2006 Mengnuo Tea Factory Bulang ripe 357g

Swamp chocolate water on the aroma... the leaf is ugly and it brews out light. Almost three negatives off that bat, but as the session goes on the reality is most shou doesn't really open up and brew right until 2-3 steeps in: Mouth cooling and a tantalizing feeling. An actual qi build up from what appears to be a nasty pile of junk. Visually this turns me off being a black mush of old leaf and sticks but as I continue there's a toasty caramel flavor behind everything with a fire roasted earth flavor. A bit hard to describe here, it's not fermented per say but it's also earthy in a way with heat notes that I cannot place the flavors with. Regardless, as this session brews out the highlights are how relaxing of a qi this provides with a crazy cooling coming across which isn't common for me in ripe puerh. Ultimately, it's the unique mouth feel and feeling that has this random shou showing up in the shop!

This was described as a sandalwood finish to it however I cannot say I can conceptualize what that would taste like in a liquid form but that might be the warm/fire notes I pick up.

357g