2013 Pu-erh.sk Mansa

Mansa... one of the original famous tea mountains. Why is it not as famous today? I like Mansa teas, for they shared a strong tendency to contain dark forest fruit in their spectrum - and I very much enjoy the said tastes.

The leaves are not particularly large and they are rather densely compressed - which is, I believe, rather good.

The dry leaves smell like any other Yiwu, of sugar and a sort of flowers. However, after a short meeting with Mrs. Hot Water, the leaves start emitting a lovely aroma of dark forest fruit (black-&blue-berries, both ripe and in jam), with a touch of leather background. I think that Yiwu is often rather rich in this sort of fruitiness, but it seems to be concentrated in Mansa pu the most. The aroma of this particular cake may not be the most complex or multi-layered, but it aims for maximum intensity instead; it works very well as a result.

It is strangely dark orange for a 2013... but who am I to care? The leaves are properly green, no above-average oxidation happened here.

The taste is quite delicious, very intensive, given that this is a young Yiwu tea. The principal components are: strong and "wide" taste of blackberry jam, feeling of bitter chocolate, and a tiny bit of leather, which is, however, mixed into the blackberry taste, which is why it is not as obvious as in some other Yiwu teas. After a while in mouth, the blackberries are accompanied by blueberries - which is quite a lovely combination. It's a bit like YS's Purple Yiwu of 2010, when it was fresh, but stronger and frankly better (a lot more expensive too). "Yiwu old lilies" and light honey taste appear in later steepings too and work quite well with the fruity component.

The taste lasts long and there is a good, light velvet-like tingling and astringency. The qi is quite strong - not something which would make me stare into a wall for an hour, but I could easily feel the effect.

A very worthwhile tea, this is, heartily recommended. It has basically no bad points  and plenty of good points, so there is really nothing to dislike. It is quite differerent from all the "superthick glue with 5% of taste" gushu Yiwus that are being made today and I, at least now, prefer this style.