Xi Gui Ancient Tree Raw Pu-erh Cake 2013

I definitely enjoyed this puerh, really strong berry and pleasant acidity. Doing gongfu it rounds off nicely in later steeps.

I am a fan of XG, and it is very hard to find, and it is very to find “real stuff”. I can’t tell you weather or not this was “real stuff”, but it was very good!

The leaves are tightly compressed, and they give off an array of scents including strong high notes of grass, watermelon, and raspberry lemonade. It was sweet, tangy, and aromatic. I warmed my gaiwan and scooped the leaves inside. The scent opens with sweet, smooth, and thick musty tones. I can pick up some florals and spices in the undertones. This reminded me of a nice high end cologne. It has heavy sweet rough tones along with some musk and just a tinge of floral. It was very nice. I washed the leaves once and prepared for brewing. The taste began alike a sugary apple turnover that was heavy on the bread part. I could note a slight viscosity, and it carried a decent kuwei. The next sip brought a distinct bosc pear taste. The brew is thick, fair, and it reminds me of some XG maocha I had in 2015. The brew builds with high notes, and it smoothly goes down. The aftertaste leans towards sour patch kids, with a sharp enjoyable bite and then a gooey sweetness. The liquor thins; however, it is still very fruity and punchy. Then I noticed the qi. The qi starts subtle, but it quickly builds. This was a very intense feeling for me. I took a lot of heat in, I got a little shaky, I even felt a little faint. This was an awesome brew, and it lasted for quite some time. The session ended with me sniffing the cup and relaxing as I spaced out. I really enjoyed this tea!

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Happy pi day! I don’t have any pie-flavored teas right now, so I’m going for a pu instead. This one comes to me courtesy of Angel at TeaVivre. Thank you!

I’ve only had a handful of pu-erhs before. I didn’t like them much (too much dirt/leather/fishiness), so I’m entering this tasting with a bit of trepidation.

I am using one of my favorite pieces of teaware today: a gaiwan-teapot hybrid that I picked up in Taiwan for a comically low price. It is the size and shape of a gaiwan, but it also has a spout and handle. Aesthetically pleasing + easy to use = win. I used the whole sample packet, which filled a little less than half of the gaiwanpot. Per packet and website instructions, I used boiling water throughout.

The dry leaf smells ok. Earthy and slightly oaky. After a 5 second rinse, I steeped the leaf for 20 seconds. The brew is a light golden color. It has that earthy pu-erh scent with a hint of floral. The wet leaves smell awful – boggy, almost rotten. The flavor of the brew is savory, darkly bitter, and muddy. Not a very promising start.

The second steep was 30 seconds long. The golden color of the brew is more vibrant this time. The smell is earthy and vaguely floral again, but also peaty. The flavor is bitter bitter bitter and somewhere under there is still some muddiness.

I would normally add 10 seconds for the next steep, but the second steep was so bitter that I don’t want to risk overdoing it. So the third steep was 30 seconds long. The brew looks and smells lovely, but the sharp bitterness is still here.

I did the fourth steep at 30 seconds again. This one came out slightly less bitter, with a tree-ish undercurrent.

I can’t do this anymore. No more steeps. This tea is clearly not for me. I won’t rate it because I have no idea whether this is objectively bad for a pu or just bad to me because I don’t generally enjoy pu-erh. I suppose it’s possible that I overleafed. I don’t think so though. After four steeps, the leaf only fills about ⅔ of the gaiwanpot. I’ve successfully brewed oolongs and blacks that nearly overflow the pot after enough steeps. Alas, the search for a pleasing pu marches on.

Thank you to Angel at Teavivre for the sample.

Rinse x 2. Approx. 4g/3oz x 15 sec/steeps.
Wet leaf has the slightest hint of compost type scent initially but this disappears and switches to fruity apricot after the third cup.
First cup after the rinses tastes tart and cooling, but after that the taste becomes sweet and fruity with apricot and grape-like notes. Very pleasant hints of bitterness sort of like the taste of chewing on the seeds from grapes.
Light and refreshing, but also seems to have a peppery warming sensation awhile after drinking. Soft and lovely, with still more steeping to do.

Thank you Teavivre for the samples! I initially didn’t want to try the raw pu-erh for sampling, since I’m not sure my palatte understands the flavors in raw pu-erh. I’m also not quite sure the correct way to steep them, especially when Teavivre’s website and the sample pouch seem to be giving different parameters. I always want to be tasting a tea properly! I used the majority of my sample pouch, though I’m supposed to be using 10 grams of tea for a gaiwan 100ml/3.4 oz. I’m using my big mug but only filling it halfway, so it’s still steeping in about 6 ounces of water. The leaves in this cake are very long and wiry! I haven’t had a raw pu-erh in a while, so here goes…

Steep #1 // 25 min after boiling // rinse // 40 second steep
As I suspected, it’s very tough for me to puzzle these flavors out! Raw pu-erh is always very mild to me, but at the same time, seems very full with flavor, if that makes sense. There is a buzzy characteristic to the mouth feel, though I’m not sure what that means.. like it has the tiny fuzzies of a white tea, but I don’t see many in the mug. The flavor is a little of many things: creamy, lemony, licorice (maybe the mouth feel), maple, autumn leaf, apple, butter.

Steep #2 // 20 min after boiling // 40 seconds
I think I’ll try steeping this tea decreasing the steep time each steep by five minutes.This pale gold brew seems like tiny hints of many flavors. Now it’s pineapple, more apple, apricot, many hints of fruit while not being entirely fruity. Also hints of cedar trees happening. There is still a buzziness happening (I’ve never had this with any other tea before, so it’s a little odd), and it also seems like it could become a touch too bitter, so I’m glad I didn’t steep this one with more leaves, hotter temp or a longer steep time.

Steep #3 // 17 min after boiling // 50 second steep
Steep #4 // 15 min after boiling // 50 second steep
The other two steeps were fairly the same but a little astringent. The first two steeps were much tastier. If I only knew the correct way to steep this tea! Though it’s very good, raw pu-erh isn’t my choice in what I’d be drinking… the astringency likes to take over in later steeps with raw pu-erh. I love the smooth, coffee-like ripened pu-erhs any time! Somehow the ripened pu-erh always stays smooth no matter how long its steeped. I think I like a couple more of the raw pu-erhs from Teavivre slightly better than this anyway.
http://www.teavivre.com/black-friday-sales/

thank you Angel for this sample. Sadly, i’ve had this a couple times now and it’s not the right puerh for me. There’s something about the taste that comes through on this one that just doesn’t work for me. Maybe it’s too green? not sure but i was still happy to try it. I know Angel has some fantastic puerhs that i do like, so i can handle not loving all of them :)

So the first time I ever tried green pu-erh I said never again. I thought it was bitter and tasted like a latex glove. Then I realized it was operator error because I brewed it too long. I’m huge fan of pu-erh. It is my favorite type of tea to drink. So with that said I have a new perspective on the greens. I was pretty excited about trying this one. I’ve experienced buttery on a green, but the first brew was buttery. It’s pretty much a straight up green. There’s not really any hidden nuances that come out due to it being a pu-erh. It’s pretty good but as far as pu-erh goes there’s not much that can touch black pu-erh. It’s good though.

Final sample from Angel and Teavivre. I’m a beginner at Pu-erh, and a nobody when it comes to Raw Pu’erh. This will be the first one I’ve ever, ever tried. I’ve heard good things, though, so I’m actually pretty excited to dive straight in.

Fresh from the packet, the dry leaves smell of apricot and grape. There’s a deep, winey scent which is really appealing. The recommended parameters are 6-10 minutes at 212, and I’m going to go for the bottom end of the range for my first steep. I gave the leaves a short rinse before preparing my first cup proper.

First cup, and the liquor is bright golden yellow. The scent is very fruity; stonefruit generically, but I think apricot more specifically. To taste, it’s a completely odd duck. Initially, I’m getting quite a strong flavour of mushroom; quite nutty , a little damp-tasting. Then a smooth, sweet apricot note develops, which, frankly, is more than a little weird next to the mushroom. There’s a light astringency in the aftertaste, but nothing overwhelming.

Second steep is very similar to the first. The mushroom notes are a bit milder, but the same (quite jarring) contrast with the apricot is still there. The astringency is increasing, to the point where my mouth and throat feel quite dry after taking a sip.

I know this one is good for multiple resteeps, but I’m going to leave it here because I’m not really enjoying it. I have another sample of this one to try at a later date, so hopefully I can analyse what I’m doing and make some amendments. I think perhaps western style brewing is not the way with this one.

Backlog from last night.

I brewed multiple steeps of this in my gaiwan, but I think I underleafed it, as the flavour was extremely light throughout. The liquor was mostly pale gold, and while I did get stonefruit notes and a hint of astringency/leather, this tea really didn’t grab me the way I thought it would.

Hello, hello, hello…. Is anybody in there?

Broken Steepster is not much fun.

I had this one yesterday. This is a really nice young sheng. The first cup is almost subdued. Sure it is slightly bright like raw sheng tends to be but not in an overpowering way. It is slightly mineral and slightly mushroom, yet neither are strong or offensive. Crisp, I think fits this nicely. The aftertaste really hangs on and seems floral to me. The second cup has a bolder but similar flavor. I detect some hints of leather. The third is the brightest, with an almost puckering bitterness. Cup four returns to a much milder cup with apricot notes. The aftertaste lingers and changes from cup to cup. It starts floral then seems more like a tieguanyin. By cup four it has a combination of both. These have all been about 8 oz cups. I have no idea how far it will go but it shows no signs of letting up. Very nice. Thank you Teavivre for this lovely sample.