Woolen Sweater Puerh

The ’05 Green Mark has a bit of a petrol and deep forest vibe and is one of the few humid-stored raws in the collection.  Did I say raw?  It isn’t.  It is a raw-ripe blended puerh, so the color is much darker than most raws you’ll encounter this age.

I find myself coming to’05 Green Mark quite often.  The humidity is welcoming.  The after taste is of flowers and petrol, with saccharine and astringent notes.  The flowers aren’t evident in the broth, rather you get smoke, leather, and petrol.  I’m pretty sure that this is what the crew on Ahab’s ship drank when sailing in the North Sea.

The aroma is addictive: camphor, smoke and intermingle giving a woolen-sweater effect.  The camphor dances about with the with the saccharine.  It’s not honey or maple or agave, as right on the edge of sweetness is bitterness.

All of the richness of taste is balanced by a broth that could possibly thicker.  There are some slight vegetal notes that you might be able to pick out and the qi won’t bowl you over.  Still it possesses a notable phlegm cutting quality.

This offering is under CNNP, but it does not come from one of the big three.  This wrapper has wide use in the puerh universe.

by Yang-chu