Wednesday, February 5, 2020

2002 Tai Lian “International Puerh Tea Expo” & Weird Price Brackets


I picked up a sample of this puerh this Summer which I’ve never tried before and that has a rather long history in the Western world.  Scott of Yunnan Sourcing has stocked this one possibly since its release.  It goes for $145.00for 357g cake or $0.40/g at Yunnan Sourcing and can be found at various other sites as well if you really look around.  Shah8 has recommended this one as a solid aged Kunming dry storage drinker forever.   Since pretty early on there has always been a bit of chatter about this one that occupied chat rooms and facebook groups as well.  Let’s finally check it out…

Dry leaves smell of very pristine Kunming dry storage with pretty tight compression.  The odour is soft and mild but has notes of layered honey, wildflower, currents, and faint smoke.  Lots of nice smells going on here.

The first infusion has an onset of mild smoke and honey.  There are mild fruity notes that languish over a slight sandy mouthfeeling.  The mild pungency is long and has notes of dry raison and oak woods with slight nuance of dried sweet fruits.  The aftertaste is long and elegant with an oak taste of sweetnesses almost leather and faint underlying pungency.

The second infusion starts off with mild smoke then to oak woody sweetness.  The mouthfeeling is really nice- sandy and full.  The throat has an opening feeling to the mid to deeper level.  There is a long lasting faint dry fruitiness to this puerh that spans the profile.  It is nicely layer with mild smoke, sweetness and dry fruits, mild pungency and oak woods.  The Qi is reasonably strong and I can feel my head floating. 

The third starts with a juicy fruitiness that pushes the saliva into the throat and tongue.  The oak taste lingers underneath with smokey oak barrel taste that is really mild and supportive like a scotch whiskey.  There are vanilla notes and raisin notes layered in there with some leather but the tastes are not heavy they are mild and layered.  A lingering cool pungent is left with sweetness and oak on the tongue.

The fourth infusion has a fruity slight smokey oak taste- it mainly has a sweet almost date and dried papya nuance to it.  Raison, oaky sweetness in the aftertaste.  This one has many layers that has a satisfying effect.  There is that lingering pungency that lingers with different dry nuances popping up like leather, oak cask, smoked dates.  The mouthfeel has a thicker viscus feeling developing.  The Qi is heady and spacy and the face and shoulders feel a bit numb.  There is a faint lingering candy suggestion under all of this.

The fifth is more viscus and thicker.  There is a layered oaky sweetness with layered prunes and date with an emphasis on honey sweetness.  The mouthfeeling has a sticky’ sandy coating and the throat has a vacuous opening feeling to the mid to deeper level.  The Qi has a mild to moderate body feeling of tingling numb face and shoulders and a nice heady feeling in the relaxed mind.

The sixth infusion has a smokey oak barrel with raspberry nuance that turns into honey.  The mouthfeel is thick and viscus now with a malty barley syrup sweetness to it.  The long underlying cooling tosses up higher notes in the aftertaste of faint candy floss as well as more honey and oak and almost raison and old grape.  The Qi is real nice heady with a bit of body feeling.   I love the subtle smokiness of this puerh.

The seventh has a dense honey like presentation in mild smoke.  There are nuances of date, dried apricot, oak, dried flowers, then a mild cresting pungency hits fine high notes are revealed such as faint candy over distant oak and raisin.

The eighth is much the same of note is the syrupy sweet taste up front and the high noted sweet taste at the end.  Qi is nice.

Ninth infusion was lots of deep sweetness and smokey oak barrel.  The taste was woodier here, differnet layered woods. The Qi is nice subtle energy with a focus on the head and relaxing.

The 10th starts to develop a caramel layering with honey sweetness and mild smokey oak barrel.  The Qi is nice.

The 11th has a more juicy fruity edge then oak barrel then a freshness attempts to push through.  Layers of honey and wood.  The woodiness is becoming more apparent now.  Qi starts to beat the heart more strongly.  The mouthfeel is sandier now and the throat doesn’t open as deeply.

12th I visit the next day and get something more floral and pungent something layered with honey and leather and less wood.  There is still a rolling cooling in the distance.

13th has a leathery woody almost fruity onset with very light smoke.  There is a underlying fruit that can’t quite break through.  There is some powdery almost fruity aftertastes.

14th has a smokey honey onset this one is a bit dry and more smokey oat barrel.  The sweet tastes struggle to emerge.

Nice puerh.  Very unique to have an old school feeling cake but with an unusual maybe Northern material mixed in.  Don’t have experience with an 18 years aged cake that has character and feel of Northern Yunnan.  Back in the day there wasn’t much of that around, at least in Korea so my experience with this specific area and blend is limited.  Not too many aged nicely dry stored cakes like this are so easily accessible so I think it has a uniqueness to it.  This storage is really nice natural Kunming dry storage.  Decent Qi and complexity. I don’t have anything close to this in my drinker repertoire.  I have been looking for a smokey aged dry stored cake that is not harsh- this might be the one.  I would like to put just one cake in the speed test with some other daily drinkers and see how it fares… but I just don’t think I can pull the trigger on this at a time when I’m really trying to cut back on purchases…

Not too many cakes around of such low price and nice dry storage with this type of taste profile.  However, I think this puerh has always suffered from being priced not overly cheap nor overly expensive but always occupying some weird middle price range where it can easily get over looked for other excellent puerh priced just above it and better bargains priced just below it.  Its price seems to always inch up before it really seems like you are getting great value from it.  Anyways this is always what I’ve thought about buying one of these and probably a reason I just have not gotten around to try it all these years.  This has to be one of Scott’s oldest offereings on his site, I would bet.



Peace


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