Uniquity Send Message

So I still have a couple of these and had brought one to work at one point in case of pu-erh emergency. I decided to make this in my perfect tea mug with a western gongfu hybrid. After my attempt to brew the Chenpi Ripe Tangering pu-erh Western style the other day, I thought I’d better try a rinse. I got the water to a boil then did a ten second rinse. It smelled very earthy and dark (and a little fishy) after this so I did another ten second rinse. Still smells earthy, dark and strong but not offensive. The tuo pretty much collapsed at this point and my infuser is fall of very finely ground leaves, like coffee grinds (I see I had that experience with this the first time as well).

After all this, I gave it a 30 second steep which yields an aroma of earth, barn and mushrooms. Maybe damp hay. Not offensive, just strong. Like a farm, but not unpleasant. I swear! It’s not that it smells like manure, but it does smell like a wooden structure that’s lived in by animals. I think people with a rural sensibility might understand that. Or I’m crazy. :)

So indtead of writing the rest of this note, I accidentally talked with a co-worker for a while. Whoops. Impressions from the past are: it wasn’t very strong in flavour, despite the depth of colour and aroma. I was probably a little skimpy on time given the two rinses BUT leaving it like this kept it fairly fresh and allowed me to sip along mindlessly which was actually perfect in the circumstance. No strong notes really came to the fore, so my assessment of this now (with more pu under my belt) is that it is good for a casual puerh when I want something rich but am not in the mood for black tea. It’s a beginner puerh, which makes sense given that it’s a mini tuocha with tiny leaves. I’m gonna go make more now…