2015 Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo

And back to my onslaught of Zheng Si Long samples.  I hope you have been enjoying my current deep plunge into Tea Encounter's puerh catalogue...

This is a new tea area for me although it’s entirely possible I would have tried something like this before… It seems like the Yi Shan Mo area is pretty far off the beaten path.  This is one of two 2015 Zhang Si Long at Tea Encounter this one sells for $156.24 for 400g cake or $0.39 /g.

The dry leaf delivers deep rich pungent dried apricot odours in a heavy whiff of sweetness.

The first infusion has a watery floral, icing sugar- like opening, faint wood, then cooling retuning finish, ending on a melon taste on the tongue.

The second infusion starts on a caramel note transitioning to a slightly pungent dry woody taste.  The cool menthol is noticeable.  The mouthfeel is elegant and flows to the edges of the mouth and tongue.  The mouthfeel is nice and the quaint throat sensation is deep where menthol flows.  Slight melon aftertaste.

The third infusion starts off as a dry woody, fruit melon taste then dry wood fades and the melon swells then menthol arrives.  The mouthfeeling and throatfeeling is very gentle but nice.  There is a long melon and floral sweetness that lingers minutes later.

The fourth starts with significantly pungent, dry woody notes which give way to melon then menthol.  There is a sweet-sour, almost mango-like, taste in there prominent as well.  Long melon and floral note lingers along with wood.

The fifth infusion is much the same as the fourth but much more pronounced.  The mouthfeel becomes thicker and stickier in the mouth.  With no bitterness around, there is almost a cloying melon sweetness while the woody taste is really becoming more pronounced.

The sixth is continuing to build slowly into a slightly syrupy woody melon fruit taste with a long camphor wood cooling finish.  The mouth and throat feel slowly build in the mouth and become a sticky, almost dry.  The finish is long melon and wood.  The aftertaste is quite nice.

The seventh infusion is more menthol and pungent now.  That has to be the dominant falvour.  The pungent taste is throughout, it’s long.  Initial it shares space with woody and slight sweetness.  In the aftertaste with melon, sweetness, slight honey, and floral.

The eighth infusion has an interesting soapy floral taste as the dominant taste now.  Tastes like Thrills gum.  A sticky almost grapy taste in the mouth is there as well.

The ninth shares this interesting taste.  There is woods and florals and sweet melon fruits in there as well.  It has suggestions of a faint cotton candy sweetness under the fruit sweetness.  A nice sticky mouth coating.  The Qi of this tea is very mellow.  It strolls throughout the body without much fuss.

The tenth has a woody melon initial taste with distinct menthol underpinning.  A long floral melon stays along in the aftertaste.  The eleventh has more powerful creamy cotton candy sweetness in there compared to previous infusions.  This taste seems to be the dominant one now.

The twelfth has a more pronounced fruity sweetness thing going on with the cotton candy floss underneath.  Layers of light nuanced sweetness. Faint wood. No bitterness.

The 13th and 14th have ten seconds over flash infusions and offer a dense thicker broth of fruits and thicker florals, a long creamy sweetness, light menthol.  The mouthfeel is nice but not standoffish.  This tea has great stamina of flavor and gives off a lot of depth when pushed a bit more.

I push it a bit harder to 30-90 seconds and it gives off thick fruity creamy menthol wood tastes.  Nice.  I feel a bit bad at stopping this session at 18 infusions because I think it has a lot more to offer- great stamina.  It’s getting late in the afternoon and I have no other choice, least I’ll be up too late.  I put it through a few more days of overnight steeping and the result is very thick fruity tastes.

This puerh has the Yiwu fruity and woody with more of a boarder tea melon almost green tea like taste at times.  The flavours are very nice, this is a flavor tea to me with a certain thickness to it.  This Yi Shan Mo is a slow moving puerh with lots of stamina.  The Qi sensation is very mild in both the body and mind.

Peace