2011 Nan Jian certified organic mushroom raw pu-erh tea

Dry leaf – FUSTY, HAY, FRUIT: tobacco, old book, leather, some fruit and spice notes. In preheated vessel: soaked prune and date, raisin, wet hay

Smell – FRUIT, HAY, SWEET: light prune and date, stable, tobacco, hay and straw, noticeable caramel sweetness

Taste – FUSTY, HAY, FRUIT, SWEET: autumn leaves, stable, light tobacco, old book, dill. Finish and aftertaste develops fruit and sweet notes: caramel, turbinado sugar, dark dried fruit, lemongrass, hints of berries.

This is a good young, affordable raw that has some aged flavors going on. The old book, stable, “fusty” flavors are definitely there, but there is also a good deal of prune/raisin sweetness. Most surprising is a caramel note that just kept popping up. In addition, there were a few fresh notes that popped up as well – berry, lemongrass, and dill.

I have been brewing this in a young yixing pot and just dumping the contents into a thermos so I could drink it at work. I have to say that either the pot or the thermos method really limited the scope of the tea to the fusty flavors. I think my young pot still likes to steal some of the fruity and sweet flavors. I was surprised at the complexity when I brewed it in a gaiwan on the weekend.

Once again, an inexpensive daily drinker that just gets better the more time, and attention, you give it.

EDIT: Had another session with this one, and dug more into the interior of the mushroom and got more base material. Had forgotten that this has some smokiness to it until it airs out a little. Smokiness is combination of campfire and bbq/mesquite smoke, not overwhelming. Transforms in the mouth to dark/burnt caramel and toffee, with herbal (dill) and fragrant (incense). Finish and aftertaste lighten to green leaf/herbal and hints of red apple.

This is pretty compressed and taking off the top of the mushroom “cap” worked out best.
It smells like the ground and the first steep kinda tastes like ashes.

The second steep smells more mushroomy and umami. The SO says it smells like octopus. The taste is getting more earthy and leathery and there is less of that ash taste.

Third steep, I feel like more smokiness is coming out, which I really enjoy. I am a fan of smoky tea. The leaves are getting nicely expanded at this point, and I’m getting even more of that nice, mushroomy aroma. Gonna keep going with this one, as I’m enjoying it more with each steep. There hasn’t been much noticeable bitterness or anything, and it’s been mostly pretty smooth with a noticeable soothing sensation left behind in the throat. If anything else particularly stand-out surfaces I’ll update this. But in any case, I’ll definitely be coming back to it in the future.