Yee On Tea

Now this is what I’m talkin about! Seems like there are three categories of flavors in puerh: tea notes, aging (fermentation) notes, and “storage” notes. My favorite of the three is certainly storage notes. I tasted it in the 1985 maocha from LP, and I taste it here. It’s the dusty, attic/basement, old library book notes that are my favorite :). They seem to only come with significant time of storage.

This one is perfectly balanced. Pretty sweet, very smooth. No bitterness or astringency. A bit of camphor, but nowhere near as much as the other two teas from YOT.

Dry leaf: Cardboard
Wet leaf: Cardboard, camphor
Flavor: Cardboard, library, dust, must, old books, basement, attic, camphor.

Sample from YOT. Not too bad, but perhaps not as complex as the first sample I tried. Not sure exactly what to think of it. More camphor and cooling. A lot less intense than the first cake I got as well.

Fairly sweet, especially in 1st and later infusions. Lasts 10+ infusions. No bitterness or astringency. Cooling mouthfeel.

Dry leaf: Cardboard
Wet leaf: Camphor
Flavors: Cooling, sweet, camphor

A trade get… unsure what vendor this is from, though the heavy heavy storage note makes me think Yee On. I also don’t know the year of my sample.

This tea sat beside me for nearly an entire day — I set up my session and started a book on the enneagram types. I took (succumbed to) about eight naps… pouring a steep when I’d wake up, eventually finishing my book and gong fu session. I didn’t realize quite how exhausted I was.

I think I’m a 4w5.

I was prepared for incredible nuance and intrigue with a shu/sheng blend, but this long-ass session fell short (hurr hurr) for me. It presented as a light (reddish) shu with dank basement notes. No cooling camphor or particularly interesting age to find. I really didn’t pick up any sheng pop or influence to speak of; I do wonder if a younger purple mark might not be more up my alley. I guess I’d be risking some wet pile aroma, but perhaps the sheng wouldn’t be fully consumed yet, as it seems here? Maybe… if that’s how this cake even works, who knows.

An enjoyable sample, which I’ll reach for when I’m craving a lighter ferment/heavier storage shu.