2009 Liming “Yi Wu Moutain Big Green Tree”= A Good Cheapish Yiwu

Liming has been popular in the west for its cheapness as well as its easy to drink-ness.  There has been lots of Liming teas currently flooding the market.  When asked why that was, I responded to a commenter some theories here and told him I’ll put up a review soon.  Here is that review...

I love cheap factory puerh especially when it’s done right.  I haven’t sampled Liming in a while and don’t currently own any but it’s always been quite agreeable, easy drinking.  In my mind the Liming I’ve sampled before many years ago had a kind of more mild but sort of similar to a Dayi 7532 feel to it.  That’s what my shoddy memory tells me, for what it’s worth…

On a day I am looking for something slightly aged, comfortable on the body, and nothing to overly complex in my life.  I got this 2009 Liming “Yi Wu Mountain Big Green Tree” sample ($75.00 for 357g cake or $0.21/g) sent free last year with an order from Yunnan Sourcing ..  I hope to push some solid tastes out of this one by leafing it really hard…

Dry leaves smell of faint fruity almost raspberry odour with flowers the leaf looks mild humidly stored, nice tight factory compression.  Its smells delicious..

First infusion is still a fairly compressed infusion and steeps out with a creamy watery sweetness with a subtle watery peachy fruitiness.  A soft creamy vibe.

Second is a watery creamy sweet onset.  Faint with faint returning sweetness.  There is a nice soft watery fruity taste in there that returns with mild fruity sweetness.  There is a nice berry taste in the aftertaste that is a like raspberries and blackberries.

The third has a watery almost creamy kind of fruity onset.  The mild pungency pushes out a slightly sour and returning subtle sweet berry taste.  The mouthfeeling is faint and slightly sandy.  The throat is not significantly stimulated.

The fourth infusion has a creamy fruity taste initially.  There is a nice easy simplicity about the taste in a soft light mouthfeeling.  The aftertaste is enjoyable with a creamy berry taste returning after faint pungency.  The compression is starting to loosen a bit…

In the fifth there is a nice light woody base developing.  The tastes are all quite smooth and easygoing.  There is a bit of a sour pucker- very light but deepens the taste significantly.  Some woody berry, some creamy sweet, a touch pungent.  This is a nice tasting sheng.  Overall the taste is creamy berry soft sweetness.  The Qi is very mild with a slightly alerting and slightly relaxing feel.

The sixth infusion has a creamy woody onset with a creamy rolling berry fruity taste.  There is a slight woody almost sour but then pungent faintly creeps in and gives out long creamy sweetness.  This is a very nice complete tasting Yiwu sheng.  The mouthfeeling in this infusion strengthens a bit to a more puckering fullness and the taste is noticeably deeper.  The Qi is slightly warming now and the face flushes and I can feel the heart pound.  A nice vigor breaks through.  I feel clear.

The seventh infusion has a creamy almost pear and peachy with berry fruity onset the wood taste is becoming more prominent and the sweetness is starting to become less now.  There is a deeper throat sensation upper-mid stimulation from the slight tart mouthfeeling.  The sour tartness is really low actually and is just enough to let the taste really run loose.  I’m really enjoying the classic Yiwu tastes in this one.  Nothing too strong, nothing too crazy but not overly simple either, smooth, easydrinking Yiwu.

The eighth infusion has a nice strawberry onset with a nice woody base.  There is a bit more sour woodiness in the mix up front and building in the profile and the returning pungency has a more difficult time punching through sweetness but it does come in the form of delicious berry tastes.  The mouthfeel is moderately full slight puckering.  Stimulating upper throat.  Nice alerting Qi with Chest Qi and a relaxing that makes me want to stretch.  Straightforward Yiwu tastes, if not a bit simple than easy enough to enjoy.  The astringency is increasing and is a touch hard on my empty stomach now- showing signs of a 9 year factory puerh rather than say 12-15 where this discomfort would be aged out. 

The ninth is fruity almost pear and apricot now, a nice mellow but vibrant and clear tasting fruity with no astringency and a creamy fruity retuning sweetness.  The sweetness rules again in this smooth and not really woody profile.  The pucker is also less and allows for a soft smooth mouthfeeling.

The tenth starts again with this mellow but clear pear-apricot sweetness. No more astringency or woody just nice satisfying fruity taste with slight creamy returning aftertaste.  The aftertaste is developing more complexity too with some almost spice notes, deeper foresty woody notes and a touch sour and manly creamy fruity and sometimes berry fruits.  Sunny taste on this sunny day.

11^th has a sweet pear taste with some almost dirt taste and woody mild pungent and faint returning sweetnss.  The infusions have dropped off in complexity here a lot so I push the next infusion for a good minute long infusion… Oops ended up being 5 minutes..

12^th comes out with a thick syrupy fruity and woody infusion with a lot of syrup thickness and cherry sweetness.  This tells me that I can probably take this one for a while with just a bit longer infusions.  Classic Yiwu not-pretentious taste a bit blended with some more complex nuance to some of the infusions.  This puerh is really tasting and satisfying for me.

13^th I long steep…. Thick fruity syrup, date, woody oily very sweet overall with an oily like cherry date sweetness.

This is a great drinker Yiwu that has enough nuance to enjoy and explore.  I would be happy if I cake ordered this one.  Another great cheap drinker from Scott at Yunnan Sourcing.  I could easily see this costing more for what it is- a very nice solid well stored factory semiaged Yiwu.  But then again, it is a factory production so the price makes sense.

Vs 2006 Rong Chang Hao Yiwu Qiao Mu.  I initially purchased a few of these cakes as a cheaper semi-aged Yiwu gushu option for days I don’t want to drink more expensive but higher quality Yiwu such as Yang Qing Hao.  The problem with these cakes is that my Yang Qing Hao cakes really outperform this Rong Chang Hao stored right next to it, I almost always pass it by.  I’ve since taken it to work and seem to be enjoying it there.  I think this 2009 Liming Yiwu Big Green Tree could be a similarly enjoyable Yiwu when you don’t feel like drinking up the good stuff.  In some ways it might even be a better option for me to store next to my Yang Qing Hao because it has a nice factory feel to it.  Both of these are actually very nice   However, these two Yiwu are just so so different.  The Rong Chang Hao is really a Gushu Yiwu in every way- the feel, energy, taste, look of the full leaf everything.  The Rong Chang Hao is also a bit more astringent and bitter with a stronger throatfeeling.  It had a decently humid Maylasian storage too so it has a deeper rich more semi aged taste.  The storage is probably optimal for something with a bit of underlying bite like this Rong Chang Hao.  It also has a loose stone pressing. 

This 2009 Liming is Kunming dry stored and it really benefits from retaining all the high Yiwu nuances.  I like the blended depth and complexity of this one.  It tastes obviously Yiwu even looks that way with the classic Yiwu wrapper.  It has a nice clear and clean vibrancy to it.  The leaves have a bit of factory chopped appearance but are some of good quality full small leaves as well.  I applaud the very tight compression and optimal dry Kunming storage which takes what the decent materials are and only amplifies them.  There is a nice purity to this factory blend that surprised me and is rarer to find in factory productions like this. 

On the surface of things, the price seems a touch pricy for a 2009 Liming cake, but on the other hand, the storage and performance of this cake easily exceed the price.  I could see myself enjoying this one in the same way I enjoy the 2006 Rong Chang Hao but this one is $25 cheaper than what I paid a year and a half ago on the Rong Chang Hao (the cake has likely even gone up more in price)and in some ways I like this 2009 Liming more.

Peace