LME Old Tree Shou HCH via Liquid Proust Teas
5.7g, 100mL gaiwan, Brita filtered tap
dry leaves have a standard shou profile, nothing distinct
10s rinse, waited several minutes for leaves to decompress before separating in full w puer pick
wet leaf: some odd combo of cinnamon, caramel, and a light shou fishiness
5s: wet leaf smells of a light smoky toffee. Tastes of a very muted wood, with a slight cooling, sweet aftertaste characteristic of young sheng. The immediate taste is not strong (doesn’t taste like much really), and yet is incredibly pleasant. Mouthfeel is decent, even with water that makes basically every tea taste thin. A slight bready aspect.
8s: wet leaf smells of more of that dark caramel/butterscotchy sweetness, though muted. Again like previous cup, taste is a very muted woodiness, but a hint of bitter that disappears into the cooling aftertaste brings a hint of the pill-like bitterness that was also present in the CLT LME I tried before. Again, mouthfeel is incredible given this water. Some of this steep I drank while cooled, and bitterness is more present, but likewise does not linger.
10s: bitterness more apparent in warm cup, though still light and aftertaste rounds out overall a soothing light tea. Some warming feeling.
15s: similar. A medicinal aspect, woody and cooling, w/ sweet edged LME aftertaste. something syrupy about the taste.
25s: stronger undertones of bitterness, underlying dried fruitiness as well, though slight.
37s: just that muted woodiness. An edge of vegetal greenness in aftertaste, though slight. leaves tongue a bit dry.
1 min: stronger bitterness. Not much in aftertaste
2 min: light woody bitter. Something like if you mixed coffee and TCM lol
I didn’t have time to continue, so I tossed the leaves in the thermos. Think they’ve still got something left, so we’ll see. As usual, I will probably not update with thermos results since the thermos is definitely influencing final taste from all the teas I’ve overnight steeped at this point and usually thermos brews are merely decent at best
overall: great mouthfeel. Slight warming qi, which I haven’t felt from ripes before (though tbf I was not drinking ripes at this price point…past me would be shocked). Definitely the best ripe puer I’ve ever tried so far. Wish I’d grabbed a cake back when it was in stock, though $200 wasn’t something I could gamble on a category I am generally ambivalent towards. Because of the taste and price (considering it’s a ripe), probably not a daily drinker, but certainly worth trying, and much to my surprise, I enjoyed it.
