2016 Yunnan Sourcing "Monkey Mini Tuo" Raw Pu-erh Tea

After aging for 7 years, admittedly in a container with a Tibetan flame brick, this tea has mellowed considerably. The bitterness has faded a lot, while the vegetal, cooked vegetable, hay, and grassy notes stepped forward. Overall, this is not my favorite raw puer, but I feel that it aged a bit faster in the mini-tuo form. It has some returning sweetness, and is not a bad daily drinker. I brewed this western style, thinking it still intensely bitter, but next brew will be in a small teapot.

My attempts at trying different puerhs seems has really been a failed experiment. I am just not liking about 90% of the puerhs that I taste — some puerhs are fine teas just not my flavor profile and for some, I just honestly don’t like much about it, so please take this review with that knowledge in mind….especially as other reviewers seem to find this a decent tea.

This was a sample that I got from a YS order.
Brew style: GF —
Tea amount: 5grams (the entire tuo).
Water: 150 ml
Brew times: wash @ 15 seconds, then 20s @ 200F, 20s @ 200F, 30s @ 180F

Color of the tea: a dull golden color, like gold that hasn’t been polished in some time.
The brewed leaves have a nice smell to them. There are high notes of sweet with low notes of herbs and cooked vegetal.

Flavor: This tea is bitter. The first thing I taste is bitterness at the tip of my tongue. The bitterness is like jumping into a cold pool - the shock of it hits you and then the taste mellows a little bit out, with an aftertaste of sweet & vegetal.

I couldn’t even really finish each steep since the bitterness was very overpowering…and always at the tip of my tongue. I tried lowering the temp to 180deg F and increasing temp time to 30seconds, but it was even more bitter than the 2nd steep. I couldn’t even finish this tea.

I know that this tea has more life to it than 3 steeps, so I threw the wet leaves into a cold brew of 350ml and see if that doesn’t even out that bitterness a bit.

Will update this after I taste the cold brew.

I have now moved from Canada back to Europe and this is my first gong fu session. Since a lot of stuff is still packed, I brought out these convenient tuos to brew in my new silver teapot. I am amazed by the progression of this tea and am happy that I still have a couple of these left although they are now sold out (there is a 2019 version available).

Even though just 5 years old, this tea is now definitely well within the semi-aged sheng category. It brews dark orange and has a LOT of fast, woody sweetness that I don’t remember from before. Still, the profile is balanced even while being so pungent. The astringency is dialed down but very much present. There is also a nice bitterness of quinine & citrus zest as well as a fruity tartness. Further savoury notes include bread crust and burnt food. At the same time, the tea has retained some of its florals, which remind me of orange blossoms at the moment. Later steeps also have a strong nutty component with rapeseed florals.

I first tried this tea steeped in a small gaiwan and it was overpoweringly bitter. Later, I tried it western style in an 8 oz mug and had a much more mellow result. The first post rinse infusion wasn’t bitter at all and I got some floral notes. There was also a pleasant aftertaste bite. I got 4 Western style infusions out of it. It can definitely be pushed to bitter easily though if brewed too long. At first I was disappointed in this tea but now I’m happy to drink it!

Last up for this month from Yunnan sourcing tea of the month club for raw. We have Monkey Mini tuo. I started by pre heating my yixing. After doing a single wash which was sufficient since there was very little particulate. I did my first brew which produced a surprisingly golden liquor, it almost looks like it has a couple years of age on it. Tasting it gave me a honey, vegetal and astringent taste and aroma. A little more tasting and I got some actual bitter notes as well as asparagus.

THe second steeping was even stronger as the leaves opened up a bit more, producing a bit darker liquor, the bitterness also came out a bit more in this steeping as well as the honey and vegetal notes. Its surprisingly strong for a raw with no age on it, and the bitterness is fairly controlled.

The third steeping came out very close to the second showing this tea is going to have some staying power brewing it over the evening, I expect to get about 10 steeping from this. Its really surprisingly sweet, and a few years is going to do wonders for this tea, as well as possibly some wet storing.

I do recommend trying this tea if you like strong but sweet raws, with a controlled amount of bitterness. Very nice job this month Yunnan sourcing