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This tea was pretty good, and I eventually found it to outshine the 2023 Autumn Jiu Tai Po I purchased around the same time and really loved. Just a solid tea with enough depth/complexity to keep you interested from day to day. I don’t find this tea offensive in any way, and whatever bad qualities noted by other reviewers seem to have aged their way out. It does have a touch of bitterness, but a friendly kind not unlike a good IPA-style beer. A piney kind of bitterness. Overall, the sweeter and fruitier notes of this tea seem more prominent. It has some of the “cotton candy” qualities which I love in some raw puerhs and some apricot/grape notes. Maybe some slight citrus hints. I’ve already brewed through the whole cake and now I’m missing it. Probably won’t buy again, though, as so much more raw puerh I haven’t explored yet.

I scored the 2023 Jiu Tai Po higher than this, but at the time I was blown away by the “cotton candy” aroma/flavor I had discovered in that one. In retrospect now I would rate it a little lower.

Lovely affordable tea. Nice and dark with wonderful licorice notes and good depth of flavor. No need to wait until it tastes like an old library book. It is great right now. My 50/50 by weight blend of this tea plus 2024 Subduer of Dragons is a 100! Been drinking my special blend almost every morning and can’t get over how nicely these teas compliment each other.

Very woody. Not so much the deep sandalwood notes you tend to get from ripe pu-erhs, but strong oak-like flavors. Some smoke. Not very sweet. Maybe slightly nutty. It seems like a lighter version of ripe pu-erh, overall. Interesting and glad I tried this, as it is my first Liu Bao Cha, but not a favorite of mine. I don’t find much in the way of “medicinal” or minty notes as others have mentioned.

Spring 2024: Wow! I wasn’t quite as impressed with the Spring 2023 batch, but this new batch I have purchased is just about as good as it gets for me. Nice and complex with all sorts of notes going on here. You have piney notes, minty notes, pine nuts, osmanthus florals, apricots, green grapes, hints of green apple, and cannabis. Great balance of not a super high price with a tea that delivers. Yunnan Sourcing is such a great tea source. This tea is really wonderful for blending, as well, and plays well with almost any other tea that I’ve combined it with. Love combining it with green teas especially. You can definitely buy more expensive white teas, but I think it will be difficult to find a better one.

Really nice tea. Red wine with only slight hints of the woodiness you get from other ripes. The flavor lingers pleasantly after you sip. The bitter floral elements of the raw purple tea are faintly present but muted by the ripe purple tea. Surprisingly smooth overall.

As an experiment, I’ve mixed this tea half-and-half by weight with the 2022 Menghai Dayi V93 ripe tea I also purchased from YS. In my opinion, this combination makes a knockout ripe blend. The strong sandalwood and licorice-like notes of the V93 nicely compliment the winelike qualities of the purple teas.

Received a couple of these “coins” as a free sample with my recent order. I am happy that this was sent as a sample, because I often shy away from organic teas because I have heard that they are often inferior. This is the first ripe pu-erh that wowed me. Has the familiar sandalwood notes like other ripes I have tried, and a touch of rose florals (a favorite of mine – I like rose florals). But what clinches it for me is there is a little something extra – a nice twist of licorice-like flavor to make things really interesting. Unusual for Yunnan Sourcing in that there are no dates of production listed for this tea, so not sure how new/old it is. It was listed on the website only pretty recently, I believe, so might be kind of new. No off/fishy tastes here in my opinion, and this is ready to drink right now. Definitely want to pick up some of these on my next order, and best thing is not a very high price!

A dark and comforting tea. Easy to drink, with a decent amount of sweetness and very little bitterness. Works well for me brewed western style, and I typically brew it for 3 or 4 steeps (starting at 2 minutes and working up to 5 minutes after an initial 30-second rinse). Might even have a few more good steeps, but that is too much for me. Not sure what the difference between sandalwood and oak would be, but I guess if sandalwood is on the softer side with more floral and spice tones, I can see that. I’m not feeling any root beer or cinnamon here. Vanilla and cherry notes for sure. No really strong earthy or funky tones – smooth is the name of the game here. Not super complex, really, but very pleasant. I’m not a total shu-poo-head yet, but after trying this tea I might be on my way.

Spring 2024: It’s okay. Not bad for the price, I guess. Not much lingering flavor, and not nearly as much of the nice fruity/floral/minty/etc notes you can get from white teas sourced from other areas. This one kind of has softer floral notes and more of a vanilla flavor going on. Some nice hoppy notes. Doesn’t linger too much. Kind of simple and boring.