2014 Long Run Tea "826" Cooked Tea 357g

This tea was another tea I got recently through Taobao using the agent Taobao Focus. The seller was charging 163 RMB but was running a special buy two get one free. So I of course got two, or I should say three for only about 108 RMB each, or about $12 plus shipping. The shipping was around $8 or $9 per cake. So I’m guessing I paid about $21 per cake on these. These are sold in the US by a company called Spring Tea Group. They sell a variety of puerh mostly Long Run Tea Brand. I think they get around $40 for the same tea. So I got a very good deal despite the pricy shipping. Now for the tea. I had some knowledge of the brand, having tried and liked one of their teas before. So this was not really a totally blind purchase. The tea turned out to be very good. It was somewhat bittersweet at the start, thick with fermentation flavor. There were some of those chocolate notes everyone is looking for in a ripe puerh. It developed into a nice sweet tea. I stopped at ten steeps because I had had enough caffeine for the day. But I’m sure it would have gone fifteen steeps at least. I would guess that anyway judging by the tea color in the tenth steep. This turned out to be a very good buy. The company on Taobao was translated as Yao Miao Food Shops. Don’t know if google chrome translated the name accurately. I think they sell other Long Run teas as well.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 160ml Ruyao Teapot with 12.7g 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, and 1 min.