This tea is a delight. As someone who enjoys powerful ripes, this tea caught my eye.
I ordered a 25g sample of this 2022 “Pasha Mountain” shou pu-erh from Yunnan Sourcing. On opening the sample bag, I noticed the “dried squid” wet pile smell characteristic of young ripe teas. Nothing unusual! The funky aroma seemed to dissipate after the second and third steeps and did not permeate the liquor itself much.
I infused this tea using 8g of leaves (I like to be generous with shou) and 100 mL of boiling water (100℃/212℉) each time. After rinsing the leaves once, I obtained twelve substantial steeps. In the first infusion, this tea tasted damp and woody, with subtle hints of dark chocolate. Subsequent steeps revealed a robust cacao character with a prominent bitterness uncommon to shou pu-erh. Beneath these flavors lay deep, almost alcoholic dark wood notes. The tea soup was very dark, even for a ripe tea. Its flavors stayed mainly uniform until the eleventh steep; the vehement cacao character then tapered back into light foresty notes.
The cha qi was highly invigorating. This tea is so fierce that brewing in a 100 mL gaiwan and drinking three or four infusions made me feel noticeably weak. Just a word of caution to those who like to gulp tea!
I highly recommend this 2022 “Pasha Mountain” ripe for anyone who likes commanding tea. Should there be a pu-erh equivalent to black coffee, this tea might be it. I will be back for more!
My infusion times:
Rinse: ~3 sec.
1: 10 sec.
2: 10 sec.
3: 20 sec.
4: 35 sec.
5: 50 sec.
6: 1 min. 10 sec.
7: 1 min. 35 sec.
8: 2 min. 15 sec.
9: 4 min.
10: 6 min.
11: 10 min.
12: 16 min.
Flavors: Cacao, Dark Bittersweet, Earthy, Mushrooms, Roots, Wet wood
