This tea was nothing short of phenomenal. There was no fermentation taste to this tea. It had completely cleared. The storage on this tea must have been perfect because it had taken on no unpleasant storage tastes of any sort. It was sweet and tasty. It had developed a nice fruity flavor to it in the later steeps. It was dark in the early and middle infusions but not at all thick with fermentation flavor. This tea was a gift from John at King Tea on Aliexpress. I looked for this on his web page but could not find it. I don’t even know how expensive it is. It took several steeps before this tea opened up and then in was a nice dark color, sweet with no bitterness. No real chocolate taste in there but it was really good despite this. I stopped at ten infusions because of my insomnia but I’m sure this tea would go twenty infusions at least. It’s still very dark in the tenth infusion.
I steeped this tea ten times in a 150ml gaiwan with 12g 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. I would definitely like to obtain some more of this tea.
Flavors: Fruity, Sweet
Do let us know if it becomes available!
I will tell John at King Tea that others are interested. It was one of the very best ripes I have ever drank.
Here is the link. Quite a reasonable price.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/King-Tea-1996-TAE-TEA-DaYi-LaoChaTou-ChenXiang-100g-Fermented-Puer-Puerh-Ripe-Tea-Cooked/1220054_32657383350.html
Thank you Allan.
Not cheap, though. Over $100 if it were a full sized cake.
Rich, I agree this isn’t cheap. But I liked the sample enough that I ordered 200g of it yesterday night when I had insomnia.
Rich, the thing about this tea that is so rare is the fact that there was no fermentation taste left and it hadn’t picked up any storage tastes.
Sounds like a winner. It’s good that we can buy smaller amounts. Did you have to use more leaf given that it is in nugget form?
Rich, I pretty much used my standard, 12g for 150ml. I normally use in the range of 10g to 13g for this size. It took a couple of steeps for the nuggets to open up. Should have probably given it a second rinse. But 12g for 150ml was fine.