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SOOOO I busted my buy-ban already in January.  I needed something on Amazon and needed something else to tag along for free shipping purposes and noticed there was a good price for these…  I had already had the thought to buy more (many many times I had this thought..), so I just did it.  sigh.  Sadly, even though I bought my first Perfect and Glorious batch of these tuochas in 2022, it looks like they have already been changed because the new batch is considerably smaller sized. oh no!!! I thought they were perfect just the way they were, for this particular deep dark shou fan.  And steeping this one up, it does taste considerably different.  To me, there is like a stale cardboard flavor that is the most noticeable.  Yes, the leaves seem the same and the tuocha is still the faster little unraveler, but I think just because there is less leaf in the tuocha, the flavor just isn’t the same for me.  Before, there would be four very strong steeps.  Now the second steep is lighter, and the third lighter still.  The fourth steep is ridiculously weak… I wouldn’t bother going for a fourth steep in the future.  In fact, I’m regretting buying these again at all. I am still using the parameters I had been using for the Teavivre samples, so I’m sure I’m steeping it differently than I have in the past, but really the flavor shouldn’t be this noticeably different.  I was about to weigh the tuochas to see the size differences, but found out my scale has broken.   I COULD try breaking apart a tuocha and using 1 1/2 tuochas per session, but that seems inconvenient and two tuochas at once seems like way too much.  sigh.  I will probably try 1 1/2 at least once, to see how it goes…  Contacting Tealyra, they said the manufacturer must be processing the tuochas differently, since they are smaller, but told me they should be the same.   To me they are not the same.  They were perfect before.  I’m so sad about it!  I don’t know why I’m surprised.  Even with food, if I really like a certain something it will quickly be discontinued, so I should be surprised they still have these tuochas available at all.  (also, sidenote, the pouch the tuochas came in had holes in the bottom, somehow… I highly doubt it happened in transit, and trying to contact Amazon is ridiculous. But what if holes in the bottom of the pouch could have changed the quality/flavor?  Amazon might not think of this, but as a tea fan, I certainly do.  So I also informed Tealyra about the holes, as something happening at Amazon shouldn’t be representing Tealyra.  I’m hoping all of their pouches aren’t doing that over at Amazon…) 
Original price was $7.90  for 15 tuochas.
On Amazon, I paid $29.99 for 75 tuochas.
Even more hilarious…. I bought these right before I figured out that I’m a much bigger fan of Fengqing shou, more than any other type of shou.  And then I go and stock up on a ton of Menghai… so maybe I have no idea what I’m talking about and good shou is just good shou.  Just as long as it is processed to the strength I like?
Steep #1 // 1 tuocha for medium sized mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 7 second rinse // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 11 minutes after boiling // 3 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
Steep #4 // just boiled // 10 min
Tldr:  the new batch is smaller than the batch from 2022, changing the flavor.  I regret buying this new batch of 75 tuochas.