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So yeah, Steepster frozen again, again on Friday. Oh well.

My oldest tea in my stash (aged); and sipdown 67. Soon I won’t have teas to sipdown I guess. No, just kidding, still lots of tea over here. But much less!

I drank this tea for last time when I was celebrating my 24th birthday. Like really? Does the time fly that fast? I was thinking I could finish those small puerh samples much earlier.

I used 8 grams, which was quite a lot! And my faithful, 125 ml gaiwan. I didn’t wanted to keep some funny amount worth grandpa brewing only… And there was approximately half of “loose leaf” and half in chunk. I did fast rinse and steeped with 10 seconds increments.

I have to say, this tea is thick. And I have to agree with Togo, its scent is interesting and I would say I have noticed the bell peppers in aroma after the rinse. Now, after first steep it’s indeed more raisiny, nutty and buttery; while taste is quite weak and not lasting much. It is fruity somehow though, with herbal undertone, but not impressive in any way. The rating I gave this tea almost 2 years ago, 96, is certainly too high, but I just hope I don’t have to lower it below my average. As for price… I can’t tell as it was sent to me for paying shipping only from France.

2nd steep, brought more of the herbals, and honestly very sweet, gaiwan is full of autumn leaf pile which started to decay. I noticed resin last time and maybe it’s that herbal note I declare with something added. It truly gets the vegetal note as well.

3rd steep and in gaiwan I feel I have truly bell peppers. It is certainly that. Kind of unfortunate they are in tea bowl as well. Yep, I completely get this note. Highly vegetal note. It’s smooth at least. No idea where I brought up the pine.

4th steep; honey-ish taste, sweet. Something lacking. Certainly I have been expecting a longer aftertaste, that is in this tea almost non-existent.

6th steep. A nice cup, but nope, it is way too similar to previous. I am truly missing the aftertaste. There is almost none. And that is sad about this tea. It is tasty, completely unoffensive, but lacking that typical puerh note.

Result: Lowering rating from 96 to 88 as it certainly lacks some long taste; some steeps were indeed boring. Sad to see it go, but ageing doesn’t help and maybe I was just hyped about that tea back then. Certainly it doesn’t deliver any astringency or bitterness… as they say. Even 88 could be considered very high. I know and I have to agree. But as I had it just two times, and once I was truly amazed and now I am considering rating it around average (which is around 75 in my case), I would keep it this way.