One of the surprises from 2020. There was a very limited amount of this tea in 2020. It comes from trees that are growing naturally in a forested area of Jinuo Shan (You Le).
I wasn't sure about it initially, but there were only a few kilos and I thought it was worth the risk to see how it came out, partly based on some experience of other teas from roughly the same area which when fresh seem a little uninteresting and not very flavourful but which thicken up with some ageing.
I got these cakes pressed in January 2021 and stored them for a month or so before trying.
The wet leaves smell slightly popular vegetal-floral. Nothing particularly distinct. The 'bei xiang' is slight, with floral notes. The broth is a decent light-mid clear yellow.
The 'ruo kou' is smooth and slightly floral. The 'kou gan' is pleasant. Quite smooth and a little oily.
There's a slight astringency and a hint of bitterness mostly on the upper palate.
It's got some good density and very nice 'sheng jin', (keeping the mouth watering for some time after the tea has been swallowed), along with some sweetness.
There are also some retro-olfactory floral aromas and a pleasant, gentle cooling sensation in the mouth.
The tea trees are dotted across quite a wide area of land. The average altitude is about 1300 metres, so not extremely high. Picking the tea means moving over some considerable distance as the picker moves from one tree to the next. As a result the amount that is available and gets picked in a day is very small.
Product code: You Le popular Shan Spring 2020, Forest Tea Tree Raw 200g Cake