Lao Cang Sticky Rice Raw Sheng mini tuo cha

I have several different puer mini tuos which I like to keep on hand for convenience. When you don’t want to work on picking apart a larger cake, these are handy to have around. This particular mini is one of my favorites because it never fails to taste sweet and fresh. I’ve been sitting at the dining room table working on a project all afternoon and this little one has been my loyal companion – six steeps so far.

The scent of the dry leaf makes your mouth water – like a sweet flavored rice cake or a nice kettle corn. Steeping produces a clear bright liquor which is pale yellow-green in color. The sip is a delicious nutty rice flavor. Very sweet on the tongue and mouth. By the way, this one works nicely as a meal accompaniment.

My first class was canceled today, which means morning teatime! More samples from the generous LiquidProust. This one I was a little dubious about, since I had the ripe version of this Lao Cang toucha in a Portland tea shop last summer, for $24/100g!! Jesus, talk about a markup. Luckily, I only bought one ounce before I realized it wasn’t for me.

Anyway, the first steep of this tea is awesome! Sweet, and delicious rice aroma and flavors coming out the gaiwan and cup. If it stayed like this, it’d be a 100. Sadly, it does fade—later steeps are more musty and less sweet, and betray the less-than-stellar sheng underneath the flavoring. If I were to drink this again, I’d steep it western to distribute that first steep over the entire session.

Still, that first steep kind of makes the whole session worth it! Mm, sticky rice…

My sip down of the day, this tuocha came from Sil and although the label didn’t say
‘sticky rice’ on it, as soon as I unwrapped it, I could smell it, and even more so after the rinse. My kitchen smelled like sticky rice, making me think of that awesome sticky rice, mango, & coconut milk dessert. I can’t eat most grains, although I confess that I do occasionally eat some rice. It’s a little rough on my digestions, but sometimes I get tired of the cauliflower rice alternative and just want to chew something starchy. Especially when eating curry.

So…the tea…meh. It’s ok, but not something I’d want in my collection. It doesn’t taste bad, but I’m just not really enamored with having my tea taste like rice. Still, a change of pace, and it’s always good to drink something novel from time to time.

I think this is going to confirm that I don’t really like rice scented pu’erh. The last one I tried was a shou – this is sheng. I don’t really like either of them
I do think the sweetness of the rice offsets the bitterness (not that this one is really bitter) of the sheng. This is better in later steeps as the rice flavor dissipates.
Happy to have tried it, happy I didn’t buy a bunch out of curiosity. Thanks so much Sil for the opportunity.
https://instagram.com/p/0guI9kuE_4/?taken-by=dex3657
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Bonnie sent these my way a while ago and i thought that they would be perfect for today. I’m working from home so i wanted to get around to trying a couple of my puerhs since i have the time. I THINK the ones she sent my way are these ones, and not the other entry but i’m not sure how to confirm. Either way, let me just say. YES! YUM! love these!

It really is like like sweet flavored kettle corn. I will have to look in to more of these since these are really tasty and could be handle for travelling.

Steep #1 // rinse // 10 min after boiling // 1 min steep
Yes, I will always love the ripened pu-erh more than the raw, but this one works too. I love the dark flavor of the ripe pu-erh, and the sweet rice flavor just seems like it would go better with ripe. But maybe the flavor is able to shine better on the lighter raw leaves. The flavor here is so buttery. I’ve never had sticky rice, but to me the flavor screams kettle corn… which I’ve only had one time and loved. But the cup is mostly sweet, a hint of spicy with the aftertaste. I’m accustomed to raw teas being very tree-like, but it’s possible I was steeping them too long. Maybe even 30 seconds would have been enough like some oolongs.

Steep #2 // 8 min after boiling // 70 seconds
Oh boy, and here is where the bitterness starts. The rice flavor is still very apparent, but the bitter kind of ruins it. Maybe that’s why I like the ripened pu-erh better, it isn’t as sensitive.

Steep #3 // 10 min after boiling // 50 seconds
Still bitter, but so is the rice flavor. I liked the first cup though. I think the first cup was perfect, but this should really be steeped for maybe 30-40 seconds after the first steep. I think I’d rather stick with the ripened until I get better at not ruining the raw pu-erh. I still love the rice flavor. I’m ordering some of the ripened from puerhshop.com…

These little cakes are great for convenience . This time kept the steep time only 10 sec with near boiling water. It was barely enough time for the leaves to break apart in the cake (even though I had poured hot water over it previously and discarded). I’m glad I kept it short. The sticky rice flavouring was very sweet in the first infusion. It didn’t get bitter though and was smooth with a slight astringent taste. Along with the sticky rice I get the earthiness of the pu’er which comes across as a mushroom taste.
2nd infusion – 12 sec. Ahhh, this one is better. The sticky rice flavouring has toned down a lot . It is nicely balanced now.

TeaSipper had some sticky rice puerh a while back, and I was so curious as to how that works, especially since I need to avoid all grains, that I wanted to try it. Because, for those in the know, sticky rice tea is actually an herb-based flavoring, instead of actual sticky rice. Cool!

As I’m reviewing this however, I discovered I ordered the sheng (raw) puerh instead of the shu puerh that TeaSipper tried. Bah! My bad. I’m usually not a huge fan of sheng, but I’ll still try it.

Honestly, this just wasn’t my cup of tea. Now, it smells SO strongly of sticky rice I did a triple-take… it really is identical to the real thing. Steeped, the smell stays about the same, and it lingers in my mouth and nostrils. It’s incredibly pleasant. The flavor however… I like the first seconds of the sip, it’s a very smooth puerh with little astringency. Then, within about 10 seconds, it gets bitter. Bitter beer face is what I’ll call it, and while it’s not… .bad… it’s just not something I want to try again. Perhaps I steeped it incorrectly, I’m unsure.

Yes, recommend for the flavor (if you like sticky rice). No for the rest, or at least until I can figure out what I did wrong.