiwu # 8 (Maocha- not yet released)- is kind of
like a Yibang type of character to it, strong powerful Qi, with bitter coco,
florals and sweetnesses, nice stamina, good Gushu quality. I look forward to seeing this one listed.
Peace
2 comments:
Thanks a lot for your reviews, I've been following those with interrest. Might try this shop some time too since a recent parcel from China got delivered without any problems (generally not that easy with shipments from China containing tea (= foodstuff) in Germany)...
Alex,
Good luck with your order. I look forward to reading your reviews if you end up going down that path.
Peace
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