The dry leaves smell of hay, straw, wood, and lingering
cherry fruit and slight evergreen nuance.
The first infusion delivers candy like cotton candy tastes
up front. The taste is really really
sweet almost immediately. It reminds me
of cotton candy ice cream my daughter eats at birthday parties. Very pure, clean, vibrant sweetness. There is a nice mouthfeeling, quite sticky
and reasonably thick for the first infusion.
The second infusion starts with a reasonably dense thick
sweetness, an unperturbed sweetness.
Cotton candy icecream like sweetness over a nice sticky mouthcoating. The sweetness is not hallow or superficial
because the mouthcoating gives it a deeper grounding. The aftertaste has a touch of green
forestlike tastes.
The third infusion starts off with a foresty and woody base
with intense sweetness. There is a touch
of sour nuances in there and quite a thick sticky coating on the tongue. There is a long melon sweetness that stretches
on the breath. The throat stimulation
here is quite nice too. A bubble gum
like lingering taste lingers for a while minutes later.
The fourth infusion is quite thick cotton candy and even
apple fruit sweetness layered over slight woody and forest base. The mouthfeel is densely simulated with a
sticky astringency and the throat opens deeply.
There is a slightly sour nuance and a deep long sweet taste. The balance to the sweetness here is quite
nice and exploited by the open throat feeling and dense tongue
stimulation. The Qi is relaxing and
relieving type of feeling in the mind.
The long sweetness in the aftertaste is that long creamy sweetness. There is a lot of depth to the sweet taste
here. Very nice.
The fifth and sixth infusions start with a dense and thick
fruity/candy/creamy fruit nuance the layer sweetness is pronounced and
stimulation in the throat and mouth is strong.
There is a base of hay, slight wood, and forest underneath the dense
compact and strong sweet taste. The Qi
brings a strong clarity to the mind. The
sweetness is quite strong even minutes later- it gets lodged deep in the
throat. This gets thicker as it goes.
The seventh infusion delivers a dense layered fruity
sweetness right off the initial sip.
There are base tastes of woods and forest underneath which give depth to
the taste.
The eighth infusion has lots of deep fruity sweet tastes
initially supported by forest, slight hay, and slight dry wood. A touch of sour seems to trigger such a faint
pungent then a very sweet candy taste long on the breath. The mouthfeel and throatfeeling a deep and
simulating. The Qi is relaxing,
soothing, and in the body I feel it in my face dropping and relaxing. Melting tension in the face. Happy feeling. Heart beats slower.
The ninth is more of a sunny, almost tropical and apple type
of dense sweetness the sour is a touch more pronounced. A thick satisfying tongue coating with a long
strong lingering sweetness. The Qi is
definitely doing many things here. The
overall effect is happy and relaxed, a bit slowly me down a bit alert and
clear. The puerh is not at all harsh on
the body for a young puerh.
The tenth starts vibrant dense fruity sweetness with a very
mild touch of sour. The sweet taste is
an apple and orange and pineapple type taste which is quite interesting and
delicious. The Qi is really building, it
is pretty strong now. The sweetness is
really interesting and deep and long in the mouth.
11th thick dense sweetness creamy pungent
sweetness, long long sweetness. Lots and
lots of sweetness.
12th thick dense fruit sweetness, a more wood
taste emerging, still stimulating mouth and throatfeeling, juicy fruit taste is
long lasting, a dense long juicy sweetness with emerging woody base underneath. Deep throatfeeling.
13th and
14th become more juicy apple/slight tropical sweetness there is a
thinner but still full coating mouthfeel over the tongue. A slight sour edge and long more faint now
sweetness on the breath. There is still
a mild woody under taste.
I push harder with the fifteenth and add 20 seconds to the
flash infusions and come up with a more muted juicy fruity initial flavor with
a woody, straw and forest nuance that seems to be more pushed with these longer
late infusions.
The 16th I push for about 60 seconds it delivers
slightly sour woody forest tastes with a back drop of faint fruity sweetness.
I put this one into the overnight infusion …
Overall, this is a nice puerh. It is very sweet but with some depth to it to
ground it. The taste is thick in the
mouth and presents with dense flavor.
The mouthfeel and throat feeling are really nice. The tongue coating, in particular is super
interesting and engages the sweetness providing depth to the otherwise simple tastes. The throatfeeling is also quite deep. As a whole this puerh offers quite a refined
experience with sweetness and density and depth that evolves throughout the
session but is not overly complex. The
Qi is also pretty good and interesting feeling.
It is interesting to compare this puerh to the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin because it’s close proximity to the Yi Shan Mo producing
area, same production year, same producer.
The Qi of both of these teas was strikingly similar to me prompting me
to sample the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin the following day. The Xiang Chun Lin had much deeper tastes
more evergreen, forest, rainforest, and more of a melon fruit taste the Yi Shan
Mo had a stronger multifaceted sweetness but less deeper and mid notes. The Xiang Chun Lin had considerably less
stimulating mouthfeeling. The Qi of both
are similar but the Xiang Chun Lin is about 1/3 stronger especially felt in the
chest. Overall they have a similar feel
to them. The Xiang Chun Lin seems to
have a bit more stamina especially when put into long and overnight steeps at
the end of a session- delicious tastes are still pushed out. I think the 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin
($199.99) is a slightly more engaging puerh but for a price that is just a bit
more than the 2018 Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo ($167.01)… but that mouthfeeling…
Peace
Hi Matt, did you also try the autumn 2017 production from the same village? 2017 was an interesting year for tea and I wonder if it also exhibits the same Qi and bodyfeel that you describe.
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