Stone-Pressed 2004 Yiwu Wild Arbor Sheng

Yep… in the world of pu’erh, I am still so much a newbie. Perhaps with enough consumption, I’ll be able to distinguish beyond sheng/shu (like I can now distinguish a bit between different straight black teas), but until then, my palate remains terribly unrefined.

I still find that sheng is much more to my liking; it doesn’t brew up nearly as dark and inky as many shus I’ve tried, and the flavour tends to be more sharp and spicy than a mellow shu (and also, I don’t tend to notice things like earthiness and fishiness, which I still have trouble with).

Anyhow, I attempted to use about 2 tsp of this cake for my ~8-10oz. cup, and gave the pu’erh a 15 second rinse prior to a 30 second infusion. I’m quite pleased with the results – pleasant, light flavour (but lots of it), and that characteristic “sheng” flavour. It’s also quite smooth, which is very enjoyable. Unfortunately… that’s about all I can tell you. I’m enjoying it while reading/writing about antioxidant activity assays, and it’s a welcome distraction, heh. Hopefully I’ll have the chance for another few infusions later this morning, or tomorrow.

Thank you to David Duckler for this fantastic Sample. Latest issue of this fine Pu’er

One of the stories I read on the Verdant website was the idea of buying a newer brick of Pu’er when you get engaged, and spend half of the brick (so to speak) with the people who attend the wedding, and the rest of the brick little by little piece on every anniversary for the rest of your life. The point being, that every year the Pu’er and the marriage will age,mature and get better. I love that way of thinking. You can apply this to other occasions…a birth and so on. This Pu’er is that kind of brick. The one you would want to choose for lifelong celebrations.

Because this tea will reach 18 infusions I would not attempt to write about each one and fill pages with notes. I know you are relieved! Me too! I’m going to have to lump some information together and hope it makes sense.

First, all steep times were 4 seconds to begin with and 6 seconds after the 8th infusion.
1tsp dry Pu’er
4 oz. clay Gaiwan (la tee dah)
Spring water at the boil
I did a 2 second rinse first and washed my hands in the rinse to remove any other scent.
Every steeping produced a light brown (more beige) liquor.

Wet Leaves:
Steeping:
1. The most fantastic smell of any leaves ever! They smelled like the drippings from a roast! And sweet like the sweetness of artichokes!
Later steepings: No leather smells at all until steeping #5 and then a bit vegital. Before that there was some smoky scent that had developed. I loved the really good smelling, beautiful, big dark green leaves.

Flavor:
1. The first pour was full and warm like cedar wood and sparkled. I smelled a floral note but could not tell what it was.
2. Jasmine right up front and then dryness like the skin of juniper berry…but then WHAT IS THIS? Sweet smoky ceder with a bacon flavor! Couldn’t be, but it was! I didn’t notice it at first and went back to smell the wet leaves…uh huh…there it was…smoky little leaves! Very juicy too! I loved the smoke!
3. Not as smoky, more like cedar but more tannin. Hum.
4. Same as #3
5. Now, this pour was beginning to get more floral, sweeter, sparkling and juicy. There was a creaminess at the end and jasmine flowers that brightened the cup. It tingled.
6. Unbelievable, apple and citrus came to visit…light and refreshing with something else. That taste was cinnamon to me. Not sandlewood or cedar…cinnamon. It had the warmth and spice to compliment the citrus.
7. Again, spicy and floral. The citrus coming and going. I think it was shape shifting. I had 11 more infusions to go!

What I had enjoyed was the hide and seek…the playful quality of this Sheng. I certainly had never smelled leaves like this. Incredable! And such depth of flavor with a consistant 4-6 second contact was amazing to me. What the future holds for those fortunate few who possess a whole brick of this Pu’er…well…what a grand thought! I have more infusions to go!

Just a FYI This is the first tea that Verdant Imported when the business was started. Very Special!

I got this lovely sheng from Verdant a week or two ago but am just getting around to trying it now.

I decided to steep this in the gaiwan, and did a quick rinse. Unfortunately I brushed my teeth right before I tried this which is definitely impacting the flavor, duh!

I liked the intensely aromatic, almost burnt woodsy smell which is happening here. My first steep was for around 30 seconds and is very robust. I’m wanting to say I taste eucalyptus, but perhaps that is just toothpaste. I felt like I was sensing the lychee and there was also a cinnamon sort of element present here.

I think I am too tired to rate this tonight and the toothpaste has totally thrown me off. stay tuned for more details.

Every language has its own great advantages. I love English- the adjectives to summon forth are some of the best I have encountered (especially for visual concepts). However, our language is a bit more limited when it comes to taste, texture and smell. This is where Chinese comes in.

I took a rainy Qingdao day (In Seattle they call it a “marine layer”, in Qingdao, they say it is misty) and sat with Wang Yanxin drinking tea. Every pu’er she pulled from her mysterious back room stacks tasted like seeing a new color for the first time. I was learning about “sticky rice” aroma, “fruit” aroma, etc in the context of pu’er all were so bracing. After drinking teas at that level, you just want to fast because it seems wrong to bulldoze the ethereal aftertastes lingering on the palate. (Usually I would give in though and stop for charcoal roasted fish and shrimp on a stick while walking home.)

When Wang Yanxin brewed up this Yiwu, I can say in earnest that tasting it felt like being reunited with an important part of myself that had gone missing. She described the flavor as “zhang.” Apparently, zhang is a flavor used to describe the cooling sensation and herbaceous complexity that a wild picked pu’er picks up when growing in a forest with cedar or fir trees. It is a certain sensation in the back of the throat and tongue that is almost electric in its tingling cooling qualities. This taste felt like being reunited with my home town, my childhood heroes, my best friends.

I love zhang. I seek it out in everything now. Fine gin, birch beer, juniper berries, some kinds of tulsi. Zhang feels like pure energy melting on the tongue. This brick of yiwu was the first tea to give me that. It is what inspired me to understand that tea is more than flavor, texture, or aroma- it is energy, memory recall, connection to the land, and a synergy of all these put together.

Why do I leave a tasting note on this tea after so long? Because I am so excited to share the fact that Wang Yanxin agreed to get me a later 2004 pressing from the same workshop, and the 12 cakes I could import have arrived. Last time we were able to secure a few bricks of Yiwu, they sold out in 1 week and a half, so I am very excited to offer these up again. I hope you enjoy this tea as much as I do: http://verdanttea.com/teas/stone-pressed-yiwu-wild-arbor-sheng/

I am brewing Ala Jim Marks Style. It’s already a winner. Generous leaf in the Yixing and steeped for what seems like an eternity. The brewed has warmed me in the way that the Verdant Big Red Robe had only more so. I feel warm and glowing. The taste I am getting is truly unique. I cannot place a certain flavor profile other than wood. I should be more poetic and say, cedar forests. I thank Jim for his advice. I too like to taste the tea. To feel the tea. I am feeling this one! I am now entering the Pu-ehr Path. And I like what I see….

This is pretty good! There are hints of mushroom that I can taste. I can also pick up the small notes of apple, too! I actually like this one better cold. It seems to fit my palate better with the flavors and I could taste the flavors better when it was cold. This is a neat pu-erh. It’s sweeter than most and I like that. The aroma isn’t funky either. Leaves a refreshing aftertaste even!

This is lovely. One of my favorite Pu-erh teas thus far, maybe THE favorite. It doesn’t taste like what I’ve come to recognize as Pu-erh, in fact, if someone had simply placed a cup before me, I don’t know that I’d immediately identify it as a Pu-erh. This is very nice, indeed.

The aroma is amazing. Normally, I brace myself for a strong earthy aroma, but, with this pu-erh, only hints of earthiness are there. Mere hints. In the dry leaf, I noticed a hint of mushroom more than the strong, musky, earthy (dirt) smell that I have come to identify as Pu-erh. That mild earthiness translates to the taste as well, with mere hints of an earthy taste. This is extraordinarily enjoyable. I taste hints of fruit in this cup – something I have never really associated with a Pu-erh before. A solid flavor of wood comes through, as well as beautiful spice notes that are lightly peppery. Not spicy or peppery in a “hot” kind of way, but more of a mild pepper note that never quite develops fully, but continues to develop as I sip… still never quite reaching PEPPER exactly, but only subtle-y nudging at it.

Wonderful Pu-erh. I’m currently on my fourth infusion. I find that the more you steep this one, the more complex it becomes. I would recommend this to any tea enthusiast, even those who have found Pu-erh not to their liking in the past. This one will change your mind!

Oh my… So for awhile I have been saying how shengs aren’t really for me and I haven’t really developed a palate for them. But this sheng, oh my goodness, this sheng is so delightful to drink! It is immediately sweet and sparkling and woodsy with a touch of spice and just zero astringency, zero! I did a quick rinse and two quick steeps and they are just so unbelievably good. Love the cedar, love the stone, love the fruit (no idea what kinda fruit but the sweet with the juice and all the richness reads as fruit rather than rock sugar or honey) and cinnamon and its just so pristine and complex and I uh guh! And and and! There is a buttery note in the second and third infusion, unbelievable! Best sheng I’ve tried hands down! Now to spend the day with it. Must order at least 4oz, not sure if I’m ready to properly store a cake, but this is the sheng I want to impress guests with.

This morning I finished up the last of my sample of Mt. Yiwu Sheng Pu’er, and I am truly sorry to see it go. It is one of the top three Sheng Pu’er teas that I have ever tasted, and shares this honor with the two other Sheng Pu’er teas I received in my Verdant Tea sampler. So nice that a company uses it’s sampler to put their best foot forward and tries to gain you as a customer.

Through multiple infusions, this tea takes you on a journey that is both quiet and adventurous. It is a walk through a rain filled forest, with stops along the way for a taste of spicyness, a later nibble at pear or apple, and a sniff of moss, mushrooms and distant campfire. Sorry if my description is a bit too imaginative, and should perhaps be more prosaic, but this Pu’er (along with the Verdant Teas ‘06 Artisan Revival and ’03 Mt Banxhang) gets me excited about Chinese Pu’er like no others.

This is my first Puerh that isn’t flavoured or a tuocha, and my first sheng.

I’m in-between refilling kettles to re-steep this right now, and the lingering taste is of a pungent fruity sweetness. It’s also woodsy. I’ve been slowly drinking this tea for the last hour. I enjoy it, although I haven’t built up a palate for puerh’s.

Ok, new cup ready to go! It reminded me of mushrooms in the first few steeps but it has now evolved into something quite citric and tart tasting. It actually reminds me of my intense yuzu tea with a heavy dose of citrus rinds. It’s pungent and drying, yet at the same time also vegetal and refreshing.

In Delta and Surrey, River Road is a bit of an industrial area; if you want to go to Richmond, Burnaby, or Vancouver you can drive across Alex Fraser Bridge which goes right over River Road. It’s an impressive bridge, especially when the sun sets and all the lights flicker on; then it’s like that bit on the Peter Pan ride in Disneyland. The only downside is the smell of sewage that sometimes drifts over from the treatment center on Annacis Island. When the wind is just right however, and the lumber and paper mills are running, that awful smell is replaced by something quite delightful- cedar so sharp and woodsy that clears out all the senses.

This tea has a little of that cedar quality, right down to the sweet and rough woody texture that lingers in the throat. I don’t think I would find myself drinking this all the time but it gets huge points for making me think of that and feel the need to write it down (sorry!). There’s some articles drifting around that say smell may be the biggest memory trigger? Neat!

I don’t know how many times I’ve steeped this, I must be near around ten, and new flavours are still coming out.

Smell Of wet leaves Woodsy. Earthy, cedary notes

Flavor/Aroma Smooth. Woodsy. Balsa/cedar-wood taste. Leathery notes on the finish. Warming Cha-Qi

This is one of my first sheng/pure Pu-Erh teas. It was very smooth tasting, with a silky mouth feel. It was really hard to pick out the nuances (since i’m new to tea drinking and pu-erhs in general..I find it VERY HARD to describe the tastes i’m experiencing and put it into words..it’s difficult to TASTE tea ;) of the tea and compare it to something. Describing tea is very similar to expressing how you feel when you listen to your favorite song/music.!! Sometimes it’s an inner experience that’s hard to bring to the surface!! The Earthy /woodsy (very mild) quality of this tea was very comforting and warming!! Besides the fact that it had a very discernible “Cha Qi” ( I have been reading alot about Cha Qi..does anyone have anymore information about it??)…warming , then energizing, then relaxing,, intriguing indeed ;) This is a tea that is probably very good for beginners into the Pu-erh Path…it wasn’t overly “Earthy” and it had a very silky quality that is quite pleasurable and comforting!!

I used up all of my sample, brewed rather nonchalantly in my 12.85 oz travel tea mug—“Western-style”. But quickly “rinsed” once in boiling water.

Soothing, soft, “veggie” aroma overlaid with holly berries.

First sip when piping hot = stewed, buttery green beans and ivy.

Further sips = woodsy, mushrooms. Pleasant and smooth. Reminiscent of the comforting aroma of the inside of a vintage applewood wardrobe ala “The Chronicles of Narnia”. I’m not sure how I’m envisioning this, but I am.

More sips = mulch, bark and sweet clover. Still very soothing. Calming.

Upon cooldown: Button mushrooms, brisk, tannic, vines, earth. Hints of walnuts, soy sauce and vinegar. Slight echoes of a sandalwood fan. Wet limestone. Emerging bitterness.

Overall: Aromatic, savory, flavorful, astringent.

I had students today from 10:30am until 6:00, with only 1 hour break at lunch time. I actually still have one more student at 7:00. I’ve been sipping this Sheng all day. I’m still fairly new to Shengs.

The dry aroma is rich with minerals, and a tickley salt sensation in my sinuses, and I love the way it looks! That pressed & dried cake look really appeals to me.

The first round of steepings started with 4 oz of tea with a quick rinse & 4-second steepings. I steeped 4 quick rounds in my Gaiwan, pouring them into 4 cups, all lined up in a row, and savored them, from right to left. Savory, smooth, even a little sweet, each cup just a little more potent, the taste reminded me of fresh hay. I did another round at 10-seconds each, & those were tasty too! Next I poured the leaf into a strainer and dropped it into my 8 oz cup for a 3 minutes steeping. I also had a 5 minute steeped cup.

I’ve enjoyed every drop, and although I’m not really giving much description here, it’s more because I’m still developing a context for the tastes & sensations I’m experiencing. I don’t want to just repeat what others have said, or use the product description page to come up with my description. I have enough to try it several times!

I was inspired by recent comments on this tea to pull it out from my pu’er box and give it a real rating on Steepster. Yiwu is the Verdant Tea sheng that I always forget that I have. Perhaps I’m distracted by the tempting Artisan Revival, the crazy Xingyang or the Yohoho Farmer’s Coop? When I do finally have it again, it’s like a revelation. Oh yes! I remember you now! Hello again, and thanks for welcoming me back…

The first tastes of this are always difficult for me to describe. Imagine a powdered sugar donut. When it touches your tongue, there is a cooling sensation that brings you back for more. That cooling texture is here in the first sips (though not sugary sweet). Instead, I imagine extremely dark and pure cocoa powder mixed with the dark bark or skin of a woody branch. The branch bark is ground to dust, and leaves this dark, cooling woody texture and taste on the tip of my tongue. (my husband tells me this is camphor; I can never pinpoint that flavor, but that I know academically is there, and so I struggle absurdly with comparisons to cooling-woody-donuts; how can one be so unable to taste one specific flavor?).

In the rest of the opening steepings, this feeling of sweet, dark woodiness spreads and unfolds into something warm and bright. It reminds me of walking along a path in college: piney trees and leafy greens of the Hudson river valley are on one side; the sun is setting over the hill, and everything turns orange and glowing green. The path is covered with wood chips and fallen pine needles, and because the pine needles have turned golden orange, too, it looks as though the light has splintered and covered the ground in a soft carpet of fragrant light. That smell is the woody taste the opens up in this sheng. It is lovely, but also very mysterious to me. It keeps me coming back for more steepings.

The cocoa/wood flavors continue all the way through the steepings. I think this is also that camphor flavor. The taste is also full and sweet, and in the aftertaste, there’s something that reminds me both of a good, ripe melon and of chewing on grape or apple skins. I do not really ever eat cherries (too bitter for me), but I think this may be what some other tasters have referenced.

This tea is also really really juicy in a way that reminds me of good baking apples or the aftertaste of cider. It is a different kind of thickness than the smooth, comforting linen of the Artisan Revival. If I’m not paying attention, the juicy, fruity afters slide into mintiness, too.

This is a complex sheng, that I feel is closer to what long-time drinkers might expect out of this style of pu’er. It fits more with the traditional flavor profile, but it is not at all bitter or drying, and its interesting complexity goes down as many layers as you might care to explore. It tastes young, but in only the most delicious ways. This will be another great sheng to watch grow with interest.

This one took me by surprise. Maybe a bit unheralded, but from the heady camphor scent of the dry leaf to the sweet cherry flavor that establishes itself at the deepest levels, this tea might be my favorite Verdant Sheng of the three I’ve tried. I would really like to see how this sheng develops in the next few years, because right now it is delicious.

This tea is incredibly complex. It seems as though the layers of superb flavors never fully unfold.

The aroma alone seems rich, smoky even. Then, all of the sudden these random notes of fresh wild berries emerge. The sent alone is a perfect balance of contrasting yet merging flavors.

Drinking it could even be thought of as an experience it is so good. There is an immediate spicy kick which is almost instantly subdued by a sweet thick pinewood taste. After a few steepings a creamy yet fruity taste collides with spice forming a perfect harmony.

This tea is a great experience tea and something that no taster will ever forget. It was very fun to try because it wasn’t typical pu’er and really let me experience every morsel of goodness from its perfect, long leafs.
I tried this tea from Verdant Tea which was a fantastic decision that I would recommend to every tea drinker out there.

So, I opened up the bag of this tea, and was overwhelmed by the earthy smell of this tea, but in a good way. The smell was very distinctly earthy, something that I associated with my young sheng, but it was not as harsh. After the first infusion, the aroma lost the “earthy” quality, and started to smell a bit like cedar. The taste of the tea was rather interesting as well, as it had all the flavors that I associate with Sheng, but they were smoother and just better than I am used to.

I can’t wait until this tea makes it’s way back through the rotation so I can have it again.

The 2004 Single Mountain Yiwu is up there in the top 5 best Sheng Pu’ers I’ve tried. The initial tea color is a beautiful golden that only the best of Sheng’s of this age possess. The aroma of the tea after first contact with boiling water is the refined scent of a damp forest which immediately brings back memories of camping in northern Wisconsin. The initial flavor is that of spiced nutmeg and a prevalent and cooling camphor which lingers and builds throughout steepings. Notes of sweet grapes begin to build on the sides of the tongue in later steepings as well as a warm apple sweetness which is present in the chest and complements the cooling camphor mouthfeel.

Some of the best Sheng available anywhere. Period.

This is part of the Pu-Er sipdowns samples That I am slowly, but surly getting threw.

Ok, to be short and sweet I love almost everything about this tea. The smokey cedar notes combined with sweet and savory berry notes is good. However, the strong floral aspect of it is throwing me for a loop. It is that kinda of perfume floral, the kind that has a bite to it.

The later steepings and a long 1 minuet leaf drain steep I found to me be more pleasant. The floral bite isn’t as strong and it is more vaporous.

Overall I can tell this is a very nice and complex sheng, but I am having a hard time getting into it. It’s floralness is just so odd to me.

I’m not sure how to describe it-woodsy seems to fit. This is my first Sheng, and I’d say I’m off to a good start. Hot or cold, it’s quite delicious.