2021 The Essence of Tea Youle GaoGan: Structured and Complex

I was so excited about the Essence of Tea’s offering of this 2021 Essence of Tea Youle GaoGan that goes for $248.00 for 200g cake or $1.24/g that I decided to purchase a it with a bunch of other samples.  It was not David’s new 2021 pole dance that aroused my tea buying this time but rather Kathy and David’s listing from a region that is often overlooked by the Western puerh vendor- Youle…

Dry leaves have a very frangrant floral almost faint woodiness.  Very fresh leaves…

The first infusion has a nice buttery creamy onset with a clear sweetness that almost turns into a Rice Crispy cereal taste as it disperses over the tongue.  There is a subtle sticky feeling in the mouth and cereal sweet finish in the mouth with a faint coolness deep in the throat.

The second infusion has a pungent almost minty intial burst of flavor that is really delicious it disappears into a Rice Crispy cereal taste there is a long deep cooling in the throat.  The mouthfeeling is really simulating and sticky and there is lots of saliva that returns to the mouth.  The aftertaste is sweet breads and a faint passionfruity aftertaste is found minutes later.  The Qi is really peaceful and the body feeling is very strong like shoulders are coming up to my ears, a floating kind of feeling.  There is a certain vibrating expansive feeling in the body contrasting the calm generated in my mind. Very nice.

The third infusion has a pungent, floral, mild passionfruit and sweet cereal grain taste that come fast all at once over a faint astringency and a full stimulating mouthfeeling with subtle dry throat and strong saliva producing effect.  The minty pungent tastes seems to carry through with the sweet bready cereal tasting lasting the second longest of the flavours in the mouth.  Nice long cool deep throatiness.  The stimulating mouthfeeling with saliva producing is really nice.  The Qi is really calming and the body feelings are quite stimulating. An interesting and engaging yet somehow calmly complimentary experience.  The calming/ relaxing Qi is the typical energy of Youle but these subtle body feelings are a added bonus.

The fourth infusion has a very pungent cool and woody taste with a deep throatiness where the cool pungent resides.  The initial taste is almost minty and has a cereal/floral like taste that turns into a cereal and bread sweetness.  The mouthfeeling is stimulating and saliva producing is good.  Nice calm mind and shoulder and body lifting Qi.

The fifth infusion has a minty pungent onset with some buttery florals and bread sweetness underneath.  The mouthfeeling is a full chalky tightness with a pull of saliva into the mouth.  Nice Relaxing Qi with shoulder releasing bodyfeelings and a subtle vibrating feeling.  Nice focusing feeling.

The sixth infusion has a forest pungent minty onset with a bread/cereal finish, a bit floral, not that fruity sweet.  The mouthfeeling is soft sticky dry with a deep cooling throatfeeling.  There is some melon and floral in the finish.  Kind of a tingling mouthfeeling with less returning saliva and not as deep throat.  The main taste is this prominent minty pungency.  The flat soft sticky dry mouthfeeling has a mild pucker and feels kind of fuzzy in the mouth.  Nice claming Qi with nice flowing shoulders and arms feeling.  Nice combo of calm mind with active but not distracting bodyfeeling.

The seventh infusion has a more juicy almost lemon passionfruity a bit sour taste here.  There is some florals, bread sweetness, a tiny bit of astringency with nice full mouthfeeling of drying and deep cool throat.  Has a finish of pungent coolness and subtle florals almost lemon cake like subtle taste here.  Qi is nice and calm.

The eighth infusion has a juicy lemon floral sour, bread sweet, floral, and cereal taste.  The mouthfeeling is a full sticky dry stimulating feelng with some mid-deep throat cooling.  The throat cooling and depth is loosing its deep feeling in the last few infusions.  The aftertaste is a lemon, floral bread-like sweetness.  The Qi is nice and calming.

The ninth infusion has a fresh zesty lemon floral taste to it which has become the dominant intial taste with sour, bread sweetness and to a lesser extent florals which are mainly intertwined with cool pungency.  The mouthfeeling builds in strength as the infusions go and now is quite puckering and squeaky with a deeper coolness and a lemon pungent forest aftertaste with a bit of saliva producing but not too much anymore.  The mouthfeeling is really nice and will do this puerh well out of the fresh puerh stage its in now.  Nice calm fousing feeling with light limbs. 

10^th has a bit of bitterness in it and a bit of sour lemon, floral, bread it transforms into cool pungency that comes from the throat and plants itself onto the tongue where a forest pungency is left in the mouth and throat.  The aftertaste is a bit sour and bready and cool.  Strong tighter throat developing. Engaging tongue coating and throat is tightened at the upper throat.  A bit of dryness here now.  Nice claming focusing Qi. 

11^th infusion there is a bready sour bitterness with a bit of cereal and woody and floral.  The mouthfeeling becomes quite dry here so does the throat.  There is not much aftertaste at this point a ghosty cooling and floral on the breath mainly.  The bodyfeelings have dropped off and just a light airy feeling in the arms are left.

12^th has a woody floral sweet melon fruity taste with nice cool throat and dry tongue with deep floral melon finish.  Nice relaxing Qi.

13^th a bitter buttery floral with a cool forest pugnet endge that comes out of the throat.  Flat dry tongue coating and floral melon aftertaste.  Nice more typical Youle tastes are found later in the session here.  Nice relacing Qi.

Leaves were left in the pot overnight and now I come back to the 14^th  and there is fruity buttercup like florals a bit of sour almost mango, thick dry coat mouthfeeling and slight cooling.  There is a heady qi to it now.  The strong tongue coat gives this puerh a solid base.

The 15^th is much the same with a sweet floral fruity taste tight dry tongue faint throat with faint cooling.  I image this puerh steeping out like this for a while…

The long mason jar steeping of the spent leaves has a very mild forest pungent taste with almost unnoticeable cooling over a dry tongue sensation.  Not any sweetness left and not much flavor to push out and nice relaxing Qi typical of Youle comes out of this long steep.

Overall, this is a nice Youle with a lot of structure to it.  The first group of steepings are interesting stuff with a calm relaxing qi typical of youle but deeper and more powerful with interesting bodyfeelings paired with that deep calm.  The infusions are stronger in the mouth and really saliva producing with lots of interesting tastes which slowly evolve throughout the corse of the tea session.  These include sour, pungent, floral, bready, cereal, minty, Forest, bitter these appear at different times throughout the session. The minty pungency with Rice Crispy cereal note is one I’ve not come across before and make the first handful of infusions supper tasty…  There is lots in here with stronger drying/sticky/tight tongue coating that can get pretty strong if too many infusions are stacked too close together.  The strong saliva producing along with this mouthfeeling give the complex evolving taste a good base to age.

Vs 2013 Pu-erh.sk Youle.  These are similar quality Youle I think.  They both have complex evolving flavours over a stronger evolving mouthfeel.  Too many years have gone by between sampling but this 2021 might be a bit deeper and complex especially the subtle bodyfeelings.

Thought this might be the best 2021 offering from the Essence of Tea until I tried…

Peace

Edit:

Shah8’s Tasting Notes

Alex’s (Tea Notes) Tasing Notes

Double peace