2008 Menghai Ripened Pu-erh Tea Tuocha 250g

This is my last sample of it, and I really enjoyed it the second time around much more. Less busy days equals enjoying my tea that much more. I’ve been drinking it all day. It’s a clean pu erh tea. Has light wet earth, wet wood notes, some tobacco. Tea-sipper couldn’t put a finger on the taste and neither could I but it’s really tasty. It turns out that its the taste of Jujube fruit, a Chinese date, which tastes similar to apples.

The bright reddish-bronze liquor smells of fruit, not the usual fermentation aromas one would expect from pu erh tea. It has a very calming Qi energy. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy. :) It’s soft on the palate, full-bodied.

Gaiwan, 110 oz, 10g, 10 steeps: rinse, 20s, 20s, 20s, 25s, 25s,
35s, 45s, 65s, 85s, 120s… and still going strong. ^^

I was going to skip writing a note for this steep session, as I can’t quite pick out particular flavor profiles right now. But I don’t see much love for this one yet, so why not write a note now? It just tastes like a fantastic high quality ripe pu-erh. So I figured I could at least talk about that. The dry leaves are huge and take quite a while to unravel individually from the cake, even with a rinse. There are NO unpleasant pu-erh fragrances in any aspect of this tea: the dry leaves, the resulting flavors, or even the rinse. This is a great pu-erh if you’re trying to avoid those negative flavors. It’s just tough to say what the flavor actually tastes like, other than to say they are tasty flavors. The resulting brew is very dark, like a cup of coffee, just the way I like it, but very smooth and sweet. I was actually surprised the brew is this dark with such HUGE leaves. I don’t think I remember seeing pu-erh leaves this big. Though I haven’t been drinking pu-erh lately. This reminds me what I’m missing. Even with quite a long third steep, it remains smooth with nothing bitey about it. This pu-erh is fantastic, but I do usually like tasting some unique flavor quality in a pu-erh. But this one gets points for having no negative qualities and such a dark cup. Maybe next time I’ll pick up on specific flavors.
Steep #1 // 1/2 sample for a full mug// 20 minutes after boiling // rinse // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 7-8 min