2013 Purple Leaf Myanmar Raw Pu-erh Tea

I really liked the Purple Sheng. It holds up well to multiple infusions, with the flavor intensifying from steep to steep into sweet raisin and floral notes. It’s easy to drink, and there’s a hint of prune in the taste. An excellent sheng.

Trying this tea from my first order with Teaside, very pleasant experience.
Tasting this tea at about 12 yrs old, it is neither old nor young sheng, and has a bit of both qualities - very drinkable.
Funnily enough the purple character comes out more strongly in the first couple of brews, it gives a taste reminiscent of purple shiso (perilla), if you know this taste - maybe that's what anthocyanins taste like. Afterwards, this wears off though - it tastes more like a regular sheng with pruney notes, with some hints of ye-sheng.
In this session I didn't get endless infusions but it does hold brewing for a while.
All in all a very good tea, a bit different, and light grounding qi.

I drank from a Yixing teapot. In the warmed teaware, the aroma of dried, slightly smoky pear and dried banana emerged. The taste resembled pear compote, alternating with apple compote from steep to steep. The brew was amber-colored, thick, rich, and oily, very easy to drink. The tea is very strong, after the first cup everyone got a little tipsy. We brewed 5g for 140-150ml. Excellent tea, thank you for the sample!

- This is a second review, to find out how different the tea tastes now that it is a decade old -
Brief (5-10 seconds) steeps in 90 Celsius water.
Liquor is dark amber in color, slightly cloudy.
Taste is fruity at first, then slightly woody in aftertaste, with a long finish.
Mouthfeel is mildly sticky, with no astringency.
Wet leaves are dark olive green in color with a bronze hue, giving off a sweet aroma similar to stone fruits and yellow raisins.
Flavor intensity starts to mellow down by the 6th infusion, thus best to steep longer from here onwards.
A longer (1 minute) steep in the next infusion gives a bolder fruity sweet sensation, with a touch of dryness on the palate, yet still no astringency detected.
To me the taste difference between 2021 review and now is the less bold of the fruity note up front, it is less harsh, and has less punch, giving an impression that it is smoother and more rounded.

This is the first tea I tried from my first order with Tea-Side and I am extremely impressed. Although still a fairly young sheng, this tea is very mellow. In fact, I find it just about perfect. The taste is exquisite and the chi wonderfully invigorating. I will certainly order this tea again.