Marco’s 2021 Blind Tasting Beta

I know it is common practice or etiquette to sample the younger, cooler energy puerh before the older aged warmer energy puerh.  However, after the sauna which was Marco’s blind “Alpha” sample I needed something cooler in energy to bring my sweating-overheated-self back into harmony.  In fact it is common that I will drink a super warming puerh in the cool of early morning then cool things down in the afternoon with something younger.  There isn’t anything wrong with that- its called “listening to your body”.  So I thought to squeeze in another blind sampling on this first rainy cool day in a few months of drought.   So I started on the next sample alphabetically and I opened the package labeled “beta”.  It looked and smelt pretty young so I just went for it in the afternoon of a long but leisurely day at work…

Dry leaves are younger looking with a thin white hairy fur presentation they smell sweet- an orange floral kind of odour.  Rinsed leaves smell of sweet mineral, coco and piercing pungent sweetness.

The first infusion is a very creamy creamy almost custard sweetness that transverses to a creamy coolness.  The profile is very clear, pure and young maybe 2020 material here?  The creaminess is long in the aftertaste.  Lots of cooling sweetness on the inhale.  Thin oily soft light creamy tongue coating.  Spacy Qi sensation here.  The wet leaves smell of a pungent gamey- mushroom odour that reminds me a bit of Yiwu regions far south and a bit of even close to border tea territory.

The second infusion has a creamy buttery cup vibrant fruity taste with subtle mushroom-gamey-forest-almost smoky nuance but mainly a strong clear pure sweetness.  Very clear pure long sweetness.  The throat sensation is deep with a very creamy sweetness returning.  There is a subtle barn yard like taste to it to give it depth.  The aftertaste is deep and long.  Spacy Qi.

The third infusion has a licorice creamy peach vibrant sweetness to it with a forest taste underneath that faintly appears and disappears as well.  Nice peachy light creamy sweetness, a long pure sweetness.  Somewhat reminds me of Lincang here but more likely Yiwu.

The fourth infusion has a creamy peachy gushu sweetness.  The taste is pure and long.  This puerh kind of reminds me of the 2015 BiYunHao Lishan Gongcha.  In its long pure sweetness and is starting to finish slightly coco chocolate.  The effect is very nice.  Not sure if it’s just because it’s coming from Marco but it seems like it has a Biyun Hao production taste and feel to it… Maybe 2019 Lishan Gongcha?  Nice spacy Qi.

The fifth infusion has a nice coco chocolate onset with a creamy sweet bready taste creamy and smooth.  The chocolate subtle nutty taste is more creamy than bitter and the sweet taste is very long.  Nice vibrant pure tastes here reminiscent of Biyun Hao productions.  Nice spacy Qi sensations.  Very deliciously tasty.  Has an almost medicinal sweet mushroom aftertaste.  Yummy!

The sixth infusion has a vibrant fruity melon and peachy pop of an onset with an emerging and supportive chocolate base that expands long in the long run uninterrupted aftertaste.  The mouthfeel is velvety and soft.  The throat feeling is a deep opening feeling.  Vibrant and clear taste with a nutty choco body to it and a vibrant long sweet bread taste.  The taste has a pop to it that is really very much Biyunhao.  Nice euphoria Qi.

The 7^th has a creamy coco biter chocolate tasting very delicious thing.  A long cool chocolate tasting thing.  Has a nutty almost bitter dirt like taste to it something here reminds me of Banzhong.  Long cool sweet chocolate profile.  Nice spacy feeling.  Oily soft mouthfeeling.

The 8^th has a creamy coco sweetness with a sweet nutty taste to it.  Really long profile aftertaste over an oily soft faintly gripping mouthfeeling.  Nice euphoric Qi.  Not much for body feelings.

9^th has a watery fruity coco chocolate taste that has a deep faint coolness which carries a long undisrupted sweet creamy coco aftertaste.  Nice euphoria.  Soft velvety mouthfeeling with an oily feeling.

10^th infusion has a watery coco nutty roasted creamy sweetness.  The moderate euphoria of the qi is starting to make me feel ungrounded and a bit stoned.  Nice velvety mouthfeeling. 

11^th has a bit of a carrot dirt taste that reminds me of Nannou (Shah8 would say) area puerh it mingles with coco and has a different roasted hazelnut dirt coco carrot taste to it.  There is an interesting saliva gob building with a faint creamy sweet finish that is somewhat vegetal.  I’m getting some Heart palpitations now from the Qi.

12^th is a watery dirt kind of taste with some nutty tastes, coco bitter tastes and creamy sweet tastes emerging.  The taste has flattened out a bit and became a bit more bitter.  The mouthfeel and throatfeel are moderately gripping now.

Next day…

The 13^th tastes pretty watery a bit of sweet watery celery and some floral faint watery tastes.  Still faint cool throat with a flat thin mouthfeeling.  Pear fruity aftertaste.

14^th is still at flash steeping and has a watery chocolate taste with a sweet pear fruity returning taste.  Long cool sweetness, almost sugary here.  Sweet taste is really long and ethereal, pure and unimpeded.  Still has a mild euphoria.  Nice long sweetness…

15^th has a more watery mushroom-dirt-coco watery taste… not much taste… but what is there is long the coco turns to coolness and long faint fading sweetness….

I put this one into mug steepings…

The result is a moderately bitter slight vegetal coco tasting thing with a long cool breath finish.  The mug steeping is quite nice and full feeling.  A nice euphoric Qi is still there to be enjoyed.

Guess: 2019/2020, Yiwu, BiYun Hao.  This is likely a BiYun Hao production as it has that taste and feel and processing and, well, it came from Marco, which biases me leaning toward BiYun Hao.  It tastes like a Southern Yiwu area Gushu puerh to me.  This sample really reminds me a lot of the 2015 BiYun Hao LiShan Gongcha and I think it might be the 2019 Bi Yun HaoLiShan Gongcha or at least some of the individual components that go into this blend like this or this?  It has the really long ethereal super stretched out sweetness that the 2015 LiShanGongCha has.  There are licorice like sweet tastes to it and an almost Lincang like feel to it.  Then as the session goes it develops this bitterness to it.  In this way this sample has a similar feel to my blind tasting of the 2015 last Summer.  But looking back on my notes they are only roughly similar…

Peace