I have zero clue as to what tea I’ve been drinking since late last night and into this morning (of course there was a pause for sleep). I know that it’s a ripe, but the brand and/or type of ripe is unknown. The box reads: Yunnan Pu-erh Tea. I discovered this random shou puerh at a shop in Chinatown in Cleveland, Ohio. It was roughly around the same time I joined the “Puerh Life” and had no idea whether it was good or bad shou. In fact, I had yet to understand the difference between shou v. sheng. All I knew at the time of purchase was this: I’ve tried some puerh from YS and that was about it. I discovered (shou) puerh and liked it, but wanted to go ahead and purchase a $7/350g cake of “Yunnan Pu-erh Tea.”
I didn’t like this tea too much when I first bought it. It had too much of a woodiness/dirt flavor that I hadn’t come to appreciate at the time. Therefore, I let it sit for nearly a year now, untouched. However, the other day my friend dug into the depths of my tea cupboard and pulled it out. He wanted to try this tea—despite my resistance—so we gave it a go. He put about 15g in a 120 ml Gaiwan (yes, yes, that’s a little heavy; however, he’s new, so give the poor guy credit. Ha-ha). He gave it a rinse, poured the second steep into the cup, and we drank.
Woah, woah, woah Can it be true? It was a solid tea. It had a nice thick, smooth, creamy, sweet, woody, and earthiness to the body. I was surprised by the amount of oomph and flavor that seeped from the liquid. I wanted more, so I drank a good bit last night/today.
I guess $7 cakes can be good if given the right amount of time to settle in its body, breathe a while, and given the chance for another go.
75/100
