Yunnan Sourcing‘s Impression series have been blended to be an affordable ager. Years back I tried the 2012 and 2014 Impression, both which were floating around in tea community Traveling Tea Boxes. At this time, all the Impression cakes are $23-$34.50 for 357grams, which seems to attract unsuspecting new tea drinkers to a cheap young puer out of Yunnan Sourcing’s huge collection. With that, this tea has a rep in the tea community as BITTER, harsh, strong, gut bombing toilet bowl cleaners that scare tea drinkers who are used to a more gentle tea.
Now it is 2018. I have a full pumidor and I want teas I can leave there as I very well won’t get to finish them for awhile. The 2017 Impression cake is only $23. The wrapper I find strangely attractive, the reviews seemed promising, so I bit and purchased a cake with my last Yunnan Sourcing order.
I also laughed at Yunnan Sourcing’s videos reviewing the 2017 Impression. Scott loves to use a silver teapot, which are great teapots, but it is totally cheating as the silver adjusts the lesser enjoyed qualities of the tea. I’m using a glazed fast pouring teapot today for a more neutral tasting as well as most don’t have silver teaware.
By the way, this cake is meant to age. I am drinking it very young so likely reviews done in the future will change. 2017 Impression came out in Spring 2018, and it is June 2018. I let the cake rest for 2 weeks to get the shipping smells out of it.
Dry Leaf and Steeping Method
That is a pretty good looking young puer with nice ripples of greens and silvers. 2017 Impression has a clean, vegetal fresh, apricot creamy scent to the leaves.
I steeped this not holding back – 1 gram of leaf to 15ml of vessel size, with boiling water. The hot leaf smells like steamed rice wrapped in bamboo leaf with a smack of pungency. Pungency is likely going to be the word of the day.
Tasting of Yunnan Sourcing’s 2017 Impression Sheng Puer
First and Second Infusion: 2017 Impression’s early infusions are quite soft. It sips in light to start with a soft clean sweet mineral crystal note but then shifts to a clinging bitterness. There is a slight astringency as well, adding some dryness to the tip of my tongue. The aftertaste is fruity, leaning on underripe apricots without being sour.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: Oh yeah, this is an Impression cake, though it isn’t as strong as the previous ones, it still has a kick. The flavor is strong, of bitter pungent peaches in a silky feeling sauce. This tea has a strong fruity profile, with a lingering pungent fruity aftertaste. There is still a slight wateriness to this tea, but that’s just the youth talking.
In silver, this tea is banging, pullings out some the pungency and bitterness so you get a potent fruity, floral leaning tea. Going back and forth between cups is sad as the silver one is very drinkable and cheating. If I were to drink this tea again in its current youthful state for pleasure, I would use silver for sure.
Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Infusion: We’ve passed the face-kicking stage as this tea starts to weaken, thin, and stew. Surprisingly, it is not bitter stew tasting yet and has plenty left. The flavor is pungently bitter, like sucking on a stone fruit pit, with an aftertaste of tart apricots and peaches. Some sips have a cooked spinach note. It is drying on the teeth, making me want to brush them as I can feel the grit on them.
I also start to feel the energy here as I lost track of time and sanity. I was recently playing a demo of Birthdays The Beginning, which is a simulator that you can work with the environment to create life. I felt like I hit the time fast forward button and seeing all the dinosaurs evolve. There are velociraptors in the bushes.
Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Infusion: It is surprisingly still not stewy boiled greens tasting like I get in other young puer. It is hella bitter and dry. I can actively feel the enamel on my teeth. The fruit notes are gone, and I’m left with this mineral sweetness, like sucking on a spoon too long, with some light bitter nail-biter deterrent as an accent. The aftertaste is sweet and my lips feel balmy.
Twelfth Infusion: Power steeped, 15 minutes. 2017 Impression isn’t stewy, but light sweet mineral with a burp of fruit pit. Either I’ve been so used to bitter that this is fine, or the tea energy scrambled my brain. I bet I could have gotten more infusions with a dedicated pot and spring water would have done wonders. In silver, Impression tastes like it has been completely steeped out.
I’d say Yunnan Sourcing’s 2017 Impression has a Gut Rot level of Moderate-High. I had a large breakfast plus matcha in the morning, plus Greek yogurt and nuts in me 30 minutes prior in preparation. At around steep 3, my stomach started to rumble angrily. At steep 7 I had an unhappy tummy as I feel like something acidic is eating away at my stomach. However, my stomach felt tough and the tea couldn’t eat through. A mint took care of the pain instantly and some small snacks fully calmed it down. Impression’s bark is meaner than its bite and is easily calmed.
Comments
Yunnan Sourcing’s 2017 Impression is a balanced sweet, bitter, and astringent tea. It is quite bitter and astringent, but not as bad as previous years (or maybe I tolerate bitterness better and sick of light sweet things?). This tea you want to tuck away to age, but is drinkable now if you love bitter teas or got silver teaware. The con is that texture is on the thinner side, just with a bit of slick to it in early infusions. If the texture was thicker, I’d be wondering why this tea isn’t in the $50+ bracket instead of $23.
At the current price point, 2017 Impression is overall a good deal with a bit of tea energy as a bonus. Snag it now while it is young and cheap to drink much later. This is a tea I’d like to review again in a year or two to see how it changes.
