Geraldo on Wild Elephant Xishuangbanna Silver Tip & Wild Tree Blend

[from an email to corax. posted by permission.]

Wild Elephant Xishuangbanna Silver Tip & Wild Tree Blend Beengcha [sheng puer, 2005]. Vendor: Yunnan Tea Import & Export.

This tea is very good. 9g of tea and 9 oz of water, brewed at 190F. Dry leaf: large, thin, dark green leaves and many silver buds. The buds create a wonderful sweetness, and I would suggest buying it to drink, but not to age, since I am told that cakes with a preponderance of buds do not age well. This is a sweet, hot lemonade tea. It is strong and fun to consume. There is no smoke, no cigar, nothing untoward.

This tea is difficult to talk about. It is very simple, and not as multi-dimensional as the bud-laden teas from SFTM. The pu’er character, the signature of pu’er, is not as strong in this tea. This has the qualities of a mild green or white tea, and SFTMs have that but have the pu’er pungency in abundance too.