Thank you Teavivre for this sample.
The tea itself is a mixture of dark brown and light brown leaves compacted together into broken cake pieces. They have a sweet and earthy smell equal to most raw Pu Erh. I shall be steeping with a table taken from the Teavivre website.
Teapot Gongfu Tea:2pieces 4 steeps:30s,1m,2m,3m 100ºC/212ºF
Once the tea is rinsed it bears a much sweeter and woodier scent.
Steep 1 – Yellow in colour. A slight smell of fresh cut wood. The taste is sweet and slightly smoky and vegetal. Even though it’s light it’s also on the rich side.
Steep 2 – Darkening in colour to become a little golder. The flavour has increased to double the first steep. Now it’s very rich but still remains sweet. Also picked up floral and perfume tones but on a subtle basis.
Steep 3 – Much sweeter with a dry perfume after taste. The richness has also increased along with smokiness but it manages to stay refreshing.
Steep 4 – I do like that the sweetness has continued all the way through and now that it’s settled it’s become woody again. It tastes like a forest, it has the sweet wood, the green fresh leaves and the rich soil flavours all in one.
Overall I do like this Pu Erh very much as it remained consistently good throughout the 4 steeps. It’s also fairly strong and potent which I have to be in the right mood for. If I was going to say anything negative it would be that the tea left my mouth bone dry and it had that strange perfume taste that gathered at the back of my throat.
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The strange perfume taste might have been the wood, maybe cedar or something. A lingering flavor is good but puerh can sometimes be really sweet. I see that you really increased the steep time quite a bit. Maybe sticking to shorter times after the tea has opened up would have been easier on you. Most of the time, I stick to 30 seconds until the 5th steep if it’s strong enough.
I followed the instructions given for the tea on Teavivre website but many people tell me to steep it for shorter times. It was nice being strong but it was just the perfume taste that ruined it a bit and made my mouth dry. I do find that some Pu Erh is hit or miss with me.
After trying, if it’s a miss try to sweeten it a little (the puerh people I know do this, they just don’t admit it).
The strange perfume taste might have been the wood, maybe cedar or something. A lingering flavor is good but puerh can sometimes be really sweet. I see that you really increased the steep time quite a bit. Maybe sticking to shorter times after the tea has opened up would have been easier on you. Most of the time, I stick to 30 seconds until the 5th steep if it’s strong enough.
I followed the instructions given for the tea on Teavivre website but many people tell me to steep it for shorter times. It was nice being strong but it was just the perfume taste that ruined it a bit and made my mouth dry. I do find that some Pu Erh is hit or miss with me.
After trying, if it’s a miss try to sweeten it a little (the puerh people I know do this, they just don’t admit it).