Yie Sheng

Tea Information:

Leaf Type: Pu-Erh

Product Description:

This 15 year old sheng pu erh tea is hand-picked from tea trees growing in the wild of Yunnan province in China. If you are looking for a pu erh with a slightly wild flavour, this one is smooth, with a touch of roughness around the edges suggesting its ancestry. Much of the competition suggests the best pu erh tea comes from wild tea trees. What they don’t do is say that their pu erh teas are actually wild! This is the genuine article. A pu erh tea cultivated from wild tea trees in Yunnan province and aged in Taiwan.

Taster’s Review:

It surprises me how much I’m enjoying this Pu-Erh.

The flavor is remarkably smooth, but as the above product description suggests, it is a little rough around the edges. It has a very autumnal feel to it, it is rugged and somewhat masculine, but with a sweet undertone that lingers into the finish.

The aroma of this tea is quite earthy and I found it somewhat disconcerting before I took a sip. What I noticed is that if I inhale deeply before taking a sip, a strong, earthy essence arrives onto the palate. Since it is the earthy quality that I like least about Pu-Erh (I don’t actually dislike earthy flavors when they are delicate, but when they are quite strong, I find them somewhat off-putting), I do not inhale deeply for taking a sip of this tea. The earthy quality then becomes a mere trace of what it is when I do inhale deeply.

There is no bitterness to this Pu-Erh and I’m finding it exceptionally sweet that reminds me of burnt sugar caramel, and it lends itself well to the rustic appeal of this tea.

I can really feel myself “warming up” to Pu-Erh – in more than one sense! As this year comes to a close and the dawn of a new decade approaches, I am happy that I have finally shed much of my fear about Pu-Erh!

liberteas

Anne (aka the Mad Tea Artist) has celebrated her 29th birthday for many years now. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her hubby and her youngest daughter. Her oldest daughter is married and has bestowed Anne with the proud title of "Gramma" and her grandson is about the cutest boy you ever did see. Anne started her journey with tea as a casual drinker and became more serious about her tea drinking when she realized that she couldn't drink coffee. Shortly thereafter, she started becoming obsessed with the beverage and she started creating small-batch, artisan blends of tea that she sold online as LiberTEAS. After a few years, she realized she wasn't cut out to be the sole proprietor of a business so she closed LiberTEAS and started reviewing teas online. She met Jennifer through another blog that they both reviewed for and they decided to start their own review blog. This review blog! Throughout her journey as a tea reviewer, she discovered 52Teas and became enamored with the idea of creating a new tea every week. When the founder of 52Teas decided he wanted to move on, he offered the business to Anne but knowing that she wasn't cut out to be a sole proprietor, she instead offered the company to her oldest daughter who employs her as the Mad Tea Artist for 52Teas!

This post was posted in Pu-erh