2012 KunLuShan Ripe Puerh Tea 500g Brick

Got this tea the other day from an EBay seller in Hong Kong, tea8hk2013. The first thing that surprised me about this tea was it’s lack of fermentation flavor. This tea had definitely been wet stored to have already cleared as a four year old tea. However, there was only a little of what I have come to understand as wet stored flavor. In this case it was a spicy taste in the first few steepings rather than the taste of wet wood. Another thing that surprised me about this tea was that tea soup was thinner than most ripes. I do believe that they have good storage at this tea store for there were no particularly unpleasant tastes from the storage. This is the first tea that I have tried that was Hong Kong stored except for a Liu Bao from the same seller and one from White2Tea. I have no way to know if this was typical Hong Kong storage or exceptional Hong Kong storage. Back to the tea. There was a fruity note from the beginning with this one. I was unsure of what to call it but the best analogy I can think of is prunes or prune juice without all the thickness mind you. Overall I did like this tea. I have several others to try from the same seller, we shall see if they have similar taste profiles. This one was a different experience for sure. It was also different tasting from another ripe I have drank that had totally cleared, a twenty year old dry stored tea. I’m not sure if I can describe the difference. I’m also not sure which one was superior, the four year old wet stored tea that had cleared or the twenty year old dry stored tea that had cleared. There is very little in this tea to even indicate it is a ripe tea, but it doesn’t taste like a sheng either. I don’t know how to describe it. On another note, there was also really no bitterness to this tea.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 11.1g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. I definitely recommend this tea for someone who wants to try something different from other ripe teas.