2015 Brown Sugar Ripe Puerh

From the Puerh TTB #4

This may have to be the first shou that I’ve bought in nearly a year. After a quick rinse, I did a 10 s steep. I was distracted when I started to drink and for a moment thought I was drinking sheng. Despite the young age I don’t taste any fermentation flavor (after my review I went to the web site and discovered the tea is from the 2012 harvest and was pressed in 2015, so that makes more sense). It tasted a lot like a sheng that has a few years of age on it. Slightly grassy flavor with some earthiness. 2nd steep: Color more red than orange, and more of a shou aroma. This sheng-like flavor may be because the leaves hadn’t separated in the first two steeps.

The 3rd steep was the next day: Dark red color; really looks like shou now. Smells and tastes like one too. Fair amount of fermentation flavor, some cherry fruit, and some bitterness. The bitterness dominates the finish. The different components work together pretty well, so it isn’t unpleasant. Much stronger than the first two steeps. By the 5th steep it was much more pleasant. No fermentation flavor and only a hint of bitterness. Flavor is a mix of wood and stone fruit. Finish is still bitter. I’m still drinking (up to about the 7th or 8th steep) and still enjoying the tea. It’s milder and less complex but has no negatives. Just a really nice taste.

I’m pretty much an exclusively sheng drinker, but every once in a while try shou. This tea could make me keep coming back.

this is a generous sample I got from my teafriend – thanks so much

I’ve got a lot of shou. I love it. while drinking a lot of it i developed some preferences. im more picky than before, just clean taste is not enough.

i really liked this Brown Sugar. It is so rich, dark, bittersweet. The fermentation flavor was present in the first 2-3 steeps maybe ( i rinse my shou once only) and then faded away. it went thru many steeps. later steeps had some creaminess.
Very enjoyable cup. thank you teafriend for sharing. i should definitely get this brick with my next order

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I really like White 2. I like their marketing, I like their owner, and I like their teas. This one is no different, I absolutely loved this.

The early steeps, starting at 10s (+5s each steep), had a lot of sweet earth and baked goodies in the nose, and the tea itself was, as advertised, smooth as heck, with no jagged edges. It was very sweet, with a comforting touch of bitter, and a cooling sensation in the mouth after sipping. Later steeps got a little jammy, with some brown sugar notes, of course. I messed up the fifth steep, but pushed the six and seventh to one and two minutes. The tea did very well, and could probably have been pushed a lot sooner, maybe going up by 10s instead. It got nicely complex with a hint of spice/herb notes.

Longer review with pictures! http://writing.drab-makyo.com/posts/tasting/2016/04/14/white2-brown-sugar/

Overall I liked this tea. It was bittersweet at the start. There was a bitterness for about the first three steeps. There was a sweet note along with it. There was a fair amount of fermentation flavor. I’d say it lasted until around the fourth or fifth steep, about average for a young ripe puerh. There was also a bit of a sour note that briefly crept it. I’d say around the sixth steep. This didn’t seem to last and was replaced with another sweet note. Chestnuts come to mind, but that is just an opinion. If an unpleasant note hadn’t crept in for a while I would give this a stellar review. As it is it is just a little above average.

I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 9.7g 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, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. I’d guess there were about two more steeps to this tea. It does not seem like a tea that will last twenty steeps. It was fairly light colored in the tenth steep. The price makes this one I will still recommend. At $25 this is a good price.

So I brewed up about 7 grams in a 100ml gaiwan at about 210f/off boil. This tea is 2012 material and looks really great. Nice big leaves and actually some of the better ripe leaves that I have personally ever seen. I gave two rinses and began the trip. First infusion was a bit more bitter than I had hoped so I backed my steep time off just a bit…maybe a bit less leaf next time would help. I can really tell that this is a younger ripe. But with that said it is the smoothes ripe that I have had personally. Very smooth. I didnt get really any sweetness that it boasts as it was more earthy and coffee like bitter. I also think giving it a rest for a bit would help because I pulled it out of the box today! Some slight sweetness did come through on the later steeps (5 or 6). This tea does have some staying power. Gave multiple steeps. My overall opinion is that this tea is going to be amazing with a bit more age. It has a nice buttery sweet smell on the wet leaf now that will come out in the flavor later on. I would recommend buying some of this before it goes away because in a couple of years this tea will be awesome. That said, its is already a good tea. I will revisit this tea in a few more weeks to see if the taste of the trip has worn off and gives me something else to say as I feel that it needs a bit of airing out for a proper review. Still yummy tho.