I drank Pin way back in 2015 when it was freshly pressed White2Tea club tea. Back then it tasted quite watery. I’ve heard it got good in the time it has rested.
2015 Pin Sheng Puer has been highly requested that I ReHoot review. I keep meaning to do more re-reviews of puer and aged teas, but I keep getting so much new stuff in it’s a little tricky to schedule around. As a reminder, 2015 Pin Sheng is Lincangy blend of 2013, 2014, and 2015 material.
Leaf and Steeping Method
For today’s review, I used 1 gram of leaf per 15 ml of vessel size, steeped in boiling water. Back in 2015 I was mostly messing around in 200F water.
The dry leaf and the hot wet leaf smells like wet wipes. My storage isn’t that bad, at least has never gone moldy. It does run pretty cold in the fall and winter, with my RH in the 55-60%s. Since drinking Pin for this review, I’ve added heat to my storage. I figure most of my stuff is ageing glacially and with 2 years on Pin, likely it’s still quite young but tightened up.
Retasting of White2Tea’s 2015 Pin Sheng Puer
First and Second Infusion: Pin is thiccc, I notice its viscosity well before the flavour. It’s dense slippery lubricant of a tea, the best NSFW kind of slip. The flavour is near nothing until the aftertaste slips in as a sweet floral kiss.
Third and Fourth Infusion: It seemed Pin needed some extra time to open up. It is still ultra thick, like drinking a vat of lube. The tea is light, but it is all aroma and astringency holding its hand. There is a touch of dryness, but that is the glue for the Pin lube to coat the mouth in a long lingering sweet apricot flavour. Pin is all the aftercare than the actual drink.
Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Infusion: Pin is sipping bitter but good. It is still thick soup but has some grit to it from the bitterness. It is tasting like apricot and a momma bird ate some flowers and spat it on me. I am also getting body feels. It is full on prog metal opera singing along with me feeling skin crawling agitated. I hate these yoga pants as now I can feel every stitch on them.
Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth Infusion: Pin shifted quite a bit here. It is sweet and minerally with some stale potpourri thing going on. It isn’t as thick but has an oily balm feeling. Each steeping it gets brighter, sweeter, and sharper in taste, but also going less bitter. It’s going in like I’m sucking on dry sugar floral candy. But with each steeping it is getting drier, leaving the backs of each tooth feeling dry.
Fifteenth Infusion: The last infusion is sweet like sucking on rocks and very dry. I think it could have more in it, but I’m stopping as I have a life, sort of.
Gut rot levels – low, but I feel like I ate at a very large salad with flowers in it. Fancy.
Comments
My tastes and things I’ve noticed have changed since 2015. What came out the most impressive about 2015 Pin Sheng Puer was the texture, something I’m not sure if I didn’t notice or wasn’t in the cake yet. My glacial storage that leans on the drier colder side certainly changed Pin to a sharper tea. It is still youthful, but it has that thick texture and aroma chaser that I chase for these days in a young puer. Either way, Pin got good, I’m glad I have a cake of it and happy how well it has changed over the years.
Pin did resteep much better after 2 years. I can’t believe this was $30 (club price) back in the day, but I justify the price jump to its current price of $68. I’m sure Pin is even better if purchased now as it has had better storage than mine.
