More tea tasting last week courtesy of Tarmo who has joined Yunnan Sourcing’s Sheng Pu’er Club. We tried four different Sheng Pu’ers. This time around we blind tasted each tea for three infusions. Then we wrote our own notes before comparing. Finally the details of the tea were revealed. It was a great experiment in showing just how differently people experience taste and flavours. For some infusions we had similar notes, for others, wildly different! A special mention should go to Jemima who experienced a plethora of aromas and flavours, as well as sensations in different parts of her body!
the infused leaves: front left - tea 4; front middle - tea 2; front right - tea 1; back - tea 3
Tea 1
The first infusion gave a pale golden colour in the cup with a nice fruity aroma of plums and peach. The taste was a punch of bitterness with a bit of earth thrown in. I could just about detect some peachy undertones though. The second infusion was still really bitter for me, I wasn’t getting along so well with this pu’er. However, the third infusion was a pleasant surprise. It mellowed out. The fruity aroma was stronger. And the taste was much smoother with the peach really coming through and the bitterness receding into the background. It felt like it was just coming into its own.
This was the youngest Sheng pu’er we tried, produced in 2015. It was Mu Shu Cha from Lincang made from ancient arbour trees that are 200-300 years old.
Mu Shu Cha
Tea 2
The second tea gave a very pale gold liquor. It had a nice fruity aroma with hints of tobacco. The taste was very light and smooth, no hint of bitterness and a little bit smoky which lingered on into the after taste. In the second infusion there was a bit more smoke. It was a little bitter and astringent leaving my mouth dry. By the third infusion the already light aroma and flavour had started to wane, and it just felt bitter and watery. Overall, a very light and underwhelming tea.
This one was Autumn Mang Fei from Lincang. It was produced in 2011 from 100-200 year old trees.
Autumn Mang Fei
Tea 3
The third tea was the palest colour of the four – a pale pink hue. It had a nice fruity aroma with a very light peach taste. The fruit aroma and taste became more pronounced in the second infusion, with a hint of melon as well as a slight bitterness, leaving a nice peach after taste. The third infusion didn’t reveal anything more with the aroma and taste getting a little weaker. Again, this one was pretty light with not much changing throughout the three infusions.
This pu’er was produced in 2011. It’s called Autumn Ban Po from Nan Nuo Mountain.
Autumn Ban Po
Tea 4
We had to rush through the fourth tea (lots of chat amongst the sipping again!), which was a shame as this was the most interesting one. It brewed up into a very different colour to the others – a rich amber liquor. It had a sweet smoky aroma with some woody notes which came through into the taste. It was bitter, but not too much and had a lingering after taste. On the second infusion, the aroma changed to honey and plums. It was very smooth and the bitterness was taken down a notch. It left my mouth watering with a smoky after taste. The third infusion was similar, but it felt like more flavours were starting to emerge. I just couldn’t quite get them yet. I took a sniff of the dry leaves which had a nice herbal and seaweed aroma. I think we would have been rewarded with more aromas and flavours given a few more infusions with this one.
Yuan “Big Green Tree” from Yi Wu was the favourite of the four. Produced in 2005, it has been left to age for 10 years. The aging process has definitely given the tea more complexity.
Yuan Big Green Tree