I think there is no need to introduce Scott from Yunnan Sourcing. For many of us, puerh drinkers, his China based tea shop provides a wide selection of young and semi aged puerhs of all kind of origin, including well known factories as well as small companies. I suppose he tries most of the teas he sells and thus the level of his experience has to be very decent. Good examples of this are the cakes from the YS brand. Those which I tried had single mountain origin, and I liked most of them. However, blending is a different story. I newer tried to mix up a blend of young shengs, but based on those few things I have read, blending is a very sophisticated kind of art. There are no equations which would help you to select the right quality and quantity of mao cha to get the desired result. I guess, all you can do is to use the trial and error method, but also here, the intuition which originates from experience is necessary to know where to start and which way to go after each attempt.
Scott often provides free samples with my purchases if the shipping weight allows it. (However, every time I buy something via internet I try to get the maximum from the shipping fee so there is often no space for more tea). This sample was also added to my order as gratis, probably to advertise the YS brand and also get the sympathy of the customer. Whatever is the reason a free sample is always very welcomed :). I had a couple of sessions with this tea, and here I am describing the overall impression.
5g/90ml gaiwan, 10s rinse, 10s, 3s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 1 min, 3min
Scott often provides free samples with my purchases if the shipping weight allows it. (However, every time I buy something via internet I try to get the maximum from the shipping fee so there is often no space for more tea). This sample was also added to my order as gratis, probably to advertise the YS brand and also get the sympathy of the customer. Whatever is the reason a free sample is always very welcomed :). I had a couple of sessions with this tea, and here I am describing the overall impression.
5g/90ml gaiwan, 10s rinse, 10s, 3s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 45s, 1 min, 3min
This tea is a blend of maocha coming from ancient and wild arbours. Both the dry and wet leaves are fragrant, besides the thick, sweet aroma also a significant floral fragrance hits my nose, it reminds me some hongcha I have drunk lately. The liquor is full, chunky and the mentioned floralness continues during the most of the infusions also in the tea. Particularly interesting is the smell coming from the aroma cup. Most of the teas share the very similar low, sugar (or candy) like sweetness what is fine for me. In this case the sweetness wasn't that low, I would call it medium (but intense), and the floral character nicely appeared also there. The tea has its energy, it is active on the lips, and the initially calm-alert feeling turns during the later infusion to an energetic one; I felt it on my chest giving a bit euphoric “lets go run” feeling. There was a mild bitterness in the initial infusions and the aftertaste coming from it lasted until the end.
This tea is on the bright side, being fresh but thick. For me it is a tasty young sheng ready to drink it now. On the other hand the infusibility could be better and I would expect more “cruelty” for such a young sheng, what would give more hope for the further ageing. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the sample which, by the way, has gone rapidly and it was enough to convince me to by a full cake. Like always it will be nice to revisit this tea to see how is it doing.
PS: It would be interesting and fairly challenging to know which teas were used to prepare this sheng, try them and see whether I could recognise some of them in the blend.
This tea is on the bright side, being fresh but thick. For me it is a tasty young sheng ready to drink it now. On the other hand the infusibility could be better and I would expect more “cruelty” for such a young sheng, what would give more hope for the further ageing. Nevertheless, I am grateful for the sample which, by the way, has gone rapidly and it was enough to convince me to by a full cake. Like always it will be nice to revisit this tea to see how is it doing.
PS: It would be interesting and fairly challenging to know which teas were used to prepare this sheng, try them and see whether I could recognise some of them in the blend.
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