2009 Yunnan Sourcing Yiwu Da Qiu Feng

This Yiwu Da Qiu Feng is much more to my liking than the Gua Feng Zhai. While the Gua Feng Zhai is an excellent tea it has some issues, but Ive already gone into that in a previous post. The Da Qiu Feng sells for about half the price of the Gua Feng Zhai so I was thinking this tea is going to be mediocre at best, but I rather like it. The dry leaf is quite brown, seeing how it was stone pressed last august this browning didn't happen after processing, it,s seen some oxidation prior to the pressing. But that,s alright with me, from what Ive seen it kinda helps to round out the flavors. No idea how that affects it,s aging potential. But anyways the dry leaf is fairly small, a little dried out and crunchy. There is depth in the aroma, smells rich and savory. No green or sour flavors in this one rather a tad beany and grassy. More sweet than bitter. Slight fruitiness in the cup, not so much in the aroma. While this tea brews a clear cup with a nice syrupy body, it also brews up dirty, meaning the strainer is full of little brown and black bits of charred leaf. This tea did get treated to low temperature baking in order to dry the cakes, traditionally the cakes are allowed to air dry. The Da Qiu Feng is gathered from 80 to 100 year old arbor trees that grow on the southern slopes of the mountain. I would think that more exposure to sunlight makes for faster growth and higher potential for bitterness and astringency. I find neither one of those to be an issue in the cup. I like this tea quite a bit. Durability is good. In some ways this tea reminds me of Xiaguans "Yun Mei" if you've tried that one. Should I buy some? At the price of $35.00 each, probably not. At the "secret handshake" price, maybe. I like this tea but there are plenty of other teas that fit into this same basic flavor profile, nothing all that unique here. If I was placing an order with Y.S. anyways I might get a cake or two but I wouldnt go out of my way for this tea.