Tian Di Ren Yiwu 2008 Shu Pu-er

I’m a sucker for Verdant teas, without a doubt. I’ll buy almost everything they offer, & experience has shown me that I am rarely disappointed.

I am very happy that I bought a cake of this. I’m really just getting started with it, maybe 5 steeps in, but really enjoying it’s complexity, starting with a blend of wood & incense in the early steepings, with a nice camphor mouth.

These middle steepings have an emerging fruitiness…
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Sadly, I got sidetrack & that is the extent of my notes, although I did continue to sip for a long time. I will probably up the amount to 7G I think next time, as I tend to like my Shu a little strong. All in all, I enjoyed it!

This is a tea I keep putting off writing a note for. I’ve got a whole cake to enjoy, but I’ve never been able to get a session where this tea gives me much complexity to write about. However, because of that this tea is absolutely perfect in the right moment.

The dry leaves for this tea are incredibly sweet and fruity smelling, once wet they give off fairly typical shu aromas: earth, petrichor, apple. This tea demands a bit heavier leaf than some — 5g in a 4oz gaiwan yields a weak and unsatisfying brew, but bumping up to 6 or 7 does the trick. Right from the outset this tea brews up thick and syrupy. For the first two infusions it leads with some earthy bitterness, but that washes off and for the rest of the session it’s purely smooth and sweet, with notes of blueberry and vanilla. Late in the session some light notes of clove and dough sneak in beside the sweetness. There is a gentle qi present. It slowly washes over you with calm and happy energy.

I’ve never found enough depth from this tea to enjoy a thoughtful gongfu session, but last night when I was a bit grumpy and I had some heartburn this was exactly what I wanted and needed. The calm, contented energy soothed my mood and the smooth liquor quieted my stomach. It’s a great tea to have in the back of the cabinet for those times when you’re not in the mood to give your all to the experience of tea and you just need an easy tea that will give back to you.

Another from *Anlina that i tried yesterday and will likely pick up again today just to finish it off. This was an interesting one – different than a lot of the puerhs i’ve had from verdant and interesting in it’s tastes. woody a little..with a taste that is almost spice like… I’ll see how other steeps go today.

Final Count: 121

I went into Verdant during my visit to Minneapolis and picked out a couple of things, and then asked for a couple of recommendations from the staff, for something unique and/or exceptionally good. This was one of theirs, and the person I talked to said it was a favourite of all the staff. I don’t have a lot of experience with pu’erhs so I’m excited to be trying this.

The dry leaf has a faint earthy and medicinal smell to it.

I put a few good chunks into my gaiwan and gave it two quick rinses with boiling water. After the second rinse the leaves were just starting to separate ever so slightly. Wet, the leaf smells earthy with a slightly burnt wood note.

My first steep, 5 seconds with just below boiling water. The liquor is bright and clear, a pale amber colour. On the nose, its the same as the wet leaf only fainter. The first cup is very mild tasting, not too much too it. Faint notes of earth, wood and camphor. A slightly pasty mouthfeel.

After a slight break to gobble down a mooncake, to make sure the rest of this sits well in my stomach, on to steep two, five seconds. The leaves are still partially caked together, but this time the liquor is much darker.

Stronger flavour, lots of wood and earth. The camphor has faded out a bit, though I’m getting a slight numbing mouth feel already, and a slight tickle in the back of my throat. Not a lot of nuances yet. I think I will steep a bit longer for my third steep.

Third steep, 10 seconds. The leaf is starting to come apart a bit more, and there’s a new fragrance that’s spicy in my nostrils, maybe more camphor and a touch of juniper. Lots of earth still there.

The liquor is a deep, reddish brown now. On the tongue, still mostly wood and earth, a touch of camphor and numbing, hints of wood smoke (nothing pungent like pine or cedar, maybe maple or poplar). and an interesting, almost sticky mouth feel under the tongue, but fairly silky everywhere else. Long after the sip is done, there’s a pepper and sandalwood note that comes out, and a warming sensation on the back of the tongue. There’s also some berry impressions that I can’t quite pinpoint. This is definitely developing nicely as the leaves open up more.

Fourth steep, 15 seconds. Even now the leaves are still clumped together a fair bit. The liquor is progressively darker, though this steep doesn’t have much fragrance.

Again, that sticky under the tongue mouth feel. Earth, a hint of bitterness, and a nice licorice flavour that quickly fades out to a sweetness on the back of the tongue. More camphor and numbing, and then a surprise burst of citrus on the finish, for just a moment.

Fifth steep, 15 seconds. Woody, earthy, slightly sweet, slightly medicinal. A little bit of smoke and nuttiness on the finish, and an almost slippery, coating mouth feel. A bit of licorice develops at the tail end of the finish.

Sixth steep, 20 seconds. Camphor, earth, a hint of bitterness. Numbing, a bit astringent on the finish. The sweetness and licorice is gone.

Seventh steep, 20 seconds. A bit bitter, smokey, earthy. A touch of sweetness is back, just fleeting mid tongue. The mouth feel is getting pasty again. There’s a sweet, floral note on a very long finish, and the licorice is back a bit.

This is interesting and I like it, but I don’t love it. I think there’s lots of steep left in these leaves. Only by steep seven had the leaves unclumped, so I’m going to set them aside for now and do some more steeps another time, but for now, I’m done.

This is now the second “brick” (this one is actually a very shallow tuocha) of shou I’ve bought from Verdant. I previously had a brick of the Lao Tong Zhi Old Comrades 2011. I have to say, at this point, I don’t anticipate all too frequently either (a) drinking sheng pu’erh or (b) buying shou in anything smaller than a complete bricktuocha.

Breaking up the tea myself gives me a lot more control over ongoing aging as well as breakage and it also means that early steeps are a lot more subtle because I’m hydrating a “slice” of leaves rather than completely loose leaves.

This 2008 already has some deeply musty notes while still retaining some of the sweetness of a young shou. There’s a definitely dominant presence of “flood damage” here. The whole room I’m sitting in has become overwhelmed with the scent.

While the chi impact compared to a sheng is far more subtle, it is still definitely active and I find the flavors so much more pleasing than sheng, I can’t imagine choosing the latter just for a stronger chi movement.