Da Yi Shou Puerh

Thanks Bonnie for the sample

The dry smell is really nice. It is very sweet and smooth smelling. I am catching hints of vanilla and the same doughnutish smell I got from the cornfield tuocha verdant tea is selling.

The wet smell is like the dry smell but the doughyness is amplified. It smells like freshly needed dough mixed with a hint of vanilla extract.

This is a quite good tasting tea. The taste reminds me somewhat of the cornfield tuocha. It has the same bread qualities to it. It is moist and goes down very easily. Overall a nice tea.

A few weeks ago I was in Boulder for the Tea Festival and I stopped by Ku Cha House of Tea specifically for some Puerh.
I was on the hunt for some Puerh for making morning latte’s to share with my 11 year old grandson who has become a fan of grandma’s yummy tea.

Ku Cha is a beautiful tea house! I could go on and on about the great service (which I will do on reviews from time to time).
This particular day, I was sniffing around the Puerh section (which is quite large) and was interested in one but not sure enough to purchase. An employee offered me the option of a free gonfu tasting to see if I liked the Puerh. “Sure”, I said. (I’m no dummy)
I sat down on a beautiful small teak bench while my tea was prepared at a beautiful large wooden gonfu station with a rock and lizard pet
and built in water heating element.
The server was well trained in picking up my cup with bamboo tongs and doing a wash then pouring the Puerh into a pitcher then my cup.
It was very fluid and beautiful like a dance. I wish I could serve as well.

I didn’t happen to prefer that particular Puerh (it was lighter than I was looking for), but I did find this one that I’m reviewing today.

I wanted extra amounts of tea left over for making chilled Puerh to drink during the day. I add ginger simple syrup or mint now and then when I make this tea for the frig.

I used 3grams tea, 12oz water, steeped 30 seconds on steep 1-3 and 3 minutes on steep 4&5. (Always rinse the leaves first 30 seconds)

The wet leaves never smelled leathery or very earthy. The scent was sweet.
The color of the liquor was always clean and clear, red brown to very dark red brown on the longer steeps.

I usually go into a 1,2,3, type of review on Puerh’s but I don’t want to this time.
I specifically bought this to enjoy sweet or as a latte and that’s how I tasted it this morning which will make this a different kind of review.
I will say that plain and without adding anything to this tea, it is sweet and not very earthy or bready. It was smooth. You can steep the heck out of it and it is not bitter but still sweet and smooth leaving an almost silky feel at the finish.
At one point I picked up cinnamon, tingling on the tongue and a hint of malty cocoa like a black tea (steep 2).
The business at hand was adding milk and sweetening though. How would this Puerh hold up to those additions? Some tea’s fold. The flavor of the tea disappears like a poof of vapor…and all you taste is milk. Not good.
You have to be a little careful not to add too much milk here. This is not a thick and earthy, bready Puerh. With a splash of milk and sweetening, you have a very tasty latte with a malty flavor (which is super good considering that my other latte Puerh’s taste like caramel).

This was a good choice. I’m going to keep drinking this all Fall as the weather changes (which begins next month). Hard to imagine that the first snow will be coming in October!

http://youtu.be/r2HA56_Vnrg This video of Ku Cha shows just how fine a Chinese Tea House can be.