The Shu Fits - 2016 Ripe Pu'er Blend

21 days left until we move! and kiddo decided today was the day to start rolling back to front lol. pulled this one out first thing this mornig as i’ve been dying for some of my puerh. still can’t really take the time for a good long session, but i can drink a few western brew cups during the day if i start early. Going to make sure i save a little of this one for the new house, but man i am a fan! it’s up there as a western brew with some of my other mandala favourites.

It’s been a long day, you know? Last week, I did some tree clearing on a friend’s property for fire prevention. She set up a community event to encourage other denizens of their heavily forested community to do the same. I went back today to line up all the brush and limbs and tree trunks along the roadside for a wood chipper staffed by the community fire department to chip and haul all the residents’ debris. I guess word got around what a thorough and clean job I did (it’s nice to know your work is appreciated!) and I ended up clearing a neighbor’s property. This is a nice side gig to pick up pockets of cash and there’s no pressure to cut anything down I’m uncomfortable with…. since it’s just me and my chainsaw.

When I got home, there was a tea package waiting at the front door. Not Mandala Tea, another company, but inside was a teapet, a lovely red pig to commemorate my year. Inspired by tea-sipper’s recent review of The Shu Fits, I figured a shou would be a good way to end an exhausting day and a nice dark ‘mud bath’ of a tea to soak my new buddy in.

I’m rambling. Can you tell I’m relaxed?

I have to say thank you to both Mandala Tea and to Kawaii433; the former included a sample of The Shu Fits in my last order and the latter sent a sample as part of a tea swap. I had this loose puerh a few years ago and remember it being very sweet with a red berry-chocolate-leather feel. Has the tea changed in a few years?

Yes, it has. The berries are now mostly evident in the aroma of the dry leaf, along with brown sugar, chocolate, leather and wood. The chocolate has really mellowed in taste as well as the sweetness. This tea seems to have moved into more savory tastes of chicken broth and cedar, some leather, faint mushroom, and a clean mineral finish. It’s fairly light-bodied and sips easily, depositing a pleasant aftertaste of walnut and faint milk chocolate-red berries at the base of the tongue. There is some astringency, tempered by salivation and a light returning sweetness.

All said, a pleasant evening sipper with some relaxing effect. You will find no funk in this tea. I have enough leftover to do a western steep soon to see if that will bring out some of the remembered berry and chocolate flavors.

EDIT: Mandala has some new teas out including a loose shou, Dark Star, a nod in name to the Grateful Dead.

Thanks so much for a sample of this, Kawaii433! I definitely wanted to try it, especially because the name is too precious. I was in the mood for a shu, so this is what I went with. Note: I completely bypassed the rinse. Somehow my brew doesn’t look as lovely dark as the photo. The description might be over-promising… dark chocolate, chocolate, brown sugar? Really any shu can taste like that if you’re stretching your imagination. The flavor is delicious – I do notice a bit of chocolate, but really any shu if brewed dark enough would taste like dark chocolate. I feel like I could never overbrew shu. The darker the better. But there is also a sweetness that I always appreciate in shu. Clean and clear if that makes sense. The leaves of this puerh start out huge, but then it’s odd looking in the infuser and the leaves don’t seem to be expanding. All three steeps were the same… I tried really milking the third steep but nope, the flavor remains the same. It’s certainly a delicious enough puerh, but the description really set a high bar. But maybe I like the tiny leafed puerh so it can be dark dark dark. So I’m not sure if this shu fits me!
Steep #1 // 1 1/3 teaspoons for a full mug // 17 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 10 min
2019 sipdowns: 24 (Steven Smith’s Brahmin which turns out was in my steepster cupboard but I never actually had it? Does that count as a sipdown?)

Nice blend. Not fishy, no dirt taste. Leather and earth taste in the opening few steeps. It’s very mellow, warm, comforting mouth/throat feel. It has dark chocolate and bittersweet notes, and on the 5th it became more milk chocolate and became more creamy, brown sugar notes throughout, still has leather and earth notes. Nice lightly sweet finish.

I think I’ll try it the way it’s suggested which is 30 secs, then add 30 secs next time and see how it changes it as well. I just wanted to extract little by little to see how complex it was.

Yixing gaiwan, 5g, 212F, 110ml, rinse +10s, 15s,20s,25s,30s (am still in the process of drinking this.)

This is my first experience with The Shu Fits and so far so good! The dry leaves smell like cocoa powder and make my mouth water when I inhale deeply from the gawain. I rinsed twice with boiling water. The first few steepings were very quick tasted like dark chocolate with hints of tobacco, leather, and a savory fruit. Raisins? Every sip conjures up memories of walking through a quiet forest in the early morning just after a rain.

On the third steeping I started to catch notes of brown sugar followed by a subtle bitter dryness in the finish. During later steepings (#4-6) the dark chocolate mellowed into milk chocolate and i also tasted some mineral notes. The brown sugar sweetness is still hanging out in the shadows only to make its presence felt every now and then.

Overall, I really like this tea and look forward to my next session with it.

This was the second lovely sample I received from Mandala. I was a little sulky when, a couple days after I placed my order, they added this as a tea (that description)! I would’ve ordered it instead of the random puerh I ended up going with (edit: looking for Special Dark replacements- Noble Mark is still around and Noble Dark doesn’t exist… yet).

First and second steeps exceed expectations, with a creamy and silky profile and a touch of high grade dark chocolate (traces of earth, nuts, berries). Mandala description says later steepings have notes of brown sugar but I get hints of that now. The aftertaste reminds me slightly of dark chocolate covered acai/blueberry jellies. These flavours mellow out as it cools, becoming simply milky with an earthy dark chocolate finish.

Third steep was equally perfect.

Fourth steep was ditto (this was from last night so I may have been half asleep and missed the development).

Steep Count: 4 + a rinse