UPDATED NOTE
Dry – Light bittersweet, faint persimmon (dried), dates, raisins, some mellow wood notes.
Wet – Apparent complexity with Molasses notes, vanilla, dates, raisins, coffee-cocoa bean, earthy/woody bittersweet.
Liquor – Burgundy – Brown.
Gong Fu on 130ml Gaiwan, 10gm of the good sample a good chunk of lightly pressed cake that came loose with the first of two flash rinses
1st Steep 3secs Thick, bitter, woody-earth notes, caramel, vanilla and then a slightly starchy note with hints of woody-pencil shavings scent, smooth in the middle while going down with hints of cocoa that is at the woody spectrum of cocoa.
2nd Steep 3secs Thick, bitter, woody and starchy, pencil shavings, a coffee-like/cocoa bitter note, followed by caramel and vanilla notes. A smooth middle with a refreshing sensation that develops. Smooth starchy and filling with a sweet finish.
3rd Steep 4secs Thick, bitter, woody and starchy, pencil shavings, coffee-cocoa notes (woody spectrum of cocoa bean), followed by caramel and vanilla notes, smooth body and lasting sweetness together with a slightly refreshing finish.
4th Steep 10secs Medium thickness, smoother, bittersweet, mellow woody-starchy note and a more forward vanilla and caramel note and faint cocoa note. The liquor is very smooth and pleasant, Cha Qi is present here and goes well with the camphor that is showing up a bit more.
5th Steep 25secs Medium to a weak thickness, bittersweet, mellow starchy and woody note with notes of vanilla/caramel and hints of cocoa. The camphor is more apparent now but the liquor feels thin in comparison, some minor astringency present, The liquor is also lost most of its initial color.
6th 40secs Thin liquor, some of the notes are still there, a lot more camphor and woody notes. There’s a good sweetness that lingers with hints of vanilla and even perhaps dried fruit.
7th 1m 20secs Watery… mostly sweet and refreshing.
Final Notes
This is a good tasting Shou with a nice thickness together with complex notes. However, it has a very… very short life. Longevity is the only downfall on this one, it is composed of only smaller leaf with gives it a very nice taste, but runs out of gas. I would recommend this one to people who are ok with 6 good steeps, 7-8th are usually watery.
Scott recommended brewing this on on a Yixing/Jian Shui for maintaining the high temperatures, which I also did, but at the most you get an ok 7th steep with a watery 8th. I would still recommend a try, the initial steeps are delicious.
Flavors: Caramel, Cocoa, Dark Bittersweet, Thick, Vanilla, Wood
Preparation
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Comments
that’s the thing with puerh samples, you have no idea how long ago each sample was removed from a cake and sealed, or if its storage is anything like that of the full cakes (usually not unless the sample is really fresh).
Can you clarify? You got two samples? One was sheng and one shu? This 1996 cake is definitely shu/ripe. Anyways… let me know by email, and maybe send some pictures so we can figure it out.
Hi Scott. Sorry for the delay I just saw this and sent you an email with pictures. Both samples were indeed Ripe Puerh, they were just worlds apart in quality and I said the sheng comment to convey that. One sample is only fanning and dust, the other other one had a small piece of cake and the rest was loose but it was different leaf grade levels(good shape) no dust.
The first sample I could only get two steeps and there were not leaves in the gaiwan only a muddy looking puddle because of the dust and fanning, and filters didn’t work for this one either. The other one it is what I was expecting, but I wasn’t taking full notes of that one, so I wanted to wait until I revisited it to take proper notes.
that’s the thing with puerh samples, you have no idea how long ago each sample was removed from a cake and sealed, or if its storage is anything like that of the full cakes (usually not unless the sample is really fresh).
Can you clarify? You got two samples? One was sheng and one shu? This 1996 cake is definitely shu/ripe. Anyways… let me know by email, and maybe send some pictures so we can figure it out.
Hi Scott. Sorry for the delay I just saw this and sent you an email with pictures. Both samples were indeed Ripe Puerh, they were just worlds apart in quality and I said the sheng comment to convey that. One sample is only fanning and dust, the other other one had a small piece of cake and the rest was loose but it was different leaf grade levels(good shape) no dust.
The first sample I could only get two steeps and there were not leaves in the gaiwan only a muddy looking puddle because of the dust and fanning, and filters didn’t work for this one either. The other one it is what I was expecting, but I wasn’t taking full notes of that one, so I wanted to wait until I revisited it to take proper notes.