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Angel generously sent me a sample of this tea for review. I jumped at the chance to try some raw puerh, as I’ve never had any. I was a little afraid of it, as the ripe puerhs have been hard for me to really enjoy, but I noticed from reviews that raw puerhs were quite different. So, I made this in my pseudo gaiwan setup. Really need a gaiwan.

The aroma of the dry leaf was quite zippy! It had a tang to it. I put half the packet in my little teacup aka gaiwan and rinsed it twice for 10 seconds each. I really don’t know what I’m doing as far as gong fu style steeping of a raw puerh, but I was copying others and also kind of winging it.

My first steeping was 15 seconds. The aroma of the wet leaf had a strong tobacco note that made me cough! The taste however, was surpringly pleasant! I got notes of tobacco smoke, mint….maybe that’s that camphor quality people talk about. Honestly it was like a smokey green tea. Much more accessible than ripe to me! Yay! I’m really surprised because I didn’t think I’d like it.

Second steep (25 sec) had more tang, was more astringent, and I think I got a little wood note. The smoke note is sweet, maybe like pipe smoke?

The third steep (~40 sec) was similar to the second, but the fourth steep (1min) was softer, less astringent, and kind of toasty.

With the fifth steep (1min30sec), there was a dominant floral note! It was also sweeter Wow! Really good!

I finished with a sixth steep at 2 minutes which was similar to the fifth.

Overall, I’m really impressed, and extremely surprised I liked it. Yay! I like puerh! :D