2012 Lao Zhi Qing “Lincang Impression”: Experimental Sweetness

This is the other sample of Mr. Yu’s puerh that is still available at Tea Urchin, the other being this 2011 Che Ma Xuan Pasha which I reviewed last.  Eugene and Bell also had 2012 Che Ma Xuan Naka, 2010 Che Ma Xuan Nannou, and 2009 Che Ma Xuan Jingmai which are now all sold out long ago.  This 2012 Lao Zhi Qing Lincang Impression goes for $94.00 for 357g cake or $0.26/g... a decently cheap price…

Dry decently compressed leaves smell of layered darker honey, layered with dry wood bard, a licorice sweet and subtle almost fruitiness. The overall feel is sweetness with mild rich sweetness depth. 

The first infusion has a pear like onset of sweet tastes which transform into brown sugar tastes and longer into a woody almost medical taste.  There is a nice cooling pungency in the mouth with a returning sweetness of pear, apple, and icing surgar.  The taste is light sweet and decently complex with some deeper woody medicals barely detected after the initial sweetness.  The Sweet delicate aftertaste is long and the throat and tongue have a nice fuzzy feeling to them.

The second infusion starts with more of a brown sugar and pear onset the sweet taste is very clear but layered.  A very faint bitterness, brown sugar, icing sugar, honey, pear, slight dry woodiness, slight medical, coolness, long sweet aftertaste of candy, icing sugar, pear, brown sugar.  The mouthfeeling and throatfeeling are nice and fuzzy, fluffy an almost astringent.  The finish is long candy in the mouth.  The Qi is mildly relaxing here.

The third infusion has a thicker fruitier presentation with pear and peach and deeper honey and slight wood that turns to brown sugar, almost medical, there is that distinct cooling then to almost a syrupy sweetness.  The mouthfeeling and throatfeelig are really nice and full sticky the throat feeling is opening to a mid-deep level.  The Qi feel relaxing and I feel my shoulders lighten and come up by my ears.

The fourth comes on thick with a thick almost syrup fruity presentation that has a bit of mild bitterness now.  There is a medical taste and presentation that come as the cool pungency now collides with the dense fruity syrup and woodiness and faint medical qualities of this puerh.  There is a long cooling aftertaste of fruits, sugar, syrups and icing sugar.  The bitterness is mild and persists throughout.

The fifth infusion presents with a thick viscus fruity peach taste with layered wood and darker honey nuances.  There is a touch of bitterness and as the thick fruity presentation collides with the cool pungency a thick sweet medical notes is release then a long aftertaste of candy, syrup, sweetness.  This tea has that very thick syrupy, almost woody, slightly bitter and almost astringent kind of medicinal licorice Lincang semi-agedness to it.  It does this decently well.  Qi is nice and relaxing, I can kind of feel my face soften a bit. 

The sixth infusion is thick licorice sweet viscus malty oily sweetness with a subtle bitterness and a coolness which collides with this blob of dense syrupy woody medical sweetness.  There are orange peel, tangerine, peach, pear, brown syrgar, honey, woody slight medical taste.  The taste is fairly complex and dense the after taste is mainly sweet. It has a very typical thick Lincang sweetness and lots going on... almost chaotic.  The Qi has a bit of alerting and relaxing with a chest pressure feeling.

The seventh infusion starts with a fruity juicy sweetness with a rich caramel finish, brown surgars, some wood, fruity sweet taste throughout the profile.  Some bitterness appears then cooling then more sweetness.  Woody, crème brulee, slight tart, almost orange, melon, tastes.  The mouthfeeling and throat feeling have a mild taughtness to them a slight astringency.  The Qi is mainly in the head.

The eighth infusion starts with a bitter, astringent fruitiness with a sharper woody layer.  There is more of a sourness that comes out of the mix and a bit of astringent mouth puckering happens.  There is an almond nut note that is new.  This one is still punching at the stomach in the more astringent infusions and we are just at flash infusions here. 

The ninth is nice and syrupy thick onset with pear, orange peel, and dry wood presenting with a round bitterness underneath.  There is less of a coolness now and the returning sweetness is more mild melon.  The woodiness kind of flattens the profile.

The 10^th is fruity and thick with a distinct wood bark middle which interfaces with thick sweetnesses.  The sweetness is dense syrupy woods with a light fruity high notes of peach, melon and ends in a toffee or caramel sweetness. The mouthfeel is sticky and almost slippery astringent now. 

11^th has more caramel and high fruits the caramel taste is pronounced and really nice and tropical fruit nuance returns.  This is a nice infusion with the cup cooling a bit.  The caramel density and layered sweet top notes are really tasty.  This infusion is less bitter, astringent or woody and the array of top notes really are on display in a complex thick profusion of sweetnesses.

12^th has that nice thick dense sweetness to it.  A long caramel and then light fruity sweetness.  The layered sweet profile is really nice here.  There is a bit of spacy Qi in there as well.

The 13^th has a juicy viscus sweetness with a nice caramel finish.  There is a mild coolness then returning sweetness of light high noted tropical under more pronounced brown sugar and toffee.  The mouthfeel is kind of slippery here- a thin type of fullness.

14^th has a sweet syrupy sweetness with some licorice undernotes as well as some tame bitterness and woodiness.  The mild coolness pushes out a toffee sweet taste with some tropical taste on top.  Still feels very full and complex here.

The 15^th has a more bitter wood presentation with some florals in there.  There is a more suppressed thick caramel and tropical fruits which run free when the sweetness returns.  The mouthfeel is slight astringent puckering.  The Qi relaxing and a bit heady.

16^th has a dense fruity presentation of persimmon, melon, maple syrup, brown sugar, woods, slight sour, distinct florals now, peach, melon, slight cooling, even grape like tastes.  Very nice.

17^th thick sweet presentation of layered sweetnesses- tropical fruits, syrups, brown sugars, caramel very nice and densely packed sweetness with a slight edge of woods, bitterness, slight sour.  A cool pungent brings in the high less dense sweet tastes.  This is pretty yummy stuff.

18^th is more tangy tropical fruits, dense syrup, maple sugar, deep honeys, layered and densely sweet with a nice wood and slight bitter astringency underneath.  This one has nice stamina as well.  These later infusions are delicious.  There is some medicinal licorice notes in there as well. 

This is a bit of a chaotic Lincang Blend with an obvious sweet thick Lincang semi-aged character.  Its pretty tasty and strong in flavor and thick presentation.  You could use less than your normal amount of leaves with this stuff for sure.  Overall, the price seems fair for something like this. For some reason there is something too typical Lincang about this even in its complexity for me to purchase.  In some ways it is too sweet and chaotic for me, but very interesting.  There are not too many semi-aged blends of Lincang out there for the Western audience besides maybe white2tea Pin and maybe some Shuangjiang Mengku stuff.  Those that liked pin or Shuangjiang Mengku might want to try this one. 

I guess I would rather go higher and get something more vibrant or lower and something less thick but with more Qi.  For someone who is on a budget and wants to try a solid aged Lincang and who can spend a bit more for more complexity but without paying a fortune might want to try this and see if it fits their tastes.  It’s interesting, that is for sure.

Peace