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I had all these detailed notes typed up but then I closed the window accidentally. Oh well. Here’s the gist.

Lid/leaves smell: started off with bright grassiness, some floral, moved onto deeper wetter grassy smell with a little spice.

Taste: Started with hay and butter with nice texture and body. Steeps 3-5ish developed a nice savory and nutty flavor (similar to notes I get from Verdant’s gan zao ye which is a really interesting herbal “tea”). Steeps 6 and beyond continued to have nice flavor but didn’t develop much further. I’m on steep 9-10 or something and still going. Aftertaste and throat feel were very nice and deep in the throat through most of the steeps. Got some really nice cha qi late on too.

Since I’m new to puer, I’m trying to stick to less expensive teas in order to allow myself to sample a broader spectrum so I probably won’t be buying a cake of this even though it’s a really nice tea.

Special thanks to matu for this sample.

Note: I am very new to pu’er and am mostly writing a review for my own records. My opinion is not that of a seasoned veteran.

The brick is very dark and very dense, difficult to break up. I used an oyster knife and had to put a lot of weight behind it to get anywhere. In the little chunk I broke off, I found a bit of red string and a human hair. Not a great first impression.

The gaiwan lid smell after the rinse is pretty fishy and a little burnt. Rinse soup was pretty light and thin. The first steep (~6s) gave a much deeper colored soup and the smell of the lid lost a lot of its pungency, it sort of smelled like nothing other than a faint hay smell. Pretty weak flavor, it reminds me of the tea you get served free at a Chinese restaurant but with a little hint of fishiness. Second steep (~10s) brought some of the smokey smell back. I can barely see light through the soup in my 200ml glass cha hai. Flavor is coming through a little. I taste chalk and wet earth. There is a bit more aftertaste happening as well but it’s shallow in the throat and not very strong. Third steep (~15s) got rid of the smokiness but I got back a little fishiness and new tennis ball can on the lid aroma. Smelled like waking up in a tent after the sun has been beating down on it. Similar color in the soup. Flavor is going a little more vegetal, like boiled tubers you didn’t wash the dirt off of. Aftertaste is even weaker than the second steep, I don’t think I’ll get it back. Fourth steep (~20s) and the smokey aroma is back. It smells like burnt firewood that you left in the pit and it got rained on. Soup is lightening up a little bit. Flavor is very light again and the body has almost disappeared. No aftertaste, no throat feeling, just boring tea. We’re back to the flavorless Chinese restaurant oolong. Slight mushroom creaminess to the flavor.

I’m going to keep drinking this I guess but I’ll stop writing it down, it’s just boring at this point. At $0.09/g, I would not buy again. It was an impulse buy while I waited for an order from China since I live down the street from a TeaSource.

Note: I am very new to pu’er and am mostly writing a review for my own records. My opinion is not that of a seasoned veteran.

Tuo is very dry and crumbly when breaking, lots of dust (maybe I just suck at it?). I got a rinse plus 7 steeps out of it, the last couple steeps being 30s-1m and not giving much flavor. Fishiness and other off flavors were almost completely gone after the rinse. Liquor was very thick and deep red for the first 2-3 steeps. Low-medium astringency. Smooth and easy to drink with not much depth or complexity to the flavor. Didn’t change drastically between steeps and fell off hard around the 6th steep.

At $.06/g, I might re-order this to keep as a daily drinker when I’m not in the mood for anything pungent although it would be nice to get more steeps out of it.

Edit: tried this tea again and I rescind my recommendation. Not that good. After getting a few more ripe teas under my belt, I realized that this one is really not very nice.