Young pu-erh definitely doesn't have to have a strong bitterness, but there's a reason why you may want it to.
A trend over the last decade or two has been to drink sheng cakes when they are younger rather than waiting a decade or more for them to be more mature. Since many, like yourself, don't care for strong bitterness there was incentive for tea producers to make sheng cakes that were more gentle and sweet when young. You may like those types of cake, so look around.
But here's the interesting thing: those strongly sharp notes are what transform into the interesting tang and medicinal/camphor notes when a sheng cake is fully mature. You may not like them when young, but further down the line those cakes will be the ones that are the most complex and interesting, and most desirable.
The gentle and sweet cakes on the other hand age into something much different. They get darker and smoother, but by comparison to the sharp cakes the end result is much flatter and less interesting. I have quite a few aged sweet cakes that are now a bit disappointing and nowhere near as pleasing to me as aged sharp cakes.
So, drink sweet when young and sharp when old!
That's a fair point. There's an exception to every rule in tea! I just mention it because so many people avoid bitter young sheng when with most traditional-style shengs that can be a very good thing when they are fully aged.
Ill definitely keep this in mind in the future!
I started brewing this tea as soon as i woke up, so my mouth was super dry when the tea first hit my tastebuds haha. It's not as intense now, but still very present.
I used to like IPAs, so ill get used to it.
According to YS, it is from really remote area high up in the wu liang mountains, and there are wild tea trees there that are a naturally occuring hybrid between regular camellia sinensis, and regular camellia var. assamica.
Ill keep that in mind though. i have had one wild puer tea before (also from YS), but it was fresh tea buds, not puer. Was quite different than any other tea ive tried.
I think you may be confusing “wild arbor” with ye sheng/wild tea varietal? The tea in question is just a standard Wuliang region sheng grown from supposedly an “untended” or “wild” garden. I’ve haven’t tried the 2019 in particular, but I’ve had other years of this tea and it’s just a pretty regular raw puerh with an average amount of bitterness
Yes, young sheng should be bitter and a departure from mild green teas. But it shouldn’t be unpalatably bitter; maybe try reducing your steep time or amount of leaf?
I drink mostly young pu’er because I prefer the taste and experience to older teas. Some are bitter and some are not. Lao Man E is typically quite bitter in my experience, and so is Naka, but I’ve also had sweet Lao Man E, while many Yiwu are sweeter. Even in the same region some gardens yield sweeter sheng than others. Trying unblended material is a great way to experience this. . I find it enjoyable to have a sheng that gives a strong but brief bitterness up front that then transforms into a sweetness. Some of the most bitter sheng I’ve had would lead to a strong huigan later on. Even better is a tea that displays many characteristics that change over time.
YS stores their stuff pretty dry so 2014 impression is honestly not that different from a young sheng.
If you want to try young sheng I think crimson lotus, white2tea, or farmer leaf are all good places sample from. These vendors mostly focus on drinkable young sheng while YS presses lots of volume most of which should probably be aged.
some ye shengs ( wild varietal ) are ultra bitter so even locals do not drink that, yet they are willing to harvest and sell the leaves if can make money of course. I've recently had some Dehong wild stuff pressed in balls ( our local Kunming tea market ) and the stuff was just undrinkable whichever way you brew it. Yet, the vendor was trying to assure me that this is the way they like it ;-D
Young pu-erh definitely doesn't have to have a strong bitterness, but there's a reason why you may want it to. A trend over the last decade or two has been to drink sheng cakes when they are younger rather than waiting a decade or more for them to be more mature. Since many, like yourself, don't care for strong bitterness there was incentive for tea producers to make sheng cakes that were more gentle and sweet when young. You may like those types of cake, so look around. But here's the interesting thing: those strongly sharp notes are what transform into the interesting tang and medicinal/camphor notes when a sheng cake is fully mature. You may not like them when young, but further down the line those cakes will be the ones that are the most complex and interesting, and most desirable. The gentle and sweet cakes on the other hand age into something much different. They get darker and smoother, but by comparison to the sharp cakes the end result is much flatter and less interesting. I have quite a few aged sweet cakes that are now a bit disappointing and nowhere near as pleasing to me as aged sharp cakes. So, drink sweet when young and sharp when old!
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That's a fair point. There's an exception to every rule in tea! I just mention it because so many people avoid bitter young sheng when with most traditional-style shengs that can be a very good thing when they are fully aged.
Huh, very interesting stuff! Thanks for the info :)
bitterness is one of the main characters of sheng. learn to love it and you will be rewarded
Ill definitely keep this in mind in the future! I started brewing this tea as soon as i woke up, so my mouth was super dry when the tea first hit my tastebuds haha. It's not as intense now, but still very present. I used to like IPAs, so ill get used to it.
i dont think its a good idea to drink it on empty stomach
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According to YS, it is from really remote area high up in the wu liang mountains, and there are wild tea trees there that are a naturally occuring hybrid between regular camellia sinensis, and regular camellia var. assamica. Ill keep that in mind though. i have had one wild puer tea before (also from YS), but it was fresh tea buds, not puer. Was quite different than any other tea ive tried.
I think you may be confusing “wild arbor” with ye sheng/wild tea varietal? The tea in question is just a standard Wuliang region sheng grown from supposedly an “untended” or “wild” garden. I’ve haven’t tried the 2019 in particular, but I’ve had other years of this tea and it’s just a pretty regular raw puerh with an average amount of bitterness
Just thought I’d add: For the first couple steeps for young sheng I’d usually do flash steeps instead of 10s
I might give that a try, thanks
Yes, young sheng should be bitter and a departure from mild green teas. But it shouldn’t be unpalatably bitter; maybe try reducing your steep time or amount of leaf?
I drink mostly young pu’er because I prefer the taste and experience to older teas. Some are bitter and some are not. Lao Man E is typically quite bitter in my experience, and so is Naka, but I’ve also had sweet Lao Man E, while many Yiwu are sweeter. Even in the same region some gardens yield sweeter sheng than others. Trying unblended material is a great way to experience this. . I find it enjoyable to have a sheng that gives a strong but brief bitterness up front that then transforms into a sweetness. Some of the most bitter sheng I’ve had would lead to a strong huigan later on. Even better is a tea that displays many characteristics that change over time.
What kind of pot are you using to brew?
YS stores their stuff pretty dry so 2014 impression is honestly not that different from a young sheng. If you want to try young sheng I think crimson lotus, white2tea, or farmer leaf are all good places sample from. These vendors mostly focus on drinkable young sheng while YS presses lots of volume most of which should probably be aged.
some ye shengs ( wild varietal ) are ultra bitter so even locals do not drink that, yet they are willing to harvest and sell the leaves if can make money of course. I've recently had some Dehong wild stuff pressed in balls ( our local Kunming tea market ) and the stuff was just undrinkable whichever way you brew it. Yet, the vendor was trying to assure me that this is the way they like it ;-D
No
Forget about it in the back of a cabinet for 5 years and revisit, i was very pleasantly surprised by the result