2021 Essence of Tea Yiwu Queen of the Forest: Subtle Complexity

 I found it super amusing this year when David and Yingxi started off the description of this tea by saying “We don’t make many blends”. I found it funny because 2 out of their 4 raw 2021 raw puerh releases this year were blends ( both of which I will have the pleasure of reviewing here on the blog)!  This one is blended from 4 Guoyoulin regions in Yiwu and apparently was blended with the good stuff- no filler.  I bought the sample but the cake of this 2021 Essence of Tea Yiwu Queen of the Forest goes for an interesting price point $198.00 for 200g cake or $0.99/g- it’s expensive but not insanely by staying under the $1.00/g.

Dry leaves smell of a sweet kind of sour floral.

The first infusion is a creamy milky silky sweetness with a bit of pond green taste and a finish of slight sour mineral taste.  There is an opening of the throat feeling with a gob of saliva in the back of the throat.  Nice soft silky tongue coating.

The second infusion has a grains and creamy taste initially with a slow developing creamy sweetness.  There is some mineral tastes, sour tastes, salty tastes, woody tastes, with faint deep sweetness that is generated really slowly in the mouth.  The mouthfeeling is a nice silky feeling and there is a deep opening in the throat.  The Qi seems to give me focus now.  A tunnel vision feeling and a certain calm.  I can feel a bit of chest pressure.  A salty woody taste is left in the mouth minutes later.

The third infusion has a fruity sweet pop with toasted grains sweetness with a green tea pond and woody finish, subtle spice taste slow creamy and fruity sweetness, even a faint candy sweetness that arrive more with the gob of saliva that develops in the throat and spills over the back of the tongue.  There is a lot of subtle tastes in there, complex tastes- woody, fruity, silty, green tea pond, mineral, salty, even spicy… its interesting but not overpowering.  Nice focusing Qi and open and heavy chest feeling.  Minutes later there is a salty mineral taste in the mouth.

The fourth infusion has a woody licorice onset with slow cooling and a very faint returning candy sweetness.  The finish is salty and mineral and even a bit bitter.  There is subtle hints of warm spices, slight sour tastes, fruity tastes, all pretty faint.  The mouthfeeling is silky/silty with a bit of gripping now.  The cooled cup has a woody vegetal onset with creamier sweetness, a bit bitter, fruity sweetness more mineral finish.  Nice focusing energy with some subtle neck releasing.

The fifth infusion is left to cool and has a woody pungent creamy sweetness with a metallic fruity mineral soapy finish.  There is a bit more fruitiness initially but still the sweet taste is secondary to salty/ savory tastes.  There is some green tea pond taste, some spice.  The mouthfeeling is silky and the texture is a touch oily.  The throat is more vacuous now with less saliva producing.  Nice focusing energy.  Some mild chest, shoulder heaviness a bit in the neck.  Nice feel good vibe to this puerh.  Although there is lots of substiles going on in this blend it really feels harmonious.

The sixth infusion has a fruity sweet melon and apricot pop of taste followed by a woody mineral faintly bitter taste in the mouth.  The aftertaste is mild but mainly a mineral vegetal taste.  This is not a particularly sweet Yiwu tea, not yet at least.  The mouthfeeling is a soft silky feeling that is restricted to mainly the tongue.  The throat is empty feeling with not as much saliva producing now.  Nice focusing Qi with mild chest/shoulder heaviness, neck feelings.

The seventh infusion has a woody fruity bitter onset with a woody, metallic, soapy, mineral finish.  The pungent and spicy notes have dropped off considerably over the last few infusions and the bitterness is mild but more pronounced. 

The 8^th has a savoury green vegetal bitterness with a lesser sweet fruity taste.  There is some woody and bitter and mineral in the finish.  Not much for a sweet aftertaste.  The main taste is a bitter vegetal savory taste.  The mouthfeeling is a bit drying now, a bit sandy on the tongue.  The saliva producing is gone.  Nice focusing relaxing going on, a bit spacy. 

9^th has a creamy woody mineral even coco bitter onset that gets a bit creamy sweet but the coco taste now turns less bitter and more milk chocolate and there is a mineral creamy sweetness left behind.  This infusion is particularly delicious.  The mouthfeeling is a slight dry but fuller feeling with pucker.  Nice focusing.

10^th has a tangy fruitiness now in the onset and finishes with a flat mineral and vegetal taste with a spicy pungency and tongue tingling taste.  The tongue coating is a tingling flat and throat is not really stimulated as much as slightly open.  Nice focusing Qi.

The 11^th infusion has an oily buttery tangy fruity almost sour fruity sweetness with tingling pungent mouthfeeling and sticky coating with open throat.  Not much for aftertastes with this puerh a bit of mineral woody.  Nice focusing Qi.

The 12th infusion the next day gives off a sweet lime floral mineral quality.  The mouthfeeling is soft and the aftertaste is faint.  There is a nice mild uplifting feeling.

13th has a more mineral onset with a faint emerging floral, melon, mineral sweetness.  Mouthfeeling is this nice mild soft silty coating on the tongue.  There is a lime melon taste to this one.  These later infusions show off the high percentage of Mansa area Yiwu in this blend.  I’m thinking this is at least 60% Mansa Yiwu in this blend.

14th is cooled but gives off a green- vegetal, mellow melon mineral taste.  Soft tongue coating. Nice relaxing and chill feeling.

15th has a mineral woody not really sweet taste with a faint cool finish.  Kind of a slippery silty mouthcoating now. I’m surprised that this puerh is still going strong for something pretty subtle!

16th has 20 added to the flash steeping.  Is more bitter woody now with a bit of floral melon green taste.  The bitterness is throughout.

Mug steep of the spent leaves give off a very melon sweetness with lots of floral tanginess and slight sour bitter.  The floral taste is surprisingly complex and the melon sweetness is notable.

Overall this is a super interesting blend and something that I have not experienced before.  What makes it interesting and unique to me is how gentle and subtle the blend is while still offering lots of complexity.  It’s complex but never chaotic or confusing.  It almost seems too light to be interesting but yet each infusion and the progression through the gongfu session reveals these subtle changes that keeps you engaged and wondering what will be behind the next corner.  The Qi is first very focusing for the first handful of infusions, then relaxing, then almost hypotonic, then kind of a chill vibe.  There is a bit of body feeling in a heavy chest and shoulders and a touch of neck release.  There are lots of really subtle tastes but they take turns with only a handful of the middle infusions that feel a bit crowded but never too much.  The last infusions feel really very much like a heavier Mansa area in the blend.  There is not too much sweet taste or aftertaste in this blend right now that some associate with Yiwu.  There is some green, vegetal, pungent/spice, woody, savoury, metals mineral, melon even some mild bitter but surprisingly not much of that creamy sweetness.  The throat is not too involved in this blend and it is definitely the weak point.  The mouthfeeling is also kind of interesting in that it is often soft but has a very silky silty feeling that is super enjoyable.

You can really feel the quality of the material in the blend.  Most of it is this ethereal Gushu Guoyoulin stuff that one it’s own can be really nice but often simple or to clear and clean and lacking complexity and depth.  But when these are blended together the simple complexity of each area becomes a single sound in a very classy entrancing Guoyoulin quartet… the result is strangely satisfying to me.

Alex’s (Tea Notes) Tasting notes

Peace

2017 Essence of Tea Yiwu GuoYouLin and Trusting Gushu Claims

These days are quite different that when I first started drinking puerh.  Back then nobody really understood what “ancient” “old tree” “gushu” really meant or how to distinguish between such stuff from even some factory produced puerh.  Yeah, it was that bad back then.  Nowadays, a lot of people have come to understand that most of these claims can be immediately disregarded.  I feel that Essence of Tea is an exception to that rule.  To me the care and strict oversight that David and Yingxi’s use to source tea = truth.  If David, says that his new Essence of Tea puerh is (fill in blank) than I have no doubt that it is (fill in blank).  I have the highest level of trust for David with his sourcing on his fresh puerh nowadays.

This kind of guarantee of authenticity however comes with a price.  This is only fair because to guarantee such claims must take an enormous about of time, energy, and effort on the part of David and Yingxi.  If I was both in a financial place where I could spend the money and was serious about acquiring young fresh pure ancient puerh of a famous producing area, I would be pre-ordering Essence of Tea’s 2018 puerh.  No questions asked.  But because I am not in such a place right now, I am simply humbled by a chance to sample such things and enjoy the experience which unfolds.  Please come along with me, sit down, and enjoy…

This tea came from a small selection of puerh trees protected in the Yiwu State Forest that were discovered in 2004.  Essence of Tea has given this tea the bold claim of “the best tea we’ve ever pressed”.  This tea sold out fast but used to go for $450.00 for a 400g cake.  It is the last of the free samples included in my last purchase from Essence of Tea (thanks again David).

Dry leaves carry a deep and rich odour of multifaceted fruits.  Concord grape odours in a slightly deep forest smell.  Many rich high notes are released into the olfactory.

First infusion has a slightly syrupy sweet fruit taste.  There is a nice crispness to the taste but also a depth to it.  The aftertaste is of high fruit tastes which don’t last too long before a sandy taste reveals itself.  Overall, this first infusion surprised me because I was expecting lots of top notes but wasn’t also expecting lots of grounding depth.  Right off the bat this tea has a full feeling to it.   The throatfeeling is subtle but deep.

The second infusion shows off more of this profile with an initial taste that is not too sweet nor that fruity but has nice slight fruit taste in a deeper profile of slight grains, forest tastes, bread tastes which comprise just as much of the taste profile, especially in the middle profile after the initial syrupy sweetness has almost disappeared.  The fruity sweetness re-appears stronger in the breath and in the aftertaste compared to the first infusion.  The mouthfeel has a nice, mild, almost sandy texture.

The third infusion has even less initial sweet taste but more of a mellow apricot bread taste to it.  The aftertaste is a thick blanketing taste of dried fruits and breads.  This tea has a very deep, heavy profile to it for such a young tea- very nice sustenance.  The mouthfeel develops a sticky, syrupy feeling to it to match the syrup taste. The throat sensation is opening, viscus, and thick.

The fourth infusion starts with slight fruits that are overpowered by a deeper foresty taste.  There is a nice spike of surgery returning sweetness before being dragged out into an apricot bread taste of fresh yeasty baking.   The bread tastes are the dominant ones, the mild initial sweetness is becoming less.  The aftertaste is of dry fruit.

The fifth is completely different which has a tingling suragry slightly cooling initial taste with a cool menthol like sweetness being more prominent here with the fruity sweetness now almost unnoticeable and this cooling pungent menthol surgary sweetness now emerging.  There is another depth to the taste which tastes of syrup.  This infusion starts to show signs of a woody taste emerging also.  The initial- and aftertaste is less exciting than the long thick middle taste.  The qi of this tea is actually very mild and is mainly felt as a light sensation in the head and a very clear mind.  It feels very unimposing in the body and is very mild and approachable for such a young puerh.

The sixth infusion is much the same with a deep evolving taste over a long profile.

The seventh infusion has a vegetal initial taste where there is a complete void of sweetness now.  That taste is the dominant which slowly gives way to some bread-like taste and a very faint returning coolness followed by bready and dried apricot fruit tastes in the aftertaste.  The aftertaste is now where the most action is.  The rest of the infusion is dominated by a slightly bitter and more standard vegetal taste.  The mouthfeel and throatfeeling is mild but full.  The throatfeeling is deep and mild achieving a nice complete but mildly stimulating sensation.

The eighth has a much smoother and harmonious taste, more blended together now- vegetal, bread, slight wood, barely dried apricot.  The mouthfeeling and throatfeeling becomes slightly drying here and is getting noticeably stronger.

The ninth infusion starts off with a dry and slightly puckery fruit notes over vegetal notes then transforms to a woody taste then to a nice bread-like returning sweetness with slight cooling.  The cooling sensation brings a wood and faint sugar notes.  Overall the profile is turning more wood-like and the mouthfeel and throatfeel start moving out of the medium-mild stimulating and more into the stronger slighty gripping stimulation at this point. 

The tenth and eleventh has a nice robust bread, wood, melon taste which is nicely blended throughout.  The taste is nicely harmonious here along with the mouth and throatfeeling feels quite satisfyingly complete.  The vegetal/ bitter note is gone leaving nice tastes left to thoroughly enjoy.

The twelfth has a grainy-cereal taste as the dominant here.  There are woody, syrupy edges to it here but it is grain tasting throughout.  The mouthfeel is mild to medium full- the throatfeel is deep and light. 

The thirteenth and fourteenth has much the same tastes.  There emerges a fruity mild returning sweetness in these later infusions.  Still very much enjoyable here.

The fifteenth and sixteen becomes even more mild but still enjoyable and harmonious.  I am still doing only flash infusions here with no need to add any extra time to enjoy this tea which I think could potentially just make it bitter and dry.  This tea has great stamina.  Overall, this tea has a very mild qi and very little bodyfeel.

The seventieth and eighteenth become more mild but still not really bitter and are enjoyed.

If acquiring true, pure gushu is the top criteria for your puerh buying then look no further than Essence of Tea.  However, based on taste/smell, qi, bodyfeeel/ mouthfeel alone, this tea would not be worth it for the average person.  Once providence is added to the equation and if you are one who values such things, this puerh is immediately worth it- especially in a climate where such things are becoming harder to actually and undeniably verify.

Peace

James and Denny’s (TeaDB) Tasting Notes

Arek's (Puerh Blog) Tasting Notes

Steepster’s Tasting Notes and Commentary