Diet Puer/Puer “Lite”
I remember reading somewhere purple varietal are suppose to be smokey and harsh so I braced myself for a rough and tumble session. To my shock it was literally the opposite, super fruity, it is truly yiwu tea but amped up sweetness due to the anthocyanin that result in the purple colored leaves. The flavor was so fruity if I was blind folded I would say it was a flavored tea not at all a puer and almost teavana flavored sweetness. I maybe over exaggerating the sweetness slightly but after a week off drinking rough bitter harsh young pu maybe my taste buds were off kilter following the logic of the polar opposite spectrum given that studies have shown calorie free sweeteners are soo overly sweet that when we taste real sweetness it is bland in comparison maybe the young shengs have been so bitter my taste buds felt anything remotely sweet was candy. Either way this was rather thin and not terrible complex but very approachable and atypical of puer not at all bitter or astringent or unpleasant in any way it was actually so sweet and dainty I almost don’t care for it but will gladly drink the rest of my budget blind buy cake. This would be a good casual drinker as it cannot be over steeped and distractions would not have a bearing on your enjoyment with other complex teas where you might miss subtleties.
I have not tasted the tea referenced but my experience parallels the tea the guys over at Tea DB review in this link.
http://teadb.org/2006-yunhai-nannuo2/
Just realized Tea DB did a review on a newer vintage of this tea as well but my qualities it shares with the yunhai nan nuo still stand
http://teadb.org/2012-purple-yiwu/
Flavors: Berries, Blackberry, Honey
Purple tea can get a bit confusing.. There’s a couple different types of purple pu’erh. The yesheng (wild purple) tends more towards the harsher/smoke.
Purple bud like this tea can be a bit more sweet and mellow. The autumnal nature probably pushes it this way as well. Yunnan Sourcing has written a bit about this as well.
Thanks for the clarification maybe thats why it was more fragrant(forgot to mention) with less bitterness and thickness, wish I had a spring version because it would probably be more balanced.
I tried my first purple sheng recently and I liked it. This sounds great :)