2018 Yunnan Sourcing Xiao Shui Jing vs 2018 Yunnan Sourcing Long Tang Gu Shu

I ordered this in a large sample order last month.  It was one of two 2018 Yunnan Sourcing Brand Spring Jinggu area productions.  First let’s sample this 2019 Yunnan Sourcing Xiao Shui Jing which goes for $78.00 for400g cake or $0.20/g.

Dry leaves are very spicy and pungent with rainforest and sweet notes underlying.

First infusion starts creamy, smooth, vegetal, woody, and spicy.  The spicy flavours slowly emerge in the aftertaste where bready sweet notes reside and expand in the mouth.  There are mild tropical nuances on the breath… this will be an interesting session…

The second infusion has a sweet orchid taste to it initially then a chicken broth taste to it then there are dry woods, sweet breads, lots of mushroom notes and a faint fruity lingering sweetness in the aftertaste like melons.  The mouthfeeling is slight mildly velvety and sticky.  There is a lingering very mild cool pungent in the throat.

The third infusion has a thick feeling of mushroom and dry woods there is some bread sweetness, chicken broth, even floral taste.  The taste here is unique and with a lot going on.  The qi starts to come in and make the head heavy.  The mouthfeeling is chalky and slight sticky on the tongue.

The fourth starts with a thick broth of mushroom sweetness that pops into a very sweet fruit taste then moderate cool pungency then a nice creamy sweet finish.  There is some vegetal and woods that faintly lye in the mid profile.  The Qi has a stuffy feeling in the head.

The fifth infusion starts off with a mild quick bitterness, then a sweetness, mushrooms, creamy sweetnesses in the aftertaste.  There is lots of interesting and unique taste in here. Over a velvety, almost chalky mouthfeeling and vacuous opening throatfeeling that seems to carry a bit of pungent cool.

The sixth infusion starts moderately bitter then moves to a bright fruit and creamy sweetness then there is faint wood and vegetal then a moderate lingering pungency then long sweet taste. The thickness of the liquor in moderate thick and the mouthfeeling is a bit chalky.  The qi lingers in the head and mind.

The seventh infusion starts off with a moderate bitterness with fruit trailing behind.  The bitter and fruit pair walk together for a while before a mild pungent wave crests bringing a returning sweetness of wood, creamy fruit, and even a touch a faint pepper.  The mouthfeel is moderate and chalky.

The eighth infusion starts with a moderate bitterness paired with distinct fruity sweetness.  This infusion gets a touch sour and astringent in the finish which stimulates the mouth and throat.  There is a creamy sweetness and fruitiness and the bitter lingers throughout a bit more here.  There is a sweet creaminess that lingers on the breath.

The ninth infusion starts with a bitter sour note with distinct fruit and mushroom thickness undernieth.  The tastes are really bold and distinct here with the help of a moderate bitter and even sour nuance.  It gives the thicker broth of mushroom and pear fruit space to expand.

The tenth infusion has a juicy fruity onset now with woods and even fruity florals the bitterness is more in the background and a distinctly fruity note is throughout.  A bit of floral enters the picture here.  The mouthfeel is a slippery and a bit chalky feel to it.  The fruity sweetness is found even minutes later.  The Qi is pretty mild in this puerh mainly a slow to build in the head type of thing.

The 11^th infusion has a nice orange, pear, and floral sweetness.  The fruitiness is robust and the mouthfeel is a sandy chalky type of thing.  The throatfeeling is empty but opening in the upper throat.  A cooling pungent lingers in the upper throat.  The Qi is relaxing.

The 12^th infusion is a bitter bitter and sour but less now and mainly a long fruity pear tastes dominate.  The mouthfeel is really full, sticky, and chalky.  The qi is mild, and makes me feel content.

The 13^th starts with a banana tropical fruit nuance and some faint wood.  There is a mild bitter and sandy mouthfeeling here.  The 14^th is more tropical fruit again its sunny and enjoyable, if not a bit simple in taste, feel, and qi.

I steep this a few more times thinking that it is fading away but am proven wrong.  This puerh continues to hold on to juicy fruity tastes in a reasonably thick liquor in these late infusions.  I increase the steep times as the bitterness and astringency drops off and can really push the fruitiness out of these leaves quite nicely.

I eventually put this one into an overnight infusion and tons of fruity juicy and viscus taste is pushed out the next day so I put it into another overnight infusion… great stamina for these juicy fruity tastes for sure…

Overall, this puerh has enough going on as a single estate puerh to not make it boring, this is an above average Jinggu in taste, but on the other hand is not overly engaging especially in the Qi deparment either.  However, the Qi had a happy simple feeling to it.  Its mouthfeeling is enough and the taste profile and thickness of the liquor in the first handful of infusions is kind of interesting.  In the mid-session the flavor profile turns sweeter and less mushroom, foresty, spicy, chicken broth.  There is enough change throughout the session to make it an enjoyable Jinggu area puerh for the price.  The stamina and fact you can steep it longer than your average sheng is a big plus.  I think the biggest issue is I had this a day after the 2018 Yunnan Sourcing Long Tang Gu Shu…

They are both Jinggu area and both similar price but that is all the similarities they seem to have with the 2018 Yunnan Sourcing Long Tang Gu Shu winning in all areas.  The one thing that this 2018 Xiao Shui Jing has over the Long Tang Gu Shu is its unique profile in the first handful of infusions which I really enjoyed.

Peace

 

Sold Out Vibrant Jinggu: 2018 Yunnan Sourcing Long Tang Gu Shu

I rarely like to sample puerh that I can’t re-order but I was very curious about this 2018 Yunnan Sourcing Long Tang Gu Shu from Jinggu.  It used to sell for around $88.00 for 400g cake or $0.22/g, I believe, before it quickly sold out.  I purchased this 25g samplefor $8.90.

Dry leaves smell of creamy fruity floral nuance.  There is a bright vibrancy about the dry leaves.  The smell of the rinsed leaves are incredible a deep sweet bread odour.

The first infusion starts with a creamy, velvety sweetness.  This tea is very sweet.  The sweet taste is a pastry or cake or sweet bread kind of sweetness that stretches out on the breath.  There is some mild vegitialness there as well.  The mouthfeel is sticky in the mouth.  There is a faint pungent taste then long bready like sweetness.  The flavours are amazingly bright and clear.

The second infusion starts very creamy bready sweet with a more nuanced vegitalness underneath.  The sweet taste is very distinct and very long throughtout the profile.  The liquor is pretty thick in the mouth.  The mouthfeel is sticky and the throat has a noticeably cooling to it.  There is just a mild astringency in the finish.  The lips are dry.  I can feel the Qi in my body even in the first infusion.  It kind of feels like a lump in my diaphragm and feels like my neck needs to be cracked.

The third has a bread and almost cinnamon raison like sweetness to it.  The mouthfeel is sticky and stimulating.  The vegitalness comes on strong following the sweetness.  The astringency is fairly strong creating a strong puckering effect in the throat and strongly stimulating the mouth.  The Qi is felt in the Stomach, diaphragm and chest.  There is a finish of sweet bread and melon.  The raw puerh energy beats at my empty stomach pretty good here.

The fourth infusion starts with a bready sweet onset there is a vegetalness and even now a slight woodiness in there too.  The mouthfeel and throatfeeling is very gripping and stimulating.  The mind begins to relax as the Heart beats stronger.  There is a long bread sweet with melon taste in the aftertaste.  The taste profile is not complex but strong and clea but the stimulation in the mouth is quite strong.

The fifth infusion has an almost tart cherry note that comes and leaves quickly leaving bread sweetness in the mouth.  There is a very faint pungent then an almost bland milk taste then creamy bread sweetness and melon.  The liquor is less thick here but the mouthfeel and throat feel is strong.  Different taste nuances are pushed out.  The Qi in the body and mind are of mild-moderate intensity in the body and mild intensity in the mind.  The result is making me feel like popping my joints but also a tiny bit restless.

The sixth starts a touch cherry fruit and then bread sweetness then some vegetal and woodiness but mainly sweetness.  The mouthfeeling is strong.  This is a solid mouthfeeler puer for the price.  I like this dimension of this puerh.  The aftertaste is more cherry tart fruit sweetness and melon now and less bread.

The seventh has a buttery floral onset with some faint fruit in there and much less bread sweetness.  There is a more bland and slick mouthfeeling with a sandier drier residue now.  This infusion is more fruity but not overly so.  The aftertaste is starting to become more muted.

The eighth infusion starts with a juicy cherry burst then slight vegetal transitions to bread sweetnesses after a faint pungent quality.  The aftertaste is more muted and more vegetal mixed with faint fruit and faint bread.

The ninth infusion has an almost bitter sour fruity quick burst then it descends into vegetal then mild pungency then tart fruits, slight melon, and bread.  The astringent and sticky mouth feeling starts to build up again.  The Qi is relaxing in the mind and slightly vigorous in the body.  The heart beats stronger.  Qi is starting to build and strengthen in the mind making it peaceful.  It takes a bit to build definitely more of a moderate-stronger relaxing feeling now.  Sweet fruit taste on the breath minutes later.  Very nice strong relaxing Qi now.  I like this.

The tenth lets this very nice clear fresh tropical fruit note ring out.  There is a nuance of cherry and banana.  The fruit nuance plays into the aftertaste.  It is long and taste.  The mouthfeel is slippery and full.  I feel warm from the Qi, nice Qi.

The eleventh infusion has this nice bright tropical fruit nuance to it as well.  The sweetness here is of cherries, banana, tropical and energetic.  It is long in the aftertaste, very delicious.

The 12^th has a strong tropical fruit taste.  The Qi really builds slowly in the session but it also is really pronounced relaxing now.  There hasn’t been much body sensations here but the breath is definitely slow.  Really long lasting even 10, 20 minutes later tropical sweet fruit taste.  This puerh is very clear and unmuddled flavours.   Nice relaxing Qi.

13^th starts with a slight quick moving bitter then bright tropical fruit taste the taste seems to compound in the mouth after the mild pungent return and lingers long on the breath.  The taste is strong, clear, tasty, long.  The mouthfeel is less stimulating but not empty, I feel an opening in the mid throat where mild cool pungency lingers.  The tropical fruit vibrancy is really nice.  The mind relaxes.

14^th is oh, man. This fruitiness, pure and clear is really really nice tastes.  Just long and intense delicious fruits.  Very long.  The mouthfeel and throatfeeling are not as stimulating now but that taste almost turns bubble gum, very intense fruity, this is a real delicious puerh.

15^th lots and lots of bright fruity flavor.  It feels like there isn’t anything but fruity sweet taste but the taste is so vibrant and full in a weird way.  The mouthfeeling and throatfeeling suppor this clear vibrant note that kind of morphs into various fruit tastes in the mouth.  A distinct candy taste is developing in the mouth.  Qi is kind of energizing and the heart beats strong.  This Qi is nice.  Really nice puerh.

16^th, 17^th, 18^th very bright fruit in a session with great stamina in maintaining these bright tastes.  The taste changes very little in these past 8 infusions.  What’s not to love though?  Long sweet full fruity flavours pure and strong and independent.  There is a bit of creamy candy sweetness long on the breath.  The sweetness is quite long even in these late infusions.

19^th, 20^th, 21^st lots of stamina of fruity taste.  The mouthfeel drops off a bit so it is not as deep or long but past 20 steeps… great stamina.

Oh man, this is a good one for the price… It has a certain vibrancy to it that really makes it shine.  It has a nice engaging throat and moutfeeling and better than average qi sensations.  I think it might have been hard for me to pass this one up for the price it was offered, even though it is not typically the type of puerh I buy in quantity.  For people who like to drink their sheng puerh fresh, this one is really nice and might age decent as well.  I haven’t had a Jinggu with the vibrancy of this puerh yet.  It has great stamina and overall is quite enjoyable. 

This almost really tastes like a Yiwu to me in its style of sweetness however the vegitaliness reminds me that this is of Jinggu origin.  I think I might have blind guessed this to be Manzhuan it has suggestions of this not quite but I can see it, which I’ve recently sampled from.

Good job those out there that picked this one up, it defiantly punches higher than its price tag.

Peace