2002 CNNP (Zhong Cha) 7572 Green Label Tiepai Ripe

This cake started out with a heavy wet storage taste. It started to dissipate somewhat by the second steep and was gone by the fifth steep. It had, as reported by others, a think almost syrupy consistency in the early steeps. I did not notice any fermentation flavor. Saying this had notes of chocolate is not far off the mark. I steeped this eight times and wish I didn’t have to watch my caffeine intake because in the eighth steep it was really getting good. It had lost all the unpleasant flavors of wet storage and morphed into something delicious. This is probably not a tea I would choose to stock up on but I am glad I bought it. To be honest if I didn’t have so much ripe puerh here I probably would stock up on this.

I steeped this eight times in a 180ml teapot with 13g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, and 30 sec. I suspect I’d get around five more steeps out of this tea were I to continue with it.

Thought I’d throw this one in tonight as well. This tea is very, very sweet and smooth without a hint of wodui. The “chocolate” and “milk” descriptors are right on. Qi is right in line with what shu usually does to me — sleepy/dizzy. I started out steeping this normally and then switched to ~1m, with much better results. I’ve noticed with what I’ve drunk so far that in general, that good shu benefits from being brewed very thick and strong. While it’s not the most complex or exciting thing in the world, I quite liked this tea. Boiling water/100ml gaiwan/5g leaf.

This tea is my all time favorite. Let’s see, first brewing parameters :
~6g of leaves in the W2T gaiwan which is 95ml! For timing, I usually go lighter
on the first 2-3 brew b/c of it’s storage taste and then go really heavy. This will
tend to yeild what espresso geeks call god shots by the 4th infusion and that for 3 more.
So something like this : Rinse, Rinse, Pause, 5s, 10s, 10s, 45s, 1m, 3m, 10m….

This morning, I was able to achive that godly taste, basically imagine milk texture, except
hot and with all this shou pu’erh godness!!! I am completly biased on that tea, sorry :D

This is also the first tea since I started drinking pu’erh that I’ve actually re-bought in
larger quantity! I have 2 cakes comming my way and I’m about halfway done with my
first one.

This is, to my taste, the pinacle of shou puerh :) BTW, anyone who despise wet stored tea
should stay away as it has quite a bit of humidity in the first steeping which I like because
it seem to help the flavors even better

AWESOME TEA basically!

Time to revisit my tasting note on this one. I can now say that this has become one of my frequent drinkers when it comes to ripe puerh. Simple, sweet and creamy with chocolate undertones and a bit of age. Rich dark red tea liquor which is clear and bright; some would say it is sometimes rather syrupy. Smooth and balanced (the more intense flavors are balanced by more subtle flavors) with a great mouthfeel. These are the attributes which have made it one of my daily drinkers. This is a very tolerant and forgiving tea even when overbrewing it and quite affordable at $49.50 for a 357g cake.

7g used.

Aroma of wet leaves, after two rinses, is creamy, sweet and rich.

5s – It has a milk chocolate, sweetcorn likeness. This tea is moreish, similar to some Lattes (the coffee) I’ve had in the past. This is consistent with the seller’s description: ‘has a creamy body similar to that of warm milk’.

10s – Although this has had 12 years to air off, it still has a faint ‘fishy’ taste.

15s – The consistency is thin. The flavour is lingering, and the burst of flavour does not come until after the swallow.