2003 Wild Yi Wu Raw Puerh Tea

To say that pu’erh is an “acquired taste” is an understatement, particularly given the quality of much of the commercially available pu’erhs. Many pu’erhs labor under aggressive notes of camphor and barnyard, tasty only to the bravest of souls with the sturdiest of palates.
This state of affairs is a bad one, both for pu’erh itself and for tea-lovers. Good pu’erh can be heavenly: Smooth, nuanced, and full of interesting flavor.
Jing’s 2003 Wild Yi Wu Raw Puerh is a case in point: The dry leaf possesses a subtle nose of sweetness yet not much else. Its early infusions are a medium beige color, with incredible smoothness and lightly earthy notes.
As the infusions continue, the liquor darkens to a medium amber, with tobacco and sandalwood notes emerging, finishing with a hint, but not much more, of camphor. The smoothness continues, though some mild astringency will eventually join the camphor in the finish.
An excellent introduction to pu’erh for newbies, but also an extremely tasty option for the rest of us.

I believe that all of us casual tea drinkers have benefitted from the steep price declines of Puerh tea in 2008. I can't say for sure if the market price for "investment grade" Puerh actually had an effect on pricing of the rest of the common folks' Puerh, but I like to imagine I am drinking an exquisitely rare beverage when imbibing a touted, quality beverage - regardless of its price.

Jing brings us this selection from the Menghai Tea Factory in the Yunnan province. The factory is one of the most well-respected and reputable factories in the entire Chinese tea industry, and they are most famous for their quality Puerh teas. This particular tea was harvested on Yi Wu Mountain, utilizing leaves of ancient tea trees. The compressed leaves are generally intact, and fairly large, and - according to JING - characteristic of those picked from remote and uncultivated trees, thus signifying a high-quality Puerh. Color-wise, the leaves appear dark brown, with dashes of light greys and lighter browns throughout.

The dried leaves are presented (in this sample) as flat chunks of compressed leaves. A 10 gram sample contains about 5-6 chunks, about the size of 2-4 quarters. The aroma of the leaves is not very pungent - a faint hint of dried mushroom, and definite pleasant wood scent. Perhaps a light spice behind it all, but very mild. The overall aroma is very nice, but I have a feeling the real aroma is dormant in this state of the tea. Just for kicks, I took a snack of a small portion of the dried cake. It took quite a while - 30-60 seconds - for it to produce much of any flavor at all. It was very hard, and very dry and crispy. Eventually, I slowly ground it between my teeth and rolled it around, treating it almost like a chewing tobacco, savoring the flavor, which was unique and pleasant - though certainly not what the tea was intended for.

The preparation of this, and most (if not all) "proper" puerh teas is to steep up to 10 times for a very short amount of time per steep. Known as gongfu style, this can evolve into an enormously-elaborate ceremony, requiring expensive tea ware, intricate mannerisms, and etiquette galore. My way of doing it is sitting at my desk, pouring freshly-boiled water into my ingenuiTEA containing the small cake pieces. I am creating untold numbers of faux-pas here (no porcelain teapot, no yixing tea ware, no ambience whatsoever), so this may or may not have some effect on the review and the effect of the tea on me. Nonetheless, it's exciting to prepare a tea in this manner, so let's begin.

BATCH #1:

Steep #1 - 20 seconds: Per JING's recommendations, I discarded the first infusion of 20 seconds. This first infusion merely "wakes up" the tea and gets the leaves slightly separated to produce more flavor in subsequent infusions.

Steep #2 - 20 seconds: This cup produced a light golden color, faint aroma, and somewhat weak flavor. A hint of beautiful, earthy, woody flavor, but too mild for thorough enjoyment.

Steep #3 - 20 seconds: A more pungent aroma, astringent woodiness (cedar-like) and big on mouthfeel. Bold, sharp flavor permeates the tongue taking on strong notes of tobacco. Taste buds come alive.

Steep #4 - 30 seconds: The cake slices are really starting to come apart now. Flavor is actually less bold, more smooth - less tobacco intensity. Fair amount of mouthfeel and astringency.

Steep #5 - 50 seconds: More intensity on the nose; bigger flavor throughout, but still less potency than two steeps ago. Flavor seems most potent at the rear of the palette.

Steep #6 - 50 seconds: Not unlike the last steep, but perhaps more weak, less dry than previous infusions.

Sadly, I did not have time to continue with further steepings. I was lucky enough to have enough of a sample leftover to do another round, which I saved for about a week after my first go-round. Here we go!

BATCH #2:

Steep #1 thru #6 - 20 seconds. I decided to keep all at the shorter end of the steep time. I also used less water than last time - about 4-6 ounces this time, as opposed to 8-10 ounces from the first series. Let's see how they compare.

Cup #1 was discarded as previously. This time I took a sip, and it was nothing worth noting - weak on flavor. Cup #2 had a semi-sweet flavor behind the faint wood/tobacco flavors. Cup #3 was more subdued than last time - gentler spiciness and real deep woody character, but not overbearing on mouthfeel. Cup #4 has the boldest aroma yet. That sharp spiciness at the back-center of the tongue is coming through. Cup #5 seems to be much more satisfying than the first time - Delicious spicy flavor, particularly when cooled significantly. Cup #6 was probably closer to a 25 second steep. Still big on aroma. Taste is apparently more flavorful than last go-round.

Steep #7 - 40 seconds: moving on to double-steeping time. By now the cakes have all but broken apart and the leaves are moving freely in the pot. Taste is more vegetal here - not grassy, but in a collard green or kale kind of way.

Steep #8 - 2 minutes 20 seconds. Knowing I was encountering the last steep before I had run out of time, I wanted to try a full brew for 2 additional minutes at this stage. Aroma is surprisingly mild. The taste is somewhat different altogether and hard to explain. It seems perhaps watered down, not so big on taste, but I believe it's simply a matter of a flavor shift -- less of that inherent tobacco flavor, but still a woody flavor, just not quite the same as before. A bit of a drier mouthfeel overall as well.

In Summary:

Although my Puerh experience is very limited, this is a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable tea, regardless of how it holds up to other Puerhs. Quality is certainly evident. I would look forward to a proper presentation of a puerh tea via proper gongfu. As for brewing it "on the fly"as I did with this tea, I don't think it retains the same specialness and hinders what the tea has to offer. Obviously the amount of time that goes into it (I've run out of time TWICE now!) does not make it an ideal casual drinking tea. I fear that has forbidden me from giving this tea the proper review it probably deserves.