2005 Yiwu Ancient Tree Dragon Balls

2026-02

Yiwu Ancient Dragon Balls from Essence of Tea. The balls vary in size, roughly six to eight grams each, and they look quite nice from the outside. Once they open up, you can see there are some finer particles worked into them. In the first three to five steeps those fines show up in the soup, so the liquor can look quite cloudy.

They loosen up very nicely, already after the first steep, and spread out quickly.

From the beginning it’s very approachable, soft, and sweet, in the classic Yiwu way. A quiet tea - easy to drink, goes down like water, you don’t realize the kettle is already empty. It’s the kind of friendly tea I could imagine serving to guests who aren’t very experienced with puerh.

In terms of texture, the early steeps are coherent but a bit on the watery side in the cup. At the same time, there is a soft dimension and a coating in the back of the mouth which feels oily, and fuller than the liquor at first glance. After swallowing there’s a fruity sweetness ‘sticking’ around.

For endurance, the initial fullness of aroma and flavour transitions into a lighter expression after a few steeps, and then it keeps going steadily for quite a while.

It has been aged in Kunming, which is known to be ‘dry storage’ - nevertheless the have aged very well (and clean), with a nice clarity to them.