I was sent an assortment of puer from Yunnan Sourcing, organized by Mattcha, packaged as a blind tasting a la Half Dipper blog style. I had no idea what these teas are, but there will be an answer key at the end. There are a number of other bloggers who have already done this tasting with this set, and I’ve gone out of my way to ignore their work until I had this done. Sorry Cwyn and TeaDB. My notes are likely a little different as they got theirs done in January, and my slow owl ass drank the teas in February and March, so I had additional airing time.
I can handle around 3 blind tastings of sheng puer at once, but 6 is too much and I figure there will be some heavy hitters present. I decided to drink them all separately as full-sized sessions, in somewhat random order, but laid out in order for reading ease. I say somewhat random order as when I opened them all to smell, I discovered the oddball packaged Zeta tea is a funky shou. I decided to leave Zeta till last, so I left open to rest and air out.
My approach is just to drink all these teas and see what I taste and like. No guessing of tea region nor searching all of Yunnan Sourcing for clues, just me having a blind exploration of a bunch of puer. If you read my blind region tasting of Everyday Teas sheng 2016 and 2017, I learned guessing puer regions is total hell, highly variable, and full of bias, plus these Yunnan Sourcing teas could be blends. With the huge selection at Yunnan Sourcing, blind tasting sampling is a treat for me for my own tea buying.
All teas were steeped with 1 gram of leaf to 15 ml of vessel size, gongfu style in boiling water.
Alpha
Alpha’s dry leaf has a tobacco scent, with the wet leaf being even more so. I wasn’t much looking forward to this with this first impression.
First and Second Infusion: Alpha sips in as a savory vegetable carrot and tobacco stew but finishes with a mineral sweet note like sucking on a rock in spring water. Some sips have a pan burned subtlety to it. As I sip on, I get more of a peachy aftertaste and a lightly dry sensation on the tongue. The texture is slick and oily, making me double check that I actually took off my lipstick before this tea session.
Third and Fourth Infusion: Alpha is a complex tea as I keep drinking and I keep changing my mind on what I am tasting. The hot leaf now smells sweet. Some sips I can taste pan scorch, others are sweet peach skins, some are a little tart, while other sips have a slight dry bitterness going on. The body feel has a solar plexus punch to it, just to add to the confusion. The aftertaste is a fleeting peach flavor.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: Now the puer has a strong apricot jam flavor, including some sweetness. It is thick in texture with a high fruity aroma I can smell as I drink. Some sips have a bitterness, but overall the apricot flavor has taken over. There is some dryness on the tip of my tongue, but it keeps the aftertaste going. I also feel like my head is getting pinched and still chest punchy.
I got quite tea drunk and time went missing here. Part of me wanted to go lay down and sleep it off, the other part wanted to go bake biscuits.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: The 7th infusion was ultra light, so I did a power steep on 8th which made it an undrinkable stew bitter concentrate of doom enough to pop your eyes out of your sockets. It was good while it lasted.
Comments: Alpha started alright, I was expecting a tobacco savory tea. The more I sipped, the more complex of a tea unraveled into a fruity complex bomb of tea drunk and then finished in a fiery explosion of bitter.
Alpha is a darn good tea. Probably expensive with the amount of complexity and texture going on, plus the tea drunk feels. I gave up on the rest of my afternoon and laid down face first on the bed in some tea drunk stupor until I got hangry for biscuits.
Beta
Out of all the teas, this one smelled the best to me. Beta smells strong, sweet, and fruity. The hot leaf also smells alluringly fruity and nice.
First and Second Infusion: Beta has light, creamy, sweet lemon drop notes. The texture is silky slick with a stale floral potpourri aftertaste. I am surprised how light this tea tastes despite its strong scent.
Third and Fourth Infusion: Beta has gotten a little stronger in flavor with a note of dried peaches, but still not much flavor and on the watery side. The aftertaste is where it is at, also being stone fruit and stale floral. This tea reminds me more of a fruit infusion than a puer if I didn’t see leaf and the caffeine pow was not there. Beta is quite easy going to drink as it is soft and sweet – I feel I should be drinking this in the summer, not winter.
Fifth and Sixth Infusion: Strangely, the leaves smell done here and look fully expanded, despite not having many infusions but I will keep going.
I stewed this tea good, so it tastes like boiled lemons, bitter broccoli, umami crazy, and sharp grass. The aftertaste is good and fruity, but with the odd burp of bitter stewed vegetal green death.
Comments: Beta smelled promisingly good but was a soft, fruity floral puer. It was on the watery side but had good texture. I figure this one needs bit more time to tighten up but would be a great tea for a newer puer or green tea happy drinkers. For my tastes, this is too green tea like in its current state. The gut rot on this one is surprisingly low, this tea is really easy going.
Delta
Not much scent from the dry leaf as I mostly can smell the foil packaging than the tea.
In the hot teapot, I can smell a slight pungency that made me think this will be a bitter gut rotter. For the hot wet leaf, I get a sticky rice, nutty, and pungent scent.
First and Second Infusion: Early infusions are light with little flavor. It has a milky feel to it with an aftertaste of sweet citrus. It isn’t particular vegetal, bitter, dry, or floral. It starts off unoffensive, gentle, and a bit forgettable.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: The tea has finally developed a texture. It is sticky in the throat and mouth, with the texture lingering after each sip. The flavor is still quite faint, but there are some bitter stewy vegetable notes brewing and gaining power.
Sixth Infusion: I do enjoy when teas get like this. Delta is gluey in texture, a little bitter, hint of pomelo citrus, and I can feel the tea gluing my digestive track. It has a refreshing citrus aftertaste, and the light dryness and high sticky texture make me feel like I could accidentally chop on the inside of my cheeks if I’m not careful.
Seventh and Eighth Infusion: I got 8 infusions, with the final ones being intensely bitter and stewed vegetable concentrate tasting.
Comments: I found this tea unassuming at first, a puer I could serve mindlessly with a meal. It begins to develop a good sticky texture and bitterness, making it more interesting. A great tea for texture drinkers. It did give my early on sheng-hangry feelings At steep 7 I needed food and I wasn’t even done the session.
Epsilon
Epsilon is the second best smelling sheng of the bunch. It is lightly floral and sweet. However, the hot leaf has a cooked jalapeno scent.
First and Second Infusion: At first, I don’t get much flavor in the first couple sips. With each sip, a flavor builds in my mouth but not from the liquid itself. It is building a bitter ladder, with slightly tart green pepper skin notes. Some sips have a bit of honey essence. The texture is slick. The lingering aftertaste is cigarettes.
Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: Epsilon dead on tastes like a jalapeno now, with that bitter pepper vegetal taste, but without the spice. I am craving the jalapeno now, I could go for those, on top of nachos. Oh no.
Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Infusion: Epsilon got harshly bitter. The tea starts off light in flavor but finishes like a 100 bitter jalapenos. Interestingly there is a potent floral aftertaste now, which is the only reason why I keep drinking it as the balance is well done. With each infusion, the flavor slips more, but getting more astringent and harsh, but interestingly throwing in some good salivation. The floral aftertaste is nice.
Comments: Epsilon is bitter yet balanced with aroma. Some might like it now, but this is a puer out of the bunch that you probably should buy now while it is cheap, then age to drink later. It has great potential with the variety of notes, good aftertaste, texture, and bitterness.
Gamma
Gamma has a dry peach skin scent. The hot leaf smells like tart cooked granny smith apples.
First and Second Infusion: Gamma is light, crisp, and sweet, like biting into a juicy apple with a lot of snap. Notes are soft, with a bit of tart watery apple. Gamma is refreshing, no bitter or astringency, but not much for aftertaste or body. It sips in on the thin side.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Infusion: Gamma is still light on flavor, watery and thin. The flavor is developing more as I cook the leaf. It is getting a bit more astringent each infusion, and slightly more tart fruity in taste. It is pretty close to eating a dry tart apple. The dryness is adding some salivation encouraging me to drink.
Sixth and Seventh Infusion: Gamma has gotten stewed so it is dry and bitter. It is still soft and tartly fruity and has a sweet fruity aftertaste like fresh apple skins. I tried for another infusion but it was very stewy and bitter.
Comments: Overall, Gamma is a soft, sweet, fruity, and unoffensive puer. It isn’t bitter or dry for the bulk of the infusions. It is a sweet and soft tea for the type who enjoy young puer like it. It is an easy going spring feeling tea.
My tastes, this tea was cute in its current state, with easy drinking in the early infusions and salivation. It is also on the watery side, likely this tea needs more time to tighten up and get more flavor.
Zeta
Zeta is the odd tea out being the only shou. The dry leaf smelled rank wet piled when I first opened it. This is also coming from someone who is a whiner about young shou. I left this sample out in the open for 3 weeks and it lost the funk to become nutty smelling. The hot leaf smells like sweet hot dirt.
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Quite a sweet shou. Zeta has a creamy brothy smooth texture. The notes are woody, dirt, and milk chocolate. I am not getting any tart, wet pile, or fish, but it is on the lighter side of flavor for the early infusions.
Fourth Infusion: I was a dummy and over steeped the shou on this infusion as I thought I didn’t have water already in the teapot while I waited for water to boil. Oversteeped wasn’t bad. It is strong walnut and earth notes. I do taste some wet pile funk finally, but it is slight. The colour also was inky death.
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Infusion: Not over steeped, Zeta is a pleasant sweet shou with a great balance of earth and woodsy. Each steeping (ignoring the oversteep) is getting a touch sweeter and milky, but also losing the earth notes. It has an excellent smoothness and is becoming a sweet treat every infusion.
Comments: This is you can’t go wrong shou. It has a good balance of sweet, earth, and wood, but also a bit heavier on the sweet. I certainly did rig it by letting it air out for 3 weeks, so there is next to no young shou funk present. An unoffensive, solid drinker for everyone.
This would be the shou pick for me for someone wanting a solid shou from Yunnan Sourcing. It used to be Green Miracle, but that one is long gone.
Owl’s Picks
Zeta, though the only shou and I aired out the sample for weeks, was quite good. I enjoyed the balance of woodsy and earth, with strong sweet notes.
Alpha was my favorite of the shengs. It had the most complexity of notes and whatever was in it got me the tea feels.
Epilson has the most aging potential, and I enjoyed the trashy bitterness and floral aftertaste.
The Reveal!
Alpha = 2017 Mu Shu Cha From Big Snow Mountain, Lincang. Comes with a promise of strong cha qi. CHECK! I am right on the ball on this tea! $120 a cake, it is expensive but dat cha qi is nuts.
Beta = 2017 He Tao Di Village. Jinggu area tea. Yunnan Sourcing described it as a thick, bitter, pungent, umami, sweet, and floral tea. I did get the bitter and umami, but this tea was very light.
Delta = 2017 Jing Mai. Mixed varietal Jingmai region tea, with mention of sweetness and aroma. I wouldn’t have guessed this was a Jing Mai puer, I didn’t get the sweetness or aroma, but found great texture.
Epilson = 2017 Qing Mei Shan Yong De, Lincang area puer. Noted thickness, pungency, floral, balance, and cha qi. This is certainly the winner for price point ($61 per cake), being the cheapest tea of the selection and one that stood out to me. It is acquired taste bitterness, but the balance with the floral makes this puer interesting.
Gamma = 2017 Autumn Yi Bang. Yiwu area, with high bitter and astringency. I actually had this tea before and I didn’t notice. Blind puer tastings are the owl poos. This is the most expensive tea of the bunch too.
Zeta = 2017 Rooster King Ripe. 6 region blend shou, 2014-2016 material. Described as dried fruit and sweet. I certainly found the description accurate and dang $25 a cake, this tea is worth buying at least a cake now. I am personally buying a cake at the next sale. I also have had this tea, but certainly my aggressively airing out went a long way.
(tea provided for review)
