2012 Yongming "Long Xin Tian Xia" Ripe Puerh Tea Cake

This tea is better than it has a right to be. I bought this two years ago and forgot about it in my giant Yixing container. I only paid something around $10 or so. There is a fair amount of fermentation flavor to this tea. It has definitely not cleared. But the fermentation taste is not of the unpleasant sort. There were some notes of chocolate it there and it was think and rich in the early infusions. It is very sweet as ripe puerh tea goes. I don’t know if this improved in the two years I stored it or if it would have tasted like this originally. Oddly enough I think I’m getting some qi off of this. It is quite relaxing. Odd to find qi on a $10 ripe tea. I have only put in two orders with pu-erhtea.com, one two years ago and one last night. But I think they are a good retailer. I bought mostly ripe in each order. I am waiting to see how fast they ship the order I put in last night.

I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. 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. If I could allow myself more caffeine this cheap shou wasn’t done. I’m sure I could have gotten another few steeps out of it. It was still dark in color at ten steeps.