subject :
2008 YNS * Hand-Braided Wild Arbor Raw Pu-erh tea 400g
info :
Produced exclusively for Yunnan Sourcing by a small tea factory in Yongde. We selected spring 2008 material from wild arbor trees and then with extreme care hand-braided the tea. After being sun-dried the teas is arranged carefully and then stone-pressed. Just like a good wild arbor Pu-erh this tea has incredible clarity and is very infusable. A balanced mouthfeel and clean!
i roughly took about two to three braids of pu, put this into my large tea pot, i think 140 ml, flashed rinsed twice for 6 seconds. first infusion of 25 seconds, liquid very very light yellow. hardly any taste. second infusion of 40 seconds, liquid a bit more yellow, still light, more taste : like a green tea. third infusion of 1 minute, now the liquid looks a distinctive light yellow and the taste is really light and mellow. clean. this is a very young green pu and it tastes so accordingly.
cake very not tightly compressed which i like. the chunk was very easy to pry apart. a gorgeous looking braided cake. those yunnan girls sure know a thing or two about braiding!!! great smell too. all in all, a great looking cake.
it's been now 10 minutes and a very pleasant taste in my mouth right now and at the back of the throat. as i just had some pea soup. taste is lingering for sure.
i would defo age this cake a bit more, give it six more months and see what it tastes like then. those who like a strong tea, skip this one. those who want to try a a very young green pu and want to see what this braiding business is all about, get this. it's a new challenge in the world of pu.
a photo of the cake in close up :
this is the actual chunk of pu i used for my session :
the chunks inside the pot :
one of the braid after having been flashed rinsed twice :
leaves taken apart from a braid :
liquid from the third infusion of one minute :
a note on drinking braided pu cakes. unwind them after having infused them. a lot of the leaves were still twisted around each other like a helix. just dumping water on them won't help unwinding them.
one more cake to follow for review : 2002 Mengku Spring Tips "White Label" Raw Pu-erh tea