Monday, June 28, 2021

2013 Tea Urchin Yiwu Snake Blend: Don’t Mention it!



This 2013 Tea Urchin Yiwu Snake Blend goes for $129.00 for 357g cake or $0.36/g (I tried my purchased sample a few weeks ago) is quite a popular blend but no one is too crazy about it and everyone seems to mix the positives with the negatives so I wanted to see what this one is about for myself…

Dry leaves have a sweet woody radish pond smell to them.

First infusion has a metallic woody pondy taste initially then fades to very faint coolness in the throat over a soft fluffy faint tongue coating.

The second infusion has a pondy woody metallic savory taste up front which kind of just fades into a mid-throat coolness.  There is a meat like savory taste in the aftertaste that comes up. Sticky mouthfeeling.  There is some orange and other faint fruity tastes that appear far in the distance when the liquor is left to cool.  The Qi is relaxing and soothes the body with an obviously limb relaxing bodyfeeling.

The third infusion has an oily thick initial presentation with a woody savory corn and hay and metal and woody tastes.  Lots of layered and unique savory tastes with a mild sweet finish.  The cooled cup is more creamy sweet, chalky, mineral, vegetal with a cool mid-throat.  The Qi is pretty strong in the mind and body with a strong sedating and spacy effect.  The mouthfeel has a full soft sticky almost tight tongue.  A strong and obvious gushu feeling but not really very sweet.



The fourth infusion has a sour savory taste of metal, woody, sour fruit, with a cool mid throat finish with a very mild sweet returning on the breath over a mild-moderate thick sticky almost drying tongue.  The Qi is pretty strong and has a body relaxing, levitating, and bit a bit of chest opening.

The fifth infusion starts a sour savory wood with a more creaminess sweetness emerging now.  A more candy like finish is left on the breath.  The mouthcoat is a soft mild stickiness.  The aftertaste is mild but long in the throat.  The Qi is nice and I can feel it in the limbs and face and my mind is strongly relaxed but happily active.

The sixth infusion has a woody, almost metal but berry fruity taste that is a balance between savory, sweet, bland, and sour tastes with a preference toward savory with a very faint cool pungent.  There is lots of complexity of taste veggies, woods, metals, pungency, candy, fruits….  The cool cup has a longer candy sweetness more typical of Yiwu in it.

The seventh infusion has a nice sweet berry with eucalyptus and dry wood.  There is a lot of complexity of tastes in this blend.   The gushu quality is really obvious.  This infusion has a heavy oily body with strong Qi and thick dense cottony mouthfeeling on the tongue with mid-deep to deep throat cooling.

The eighth infusion has a thick sweet cotton taste to it.  The cool cup has a rich thickness to it layers of woody, malt, metal, fruity, candy like sweet finish to it.  Nice thick mouthcoating and Qi.  There is lots of candy sweetness lingering in the mouth.  A warm feeling washes over me.

The ninth infusion has a sweet grain taste with a malty fruity with a metallic woody pungent aftertaste.  The long candy sweetness can be felt minutes later.  Very nice.  The Qi is really nice relaxing and euphoric complex Qi presentation.  I like it.

The 10th is a creamy flat woody metallic fruity tasting savory bland and kind of sweet mash up of unique tastes.  There is some cool mid throat and a more woody finish.  Very nice complex Qi in body and mind.

The 11th I return to the next day but the liquor is more muted after a night in the tea pot…

It has a silky vegetal woody almost slow faint coco aftertaste with some mild throat cooling.

The 12th has a stronger vegetal woody almost faint creamy returning coco.  The taste is very flat vegetal overall now with some faint complexity of metal, woody, almost spicy.

The 13th has a metallic sour fruity woody almost bitter mushroom with a creamy almost cooc finish.  This infusion has a lot more power and bitterness with some faint complexity underneath.  The mouthfeeling is more sandy and tight and dry now.

The 14th infusion has a bitter vegetal onset with a dry woody metallic finish.  There is not really any sweetness left and the throat feeling and cooling pungency is gone so I push to long infusions…



They are quite bitter and sour fruit with a flat grain and coco finish.  Some complexity hidden under the bitter…

This is mainly a savory, strong Qi, gushu experience with nice complexity due to the blend.  A bit different but I like the change of pace.  It’s a bit chaotic at times and not as sweet as savory but unique and interesting.  One thing that this Gushu sample made me think was how the quality/ age of the puerh that is offered at Tea Urchin has declined over the years.  This is not really suprising because of the dramatic price increases over these years but you simply can’t get what you used to.  Also there are only a few times on their site and tea description where Tea Urchin specifically mentions tree age- this is one such instance which is also interesting.  Haven’t caked it yet and is more of an amusement for me but could easily be an expensive drinker or something to enjoy deeply as well for this price.

James’ (TeaDB) Tasting notes from Drinking Report

Steepster Tasting notes

Cody’s (The Oolong Drunk) Tasting Notes

Peace

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