2005 Xing Hai Silver Peacock Ripe Pu-erh Tea Cake

Date drunk: 2023 Jan 17th
- Purchased and first opened this sample in 2020, so it’s been ‘ageing’ in Singapore for the past 2-3 years.
- 5g in 100ml porcelain gaiwan
- Wet leaf smells like chocolate bread with a bit of funk – lovely
- Rinsed twice
- First infusion (100˚C, 0:15)
- Leaves smell sweet like baking bread and dried cherries.
- Liquor pale amber. Flavour still a bit light, maybe because I had just manually pried open the leaves before this so it’s like another rinse? Sweet aftertaste, not heavy sweetness but light like… sugarcane?
- Rating: 76
- 2nd infusion (100˚C, 0:15)
- Leaves smell like chocolate bread.
- Liquor clear dark reddish-brown. Full-bodied, delicious, sweet, mushrooms, wet rocks, bittersweet chocolate. Faint woodiness. This tastes like a pinnacle infusion for me.
- Rating: 88
- 3rd infusion (100˚C, 0:15)
- Liquor clear very dark brown colour. Tastes chocolatey. I’m also getting a lot of umami, mushrooms, brothiness, wheat. No earthiness or mustiness, which is how I like it.
- Rating: 89
- 4th infusion (100˚C, 0:30)
- Very smooth and nice. Sweetness is gone and a tiny bit of sharpness has crept in. Will drink this with my breakfast.
- Rating: 83
- 5th infusion (100˚C, 0:45)
- Even smoother and silkier than the previous. Still got chocolate notes, along with wheat, shimeji mushrooms, and almost creaminess.
- Rating: 90
- 6th infusion (100˚C, 1:00)
- Rating: 83

Verdict: Want to try this in a Jianshui pot at some point, after I get my aroma kit.
Rating: 85

A lovely smooth Puerh with no bitterness, has the great earthy taste you’d expect. You can’t go too wrong with a well aged tea.

It doesn’t pack too much of a punch so you can steep it for a little longer, I find I can can max of around 5 infusions.