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
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 7th 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 8th 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.
9th 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.
10th 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.
11th 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.
12th 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 13th 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.
14th 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…
15th 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
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