Anning HaiWan tea factory. (Berylleb King Tea) eBay

I took just a little bit of this out of the Puerh TTB. I must say, at this stage of its life, it is not fit for Matu consumption. I would say “not fit for human consumption” but it seems others before me have at least found this a palatable brew. The dry leaf smelld a bit smoky, with some straw and tobacco notes. After a rinse, I smelled some fruitiness, along with a heady tobacco aroma.

It started off weird, but not horrible. It had an odd note that I struggled to explain. Kind of like fruit but not particularly sweet. There was a slight smokiness to it, leading to an aftertaste which reminded me distressingly of bacon. The first steep was the only one which was really palatable for me. After that, it took on a weird flavor that seemed like what I might get if I were to steep duct tape in boiling water. There were other, more recognizable notes, but that one dominated.

I think this probably could be a decent tea with a decade or more of age on it, but right now I couldn’t even drink it. The later steeps may have been better, but I had little interest in finding out.

Backlog 13 October 2016

Puerh TTB # 5

I’ve been drinking so many teas, but always forget to write and/or don’t write the review when I ought to. So, there are few notes with this tea, but I found it to be smokier than anticipated, and there was a lingering astringency in the mouth. Not my favorite tea, but that goes to show that I know what I don’t like now, compared to what I do like.

This was a fairly tasty raw puerh tea. There was some bitterness at the start but not too much. I didn’t notice any smoke in this one. I had something of a sweet taste from early on with maybe just a barely perceptible touch of sourness there too. The sweet taste developed into something quite nice, even apricots or stonefruits in nature. There was also an astringency to this tea. On the twelfth steep I am even feeling a little qi, relaxing in nature. Mind you this does not have a massive qi but it seems to have some. Broke off 25g of this to put in the Puerh Tea TTB when I send it out in a couple of days.

I steeped this twelve times in a 120ml gaiwan with 7.4g 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, 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The tea was not finished at twelve steeps but I want to move on to something else.