From the Beginner’s Pu’erh TTB.
Had a gongfu session, brewed in ceramic gaiwan (120ml, but I tried to eye the water level). One 5 second rinse. 3 min rest. Another 5 sec rinse (was the first steeping but the soup ended up tasting too light). Steeping times: 15, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 75, 70; 2 min, 2.5, 4, 6, 10.
The dry leaf smells firstly of tobacco, then of apricot. I let the leaf sit in the heated bowl for a moment and it brought out the apricot note. Wet leaf also smells of apricot. Very fruity aroma, even the soup aroma is strong.
The soup is pale yellow and full-bodied. Overall, this sheng is sweet and bitter simultaneously. It never shakes of the bitterness, which is always underneath, but the apricot sweetness increases in the beginning of the session and levels off to a consistency in the middle. The texture starts to show at itself early on – thick and smooth, a little oily? – and remains so. Menthol makes an appearance at infusion 5 and stays until the end. Sometimes it overpowers the apricot, sometimes it sticks to the roof the the mouth or back of the throat. The apricot/menthol aftertaste is long-lasting.
As for qi: Starting with infusion 3, the soup feels like it’s charged with energy. Like it’s almost buzzing. At the penultimate infusion, the energy mellows. I drank the first 9 cups on an empty stomach (I was waiting for brunch to be prepared). My digestive system felt fine. I did feel tea tipsy!
I do agree a cake or tong would be worth every penny.
