Puerist First Impressions

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