I sampled 2017 Mountain Oasis sheng puer at my visit to Denong Tea’s shop in Pasadena, California. From what I tried, I was very impressed with the texture of it. However, they steeped it far lighter and cooler water temperature than what I do myself. I purchased a 100 gram cake to play with and push to the tea limits. 2017 Mountain Oasis was also priced on special at the time, making it a great deal.
2017 Mountain Oasis is a Spring harvest, from Xishuangbanna region. It apparently is made from 300 year old trees affected by the drought of the season.
Dry Leaf and Steeping Method
The puer cake has a green olive shade with lots of silver looking leaves and smells pungently peachy.
I used 1 gram of leaf to 15ml of vessel size, gongfu style steeped in boiling water. The hot leaf smells intensely peachy.
Tasting of Denong Tea’s 2017 Mountain Oasis Sheng Puer
First, Second, and Third Infusion: 2017 Mountain Oasis sheng puer is light in flavor but pleasant. It has a soft peachy note and creamy, with each steeping it gets a bit more savory. The body is super slick and heavy, like drinking heavy cream. Right away, I notice this is a tea to be savored. If I wait after each sip and the aftertaste builds up a cooked white peach and floral incense flavor.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: Mountain Oasis gets sharper and more savory with each infusion. The tea is still light but has a savory, beany brothy bitterness with a cooling spring dew and peachy aftertaste. The texture is still super smooth and slick. It is an interesting sip as it certainly tastes like a dry, compactly flavored tea, but light and airy like flowing winds of a desert, but with an aftertaste of cool drench of rain and dew. Mountain Oasis is refreshing for a tea with a bitterness to it.
The energy in Mountain Oasis is intense too. Starting at around 3rd or 4th infusion, I could feel my eyes passionately on fire. It has an inspirational surge of “I can do anything”, including the massive laundry pile I have procrastinated on. The infusions started to blur here, paired with me starting to pace around the house to burn some energy, so my infusion number paired with a certain tasting note are likely off.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: This tea is has gone chill. It sips in one smooth mellow note of savory mineral cream broth, with a fresh vegetal aftertaste. It is addictively smooth and easy to drink, yet the texture and body feel makes you slow down and savor. It has a touch of bitterness and I finally get a little bit of drying on the tip of my tongue.
Ninth and Tenth Infusion: I pushed these infusions long, steeping around 5 minutes. The flavor is now sharp, wet stones, and clean. It tastes like I’m sucking on a quartz crystal. I can see this tea responding well to a good spring water to amplify the later infusions. It is more astringent, starting to make my cheeks feel chewy, but adds a salivating element after each sip. The dryness is still easy to drink.
Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Infusion: 15 to 30 minute infusions done here to steep out the tea. I am jittering all over the place. Mountain Oasis is now sharp, bitter, yet bright mineral amber, and woodsy sap flavor. It is still smooth, salivating, and refreshing. It isn’t stewy, boiled to death vegetal like much other young puer get after many infusions. I tried for a 14th infusion but got no flavor out of it.
The energy is just nuts. I can feel my heart rate turned to 11 and my hands are shaking. I got an intense sheng-hangry craving for sticky sweet and spicy Korean fried chicken and burritos. When I had this tea in California, I ended up eating a whole lot of Hawaiian food.
Tea Owl crashed and is sleeping on Sluggert.
With my higher leaf and boiling water temperature, it certainly brought out more texture and tea drunk, vs the lighter leaf and cooler water. In the end, it is a fairly easy going tea.
Comments
Denong Tea’s 2017 Mountain Oasis sheng puer is a complex, textured and an energy focused tea. I also found it steeped easy, despite boiling water infusions the tea didn’t get too bitter or dry. I am surprised a tea this young didn’t get stewy or harsh in the later infusions.
Mountain Oasis sheng puer is subtle and approachable. This would be a great tea to have as a group of all levels of puer drinking – complex and layered enough for a seasoned drinker, not too bitter and super smooth for a new puer drinker, and plenty of energy to make it party time. I suggest hitting a taco truck after the tea session. Mountain Oasis isn’t a tea for people who want strong flavor or aroma addicts – I would suggest 2015 Enchanting Beauty instead, which is also a killer awesome tea.
I feel 2017 Mountain Oasis is one of the best 2017 sheng puer I’ve had so far. I loved the complexity, thick texture, and high energy. I regret not buying at a 357 gram cake when it was priced low as Denong Tea had it priced on special during 2017 to give back to their customers. You can purchase 2017 Mountain Oasis Sheng Puer at Denong Tea’s site. At this time it is $138 for 357 gram and $47 for a 100 gram cake. 10 and 30 gram samples are available.
