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Tea provided by Teavivre for review

Trying the fourth out of five samples Teavivre sent me to try. At first I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to save for Chinese New Year. But considering how bitterly cold it has been lately, I put off trying the two ripe puerh teas. Having black tea is nice in the winter, but ripe pureh is so earthy, dark and heavy that it uplifts any thoughts of bad winter day I have.

There were no steep suggestions on the website, so I chose the gongfu steeping from another ripe puerh and steeped Menghai Palace Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2008, 10 times.

First steep brought out all the flavours I expected; deep earthy, mellow, woodsy. The cake piece hasn’t completely unraveled yet.

Second steep really cranked up bold flavours. And the cake finally unraveled on the third steep. It was a bit stronger than I anticipated. Not in a bad way, but it’s a very bold ripe puerh flavour. It maintained a really bold flavour up until the seventh steep. Then flavour of the tea weakened a bit, and I could taste some more subtleties; licorice, anise, pepper, leather, herby. And finishing on the tenth steep, it had a bit of a nice sweet aftertaste.

Overall it met my expectations. Ripe puerh is always a good pick for resteeping gongfu style. It maintains its flavour over many resteeps, and it’s a very strong flavour.
There’s nothing that impressed me about the tea, but it didn’t have any negative or unwanted flavours either (aside from being really bold, which could be a pro or a con for another person).