2013 Yunnan Sourcing Autumn Mang Fei Raw Pu-erh tea cake

I got this as a sample when I ordered some yixing pots from Yunnan Sourcing a while back. The dry tea smells very much of hay.

I’m a little nervous about being the only non-full fledged pu erh aficionado to write a note about this one. I’m such a n00b compared to the two experts on this page.

But nevertheless, I persist. I rinsed and let this sit for 15 minutes+ before steeping in the gaiwan at boiling: 5/5/7/7/10/10/20/30/40/60

The tea starts out a little pale yellow but gets darker to a sort of medium to light butter-lemon color that is clear.

The aroma reminds me of the taste of chocolate covered raisins — a little dried fruity, a little cocao-white chocolatey.

That’s a note I’ve been getting a lot from sheng and that I continue to find surprising. How can something that light in color have that sort of flavor? Maybe I’m the problem.

I’m finding a lot of the shengs I try to be quite awesome. I can’t remember the last time I had so many 90+ ratings.

Maybe it’s the novelty?

Breaking into this one a day after getting it? Yes indeed. I usually let these sit a few weeks in the pumidor to open up a bit. The dry aroma on this said “drink me now”. so I will. I rinsed this last night to prepare for this evening. The leaves are an olive color and look really nice in the Yixing. When hit with the hot water the aromatics of hay and flowers come to mind. I did 3 short steeps into one 10 oz. cup.There is a nice golden amber color to this one in the cup.
First sips say mang Fei for sure. Strong kick on this one. Very strong for an Autumn tea. It hits full on. Very thick active mouthfeel on this one. Fantastic tingle on the tongue with a bit of drying after sipping. The bitterness of this progresses from a sharp bite to a bit of drying a few seconds after to a semi-sweet floral grassy note. In terms of strength steep this one very quick. It is a very potent Autumn tea and has that kick butt attitude when you drink it. Very nice . They say the strongest teas age well, I think I am going to be really interested in this one in a few years. A truly wonderful Autumn tea.

I got a sealed sample pack of this tea from a new IRL tea-friend! We met on Facebook through a mutual friend who knows us both and that we are both big into tea. She happens to teach yoga classes in the same business complex my office is in! So last week I decided to try out one of her yoga classes and she gave me this tea. I gave her some random green tea samples, too. She basically only drinks green tea and her husband only drinks shou, so when they got a sheng sample free with a recent YS order they were happy to pass it along. I can’t believe I met someone IRL who had never heard of steepster but orders from YS :-O

ANYWAY, the tea is very nice! Syrupy thick liquor, nice bold flavor which is not too sweet or too bitter but has plenty of flavor. Floral overtones round it out. Lingering taste on my tongue and real nice Monday morning boosting cha qi!

Very glad I got to try it! :D