Background: Recently, I have been trying Pu’erh teas. I am still relatively new to them, however.

Leaves: This appears to be a ripe Pu’erh with slightly green leaves, looking mostly like a typical Pu’erh tea. The leaves are not compressed. There is a mix of large-leaves and small-leaves.

Flavors: Black-tea, Cocoa, Smokey, Autumn leaves

Bitterness: This tea was borderline astringent — just beginning to turn a little bitter.

Brewing method: 1.5 tablespoon in 100 ml gaiwan, ~5 second rinse, 1st steep 20 seconds, 2cnd steep 30 seconds, 3rd steep 40 seconds.

Mouth-feel/Aftertaste: Slightly coated, almost like drinking water but not quite — and it has a pleasant aftertaste of black tea and cocoa.

Review:
This tea is very complex. What immediately jumps out at me is a black-tea type taste, almost like a Darjeeling.

Then, there is a chocolate flavor that emerges every now and then — but not too powerful, the black tea taste is always there. On some sips, there is a smokey-like flavor, but again it does not overpower either the chocolate undertone or the black-tea like base flavor. On other sips, there is a really slight taste of hay and autumn leaves — again, not overpowering any of the other flavors. I would order them (in order of strongest to weakest flavor) like this: black tea, chocolate/cocoa, smoke, leaves. There are more flavors that I can’t quite explain, and perhaps more infusions would reveal more.

I am glad that I found this tea — I recently prepared another Pu’erh, and it wasn’t my favorite, but now I am excited to try more! I am still thinking about some of the complex flavors, and it is a lot of fun.

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