2017 'Discrete' Ripe Pu-Erh Tea

Generally speaking, I prefer aged sheng over shou. In fact for the longest time, I’ve sort of dismissed shou as all being the same one note tea. I’ll occasionally get an urge to try some of the shous I’ve had before again, but quickly after brewing up I lose the enthusiasm. Not so with Discrete, which has convinced me that this genre of tea is worth exploring. Over the course of a week, I tried it once and then sought it out four distinct times and enjoyed each session. I like to brew it hard and for long intervals, making it look like soy sauce and feel like a stout going down my throat. It’s sweet, savoury, leaves an airy feeling in the mouth and has absolutely no off or pile flavours that I can detect. Brews out after 10 or 11 hard steeps. It goes well with spicy food (mabo tofu) and light snacks (walnuts and raisins) as well as totally on it’s own of course. I bought the cake without trying a sample which is something I generally don’t like to do. This time, however, I’m very glad I did. Will be following Kuura very closely, they’ve piqued my interest.