2007 Guoyan "Phoenix of Yi Wu" Raw

Tea type
Pu'erh Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Floral, Honey, Straw, Sweet, Wood
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by DigniTea
Average preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 8 g 4 oz / 120 ml

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3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “So, I was about to write a fairly dismissive review of this tea. I’ve gone through half a cake, and have also designated it as a daily drinker due to its age and its inexpensive price tag. But I...” Read full tasting note
    82
  • “2/15/2017 morning gaiwan 8g/212F/4oz? 10-15 second steeps Another sample from YS that has lived in my tea cabinet for over a year. 1 rinse was all it needed for the chunk to start loosening up, ...” Read full tasting note
    75
  • “This tea was pretty good. I think it’s the first semi-aged Yiwu I’ve tried. I still got a lot of the softer straw/floral flavors that I seem to get with Yiwu teas, but also a little different,...” Read full tasting note
    77

From Guoyan (Yunnan Sourcing)

2007 Guoyan “Phoenix of Yi Wu” Raw 380g
The Dragon of Bu Lang mountain cake is composed entirely of Yi Wu wild arbor raw material and is first flush spring 2007 harvested! This represents one of the highest grade cakes available coming from a unique area of Yi Wu with century old trees! The cakes are stone-pressed by hand, a traditional method of compression that is the best for long-term aging.

The Mengyang Guoyan tea factory is based in Jinghong but gathers most of its raw material from Xi Shuang Banna and more specifically from the Menghai area. The director of the factory Ms. Dong is steeped in Pu-erh tea history. She is a Dali native but after graduating from the Yunnan Agricultural University went to work at the Menghai Tea factory as a master tea blender. She worked there for more than 8 years before starting the Mengyang Guoyan tea factory back in 2003. Ms. Dong’s aim is to produce a variety of medium to very high quality pu-erhs for drinking and works hard to control the quality and distribution of Guoyan products.

About Guoyan (Yunnan Sourcing) View company

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3 Tasting Notes

82
167 tasting notes

So, I was about to write a fairly dismissive review of this tea. I’ve gone through half a cake, and have also designated it as a daily drinker due to its age and its inexpensive price tag. But I never really looked forward to it – it was always a little bland.

But, it needed a fair review, so I sat down, threw a FISTFUL of leaves in a gaiwan, and steeped that sucker hard to get all the flavor I could out of it.

And you know what? It developed a bit more personality. Still on the lighter end of things, but tasty.

It’s still definitely a Yiwu. I know that this is absolutely a budget Yiwu (so you get what you get), but it still just has those light, woody, kind of sweet, kind of floral notes that just are too irritatingly subtle for me. It’s like a mouth full of background flavors that you have to sit and search for, rather than having primary, bold flavors that build on your palate. Such has been my experience with budget and non-budget Yiwu teas alike…

So, if you enjoy a more contemplative cup, this is a good choice. If you are a Yiwu fan, this is certainly a nice budget option. But, if you are just looking for a cheap puerh with some decent age on it, I would recommend YS’s 2007 Bo Nan Mountain “Yun Wu Yuan Cha” or 2007 CNNP “8891 Red Label.” Those have a bit more personality, in my very humble opinion.
*
Dry leaf: honey/honeysuckle sweetness, woody, sweet tobacco leaf, dried dark fruit – raisin/prune. In preheated vessel – syrupy prune/raisin sweetness, sweet tobacco

Smell: tobacco leaf, date, raisin, woody

Taste:
Arrival is woody, straw, and hay; some green tobacco leaf.
Development is light woody smokiness and black tea blend. Some pleasant astringency. Body develops with an interesting combo of woodiness and creaminess.
Finish is bland. Get some cardboard-like notes and a palate-clearing astringency.
Aftertaste is very light. Light sweetness – marshmallow, flan; some light floral; some light lemongrass.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 0 min, 15 sec 9 g 5 OZ / 140 ML
mrmopar

I like the 8891 too. I think I am like you as Yiwu is almost too light for me.

apefuzz

I guess when I saddle up with some puerh, the last thing I’m looking for is soft and subtle! My Yiwu experience thus far has been just that – soft and subtle. …I even expect my green teas to have some punch.

mrmopar

That’s why I love the Bulangs, Mang Feis and NaKas. I like to get slapped in the taste buds.

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75
114 tasting notes

2/15/2017 morning gaiwan 8g/212F/4oz? 10-15 second steeps

Another sample from YS that has lived in my tea cabinet for over a year. 1 rinse was all it needed for the chunk to start loosening up, and it was a very clean rinse.

1 – placid sheng sharpness – mellow and non-descript
2 – Calling it mellow pissed it off — intensely bitter and resinous.
3 – lower temp water, 10 second steep – still very sharp. Resinous/herbal – the wet leaf smells of oregano. Suddenly astringent and mouth filling.
4 – full temp water, 5 second steep – less astringent. Tobacco and lemon balm.

Still drinking. Will add further notes later.

The astringency continues – behind it the taste lightened up, and became almost fruit – apricot and pine, and that wet pine forest floor aroma.

This is not a friendly tea, but one that begs exploration, and experimentation – I have to add a few cakes of this to my next YS order — I think it’s going to wicked good in a few more years.

Storage notes – 25g sample from YS, I got it in 2015, and it’s been stored in its loose sample packet in my tea cabinet. Lots of air circulation, drier rather than humid, warm room temperature.

I think it says something about this tea that it makes feel I need to make a note of the storage conditions.

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77
485 tasting notes

This tea was pretty good. I think it’s the first semi-aged Yiwu I’ve tried. I still got a lot of the softer straw/floral flavors that I seem to get with Yiwu teas, but also a little different, like the flavor was beginning to change. It seemed a little bit woodier to me. Around the 4th and 5th steeps I got an interesting sweetness, sort of reminiscent of brown sugar, but this didn’t last long. In some of the later steeps I started to notice a nice floral-honey sweetness. I think these last steeps may be the highlight of the session. Has a decent body, but I wouldn’t really describe it as creamy, and I didn’t notice much of any qi with this tea. The flavor was not particularly lasting.

This tea seems like it could make a decent daily drinker. It does not fit my tastes well enough to consider buying a cake, but I certainly enjoyed my 25g sample.

Flavors: Floral, Honey, Straw, Sweet, Wood

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec 7 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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