So this was a gift during a trade with someone who’s name I can’t find. Thank you Mystery Person!
Generally speaking, I am NOT a fan of pu’erh. I am especially not a fan of Shu pu’erh. But I have it and I thought that I should try it. I had a little chunk of it with a label in a little plastic bag so here goes. I’m using my little yellow single person teapot and cup with the cats on them. I have a matching set of mugs, but the cup sits below the teapot when it is resting so I have a drinking vessel already.
I hope the pu’erh purists will forgive me, but I added a bit of sugar to each infusion because otherwise bitterness overwhelms everything. I will try to do this justice.
1st steep: 10 seconds: boiling water. This tastes really earthy and I’m not sure how to describe it. I’m not entirely turned off by it, and I’m rather surprised about that. I think I’m also getting a bit of that tea chaqi that Terri keeps mentioning. I’m feeling a little light-headed anyway and this after not even a cup of it.
Had to pour out the second steep because of reasons. Third infusion is 15 seconds, boiling water, and it’s not really noticeably darker than the first. I poured through a strainer because the parts keep coming off since the teapot doesn’t have it’s own strainer. This infusion is still a dark orange/brown colour and as I’m tasting it, the flavour has thinned out a bit but it’s becoming a bit more unpleasant for me. I think I will stop drinking this now and apologize for wasting this likely very nice tea when I truly have not developed a taste for shu pu’erh.
