2002 Raw Pu-erh Tea Brick (Ke Yi Xing) from ES Green

Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Pu-erh

Where to Buy:  ES Green

Tea Description:

The Region of Harvest: Yunnan Province, China
Plant Type: Yunnan Big Leaf Bush
Tea Factory: Xi Shuang Ban Na-Yiwu-Key Yi Xing  Tea Factory
Brand: Ke Yi Xing

About the brand “Ke Yi Xing” .  It is one of the time-honored brands in Yun Nan. It is built in 1925.

Learn more about this tea here.

Taster’s Review:

The picture appears so much greener than the leaves look to me, I had to double check to make sure that this is indeed the tea I’m tasting.

But, the flavors match the way ES Green describes the tea:

It tastes earthy, old, strong. But it is living, vivid, fresh. You will find it smooth and mellow on the first sip.

This is what I taste from this tea.  I taste the earthiness (I did do two pre-rinses though, to ensure that it would not be too earthy), and I even taste the strength and the age.  I also taste a wild note to this … like a vibrant, green tea that is hiding in the distance.  It hides behind the earthy overtures and the caramel-y undertones, but every once in a while, the vibrant, green … almost lushly fresh tasting green tones emerge just to remind me that they’re there.

A remarkably smooth and mellow tea, and very deep in flavor.  With each subsequent infusion, the flavor became deeper and sweeter!  Much of the earthiness softened by the fourth infusion.  It was still somewhat earthy, but not as earthy as the first few cups.  I found that the tea started to taste lighter and more vibrant and fresh with each subsequent infusion, which seemed to give me a gentle nudge to steep it yet again to see how the flavors would be with the next cup.

This is not one of those teas that you want to rush … you want to sit back, and spend an hour or two just exploring the many layers of flavor that it holds in store.

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