Sipdown (114)!
First off, thank you OMGsrsly for the sample!
I enjoyed a large pitcher of this one last night brewed in the style of Lazy Man’s Gong Fu; something like six or seven infusions worth (minus the wash) all poured together. I was skeptical that I’d be able to taste this tea clearly given that my being sick and lent a slight ‘foggyness’ to the flavour of everything I’ve steeped recently. However, prior to drinking any tea I had a neo citron which for a brief period afterwards left me feeling and everything I drank perfectly clear. No ‘flavour fog’.
I’m still finding my sea legs when it comes to Pu’erh but it’s hard to learn without experiencing so I’m happy my observations with this tea can contribute to that growing knowledge.
First off, I thought this was definitely earthy in a particular ‘wet soil’ or petrichor type way. Those flavour notes were very smooth, and rich with this lovely depth to them that created a well rounded full bodied flavour. Even though it was literally Christmas Eve I felt the strong desire to go camping while I drank this tea because those very natural, earthy flavour notes strongly reminded me of the bed of a forest floor after a heavy summer rain. Additionally, the thickness and brothy texture of the liquor reminded me of a heavy vegetable stock with mushrooms and sort of green peppers? It’s a semi-sweet well rounded vegetal flavour with a meatyness to it and just a very slight bitterness. Finally, I also tasted hints of what I’d call walnut notes.
This was really interesting to me because I didn’t get to taste the evolution of the flavours; but rather all of the flavour notes combined. I enjoyed this immensely though; it’s one of very few Pu’erh that stick out in my head as having such a prominent vegetal taste. And hopefully I’ll get to experience that some more in the near future as one of my Christmas presents this year was $75 towards an order with Camellia Sinensis which I decided to use almost entirely on Pu’erh so I could continue this learning experience without any personal financial risk. Since I don’t really know where to start I just grabbed an assortment of things which were more affordable and which the descriptions appealed to me. Here’s the list of my Pu haul:
Pu Er 2005 Jingmai Mini Brick Organic – 50g
Pu Er 2005 Haiwan – 25g
Pu Er 2006 Macao Scenary – 50g
Pu Er 2011 Yibang Malishu – 25g
Laos Pu Er 2015 Ban Komen – 25g
For some of you major Pu heads it may not seem like a lot, but for someone just tapping into that area of tea I’m sure it’ll go a long way towards learning more about this massive category of tea and how my own personal tastes fit into that.
I love your flavour descriptions! I don’t think I’ve ever gong fu brewed this one. Always western steeps, but 3-4 of them, starting at 1-ish minutes. :)