This is a special tea for me because it is the first raw pu erh that I tried. I was in Edinburgh in February 2013 (just last year at the time of writing) and found there were a few tea shops selling what I would regard as not your average teas. I found a tea shop called ‘PekoeTea’ to be a considerable walk, but judging by the list of teas on their website, I had to go there. This tea was recommended to me by a regular of the shop and I was intrigued by how different this tea was from any other I had tried. I recall there being a pungent flavour about it that didn’t appear to fit. Anyway, I recently bought some of it and here is my review.
It’s been one year since I found raw pu erh tea (I actually found cooked pu erh sometime earlier). I’ll raise a cup to all you pu erh fans. I’m currently drinking 2002 YONG PIN HAO “RED YI WU ZHENG SHAN” by Yunnan Sourcing, which has gone up in price for 25grams from $17.50 to $24…
Dry leaf: Loose leaves; colourful, ranging from white to dark green. The aroma is dry, fruity and dusty.
Wet leaf: Fruit; floral.
Summary: Sharp bitterness dominates sweetness to provide a stimulating, mouth-watering experience.
5s – Very well balanced. The bitterness is contrasted by sweetness.
10s – This has a nice bite, not just of bitterness, but of tarty, citrus fruit bitterness that makes the mouth water. Underneath this is a pleasant sweet fruitiness that balances out, but never quite does; the bitterness provides a more bitter than sweet finish. Stimulating stuff.
15s – Sharp, citrus bitterness with some sourness against some plummy sweetness. Great stuff. Resfreshing; stimulating; a joy to drink.
20s – Lemony bitterness.
~60s – This steep worked quite well as a palette cleanser to ease the ammonia taste after having some Camembert.
