Ripened Aged Pu-erh Mini Tuocha

Fantastic. So good, earthy, smooth. Not fishy at all.

I received this and four other teas from TeaVivre for sampling, so I will use my faded journalistic integrity to provide a bias-free review ;)

Taking the advise of Jim Marks, I did not rinse this lovely little tuocha. 45 seconds for first steep in a 250ml gaiwan, there is a tiny bit of fishy smell emanating from my mug. I thought I would be turned off by it, but I don’t mind it actually. It’s really mellow and blends nicely with the additional scents of hay in this tea.

As this is my first tuocha, I didn’t want to steep it for very long during the first run. That turned out to be a good idea; this tastes smooth and light! There is a little bit of hay on the tip of the tongue, and I can tell there is going to be some additional sweetness in subsequent steeps.

Gonna play more Skyrim and have a few more cups of this!

EDIT: Second steep was 30 seconds, and it’s way darker than the first. Stronger, more pronounced flavours. Still quite nice!

Had a gift card I had no clue what to do with and so decided to try a pu-erh since I had never tried one before.

First off with the sniff test. It smelled like plain tea. Unwrapped it still just smelled like plain tea.

So, I did a quick rinse, dumped the water, added new, walked to me desk and stopped the steep. If it was a full minute, I would be surprised.

The resulting liquid was a very deep black, similar to coffee. The smell was . . . fishy. not a smell that sits well with me. I grew up in the mid west. That smell triggers the “bad fish, do NOT eat” alarm. I tried taking a sip anyway and it tasted like . . .bacon.

What the . . .
Oh yeah, I had just finished eating the last little bit of my breakfast, which happened to be bacon. :) Rinsed the taste of bacon out of my mouth with some water and tried again. And it tastes fishy, and not the good fishy kind of taste.

I knew going in that this was a possibility but hey, you never know until you try.

Maybe I will try again sometime when I don’t have 15 other things demanding my attention and I can afford to sit around playing with bathroom toys and contemplating my navel. Which will be maybe when I am a retired widower some decades down the road. We’ll see. I am not heavily motivated.

Just enough time for a cup or two more before I go, and this Pu-erh seemed like a good choice. I was wrong…it’s a GREAT choice!

Beautiful mahogany color and a subtle, mellow cup with a slight leather edge to it; nothing fishy at all like with some pu-erh. Drank a bit of the first rinse, but tossed it in favor of something slightly richer. I’ll be back. I have more!

As i am all new to puerh, i would just say that i didnt like this tea, didnt taste good.
Smells wet dirt and taste the same…

Maybe i did something wrong…

This would be a good puerh, as others note, to use as an intro for the uninitiated. It has a pleasant woodsy, fresh-mushroomy, wet-leaf atmosphere without being at all dank (or fishy). Also there’s some distinct clean leather in the first steep, nice. Medium body, not too light. Smooth, no edge. A hint of sweetness leaning toward malt as well. Also leaves a nice little tingle in the mouth.

Thanks to Teavivre for sending a sample of this my way, I am enjoying it!

This is a household favorite for myself and my boyfriend. It is what I consider to be good starter Pu-erh for those that want to dip their toes into Pu-erh tea’s. It has a great flavor with a smooth mouth feel. We like to steep this tea dark and tend to steep for 2 minutes. Color is a dark mahogany with a light earthy aroma that reminds me of fresh mushrooms. The flavor is consistent throughout the first several steeps and is earthy with a pleasant bitter note without being harsh.

This tea is tasty, sweet and earthy. The one I received is a 2012 tea although they don’t advertise the production date on the website. It is still fairly earthy for a 2012 tea, I guess mini tuocha do not age fast. In any case it is tasty.

I brewed this once western style with 2 mini tuocha, 10g in an 18oz teapot with boiling water for 30 sec. It makes for a strong tea.

I tried this in the gaiwan. 1 tuocha, 3-4oz water (which started out boiling and cooled off a bit as I went along – I reheated it a couple of times). I went with the Teavivre recommended: rinse(10s),10s,10s,10s,15s,20s,30s. Then I tacked a 1min and 2min steep on the end for good measure. :)

The flavour is earthy, woody, a bit leathery. It reminds me of walking in the woods after the rain, when everything is damp. I was surprised by the thick, almost oily mouthfeel, and the sweetness at the end of the sip, that lingered. Very pleasant, no bitterness or astringency. I sometimes get a bit of a fishy odour off the leaves, but never in the cup. I didn’t perceive much difference from one steeping to the next – the colour was probably darkest in steepings 2-4, but I found the flavour pretty consistent.

This isn’t blowing me away or anything, but I’m happy to have it in my cupboard. I can see myself reaching for it when I’m in the mood for a straight shou pu-erh.

A sample from KittyLovesTea. Pu-erh still scares me, but I’m determined to keep trying until I understand it. I think I’m making progress with that, slowly but surely! I used 1 tuocha, and gave it 1 minute in boiling water. The liquor is surprisingly light in colour – a golden orange. Many of the pu-erh touchas I’ve tried thus far have verged on dark brown/black even when brewed for a very short time. This makes an encouraging change.

The scent is probably, for me, the worst thing about pu-erh. This one is no exception. The whiff of farmyard at 11 o’clock in the morning is never going to be particularly welcome. Still, I can get past that.

For good reason, it turns out. This is a pu-erh I could actually say that I…like. It tastes fairly mild, but has a warm, earthy, slightly dank flavour, a little like compost mixed with wet mud. I’m not screwing my face up, and I can actually sip this one happily and think about the flavour without wishing I really wasn’t. I guess this is called progress?