2005 Yiwu Ancient Tree Melon: Craving this Yiwu!

Got this sample from The Essence of Tea after it sold out.  I had just hit the 2004 Yang Qing HaoZhencang Chawang pretty hard for a decent price and couldn’t stomach another few KG of Yiwu… but this one turned out to be pretty good as well…  This 2005 Yiwu Ancient Tree Melon went for$690.00 for 1000g melon or $0.69/g.  There is a terrible spring blizzard here now so I’ve been digging into some oldish samples…  

The dry leaves smell very sweet creamy sweet almost candy-like odours.

The First infusion has a creamy oily sweetness.  The taste as a touch of fleeting fruitiness and a touch of astringent pucker but is mainly this sweet oily liquor.  The aftertaste has this slow creamy sweetness that hides in the throat and is pushes out in gentle spurts of saliva.

The second infusion has a fresh cherry pop of taste that induces saliva in the slightly puckering mouthfeeling and oily texture.  The throat feeling is interesting and feels like there is a slow and sputtering release of saliva from the mid throat to the back of the mouth.  The finish is subtle incense and a slow release creamy sweetness.  There are some bodyfeeling tingles with this one- face, neck, forehead.  Some diaphragm and chest opening feeling.

The third infusion has a cherry fruity pop initially with some pucker tart and saliva producing to follow.  The finish of faint incense and creamy sweetness is stronger here.  The mouthfeeling is becoming more gripping as well.  Strong puckering feeling where a creamy sweetness lingers.  Open belly and chest feeling with some relaxing sighs. 

The 4^th is left to cool and gives off a creamy sweet oily and slightly woody taste that has a chalky incense aftertaste and strong cherry almost sour edge to it.  There is a faint cooling woody but tastes different and fresher than menthol in this cooled down cup.  Nice soft full drying.  Cherry artificial candy like finish.

5^th has a creamy woody sweet taste with some lesser fruit cherries that can’t quite express.  The creamy sweet chalky aftertaste has an almost strawberry cream taste to it.  There is a cool almost menthol but more like a tingling cherry cough candy- really tasty and unique.  Nice numb tingles in the body with a foucs on the tummy and chest feeling open.  Nice calm feeling.

6^th has a creamy woody oily onset with a sweet creamy almost fruity taste.  It develops into a faint incense and creamy strawberry candy sweetness with a bit of cherry cough candy taste.  Nice mild tingles and Chest and Abdomen opening.  There is a long cooling cherry candy creamy woody taste in the back of the throat.  There is an open mid-throat with and slight full dry puckering mouthcoating.  The energy of this puerh isn’t warming but not cooling either. 

7^th is left to cool and has a creamy woody almost sweet fruity initial taste with an almost menthol cherry cough candy finish to it.  The mouthfeeling is puckering and becoming more and drier.  There are glimpses of talc powdery taste.  There is now a gripping feeling in the throat as less saliva is produced.  Nice relaxing and reassuring vibe here with some tingles and Chest and Abdomin opening.

8^th is left to cool and gives off a creamy woody not as sweet initial taste with a menthol cherry cough candy mild finish.  There is a drier gripping mouthfeeling with a mid throat puckering.  Nice opening expanding diparagm and Chest.  Nice calm focus.

9^th infusion has a creamy sweet candy cherry like onset over a chalky slight puckering mouthfeeling.  The sweetness lingers in the aftertaste. 

10^th has a creamy strawberry-like taste with a chalky finish.  With nice chest and abdomen opening and tingles in the face.

11^th is cooled down and is creamy woody talc taste with chalky finish in the mouth.  There is this woody chalky taste primarily.  Nice focusing.

I mug steep out the rest of the wet leaves and it gives off a woody menthol-cherry taste with a touch of astringency and long cool aftertaste with interesting layers of pungency, sweetness, and dryness.  The mouthfeel has a strong gripping taste which translates to a woody cherry pungent astringent dryness.  It doesn’t have that gag feeling though.  Strong mind relaxing and face warming now.

Comparing this Yiwu to some of the Chen Yuan Hao or Yang Qing Hao Yiwu’s I have been consuming late isn’t really a fair comparison as I feel these are a bit better but not that much better.  This Yiwu melon has really nice storage on it better than the Yang Qing Hao and Chen Yuan Hao stuff and a super interesting cherry cooling coughdrop flavor.  It’s really comfortable in the body.  There is some solid bodyfeelnig with the Abdomen and Chest opening and focusing feeling in the mind.  The mouthfeeling is a bit too gripping and puckering at times and the complexity is obvious single estate product.  There was something unique about this one that I can’t put my finger on maybe the cherry cough drop taste ??? which was enjoyable also the fact that it was a bit gripping and astringent but aged enough that it was completely comfortable in the body. I’m not sure if it would have been one that I would want to purchase but I can see myself drinking it regularly.   Another solid tea from The Essence of Tea! 

I’ve been drinking the spent leaves in long infusions for the past few days and I have to say that I really look forward to these steepigns from this puerh.  It has a nice very clean taste, very pure taste, the leaf quality is very and there is no interruption from storage tastes.  In many ways this Yiwu is better that those coming from those famous boutique brands…  This is definitely a puerh I could drink on the regular.

Peace