Dr pu'er tea

I couldn’t help but order a cake at a random Ebay store. It’s quite cheap, and on TaoBao it is even a lot cheaper in the Shudaizi flagship store (about 5 euro for a 200g cake… ). With around 14.000 items of it sold (and thousands of reviews for just this cake) on their TaoBao store this must be produced on a pretty large scale.

The wrapped cake smells strongly of puer, it’s a nice deep tobaccoish smell. The cake looks good with mostly fairly large dark grey leaves, not so many unopened buds.

After the rinse the smell of the leaves is very fresh, deep and citrusy and really sweet. The liquor has that nice yellow, almost greenish color of very young pu-erh. The liquor is smooth and without any bitterness or astringency, but also doesn’t have much strength in taste or aftertaste. It feels clean, but boring as well. Could be that it is still a bit subdued because it is only a few months old. The brewed leaves are quite variable, with a few that have some local oxidation and a couple that are much greener than the rest. There is a noticeable cha chi.

Not sure if I would recommend this tea to anyone. I guess it’s refreshing but I’m not sure if I will enjoy it enough as a daily drinker at work. [edit after a week: yes, I actually enjoy this as a daily drinker. It seems to have improved after its arrival.]

I have heard quite a few times that this would a malicious brand that produces ‘tuition tea’ that is not worth buying, but my general impression is still that they seem to offer a really good price/quality ratio, especially when you buy on TB.

I really like this. It is sweet and fruity and has a thick, sticky mouthfeel that makes it feel engaging and substantial. Over subsequent brews it gets pretty vegetal or hayish, which I don’t really like. I’m clearly most enjoying the first infusions. Good tea for its price I think (I got one for around 30$, and another one for less on 11/11).