DISCONTINUED - Mossy Cave Pu-erh Cups

So, my first taste of Pu-erh reminded me of mucking out the stables.
This Pu-erh gives me a horse-y memory too, but thankfully a more pleasant one.
Hubby gets fish from Pu-erh, and I get horses, so odd how one tea can appear so very different to each person.
I use one of these little cups for a 2 1/2 cup pot instead of for a 8 oz serving (as suggested) I also start with very short steeps.
I am finding with Pu-erh if I can let it sneak up on my taste buds, I enjoy the whole experience a lot more.
The smell of these tea reminds me of horseback riding with my big red Tennessee Walker,named Star, up on the mountain behind the farm where I grew up.
There is a tiny stable smell, but the good kind (if any of you have been around horses you know what I mean) that good, healthy horse smell.
That smell is mixed with a few other memories, like riding over the soft damp earth under the trees, some patches of the earth covered in a thick dark green moss, the horses hooves would be so muffled on the moss that sometimes we would come upon a deer and her fawn grazing or napping in the filtered sunshine.
Then, maybe we would ride around the other side of the mountain next to the creek where there was a beaver slide and in a small hollow in the shade, there would be a patch of wild mushrooms growing.
Woody,damp earth, moss, mushrooms and horses.
With the taste I get small amount of horse, moss and a lot of mushrooms with a tinge of forest.
It’s very interesting, and although to the new comer to Pu-erh, all of this sounds completely nuts.
But, This tea has fetched a memory from back in the dusty corners of my mind.
I am grateful for that.

I love these little things so much. Everyday I’ve been taking two to work. On my break I pop them in my tea thermos and re-steep them every time my mug is empty :] They last for quite a while and keep a good flavor with them. The most steeps I’ve gotten is 3 or 4 and then the flavor starts to water down. Mmmm :]

My experience with this toucha was similar to AllanK’s. I got a couple tasty infusions and after 3 it was pretty weak. Tasty and worthy, I’ll pick this one up again to meet my random, impulsive, quick pu-erh fixes.

Used short steeps- 10s rinse, 15s, 20s, 30s,25s, and a final 2 min steep.

This was tasty with a lot of fermentation flavor to it. I only had one of these and either I wasn’t using enough tea ( I used the whole thing) or it is a fairly weak tea. I only got four good steeps out of it no matter how much time I gave it. I steeped it in all about seven times. The four times where I got tea of relatively good strength were good. The last three were weak. I would probably have noticed some nice notes to the first four steeps but I admit I was not paying attention as I was watching Haven.

I brewed this in a 130ml Yixing teapot with boiling water and one mini tuocha, about 3g. I steeped it for 15 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec, 1 min, 5 min, and 10 min.

I used one tuo in 4.5 oz water at 200 degrees. Three 10 second rinses and then 15-20-25 seconds.

It took 3 rinses for the earthy flavors to abate. Now there’s just a lightly cavey flavor. It’s rather pleasant and even a little sweet.

Not much else to say. No one is going to see this anyhow, so I’m not going to take the time to be poetic. Instead, I am going to find a yoga video since I’ve stopped being so sore. Yay! :)

Second cup of the day. I followed KS’s advice and brewed this one for only 15 seconds. It has turned out a sort of dark ruby, and the flavour is much, much lighter. It’s still got the distinctive damp, mossy, earthy notes, but there’s less horse. I consider this a good thing.

I still don’t think I can be persuaded to try many more pu’erhs. I might have to accept that they’re just not for me — or at least, not at the moment. They’re certainly a unique drinking experience, though!

I should probably also say that this is a sipdown. I have been saving my last one-cup servings up for a mega sipdown session while I’m off work next week, but I figured I’d probably lose my nerve with this one if I didn’t just get on with it. I have less tea to choose from at work, so I pretty much have to drink whatever I’ve got with me. It gets me past my tea inhibitions sometimes! Anyway — say yay for one less in the cupboard!