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2005 Ye Sheng Wild Tea Log |
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This was one of the most interesting finds on our Spring, 2010 visit to Yunnan. It is a 5 KG log of compressed "Ye Sheng" or Yunnan's "Wild" varietal tea. It is composed of a mixture of the familiar "Ya Bao" buds that we sell loose in our White Tea category and leaf material from these wild growing trees. Ye Sheng is a Camellia varietal specific to the Western part of Yunnan, near the border region with Myanmar. This particular Ye Sheng tea was picked in Dehong the Spring harvest season of 2005 and compressed into these large 5 kg logs in the fall of the same year.
I spent a fair amount of time on this trip looking for semi-aged Ye Sheng tea, and by far and away this was the most interesting one I was able to find. When steeped, this tea has a distinctive lemony taste to it that I found to be really intriguing. The only way I can think of to describe the flavor is "lemony Ya Bao" with some astringency and a bit of woody type flavors, especially if over-steeped. Note: this lemon taste is present in the tea at the time of writing (5/30/2010). I have no experience with aging Ye Sheng tea in Texas, and I can't guarantee that it will stay the same in this climate. I will revisit this tea in a couple of months and post updates to this description if the flavor changes dramatically in this new environment.
I can only recommend steeping this tea Gong-Fu style. I have tried it "western style" in a larger teapot, and it just isn't very interesting. Use approximately 7.5 grams in a 150cc gaiwan or Yixing teapot, and start out with 15-20 second steeps using boiling water after a 15 second rinse.
This is an interesting and very enjoyable tea, and I strongly encourage all our loyal Ya Bao fans to give it a try.
Weight: 0.1102 lb
49.99 grams
1.76 ounces
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Infusion
Log Detail
Wet Leaves
Original Packaging
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| Positive Customer Review |
| barricus |
11 Nov 2010, 5:31 PM |
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Quite an amazing tea
This is a great tea. I'm new to Pu-erhs but when I was drinking this, I couldn't see how people can call these teas an acquired taste. When I opened the pouch (you don't get the whole log, unfortunately), there was a pleasant smell of new leather. I prepared it in a Western style, since I do not own a Gaiwan yet, but the flavors still came out nicely. Overall tones were of a pleasant mustiness, like that of a book, with hints of apricot and prune for the first few steepings, then of light citrus notes towards the last few steepings. This is a great tea for relaxing on the couch at night, or for reading the paper in the morning.
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