#yeeontea

Let me say, I love aged ripe puerh. Especially stuff like this from Yeeon. I don’t know if it’s the way they used to prepare and store shou back in the day, or if it’s simply the age. This tea is incredibly smooth and clean. Nice oily mouth feel, it’s a very easy tea. A lot of Yeeon’s aged ripes have this same quality — the leaves can take a good beating. Liquor color is nice, dark, and red with a very wet, woody, herbal aroma. The tea smells like the wet pile taste would be too much, but that flavor is nonexistent especially at this age. This leaf soup is an incredibly easy drink, bound to be enjoyed by most shou lovers. I do almost wish the flavor had been stronger, but you are always free to overleaf.

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This one was surprising to me! Of all the teas I’ve tried from Yeeon, I had assumed this would be a favorite. I’m surprised that I did not like this shou as much as their other’s. Aroma is very wet and slightly dank — wet wood smells. Flavor to me was uninteresting… Warm and smooth, yes. But, lands rather flat and not strong. This tea doesn’t brew as dark nor for as long as I want it to. Especially at the price point, I expected a bit more “bang”. There are some positives here; the tea is smooth in the mouth, like oil. It has that warm ripe feeling. Yet, if you want a good shou from Yee on, I’m more likely to recommend the purple mark cake or the best taste shou. Those are far cheaper and (imo) far better. Such a bummer ! But I only bought 10 grams so it’s okay haha.

I’m going to try to be more active here on tumblr, so if you’d like to see some of my art and stuff it’s @apoostrophe for my art side blog !

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+ A tale of me ACCIDENTALLY buying an entire cake of Puerh. Whoops.

A completely unexpected gift from my past self. I placed this Yee on Tea order when I was first discovering tea, and it took forever to get here. Thus, I completely forgot what I bought, and when I bought the teas I didn’t know what I was doing. Arriving at the post office today, I wondered why this package was so big. Now I know why.

Despite not having the room for it nor the know-how on how to care for it, I am officially the owner of an entire cake of shou puerh. The cake was about $25 USD or $200 HKD so I probably just thought I was getting a sample when I bought it. Late last year I made the decision to go shopping for good quality puerh tea online. I was led to Yee on Tea, however I had no idea what I was looking at. I sorted the teas by “best selling” and just purchased what sounded good. This tea took several months to get here, and I still have no idea what these teas really are. You think I would have learned something by then, but I still haven’t. Well, I at least know when I’m buying a cake vs when I’m buying a sample. I must have read the reviews upon buying because this tea is littered with 5 star reviews on Yee’s website. One reviewer, Derek Hanson, calls the tea “Delicious and Dank”. This is true, the tea is dank! The smell is unfamiliar to me, it smells super wet. It’s a smooth tea with a somewhat strong fermented flavor. Super smooth, sweet, and no bitterness in sight. A bit fruity. I bought this tea probably thinking it was an actual purple tea. Don’t get confused, the “purple” in the name of the tea is in reference to its packaging. Although, I could be wrong. Yee calls this tea “half fermented”, and it was traditionally stored. There’s a wet wood flavor going on, and a bit herbal. You can steep this tea pretty heavy and it will still remain smooth. A reliable drink, for sure. All in all, this tea is giving me a good idea of what traditionally stored shou puerh tastes like. I’m now going down a rabbit hole online reading about what traditional Hong Kong tea storage is like, and its relation to dim sum restaurants. Yee on Tea has a fantastic write up on how these teas came to be and how they are stored that I’ll link below. I’m actually a bit worried about owning a cake like this; luckily it is pretty inexpensive, but I don’t have proper storage for it and the Savannah weather is very humid. Ordering tea is hard, sometimes you get a little lost in what all the fancy words and stuff means. Maybe I’ll invite people over and we’ll have a massive tea party and drink the whole cake…

It’s a good thing I like this tea. I would’ve given this tea a higher rating but I’m not 100% sure how I feel about it. There’s a lot of time for me to review it again since I have so much of it.

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Hi tumblr, been a while c:

I’ve returned with a wild tea for you all. I opened this sample and was hit with the smell of rye and dried fruit. This sheng from LP is made with Yee On Tea’s Taste of Hong Kong. I typically love Yee On’s storage so this one was exciting for me. The wet leaves have that distinct traditional Hong Kong storage aroma with more hints of that dried fruit - maybe it’s fig. Some of the rye smell is cut back once the leaf is wet. Steeps quite dark too, my photos don’t do it justice (it shows the rinse). Almost a crimson amber color. I’ve seen a couple other folks call this one “too funky”, but I don’t find it to be that funky. Or, maybe it’s the exact kind of funk that I enjoy. I can taste some of the rye within the funky storage taste. The dried ripe fruit flavor is prevalent alongside the musty-ness. Some hints of wood and smoke too. A bit of strong energy in this tea. Not much astringency; pretty smooth and slightly drying in the mouth. So, I like this tea. It has some very interesting notes that make it into a treat plus that Yee On storage flavor. It’s probably not for everyone, nor would I drink it daily, but it’s enjoyable for me.

Been enjoying my summer break, but it’s been way too hot to drink tea! Feels like every day we break records on how hot it is here.

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