2018 Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo vs 2018 Zheng Si Long Xiang Chun Lin

This is another Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo from Tea Encounter.  This sample was included free in my last order from Tea Encounter.  For those who care to know the 2018 Zheng Si Long Yi Shan Mo goes for $167.01 for400g cake or  $0.42/g.

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.

11^th thick dense sweetness creamy pungent sweetness, long long sweetness.  Lots and lots of sweetness.

12^th 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.

13^th  and 14^th 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 16^th 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