Jing Mai Mountain Raw Pu-erh Tea Cha Gao

Dissolved one of these little Cha Gao “gems” into a teacup paired with some rich and buttery matcha and black sesame peanut crackers! Even though these little Cha Gao gems are only about a half gram each, I found this to be a little strong for this size of teacup – though the fatty and nutty crackers, which were a touch shortbread-like, helped balance out some of the drying bitterness. Otherwise, I find this tea relatively straightforward with darker notes of buckwheat honey and a general woodiness to it. Definitely very convenient for travel, though it’s not lost on me that they do look perhaps a little bit sketchy and questionable…

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEDWbrTyCxH/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNNvhTxhJjk&ab_channel=BonesandJones-Topic

This is my favorite of all Yunnan Sourcing’s cha gao. It’s been approximately three zillion years since I last had a Sugar Smacks/Honey Smacks type cereal but this tea smells and tastes a lot like I remember that cereal tasting. Maybe a little less sweet, but that same toasted grain sort of flavor. This one tasted more grainy to me and the Jinggu raw cha gao tasted more caramely. I like both but slightly prefer this one. I didn’t like the ripe Jingmai or any of the other ripe cha gao either, which seemed weird to me because I usually enjoy regular ripe pu-erh.

I don’t think I’ve ever brewed these in a teapot. I don’t think I’ve ever tried them cold either, unless the last couple sips in my cup that have gotten cold count. Usually I end up doing a grandpa sort of brew with a couple pieces in a big mug or thermos, adding more water or another tea chunk as needed. This time they went into a travel mug with a few bits of chunky Himalayan pink salt (not really enough to make the tea taste salty, goofy autonomic nervous system requires me to have a high salt diet, too many fluids and not enough salt leads to cool stuff like passing out, dehydration-like headaches and adrenaline surges that feel like panic attacks…there are few things I haven’t tried adding salt to at this point). A little bit of hot water at first, swirled the cha gao around in my cup until they had dissolved a bit, then filled the cup up the rest of the way. No refills this time, just one giant mug to try to warm up and convince myself grocery shopping was necessary.

I got a few of these ‘instant puerhs’ because I had a lot of little samples of expensive puerh, but I wanted something I could make and drink guilt free while thinking about the generic qualities of puerh, an unfamiliar genre to me. Also I’m lazy lol.

Quite a dark color, not totally clear, and I taste something nutty and umami that I identify as storage, so it feels like this was from relatively mature tea. The green foil wrapper says ‘gu shu / cha gao’. The brassy green flavor of sheng is present, also a hint of chocolate, and the aftertaste has the bell pepper spiciness that jingmai has. The body is thicker than the jinggu cha gao, which was a bit light and watery for my taste. I get some qi from this. There’s a lingering impression on the mouth, but it’s hard to pinpoint, probably because I had some astringent green tea not long ago. It seems like this method can actually preserve a decent representation of the complexity of the puerh, if done well. I think I’ll use double the dosage next time I try the jinggu.

Love it, pretty sweet tasting, good colour and nice smell
I got many steeps out of it
Will get back and review more after more tasting