After being sick for a week, I decided it was time to drink another sheng puerh. I still had one sheng sample left from ANMO and that was the 2010 Yiwu Ancient Trail. This one is 10 years old so I got to use my Zini F1 teapot again (I only use it for sheng older than 10 years).
if you want to read about other teas from ANMO, you can click one of the following links:
- 2014 Jianyang Lao Bai White Tea
- 2015 Jianyang Lao Bai White Tea
- 2016 Jianyang Lao Bai White Tea
- 2013 Sunsing Aged Tree Shou Pu-Erh
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2010 Yiwu Ancient Trail
This sheng puerh tea comes from the Yiwu region in China’s Yunnan province. It’s supposed to be from wild and old tea trees and was stone pressed into cakes. I don’t have more information so this is what I have to work with. This isn’t a real issue and I always look forward to ‘blind’ tasting sessions.
The dry leaves have a brown colour. I see leaves, buds and some large stalks. The buds are a lighter brown. The aroma is a tiny bit earthy and I’m also getting sweet forest notes and light mushrooms. There is also a dominant sweetness going on.
The aroma of the wet leaves is really sweet with some notes of oranges to it. There is also a combination of a light earthiness and some fresh notes; it combines a lot of different elements. The colour is a uniform brown and I’m mainly seeing whole leaves and stalks.
Tea Tasting
- Water 90°C
- 4g for a 95ml Zini teapot
- 1 rinse
- 6 infusions
Infusions
Infusion 1 (15 sec): the colour is fairly dark. Once the liquor enters my body, all my thoughts disappear. This one is mainly about subtle flavours. I’m getting light notes of dry wood in combination with a sweetness. It’s difficult to pin down the exact flavours, but it’s good.
Infusion 2 (20 sec): this one is really lubricating because it coats my mouth and the sides of my tongue are producing a lot more saliva. In the background, there are some subtle hints of earthiness. Overall, there is a sweetness that lingers through the infusion. It flows well.
Infusion 3 (25 sec): the colour is darker again. The flavours are becoming more intense and the energy is amazing. It has a slight punch at the start, but this quickly fades. There is also a subtle earthy undertone.
Infusion 4 (25 sec): the punch at the start is gone and it has some light smokey flavours. There are also sweet and fruity notes going on. After swallowing, I experience a light astringency. I forgot to take a picture of this infusion so I took one of what was left.
Infusion 5 (30 sec): it has a smokiness at the start and nothing else is going on. It’s a fairly standard infusion. It’s not bad, but just neutral as I’m not really getting any distinguishable flavours. However, the aftertaste has an earthy undertone.
Infusion 6 (long): it has a light smokiness at the start. Again, there are not a lot of flavours, but there is a sweetness that pops up in the finish. The feeling I experienced while drinking this is fantastic. You can feel the energy flowing through your body while being very relaxed at the same time.
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Conclusion
This was a pleasant session due to the energy of these leaves. The earlier infusions were subtle with hints of earthiness and sweetness. The later infusions had smokey flavours at the start. These were not too intense, but they dominated the infusions because not much other flavours were noticeable. Even though the flavours were not that impressive, the feeling I got was fantastic. I felt full of energy while being calm and composed.
If you want to buy this tea, contact ANMO through Instagram.
