Smooth As 2012 Jingmai Ripe Puer

Not a great ripe. I got this tea from my BLT order, and it just didn’t do much for me during the session. A lot of broken leaves with poor aroma but a really beautiful rich liquor, flavour was average, texture was average, character mediocre. Finish & aftertaste was average, cha-qi non-existent, and steep longevity poor. Disappointing and the tea made it a chore to write this review.

finished up my sample of this today.

4.5g, 100mL duanni, Brita filtered tap, boiling, 2 rinses as before.

think it’s been dehydrated since the last time, as the ziploc bag plastic zipper broke, but anyways not too bad. Realizing now that dehydration of ripe samples was why they all initially tasted more or less the same to me when i started drinking puer (even given that ripes generally have less complexity than raws). Sure, dehydrated ripe does better than dry sheng, but the notion that RH isn’t an important consideration for ripes is really a disservice to beginners who don’t know better.

Stronger bitterness the first steep. Generally good texture, and more of the slight sweet milkiness I noted last time in second steep. There was a bit of a caramel-like note as well in that steep. Other than that, not very exciting, similar to last time.

Verdict: Nice daily drinker level ripe.

Gongfu!

I had a nice session of this tea to end my work week – I got a ton of new teaware this week, so I’ve been really enjoying my Gongfu sessions a lot this week. I know that you don’t need nice/fancy teaware at all to appreciate a good tea, but finding that perfect gaiwan/teapot/cup to suit the tea I’m bringing and create a nice aesthetic definitely does add to my own personal enjoyment of gongfu brewing.

This shou is super thick with oily liquor that starts with jammier red fruit notes in early steeps but then gets this coating and almost starchy earthiness, at times tasting a little bit like sticky rice. Very clean and, as the name should imply, smooth! Brewed out at an okay pace – like five decent steeps of this bad boy. This is not my favourite shou from BLT, but it’s solid and respectable!

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPbqJkgBSDN/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcm6ec_rIrE&ab_channel=spectorspectorOfficialArtistChannel