1998 White Tuo Ripe

I pulled a wee sample of this tea out of the Puerh TTB when it stopped at my house. I was mostly skipping on the shou from the box, but I had heard enough about this tuo that it piqued my interest. My chunk was a rather compressed piece – it didn’t want to open up at all. I let it steam in the gaiwan a bit, but that didn’t help a great deal. Anyways, the dry leaf had a slightly moist and earthy smell. After a rinse, it smelled similar, but a little bit stronger.

This one was quite different from any other shou I’ve tried. It didn’t have any fermentation flavor, but there was some moistness to the tea, probably from storage. It tasted like a moist basement early on – very earthy. I could also pick up slightly woody notes along with some wet autumn leaf. Toward the end of the session, I started to pick out a very slight chocolatey note, but it was not present for the majority.

This tea was pretty decent, and unique in my shou experience. I’m not particularly sad that it’s no longer available. Liquid Basement!

From the pu ttb, round ?

I really like this shou. I regret I didn’t get the opportunity to try it sooner, when it was available for purchase. I agree with other reviews for the most part (earth, petrichor, wet wood etc), but for me the dirt/earth is something I would categorize as mineral, much in the way an aged wuyi oolong has a mineral note. I haven’t had many shou like this. For me it’s what makes this tea very enjoyable. Definitely worth trying if there are still samples floating around one of the ttbs.

Getting ready to brew up a sample of this that I took from the Beginners Puerh TTB while I wait for some tree trimmers to come take down about 6 dead Jack pines I have in the back yard among a grove of other Jack and Red pines. My wife and I just bought this property a little over half a year ago and these trees have been dead since we bought the place so it is time for them to come down.

I have a nice chunk of it and it does look a bit like a clump of dirt, as someone had previously described it. I gave it a ten second rinse and the wet leaves smell like wood and petrichor.

First steep at 15 seconds brews up dark for a first steep. Hazelnut brown, perhaps. First sip and yup. This is going to be good, you guys. A smooth earthy sweetness coats the mouth and throat. It is very light and subtle this steep but it is there, promising of more to come. Makes the eyebrows perk up on the first few sips.

2nd steep at 20 seconds and 3rd steep at 25 seconds. Both are smooth with a light woody/earthy profile.

4th steep at 30 sec and there is a little more punch to this one, in a pleasant way. A bit stronger, more rounded and full.

Going into the 5th steep and the Tree service people arrived. I continued to drink this session, lost track of steeps and time for each. But what I can say, as I’m still sipping on brews of this is that it is a very forgiving tea for when you are distracted. I am able to not pay this tea too much mind before getting it into my mouth and it is still pleasant. That is a fairly good compliment, I believe.

This was a unique aged shou experience. I unwrapped the nest and give it a whiff. I could take in some moist earth and must. I was also getting a lot of dirt tones. Also, this aged chunk kinda resembled dirt, ahah. I warmed this in my gaiwan and got relatively the same tones, but they were more intense. I washed this twice, for the heavy compression caused for some difficult brewing. The thick and dark liquor poured from my gaiwan, and it carried some more must and dust tones. The taste was smooth and lightly fermented. There was a distinct drying sensation that followed every sip. The liquor carries a brief oak wood and finishes with a dust taste. The smooth and delicious part is a slight petrichor that follows the brewing. The leaves are fairly large, and it consists of several stems. The steeped leaves give off an enticing tree root, deep earth, and light mineral tones. This brew is an easy drinker, and you could keep refilling the gaiwan all night with this one. The tones are pleasant and intriguing. I did not note any qi from this one. I liked it, but I don’t think I’d be spending any money on it. I have had better examples of aged shou, and this is definitely a bargain aged shu.

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Seems apropos to review this tea after trying the 1995 puer.sk ripe tuo. The two teas have a quite similar flavor profile: burnt coffee, bitter chocolate, and perfume, with a slightly woodsy background. They both brew up dark and deep. The white tuo is quite good, but just for comparison purposes, it is not quite as beefy or smooth, and doesn’t have much of a huigan, though it does have some. This is a very good tea, especially for the price. It also has a bit more caffeine. A solid performer.

Very mild, very pleasant. This 13 year old ripe tuo is not complex nor strong. After finding myself steeping this tea and replacing the spent leaves with fresh chunks after many infusions I felt as if I may finish the tuo in one sitting. I saved some tea for future sessions throughout the week and I look forward to drinking this easily approachable tea. Tastes like dirt, goes down as more easily than any tea I’ve tried, and relaxes me. Worth it to buy in bulk, which I may do.

First review on steepster, let’s try this out!

This is a really nice well priced shu. For a ’98 tea, it feels like it was dry stored for most
of his life. This is not a bad nor a good thing to me because I actually love humid stored
tea! :D

As to parameters : 6g in 95ml gaiwan, 2 rinses and then 30s/10s/15s/….
I got 8 interesting infusion out of this! As to taste, it taste like a well
matured shou puerh! Earthy and nice!

Baseline woody shu

I remember this being thicker for some reason all I got out of this session was woody shu which wasn’t bad just nothing unique. For my money his old tea nuggets are way better but that maybe apples and oranges as the flavor profile are different but also the variation of shupu. Either way I wont be repurchasing which is fine because paul has boat loads of other great teas.

I liked this one quite a bit. Smooth and easy drinking, and just a touch sweet. I got several infusions out of this one.

My gongfu session lasted right about 2 hours

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and Penny joined me for my tea:
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I drank a sample of this tea all morning yesterday. I was off work and baking quiche and wrapping Christmas presents so I had time for a proper gongfu session for once! It was really enjoyable. One of the cleaner and smoother aged shou I’ve had the pleasure of drinking. I think I am getting more accustomed to aged flavors in puerh. I’ve been quite fond of younger shou and sheng for a while now, but older stuff is definitely starting to grow on me :)