2016 Yunnan Sourcing "Han Gu Di" Old Arbor Raw Pu'er

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Beany, Floral, Pineapple, Bitter, Sweet, Mineral, Creamy, Fruity, Vegetal, Apple, Ginger, Guava, Mango, Wet wood, Tropical
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by x-ray
Average preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 3 oz / 103 ml

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9 Tasting Notes View all

  • “quick rinse, smells nice and fruity 12s/17s: Creamy texture, brief nice vegetal wonderfully refreshing bitterness. Some floral aspect, I think. Hint of pineapple. Heavy warm sweetness lingering in...” Read full tasting note
  • “Good leaf quality, initially slight bitterness, otherwise mainly rather indefinable sweetness. Good but without an independent character or recognizable qi. Images and more at...” Read full tasting note
    70
  • “Much like the 2016 Wu Liang, I’ve had a cake of this for close to a year, but this was my first time trying it out. The leaves are large and the cake loosely pressed so I was able to pry off nine...” Read full tasting note
  • “i got some 50g sample from GTG last year when the infusion was still yellow/orange and very fruity. i didn’t notice any bitter notes, it just tasted like pure gummy bear. that’s when i ordered a...” Read full tasting note
    90

From Yunnan Sourcing

Han Gu Di village is one of the more remote villages in the Jinggu area, taking nearly 1.5 hours from Jinggu town to arrive there. Although there is a road that goes there, it’s nearly impassible during the rainy season. Han Gu Di village lies at an altitude of 1700 meters and is home to tea trees ranging in age from 80 years up to 500 years. Our Han Gu Di tea cake is made from tea leaves harvested 150-350 year old tea trees.

Our Spring 2016 Han Gu Di harvested tea is very strong tea, and from some of the oldest trees in our offering! The taste is bitter, sweet and savory. There is a creamy edge to the tea when it first enters the mouth. There is a strong mouth-watering feeling after drinking a few cups and the taste/feeling lingers in the mouth for 10 to 20 minutes after enjoying it. The Cha Qi is strong, but grounding. The brewed leaves are mostly dark olive in color, large (in scale), thick and stout stemmed.

Stone-pressed in the traditional manner.

Wrapper design by Ronald Visser

400 grams per cake (7 cakes per bamboo tong)
50 kilograms in total

This tea has been tested in certified laboratory and has passed the MRL limits for pesticide residues as established by the EU Food and Safety commission. For more information about MRL testing and the EU Food and Safety commission click on this link.

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

Company description not available.

9 Tasting Notes

28 tasting notes

quick rinse, smells nice and fruity

12s/17s: Creamy texture, brief nice vegetal wonderfully refreshing bitterness. Some floral aspect, I think. Hint of pineapple. Heavy warm sweetness lingering in my mouth and down my throat. Ears pop and crackle. Sleepy now.

23s: Still lovely creamy same initial good bitterness, but going maybe a bit beany (in a nice warm savory yums way) towards the end of the sip. The sweetness is a bit fruity after, lingering a nice long time deep in the throat.

30s/35s: That sort of savory hearty beany broth flavor sensation hits earlier now. Very tasty. I’m feeling a little floaty. (But see also paint fumes, exhaustion, and a bit of a cold. So who knows.)

40s/45s: Still pretty beany, but lighter, so it’s become very chuggable and refreshing.

51s/1min/1m10s/1m23s/1m30s: Sweeter and a bit floral again (melding with still some bean brothiness). No more bitterness anymore. Clearly winding down, but in a really enjoyable way.

1m40s: Definitely more wound down now.

Flavors: Beany, Floral, Pineapple

Preparation
Boiling 4 g 2 OZ / 60 ML

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70
127 tasting notes

Good leaf quality, initially slight bitterness, otherwise mainly rather indefinable sweetness. Good but without an independent character or recognizable qi.
Images and more at https://puerh.blog/teanotes/2016-han-gu-di-ys

Flavors: Bitter, Sweet

Preparation
8 g 3 OZ / 80 ML

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123 tasting notes

Much like the 2016 Wu Liang, I’ve had a cake of this for close to a year, but this was my first time trying it out. The leaves are large and the cake loosely pressed so I was able to pry off nine grams’ worth of leaves simply by inserting my pick just below the top layer and giving it the slightest of nudges. This was enough to cause the large intertwined leaves to start unraveling and thus I was essentially able to brew this session with the equivalent of mao cha. I did my customary 5s rinse followed by a 5 min. rest before proceeding with the actual brews. The rinse itself had a luxurious mouthfeel and taste, in the same way one might describe silver needle as luxurious.

I did eleven steeps total, the timing for these being 6s, 6s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 75s, 2 min. and 3 min. I was impressed by how effortlessly the first infusion flowed. It had one of the archetypal young raw flavor profiles I’ve seen before, but I’m not sure how to describe it in terms of actual taste. The second steep was darker in flavor and maybe a bit grainy both in terms of texture and taste.

The third steep had a very clean taste. There wasn’t anything that’s easily described in terms of concrete flavor notes. There was however a sweetness that emerged after you’d drunk the tea. Steep four was very reminiscent of a dan cong in terms of mouthfeel and taste. There was even some mild astringency that was very similar to what you’d find in a dan cong. The flavors were accompanied by a nice, very unique sweetness. The unique sweetness continued in the fifth infusion, this time being present immediately. The sweetness only got more potent as the tea cooled down. There were also hints of perhaps a vegetal character somewhere in the background.

Over the steeps the mouthfeel had gotten thinner at each step and the sixth steep was the first time I also saw a drop in flavor. The taste was predominantly mineral, nothing particularly interesting. The next steep was harsher, possibly due to the larger increase in steeping time. What was noteworthy about it was the qi. First my tongue started to swell and rise toward the roof of my mouth. Eventually my entire mouth and jaw felt numb like after being administered a local anesthetic at the dentist.

Steep eight presented even more harshness, but also more sweetness in the finish. The lasting aftertaste that was present in practically every steep in this session was particularly prominent here. Thankfully the harshness decreased in the ninth steep, although there was still some. The taste was mineral and sweet with a quite nice mouthfeel.

The second-to-last infusion wasn’t thick, but just for this one steep the mouthfeel returned back to being really luxurious and lubricating. The harshness was gone and the tea had become gentler and decently sweet. The mouthfeel was oh so nice. At this point I found myself starting to feel a bit silly and slightly tea drunk. Unfortunately the session was cut short quite abruptly as the eleventh steep produced hardly any taste while having a very nasty character to it. There was color, but to me the tea came across as dead.

Overall this is definitely a quality tea. It’s a shame I reviewed it right after the 2017 He Tao Di as that tea was so spectacular it would’ve been hard to get excited about anything short of awe-inspiring. The attribute that stood out most about this tea was the long-lasting aftertaste which you could expect consistently from each steep. Although the qi was ultimately nothing massive, its presence really helped lift this tea above some of the less noteworthy competition. There’s quite a bit of cumulative sweetness already and I would expect this to only enhance as the years go by. Although not very consistent during this session, at its best the mouthfeel of this tea was very good and just like the sweetness I hope it will improve over time. During the middle steeps there were times when I wouldn’t have been able to tell this apart from a dan cong, which might make this an interesting one to try for fans of dan cong teas.

Flavors: Mineral, Sweet

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 9 g 4 OZ / 130 ML

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90
16 tasting notes

i got some 50g sample from GTG last year when the infusion was still yellow/orange and very fruity. i didn’t notice any bitter notes, it just tasted like pure gummy bear.
that’s when i ordered a full cake from YS that just arrived (early 2018).
i realize the cake from YS has aged faster than from the storage of GTG.
Colors of the brew are now pure orange, and slight aged notes already come out and make it taste a bit like earthy ground ginger powder.
after a few steeps the fruity and fresh aroma still comes out again and makes it a very recommended sheng right now (jan 2018).
i am already excited about the 2018 han gu di YS cake as the 2017 tasted a bit different but has quite the quality and fruity notes to it again.
part of the leaves are HUGE. and by that i mean among if not THE largest leaves i ever saw in Sheng Puer.
for me it was the best out of 10 sheng samples from GTG and that’s why i give it a score of 90.

Flavors: Apple, Ginger, Guava, Mango, Wet wood

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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89
289 tasting notes

I purchased a sample of this based on the positive reviews. The leaves are huge, I could barely fit them in my pot. The tea brews a very thick broth, with excellent clarity. The buttery-ness of young sheng is present early on. The flavor is pretty good, I would say it has heavy base notes with very little top notes. In other words, it is thick and heavy and strong tasting, but light on more subtle notes, like fruit or citrus. It also has very little bitterness, just a touch. For me, that is a minus, as it is not aggressive enough for my tastes. Bottom line is that the quality of this tea is excellent, and it lasted longer than I could drink. It is very sturdy. Qi was mellow.

tanluwils

Interesting! I purchased two cakes because I found it to be fantastically bitter and have great qi. It’s hard for me to pin down distinct flavor notes for this one, as it’s still evolving quickly in my tupperware pumidor, but I like where it’s heading.

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78
30 tasting notes

[Finals are soon, and I am too busy studying to write a good length review sorry!]

It was quite beautiful out, today so I decided to take out my first raw in a while and taste it outide. This tea was alright, it was extremely bitter at first with a fruity pineapple taste. It was very light and enjoyable for the warm day outside. It took around 2 steeping for the bitterness to fade, then it was a very tropical and mango taste from there on. This tea was also a champ still brewing out tasty brews until the 10th or 11th steeping! I’m sure someone else might have enjoyed this tea, but I think I am more of a fan of the complexity and darkness that a ripe gives me, though this was still very enjoyable!

Flavors: Bitter, Fruity, Mango, Pineapple, Tropical

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
mrmopar

Going to get you hooked on this puerh stuff you know…..

Youssef

Haha, I have found that I reeeeally like ripes! At first I thought that I wouldn’t like ripes and the tastes that they give, but now I find that it’s really enjoyable to me!

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84
6 tasting notes

2016 ‘Han Gu Di’ Old Arbor [YS via greenteaguru]

For some reason I couldn’t wait to get my hands on some of this stuff. Brewed up 5g of the great looking leaves in one of my favorite high-fired 80ml zhu ni pots. The session starts out pretty mellow with quite a bit of sweetness, the main theme are florals and honey, leaving a complex honey-ish aroma in the empty cup after the first few steeps; the outside of the pot smells of my ex’s skin :lol: . The tip of my tongue and my gums slightly tingle through the entire session, my empty stomach feels OK, steep by steep there’s more bitterness coming through, but the florals and honey are remarkably steadfast and turn into a long, intense aftertaste – pretty impressive. I got more than 10 interesting steeps out of those 5g and could easily smell the aroma of the 12th steep from 2ft away – not too bad.
This tea reminds me a lot of Honza’s 2015 Old Tree Mengsong but I’d prefer this one over the more affordable, slightly sweeter (candy) and thicker but less durable and complex chawangpu.
If I miss anything here it’d be dynamics, there are just no twists and turns to talk about but I guess I’ll get a cake anyway.

Preparation
5 g 3 OZ / 80 ML
mrmopar

I got one aging away…

tanluwils

This one has good depth from the start. I think you made a good choice.

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91
11 tasting notes

Wet Leaves: Complex, like a high end white wine. Lots of heady florals, fresh cut grass, dish soap, and a tiny bit of tropical fruit scent. After steep two, the scent of boiled/steamed dandelion greens becomes prominent.

Early Steeps: Gentle. Sweet. Floral. Tastes like silver needle.

Middle Steeps: Vegetal kuwei steps forward. Sweetness begins to fade and savoriness takes it’s place as the mouthfeel begins to penetrate your tongue. I’m growing light headed and mildly tea drunk.

Tail End: Mouthfeel coats your whole palate, the kuwei takes on a soapy flavor, and the general flavor has transformed into boiled greens. Also, full on tea buzzed.

Verdict: I don’t have a ton of experience with young sheng, but this seems like really high quality material. Even though the liquor doesn’t carry all the heady aromas of the wet leaf, the general flavor of the is very tasty. It has only a moderate complexity of flavor, but somehow that flavor has an intangible depth to it. Maybe that’s what “gushu” is all about.

Very good tea.

tanluwils

There is certainly a depth to this tea that isn’t easy to articulate, and that I haven’t experienced in other alleged gushu teas.

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145 tasting notes

I appreciate sheng with depth, power, and kuwei, or pleasant bitterness. I might as well admit that I am a total sucker for descriptions/tales of teas that come from remote mountains—especially if they’re accompanied by photos. Scott knows this well. Needless to say, I had high expectations for this tea.

The dried leaves in my sample are mid-sized spindly tendrils that smell of sweet grass and wild flowers. Wet leaves are of a candied, high floral aroma. Steeps 1 to 6 start out soft and candy-like, then quickly turn towards a dandelion greens-type of bitterness quickly replaced by high sweet floral and raw honey notes. After steep 2 the tea soup becomes thick and heavy with with the sweet (floral), bitter (dandelion greens), and savory mingling together.

Those flavors are accompanied by a delightful, saliva-inducing, very strong mouthfeel that quickly fills the mouth and throat and lingers for a long time after drinking. It’s as euphoric as it is tranquil. The energy is out of this world. It sets in my entire body. I am transported back to that remote, high altitude forest whence these leaves came. At this point, I don’t care where they came from because this is powerful stuff.

Edit: I recommend very short 5 sec steeps until 6. As the bitterness increases with each steep so does the huigan and mouth feel. The empty cup and cha hai are covered in an intense tropical orchid fragrance. I can see this tea becoming more textured and impactful in the coming years.

JC

“Wet leaves are of a candied, high floral aroma” sigh ‘Dammit!’ adds to cart

mrmopar

Yeah, I am already going to get shot when I place the next order…..adds more to cart…..

tanluwils

You two did the right thing. :) These trees do not appear to be over picked. This tea is wonderfully deep and pure. It seemed much more aromatic than the others I’ve tried and the bitterness/huigan is just exquisite.

Simon Sim

I am delighted with this too. I got a full cake and is considering to buy the 2017 edition.

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