I’ve wanted Yunnan Sourcing’s Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White tea since around 2012 or 2013. I kept skipping it due to waiting for a sale or to put into the next big order (then forgot) and even a few times it got yanked out of my cart to meet shipping price thresholds. Other times it simply sold out before I could order. I went hard on white tea for 2018, or at least it became that way as white tea is pretty good and not as painful as puer prices, so I bought a bag. A 250 gram bag.
2018 Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White from Jinggu, if you haven’t guessed, is a purple varietal grown in Jinggu. It is then processed Yue Guang Bai (Moonlight White) style. This being a wild tea also adds something special to the tea.
Leaf and Steeping Method
Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White blew me away when I got it. The smell is a fruity explosion, like pear and tropical orchard of my dreams. The leaf is a rainbow.
I used 1 gram of leaf per 20 ml of vessel size, gongfu steeped in boiling water. No rinse. 200F works as well but the flavour is not as intense. The hot leaf smells herbaceous sweet.
Tasting of Yunnan Sourcing’s 2018 2018 Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White from Jinggu
First and Second Infusion: 2018 Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White from Jinggu is an incredible unique tasting white. It is quite sweet and hits the tongue differently, similar to licorice and stevia, but also creamy. As the sip goes on, I can smell the tea from inside my mouth, as it blooms strong floral blades of grass and peaches. Some sips are herby tangy. The texture is oily on the lips and the feel of the heavy is dense. It is like drinking herby sweet pancake batter.
Third and Fourth Infusion: Wild Purple Moonlight White is densely thick, it continues to drink like pancake batter. I’m talking American fluff pancake batter, not the thin crepe batter. The body hit is a gut punch like I need a Helmich maneuver. It leaves a coating of aftertaste in my mouth that lasts awhile of fresh sweet herbs, aloe, peaches, and slight pine. There is also high salivation in the tea, making my mouth water after each sip.
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth Infusion: Wild Purple got strangely dark. The flavour is all in the aftertaste, as it sips in thick like drinking sugar sweet herby hand lotion, my body forces it down. The aftertaste shifted to be spinach, squash, and peaches. There is astringency making the back of my teeth feel dry, but it gets covered up from the salivation of the tea.
Ninth and Tenth Infusion: 2018 Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White is moderately dry, leaving my teeth to feel funny, but the tea is still trucking along. It did lose the heavy body but still has the salivation. The notes are distinctly cactus, melon, and sweet with that sweet spinach herby aftertaste.
Eleventh Infusion: I power steeped this last infusion for 10 minutes. It is the same level of dry being gritty toothed, but the flavour shifted. It’s somewhat malty, along with that same sweetness and herby notes. Very interesting how this tea put up with a long infusion. I’m suspecting some interesting ageing could happen in the long run. This infusion finally reminded me I was drinking a moonlight white! Before this I could be fooled it was some weird experimental white/sheng thing.
Comments
Yunnan Sourcing’s 2018 Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White is a unique tea, unlike other white teas. There is a lot of complexity, unusual notes combined together, and an excellent sweetness and dense body. What I find special about this white tea is the presence of an epic lingering aftertaste – that is a quality that isn’t in many white teas.
Overall, Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White is a tea for someone who wants something a bit different tasting, but especially if you are a thick body aftertaste junkie like me. You don’t need to be a white tea drinker, this one could appeal to young sheng, oolong, and green tea drinkers.
I’d buy Wild Tree Purple Moonlight White again and I also regret not dropping everything and buying it in volume years ago so I can have it aged now. I know the Jingmai Sun-Dried Three Aroma Baimudan was a hit this year, but you are missing out if you don’t get the Wild Tree Purple Moonlight white first.
