CNNP Yellow Mark 2003

Yesterday was my One year Steepster anniversary and I am almost up to 1000 tasting notes, egads!

I haven’t been drinking a lot of pu-erh lately but today it’s raining so I thought this afternoon would be great time to try this sample cake I got from Mandala. According to traditional Chinese medicine, Pu-erh is a good cure for internal dampness.

I broke off a chunk and put it in the infuser mug after a quick 10 second rinse and then steeped it for about 60 seconds. I got a medium reddish-brown liquor. This seems like a very clean tasting pu-erh… a roasted coffee aroma with very earthy & mushroomy flavors and a creamy feeling in the finish.

My second steep was for about 90 seconds and this time I got a much darker infusion. This pu-erh now reminds me of coffee even more. I really think I used way too much leaf in my infuser basket so I decided to dump this infusion out and go for one with a little less time. I wasn’t really wanting such a dark tea so I resteeped it for 30 seconds and liked it a lot better this way. I really think that pu-erhs should be more of a reddish-brown color instead of black so if mine are very dark I know I probably used too much tea.

I’m not sure I am ready to give this a numerical rating yet due to the errors but I am enjoying it. I think I will retry this on another day with a smaller leaf to water ratio. It is warming me up and nice for this icky weather…

Still going strong after 4 steeps but I will probably end here. :)

Thank you mrmopar for this sample tea!

I gave this pu-erh a real good tasting at several steep times. Shorter at first as I usually do (30 seconds), then increasing to a minute and longer still after a few steepings.

The flavor was very, very mild at first. I thought there was something wrong…maybe I needed to rinse this puerh more than one time to open it up.

I poked my puerh knife at the rough bark, encouraging the breakdown of the leaves and more contact with the boiling water.

The tea was still bland.

I increased the steep time. 1 minute, then more after that.

Finally, I had to admit that this was one mild, mellow puerh that was just going to be what it was.

The flavor was juniper berry, (a little on the sour side) not very sweet and smooth. I didn’t find complexity or texture.

Too light a tea for additions too.

Blah

A wonderful Daily Drinker Pu’er in my book! I enjoy it quite much. Full review will be on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 31st but here are my snippits:

This tea has a lovely earthiness to it without being too earthy. The mouthfeel does have a creamy texture which is quite nice. I get hints of notes of vanilla, and butter, but its not too intense on those notes. There is a nice woody taste to the cup as well.

To me, this is more of an every day pu’er – and that is not an insult by any means. Usually when I take the time to sit down and enjoy pu’er it is a process, an event if you will. To me, this is one of those pu’er that is not so complicated that you can’t just make some up and enjoy it every day, on the go, or while working. While it is quite good, very good, it is not so complex that I feel I need to do nothing else but sit down with my yixing pot and dissect it.

The notes come over as direct and are unassuming. Creamy, full, robust even, woodsy, perhaps a hint of mushroom, buttery, and warm. Simple enough to enjoy every day but delicious enough to savor and appreciate in the moment without it taking too much time to figure it out. I will not say it is my all time favorite pu’er, nor even my favorite from Mandala Tea, but for what it is, it is hardy, and delicious!

Sometimes I realized I’ve almost finished off a tea without posting a tasting note. This is one of those! I think that must mean I like it, but don’t have much to say about it. This pu doesn’t wow me, but it’s not offensive either. It reminds me of the kind of black teas I like to get for my thermos at school – not the really lovely stuff, but still far better than the teabagged crap they have on campus (which is not to say that all tea in teabags is bad, but the ones at my school certainly are).

I’m glad I tried the sample of this, as it’s a nice easy drinker. Probably won’t get a whole cake. That Xiaguan crane I got from Garret on the other hand…I need to post a note for that and I wish there was a lot more so I could horde it.

Garret sent me home with one of these – my first 10 year old ripe pu’er, and an affordable one. I was working with water at 208 and my dedicated Yixing pot for ripes. The cake fell apart easily with the breaking knife.

30 second infusion: Clean and mild. The flavors are not intense, but work as an integrated whole with nothing spiking out at me. Yes, “clean” is the word.

1 minute infusion: Again, impressively clean-tasting now with a slight cooling sensation. I confess that I don’t like eating mushrooms so I don’t have a good benchmark on some of those flavors others describe. What I do taste is a pleasant leather scent, vanilla, and even slight cinnamon. The extra steeping time brought the flavor intensity way up. Hearty flavor, but not HUGE.

1.5 minute infusion: very much the same cup – it seems to have leveled out at this nice, easy-drinking plateau

3 minute infusion: still the same cup as the 1 minute infusion, the same flavors remain integrated in a nice, round whole. It is pleasant.

Homerun infusion: I don’t know…maybe it was 6 minutes, 10 minutes? Did it for the sake of science and guess what? Pretty much the same cup as the 1 minute infusion.

I’m really glad to have Yellow Mark in my home. This could be brewed in a semi-intentional way for some consistently good pu’er drinking.