Yinsheng Tea Company

I finally broke down and had my last sample of this tea. And more puerh experience under my belt, I’ll say that I think this is a pretty damn good example. At 7 years old, this tea was surprisingly and quickly green-leafed, with a beautiful yellow soup. There’s a great blend of sizable leaves and rather small buds. Strong finishing bitterness followed light and delightful tropical fruit notes and just the right amount of puerh funk. It’s steeping like a champ (maybe somewhere near the 20th). Great stuff.

This tea wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. It has the typical flavors of a sheng pu: peachy sweet over a tobacco bitterness and a little smoke. The first infusion is tasty with a robustly bitter aftertaste. The second infusion becomes surprisingly more harsh, not really sure why. Turns much dryer and very shengpu-like. I was hoping to taste a little bit more age in the tea but that was not the case.

This is definitely not a maidenly tea. The first steeping has notes of musk, cheese, and a surprising bitter bite for a puerh. Subsequent steepings are sweeter.

Update: As I’ve continued on with the re-steeps this tea has transformed into a sweet, floral, slightly peachy tea. It’s very nice.

No notes yet.

On the second steep at 30s. This tea goes surprisingly green fast. It’s rather young. The Banzhang shows itself as some curt bitterness quickly. However, there’s a nice run of cedar-inflected sauna notes and a good “woodsy” character that’s fresh and migrates towards a lingonberry character.