Thanks to Nicholas for the generous free sample of loose leaf puer! :) I’ve been sipping this tea off and on for over 24 hours now. I’ve lost count of the number of steepings, but if I had to guess… probably 5 or 6 yesterday, probably another 5 or 6 so far today, and the leaves are still hanging in there! Impressive.
So I think I put about 4g in my gaiwan, which holds about 100-120ml. Aiming for 90 degree water, but mostly kinda winging it since I don’t have a variable temp kettle. Rinsed once, started out with 20sec steeps for a while, then started adding 10sec increments (roughly – mostly by counting in my head, not with a timer or anything).
I would say that most of the front-end sweetness and fruitiness was in the first few steepings. After that it settled into a fairly consistent flavour that I mostly just want to describe as “crisp and refreshing”. There’s a mellow astringency and a pleasant kind of tangy bitterness, with a light fruity note lingering. The back of my throat feels like it’s coated in syrup, and there’s a slight tingling in my mouth. I have very minimal experience with puerh (especially sheng puerh) so I can’t exactly provide an educated opinion, but I can say that I’m really enjoying this. :) And it’s nice to know the tea’s origins and feel reasonably confident that it’s pesticide-free.
