Today’s tea review is a ripe pu’er from Yunnan Sourcing! 2010 Hai Lang Hao “As You Like” Ripe Pu’er! This 357 gram cake is available on Yunnan Sourcing.us and Yunnan Sourcing.com. This particular ripe pu’er is low to medium fermented that is a blend of various years of Menghai material.
I purchased this cake with a Yunnan Sourcing.us ripe pu’er order I did back in September 2014. I’m not sure what attracted me to this cake – the name is cute and the promise of future aging was interesting. An interesting note, I paid $24 for this cake, now it’s $38!
Teal “Pu’er Pick” Owl showing off his duel wielding pu’er pick technique!
Dry Leaf
“As You Like” it has a lovely appearance of ripples of golden leaf throughout this cake.
It was loosely pressed so it was easy to break apart pieces to drink.
Steeping Instructions
I did my standard ripe pu’er method of using boiling water, 2 rinses. I started with 10 second infusions. I used 7 grams of tea for my gaiwan.
Tasting of Yunnan Sourcing’s 2010 Hai Lang Hao “As You Like” Ripe Pu’er
“As You Like” steeps up a deep earth floor scent of clay and mud. I know the description doesn’t sound appealing but I’m itching to drink this, roll me in the pu’er mud! I bet it would do wonders for my skin! The tea is a pretty color too with a touch of red. Once I get grey hairs I need this brew colour matched!
First Infusion: Sweet sweet and light but also very smooth and surprisingly nutty. It looks darker and more flavorful than it is. Let’s try this again.
Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: The texture here is quite thick. The flavor is still light though gaining in strength. I find this interesting as the appearance looks close to like a thick heavy flavored ripe pu’er but the flavor is smooth and light.
“As You Like” has an edge of hazelnut flesh with a hint of earth. There is a sweet aftertaste at the end that reminds me of golden raisins and dried apricots. With each steeping, the pu’er gets more sweet, transitioning the apricot to the sip as well. I swear I got caught snacking in the baking cubby again. Very creamy texture is like each sip is adding a coating of lip balm.
Hello tea drunk my old friend. Let’s have a break and do some tea drunk yoga whooooo! What yoga pose is this?
Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Infusion: I doubled steep time because why not. The taste is more bright of dried apricots and agave with the smoothness of earth, hazelnuts and cream. Pretty good and strong flavor here. Each infusion is getting sweeter leaving me with a pretty sweet cup.
Last hurrah 10 minute and 25 minute Infusion: Sweet with a hint of mineral and earth. Not fruity anymore and still creamy. Even with these long infusions the pu’er is not dry.
Comments
2010 Hai Lang Hao “As You Like” Ripe Pu’er is super easy to drink. The flavor is creamy, nutty and fruity without funky fermentation or mushroom. This would be a great first ripe pu’er or if you are more of a Sheng drinker want a less intense ripe. Either way, I quite enjoyed this one and would most likely try the other Hai Lang Haos that Yunnan Sourcing carries.
I think this pu’er could potentially preform well with extended steeps like in a tumbler or western style infusions as well. It could also do pretty good grandpa style.
Here are the links again for this cake as it is available on both Yunnan Sourcing.us and Yunnan Sourcing.com. I got mine from the .US link for cheaper shipping.
