Raw Pu-erh Mini Tuocha

A perfectly average raw pu’erh. Nice to have on hand, but nothing I’m going to be scrambling to repurchase.

I’m putting one tuocha into my pot and brewing.

First steep, extremely pale, almost like nothing got extracted. A touch of earthiness, but pretty weak.

Second steep: a little better but still fairly bland. I get a vague, general tea/puerh flavor, but nothing distinct.

Third steep: I let it sit for 40 seconds before pouring. I’d rather overbrew at this point than drink the tea equivalent of Miller Lite (to which is what I’d equate the first two steepings). Finally, starting to get somewhere, getting that earthy puerh flavor, but still not very strong.

Fourth steep: getting more of that copper/brown color in the cup and some astringency, no earthiness.

I’ll finish this tuocha but Not a fan in general

My first Sheng Puerh! Mmmmm. Vegetal, smoky, sweet. I’ve decided I’m not allowed to get interested in puerh until I get a handle on my current tea collection, but… someday… :)

So, I have been a very, very bad Steepsterite. Not only have I been completely slacking on writing tasting notes, turns out I misplaced some of my samples that I was given to review during the move to my new apartment. Erf >.< So, Angel and Teavivre, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to try this amazing tea and forgive me for the incredibly late review.

Pu-erh and I did not used to be on talking terms. Last time I sat down to have a nice cup of tea with pu-erh, it left me with a mouth full of dirt. I thought that falling face-first into a muddy puddle and swallowing who knows how much bacteria would be as much dirt flavor that I would ever have to endure.. But that Pu-erh had to one up my optimism and prove me wrong, dead wrong. Honestly, I never thought that I would be able to trust pu-erh after that.

However, Angel gave me the opportunity to see if we could work things out. I was skeptical but decided to give it one last chance.

The night with Pu-erh had a very dramatic beginning. I ended up taking a knife to it until it broke down in individual leaves.. I then doused it in 170 degree water and let it sit there and stew on our past history.

I peered into the cup and noticed the brown puddle that I had seen with the other Pu-erh was no longer. This tea brewed a gorgeous excel green. Maybe it has turned over a new (tea) leaf.

First sip: Mmmm, a strong green tea with smoke and honey. But not the type of smoke that makes you feel like you stood by the smoking section of a sports bar. The kind that gently tickles your throat with gentle sophistication. The earthiness is perfectly complimented by the silky honey notes. Pu-erh grew up so wonderfully.. maybe I judged them too quickly.

This is a gorgeous refreshing cup that will restore your faith in all Pu-erhs for the nonbelievers or an amazing starting point for Pu-beginners.

Thank you so much Angel and Teavivre for the opportunity to taste this Pu-erh.
I wanted to do a simple cup of this one but I cannot manage to cut the little cake, too hard. So I decided to go for a full teapot to use the entire cake.

After steeping, the leaves are very green and are a mix of cut and entire leaves.

The taste is not so smocky but very on the honey and dry stone fruit side to my opinion. It has none bitterness at all.
The texture is light, not mellow, very refreshing.

I loved this one very much, sure I’m not afraid at all anymore of Pu-erh !

You can see some pics here on my blog :http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/raw-pu-erh-mini-tuocha-teavivre/

I tried to broke one tuocha in half for my gaiwan (I know not the best option for puerh), but the tuocha is so hard that I had to use it whole. These are actually kinda cute, like baby tuochas! Cake seems to break apart into small tea leaves and not into leaf particles which is nice.
The smell is nice, they smell like sheng should sweet and smoky, reminds me a bit of bbq sauce? Dry cake is browny green color.
Wet leaves smell still sweet, but new vegetal aroma has emerged. I also enjoy a lot seeing tuocha transform into tea leaves, it fun to watch.
Tea has that typical smoke and woody aroma, I don’t seem to notice any dry fruits in this like some older sheng have, still it doen’t have that typical sourness either that younger ones have. Strong and full flavour and golden liquid, somehow dry tea. (The full tuocha was too much for my 1dl gaiwan.) I might to buy more I really like these.