EBay Tealife2015

Judging by the wrapper I guessed that this tea was a fake. The logo was not centered like in their picture. Judging by the amount of fermentation taste I would guess that this tea was considerably younger than 2000, perhaps 2015 or even 2016. The wrapper appeared to have years of age on it but this is easy to fake. As to the fermentation taste I would guess that this tea was improperly fermented as well. It was very unpleasant. I did go away after maybe six steeps or so. I had hoped that it would be replaced with a nice sweet note but no it was replaced with what I can only describe as an off tasting bitter note. It never became what you look for in a ripe tea. It would seem that the EBay seller Tealife2015 is one to avoid. I have several other teas by this seller and will get to them in time. At least I did not pay to much for this tea although anything above free is too much for this tea. This has to be the worst puerh tea I can remember drinking. The low price should have tipped me off but I had decided to take a risk on a new seller. This is likely my last purchase from them. I gave this tea twelve steeps hoping it would improve. Steep twelve was just as unpleasant tasting as steep one. This tea will probably get what I would guess is my lowest rating yet with the possible exception of valerian root I can’t think of a tea that tasted worse and at least the valerian root does something. Avoid this seller. I will get to the other four or five teas I have from them and see if this is an aberration or not. All their teas can’t be this bad. I think I already gave them feedback or this tea would get them negative feedback.

I steeped this tea twelve times in a 150ml gaiwan with 12.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min.