Another sample out of the Puerh TTB here. This is one of the few teas I’ve tried from Essence of Tea – for some reason they just haven’t really been on my radar as far as puerh orders go yet. The leaf had a nice straw aroma, along with some fruitiness and sugar once I rinsed it.
The tea started out with some bitterness in the first four steeps, along with a pretty mouth drying effect. I tasted straw and a fruity finish, sort of apricot, but more the rind than the fruit. That fruitiness started to move more into a pineapple area around steep 4, but not as acidic as pineapple would be.
Steeps 5-8 were mostly just soft straw sweetness. The fruity notes were almost gone in the finish. 9-12 got a bit of a new sweet finish, slightly burnt sugar along with the straw notes. The tea was noticeably drying for the whole session – people who don’t like the mouth drying feeling might not be into this one. I’m really not a huge fan of it usually, but it didn’t detract too much in this instance. At this point in the session, I was feeling a decent amount of qi. Decently powerful, almost jittery.
The tea went on for another 4 or so steeps, getting progressively weaker – still mostly just sweet straw with a drying mouthfeel. This tea was pretty good, but will probably be better in a few years. It probably has decent potential for developing into a really good tea down the road.
Flavors: Apricot, Burnt Sugar, Fruity, Pineapple, Straw
