HQF Jinggu 2017 GuShu Sheng Puer

todays tea is a 2017 Jinggu GuShu Sheng Puer from the HQF Label.

this was one of their cheapest puer tea cakes of that years lineup, and it sold for about 20 cent / gram at that time. the production date on the wrapper says April 2017.

the sticker is quite nice and reminds me of otherworldly and psychoactive effects ;), but it might actually rather refer to some old ethnic civilization people riding on animals and maybe delivering tea to a tea master (just my thoughts)..

the leaf material is mixed and looks blended, you can also see in the brewed leaves that there are many different kinds of colors here, even purple.

the drying process was obviously done with fermenting some edges of the leaves to get more aroma.

as the tea is already more than 2 years old, the brew has an orange color now, and will receive it's first aged flavors (in between phase) very soon.

i expected a strong fruity and lemony aroma in this one as with other Jinggu Area sheng puers, but this one has quite a very smokey flavor, that might be unpleasant at first but gets less after a few steeps and feels like an acceptable wood smoke aroma that has a nice effect on your throat while sipping this tea.

this doesn't change the impression, that there are many different aspects of aroma in this one, sour, harsh, smokey. the liquid is not very thick and feels a bit thin fast, but that might relate to the cheaper price range, to me it's obviously leaf material of younger and older aged tea plants mixed together.

daily facts:

i never really liked the profound smokiness in this one, luckily it fades with the ongoing steeps, but so do the other oily aromas and the brew gets thin and uninteresting when the smokiness is at a pleasant level. i can't really enjoy this tea as much as i would like to and had many better experiences with other Jinggu teas. if you are a fan of smokey teas, this might be a good one for you. if you are not, you better skip this one.

the qi of this tea was not very deep for me and rather felt like from younger trees, not ancient old trees. the wrapper information states quality leaf material from ancient trees though (GuShu). for 20 cent / gram it might not be the best material.

daily rating:

3.6 / 5