Always a pleasure to try another pu-erh from Teavivre, as I know it’ll be good. I ended up using an entire sample for a mug (10 grams), which probably wasn’t necessary but half the pouch didn’t look like enough. I think I should have used 2/3 of the sample. The flavor wasn’t too much as ripe pu-erh never is anyway, but I know I would have had more nuance from the flavor without using so much tea. It was tough to tell specific flavor notes from this one. It has a deep, dark flavor though while being smooth with almost a creamy quality to it. Not the most chocolate of the pu-erhs. None of those unwanted pu-erh qualities about this one though. The dry leaf had a nice sweet dried grass fragrance. After steeping, the brew basket is very full but the leaves aren’t as large as some pu-erhs I’ve had lately. All three steeps were solidly the same. But there are so many special pu-erhs from Teavivre that this one doesn’t seem to have enough uniqueness for me (again, probably because I overleafed this one and just got a very deep flavored cup.) If I steeped this the way it should be, I would imagine it would be even better. I love my pu-erh strong anyway, so this was delicious.
Steep #1 // one sample pouch (10 grams for mug) // 20 second rinse // just boiled // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 2 min steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 4 min steep