I’ve been so busy lately with tea samples and drinking through older purchases that I have not revisited this ebay puerh indulgence. However due to finding a new website I have renewed interest in my flavoured tuo cha. The website is http://www.nciku.com/ and it lets me “draw” Chinese characters with my mouse and gives me a selectable text of it. This has made finding out what I’m about to drink much easier, because the tuo cha wrappers only contain Chinese writing. So anyway, tonight’s tuo is globe amaranth with ripe puerh (千日紅熟沱).
Sipping from the first steep after the rinse, I taste something sweet that reminds me of cake. The liquor is still light because the tuo didn’t break apart.
Second steep is also sweet, with the tuo starting to break apart a bit but not fully. The ripe puerh flavour coming through is not too unfriendly.
Third steep is still quite sweet, and the tuo finally broke apart. Not the best tasting ripe puerh, but nowhere near the worst I’ve tried.
Fourth steep, I just taste ripe puerh at this point. I don’t get the sweetness or anything floral that I would associate with globe amaranth.
Fifth steep, while not floral is still fine. I think the ripe puerh is tasting a bit nicer at this point.
Ending on the sixth steep, the puerh is still strong and the liquor is still dark. I’d keep resteeping but I’m satisfied stopping here.
Not sure I would seek out this type of flavoured tuo cha, but it is nicer than some of the others that come with this set. My favourites are still ripe lavender and raw sticky rice (Nuo Mi Xiang) flavour.
I’m not a connoisseur of puerh tea, so this ebay purchase of 20 different flavoured puerh suits me just fine. The only thing I dislike about it is that the ripe puerh tends to overpower most of the flavouring. And a final note, I tend to like both ripe and raw puerh, so if you’re the sort of person that isn’t sure how much they enjoy those two, I would avoid buying these type of flavoured sets on ebay.
100ml gaiwan, 1 mini tuo, (rinse, 15s steep, +15s resteeps)
Individual rating: 70
