I have to apologize to all my gentle readers. I have been rather busy and... I promised to myself not to write about new teas until I write about these two teas first. But since I did not enjoy them so much, I had a hard time finding the time to write about them. But it is here, at last. I hope that my contributions will become more frequent again.
Pa Sha 2011:
The pleasant part of the cake is the fact, that it is distinctly Pa Sha. But young Pa Sha tea is not always of the most pleasant... I have been drinking a lot of Yi Wu lately, so I forgot that young sheng may be unpleasant.
It is rather light, vegetal, a bit acidic and bitter, but not too much. The liquor is not too thick. The aroma is not very noteworthy, as well as the aftertaste.
However, I do not dismiss the cake - it is just too young.
You Le 2011:
The tea is too young too. I'm afraid that it has been postprocessed - reddened - artificially. I really dislike the taste of it.
The tea is not simple. Simply put - it is "weird". But saying that, we are saying too little. I brewed the tea several times, using different temperature water. The purpose was to find all parts that compose the weirdness.
I found that the tea has a lot of going on in it - a lot of small-ish tastes. Sadly, they don't mix too well together when I brewed the tea gong fu style, the result was unpleasant, hard. When brewed "grandpa style", it was ok.
I guess the tea just needs more time - some tastes have to die away, some should become more pronounced. We shall see...