2015 Yunnan Sourcing "Hui Run" Ripe Pu-erh tea cake of Bu Lang Mountain

A nice ripe puerh for sure. I’ve had a sample for a couple of years I believe, but I just got to it. Has a strong, slightly sour note in the first couple steeps that I don’t usually encounter in shou. It wasn’t bad, but certainly unexpected for the first session. After that, I got a lot of earthy notes, some dry chocolate, like a very dark chocolate, and some very mild spice notes. Good body. A solid shou for sure. I might check out one of the newer versions of this one, considering it’s sold out now.

This tea is very good in my opinion. It definitely reminds me of the two earlier productions with more fermentation flavor. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor to this tea. But it was not unpleasant or fishy. It lasted maybe four or five steeps and then was largely history. I won’t disagree with the reviewer who noticed a dark bittersweet cocoa note although I really didn’t notice that myself. I noticed a bitter taste at first slowly turning to sweet. Even a fruity note in later steeps. I really enjoyed this tea.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 12.2g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. 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 tea was not done at twelve. I could have kept going but want to move onto something else.

Really firm (90-99% Cocoa) dark chocolate bitterness upfront with a nice dry hint of leather, somewhere within that powerful mix of chocolate and leather I get a hint at subtle fruity complexities which will probably reveal themselves in the coming years. Solid base of mulch, wet wood, and damp leaves with a persistent sweetness delivered through endless salivation in the cheeks. After a minute or so the dry bitter notes fade to reveal a very long and smooth lingering wetness which coats the back of the throat. After looking up more about the tea it seems that sensation is where the cakes name is derived from – “Hui Run”. The qi is forward and strong, it makes no attempt to hide how young it is.

It was enjoyable enough in its own way, but I would probably not visit it again until it’s had some time to develop. As is I wouldn’t rate this well, but with aging in mind I think it has a lot of potential. It’s definitely rough around the edges, but hey it’s less then a year old and has lost a lot of its off flavors. There’s enough heft to develop into something really special in my opinion – not a drink now kind of shou.

About 6-7g in 140ml Yixing pot, 95-100C water, starting with short 5s steeps and adding a few seconds with each re-steep.

After a couple of rinses and a couple of mild-tasting short steeps, this opened up and became mellow, sweet and rich with a pleasant ‘library’ kind of scent and taste like leather and old books – though idealised rather than musty. By about the fourth or fifth steep, the tea had a thick and glossy mouthfeel, and after a couple more steeps the taste and aroma of the liquor had changed to a mild high sweetness with a depth like dark, heavily-scented summer flowers and wood smoke – still with the glossy mouthfeel that I’m guessing is the ‘hui run’ from YS’s description.