2014 Huangjin Ye Raw Puer Tea

Name: 2014 Huangjin Ye Raw Puer Tea

Year: 2014

Producer: Dian Xi Lin Yun滇西林韻*, (literally Yunnan west forest charm)

* Dian Xi Lin Yun is the brand of a friend. The tea material comes from their gardens and tea was processed at their factory.

Material: Huang Pian (also called Huang Jin Ye gold/precious leaf) tea leaves from pure Dashu material. Picked at high altitudes, big trees ranging from more than 80 years old onwards.

This brick has a blend of two teas from Mengku, some from the mountain range in the west and some on the east side.

 Harvest: spring.

Area: Lincang, Mengku.

Weight: 1 kilogram

(2014 Huangjin Ye Raw Puer Tea)

This big brick has a tight compression which makes the initial brews light in flavour until it opens. Around 4 to 6 infusions to fully open, depending on the size of the chunk you’re brewing.

Don’t let the Huang Pian character of this tea deceive you. This is not the weak experience you might expect from some Huang Pian teas. This one has a pungent taste and the energy of the tea is strong but not overly stimulating.

I chose this big brick among two other Huang Pian teas from this producer. This one is superior in quality. All these Huang Pian teas share a particular flavour profile, some sour acidity that you can feel on the sides of the tongue. Its taste reminds me of those “Shan Zha Bing” (Hawthorn cakes) candies.  I conclude that this is a trait that belongs to the Huang Pian leaves in the mountain range near the hometown of my friend.  However, this is a nice and unusual characteristic, not the unpleasant sourness of bad teas.

When drinking this tea, starts with some flowery, candy-like acid/sourness and some herbal spiciness to it. Then it develops into a dark tobacco/leathery affair. It has some astringency and bitterness which is counteracted by a thick and mouthwatering soup that’ll make you crave for more. What you can sense in your body attests to the age of these tea leaves, comfortable warmness in your chest/back arose in my last tea session during the fourth infusion and continue up to the end of it and beyond. Its cha qi has that creep up on you feeling that I rather love in Puer and before you know it, boom!