80

New to puers and reviewing. Just being upfront.

First question I had when I drank this tea is, why is it called “Simple Shou” is it because the taste is rather simple with little complexity, or is it because the 50g bing comes impressed with indentations for simplifying breaking off a section of the bing? The world will never know. Unless someone emails glen.

I rinsed and let the tea sit for several minutes before I oversteeped the first infusion not by much and not intentionally. The color was a nice dark thick brown which I appreciate in shous. The nose… first thing, maple. Not maple syrup, but the smell of peeling green bark off of a maple branch. Sort of a sweet woody smell. Taste, sort of a sweet woody taste. :) A late aftertaste that lasts quite a while. Reminiscent taste of being in a barn, hay, animals, but not the bad smell of barns. Subsequent steeps bought at more earthy flavors as the tea opened up.

Giving this an 80 more so for the value. It’s a good shou for a starter kit or for someone wanting to taste different shous, but more advanced palates might want to try something else. However, I would buy again for the right price.

Flavors: Barnyard, Earth, Hay, Maple

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec 8 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

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I’ve been drinking tea for a long long time. Mostly loose leaf as it let me determine how much tea I wanted to brew. I like my tea strong and have been having a hard time accepting that short steeps are a good thing. Just got into gongfu cha style of brewing and am focusing on puer (real stuff not the stuff that I’ve been drinking for 20 years that I thought was puer). I really appreciate the fermented teas, such as shou puer and xei chas.

My ratings… well I don’t think I’ll ever give a tea a 100. If I do give a tea a 100, you won’t be able to buy it as I’ll have gone out and bought all of it before writing the review. LOL. An 85 to me is a tea that I appreciate, has good value, I’d buy again. Anything more than 85 is better tea… anything lower than 85 is well not better tea.

I’m also a scotch drinker and while there are so many similarities one could make between drinking scotch and tea (especially puer) the one big difference I’ve learned is once a 2013 tea is sold out… well you’re not getting anymore. A 10 year old single malt from your favorite distillery will be available just about always.

My tea pet peeve…. all the different spellings for puer. So I’ve given up and am just calling it pu. It’s what I do.

Location

Central Ohio

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