2003 CNNP Yi Wu High Mountain Wild Arbor (Yunnan Sourcing)

I do not know a lot about puerh. However, my daily tea drinking routines have been gravitating from oolong to puerh for many years now. I used to buy samples of cakes which were a little bit more expensive than those I drink nowadays, but I got sick of drinking too young sheng. That stuff literally makes my stomach ache most of the times!

Because of this, and because I still have a lot of undrinkable young sheng as well as some too moist and musty old or wet stored sheng, I usually just make my own blends of older and younger leaves. This allows me to drink puerh everyday and not get bored, but admittedly it also means I rarely get to know my cakes in more detail.

This time I wanted to taste some of my samples by themselves, and I chose one of my latest boughts from Yunnan Sourcing. I also did not brew this tea gongfu style as I usually do, but did two longer infusions with less leaves.

There is a bit of that sweet and thick Yi Wu fruitiness in the fragrance of the dry leaves. Underneath the fruit one can detect some grainy notes, and all of this is enveloped in a moist and rounded freshness.

The rinsed leaves release a finely textured and dry scent of grains and straw.

The aroma of the first infusion is soft and rounded with notes of raisins and dried plums. There is very little earthiness, but there does appear some notes of buds, which to me smell like the concrete after rain in summer. As I sip the tea, the fragrance comes truly alive with notes of smoke, warm wood, and the characteristic honey-like aroma of Yi Wu puerhs. In the beginning of the second infusion the smokiness is so strong it reminds me of Lapsang Souchong.


There is welcome bitterness in the taste, but at the same time I fear I might have let the tea steep just a little bit too much. As I continue to drink, the bitterness becomes more apparent, but does not overpower the taste or leave a dry mouth. Notes of cocoa beans and tar emerge, yum! The second infusion is luckily much more balanced and without bitterness.

The aftertaste is grainy and cereal-like, and it is here that one can find the strongest signs of age and earthiness.

It has been a while since I last drank a Yi Wu puerh this aged, but I like it. These semiaged Yi Wu shengs are definitely my favourite puerh teas at this time, and who would not like Yi Wu cakes? Yi Wu in addition of Lincang is also the only puerh area that I can readily recognize. I would like to get more experience of other areas and factories though!