Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha

Surprisingly tasty, smooth and slightly chocolatey. Hint: Use good quality water when brewing this tea.

I did two rinses 15 sec each since when I tried it last time I wasn’t impressed. It’s decent, not fishy , earthy. I just got spoiled with Mandala cakes.

First steep: nothing special. Very light flavor.

Second steep: dark and earthy, slightly fishy scent and finish

The dry and (mostly) the wet leaves have a sweet and bread-like aroma, oddly reminiscent of fried vegetable tempura. The tuo cha come apart nicely in the cup. I rinsed the leaves twice before my first infusion, which was 90C for about 15 seconds. The taste and aroma are melon-like and round, light on the palate. Despite the lightness, there’s a twinge of deep sweetness on the tongue that I tend to associate with older shou puer (I’m not really sure of the age of these, although it probably is written somewhere).

The second infusion (90C for 20 seconds) became dark, heavy, and thick, just as I would expect from a shou puer with relatively small leaves. The taste is still a little sweet on the tongue, reminiscent of dried apricots and raisins.

The third infusion (90C for 10 seconds) is still quite dark. The mouth aroma has become more in the range of charcoal and damp moss, which is very pleasant. The sweetness fades here.

I’m certain there are at least 3-6 more infusions in this tuo cha, but I had tasted too many teas that day already and needed a break.

This was a very different experience for me as the only other puerhs I’ve had were all Sheng. Regardless, I went into this with a mostly open mind, and the results were pretty great. After properly washing it out a bit, I did the first true infusion, which resulted in literally black tea. The aroma was earthy, very earthy, but not in a bad way. The taste was actually much better than I expected, without a hint of the “muddy pond” taste that some lower-quality shu apparently has. It is interesting how it is a bit sweet this quickly, and it is certainly above-average. That being said, I am a bit ambivalent about the taste. Sure, it’s got a few things I like, but it’s not something that I would go out of my way to have again.

Not much to say here, averagely good puer. Went to maybe 6th steeping (considerably weakened by 4th) can’t say I dislike it.

My buddy Reqwer was kind to treat us with this tea at his place. I can’t say I felt every note of it’s taste, mostly because I was eating so much cookies and chocolates at the same time..But it went great with all the sweets and gave everything a warm earthy feeling. Not really my cup of tea (no pun intended at all), but I enjoyed it very much though.

Booklog:
Yes, Steepster isn’t a place for this, but I just wanted to keep it here, since books & teas go so well together :) I’ve just started reading The Black Company by Glen Cook. So far so good, we’ll see how violent will it get later, I sense a lot blood being spilled in the future.

This tea has grown on me, it’s a taste like no other. Sticks to your ribs, hot, earthy and dirty (but somehow its good!). This tea helps settle my stomach, even after too many Christmas cannoli.

(Thank you Teavivre for the sample included with this order!)

(This sample was generously provide to me by Teavivre. Thank you Angel and the whole Teavivre Team.)
Dry Leaf: I get a old damp wood aroma.
Wet Leaf: Has a warm rich old damp wood aroma.
Liquor: Dark brown.
Taste: This has a rich and smooth earthy taste with a very gentle sweetness to it.
Overall Opinion: I give this tea a 88. I also noticed that I didn’t get as many steepings as you would usually get with a puerh. I tend to be more partial to puerh cakes but, for a on the go options this is a good option. You can easily take this with you to work,to school, or even a road trip.

I am not a pu’erh expert but I liked this one. The packaging is very nice and it’s not fishy. In fact, I ordered a lot of pu’erh samples from Teavivre and so far I haven’t been disappointed by any of them. I would need to do side by side tastings to pick out my favorite.