Although I’m not a huge shou puerh (ripe) drinker, I can definitely appreciate a good one for a combination of its smoothness and the nostalgia it brings to pot after pot of puerh that I’ve consumed post-dim sum in Hong Kong… This Ba Ka Ngoi “fermented puerh” is a great example of one that I can drink for hours on end with very little change in flavor and a smoothness that is unlike some lower quality ripened leaves…
I often struggle to find tasting notes for a ripe puerh — simply, well because, it tastes mostly like a ripe puerh. Few things quite have that unrecognizable palate of flavors that make up the general flavor of this nostalgia tea (at least for me)… Oftentimes, I think that a lower quality shou will taste like cardboard, and a higher quality will taste like the sweet earth… this is definitely example of the latter.
I’m about 8 steeps in with a small gaiwan and while the mouthfeel and body of the tea has changed and become lighter, the flavor and color are fairly consistent. Again, I’ll steep this until I remember that I want to switch to a raw puerh, or maybe an oolong, but overall, it’s a GREAT tea and I recommend this for reading before bed, slowly waking up, or basically anything in between.
If I must place some notes on it, I’d say a sweet baked wheat aroma with a hint of charcoal (almost like a smoldering campfire)… The taste is gentle, smooth, silky-smooth in fact, and tastes something like a post-dim sum concoction of shou puerh and dried tree bark!
Flavors: Bark, Earth
