I wish I could say this was an incredible tea. It was not. While there was a lot of improvement over ten steeps and I enjoyed the last couple of steeps, it had a bad start. The fermentation taste was initially strong and unpleasant. This taste lasted for about the average as far as the fermentation goes, about four or five steeps. However, an unpleasant taste persisted for several more steeps. I would say it had gone away by the ninth steep. This is from a small 125g cake. Berylleb has the option to buy a five pack. I am glad I only bought one. It’s not even that this was the worst puerh tea ever, it just wasn’t that good. As far as notes of things like chocolate go there was too much of an unpleasant taste to notice good things. Judged by the tenth steep it wasn’t that bad. But considering the first eight steeps were not that great I don’t think I’ll be buying another.
I steeped this ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 10.3g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min.
Flavors: Earth
Interesting. Judging by your disagreeable review, I’d estimate this at 45/100.
I will try the tea again in six months and see if there is any improvement. Maybe the tea just need more time to rest after shipping.