Today I am drinking a shou puerh that came with my Crimson Lotus order. It was marked only mystery tea and I have found out only a little more about it. They told me it was too pricy for them to sell. I also know it’s a small batch from old Jingmai trees. That is about it. Judging by the amount of fermentation flavor left in it I’d say it was maybe three or four years old. It had a fair amount of fermentation flavor to it but that flavor was sweet, not fishy. The fermentation taste lasted three or four steeps and then was largely gone. There were some notes of chocolate in there and it developed a fruity taste in later steeps. This is one I wish I could get more of. I have to rate this at at least a 90%. It’s that good. It was a large sample so I can drink this a couple of more times. When they said it was too pricy for them to sell I wonder just how expensive it is. At some websites I have seen 1kg bricks go for $450 so I wonder. All I can do is speculate about this tea.
I steeped this tea ten times in a 120ml gaiwan with 8.9g leaf and boiling water. I gave it a 10 second rinse and a 10 minute rest. I steeped it for 5 sec, 5 sec, 7 sec, 10 sec, 15 sec, 20 sec, 25 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, and 1 min. The tea is not weak at ten steeps. I’m sure I could get a few more out of it but I have had a lot of tea. I know when I give this tea a rating it will rerate all my previous teas reviewed under random steepings.
Flavors: Chocolate, Earth, Fruity, Sweet
I like how you can guess the tea’s age by the fermentation flavour.