2011 Jingmai Ancient Gardens

This was a creamy, easy-to-drink, sweet puehr. I really enjoyed it. I agree that it seems dry stored. It has really great mouthfeel with a bit of fruit/citrus to it. There was a decent huigan that popped up. I really enjoyed this, much like the other Farmerleaf puehrs. I am finding them particularly easy to drink and fresh tasting, which is usually what I look for in my young (and young-ish) pu’s.

The dry leaf on this smells amazing, complexly citrus-y, herby, floral-y, fruit-y, and more. The taste isn’t nearly as crazy, or so crazy I couldn’t pick out all the tastes, I couldn’t tell which by the end. Regardless, it’s very friendly with a soft, bordering a drop of cream mouthfeel with very little astringency or bitterness unless oversteeped (and then it tastes a bit like sour lemon-y, herb-y pennies, but surprisingly still low astringency).

The main taste throughout is that lemon citrus taste with the herb and light mushroom broth heartiness that gets stronger as the leaf opens up. The aftertaste reveals hints of lemon sourness giving way to a lightly sweet mineral sugarcane at times, especially as the tea cools in the cup. The qi hit me HARD on this one by the middle steeps (around 5 and 6), surprising me since it seemed so bouncy and floaty and dreamy, when all of a sudden my fingers felt like they were weighted down while the rest of me felt like it was flying with the clouds. It left me full on retarded for a good couple minutes, I would say, but I am a light weight—my more sturdily constructed drinking partner of higher constitution described the experience more as a mellowing, delayed processing, chill feeling.

The flavors did turn a bit more peachy and more mineral mossy towards the end as the lemon started to finally fade off a bit, but it clung as the most noticeable flavor throughout until steep 10 which is where I stopped. It could have probably gone a couple or even a few more steeps, but the shengry claimed me at this point and I abandoned the tea for some rice crackers. I agree that the 5 years of age hasn’t had much noticeable effect on the flavor profile of this one, although it does seem to have settled into some consistency if nothing else. The dreamy energy was the highlight for me, although I would say the taste was certainly enjoyable as well, if heavy on the citrus.

This is overall a very nice tea. There was only a little bitterness to this tea and it was very smooth. There was something of a sweet note from the start although I would not characterize it as apricots of young sheng. Not entirely sure how to describe it. This is the first of my Farmerleaf samples I am trying and I do like it. Not getting much qi off this one despite that it is said to be gushu, maybe a little. Overall a good tea and I don’t think the price was that unreasonable.

I steeped this twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 8.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The color of this tea was the yellow of a young sheng. It had not aged much in the five years since it was produced. I suspect it was dry stored.