Gongfu style brewing in a gaiwan, after the initial rinse, this tea has similar scents to the Third Grade version that I tried, but this one seems to have a more woody scent to it, with more of a damp forest-floor kind of aroma. There is still a subtle sweet dough aroma as in the Third Grade, but it is less pronounced. While I don’t find this scent as inviting as the Third Grade… it is also more complex and intriguing.
The deep red-auburn first infusion has a strong scent of cake batter. The taste is certainly much more woody and earthy than the finer Third Grade version. The wood flavor really lingers. It is mildly sweet. If I did not know any better, I’d say they mixed up the 3rd and 7th grade samples in my pack, as their website says the larger leaf grade should have sweeter, milder flavor, while the smaller leaf grades should taste more woody. I’m getting the inverse of that between the two that I tried, but I can tell you that the leaves of this sample were certainly larger, so they definitely didn’t mix the two up.
The second infusion has some interesting tastes. Something reminds me of the fermented taste of beer, and there’s an earthy kind of mushroom taste that really lingers.
The third infusion is more mellow. The flavor is mostly savory and woody. The mouthfeel is rather clean. Again, a flavor lingers like damp forest floor or mushroom.
My infusions from this point forward had similar flavors and were increasingly mellow, with some oat and wheat notes emerging later on. I honestly wasn’t particularly enjoying this tea, unlike the Third Grade, which I enjoyed a lot, so I didn’t push too many more infusions out of it.
To sum this up, I think this tea has a clean taste and feel to it, but the flavors are on the musty and dank side. If you are one who likes a more fermented taste or likes woody, earthy decay or fungus flavors, I think this Puer could be for you.
I’m going to skip the numeric rating, since I feel like the quality of the tea is good but it just didn’t suit my tastes at all. Hard to choose a number that depicts that.
Flavors: Forest Floor, Musty, Wood
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Thanks for the review Lion! Thats a really interesting point you brought up, we will take a look into it.
The leaves of this one are definitely much larger than the sample that was packaged as the 3rd grade, so I don’t think they were mixed up. Maybe my taste buds are backward. :P But it does seem weird that I felt the inverse of what most people are feeling in regard to flavor, on both teas, I noticed.
hmmm, did u taste them back to back?
I had a complete session with each seperately, but tried the 7th grade about an hour after I finished up with the 3rd grade.
Now that I have ventured off Steepster to read the review by SororiteaSisters blog, I think my tasting notes are more in line with theirs on the 3rd grade though, so I suppose my observations weren’t totally different. :3
Thanks for the review Lion! Thats a really interesting point you brought up, we will take a look into it.
The leaves of this one are definitely much larger than the sample that was packaged as the 3rd grade, so I don’t think they were mixed up. Maybe my taste buds are backward. :P But it does seem weird that I felt the inverse of what most people are feeling in regard to flavor, on both teas, I noticed.
hmmm, did u taste them back to back?
I had a complete session with each seperately, but tried the 7th grade about an hour after I finished up with the 3rd grade.
Now that I have ventured off Steepster to read the review by SororiteaSisters blog, I think my tasting notes are more in line with theirs on the 3rd grade though, so I suppose my observations weren’t totally different. :3