Bai Yin Shan Yesheng Tea Tasting (Tea Enounter)

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Bai Yin Shan Yesheng Tea Encounter Tea Adventures

Some might say that the weather is too rainy or too cold for sheng puer tea. I’m not one of those people and had a session with one of Tea Encounter‘s shengs. The one I drank was the 2009 Bai Yin Shan Yesheng. This is a very aromatic tea, which is the main reason I chose to drink it. It had a strong smell that reminded me a bit of last year’s Spring.

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2019 Bai Yin Shan Yesheng

This tea is from 2019 and comes from a tea farm in Yunnan. There are several hundred-year-old tea trees on this farm in Bai Yin Shan in Lincang. The tea is a gushu tea, which means that it comes from these old trees. The compression of the cake is rather loose and that is why they offer this tea at a reduced price. It’s a unique tea because the aroma is breathtaking and that is why I chose to brew this tea today. I won’t give a detailed description of each infusion, but rather give some general impressions of what I experienced throughout the session.

The colour of the dry leaves is a uniform kind of brownish-black and some leaves also have a green hue to them. I mainly see long twisted leaves and some medium-sized ones as well. The aroma is really intense. I’m getting green notes in combination with citrus notes and light honey.

The aroma is fantastic! Very fresh with notes of sweet hay and honey. The size of the leaves is massive! They have a beautiful green colour with some reddish/brown tints here and there. The leaves look good as they are not broken into smaller pieces. Based on what I see, my guess is that the picking was up to the 2nd-3rd leaf.

Tea Tasting

  • Water 90°C – 95°C
  • 6.5g for a 150ml Jianshui teapot
  • 1 rinse
  • 9 infusions

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Infusions 1-3

The first three infusions were 15, 20 and 25 seconds. These infusions had a fresh and edgy taste. Edgy is not meant in a bad way but more in a sharp and refreshing way. It’s deep and fresh at the same time so it is quite complex. The fresh notes resemble citrus in the first two infusions but become less prominent in the third one. Something worth noting about this tea is that it has a lubricating effect; I feel that I’m producing more saliva than usual. I’m also getting a warm feeling throughout my body during these infusions. The colour is a greenish-yellow and it starts to get a tiny bit sweeter during the third infusion.

Infusions 4-6

These infusions were 30, 35 and 40 seconds. The liquor starts to become more yellow and less green. The flavours are also not as green anymore and the deeper flavours start to come to the surface now. This makes it that the tea is refreshing and warming at the same time, which is a pleasant sensation. The flavour profile is shifting towards a sweeter one. It’s not a candy kind of sweetness but it’s more subtle. I’m mainly getting warm honey and golden raisins. The aftertaste is also getting sweeter and is noticeable long after swallowing.

Infusions 7-9

Infusions 7 and 8 were 40 and 50 seconds, while the last one was a long one. I didn’t keep track of time but it’s around 3-4 minutes. I’m definitely not an expert on gushu teas but based on the ones I have tried, this tea is how gushu should taste like. The gushu qualities become more prominent and are noticeable long into the aftertaste. I’m really surprised that even the final infusion had no traces of bitterness. I only experienced a subtle sweetness and some of the gushu qualities.

Conclusion

I’m no expert on gushu tea but based on what I have already tasted, this one has the same feel and strength to it. The session started out very refreshing and thirst-quenching but slowly changed into a warming and cosy session. I got fresh green flavours at the beginning and sweeter ones towards the end. It wasn’t an intense sweetness like candy but a more subtle one with notes of warm honey and golden raisins. The aftertaste is also worth noting as it lasted very long. This tea is both refreshing and warming at the same time, which makes it an interesting one. I picked this one for today’s session because of the smell and wasn’t disappointed. I was rewarded with delicious gushu qualities.

Interested in buying this tea? You can go to the Tea Encounter online shop by clicking here.

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