1999 Big Green Tree Black Stamp: Proper Dry Stored

I picked up a bunch of samples from Liquid Proust last year and this one is a famous one throughout puerh tea circles globally. Managed to somehow squeeze out a great session in a December day that was otherwise quite busy…

Dry leaves smell of very sweet and very cardboard like slight wood.

The first infusion has a watery creamy sweet taste to it with an icing sugar like finish.  It presents with a very clear dry stored taste.  There is some faint cooling mouth and a long expanding creamy icing surgery sweetness.

The second infusion has a clear almost meat-like taste, creamy sweet and clear profile.  There is a subtle touch of smoke.  The mouthfeel is a thin dry feeling.  There is a long and expansive icing surgar finish.  There is a feeling of release in the neck and shoulders from the Qi.

The third infusion has a slightly sour syrupy woody creamy sweetness.  There is this berry jelly note in there that is really nice and a very faint incense.  The woody sweetness extends into the long thin aftertaste but expands into something more creamy and sweet.  The mouthfeel is thin and full.

4^th is left to cool and has a syrupy creamy consistency initially it stays and reveals a bit of distant incense smoke before intermingling with a pungent coolness.  There is a berry jelly plum jam sort of faint sort of note that comes mid profile with the incense.  The long creamy sweet aftertaste turns into an icing sugar long sweetness in the mouth.  Nice subtle shoulder release and soft euphoria feeling.

5^th has a smoke and fruit creamy sweet taste upfront.  The taste is quite pure nicely concentrated and dry stored.  Nice fruity note that is hard to explain and arrives with and to counterbalance a very faint incense smoke.  A thin dry mouth coating with a soft euphoric vibe.  There is some sensations releasing the tops of the shoulders and giving the body a deep relaxation.  Subtle but profound.

6^th has a rich smoky not quite fruity but almost more creamy sweet onset.  There are two notes that form an interesting polarity- faint smoke and long pure sweetness.  The mouthfeel is less thick here and overall it seems to be thinning a bit… Nice shoulder release still.  The wet leaf aroma is a sweet and spicy aroma.

7^th has a syrupy warming spicy taste to it.  The texture is a bit oily still with a thin mouthfeeling long cooling and creamy icing sugar sweetness. More spicy tastes in this infusion.  Nice mild spacy euphoria with shoulder release.

8^th has a smoky incense taste to it.  There is some spicy tastes, some bland tastes, some faint creamy sweet tastes.  The mouthfeel is a thin sticky sandiness to it that is a touch drying.  Nice soft euphoria.

9^th has a subtle incense taste with a lesser, fading, hard to grasp sweetness now.  There is some spicier notes there.  I push with longer steeping times

10^th is 30seconds past flash…and left to cool… more viscus maybe a bit more fruity… some back ground incense.  There is a bit more depth to the spicy sweetness, fuller dry sandy mouthfeeling, Nice relaxing feeling now.

11^th 60 seconds…gives off a smokier, somewhat sweeter but overtaken by incense, more pronounced throat coolness but also more creamy sweet ending but still not too strong.

12^th I push into minutes long infusion times… a plum and smoke presentation with a nice burst of woody, incense, and faint plum.  The mouthfeeling is sticky and a bit dry in the mouth. 

13^th is a sour, incense, emerging creamy sweetness… finishes a bit cooling, mild creamy, smoke…

The overnight infusion is pretty much just a woody watery taste- not much left in these small tighly rolled leaves.

Overall, this tea is an example of a pure, clear flavored, and nicely dry stored puerh processed in the traditional fashion.  The exemplary points of this puerh is the very clean and pure taste and Qi, the bodyfeeling of neck and shoulder releasing with mild euphoria are some of the most sought out experiences, at least for me, and the polarity of mild smoke and fruity flavour with the long pure icing sugar sweet finish makes this one very nice indeed.

James’ (TeaDB) Tasting Notes

Peace