Puerh Tuo Cha

Going back to this one because it’s still hanging around my cupboards, and I wanted frame of reference. Harkening back to my first puerh, and my first gong fu experience. How tea has taken over my life since then!

The overall taste is very earthy and subtle. I’m likening the taste to sweet hikes on coastal trails. A bit dusty, and earthy, but warming and familiar. At least that’s how the end of the process it is. This tuo cha also is ALMOST on the edge of giving up (I hope). It’s been going all weekend. I think I started it in my SeiSei tumbler on Thanksgiving. I can’t even remember what the first few steeps taste like. (note: 9 oz steeps) Total like 14 steeps.

Maybe just because I’ve had some oddly sweet puerhs lately, so this is definately on the earthy side. For example the puerh frisbee that LP put in the Here’s Hoping TTB is nice and sweet. I would take some, but there is SO MUCH TEA in my room. o__o"". With more Black Friday/ Cyber Monday tea incoming. I should just stop buying things until next November… last year I held out until February. Let’s see how that goes…

So, Puerh #2 on my list… After a pretty good start with the lovely Canton Loose Puerh, I thought I’d give this a go! It’s pretty chilly here today, so there was a definite appeal to an entire teapot of rich, dark-ish tea.

The little tuo, on unwrapping, didn’t smell terribly strong – it was certainly milder than the loose leaves of the other one I’ve tried. Still, there was no fishiness, a complaint I often read levelled against mini tuo cha, so that was a good sign.

After a quick rinse in my little cup (total volume ~100ml or so), I drained the cup and transferred the still largely intact tuo into my 600ml tea pot (I did, of course, give them a good smell beforehand – a lovely, quite sweet aroma. Kinda wet-forest-y, like some others have said, and also somewhat vanilla like. Lovely!) I filled to near the top and left it to steep, as suggested.

I gave it a try after 7 mins; it was lovely and smooth, with a pleasant sweetness, but still a little mild – I finished the cup that I’d poured and then just left it for a little longer. After ~10 mins, the liquor was nice and dark and delightful to drink – sweet, smooth and pretty full-bodied. I got plenty of sweet notes, along with (amazingly) the Black Pepper note that someone else mentioned – it’s true! That’s also what the aroma of the leaves kinda reminds me of. It was also somewhat creamy. There was no bitterness or astringency.

As I was only taking small cup fulls, the tea in the pot continued to brew – it just became really tasty and nice and strong, but the end. It left a lingering after-taste that was kind of sweet – almost like a roasted marshmallow sweetness!

Anyway, that’s two puerhs tried, now, and both have been delicious. I still won’t score this (not yet, anyway) as it is still a tea I’m not very familiar with. But I’d definitely recommend it. This tea, I imagine, would also be great to drink grandpa style – I resteeped my leaves, and they were totally fine (though obviously, with the nest fully opened, it got stronger faster) and still produced lovely tea. And the leaves, though quite short (presumably these mini-tuo were made up of the smaller bits of leaf, as I think is common), sat nicely at the bottom of the cup when they escaped, so there was no risk of me drinking them.

Right, today is officially Shu Puerh day and this is my third type of the day. Looking forward to trying this beauty. I adore opening tuo cha wrappers, it’s like opening tiny tea gifts.

Flavour is mild, nice warm earthy tones with a hint of pepper and spice in the after taste. No fish or damp flavours/smells. Also getting wood and malt tones and a hint of smoke which becomes apparent after a few steeps.

Nice and smooth for the most part, enjoying this very much. A standard shu tuo cha that guarantees satisfaction, my only gripe is that it’s not unique or memorable. Though certainly for a daily Pu Erh this is perfect.

I requested this as a sample a long time back, but have continuously put off drinking it. Today felt like a good time to commit to a hardy puerh, as I’m stuck with a stomach ache, and watching such titles as Melancholia and Soylent Green. It’s kind of a depressing compilation for a day’s activities, except for the part where I get to watch movies for homework!

Anyways, I’m really glad this tea turned out to be so tasty and easy to drink! I was worried about the 7 minute steep, but this tea never went to that place of decaying fish-wood. the latter part of the first steep started to acquire a peppery note, but mostly it was mellow, smooth, and maybe a tad creamy. Fingers crossed that the second steep is just as good!

This was another toucha that the wonderful TheTeaFairy sent me.

I was drinking both this one and the Teavivre one today. I’ve been looking to find “leather” in pu’erh. Lots of people say that they taste “leather”. I don’t understand what the leather is. TheTeaFairy said that this one doesn’t have leather but the Teavivre one does. So I was drinking them side by side trying to see if I could pick out what was different.
Shrug – I’m no further ahead. This doesn’t taste like pu’erh to me – did you steep it long enough was the question – shrug dunno – second steep I let it go forever. Still not what I what I think of as pu’erh. I’m not saying this was undrinkable of anything like that. This just seemed like more of a black tea than a pu’erh to me.
This didn’t really help me find the leather. Oh well – thanks TheTeaFairy for the opportunity.