2010 Meng Song Green Puer Mini Toucha

I realize I am spoiled with local tea options compared to some other folks. A few weeks ago I was in Rainbow Grocery and noticed they have a bulk tea selection. In the bulk tea jars were a bunch of mini touchas from Pure Puerh! I know they are based in Northern California so I shouldn’t have been too surprised.

This is the other green toucha that I didn’t buy from them at the San Francisco Tea Festival. Now that I have my dedicated Yixing teapot, raw puerhs are becoming a good weekend drink for me. You fill up your teapot and can re-steep many times. This one mini toucha claims you can make 12-14 cups of tea out of it!

Steep #1: After a quick rinse I steeped this for around 20 seconds and got a very light infusion, which is slightly woodsy and a bit sweet. I’m picking up on a light fruity flavor too, like apple. There’s a slight bit of bitterness in the mix but so far I am not finding it too overwhelming. My infusions are fairly small, I’m getting around 4 oz. of tea for each one.

Steep #2: 30 seconds. The color is a bit darker than it was before and a definite smoky aroma is starting to emerge. Still, I am happy that this is not too acrid or rough for my palette. As far as bitter-sweet goes, I can handle it.

Steeps #3 and 4: 15 seconds. I did them together in the same glass mug. The tea is hitting more of a stride here and starting to settle down somewhat. The flavor is getting to be a little more mellow, still woodsy, smoky and slightly sweet but less of a sour quality.

Steeps #4 and 5: at first I thought the bitterness was receding, but as my cup was sitting here cooling off, a big wallop of it hit me when I began to sip on it. Might try to use ½ the touocha next time, 8g is likely too much for the small teapot.

One thing I have noticed about sheng pu-erhs is they are very good for the digestion; I suppose it must be this bitter-sweet and green quality. Without being gross, I find they have an almost purgative effect at times.

I think perhaps this tea could benefit from a little aging, but I have no idea how well touchas age. In any case I will probably not be too tempted to pick up any more of these in the future. It’s a typical young sheng, kinda sour and wild. That’s the nature of the beast you’re dealing with.

Interesting tea, well worth drinking, but not for the less adventurous among us. After washing and awakening the half toucha I used, the air was filled with a pronounced wild, vegetal aroma with a sweetness bordering on unpleasantness. It was not offensive, but probably would back off some people, but that is as far as it went. We have a horse farm located about 4 miles from a very famous bourbon distillery here in central KY, the aroma of this tea is very reminiscent of that of roasting sour mash from the distillery. Initially strong and perhaps unpleasant, but quickly turning comforting and reassuring that all is as it should be.
First steep – Lt color (think Ginger ale)
– The first taste begins innocently enough, unremarkable, however, when reaching mid-palate, things start to get interesting. A rather unexpected taste begins rising. A green taste, but not of grass, more like arugula,a peppery, vegetal taste. Surprising, yet not unpleasant. The finish is clean while leaving a lingering tingle — no astringency or bitterness.
Overall first infusion: Light color, uneventful beginning, surprising mid-palate flavor with a clean, complete and memorable finish.

2nd infusion: 30 sec.
Darker color, more refined aroma- definitely moving into a more familiar “tea” smell. The taste is still building as if we are travelling deeper into the forest. Woodsy and wild, becoming more complex.

This is not a great tea, but it is a pleasant adventure. It evolves quickly and even after 4 or 5 infusions, changes, albeit predictable, are still occurring. The only truly bad aspect I found was that when this tea cools bitterness appears. Almost to the point of undrinkability.

Not a tea to drink everyday, but good on occasion and I’m sure it would work well with chili or vinegar.

This one, for me, is hard to rate. Upfront it has a really pleasing earthy taste and enjoyable complexity to it. The problem for me is, as I continue to drink it, I start to get a bitter taste. As I continue to steep it, the tea does start to mellow but there is still a slight bitterness to towards the end. I would really love this tea if I could just capture the pleasing taste that it has and lose the bitterness that develops toward the end.