Fengqing Wild Tree Yesheng Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake 2014

Slight smokiness, sweetness on the finish, savoury complex flavour reminiscent of fish. Berries and grapefruit on the aftertaste.

I’m not going to remember which of the few samples I ordered and which of the few Teavivre sent along, so thanks for all of them, Teavivre! The leaves of this sheng pu-erh cake are huge – probably because they are wild. I was expecting a tough pu-erh since the leaves are ‘wild’, but the result is nothing of the kind! (Maybe the ancient trees are tougher than the wild anyway.) But I’ve also been sipping many wild black teas lately and also assumed this one might have a bit of the tangy characteristic that wild black teas have. But this pu-erh doesn’t meet anything I was expecting. After a thirty second steep, the flavor is very sweet and syrupy for a raw pu-erh, with a starchy texture somehow. The flavor is like creamy lemon and apricot if you can stretch the imagination a bit. All three steeps somehow manage to maintain that very flavor profile and doesn’t get bitter or oversteeped at all. The third steep is still light and sweet and could probably continue for many steeps past the third. I think I’ve managed to perfect how I like my sheng to brew. Very mellow and perfect for someone just starting out with raw pu-erh, to get an idea of the flavor. I think this is a very nice raw pu-erh, though I would prefer it to have a little something special about the flavor for it to really stand out. But I’m happy with the consistency to the steeps that I rarely see with raw pu-erh, especially if the tea is from wild leaves. I’ll be interested to see how this one ages.
Steep #1 // half sample for a full mug (about 5 grams) // 20 minutes after boiling // rinse // 35 second steep
Steep #2 // 25 minutes after boiling // 40 second steep
Steep #3 // 23 min after boiling // 40 second steep

The dry leaves consists of long dark green tendrils. These leaves carry the tantalizing aroma of dried apricot and tobacco. I placed these lengthy beauties in my yixing and gave them a shake. A heavy smoky aroma of oak filled my tea room. I began to brew right away. The steeped leaves smelled of leather and wild greens. I was able to pull a great many steepings out of my yixing this tea session. This tea gives off the flavor of smooth smoke with a light vegetal tone. The qi from this brew is intense. it peaks quickly and hits hard, but then smooths out to a peaceful relaxation. This is one of my staples within my tea cupboard, and I am sorry to see the last of it go. I will definitely be purchasing more.

https://instagram.com/p/3bvLv9TGUR/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

Another rediscovered tea lost in my move that was so graciously given to me by Angel and Teavivre.

The leaves in this tea are stunning in their own right. Gorgeous greens and yellows begging to be steeped to wow your taste buds. Brewed, the liquor was a light, elegant gold. With all this gold one might think I am royalty. Not royalty, just incredibly spoiled with some of the best teas on the face of the planet.

Light, smooth and grassy this pu-erh knows how to treat your taste buds. Never was there any bitterness or astringency. Towards the end of the sip, there is a most gorgeous fruity flavor. Together with the grassy note I can not help but to think of Spring .

I don’t know how Teavivre does it, but their pu-erhs floor me every time. And I was able to get four steepings with maintained integrity while steeping it western-style-Incredible.

So how to say that with elegance ? I see no other possibility than that: This tea takes me out of my seat and I almost levitated … When I think that one year ago I was afraid to taste Pu-erh … if I had started with this one I would not have waited another 6 months to try the second.

I have a "packed"leaf typical since my sample is a piece of a cake . We can admire large pieces. This is a Pu- erh Sheng (raw and green) and not a shou .

Look at this beautiful whole leaves of a bright green and yellow…

The liquor is a light golden yellow . The taste was a festival of yellow fruit with delicious little acid notes. But that’s not all , it also has an herbal taste and even a taste of hay (although I am not stupid to the point of having already hay for dinner … but I ’m sure it has that taste , hay ) . Very little bitterness , just a touch .

This is simply exquisite . Thank you to Angel from Teavivre for allowing me to discover this delicious tea. It goes directly into the wish list … but why… why did I just pay my local taxes … misery …

You can see some pics of my session with this lovely tea here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/fengqing-wild-tree-yesheng-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake-2013-teavivre/

A huge thanks to Angel at Teavivre for this free sample! Sorry it has taken me so long to get to reviewing it – the weather got cold and I haven’t been in the mood for sheng lately with the weather, but today is warm and sunny, and I was reading sheng is good for allergies on a review somewhere so I will give it a shot, as mine are bad right now (well, lungs anyways).

Anyways, onto the tea review! The dry smell of the pieces of the cake (nice large ones I might add, perfect for a few brews) smells strongly of hay with some honey and crystallized sugar notes. I am going to try this first cup for 3 mins with boiling water, no rinse. As it steeps the cake piece breaks apart into lovely leaves.

Hmmm, the steeped smell to me is quite weird lol, almost a tobacco note in there! Strong almost grassy tones, and yes, that is definitely a tobacco note, at least to my messed up nose from allergies it is lol. I have never got that in a pu’erh before! We will see how it tastes!

Ah, the taste is much more pleasing :) very grassy, a strong green note, some green hay, and a tiny bit of honey. Also there is a smoky flavor kicking around in there too, maybe that’s where the tobacco smell was coming from. The flavors kind of go together but I am also finding it a bit tough to wrap my head around a green yet slightly smoky flavor. It actually reminds me of the days back in high school when I worked at a greenhouse/vegetable garden, on the days it rained – a lot of the ladies smoked there, so there was a hint of smoke in the air usually, mixed with that wet dirt and vegetables smell, along with wet hay from the nearby fields. I can actually picture it just like when I was there from this tea! Crazy, I love how teas can evoke good memories :) Oh and a sense of a tea buzz is definitely coming on, I will go slow with this cup lol.

Overall, this is a heck of an interesting tea! I have never had a sheng or any variety of tea for that matter that is like this. I’m also at a loss for how to rate this, I can’t decide if I like it or if it’s too weird for my tastes lol. But I am happy I got to try it as always!! I love broadening my tea tastes :)

I started drinking this yesterday afternoon. It started of with a rich creamy texture, developing into a fruity taste, at least to me. I did a rinse today to freshen the leaves & then drank several more steepings this evening. I’d like to give a much more in depth review, but I’ve been doing desk work this whole time & although I thoroughly enjoyed each steep & am enjoying the good energy, I just don’t really have much else to say.

I’d like to thank Angel & Teavivre for the generous sample, & there is enough that I can drink it again, so I’ll try to be more focused next time :)

Another hearty thanks to Angel and Teavivre for this sample!

When it comes to Pu-erh tea, people in my realm seem to be divided into two main camps: those who love it and those who (to put it kindly) detest it. Personally, I am a proud card carrying member of the first group so I was anxious to try this new offering from Teavivre. My wife, however, is almost sickened by anything Pu-erh. She hates the smell and taste of it and doesn’t even like to be in the same room when I am brewing or drinking it.

I will start this review by warning you that if you are already predisposed to disliking Pu-erh tea, the initial opening of the package of this one will probably not miraculously endear you to it. The consistency of the dark brown Pu-erh “cake” reminded me of the two-day-old cut grass that becomes dried and jammed in the chute of my lawn mower. The unbrewed aroma is also a little reminiscent of compost. However, do not give up on it at this point! You’ve come this far. Be brave! Steep it!

I brewed the cake and remaining loose leaves for two minutes at 212 degrees. The color was like no Pu-erh that I had ever experienced. Instead of the dark muddy brown that I was used to with the Pu-erhs of my past, this one had a very light gold color. It was almost as light as green tea. The aroma had a grassy attribute that was, again, like green tea. Nowhere to be found was the strong earthy odor that seems to accompany many Pu-erh selections.

The taste of this tea was completely devoid of the expected leathery and earthy flavors that I usually find in the Pu-erh teas that I have tried. The taste of this one was light, smooth, and grassy. The flavor again reminded me more of green tea than either black or Pu-erh. At that point, I decided to stop comparing it to my Pu-erh acquaintances of days gone by and began enjoying it on its own merit.

This tea is quite tasty. The flavor is without astringency and is light and airy. I would liken the taste to a meadow of freshly mowed grass. The aftertaste is very mild and quickly diminishes.

I like this new product from Teavivre. It may be a good alternative to reintroduce the Pu-erh haters to this variety before they attempt to jump back on the traditional robust Pu-erh wagon.

I wonder if the untraditional characteristics of this tea are related to it being advertised as “raw” Pu-erh. It just goes to show you that, as in most areas of life, when you think you’ve seen (or tasted) it all, you haven’t.

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

Dry leaf in the package smells sweet, like chocolate (didn’t expect that!)

First steep had a rush of flavours that I did not anticipate. It was a bold, heavy liquor with the flavors of mushrooms, wood, dark veg, moss and reminded me a bit of unsweetened chocolate. I expected it to be bitter (due to its age), but it was tolerable and somewhat went with the other flavors.

Second through third steeps increased in flavor but otherwise were similar in taste.

On my fourth through eighth steeps brought out a strange aftertaste. It’s hard to describe the exact flavors but the aroma brought back the memory of drinking dan cong oolongs. The aftertaste flavor took a while to develop, but on each subsequent steep (since fourth), the flavor was brought on sooner and stronger. It’s really weird for me to connect the flavor with dan cong oolongs, but that is where my memories of tea flavor keep pointing to.

Ninth to eleventh steeps were much weaker and less bitter than the rest, but the aftertaste flavor only increased. I don’t usually care to drink all of my later steeps, but I really enjoyed them with this tea.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this puerh. It’s very different from the other sample I was provided (Fengqing Ancient Tree Raw Pu-erh Cake 2014). I found the bitterness to be much more tolerable, and it dropped off significantly in the later steepings. Having experienced the aftertaste present from the fourth steep onward, I can’t imagine steeping this western style. Each short steep brought out many different flavours that I wanted to savour. If I were in a better situation to keep/store/age puerh I’d considering getting some of this tea. Admittedly I’m a fairly inexperienced raw puerh drinker, but this is one of the better puerhs I have tried.

So after having a nice little conversation with Sarsonator, I decided to break open one of my many puerh samples from TeaVivre. She recommended a pseudo-gong fu method of combining three steeps into one mug and then repeating that. The dry leaves are in small chunks and flakes from being broken off of a cake. The color ranges from dark evergreen to slightly purple. Dry scent is rather strong smoke, which surprised me! Also eucalyptus or menthol and slightly mushroom notes.

So, I did a 10s rinse. Then 10s, 15s, 20s steeps combined into one cup. After that I did 30s, 40s, and 50s combined. I found then to be quite similar so I’m just going to consider both cups as one experience.

Brewed aroma was pretty much the same as dry, but much milder on the smoke and methol. The taste was much lighter than I expected it to be. There’s a mild hay or grassy flavor that forms the base, and I can definitely see the “barnyard” descriptor here, but in a good way. The smoke and the menthol hit at the back of my tongue and throat, along with a slight peppery taste. All three are quite mild. There’s a definite dried fruity flavor, comparable maybe to dried apricot or prune.

I got an interesting tingly feeling in my mouth that I wasn’t expecting! I wasn’t sure whether I enjoyed it or not, to be honest. It somewhat made my tongue feel like I’d eaten too many sour candies… And I could definitely feel it making a difference in my heart rate and a little bit in my head. Interesting! Now my chest kind of hurts, so not sure what that’s about…

Thanks Sars for all the advice! :) I’m really unsure how to rate this, so I guess I’ll just go for it?