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2002 Jiang Cheng "Ye Sheng Gu Cha" Aged Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake | Yunnan Sourcing Tea Shop

2002 Jiang Cheng "Ye Sheng Gu Cha" Aged Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake

by Yunnan Sourcing Tea Shop
$14.50 - $163.25
$14.50
$14.50 - $163.25
$14.50

An early Jiang Cheng mountains area single mountain production.  Made entirely from wild arbor Jiang Cheng spring 2002 tea leaves and then pressed with stone press, and aged in Yi Wu for 14 years! 

Jiang Cheng mountainous area is north of Yi Wu in the very northern part of Mengla county in Xishuangbanna.  Jiang Cheng teas are not as famous as Yi Wu, but nevertheless have a similar character.  This reminds me very much of a semi-wet stored Yi Wu tea I drank many years ago.

This particular tea cake is composed of a mix of somewhat rough leaves and tippier 2 leaf to 1 bud sets.  The cake's compression is medium (tight for a stone pressed cake) and comes apart pretty easily.  The brewed tea is very sweet, with some mild astringency and no bitterness.  Tea color is orange-red and quite soupy, but clear.  Cha qi is soothing but noticeable.  Complex taste, very unique from other teas we have sold!

This is the kind of tea I like to drink when I just want to relax with raw pu-erh, but not be overstimulated!  It's aged character is refreshing but never boring.

357 grams per cake

2002 Spring tea

** Some wrappers may be bug-bitten with little holes in the paper. There may also be some dust between the wrapper and the cake. Rinse tea once or twice briefly before drinking! If you are squeamish please don't order this tea!

Overall rating: 4.0 / 5 from 5 reviews.

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Review topics: ["taste","notes","cake"].

Review highlights

Reviews

2 stars

"Bought this in 2019 from the US site. I pull it out every year or so, and do a couple sessions. This one just keeps disappointing me. Today’s session: The good: light smoke, buttery, subtle notes of tropical fruit develop in later steeps. The bad: Sweetness never comes. Still overly astringent for its age. The ugly: The good notes quickly drop off and leave me with an unpleasant bitterness and dry irritating feeling in the back of my tongue and throat. This is not the typical puerh bitterness that I often enjoy. It is off and unpleasant. Back into storage she goes until next spring or maybe I wait 2 years this time"

— Paul C. (2/5)

Sour cherries and lambic beer

"Wood and leather but with a distinctive sour cherry note, with hints of Belgian beer. Pleasant astringency and very clean"

— Marek I. (4/5)

Soothing

"This is a soothing aged tea. Tasting some notes of kelp and plum. It gets much better into the fourth and subsequent infusions. Definitely use hotter water, as the fresh top notes have mellowed out significantly. My biggest complaint is that there's not much sweetness coming at the end."

— Jason (4/5)

Aged treatment

"I am very impressed by this cake. The sample I got was from the center, which supposedly is less aged than the rest of the cake, and produced a sweeter brew. Nevertheless, I was convinced and bought a full cake. The edge is definitely very different from the centre, with a more mellow and aged taste. The leaves on this part are very loose, but as you work your way only slightly deeper into the cake they are packed together considerably tighter. It was this part of the cake that truly impressed me. It had the sweetness I enjoyed as much from the center while still having the aged character the outer leaves have. This is a very affordable cake, easy to drink, but it tastes like an absolute treat. If you like sweet and mellow sheng, this is the cake you should buy. Or you don't, and leave more tea for me to drink, because I'm definitely gonna reorder once I run out."

— Tomas A. (5/5)

15-year old semi-wet stored tea - good value

"And it's very close to Yi Wu character - somewhat calm (not too mean) cha qi and sweet plum taste. Very little wet storage taste, warming orange-red liquid."

— Aadu H. (5/5)

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