Whenever I brew a sample I hope I'm going to find something I love. Usually I find something I like. This time I was just bored. I tried brewing it every which way: short, long, pot, gaiwan. Nothing made it more than a pale sad version of my favorite ripe pu-ers. There were no off flavors, but nothing to keep my attention either. It was smooth, smooth and boring.
It started with an unpleasant fermented taste, but after the third infusion that was gone. Left was a rich, smooth, and sweet ripe pu-er. 10 infusions later it was still going: I tired before the tea. If it wasn't for the unpleasant start, I'd rush to buy more.
The first time I brewed this I treated it like a typical pu-er: boiling water with short infusions. It was bitter. This time I treated it like a white tea: water around 175 and infusions starting around 45 seconds. The result was a thick and fruity brew that reminds me of my favorite whites. It has a bit of a tangerine taste and kept going through 6 infusions. It is kind of amazing that this is even a pu-er, it is so different than the typical young raw cake. The tea is similar to the Rishi green tuo cha that I posted about, though this is better tea at a very small fraction of the price.
China National Native Produce and Animal By-Products (CNNP) is hardly the small mom and pop operation that I like to imagine produces my pu-er. Nonetheless, I've had some excellent CNNP tea and I generally trust their products. This young raw cake has had time to mellow out and it shows. There's no bitterness at all and the smoke flavor gives way to a pleasantly sweet and fruity flavor. I found it unremarkable, though surely pleasant.
Things taste better when you're in a good mood. This tea is smooth and a rush of sweetness hits your tongue just after the liquor does. I was smiling immediately, but maybe it was for other reasons. I have enough in the sample package to brew it a few more times. Maybe I'll wait until I'm pissed off and see if it is still as smooth.
Raw pu-er that has fermented into maturity is prohibitively expensive. It is slightly more affordable to drink a raw tea that has matured just enough to mellow and remind you what fermentation does. 5 years of aging has replaced the bitterness of new tea with a pronounced sweetness. The tobacco has mellowed out without disappearing and you can taste the range of flavors in a way that young tea doesn't allow. I'm tempted to buy an entire cake and drink this all the time.
I'm fighting off a bit of a cold today, so this young raw pu-er complements some ginger tea and raw garlic. My taste buds are a bit off, but I've had it a few times already so I can go from memory. What's striking is just how dark the leaves are. While most young pu-er looks golden and autumnal, the dry leaves of this look, well, purple. (Follow the link and check out the pictures, you'll see.) I initially thought that it was cooked so I was surprised to see it produce a cloudy yellow liquor. Tastewise it is pleasant but unremarkable. Its mellowness makes it easy to drink, and the characteristic tobacco flavor is present though it is weak and accompanied by almost no bitterness.
This raw pu-er from Rishi starts as a tightly compressed tuo cha and slowly unwinds to reveal silver pu-er buds. This is the only pu-er I've had that consists wholly of buds, rather than leaves, and it shows. The tea is sweet and fruity, though fairly thick. If I were ignorant, I'd guess that it was a white tea. It has staying power: it didn't really get going until the 6th infusion and it is still going strong as of the 9th. Definitely an interesting tea, though perhaps not quite worth the steep price tag.
When I surveyed my bag of travel tea I discovered that many odds and ends ended up in the bag precisely because I don't love them. One exception was a small bag of 1999 loose leaf pu-er that I bought in the wake of loving the broken nugget pu-erh. The 1999 ripe tea quickly became my travel favorite and I brewed nearly every evening for 11 days. As a result, I got to know it quite well. It hits its peak at about brew 4 which produces a rich and sweet liquor that quickly relaxes me. As instructed, I patiently waited for the tea to cool and was rewarded with some additional woodiness. Curious about my habit, my parents began requesting tea after meals and I routinely brewed this for them. Both enjoyed it and, I think, will continue to drink pu-er, at least when I'm around.
Happy new year.
Well, I didn't get to the last Dan Cong before I left to visit my family until the 30th. I guess that the exciting conclusion of the Dan Cong series will have to wait until 2008.
The next week and a half should be fairly pleasant. My main tasks will be eating and reading novels. Of course, with so much time on my hands I want to enjoy some good tea. Before taking off I made a little travelling collection of odds and ends I've amassed. Maybe I'll post about some of them. Here is my stock: 1 raw pu-er tuo from the puerh shop, 1 small bag of 1999 Loose Ripe Pu-er from the puerh shop, part of a sample of a 2006 GuoyanZhang Lao Ban raw pu-er cake, Goomtee Indian Oolong , the rest of my Junshan Yinzhen Green, Supreme Jasmine Pearls from Imen, and some Moonlight White from Rishi. Whew.
Oolongs still dominate my days but I needed a break for pu-er this morning. It is illuminating to taste the difference that 4 years of aging makes. Most of the bitterness is gone, and the smokiness is morphing into woodiness. Most interesting is the minty aftertaste that sticks around until the next sip. Different from my last Ban Zhang pu-er, it must be the aging.
This is the third Guoyan raw pu-er that I've tried, and I've loved them all. It comes entirely from Ban Zhang mountain, which, I take it, is one of the famous pu-er producing mountains in Yunnan. To limit the bitterness, I kept the first three infusions very short: about 5 seconds. Far from bitter, each was extremely sweet though the characteristic smokiness of a young raw pu-er was there too. There was a fruity flavor too, though it was hard to pick out among the others.
Most great pu-ers come in beautifully compressed cakes. As a result, compressed pu-er is more highly valued than loose pu-er. This gave me an idea: maybe I can get some really good loose pu-er for cheap, since all of the suckers will be avoiding it. Turns out that I was right.
This cooked pu-er has all of the things I love about cooked pu-er: earthy smooth richness that lasts for 7-8 infusions. It also has none of the things I sometimes don't like about cooked pu-er: a sour dank flavor. It is a perfect after dinner tea. Even Posh Spice thinks so.
For just over $4 I couldn't resist getting this raw pu-er tuo cha. The smoky scent is strong even before the water hits the leaves. The taste is much the same as the smell: pleasant and strongly smoky. As the tea cooled off it became bitter. I was enjoying this tea enough to brew it about 6 times. Now my teeth are chattering and I can't feel my eyes.
This is my new Pu-er cake, a birthday gift to myself. It is green pu-er, which is processed more like green tea than black. Green pu-er seems to be relatively uncommon around the states though, so far, I prefer it to black. I'll post more about the cake as I spend more time with it but my initial impression is that it is wonderful. It has a bit of smokiness, sweetness, and it smells like autumn leaves. Then again, maybe I'm just smelling the autumn leaves.
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