Revisiting ’07 Tippy Tuo Puerh

The ’07 Tippy Tuo Puerh bears no relation to the ’06 production bearing the same name.  Here in June of 2019 this little offering has transformed from the high-pitched notes of young flowers to a floral honey character with elements of humidity and pencil shavings emerging.

The dry smell is rich and inviting.  Wet, it emits a pleasing sweet honey floral aroma.  The ’07 Tippy Tuo bears a close resemblance to the ’06 XG Gold Ribbon production.  In both perhaps the most striking attribute is the sweet floral aftertaste.  It would be interesting to try these side-by-side.  Although the XG productions tend to be smoky, I don’t recall so much smoke with that particular production.  Similarly the Tippy Tuo is not smoky in the least.

First Infusion

Deeper infusions get aggressively astringent.  A subtle humidity lingers in the background.  Camphor cooling tingles the lips and zings in the mouth.  At the same time the sweetness of the broth wanes.  As the pictures note, the brew is quite murky.  This point is merely aesthetic, as I’ve never been able to discern anything from viewing the liquor that translates into taste, as far as raws are concerned.

Fourth Infusion

After the sixth round I tapped out.  Aftertaste is nice enough but the lack of sweetness made me lose interest.

Cashed leaves

Sandalwood and Soap: ’06 Tippy Tuo

There’s a much greater taste of something like sandalwood starting to express in this treasure.  The camphor and woodsy quality seems to have vanished.  Several years ago, there was an orange-juice quality, replete with sourness that has sense vanished.

Spring tea.  A strong and lasting aftertaste.  That’s where the sandalwood is most evident.  Flowers, that aroma and aftertaste of many spring productions is straight sandalwood.  There’s also some humidity and minerality.  That comes on the front end.  The humidity used to be more pronounced, not in a dank fashion, but that which gave the long gone woodsy vibe.

Ahhh.  Sometimes it seems that the puerh pursuit is one of nostalgia.  There’s still quite a bit of attack on the tongue.  I noticed that this one consistently leaves a qi-effect.  Not all qi-effects are heady, however.  This one has “gut qi.”  I’m not saying it is a gut buster, because it doesn’t land exactly in that fashion.  A gut buster elicits the urge to eat, just like one that has gut qi.  The difference is that gut qi doesn’t give you cramps.

Nothing about this production feels green anymore.  As you dig deeper in later infusions, bitterness definitely starts to assert itself.  A zinging astringency attacks the tongue throughout.  There’s something in there that evokes a sense of soap powder.  Certainly the woodsiest of spring productions I’ve had.  Quite similar to this in terms of the sandalwood.  The ’07 Tippy Tuo is an entirely different production, which tastes much more like Lin Cang, Fengqing, of the Yunnan black tea vibe.  This has the true minerality of Wuliang material.