Yunnan Sourcing has some excellent house brand shou puer. With my last Yunnan Sourcing order earlier in 2019, I bought a cake of 2018 Warm Fuzzies as I was in the mood for inky dark shou. Warm Fuzzies is a blend of material from 2015 to 2018 from Lincang, Simao, and Xishuangbanna, in Yunnan China.
Leaf and Steeping Method
2018 Warm Fuzzies shou cake is a subtly marbled gold and brown. The scent is sweet, earthy, and like opening a bottle of India ink. I do not detect any wet pile weird smells.
I leafed harder for this shou, going 1 gram per leaf per 12.5ml per vessel size, gongfu steeped in boiling water.
The wet leaf smells sweet and woody, like baked goods on a wooden cutting board.
Tasting of Yunnan Sourcing’s 2018 Warm Fuzzies Shou Puer
First, Second, and Third Infusion: 2018 Warm Fuzzies shou steeps up inky dark right away and also tastes STRONG.
The shou tastes richly flavorful dried cherries with an inky sharp attack of woodchip laced dirt earth. Some sips have a wet pile sourness, but that seems to hide within the cherry notes. The finish is a sharp cherry sweetness that evapourates into earth notes in the aftertaste.
Warm Fuzzies’ texture is slightly silky.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: The fruity notes are slipping for a rich cherry wood taste with sweet sugarcane. Some sips have the dried fruit note. The flavor is still strong and rich. This infusion somehow got thicker, it sips in like heavy-duty lube coating the digestive tract. There’s a chest punching quality to this tea with the dense flavor and texture that makes for a meaty sip.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: Warm Fuzzies slipped in strength here. It sips in with a lubricating texture with a crystalline clean mineral and woodsy note. Some sips have a meaty umami quality. This tea is like drinking a meal, I’m feeling like I ate at a buffet.
Ninth Infusion: I squeaked out a ninth infusion, steeped for 20 minutes. Warm Fuzzies is light tasting, squeaky clean mineral, cherry wood, and sweetness.
Comments
Yunnan Sourcing’s 2018 Warm Fuzzies is a complex and rich tasting shou with notes that transition from dried fruits, wood, sugarcane, minerals, and umami. Warm Fuzzies is perfect if you love strong tasting shous and lots of personality in your shou. The blend of aged material and region certainly adds interest to this tea, it is a fun tea to share with others and see what they find.
I’m one of those weirdos who makes iced shou and Warm Fuzzies is a top candidate due to the fruity profile.
To compare Yunnan Sourcing’s 2018 Balance, both tea is similar in terms of being both dark and strong tasting, though profiles are vastly different. It’ll boil down to personal taste, whether you want more bittersweet chocolate or complex fruit shou.
