2015 Yunnan Sourcing Qing Mei Shan Old Arbor Pu'er Tea

In the last year, this tea hasn’t changed much. It is still quite astringent with a complex profile of the vegetal and woody kind above all else. There is also a strong, almost quinine-like bitterness, nutty and grainy aspects, as well as a cinnamon spiciness.

Today, I compared it with a sample of a 2014 vintage. Interestingly, that one is a tiny bit greener in leaf colour and has a slightly lighter liquor colour, which might be either due to processing or storage (or both). Recently, I have actually moved the 2015 cake into my semi-aged sheng pumidor (for reasons of space rather than anything else), which could account for the quite different and more funky aroma.

Regardless though, the main difference I found was that the 2014 vintage has a sweeter and less complex aroma, and a more pungent taste with a heavy sweetness that dominates the aftertaste. In comparison, the aftertaste of the 2015 tea is more flowery, cooling and airy. The former has a slightly thicker body in early infusions, but the bulk of the session presents almost indistinguishable mouthfeel.

Brews a light gold, noticeably less green in smell and taste than the 2016 shengs I’ve been drinking.

The taste is moderately sweet and the mouthfeel is moderately thick, slight bitterness. Flavors of sugarcane, green wood, white grapes, pine, heart of palm, and a mild peachyness. Overall pretty nice, though not my favorite from YS’s collection.

This is a fairly tasty raw puerh tea. It did have a sour note at first, I’d say for only one maybe two steeps. Overall it was pretty good. It was sweet with little bitterness. Don’t know if the lack of bitterness means it won’t age well. I have heard that bitter teas age better. I don’t know if it’s true. This one was fairly typical for a young sheng with notes of apricots and stonefruits. If it hadn’t been for that sour note it would rate in the 90s.

I steeped this tea 12 times in a 70ml teapot with 5.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The leaves were not done but I figured I’d had enough caffeine.

The more tea from Scott’s 2015 pressing I try the more I want to make an order. This one is no exception. Good qi, great mouthfeel, and easy to drink.

The flavors aren’t overpowering in one direction or the other. This is more like a well-rounded, consistently smooth, drink. Mild astringency, mild floral notes, and mild bitterness. These traits compile to make a very drinkable and friendly liquor each steep.

After about 8 steeps this one turns bittersweet and is refreshingly consistent.

I tried the 2013 autumn version of this tea and was highly impressed. I think that’s a good indication of where this spring tea is headed. Without even opening the plastic seal of this cake I was met with a pungent aroma of well-ripened apricots. I was very excited to try this cake, but my experience tells me that waiting a day or so improves the flavor of any recently acquired tea that’s just been opened. Actually, with sheng pu’er, a couple of weeks is even better.

I mentioned in my last note for the 2013 version the importance of water quality. Since I’m brewing this at my parents’ house, I know their water differs based on having brewed the same teas with the same brewing vessels both here and at my place. I’m boiling water with special rocks I brought back from China called maifanshi (麦饭石) which I’ve been using for many years. Obviously, a Brita or Pur water filter works just fine. In fact, the rocks aren’t totally necessary, but they definitely make your water taste like natural spring water and bring out the natural sweetness and aroma from the tea.

Back to this tea: I’ve placed the dried leaves in a porcelain gaiwan. The leaves are well intact and the brewed leaves maintain that apricot aroma, albeit less pungent and accompanied by sweet flowery fragrances. Tea soup has a vibrant gold hue. The first steep (that I brewed too quickly) is very pure and has a simple sweetness, but wonderfully buttery texture and aftertaste that only get sweeter as it lingers in the mouth (huigan).

The second and third infusions are very clean, have more pronounced flavor notes of ripe apricot, sugar cane, and flowers, while accompanied by that smooth buttery mouth feel and extended huigan. That wonderful mouth feel and strong yet gentle aftertaste is what brought me back to this tea. I tend to prefer sharp spring flavors to mellow sweetness, but this one is an exception.

On the sixth and seventh steeps, the apricot sweetness is replaced by more flowery notes and a refreshing astringency that’s expected with new tea. The pure taste and powerful huigan are consistent, but the huigan has intensified and is very enjoyable. I plan to return to this tea next year.

Addendum:

This tea just keeps getting sweeter and fuller in the mouth. I’m not sure why teadb rated the Qing Mei Shan as underwhelming. It’s my one of my favorites from Scott’s 2015 line. This is a perfect example of how subjective tea tasting can be.