Puerh Tuo Cha

sipdown 11! booyah!

testing for work AGAIn tonight, and i’ll be doing it AGAIN next week and the week after. best part about tonight’s testing was that it was smooth sailing until i got on the line to start my testing. The whole thing broke within 30 secs lol soooo good times hahaha

Since i’ve been falling asleep for most of today, i’m trying to get a few more teas in since i’m nearing the end of my easily sipdownable teas. This is only mildy concerning since i’m contemplating 3 orders that would add about 15 more teas to my cupboard haha

I picked this one up in my last order and it’s “alright” now that i’m a little more experienced in the puerh department, and have a better sense of what i like/don’t like..this is on the end of average for me. It’s not bad, but it’s pretty much just an ok time. IE. if i need 50 cents more in an order, this will be going in! haha

Sooo….Haven’t had much of an appetite lately…been skipping meals and what ends up happening sometimes is I get certain weird cravings late in the night. Like my smoked salmon at 1am the other night.

Another thing that you may or may not know about me is that I don’t eat junk food. I am a bit of a health freak. But….I have my weaknesses… And one of them hit hard last night. My last encounter with it was about six months ago and I did report it in a pu’erh review. I even found out then that there were fellow steepsterites suffering from the same addiction. Somehow, I feel like I need to confess whenever I succumb to it.

Forgive me Steepster for I have sinned…

Last night, 12:30am, I was just sitting pretty on the couch, doing a little bit of reading, a little bit of Steepstering. The tv was on in the background. Then it happened.

I saw someone eating mac & cheese!!!

Damn it…

Some of you might remember that I keep a small emergency supply of…KD mac & cheese. Yes. Guilty as charged. Now…I make a mean REAL healthy mac and cheese from scratch with tofu, avocados, red bell peppers, an yes, some cheese. But…KD has a sentimental value…I just need to eat it occasionally. And when I do…I eat the whole god damn thing!

So I got my but off the couch and I made some….I gulped it down as if there was no tomorrow.

And again, I had some pu’erh to avoid major bloating situation.

This was one of the first pu’erh I ever drank…I really like Butiki’s mini tuochas. I ordered a bunch of them a long time ago, love how handy they are and that you can keep them forever.

This mini tuocha is different from others I’ve had. You must steep it a very long time. Like 7-8 minutes after a quick rinse.

It gives a very interesting mouthfeel, it feels «chewy», you know that feeling you get in your mouth when eating raw mushrooms? Hard to explain.

It’s also sweet and smooth, rather on the light side for shou.

It’s very forest-like, damp soil, wet autumn leaves. It has a wintergreen fresh finish, just lovely.

And…it most certainly took care of my bloated tummy!

Thank you pupu for the rescue!

My first unflavoured puerh! I chronicled the whole thing in pictures, but photobucket is being uncooperative. This was the one I was most excited about with my order from butiki. It was something I hadn’t tried before. I’ve been loving my flavoured puerh but afraid of a plain one. Butiki has never let me down, and this remains true.
The little cakes come individually wrapped in their own little papers. You can’t smell much through the paper other than a light earth scent. once you open it up it’s shaped like a little nest! It smells like sweet hay and is very dark in colour. I popped it into my steeper and poured the water over it. If it weren’t for some mild housework I needed to attend to I would have watched it break apart.
It started right away! Little piece started floating off of it preceded by tiny bubbles. After I finished my vacuuming I returned to a steeper full of a dark red/brown liquor. It smelled slightly fishy with a bit of sweet earth. It looked beautiful! The little nest cake was all gone and had been replace with free swimming leaves.
The taste did not let me down one bit. Sweet hay, thick and rich. This cup is awe inspiring!

Thank you Stacy for this Sample!

I was soooo tired last night that I woke up on the couch about midnight having snoozed…zzzzz sitting up chin cupped in my hand (not a pretty picture). This is not how I sleep ever! Taking my zombie self off to my fluffy bed, I finally had the first full night’s rest since the High Hill Fire began on Saturday.

This morning I had this nice little paper wrapped mini Tuo Cha from Butiki to look forward to. Ahhhh. Puerh!

Steeping 7 minutes (after a 20 second rinse) 18 oz would be perfect for beginning my day.

While waiting, watching the fire news, I was stunned to find out that I am only 2.5 miles from the fire.

I really am mentally anxious for tea!

I expect a nice little Tuo Cha to produce an earthy flavor…mild and comforting but a bit predictable.
I should have known better than to assume that Stacy would be predictable in her choice of a Butiki Puerh Tuo Cha!

The flavor was mild and not earthy at all. Fresh then cooling in a way that reminded me of a forest. There was plenty of juice and a heat across my tongue lighting the way for more discovery. Something elusive…a flavor that was an herb in the background. This prompted me to go onto my patio and pick some Rosemary, Sage and Greek Oregano. Rubbing a little Sage between my fingers and smelling the scent? Maybe? Rosemary? No! Greek Oregano…? Um hum…Yes!
Greek Oregano is light, sunny reminds me of playing on a hillside in the Summer smelling the light, natural wild growing herbs.

I added some sweetening…which in this case increased the herbaceous quality which I found to be so desireable and unique in this Puerh.

What a surprise and treat this Puerh was for me. So different than I assumed or expected. So worth having again and again.

This is one of the more enjoyable straight puerh teas I’ve tried! I’m not a huge puerh lover but occasionally I get a craving for one. This particular one is smooth and not astringent or bitter at all. It is earthy, but not in a dank and mildewy forest floor type of way. It is more of a sunny summer’s day type of earthy. It makes me think of freshly tilled garden, or walking barefoot through the park. I am still on my first steep (I did do an initial rinse, too, which I discarded) but I am getting a note that reminds of a spice that I can’t quite put my finger on. Its like if cinnamon had a hippie cousin or something. Has anyone ever smelled Japanese aloeswood incense? Anyway, sorry this is so abstract. This is just how I have come to think about puerhs! :)

We went to breakfast with another couple this morning. My daughter Ari is the chef at the restaurant, & although she makes a special waffle for me (due to my problems with gluten, dairy, etc), I’m wiped out. I haven’t crashed this hard after a meal in a couple of years, & can barely keep my eyes open & type. I can’t stop yawning. I’ll probably have to take a nap.
So I’m drinking this puerh. This is a sample from Stacy, so I get to claim a sipdown! This is a rich, almost coffee like cup of earthiness. It’s a little on the acidic side for me, but otherwise it’s just what I need. The taste reminds me of a really dark & rustic whole grain bread, like a pumpernickel. Near the end of the sip, there is a creamy vanilla sweetness, more a mouthfeel than a taste. Time to resteep.

This has been hidden away in my sample drawer since my Butiki order from Black Friday. I generally get irritated by samples sitting in my drawer because I’m hyper organized and for some reason, these things bother me, so I have been sipping away at my samples.

This one sat in there for a while because I was a little afraid of it. But alas, it was time to face my pu’erh fears. In hindsight, I probably should just trust that Butiki will never lead me astray.

I was also so concerned with taking pictures of each moment of the pu’erh experience, I forgot to hit start on the microwave timer, but it turned out just fine, thank goodness.

There is definitely that taste that made me fear pu’erh, and in my initial sips, my first thought was to say it was ‘fishy’, but I actually think it qualifies more as ‘earthy’. Perhaps if I further my pu’erh experience I’ll know for sure. I’m just over halfway done the cup, mostly because I was chatting with my BFF for the last hour since we never get a chance to chat on the phone. I’m quite happy with this. The ‘earthy’ flavour I think could be something I could get on board with. It seems like partly an acquired taste, and partly not. The tea itself seems clean, with some depth (which, really could just be the dark colour of the liquid haha!). Ahh, Butiki. I can always count on you.

I ordered one of these little cuties a little while back & I’m definitely going to order a few more!

My tasting note for this isn’t going to be a very detailed one, sadly. I stayed up all night with my daughter Kira Monday night (literally all night- no sleeping for this lady :| ) because she was feverish (turns out she has an ear infection) :( Her fever finally broke around 4:30am and as soon as she went to sleep it seemed, Danny (my eldest) woke up for the day. I don’t often make a big pot of tea, usually opting for a mug at a time, because when I make a lot it tends to get forgotten in the shuffle of the morning. But Tuesday morning, I knew I wouldn’t forget it.

So I pulled this little nugget out of my cupboard.

The smell of the dry tuo cha wasn’t all that strong, but smelled of fish. I rinsed it for 30 seconds & as I poured off the liquid it smelled of hot muddy fish. Very earthy.

The finished pot of tea was very smooth. A good puerh for someone new to them I’d think. The aroma was lightly fishy, but reminded me more of horses after steeping than fish as it had after the brief rinse. Unfortunately I was too tired to remember to write down my notes on this tea so the more subtle observations I made have been lost, but I greatly enjoyed this tea. I will definitely be purchasing more to have on hand for those days when I have the time to sit down and enjoy a full pot (my teapot is small :P) of tea.

Usually, when the term “pond scum” is mentioned, it is done derisively. But this ripe pu-erh is reminiscent of pond scum in a positive way. Unlike pu-erhs that make me think of a piney forest floor, this one has an aquatic herbalness that reminds me of swimming in the pond at my childhood home that was fed by a cool spring and was ringed with watercress.

Add to that a leathery aroma and a sweet finish and you have a satisfying tea.

Back from my Christmas break today, and time to be brave once again. I mostly drank teas I was familiar with over the holidays – old friends I knew wouldn’t let me down. Now that reality has set back in, I’m back to my usual routine.

I picked this one up with a Butiki order a while ago, and it’s languished in my cupboard ever since. That’s because I’m more afraid of pu’erh than I like to admit. My last one wasn’t so bad, though, and that’s given me the confidence to continue my journey today.

I gave this one 2 minutes in boiling water for a first steep, and the resulting liquor is an orangey-red-brown. It smells typically pu’erh like, earthy with a hint of sweaty horse.

The taste, on the other hand, couldn’t be more different. It’s fresh, sweet, and far more reminiscent of a forest after a rain shower than a pig sty or horse’s stable. There’s an earthiness in the initial sip, but it’s a grassy-earthiness rather than a muddy-earthiness; very clean and green-tasting, if not quite what I’d call vegetal. The mid-sip is cooling and little camphor like. It puts me in mind of mint, but there’s no mintiness in the flavour. I can taste leaves and herbs more than anything – I’m thinking maybe basil or oregano with a hint of chlorophyll in the aftertaste.

This has been a completely unexpected cup, and by far the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had with a pu’erh. I probably could have left this one to brew longer, and I would definitely feel happy to go with the recommended 7 minutes for subsequent steeps. As it’s nearly time to go home, though, I’m not going to get to try this today. Definitely one to revisit, though.