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I am sampling this from the Beginner Puerh TTB.

I don’t get much smell from the dry leaf but after a flash rinse, I am getting a smokey and earthy scent from the wet leaves.

1st steep, 10 seconds. Liquor is a pale yellow, almost peach color. Liquor scent has a slight earthy, slightly… fruity(?) scent to it. I understand that the puerh nugget hasn’t quite broken up yet but the liquor flavor is very light, airy, and smooth. Little earthy flavor. A slight sweet coating on the back of the throat.

2nd steep, 15 seconds. Liquor is slightly darker now. The flavor is much of the same. I suspect the tea nugget will break up upon the 3rd steep, judging by its integrity at this point. Perhaps that will see an increase in flavor and color. Not that I’m complaining. I enjoy the mellow sweetness so far.

3rd steep, 15 seconds. While the tea didn’t break up on this steep, I am starting to see more darkness being released into the water. It is looking now like a cinnamon reddish-brown. There is slightly more earthy/moss flavor here.

Took a nice little 3 hour break here to take the kids to a movie. But now, I’m back on the horse.

4th steep, 20 seconds. Now we are getting into some darkness. I might confuse the liquid for a lighter roasted coffee at this point, in terms of color. Flavorwise, it is still fairly light handed with the earthy tones, smooth, and sweet coating on the back of the throat. Or maybe that is the leftover pop and popcorn being washed down. I must say though, this shu is surprising me.

5th steep, 25 seconds. Deep and dark ruby red. Sweet earthy tones. Smooth as ever. Tea nugget is still mostly in tact. Uh-oh, I might be in this one for the long haul! Fine by me.

1,2, skip a few, 99, 100.

I’m not quite sure how many steeps I ended up getting from this serving since I ended up stretching it throughout the day and kept coming back to it. But, I will say that overall this is a very smooth and long lasting shu that I am very happy I took a sample of.